38 replies to this topic

[Lightfoot]

If the map is night Night Vision should be so good any other mode would be for a specialized purpose. Instead on night maps everyone is using Thermal. Thermal is fine as is, but Night Vision is too obscuring to be viable in combat.

[deadeye mcduck]

I can use night vision just fine.

[Gremlich Johns]

deadeye mcduck, on 30 December 2012 - 08:34 AM, said:

I can use night vision just fine.

me too (I've actually used both night vision and thermal devices - quit whining, it works just fine)

Edited by Gremlich Johns, 30 December 2012 - 08:55 AM.

[Av3nGer]

I frequently use both on the night maps. Thermal Vision gets to blurry and bright in close combat, while it is useful to detect ECM covered mechs (or basically any mech) on far distances. Night Vision gives you an overall good view but it is hard to differ buildings, mechs and other things on far distances.

So basically I use them like

Close Combat = Night Vision
Range Combat = Thermal Vision

But it might also depend on the situation.

[Lightfoot]

They have better Night Vision than that now. MechWarrior 2 and 4 had better Night Vision also.

At some point we will have a choice of which maps we drop on.

At any rate Night Vision doesn't look very realistic compared to what I have seen.

Edited by Lightfoot, 30 December 2012 - 09:19 AM.

[Lightfoot]

Gremlich Johns, on 30 December 2012 - 08:54 AM, said:

me too (I've actually used both night vision and thermal devices - quit whining, it works just fine)

Who is whining? This is the Suggestion forum of a Beta game. It's purpose is to give feedback to the developers.

Edited by Lightfoot, 30 December 2012 - 09:24 AM.

[Gremlich Johns]

Lightfoot, on 30 December 2012 - 09:22 AM, said:

Who is whining? This is the Suggestion forum of a Beta game. It's purpose is to give feedback to the developers.

and I suggested/provided feedback that it works just fine. Just because my point of view is different than your's does not mean you are right.

[Gladewolf]

With the current set of maps, the only situation in which I would choose to use night vision over thermal would be in a Caustic Valley Night......which doesn't exsist, night vision leaves out too much map detail to be more usefull in every other situation that i have encountered. Does this mean that night vision is useless? No. To make a better comparison we'd need to be put in a situation where THERMAL is less valuable (Caustic Valley Night......or perhaps a new high heat map?)

[blinkin]

i love the night vision. it gives a mostly unobstructed topographical view of the terrain around you. it is like a wireframe map of what you see except with much more deffinition and almost no smoke effects. NV gives better definition of terrain and enemy mechs at close range by leaps and bounds.

thermal has it's uses but for close range brawling it kinda blows.

• there is signifficant blurring.
  
• many maps like river city have other heat sources that clutter view and all maps collect smoking mech corpses.
  
• a damaged mech that is smoking enough becomes hard to hit because all of the smoke disrupts the image.
  
• it is almost impossible to determine a mechs facing so precision shots on components are out the window.
  
• it can be very difficult to seperate out different mechs that are in front of or behind each other.<-this appears to be the source of several friendly fire incedents.

[Willie Sauerland]

Lightfoot, on 30 December 2012 - 09:14 AM, said:

They have better Night Vision than that now. MechWarrior 2 and 4 had better Night Vision also.

At some point we will have a choice of which maps we drop on.

At any rate Night Vision doesn't look very realistic compared to what I have seen.

Actually, no they don't have better Night Vision now. Night Vision is typically 2-dimensional and it is difficult to judge distances. Also real Night Vision is grainy.

However, the night map simply has too much light. And if it were like true night vision where car headlights would practically blind you due to the light intensification, energy weapons should have essentially the same effects.

Reduce the light on the map and I think Night Vision will be better as buildings won't be as bright.

Edited by Willie Sauerland, 30 December 2012 - 12:43 PM.

[Bhael Fire]

Right now, Night Vision is not very realistic. All it's doing now is showing the specularity channel on the shaders (i.e., the highlights). Instead, it should be bumping up the gamma level as well as reducing the colors to a monochromatic spectrum (saturated green or polarized shades of gray). The effect would be more accurate to real IR vision.

