Why i can't see enemy tracers? Only friendly tracers visible.

[makkuranin 19]

Why i can't see enemy tracers? But i see friendly.

[Morten82 10]

Seems we have the same problem. Incomming tracers are invisible. But if I am behind enemy in a firefight I can see their tracers outgoing but not incomming friendly tracers. If i look left or right i can see incomming flying by.

[KeyCat 131]

It's not a bug it's a feature! If you think about it thats the way it works IRL, tracer rounds burns in the end so if you are infront of the bullet it's not visible. Nice touch BIS :)

/KC

[makkuranin 19]

Thank you for fast answer!

[Arma-2-Guru 55]

I was wondering this aswell, I have my answer now, cheers.

[Morten82 10]

Thanks for reply. I have never been on the recieving end of a gun, but found this info:

"For those on the receiving end of tracer ammunition, there is a well-known optical illusion whereby the tracer rounds appear to be traveling slowly, but as they get closer, they appear to speed up considerably."

"A recent patent U.S. Patent Application 20040099173 covers the use of an LED and capacitor, instead of a pyrotechnic compound, in an attempt to stop the tracer being seen from the front."

Its from Wikipedia though

Edited September 28, 2009 by Morten82

[KeyCat 131]

Interesting info Morten82!

As you I've never been on the recieving end either IRL (I'm happy for that). Only seeing the tracers rounds if you are somewhat behind the bullets sounds feasable but maybe some with real military experience may chime in and set us strait?

/KC

[Opticalsnare 12]

I dont think this is actually correct

Because it means tracers that fly over your head or are being fired in your general direction are not visable and i am not talking about the tracer being fired directly at you.. You should still be able to see it coming as the actual burning or glow is larger than the bullet..

When i asked about this with a friend whos a officer in the British Army he laughed and said errm no thats not how it works, he was told on quite a number of times when and where to use tracers and that firing tracers rounds are very dangerous as it gives away your postion to the enemy you are firing at..

so it seems to me that it was put it in there to hide the position of the firer making it harder for you to detect whos actually firing at you..

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7174835/description.html

Conventional tracer rounds give off a bright pyrotechnic light along the path from muzzle to impact. Thishas the unfortunate side effect of pointing directly at the gunner, making it easier for opposing forces to locate the source of fire.

On a sidenote ive been trying to fiqure out how to bypass this without sucess if anyone has a solution id like to hear it..

Edited September 28, 2009 by Opticalsnare
Added link and more info...

[Poppis 10]

Well it seems that ARMAs tracers aren't representing normal "bright" tracers but, like Morten mentioned, the new LED tracers which can't be seen from the front.

[Opticalsnare 12]

Problem is that they happen on everything from infantry weapons right up to 30mm A10 cannons.

[Beagle 684]

Well it seems that ARMAs tracers aren't representing normal "bright" tracers but, like Morten mentioned, the new LED tracers which can't be seen from the front.

Small Arms tracers are still the old ones. I can remember that the red tracers are hardly visible at daylight, and unvisible from the sides. I have never seen them from the targets aspect.

But in general it is a fact that small arms tracer are build in a simple way to make them visible to the shooters only.

Edited September 28, 2009 by Beagle

[no use for a name 0]

Personally I think it's some kind of bug or false information. IDK why they'd be using LED tracers since they're not even in the field

Remember, tracers work both ways ;)

Edited September 28, 2009 by No Use For A Name

[Beagle 684]

No its not a bug, it's a feature. Dim tracers, which were tho only ones I ever got to used, are known to be only visible in the rear arc of the projectile.

Ive seen it myself, waiting for nearby the range. The tracer was visible only inside a 30° Cone. When seen from the side, they appeared in the last quarter of the 1000m range.

Edited September 28, 2009 by Beagle

[Poppis 10]

Aren't dim tracers the one that only show through night vision goggles. At least thats what wikipedia says.

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

Aren't dim tracers the one that only show through night vision goggles. At least thats what wikipedia says.

That's an IR tracer.

[Poppis 10]

Ah, ok. BTW, does ARMA have these? I've never really paid close attention to the tracers in game.

[no use for a name 0]

for being "dim" tracers they sure show up well in full daylight

[Mudkip 0]

The M249 has IR tracers.

[Opticalsnare 12]

After spending some time with this and as ive been working on the tracers for awhile in my mod i can almost guarantee that this was not a feature intended to simulate the LED tracer story going on here. This is there simply to stop people from spotting those who are using tracers and make it harder for you to fire back at them. If its not that then its a bug..

Because this effect of not to being able to see the tracers coming directly at you or flying over your head and only visable by looking at them via an angle or going from you seem to be hardcoded to the bulletbase / bulletcore class i havnt found a way to stop this from happening and cant believe that this has been restricted from modders not to enable that for those who are interested in having it the other way. I want to change this in my mod to have tracers being fired at you and flying past your head, but i cant.... Its been restricted from me to edit this differnt.

However there is a way to bypass this and thats by using the grenade class and setting it up to act as a bullet, it works because when you fire a 40mm grenade it is visable when coming at you and so if you simply change the model from a 40mm grenade to that of a tracer it becomes a flying tracer and the same can be applied to the bullets is well, i did it on a test weapon like the m240 changed the bulletbase to grenadebase and edited the bullet hit effects as required and also had to do some other work to make the bullet act accordingly etc etc.

Results? Tracers being visable while coming directly at you.

Its either do it this way which is very messy and alot of work involved or il have to learn how to make up a script for tracers, which in fact would proberly better as a light emitter may added so they light up the surrounding area as they fly.

Edited October 26, 2009 by Opticalsnare

[birddog 0]

i hope you figure this out Optical ,,, this is so annoing to me almost a game breaker . led tracer idea is just crazy . this is a bug for sure or like u said to make the game harder .

even if it was to simulate led tracers and that seems far fetched, there is not any reason to disable the option,nice one BIS .

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

It's not a bug it's a feature! If you think about it thats the way it works IRL, tracer rounds burns in the end so if you are infront of the bullet it's not visible. Nice touch BIS :)

/KC

That's horse-hockey. The round drops over distance, which means the tail becomes visible. Furthermore, this logic assumes that every bullet in a salvo is headed straight for the player's master eye. (That's quite a marksman!) At any angle the tail would become visible. I've read far too many accounts of soldiers saying they saw incoming tracers. We should trust their testimony, since many of those who have been targeted by tracer rounds aren't around to tell us about the experience.

The chance of seeing the tail would increase tremendously with the amplification of light provided by night vision.

Sometimes we get so smart that we become stupid, again. I wonder what armchair expert begged for this "feature".

[uPDATE: Was not aware of these new-fangled tracer rounds being discussed, here. I was speaking of the kind that burn.]

Edited April 25, 2010 by Uziyahu--IDF

[hamis 0]

Search these forums,there is couple of tracer addons.;)

[birddog 0]

hamis ive tried a tracer mod it still has the same effect of becoming invisiable if its coming AT YOU,if you know of one that solves this please tell me the name..

thx

BD

[KeyCat 131]

That's horse-hockey. The round drops over distance, which means the tail becomes visible.

How can the bullet drop make the bullet fly with it's tail first?

I'm by no means any weapon/ammo expert I was just relaying that this was a intended "feature" by BIS and not bug per se (can't remember what thread I read it tho). Right or wrong I don't know since I never been on the receiving end ;)

/KC

Edited April 27, 2010 by KeyCat

[hamis 0]

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=87333&highlight=tracer

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=89645&highlight=tracer