Parralax free sights

[scruffy 21]

Aloha

I couldn't find anything regarding this so I decided to finally open a thread about it. So far I haven't seen any evidence of working reflex sights, and in this older video they don't (2:49).

But we have seen the old Aimpoints, Team Razor is equipped with Eotechs and when the new faction video for Russia gets released we will see even more AKs with Cobra sights, so the issue will be noticed more frequent.

What is the issue?

The parallax effect is responsible for this:

How should it be?

These reflex sights are meant to be "parallax free".

is a video demonstration.

With an idea from Freshman as a stimulation Solus made a workaround, using the alpha-bug. Following this we got the working reflex sights in SLX, 6thSense and Aimpoints Desert Weapon Pack:

Sadly this "hack" has it's problems, too. First, some don't use it, so you get a mix of weapons with working and not working sights.

Second, there is an alpha-bug-bug on ATI cards from the 2xxx, 3xxx and 4xxx series. Some people always see the projected dot/crosshair:

This leads to even less modders using it, just recently ACE patched them away for the HK416/417s in version 1.02. I changed the models back to 1.01 versions for myself, but will get kicked from a server for that.

If BIS doesn't add a way to properly get them working for everyone I can see them having the same problems as now, there will not be many people who use them, ergo less modders that care to make their sights work properly.

As it is now it's a better idea to just go with the ironsights. I mostly have a less obstructed view and you can see better when they are misaligned without concentrating on it too much.

My idea how to tackle this problem is the following:

We need to be able to set certain selections in the model.p3d as "only viewable through ..."

So the crosshair/dot is actually modelled a few meters in front of the weapon (as it seems when projected and is done now with the "hack") but not anymore occluded by an alpha-(bug)-tube. It can only be seen when looking through the defined "glass" selection in the sight.

I have no idea if this could be implemented as easily as it sounds (probably not ) or maybe there is another easier way I can't think of, but this would also allow other things:

- infrared strobes and laserpointers that can only be seen through NVGs

- a sort of heat imaging: just add another texture that looks like a heat image of the object that's only viewable through the camera overlay

[Maddmatt 1]

Maybe it could be easily achieved using parallax maps? Simply apply a parallax map to the hologram texture of the sights that simulates it being further away.

[max power 21]

I wonder how deep you can make them. I'd wager, not deep enough. That is a really creative idea, though, and I'm envious of it.

[Edge 2]

We have tested something similar in order to make red-dot sights work as in real life, but unfortunately, the solution caused various graphical artifacts. As players normally don't look around while aiming, the feature wasn't regarded as critical and was abandoned.

[rundll.exe 12]

As players normally don't look around while aiming, the feature wasn't regarded as critical and was abandoned.

Isnt that because its only possible with Track-IR, wich not too many people use?

afaik when looking down the sight, alt+mouse doesnt work unfortunately.

While I understand it isnt a critical element, It's useless to put EoTech sights in the game then (if they are in).

[scruffy 21]

Thanks for the answer Edge, although it's sad to hear. There we have a

engine where the gun actually shoots where it points and then the reflex sight doesn't point there. Well, I think my next graphics card has to be one by Nvidia then

Would ATI research the issue if we tell them the alpha-bug has a bug?

Looking around is no problem (which I actually do quite often with trackir), when I look sideways with the sights up so they are still visible on the edge of the screen they stay aligned.

When you turn they get misaligned a bit and while moving quite much. The ACE mod lowered this by a significant amount, but it's still the difference between the center or the right edge of an Eotechs crosshair while moving.

[sparks50 0]

Not really a big issue since the soldiers in Arma are world champions in keeping sights aligned, but it would be a nice detail to put in,

especially in the sights of fighter planes, not just for Track-IR users, but also for people like me, who have their thumb on the ALT key 30% of the time.

[Alex72 1]

Another solution was made then. Whatever works makes me happy. Wouldnt get implemented if they worked as in ARMA. Shadow over player makes the sight dark, and it pops outside the scope in 3d person. Will be fun to see how its made though.

[sk3pt 0]

The ALT freelook is one thing...

What if there was an option to enable 6dof while in ironsight mode ? For this to work the sensitivity would have to be automatically lowered for the X and Y axes while in ironsight mode.