[LynxFury]

My issue is it has far too much contrast...just about hurts the eyes.

[blinkin]

Bhael Fire, on 30 December 2012 - 12:46 PM, said:

Right now, Night Vision is not very realistic. All it's doing now is showing the specularity channel on the shaders (i.e., the highlights). Instead, it should be bumping up the gamma level as well as reducing the colors to a monochromatic spectrum (saturated green or polarized shades of gray). The effect would be more accurate to real IR vision.

IR is actually infrared. but i do generally agree that the nightvision acts very little like current NV technology. in fact i think it gives much more information than current nightvision tech. in some ways it acts like a very high definition sonar.

[Bhael Fire]

blinkin, on 30 December 2012 - 12:53 PM, said:

IR is actually infrared.

Most "nightvision" devices use the active IR spectrum. Since thermal is already spoken for, and image intensification is not typical for anything other than handheld cameras, it's safe to assume the nightvision provided by the neurohelmet is using active IR vision (like that used in most military-grade nightvision devices).

[Nathan Foxbane]

Night vision is actually great on the River City Night. Thermal is for long range and detection work night vision keeps friendly fire incidents to a minimum in close quarters.

[Willie Sauerland]

Bhael Fire, on 30 December 2012 - 01:07 PM, said:

Most "nightvision" devices use the active IR spectrum. Since thermal is already spoken for, and image intensification is not typical for anything other than handheld cameras, it's safe to assume the nightvision provided by the neurohelmet is using active IR vision (like that used in most military-grade nightvision devices).

How night vision works -->for those wondering<--...

Edited by Willie Sauerland, 30 December 2012 - 01:28 PM.

[Roland]

LynxFury, on 30 December 2012 - 12:51 PM, said:

My issue is it has far too much contrast...just about hurts the eyes.

Yes, this is a big part of the issue.

[blinkin]

LynxFury, on 30 December 2012 - 12:51 PM, said:

My issue is it has far too much contrast...just about hurts the eyes.

maybe they should have some of the basic settings like contrast seperated out by vision modes.

[Wile Ee Coyote]

Not everybody uses IR night vision in combat. Tanks don't for very simple reason: what happens if they turn on an IR lamp that is strong enough to light up the terrain in front of them -> they light themselves up pretty good for enemy fire.

You do NOT use active IR lighs on a large combat vehicle if you want long distance vision. As far as I know in the leopard 2 (the A6 variant, as used by German, Canadian, many other armies), the gunner/commander (the ones finding and firing upon enemies) use thermal vision (or normal daylight offcourse). The driver has a image intensifier based night vision, no active IR whatsoever
Short range with a flashlight equivalent is something else, I have no idea what they use except this article also indicates that use of IR is not very common in military equipment: http://en.wikipedia....t_vision_device

[Willie Sauerland]

Wile Ee Coyote, on 30 December 2012 - 03:20 PM, said:

Not everybody uses IR night vision in combat. Tanks don't for very simple reason: what happens if they turn on an IR lamp that is strong enough to light up the terrain in front of them -> they light themselves up pretty good for enemy fire.

You do NOT use active IR lighs on a large combat vehicle if you want long distance vision. As far as I know in the leopard 2 (the A6 variant, as used by German, Canadian, many other armies), the gunner/commander (the ones finding and firing upon enemies) use thermal vision (or normal daylight offcourse). The driver has a image intensifier based night vision, no active IR whatsoever
Short range with a flashlight equivalent is something else, I have no idea what they use except this article also indicates that use of IR is not very common in military equipment: http://en.wikipedia....t_vision_device

Actually, military-grade night vision devices have a little tiny red L.E.D. for infrared vision. It is not used often however as it can be seen quite a distance away thereby letting the enemy know where you are. This falls under the "light discipline" doctrine of using light only while under some sort of cover. You would be surprised how far away you can see a cigarette with the naked eye at night...