IL2 Great Battles - How to Increase Contact Visibility (2019)

Ok, this is a long one. The problem of contact visibility in general is existing since 2014 and the first versions of IL2. It was even worse in the beginning due to the weird "haze" of all maps even on clear days, but since the engine itself is so limited, the general problem still persists. In this video I am showing you how to get rid of the problem, at least partially.

[@Spicysauced]

Pinned: The core of the solution shown in the video was to make spotting better/easier via a program called Reshade. A couple of weeks ago, the devs of this "sim" have spoken and on most servers, this is now considered a "undesireable modification" - hence it will not work anymore. Since spotting is of utmost importance in a combat sim and the graphics engine of IL2 alone, which is from 2009(!), is not capable enough without any "outside" help, as the video and many agreeing comments demonstrate, I personally will never again put any true effort (or money) into this game, until they overhaul the engine completely.

[@neo13254]

Whatever the devs say, I truly appreciate and respect your effort. Good job!

[@Spicysauced]

@@neo13254 Thanks mate :)

[@Jyrgenstrator]

@@Spicysauced Hey! I just accidentally fixed my spotting issue, before I could see nothing. Basically I went from Ultra to Low settings without AA. Now contacts GLOW with white rim around them and are clearly visible all the way to 10km. I dont remember my other settings now, but Im pretty sure ambient occlusion has something to do with it.

[@Spicysauced]

@@Jyrgenstrator Interesting. But I kinda gave up on this game :/ I dont even have it installed anymore.

[@RudeRaptor]

@@Spicysauced Your not missing anything. Graphics still suck. And hardly anyone even on the russian server due the war.

[@NotDumbassable]

IMO the biggest issue is that for some reason the background behind planes tends to be overimposed over them. Especially when you see aliasing, you´ll notice that sometimes planes completely vanish simply due to the background being over something you should be able to see.

[@BobGnarley.]

Amazing tips. Thanks! Can't wait to test this out Edit: If anyone wants to find the exact shaders shown in this video, pick the legacy pack right at the bottom when you install Reshade.

[@psychoyuri3283]

Thank you. I was completely blind in this game before

[@zupaniccarr4686]

This was a huge help. Nice video.

[@Spicysauced]

Glad to help, thanks for watching!

[@gregpruitt1647]

Where is the startup file located if I have the Steam version of IL-2 ?

[@almightyIrie]

4:07 is super strange.... video of guy is paused, yet i see a black dot appearing and disappearing a few times, til it's unpaused and i've seen the disappeared plane popping up somewhere above the cloud... what's that?

[@luizengrazia5169]

How does this compare to DCS??

[@argus3091]

i cant open reshade ingame can someone help?

[@Michael-hn5gi]

Thank you so much for this video!!

[@Spicysauced]

Youre welcome :)

[@jaimes.p.827]

Hi there. Thanks for the video. I've got a problem. In Reshade 3.0 when you open, the options you have no longer appear. There are two blank windows, even in Home. Do you know how can I activate the options? (colourfulness, clarity...) Because I don't even see them. Thanx in advance. Danke Schon

[@anthonynolan5175]

yes these two settings does exist help us

[@Bishop_DE]

Moin sag mal besteht die Möglichkeit das auch irgendwie auf deutsch nachzuschlagen? Mein Englisch ist da leider recht bescheiden um alles zu verstehen. Gruß Bishop.

[@Spicysauced]

Nicht dass ich wüsste, sorry. Aber mit den Bildern allein im Video kann man auch schon was anfangen, denke ich. Die Essenz ist startup.cfg und Reshade.

