[1900.20] Eyeball acuity

[Knightpawn]

In this example an F35 pilot eyeballed a periscope from an altitude of about 8500ft. Although I don't complain as the plane was on my side, maybe the devs would like to consider if this is plausible

Screenshot 2026-10-16 160754.png (560.63 KiB) Viewed 339 times

[Dimitris]

Thanks, we'll take a look.

[rmeckman]

Ordinarily, it is the periscope's wake that is first detected visually, not the periscope itself. In this case, the sub is at full stop, so there is no wake.

When F-35C #5 first detected the periscope 27 s earlier, the sub was only about 1.2 nm away to the west (see image). It was probably higher than 8712 ft when the sub was detected, since the formation it is part of seems to be descending. So the issue may be whether a periscope can be seen visually at a slant range of 1.9-2.0 nm.

All 8 detections shown in the OP have an estimated range of 4.9 nm. Is it intended that contact detections use the current range to the contact instead of the range at the time the detection was made?

[thewood1]

When I ran it and dropped the contact, the sub pops back up with a detection through contact sharing with a merchant ship. Not sure which one. That seems to clue the F-35s to look.

2nd run through and I dropped the sub contact for all allied sides. No one ever picks it up again. I dropped the F-35 down to 2000' and ran it right over the top of the periscope and it never saw it. I'm not even sure if the F-35 was the original spotter. It kind of looks like it was someone else and they shared it.

[boogabooga]

Depends on how clear the water is. You might be looking at entire submarine:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... laysia.jpg

[Blast33]

A pilot cannot see a sub from behind.
See the image

[thewood1]

I haven't checked myself yet, but the F-35 was stated someplace as having the 360 deg camera system that allows full view behind. Not sure it made it into production, but will check in a bit.