Tracers....

[MaceUK71 0]

I think this happened in OPF but since its been a while since I played it I cannot remember, but the tracers do not turn off when playing in Veteran difficulty. Don't like the look of them (didn't in OPF either) and wondered if there is a .cfg route to turning these off?

Tried a search but couldn't find anything on the subject.

[l mandrake 9]

isnt there an option to turn them off in the difficulty settings in-game?

[MaceUK71 0]

There is yes but as I say it doesn't do anything. Are you saying it works with you?

[Dark_vityaz 0]

Really,it doesn't work in my game too.Veterans,give an advice how to do it!

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Much obliged. You will need to edit the config of the weapons addon, found in the Addons folder, naturally. There you will find bullet classes. Select the bullet type you wish to remove the tracers from, for example, I've done on my version the 5.45 and 5.56 unsilenced bullet types, since these usually aren't HEIT rounds, and find a line saying "tracercolor=[blahblahblah]". Either delete this line altogether, or set the numbers in the array (the [blahblahblah] bit) to 0. This should remove the tracers.

[Radic 0]

Is there a way of setting tracer to specks/blobs rather than the unrealistic lazer streaks??

[MaceUK71 0]

How do you edit these? They are .pbo files in my addons folder and just trying to open weapons.pbo has crashed my PC! Is there another file I should be opening?

[begorra2 0]

The existing lousy tracers are one of the great disappointments

of ArmA.

Tracers should be 3D and emit light.

There are numerous 1-st person games with great tracers, like COD.

Appeal to BIS - rework them (in some future patch) or include the possibility for addon makers to change them !!!

[NeMeSiS 11]

The existing lousy tracers are one of the great disappointments

of ArmA.

Tracers should be 3D and emit light.

There are numerous 1-st person games with great tracers, like COD.

Appeal to BIS - rework them (in some future patch) or include the possibility for addon makers to change them !!!

While i agree that the tracers shouldnt be the 'lasers' we have now, i dont think that they should emit light, imagine the lag in a big battle!

(Or there should be an option to turn it off)

EDIT: Addonmakers can already change them (well, work around them), look at what they did in OFP

[SeppSchrot 0]

The FFUR Mod for OFP has great tracers.

(Among many other great things ARMA is lacking).

So I guess it's changeable in Arma too.

[Tracer 0]

Ever since the heady days of OFP, the tracers have been probably the weakest part of the whole game immersion-wise.

(in fact, i'm sure i commented on it away back in '02?)

When i played the GRAW demo (forget the gameplay or whatever doesn't float your boat about it) The fire-fights are the best in any game period!

The tracer effects are brilliant, the way they pass through trees and rip chunks out of walls etc.

We've had enough TV/Cable coverage of Iraq for over a decade to show what heavy calibre tracer does and looks like when fired both night and day.

Shame that BIS missed that opportunity to completely blow the gamer away!

[max power 21]

Is there a way of setting tracer to specks/blobs rather than the unrealistic lazer streaks??

That's how tracers look. I think you may be thinking of viewing tracers through a camera with a low fstop or though night vision goggles.

edit: you can find videos of tracers all over the internet that look like all kinds of things. From what I understand, to the naked eye they look like streaks, especially from very small bullets.

[RedStorm 0]

No. On cameras they look like streaks. To the naked eye they look like oval balls of light travelling down the range(good)/streets(bad)

[max power 21]

Well, if you've seen them in real life, you're the boss.

[fasad 1]

Since we play games on video screens, i think that streaks are necessary, especially when viewing the tracer from side on. When you are doing the firing or being fired at, bn880 style blobs do look better, but from side on they just look like stationary flashes which don't portray any motion at all. At 50fps with a bullet going ~1km/s, the tracer has moved ~20m between renders, but scripted tracers seem to be lucky to render blobs more than 20 times a second, which is 50m apart.

I think the best solution would be a bright leading blob with a several meter long fading tail.

[Scrub 0]

Bn880?

Any body working on the ArmA version of tracers? ;-)

(not that you'd tell, as it would be a great surprise)

[Dallas 9]

Well, if you've seen them in real life, you're the boss.

