PLease improve the tracers

[oldy41 61]

I know this issue has been raised before but I feel like bumping it since for me this is a significant annoyance:

Tracers!

When firing a weapon the tracers look reasonably well.

But from the receiving end or when watching a nearby firefight from the side they really look horrible. The tracer model is simply very ugly. A very thick, unstructured broomstick without any structure, all but sleek.

I am aware of the difficulties of designing tracers so that they can be spotted in the distance but still look good close. Still I think a good many games have proven, that this can be done much better than the current A3 implementation.

I do not claim modelling skills, but I played around with a tracer mod back in A1, which already had much nicer models. So I think it would not need huge efforts to gain significant improvents in that area for A3, just a bit more love to the tracer model.

Edited May 15, 2014 by oldy41

[roberthammer 582]

I do agree that A3 tracers look cheap like a scifi laser , they should be more like this > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKnhWNBVqN8

[das attorney 858]

That video looks pretty good - are they the ACE tracers?

I'd like to mod this but unsure of the best way how.

I'm thinking of replacing the model with a little ball. How would I set it up so they glow? I was thinking either attached light to the tracer (maybe too scripting intensive) or setting up an emissive material for the tracer model itself (but then how could I get the hue around the tracer)?

AFAIK, there's no hue around the emissive materials in the game.

[roberthammer 582]

@Das Attorney

Look at A2 mlods weapons - data - bullettracer

there you got almost same models of tracers like in A3 - glowing is done by rvmat

and yes those are ACE ball tracers

[Belbo 462]

I got to say that I really like the tracers. :(

Changing them isn't really needed in my opinion.

[EDcase 87]

Sorry but I'm also adding a vote not to change them.

They could do with a color grade along the length but they should NOT be turned into cannon balls like the ACE video.

Remember tracers are the width of a bullet and only look like large blobs to cameras or image intensifiers because of their exposure settings with bright objects in dark environments.

To human eyes they are thin.

(Increase post process glow in the video options and they will look more like the video)

[roberthammer 582]

Real tracers are more like a orb - only a slow cameras and in movies are laser-like tracers

also btw http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=8035

[das attorney 858]

@Das Attorney

Look at A2 mlods weapons - data - bullettracer

there you got almost same models of tracers like in A3 - glowing is done by rvmat

and yes those are ACE ball tracers

Thanks for the heads up on the mlods - will look into them over the weekend :)

[oldy41 61]

Sorry but I'm also adding a vote not to change them.

They could do with a color grade along the length but they should NOT be turned into cannon balls like the ACE video.

Remember tracers are the width of a bullet and only look like large blobs to cameras or image intensifiers because of their exposure settings with bright objects in dark environments.

To human eyes they are thin.

(Increase post process glow in the video options and they will look more like the video)

There is a huge range of possible forms between a round cannon ball and the long broomstick :)

I fully agree with you in the point that tracers should be as thin as they can be without compromising visibility from a distance. In A1 I modded the model to a shorter arrowlike form with some alpha around the center, so that it looked a bit more structured when seen from the side nearby. It is not easy to find the optimum length though...

[the_demongod 31]

I don't know, they look pretty bright to me. I think they probably do glow like that when viewed with the naked eye.

[das attorney 858]

Real tracers are more like a orb - only a slow cameras and in movies are laser-like tracers

I remember there was quite a good debate on the IL-2 forums about that. A lot of peoples only experience of seeing tracers fired from airplanes is watching old guncam footage from WW2, where the low shutter speed on the cam (around 25 fps I think) makes them look streaky and longer than what they really are.

But when you view them from mk1 eyeball, you see them for what they really are (ie blobs of light) as you are not shackled by seeing it with a long exposure.

[martin_lee 33]

I am rather torn between making them more realistic vs keeping it as is. I tried out ArmA2 ACE's tracer but they are not very helpful on a lower end computer where frame rate is low. That being said, I don't have any experience with real tracer. I am just wondering though, when something bright moved across our eye, wouldn't it leave an afterimage?

[oldy41 61]

I am rather torn between making them more realistic vs keeping it as is. I tried out ArmA2 ACE's tracer but they are not very helpful on a lower end computer where frame rate is low. That being said, I don't have any experience with real tracer. I am just wondering though, when something bright moved across our eye, wouldn't it leave an afterimage?

As I said, the discussion should not boil down to the binary decision of ACE vs. 'do not change'.

I am not a huge fan of a pure ball variant either, though this may be nearer to how tracers appear to the human eye. But on the other hand we have to deal with the limitations of a video game like fps and resolution.

Still the current state is most unsatisfying, but I think it does not take overly much to improve that to a state, which would please most of us.

I did not play A2 let alone A1 for quite a while, but IIRC tracers looked better there. (And, on a different topic, minigun tracers were much more pleasing there, too...)

And of course, if my lobbying here cannot convince BI to do something, I would be more than happy if it could inspire one of our gifted modders. So, Das Attorney, get going! ;)

OpticalSnare has left a fragment called Blastcore_Tracers, but it does not seem to work correctly.

[CaptainObvious 95]

I am rather torn between making them more realistic vs keeping it as is. I tried out ArmA2 ACE's tracer but they are not very helpful on a lower end computer where frame rate is low. That being said, I don't have any experience with real tracer. I am just wondering though, when something bright moved across our eye, wouldn't it leave an afterimage?

I have some experience with them from my days in the army, at night they do leave an afterimage, sort of a "tail", during the day they are pretty much what I saw in the video above.

[thedudeabides 40]

Pistolified tracers from Arma2 was a great tracer mod. We need something like that which is configurable and looks good as well

[maturin 12]

I would be more than happy with just cutting the length of the current tracer model in half. That would approach realism while minimizing problems of performance and overly-thick blobs due to screen resolution.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

Depends on what kind kind of ammo, and quality. I just went on youtube, and found some tracers videos. One shows a guy using green and red tracers, and as they fly through the air, there are small sparks, and as they impact, you can see the color spark off in all directions, kinda like sparklers you get on 4th of july or the holidays. It would be a nice effect to add in, along with the glow that tracers emit, rather than just some color model flying through the air. Would give the tracers a little more life/realism.

[PTV-Jobo 820]

In this video [ http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/media/5392-Trijicon-CCAS ] You can see the tracers more round without the 10 mile long tail connecting it to the barrel like we practically have. Also if you watch the documentary Restrepo you can also see the tracers were more ball/oval and far from the Star Wars ones we have. I wouldn't mind some improved tracer round loving.

[katipo66 94]

I've just switched to the dev branch, maybe tracers have been improved? They didn't look so much like laser beams.

[k0rd 3]

There was one small period during the Alpha phase where tracers and flares were very beautiful. I wish I had the recall ability to give a specific release # or month this was in or anything - someone here has gotta know what I'm referring to though.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

There was one small period during the Alpha phase where tracers and flares were very beautiful. I wish I had the recall ability to give a specific release # or month this was in or anything - someone here has gotta know what I'm referring to though.

I might. Oddly enough, some things seemed so... highly detailed in Alpha, as apposed to now. Clouds, Atmosphere depending on what time of day, and i think i remember the tracers being more reflective with giving off light. I wish i had some footage, but i deleted alot of it for space.