Hi,

Is it possible to adjust the range of 20mm shell explosions?
If not, what is the default range?

Thx

I think it's 1000m. The shells were timed to explode so they wouldn't damage friendly troops or civilians on the ground. If you're thinking about using the explosion to cause damage to enemy craft by shortening the distance to detonation it won't work because the explosion isn't near powerful enough to cause any damage by itself. If you want to extend the range so you can hit targets from further away, then you're wasting ammo.

I had the same thought when I first saw the distance detonation in a trailer. Imagine the cloud of havoc I could create by shooting at bombers from the range the shells detonate at I thought. I quickly came to realize it was not meant to be. You've actually gotta hit the planes with the shells to do any damage. Hope this helps.

Dang, that would've been a cool tactic!

Hmm, played around a bit and it appears 20mm rounds explode about 500m away..

You've got to consider that you're moving at a pretty good clip too, as well as your target. You need to factor in the distance you and your target has traveled during the flight of the (relatively) slow cannon rounds. Either way they decided on the distance they did because the rounds were deemed ineffective at that range anyway.

Dont they explode on impact ? One would not need to time the "boom" just hit the target

The Minengeschoss rounds explode when they stop spinning, it's this that also triggers the self destruct (ie. when the round stops spinning it self destructs) It seems to equate with 3 - 4 seconds of flight. It wasn't a timed thing at all, it was just centrifugal force at work.

If it missed the target air friction alone would cause it to stop spinning ?

Personally i think the explosion from the self destruct is way overdone.

Sometimes when i do long range shots just for the hell of it (4-500m) i can swear the explosion/smoke cloud appears behind my target. Very annoying and distracting. Think the sheer scale of the smoke cloud is way of when it halfway or completely covers the intended target.

I found a Luftwaffe ammunition manual that said the self destruct fuzes are time based (actually spin based) and usually detonate around 750m. See the Weapons Tab in the Flea's Data Sheets excel file. Thread is a sticky at the top of the forum.

I wikied it, some versions had a timer

Yeah the size of the explosions in that screen shot make it look like you're firing 88 mm artillery shells or something, the fire ball is the size of an entire aircraft!

When I said 'stop spinning' I really should have said slows to the point where the fuse is no longer affected by centrifuge..

There is a small arming device that is forced outwards by the round spinning, it has a small spring on it and when the force of the spring becomes greater than the force from the spin the round explodes. It's not like a chemical timer, it can explode nearer or further away depending on lots of variables.
(Barrel condition, air density.. etc)

I was wondering this as well. At first I thought the explosions were hurting my target. At present it is difficult to tell the difference between a round exploding near your target or on your target. I am having a really hard time hitting anything with the 20mm, especially on the 109. Any tips? Convergence distance or something?

Be real wasteful with the MG, don't just do short bursts, at any opportunity take a shot. There is so much ammo for the MG 17 that it's almost not fair. Try to empty them just for fun on the ground to give you an idea how much ammo there is.

When your target is nice and close fire the cannons. It's always best to have some angle off tail for this. You don't want to do high speed extreme deflection shots. You want to be nice and close with the cannon. The MG's are very effective though so use them lots. You've only got 60 shots for cannon so keep an eye on the counter to the lower left.

The other option is go into a quick mission with a lot of targets, disable limited ammo, and don't use the MG just use the cannon. You'll soon learn how to shoot with it. Always aim a little high to compensate for drop.

I use 100m convergence for any wing mounted guns available in the sim so far. The .303s are even scary effective at that range and convergence with a decent ammo belt. The thing about the 20mm though, is that they shoot slow, both in fire rate and how fast the shell travels. Even at point blank (Which is the ONLY time I've had any semblance of effect with them) you need to lead more than you think. They're also so much slower than the machine gun bullets that it's almost impossible to use both simultaneously in a deflection shot. When you hit at that range though, you can tell. They have a wonderful tendency to punch beautiful holes in fuselages and wings.

Hmm, I seem to be having decent luck with default convergence with guns. Although I'm not sure what default is. The spit guns start at 338... I forget if that is meters or feet. However if you click default convergence, then unclick it, the convergence says 100 (meters I think). So is default 100 or 338? 338 meters sounds about right for when I open fire in IL2: 1946, 100 I think is too close. I've been having good luck getting closer before I fire with British .303s. Still can't hit anything with the 20mm except at point blank as you say. I know they were supposed to be rather ineffective in real life too, but I don't like the way it is really hard to tell the difference between a near miss and a hit other than large pieces of plane falling off.. which doesn't seem to happen much when if fire the 20s so I keep thinking I'm missing.

Another bug or point of confusion, in the campaign, it seems whatever ammo I load into the spit 1a, I don't see any tracers. Maybe I should try loading all tracers just to be sure, but I keep trying different combos of tracers and regular ammo and can never see my shots at all unless I hit. Changing ammo in the hurricane doesnt seem to have an effect either, but at least it has tracers.

The default convergence for the .303s I find is woefully ineffective. 100m is probably too close for most people, but I always find myself right behind someone and shooting clean past them on both sides. Plus it encourages me to get closer instead of wasting my ammo. Those teeny tiny little bullets lose their energy really fast, and disperse quickly too. By firing so close I ensure that as many of my bullets hit and as fast as possible. I've had nothing but trouble trying to get my loadouts to work properly on the allied planes though. My 109 loadout saved without any trouble, and loads every time. The spit's seem especially bad. Most of the time the loadout isn't even there to select, let alone load successfully. I've found the convergence settings save on occasion though, even though I'm using the default loadout. God I hate those observer rounds.

It is called "perspective".

Borrowed this from the screen shot threadh.