[@k98_zock_tv47]

Alles soweit gemacht bisher, beim Starten des Spiels erhalte ich oben am Bildschirm auch eine Meldung von Reshade, nur wenn ich Shift + F2 drücke, öffnet sich nichts. Auch die anderen F Tasten und STRG Kombinationen und Shift rechts habe ich durch. Ne Idee? PS: "Home" Taste für US Tastaturen, "Pos1" für deutsche. ...nur im Schnellflug gerade getestet, schaut schon mal anders aus. Danke

[@Spicysauced]

Ja genau, ich sagte Home weil das Video ja auf Englisch ist und meist dementprechend von Amerikanern und Engländern geschaut wird. Pos1 heißt die Taste auch bei mir. Gute Jagd! :)

[@dudochnicht8546]

I made the adjustment and in the "Startup.cfg" file a Gamma setting of .50000 is retained, however in the Game, Settings, Gamma the indicated minimum Gamma Setting is still indicated as only .8

[@Spicysauced]

Yes. As I said the game only displays values down to .8. If .5 is set in the cfg file, then this is the value you're playing with.

[@uscstaylor]

Love your videos man your very funny guy

[@Spicysauced]

Thanks! :)

[@uscstaylor]

I’m having issues with spotting after the latest update and can’t see them at all and they disappear too

[@adriangoodman8901]

Same... I don't understand. It's so bad, contacts sometime vanish at 1-2km

[@dadnar7615]

I'm curious how things are now with the latest "spotting patch" released recently

[@Spicysauced]

Not much better honestly. I didnt see a difference and told myself "see you next year IL2". Actually the whole situation is much worse, since they dont allow Reshade anymore. So now, there are dull colors, bad contrast, just overall its bad. Everytime I look at IL2 I think about how DCS looked in 2013.

[@atlehunekonge]

Thank you very much!

[@Spicysauced]

No problem, hope it helps!

[@callsignnictmere465]

After using the HOME key re shade did not open. Changing the gamma was horrific. My pit is just black. I guess this was not for me.

[@Spicysauced]

There have been changes made to Reshade and IL2 .. I cant use it anymore too. The devs said that enhancing the colors etc. is considered "cheating" because it increased the spotting, or made it easier. One thing is clear: These guys won't ever see another cent from me.

[@callsignnictmere465]

@@Spicysauced Thanks for the update I have used re shade on other games so I thought something was up. I changed the gamma to .8 much better effect for me. I have poor vision I am an older guy so I use tags but I do like to play without them but at times it is difficult for me to pick up on aircraft at a distance. Well yes I too feel this game is disappointing, pay to play is the future. I still play iL2 1946 and fly everything. Thanks for the tutorial the gamma change did help.

[@Thumper770]

"Dat.....is bullshit!" ROFL...Hell yeah. I wholeheartedly agree!! I've been telling folks for a couple months now that I couldn't see the guy who shot me. They chalked it up to me being salty and just don't know what I'm doing. NO!!! They just weren't there!! I saw the tracers but could not see the plane they came from.

[@Spicysauced]

Yes its the usual problem in that community. All I got was "Well I HAVE no problem at all, the problem must sit in front of the computer!", so I made this video back in the day. Spotting has gotten better since then, but until they switch to a modern graphics engine, there will always be problems. What happened since then in detail: 1. Devs updated spotting, made planes at long distances appear super big. Unrealistic as hell, but I liked it since I could finally see stuff. 2. 2 days later they gave up because people screamed "tHaTs uNrEaLisTiC!!!", disabled new spotting completely. 3. Again a couple of days later they found what they call a compromise, made the new spotting a choice for server admins, while maintaining a _slightly_ better version for everyone else.

[@chae_shoko]

So much still i exeriance this in il2 it is making me wish to quit. I did quit twice il2 due to invisible enemy or 109 flaps move by hand even in extreme speeds. But always they saying in forum i am lying or just iam angry to die despite i got proofs even :c

[@diggie9598]

Vielen Dank! Wechsle gerade vom alten IL2 1946 zu BOS. Spannend!

[@Spicysauced]

Das alte war in vielen Belangen tatsächlich besser. Auch Cliffs of Dover. Aber das ist natürlich Geschmackssache.

