02.02.2008, 14:20
My home is about 1500 feet above the city below us. There is a mesa on the other side that comes up several hundred feet from there, and my distant horizon is just about at eye level (VERY far away, I can see mountains 85-100 miles away looking left from where I sit.
I routinely see aircraft by the airport. It is 11.5 miles in a straight line (ain't google earth great?) from my house to the nearest runway. Planes I see on final---below my horizon---are considerably farther, at least 15 miles. I can ID planes at that range if they are big. Easily. During forest fire season, I can ID ww2 era bombers---EASILY---at those ranges (PB4Ys, A-26s, and for post ww2, P-2s and P-3s). Just a couple months ago I watched a B-17 giving rides at Double Eagle airport which is 17.5 miles away. At that range it was not super clear as a B-17, but it came closer, inside about 10 miles, and it was easy to ID.
These are not planes against sky, I'm talking against city clutter. Try that in IL-2. PLace a plane 10 milese away, and spot it against complex ground terrain and get back to me about icons.
That said, I don't like icons (and don't play with them), I'd rather have a better dot system, and have my lowest LOD draw farther out. I wish there was a "negative" icone system that would draw an icon dot at far range, and turn them off entirely inside the range where they look like planes.
I routinely see aircraft by the airport. It is 11.5 miles in a straight line (ain't google earth great?) from my house to the nearest runway. Planes I see on final---below my horizon---are considerably farther, at least 15 miles. I can ID planes at that range if they are big. Easily. During forest fire season, I can ID ww2 era bombers---EASILY---at those ranges (PB4Ys, A-26s, and for post ww2, P-2s and P-3s). Just a couple months ago I watched a B-17 giving rides at Double Eagle airport which is 17.5 miles away. At that range it was not super clear as a B-17, but it came closer, inside about 10 miles, and it was easy to ID.
These are not planes against sky, I'm talking against city clutter. Try that in IL-2. PLace a plane 10 milese away, and spot it against complex ground terrain and get back to me about icons.
That said, I don't like icons (and don't play with them), I'd rather have a better dot system, and have my lowest LOD draw farther out. I wish there was a "negative" icone system that would draw an icon dot at far range, and turn them off entirely inside the range where they look like planes.