Launched into my F-84F after a good mission start. Started from the spawn point directly into large clouds. After about 15 seconds of flying straight through the complete overcast, I could hear another jet. I could not see it, but it was clearly getting closer, so I began a series of random energy-retaining maneuvers.
The plane, an F9F, finally appeared when I flew into a break in the clouds. He was directly behind me, maybe 700 yards. I was shot down instantly.
The entire flight lasted perhaps one minute, with the enemy aircraft tracking me in black cloud for most of it, while I randomly manuvered.
I’m perfectly aware of how this happens. For reasons unknow, about every 3rd mission or so I can easily see aircraft in cloud due to a visual effect that occurs where the cloud pattern around the aircraft is different than the surrounding cloud. This not only makes it possible to track the aircraft, but do so at extremely long distances, where the aircraft itself would not be visibible.
I guess they might fix this some day.
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Think f9f has radar of some kind. He could’ve also seen you flying into cloud or just got lucky. Or cloud glitch happen either way it’s frustrating
Yeah, it has a gun range radar that goes out to 3km. It is pretty bad but it is possible to locate a plane in clouds with it
So does my aircraft, he never appeared in it in spite of initially being in front.
Have you all never seen the effect I’m talking about? It makes planes in cloud visible from the far side of the map.
gun radar only tells distance though. not relative position
Yep, I have seen it. Aircraft in clouds do get a sort of bright outline which makes them quite easy to see from outside the clouds
It sort of does. Just a very very general position. If plane is on the radar, it is some where in front of you. Move to the left/right until they disappear from it. Assuming you know the general width of your radar scope, you now have a decent idea where they are.
Of course the enemy plane can change position which will throw it off. But it is a decent strat to finding planes in clouds. Only reason i ever turn on the radar gun sight.
I dont recall seeing it in air rb but i see it often in ground rb when i play spaa. Usually in air rb, the odd render thing i get is when planes have a very dark, larger dot far away but suddenly become small and lighter once they enter within a certain range.
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Are you talking about the “gnat”, the one dark pixel the game shows to indicate aircraft (I guess at “absolute detection range”?) before player tags are displayed?
For a couple of game and maybe video card driver updates the interactions between objects and clouds has been… strange, as in even when they are in front of the clouds, sometimes they don’t render. So its known, but Gaijin might not be able to fix it if its a specific video card problem, since fixing it would “break it” in another.
No, I am not talking about that. And there are no player tags in RB.
What I am talking about is that when an opposing plane is flying through cloud, sometimes a new cloud-like texture appears that is not the same as the cloud. The two textures clash, which makes the position of the aircraft far more visible. You can easily see them through clouds at distances far beyond normal spotting distance.
Yes, THIS effect.
I have been shot down in clouds repeatedly and when I post about it invariably people tell me its due to radar even when it occurs on non-radar aircraft, in which case they say the pilot is simply “really good”. In fact, it’s because they can easily see me.
In this particular case, the F9F was miles away to start with, well outside radar range, and I deliberately made maneuvers that would have taken me outside its visibility. But he tracked me no problems at all.
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