[@diggie9598]

@@Spicysauced Würde gerne mal mit dir fliegen, bin bekannt als ziemlich disziplinierter Katschmarek. Leider bekomm ich keine ordentliche Grafik hin, weit entfernt von dem, was ich in deinen Videos sehe. Konturen von Objekten flackern, so kann kein Mensch ordentlich fliegen. Hab die Nvidia 1060. Alles Mögliche schon probiert, Monitor gewechselt, Kabel getauscht, Treiber neu installiert, Nvidia Control Panel einstellungen und Einstellungen im Spiel geändert. Bin hoffnungslos verloren im Parameterwald. Hast du ne Idee, wo ich Hilfe bekommen kann?

[@Spicysauced]

@@diggie9598 Hm, komisch. Bei meiner Vega und einer 1660 Super im anderen System funktioniert alles einwandfrei. Es ist halt die Engine .. 10 Jahre alt .. Ist unmöglich per Ferndiagnose zu lösen. Mein Ansatz wäre den Grafiktreiber via DDU zu entfernen, und IL2 noch dazu. Danach alles wieder drauf, "from scratch". Wenn das nichts hilft, ist vielleicht die Graka hinüber, aber wie gesagt .. Ferndiagnose ist immer Mist. Ich habe selbst jetzt schon über ein halbes Jahr das Spiel nicht mehr angefasst. Mir fehlt die Variation, ich kann nicht immer mit den gleichen Flugzeugen fliegen, das ist alles etwas langweilig geworden in IL2. Im Moment spiele ich mehr War Thunder Sim Battles, da nehme ich etwas weniger korrekte Flugmodelle in Kauf und tausche das gegen die Möglichkeit von einer 109 direkt in die Mig21 oder den Starfighter hüpfen zu können.

[@diggie9598]

@@Spicysauced Hab jetzt gleich n neues Windows aufgesetzt auf ner SSD. Deine Einschätzung bezüglich Ferndiagnose halte ich für sehr vernünftig. Zu viele Variablen. Die Beschreibung von WarThunder finde ich interessant, n alter 1946er Kumpel aus Finnland fliegt das Ding auch. Kennste vielleicht, Herra Tohtori. Saugefährlicher Typ und feiner Kerl. Werd jetzt mal weiter ruminstallieren und schaun, ob es jetzt funzt. Jedenfalls vielen, vielen Dank für deine Antworten. Find ich top!

[@Spicysauced]

@@diggie9598 Jau gerne, kein Problem. Bzgl. War Thunder: Das Spiel hat wie jedes andere auch so seine Probleme, vor allem bzgl. Balancing in gewissen Modi, aber die Enduring Confrontation Schlachten sind schon geil. 3 Stunden/Match, zig Karten zur Auswahl, von Battle of Britain setting bis hin zu russischen, deutsch, asiatischen oder "alternate history" Karten. Auf jeder Karte genug zu tun für Bomber, Attacker und Fighter. Was viele Leute nicht wissen: Auch in WT kannst du mit "full real controls" Kühler, Pitch und Co. einzeln steuern wie in IL2 auch. Du musst es nicht nutzen, aber du kannst (und die die es tun bekommen bessere Performance aus ihren Maschinen). Also kurz: Über das Spiel gibts viel zu erzählen, aber ich finde es ziemlich gut. Den Namen Tohori kenne ich, bin aber glaube noch nie mit oder gegen ihn geflogen.

[@disjoejoe5572]

How i can make this i have it on steam

[@Spicysauced]

You .. buy it.

[@countzero7]

being able to see enemy before or atleast at same distances he can see you is most crusial thing for online in any game, and in box this is realy bad, and 9.5km limit for all is just to short for ww2, it should be atleast 15km.

[@Spicysauced]

Fully agree. And the contrast between planes and the background should be much higher by default.

[@craigdavies4682]

@@Spicysauced You can see a Spit from the ground in real life from miles away until I found this i always had problems even on a 32 inch monitor with everything maxxed out the visible dots are just so hard to find thanks for this. I just tinkered around with it using my own values with actually quite a lot of effects added with the latest version of sweetfx. It looks great the colours pop and i can clearly see the direction of a plane and now track the target. I now have to watch the sun as its very bright like reality.

[@Sebastian-dx1hd]

It works for war thunder?

[@Spicysauced]

No. War Thunder has the best spotting of all simulations anyway.

