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reconteam

Improving quality of thermal imaging

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I don't really know if any of the ArmA3 dev team visits these forums but it seems to me like there is not enough contrast when using thermal imaging sights. You can hardly determine the objects or "cold" vehicles in the background. Looking through the FLIR in a fighter aircraft and the terrain below is just a shapeless grey blob. Even with the 1980s-era TIS on the original M1/M1A1 and there is enough contrast in the image to make out buildings, trees, all sorts of things. Since then the technology has greatly improved.

 

When you first look at something with the thermals in game there is a short period where the image seems better defined but then it returns to its normal dullness. It seems strange.

 

So is there anyway we could see the better image quality for thermals in ArmA 3 as part of another "encore" update?

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IIRC, thermal imaging in A3 is done via texture selections. They are either on or off, i.e., "hot" or "cold." A meaningful update would require, at the least, an addition of these texture selections (which may not be the correct term - it's early) to every object that does not already have them, with consideration given for how hot or cold these objects should appear relative to other objects. For example, a "hot" tree should appear to be only slightly hotter than a "cold" tree, whereas there might be a greater distinction for things like the roofs of buildings, roads, etc. It would be a fairly large undertaking. And it would indeed be great to see, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

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1 hour ago, Harzach said:

IIRC, thermal imaging in A3 is done via texture selections. They are either on or off, i.e., "hot" or "cold."

Objects have a grayscale (not really, but easier to explain) texture of how much a certain part of the object heats up when the whole object heats up. For example on a warm car the front and the exhaust are hot, the rest isn't.
In the back there's just one "hotness" variable of the entire object that get's combined with that texture.

 

He is more talking about many objects just having the same color as the terrain under them, and thus not being visible at all. That is generally a Winter problem in Arma I think. If you set the mission time to summer it get's better. Or maybe it was the other way around.

 

10 hours ago, reconteam said:

When you first look at something with the thermals in game there is a short period where the image seems better defined but then it returns to its normal dullness. It seems strange.

The auto-exposure, that is a thing I also hate a lot. Arma automatically changes the exposure so that on average the screen brightness is always the same. Now when you have a very bright object on the screen, everything else get's darker and the not so bright objects on the screen are hard to see. Same happens when you look at a big and dark object, the whole screen get's brighter and everything get's kinda washed out.

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1 hour ago, Dedmen said:

Objects have a grayscale (not really, but easier to explain) texture of how much a certain part of the object heats up when the whole object heats up.

 

Yeah, I remember fiddling with it back in A2, you could "switch" certain parts to hot/cold.
 

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/setVehicleTIPars

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