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Sway of binoculars/rangefinders/designators is way to crass and nauseating
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When using the binoculars, especialy while standing, the screen is swaying about like nuts, making it hard to see and to give orders.


Legacy ID
Have Not Tried
Steps To Reproduce

Go ingame and use binoculars, while standing, to mark a target that is more than 300 meters away.

Additional Information

when looking through binoculars while kneeling or even standing (like being in a bunker, watchtower or therelikes)the whole screen is moving around quite hefty in some random pattern, which is a pain, especially when trying to give out orders on long distance.

The Improvements that have been made to binocs recenty are great and i apreciate them, but it would be nice if we could actualy use them to give out waypoints and targets on long distance (which is their main use next to pure recon, especialy when playing with A.I.) without having to go through a game of guess and twitch.

the way it is, it's neither realistic nor a good gameplay mechanic, just annoying, but as far as i'm concerned could be remedied by simply reducing the sway significantly.
after all we're not aiming to shoot so gameplay wouldn't be afectet. In reality our eyes compensate for the movement of the optics a lot and it really shouldn't be that hard to tell someone to shoot that fucker left of the red barn fivehundred meters to the north. ;-)

And yes, i know about the hold breath function, but that's really just a workaround in this case.

Event Timeline

skunkpilot edited Additional Information. (Show Details)
skunkpilot set Category to Controls.
skunkpilot set Reproducibility to Have Not Tried.
skunkpilot set Severity to None.
skunkpilot set Resolution to Fixed.
skunkpilot set Legacy ID to 733225461.May 7 2016, 3:56 PM

Hold breath while using binocs helps. But it could be a little less intense, but not much.

Mldri added a subscriber: Mldri.May 7 2016, 3:56 PM
Mldri added a comment.Aug 8 2013, 10:32 PM

Your arguments are very good. There isn't really any reason for that much sway. /upvoted

Please devs, decrease the sway of binocs, rangefinders and laser designators, especially when zoomed in.

Id have to agree, can't imagine not being able to hold binocs more steadily than a rifle. Upvoted :)

Binocular & Gun sway is too strong. It's really starting to DESTROY my enjoyment of this sim.

I know that some gamers ALWAYS want more & more insane, HARDCORE difficultly, but we need a better way to make the game more difficult.

Having the shooter sway his gun around like a drunk moron, does NOT seem like a good approach to increasing difficulty.

I may have to stop playing this game until they reduce or eliminate the "alcoholic gun sway" effect.

gutsnav added a subscriber: gutsnav.May 7 2016, 3:56 PM

Are you sure you aren't fatigued? That really adds to weapon/binocular sway. I do agree that binocular sway is too much, but weapon movement is what it looks like for me in real life.

It's overdone. You can't hold breath much so it's ridiculous with zoomed in rangefinder and it's very hard to keep it steady even if you hold breath.

ceeeb added a subscriber: ceeeb.May 7 2016, 3:56 PM
ceeeb added a comment.Aug 29 2013, 5:46 AM

I think the idea of the view being unstable is okay, but the movement is too quick and erratic while standing. Which crouched it is pretty good, probably too stable. IRL it is surprisingly hard to use binoculars without an object to lean on (hint #432)

@ceeeb: Yes, I guess the view should be moving somewhat, albeit less hefty than it is right now. My gripe with the current situation is mostly that designating targets and waypoints acurately ist getting almost impossible on long distances when standing (e.g. try commanding your troops from one of those badass drilling rig like towers on altis). After thinking about it maybe the Binoculars, rangefinder and Laser should be working like the rifle scopes. So the Screen and thus the UI for commanding is standing still while the Scope/Overlay is moving so using a laser still poses a challenge.

If we go fully realistic, there are a million annoying, boring, dull, and incredibly stupid things that we can simulate about the military. Compromises need to be made.

I don't believe BIS should simulate this annoying "sway" feature, because it just makes me feel like a drunk alcoholic fool who can't hold binoculars (or guns) straight anymore.

Unless BIS believes that every soldier drinks 1 to 2 bottles of Vodka before going to battle each and every day. And if you're Russian, that's probably true. But I'm willing to bet the Russians have enough drinking experience to still hold their guns & binoculars straight after finishing 2 bottles of Vodka.

Go grab a pair of binocs and try and look at something 300 meters away. It'll be pretty swimmy. It could be toned down a bit, but doesn't need to me. If anything the issue is that the movement isn't right, not that it's all that intense.
Also, someone said that they don't imagine it's harder to hold binocs straight than to hold a rifle straight, but it's much easier with a rifle, especially with support. You have multiple points of contact along a long body, and as a result you can get it pretty steady in good circumstances. A pair of binocs on the other hand have basically one pivot point and depend on your hands (not especially stable) to keep steady.
Seriously. Grab binocs with a high power, and go look over a long distance. It's harder than you think if you've only ever looked 100 feet with cheapo binocs.

Maybe we should just have a big ol' sway adjustment meter in the difficulty options, because I don't want to lose that stuff. Part of firing a rifle is timing the trigger break with unavoidable sway, especially when you're talking about precision rifles and long ranges. We shouldn't lose that. And the sway of the binocs makes it so you don't have a crystal clear image of what is occuring on the battlefield, especially at a distance.

I'm cool with a "difficulty options" setting that we can adjust.

Alex72 added a subscriber: Alex72.May 7 2016, 3:56 PM

I have steiner binos and yes - they don't sway as they do in this game. Its nuts when looking over long distances how the binos move all over. Not realistic at all. Need change.

I have tweaked the sway, could You, please, give it a try tomorrow in a dev branch and let me know? Thanks a lot.

Yes, it's way better now. Thanks.

This was such an obvious bug, and speculate they just stubbed some effects in to prevent overlooking providing actual sway specifications later on.

I have used 10x50 binoculars with far less sway, if any sway at all, while standing.

I have no idea what the weight or magnification specifications of the in game simulated binoculars are, and likely nor did they during initial implementation.

I'm glad this is fixed, the sway is absolutely ridiculous and not realistic at all.

Is it only fixed in binoculars?

Did they fix or reduce the gun sway with weapon optics as well??

Binocs, rangefinders and laser designators.

MadDogX added a subscriber: MadDogX.May 7 2016, 3:56 PM

This is only related to binoculars, rangefinders, laser designators and anything else that is held in the same way; not rifles or other weapons.

Closing, since the issue appears to be fixed.

StJimmy removed a subscriber: StJimmy.May 31 2016, 6:36 PM