[@LukeSkywarp]

As soon as I set this up, I had to uninstall it. Many servers in Il-2 will not allow you to join because this is considered a modification.

[@Spicysauced]

Yep, I mentioned that in the comments. The change is relatively new and led to me not flying in IL2 anymore.

[@tomek1000]

It is still issue? I'm planning to play this game so I'll account before start 😊😋

[@Spicysauced]

It is. Also the devs blocked all outside programs like Reshade as "unallowed modifications". Personal adivce: Dont buy.

[@SheriffsSimShack]

I just want to point out that the comparison is not entirely objective since contact visibility isn't that hard straight down, but its the hardest if an enemy is behind you where you have no silhouette to work with and when the back ground is far away/ in a more shallow angle. (edit: in the first clips the contacts are in a more shallow angle towards the ground.) Furthermore just cutting the gamma is not going to work with everybody since every screen is setup in a different way. I have a pretty low gamma setting on my screen and the in game settings are sufficient. Many people dont know what gamma does. A low gamma loweres the contrast dark areas and raises the contrast of light areas. this has the effect that you then see dark spots in light back grounds better. ( against the sky) Cockpits get with low gamma really dark to the point where you only see back lit instruments in some YT Videos. And contact visibilty in "non standard" missions will suffer. Like early morning, evening, night, or bad weather sorties. Its not all sugar and ponies with low gamma. Only my 2 cents. Otherwise good tips.

[@Spicysauced]

About gamma, yes, it raises the contrast of light areas, but the ground is often light aswell, not as bright as the sky, but it still helps. Of course, to some point this is a subjective matter, but with the stuff Ive said in the video, at least I can see MUCH better. You said you have a low gamma setting on your monitor already, I dont, maybe thats does the trick for you and yes I know, youve never had the problems I had with spotting. For me on the other hand, it was a gamebreaker the longest time. Thats one of the big reasons why I stuck to WT after all, not because of the flight models or anything, but because I was able to develop an SA sufficient enough to be successful. With the mentioned settings I am successful in IL2 aswell - finally I might add. Took me long enough. I get shot down much less, if I do, I know its ONLY my fault which wasnt the case before - in general the whole SA topic did a 180 turn for me. Regarding the instruments ony being readable with cockpit lighting, well, then this has a purpose now too 😁 My graphics settings also do work in bad weather settings, tried that on Kota, very happy with the results. And on WoL where most people still are, there are to my knowledge no such missions anyway. Thanks for your comment Sheriff, input and conversation with like-minded people is always appreciated, have a good day! :)

[@SheriffsSimShack]

@@Spicysauced yes the ground is mostly bright(ish) but in some conditions its not. Just wanted to say that here so people are at least aware. I raise my gamme ingame if I have a particular dark mission. I have the same problems. But most problems can be worked around with excellent wingman. And I have some of that rare breed. With good wingman, at least one guy gets the view at the enemy from a slight angle. That helps immensely.

[@Spicysauced]

@@SheriffsSimShack Yes, well ,the wingman topic is (for me) another "mysterious" one that I cant get my head around. I learned to take care of my myself alone, in all Sims, Ive never had a wingman. In my mind its like .. when I imagine that I have to take care of someone else AND me, it basically doubles my workload. Or I would take attention away from myself and "add" it to the wingman, if you know what I mean. Ive flown one or two times with a wingman, first time we spend 5+ minutes to find us again ("which of the X planes down there is you, I cant see, can you flash lights?"), second time I died because the wingman didnt see an enemy approaching after I asked him to please keep a look at my six. Im just feeling more free when I fly alone. Sure I cant get help in bad situations but that just lets me get better by not doing this and that again, trying to not get in that kind of situation again. And last but not least a more simple reason: I just dont like to talk every time I play, Im more a quiet kinda guy, even when in videos it doesnt seem that way. Btw, do you know Cpt. Toastman? Hes a very kind guy and Im trying to get him a little into IL2 aswell, so maybe we both can get better flying in a team together. Maybe you want to fly with us, if you can let Feraphic and the others fly alone for an evening 😃

[@SheriffsSimShack]

​@@Spicysauced Yeah flying a wingman takes time, practise and it takes the right mindset. I am not a god wingman myself. But Hound and Feraphic take while attacking and navigating the entire spotting of my shoulders. If I attack I dont have to spend a second to check my six. If they dont say anything i know I am clear. I like to fly alone at times as well and there I fly more cautios and take my time to spot things.

