- Yes
- No
- Native Resolution
- Fixed Resolution
- No
Recently helicopter zoom levels were tinkered with and reverted under what seemed to be the attempted removal of digital zoom in the sights. I would like this feature to be added properly for a more authentic experience.
Optical Zoom
Optical zoom uses focal lenses which allows targets to appear larger without reducing image quality. Currently, all vehicles use optical zoom as the standard for zoom level in Warthunder. This limits certain ground vehicles to only their max optical zoom.
Digital Zoom
Digital zoom, on the other hand, crops the image and enlarges it, which results in a drop in image quality. There may be digital processing techniques I’m not aware of however. This is not the current standard in Warthunder. Certain ground vehicles can use digital zoom, such as the Type 10 with a zoom of 26.7x or the Abrams, with a zoom of 25x or 50x.
Implementation
From 1x to max optical zoom, nothing would change, but past that, the image would take the max optical zoom and crop that. It would be a similar process to how gen 1 thermals reduce image quality.
There should also be the ability to opt in or out of this feature. Excessively high magnification would be a detriment in most close range engagements, so a keybind to enable digital zoom/zoom in digitally would be a must.
Forms of resolution
Native resolution represented with a base of 2560x1440:
Spoiler
Fixed resolution represented with a base of 1280x720:
Spoiler
What can ground players obtain from this?
For certain ground players, they obtain excellent long range capability. For the rest, It would result in a potential “nerf” to certain helicopters, where the optical zoom levels will be the same, but zooming past that will reduce the image quality the helicopters see, so helicopter players will have to work slightly harder.
What can helicopter players obtain from this?
This would provide a more authentic experience, as they would be able to keep their high zoom levels, but going past optical zoom and into digital zoom will result in a slight dip in image quality.