Project Reality Forums

Butmonkey wrote:Oh wait, Ther is something to aim with. Opps. I think i know the problem.

I wanted a touch of realism to BF2 So I made my X-hair 100% transparent, and same with my hud. I think this preference has been shifted over to PR too. ops: hehe opps

EDIT: Hehe SO the vanila BF2 sight when zoomed is there. You see I never knew about that since my Xhair was at 100% transparency. I also never knew the zoom on the mounted guns gave an Xhair neither. I always wondered about the whole zooming on mounted guns.

Another variation of sight adjustments comes into play when we look at grenade launchers and rocket weapons like the M-203 Grenade Launcher, the Mk-19 Grenade Machinegun, and the AT-4 anti-tank rocket. These weapons have a few things in common. Relative to a rifle or machinegun, they have a very limited number of rounds (from a single shot in the M-203 (reloadable), to a single shot in the AT-4 (not reloadable), to 40-round magazines with the Mk-19). Each of their rounds potentially does an enormous amount of damage compared to 'normal' rifle bullets, and the rounds all have a "lob" trajectory that drops steeply as distance increases.



AT-4 (left) and Mk-19 (right) sights. Note how much elevation is required for the Mk-19 to go from shooting at a target 300 meters away to one 900 meters away.


Surprisingly enough, the only recent game I can think of that properly models sight adjustments for these kinds of weapons is the WWII shooter Red Orchestra. In it, the Panzerfaust AT weapon is modeled such that you can aim it for 30, 60, or 80 yards, and the 3d model shifts accordingly to line up the rear leaf sight with the front sight tip. Without having these adjustments, firing the Panzerfaust accurately at the different ranges would be an exercise in (unrealistic) trial-and-error.



Moving on to modern examples, here we see a typical representation of an M-203 leaf sight (distinctly different from the M-203 quadrant sight, which I don't recall ever seeing modeled in any game). This particular one is from the LSR Operation Flashpoint weapon pack/addon.



With the way the sight is represented there, the actual functionality of the sight is completely absent. You can see that there are range markings, but - as I'm sure many people have wondered upon seeing such models - how the hell are you supposed to use it? In short, while visually that is how the leaf sight looks, functionally the leaf sight by itself, without the front sight to adjust with, is completely useless.

Here are two shots of an M-203 leaf sight from the ISMT I ran at the end of my enlistment in the USMC. I took these shots specifically to illustrate what's wrong with said sights in modern games, as it has and continues to frustrate me to no end to see the sights modeled incorrectly.



The M-203's leaf sight is graduated in 50-meter increments, with the 100 and 200 meter ones marked. To aim it, you place the front sight tip centered in the leaf sight, with the tip aligned with the range you're aiming for. Using this method properly, one can achieve great first-shot accuracy on a point target at 150 meters, or an area-target (like a fireteam) at 350 meters (per the Army publication on the M-203, FM 3-22.31, which you can download here if you'd like to read about employing the real weapon) . This is a far cry from the "fire and adjust" method currently required in OFP and other games that model the M-203.



To close on this particular topic, I'll emphasize the fact that any weapon that has a "lob" trajectory (meaning that it isn't as "flat" as a rifle bullet trajectory would be) benefits enormously from having sight adjustments possible, to the extent that not having said adjustments severely cripples the implementation of those weapon systems. This applies to all of the above weapons, and doubtlessly many, many more. If you wanted to take it even further, you could conceivably create accurate mortar aiming systems, and even Traversing & Elevating (T&E) tripods for crew-served machineguns, with a solid windage/elevation system as a basis.

Malik wrote:Of course 3D iron sights work with the engine, no idea who decide that they're not possible. When you see your player holding the gun, that's 3D isn't it? When you right click, the weapon model is manipulated to move so the sights are centered in the screen, then most of the time a 2D sprite appears over the top for some reason. I guess they thought it looked cooler or something, but either way it's still perfectly possible to have 3D sights. Just because the DEVs haven't done it yet, does not mean it is impossible. It'd be more difficult for the BF2 engine creators to disable 3D sights than to keep them possible, and I know that they cut corners but they didn't block many features and I know the model manipulation wasn't one of them.