[@mrg0nzz]

@@SheriffsSimShack Seen lots of your videos and I definitely envy your team!

[@Sturmbutcher]

This is more like a rendering problem still present today or even worse than before, I don't agree with the current decisions of Jason to not focus all the resources to fix a critical issue like this

[@Spicysauced]

Focus all resources would mean to develop a completely new engine. I said it time and time again, that using the old Rise of Flight engine from 2010(!!) was nonsense, I said it in 2014, and Im saying it in 2020. Only thing they can do when keeping the old engine is to fix symptoms, but they can never get to the root of the problems. My wish was to license Gaijin's Dagor Engine for BoX. Runs on a potato with 100 FPS+, looks beautiful, is relatively cheap and is future-proof. But noooo....

[@Sturmbutcher]

@@Spicysauced I remember that the rise of flight engine came from the old il2 with lot of modifications, and I think if they manage to heavily modify this engine it's worth it over to move everything to a new engine.

[@Spicysauced]

@@Sturmbutcher No. You cant continue to use an in sum now 14 year old engine just by modifying it to death. What is shown in the video is the result of the lazy and evolutionary approach. Another example of this behavior can be seen at Eagle Dynamics' DCS. They put a new "skin" over the old EDGE engine from the Lock On days (

[@Sturmbutcher]

@@Spicysauced that makes sense

[@adriangoodman8901]

This makes me not want to play this game any more... I know it is bad but... Cliffs of Dover I was spotting people at 10 km and identifying at 6km

[@Spicysauced]

Yup, CloD was much better regarding spotting.

[@daveharris4553]

However Reshade is not an option for us who use VR Headset. VR is becoming a big part of gaming!

[@Spicysauced]

I highly doubt that. Those who are interested in VR have one of those bulky black things already, and its definitely not for everybody (for example me). I have zero interest in VR. When I see people use these things on KZbin, I just wait for them to trip over a cable or something :)

[@daveharris4553]

@@Spicysauced I respect your opinion and think your videos are great learning tools! I use VR mostly for flight sims so I am always setting in my flight seat using the warthog hotas which is attached to the flight seat so there is no tripping over wires. I have a 48 inch 4k hi-res screen in front with head tracking so its a great setup However!!! When I use VR its a complete new level, I am no longer in front of a highly immersive setup, with VR I feel I am actually inside the aircraft, its so real I sometimes catch myself ducking and flinching because my brain thinks that I am their in the plane. The headset is light weight and VR will make you forget you are wearing it at times of action. If you were a actual pilot it is less weight than wearing a flight helmet. So I would ask you have you ever played in VR mode. If not I would love for you to try it and then review it in a KZbin review because as I said your videos are highly respected in our community! Thank you for the information you offer to our flight sim community.

[@jamiegrover3181]

@@daveharris4553 Il2 in VR is amazing. I have never looked back since buying my Oculus Rift S.

[@tomcatvrkalisz820]

No hard filings but You don't know what are you talking regards Rise of Flight contacts visibility - this spotting problem never existed in RoF . It's true that there is much easier to spot slower aircrafts and rate of closure is much slower. Il2 uses different technology to draw clouds plus same 10km visibility buble is not helping when two time's faster planes are closing to each other. In general planes are less visible against terrain and sky at same distances in il2 compared to RoF.

[@lewisdean8964]

Nothing I hate more than a guy making a video to show how to do something that takes 5 minutes but has yammer on and on for 20 minutes first.

[@Spicysauced]

Nothing I hate more than people on the internet having a

[@diggie9598]

Other people apprecciate the effort and time that he put in to share his knowledge. You on the other hand, just got nominated for the weakest dickhead-comment of the year. Congratulations!