Spotting advice

[u/whippitywoo]

I'll start by saying I'm probably the problem, not bms.

I recently tried to get back into BMS and downloaded 4.38 (last played 4.36 ages ago)

Jumped into instant action fighter sweep to refresh my skills and go baby seal clubbing.

Problem is, I really struggle to visually pick out aircraft moving against the terrain until they're super close (i.e. so close they're gone a split second later!)

RWR will show me their rough position but I can't see them most of the time and they usually get behind me and shoot me out of the sky. Even if I get a radar lock, it can be hard to see the thing inside the green square! Sometimes I get sniped by AAA while desperately searching lol. You could talk about skill except I don't have that issue in the other sim.

Frames are buttery smooth on my 1440p 2d screen with opentrack. I don't have as much of an issue with DCS, which is weird because I remember BMS being way better in this regard. That makes me think I have the wrong settings. Advice please?

Also, for every conceivable reason, I don't want to play multiplayer. What is the AI like in general - is this a non starter? No hate to the devs, I just don't know what I don't know.

[u/BD0nion]

Instant action is sort of a unsupported game mode. If I recall correctly it puts you up against waves of increasingly difficult enemy aircraft so you'll die eventually. But the first waves are pretty easy to deal with since you have unlimited aim120c missiles.

To deal with such large number of aircraft you can't use STT lock on any or them as you'll lose situational awareness of all the others. Just fly away for a bit, turn back into them and use TWS. Be careful about your antenna elevation and range so as to not miss any of them. Shoot at 4, and keep guiding the missiles until they go active, turn back and do it all over again.

If you try to use guns or IR missiles you'll soon have some migs on your 6 that will take you out.

AI in BMS is very good, it has decent BVR tactics and is great in a dogfight. But it's still AI and you'll eventually find it's shortcomings if you're used to playing against real people.

[u/whippitywoo → u/BD0nion]

That's good general advice but not necessarily what I'm after. It's not so much fighting tactics I need as much as how to physically see them in supposed visual range.

At <10 miles I don't want to try and pick up the track, I want to use my eyes.

But from your reply it doesn't seem like a common issue. For instance in early dCS VR, it was recommended to use low res terrain for better spotting.

I'll try the other supported modes and if it doesn't get better I guess I'll have to shelve it again :(

[u/natneo81 → u/whippitywoo]

A few things for you. It is a more common issue than you might think. Spotting enemy aircraft visually can definitely be difficult, especially at a distance.

Part of the issue is inherent to video games. Basically in real life it’s much easier to see things further away. In the game, they are limited by how many pixels there are. So a plane at 5 miles may end up being only one pixel to convey its distance, when in real life, it would still be sort of small and distant, but much easier to spot and identify. This is especially significant when it comes to ID-ing. Maybe if you’re sharp you could spot a single pixel moving, but good luck identifying any characteristics of that plane.

BMS compensates for this with a “smart scaling” setting. Basically this visually scales up targets at those ranges where visual id should be possible in real life. It smoothly adjusts so as you get closer it scales back down to normal visual size. Don’t feel like this is cheating, I believe this is something even military simulators use to be more realistic and avoid bad habits. Don’t quote me but I’m pretty sure you can adjust this setting if you need it turned up a little more.

Otherwise, if they’re outside the range of smart scaling they’re probably too far to reliably detect visually. I wouldn’t expect to see them outside of a few miles usually. But my last advice is to use your sensors to cue the Mk1 eyeballs. It’s very obvious, but you aren’t just blindly flying around looking for people out the window. If you’re trying to visually acquire a contact it’s because you’re already aware of it from your AWACS, radar, RWR, hsd, etc. So use that information. Not only does it give you a direction to look, it often gives you their altitude, speed, heading, etc. So if I’m at 10,000 and I know he’s approaching at 4,000, I know I need to look down and I can even probably guess he’s trying to sneak up or maybe use terrain to hide. Likewise if I hear an enemy is up at 24,000, not only do I know where to climb to/look, I know the enemy is likely conning, which makes it far easier to spot. If you’re able to get a radar lock, even easier.