One of the great strengths of EAW is that there are enough scenarios and aircraft available that it can be played as a full on historical sim OR in a myriad of "what-if" settings.

Very true.

I admit to a tendency to "rivet-count" as you put it, but I don't think I am as fanatical as some. I realize 100% true historical accuracy is a goal, but an almost impossible one to achieve.

That said, if getting it "right" involves a few hours of research, as opposed to dozens of hours, or more, then I seems to me that putting the little extra effort would be worthwhile. Opinions vary, naturally.

As far as bullet tracers go, and depending on the type of tracer and the ambient light, they can, indeed, be seen by the enemy (target), especially in dim light. The old saying is "Tracers work both ways".

This article on tracers might prove to be of interest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracer_ammunition. Cannon shells found on aircraft may or may not exhibit the same properties as bullet tracers exhibit.

Note the section of the article where it discussed the deliberate non-use of tracers by Night-Fighters. This is an instance where the playability of the game would presumably be affected by the Night-Fighter pilot/gunner using/not using tracer bullets. I reckon the hit ratio would drop quite a bit without tracers, and most would want to use them.

Perhaps, for historical accuracy, the user might be able to toggle on/off tracer bullets when flying a Night fighter. To make it even more realistic--and fair--, the AI for the gunners in the target aircraft could have their aiming improved, or otherwise have their hit ratio increased if the night fighter uses tracers.

I will vouch that tracers can be seen from more than the rear. You can see them coming at you especially in low-light.

For sure OG I'll back that up from experience especially the green ones

An experience we share.

That's good to hear and exactly how the new tracers behave. They're less visible when they're coming headon but the bullets themselves were programmed to be illuminated by default in stock EAW and I kept that behaviour. It can easily be changed though. The tracers can be programmed to be behind a none luminous bullet, which means that you will not see the tracers at all when coming headon. Still the bullets have always been illuminated and my deteriorating eyesight needs them or I won't even hit a B17.

VonBeerhofen

An opinion from a known rivet counter.
If it did not read clearly, I was referring to myself.

I agree.

My comment was not about bullet (sub-caliber) tracers. Most of us have all seen video of AA and MG ammunition glowing, if not lived the experience..

Keep counting the rivets, but temper your expectations.

The effects detail setting has some interesting variations of rocket flare and tracer display, as well as being an essential bodge to fix contrail problems in some versions of the exe.

Hardly as much of a problem as the many bodged 3DZ models I've seen, and long solved and further improved,



VonBeerhofen

Well I must disagree. It appears to be a problem with your own exe and one of your own sprites when the special effects detail is set to "high" in your own public release.



The problem with the bodge is that by setting the special effects detail to a lower level may cut out other special effects such as rocket smoke, in the same way that the bodge cuts out contrails.
I can live with a slightly dodgy 3dz, (if I cannot find a replacement skin or TMod) but I could not live with contrails like that.

Yep such things happen when one's working hard to improve things, but as I said it was solved for Russ Watson long ago, since he's an important beta tester of EAWPRO. Without his help I might not even have been aware of the problem, which only happens in Glide mode..
The fix will be in the next release of EAWPRO but if you can't wait for it you can betatest what's been done sofar, at your own risk ofcourse.

VonBeerhofen

Happy to
I am away in Lyon with my laptop which has a nvidia card so, like Russ, I have to run in Glide to get horizon fog.
Turning the "effects detail" setting to "medium" or "low" simply stops the contrail from being displayed, which is not a complete solution.
Turning it to "low" also stops the rocket trail smoke from appearing.
My original post was made because I have been noting the effect of the different settings on tracer colour display in 160.

It's not the latest version as it's very likely incompattible with your version and the new release isn't finished yet, so instead I patched the version at Mark's website and gave it a test run. It'll have to do untill the next release.

The EXE is available here:

https://rabartel.home.xs4all.nl/EAWPRO_FIX.zip

just overwrite the old EXE and it should be fine,

VonBeerhofen

Comment about tracers. They have too long of a tail. Can the tail be reduced by about 75% ?

Much better

OG I will have a look at the code when we get back home mid-November. I might be able to do a variable length using an external file.

Anything is possible Old Grognard but this also depends on finding the right parameters to modify the tracer length and what the Launchpad group thinks about it. Possibly it can become a user selection by changing some value in the EAW.INI but I can't promise anything, it's just a hobby and consumes a lot of time already. I'll make a note of it and see what I can do.

VonBeerhofen

It is a small matter. I certainly put no demand on it, was just making an observation.

You all do marvelous work and I’m sorry if I sounded demanding.

Another look