This way the parallax free sights would shine !

ArmAlib 6DOF aiming test

I really hope they make this work, especially for the aircrafts HUD. That parallax free Eotech in AimPoint Desert Weapons Pack worked flawlessly on my computer (ATI).

[NeoArmageddon 957]

Second, there is an alpha-bug-bug on ATI cards from the 2xxx, 3xxx and 4xxx series. Some people always see the projected dot/crosshair

Thats not correct, my XFX GTX 8800 has the same problems, so the bug is not specialy ATI related. Thats the reason why i diont like Six and ACE .. the AlphaBug is buggy^^

[mr.g-c 6]

There is a good topic about it:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=76153

It seems that Sakura-chan have fixed it, according to the topics end on page2 (video also attached).

[SaBrE_UK 0]

If it is a true fix- it'd certainly add to the game, since aiming is a large part of it.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Agree with NeoArmageddon. I am experiencing the same problem with my 9800GTX.

Reflex/Aimpoints should have some kind of advantage over iron sights. A 6DOF aiming would be too painful to live with, especially considering how AI would most likely not be affected. Maybe a slightly better zoom while in 'consentration mode'? Dunno...

[sparks50 0]

NeoArmageddon: Ace has removed its paralax free sights, for now.

I think it would be wrong to give to give these sights abilities that they don't have.(zoom)

Another way could be that a Reflex/Aimpoint was slightly faster to get into aiming mode, and was more accurate in the first second of this mode.

[Pyronick 21]

Maybe the hardcoded alpha channel/blending execution needs to be redone to in order to make it work properly for issues like this and parallax sprite/alpha effects on HUDs, telescopes, etc.

Should be done through HLSL calls imo.

[Raphier 0]

We have tested something similar in order to make red-dot sights work as in real life, but unfortunately, the solution caused various graphical artifacts. As players normally don't look around while aiming, the feature wasn't regarded as critical and was abandoned.

So, no other solutions been tested?    

I kinda  liked that in Black Shark

Maybe some dot that just moves would work.

(Bah what I'm trying to explain)

Sort of solution that moves the dot according to guns position.

So, when you move the gun left, the dot moves right and when you move the gun up, the dot moves down....  

[funnyguy1 0]

What if there was an option to enable 6dof while in ironsight mode ?

Yeah, 6dof while in ironsight mode - that would be cool! Great vid, haven't seen it before.

[SaBrE_UK 0]

That vid is great- I hope it becomes standard in the near future of sim gaming.

[4 IN 1 0]

i also remember that this alphabug also cause some other gfx artifacts as well, is there really no way for BI to completely fix it from the engine side?

[scruffy 21]

Reading in the thread linked by mr.g-c I saw the idea by plaintiff:

If you can't add a "viewable-through" parameter or all the other fancy stuff still results in this problem, let the "sights view" be another LOD. If View - Pilot - Sights exists this is used, if not it's still View - Pilot. Only weapons with reflex sights would need them and it's just a copy of the pilot LOD but with the "hack" and you can't see it from any other perspective.

[JeRK 0]

Couldn't you just have the "fake crosshair" appear or vanish depending on whether or not you're looking through the sights?

The problem is of course that there's no crosshair/dot when you look through them manually but they will at least always point in the right direction when you look through them.

[mr.g-c 6]

What is with Sakura Chans solution?

Is not public yet, but it seems to work.

[scruffy 21]

What is with Sakura Chans solution?

Is not public yet, but it seems to work.

Jackal seems to have some problems with it and we will only know if it works for everyone when it gets tested by a wide range of users. I really hope it works for everyone else.

Another LOD for sight view might be easy to implement for ArmA 2 and bypass the current problem.

I gladly got rid of the problem myself in ArmA somehow, maybe with new drivers or when I reinstalled the whole pc. Everything, even the first SLX models work now, but still not on my laptop...

[11aTony 0]

In the end of the video he says something like: "we'll have the vehicles of ArmA2 little later". Anyone knows if that video exists? If so, the link.

[dentist guba 0]

http://files.filefront.com/Arma+2+Aircraftwmv/;11682082;/fileinfo.html

these the vids you are looking for?