A picture doesn't do the real thing any justice. Tracer shines bright, but their shape is somewhat determined my the viewers angle. From the shooter and the target they look like balls of fire, but to from the side they look like long trails when they burn across your night trained eye.

Youtube 'tracers' and you'll see both balls and lines.

[4 IN 1 0]

well, easy to correct! creat a tracer model which looks trails on the side and round/ball like from the buttom view, oh and dont forget to edit the engine and the config so that not the hold mag is filled with tracers

+1 to BIS patch wish list

[Tracer 0]

This is how tracer should look like in ArmA! Especialy the M134 Gatling Machine Gun (7.62mm minigun) on the blackhawk!

Notice barely a delay from the firing to impact, unlike in the game.

[shataan 1]

I dunno dudes. Back in the days of Delta Force 2, we had way huger engagement distances, and tracers were deemed a nOOb crutch. I still don`t like em on for any Class but possibly the HMGs. SAW etc.

Muzzle flashes imho are way more important. Be nice if tracers are selectable by the Server. Said Server then justs puts that feature in the Server name. I prefer no tracer servers. But some dig em. *shrugs*

[MaceUK71 0]

Doesn't really bother me how they look I just want an option to turn them off! Seems like that still is broken as it was in OPF as the option is listed 'Turn tracers off' and it doesn't do anything!

Suppose I will have to wait for an ArmA version of FFUR which has them turned off.

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ] Tracer shines bright

Not really

If we´re talking about 7.62 and 5.56 they are not very bright.

Large caliber tracers like 20mm and above do emmit a bigger blob but that´s just because of the caliber while regular infantry weapons fire doesn´t look spectacular from the shooters view.

Quote[/b] ]and the target they look like balls of fire

That´s really wrong. The tracer substance is attached to the back of the projectile. Therefore the target does not see tracers at all when directly fired upon.

Recordings of tracer fire are misleading as the sensitivity of videocams is higher and adjustment to darkness or bad light situations makes the tracers appear more brighter as they really are.

Tracers are meant to give you a feedback on where´s your fire going, especially at night or dawn situations or with rapid fire from machineguns, they are not meant to give away your own firing position that´s why subdued tracers are used more often today. They begin to "burn" no directly from the start, but have an inbuilt delay that makes them "burn" after a certain time to keep the shooters position hidden.

Another type of tracers are the dim ones, especially designed to be used with NV equipment as they are very visible with NV gear but hardly to spot without. Regular tracer ammo often "blinded" the ones using regular NV as the brightness adjust of NV´s isn´t that fast. That´s why dimmed tracers got introduced. A nice sideeffect is that shooters position isn´t given away too.

[RUKH 0]

Balschoiw's post

Pretty much what I was about to post, I hope that BIS takes this to heart as they did with the bullet cracks....it's a very important part of the firefight immersion.

[Tracer 0]

The main thing is that Tracer is fun!

It adds immersion and is realistic. Even 'Hidden and Dangerous 2' had superb tracer richochets that made your jaw drop!

B-17 2 The Mighty Eighth and good old PAW had them

Just make them beefier for gameplay sake in ArmA, that's all i want.

[MamiyaOtaru 1]

I've seen and fired tracers (from an ar-15 - a civvie m4).  The damn things move fast (obviously) and it's pretty hard to see them as anything other than a streak.  ArmA's tracers aren't the lasers of OpFlash, and really don't bother me (or they wouldn't, if we didn't have tracers with every single shot).  Some mild light emission wouldn't hurt, but that'd be gravy.  They look like streaks IRL, of course they are going to in game, especially since the game is going to have a lower framerate than what your eye can perceive IRL (unless you have 8800gtx SLI or something).  My opinion

There's plenty of other things I'd love to see changed, like the sound guns make at a distance.  In ArmA a gun far away sounds just like one up close only quieter.  Other games have done this much better (Infiltration comes to mind)

*edit* whoo a lot of old timers (registered july 2001) in this thread. It's obviously important