Planes not showing at short range

[JamesWilson]

Hi guys,

I've recently picked SF2 once more after a break, and i've noticed something that i didn't recall but apparently has always been there.

I play at Unlimited graphics but planes only draw at an extremely short and unrealistic distance, like 2.5 nm, and the "black dot" you spot is so tiny and thin it's very hard to see, and only when very close and zoomed in.

This makes dogfights very close range, in a way that when turning there's a high chance to lose eye contact with the plane your fighting, making turn fight or identification quite impossible.  When you go head-on the enemy shows up when it's too close and then you instantly lose with due to it shape/dot disappearing once it passes by -> you lose track of him -> you get killed...

I've tried messing up with the files and extended draw distance from 4 to 11, and objects not to fade, but even if it starts to show up at more distance, it's still impossible to see and the dot is minuscule and visible only when zooming max. And of course with these settings the framerate drops drastically.

The only way around i found is to use the red identification square that pop ups when close to enemies, so that i know where he is, but it shows up even before than the plane actually showing up, and breaks immersion if i want to play without any HUD in a realistic way.

Is there any way to make the plane show up from far away, at least at a realistic visibility distance (idk how far away a human eye can see planes IRL) and make it actually visible, like even with a small dot or something that actually let's you see it coming at you and not lose track when dogfighting?

There is a setting just for this in DCS and let's you have a small black dot of the plane you're fighting, that's super useful if you're not too close to each other and if you're using a big monitor or tv.

What settings do you guys use in SF2 to avoid or reduce these issues? Is there any actual way or it's just the way it is?

Let me know so that i can change my settings and my files in order to properly see and fight.

Thank you very much for the help!! 

[Wrench]

You CANNOT compare DCS to the SF2 series. I wish people would stop fucking doing that.

You can use the simple red square, or you can go into the main ini of every single aircraft in your mod folders, and change the visible distance statements ---

Quote

[LOD001]
Filename=F-4E.lod
Distance=100

[LOD002]
Filename=F-4E_lod2.lod
Distance=250

[LOD003]
Filename=F-4E_lod3.lod
Distance=500

[LOD004]
Filename=F-4E_lod4.lod
Distance=1000

[LOD005]
Filename=F-4E_lod5.lod
Distance=10000

 

You can comment out the other 4 lods, and change lod 1 to use the 10000 meter range. Lod 1 always has the highest detail. Do let us know what it does to the frame rates. Inquiring minds want to know!!

[MigBuster]

Many years back in SF1 you could change the Red box size and have it as a dot  - probably huddata.ini.

 

[Display001]

DisplayType=DIRECTOR

ObjectType=TARGET_ENEMY

ConeSize=15

BoxSize=2 <--change ??

 

Don't know if that still works

[JamesWilson]

On 10/8/2026 at 8:12 PM, Wrench said:

You CANNOT compare DCS to the SF2 series. I wish people would stop fucking doing that.

You can use the simple red square, or you can go into the main ini of every single aircraft in your mod folders, and change the visible distance statements ---

 

You can comment out the other 4 lods, and change lod 1 to use the 10000 meter range. Lod 1 always has the highest detail. Do let us know what it does to the frame rates. Inquiring minds want to know!!

Changed the LOD on the enemy Su-22M3 from 8000 to 10000 but differences are almost unnoticeable. Found out it's prolly an en engine problem, cause the thing is not just planes do not draw, but also the way they're drawn in SF2 is they are thin and easy to lose. Framerates remained the same tho. I know i shouldn't compare DCS to SF2, i was just comparing the way you keep eyes on enemies, and apparently even under that aspect they have a huge difference. I wish there was that black dot feature in SF2 to add, apparently i have to reduce the square to a dot (if possible) and turn it from red to black. The drawback is that i have to play with HUD on, i solved this by moving the data rectangles outside the screen via coordinates, so that i can have enemy and waypoint squares and triangles, without having anything else. If there's any other way to fix this lemme know.

So SF2 players fly with their HUDs on? Breaking immersion? Cause it's hard to even turnfight with this issue, enemies vanish unless you zoom or they're so tiny they basically disappear from your sight even at 3 nm.

Edited Saturday at 02:38 PM by JamesWilson

[JamesWilson]

On 10/9/2026 at 12:54 AM, MigBuster said:

Many years back in SF1 you could change the Red box size and have it as a dot  - probably huddata.ini.

 

[Display001]

DisplayType=DIRECTOR

ObjectType=TARGET_ENEMY

ConeSize=15

BoxSize=2 <--change ??

 

Don't know if that still works

You gave me a great idea, that's what i'm gonna try. If this works i'm saved, i'll let you know

[JamesWilson]

On 10/9/2026 at 12:54 AM, MigBuster said:

Many years back in SF1 you could change the Red box size and have it as a dot  - probably huddata.ini.

 

[Display001]

DisplayType=DIRECTOR

ObjectType=TARGET_ENEMY

ConeSize=15

BoxSize=2 <--change ??

 

Don't know if that still works

It worked!

I've set BoxSize to 1 and color to 0.0,0.0,0.0,0.50 so that the square turns out to be a small black dot, a bit greyish and not too black, just like the one in DCS. This makes spotting enemies withing visual range and turnifighting finally enjoyable. I've set visual identification to normal in menu settings. I've also set waypoint to BoxSize 1 and removed infos like speed altitude etc of player and enemy, so that it's immersive and HUDless with normal HUD settings too, but still with respective squares.

[daddyairplanes]

47 minutes ago, JamesWilson said:

just like the one in DCS. 

im glad that you got it to work, and that you are working the issues yourself 

that said, keep in mind what other Kevin said: the two games dont really compare beyond the fact they are both flight sims

DCS is a Formula 1 Ferrari, the high end of performance but most every modification is expensive as hell

SF2 is a mid 90s Supra. still alot of fun, and tons of ways to cheaply aftermarket boost it up.

[mue]

There is a mod that draws dots over all objects within 10 nm range:

 

[JamesWilson]

9 hours ago, mue said:

There is a mod that draws dots over all objects within 10 nm range:

 

Unbelievable, so this should be the solution to all of my problems? I gotta know how it works, i'll read the whole pages and have my tries, i'll let you know if this solves all my problems.

If this turns out to be a "draw distance solution" and not a "HUD solution", this could be the turning point: i would be able to choose between full HUD and no HUD while keep seeing planes at 10 nm.

Do you by any chance know if it changes only the selected target or all planes? Cause the fix for the first one is something i've already done, the second one is what i need. By reading the forum topic with the link it says selected target, trying to figure out what actually is. Since you wrote "all" i guess it's all.

Edited 16 hours ago by JamesWilson

[JamesWilson]

10 hours ago, mue said:

There is a mod that draws dots over all objects within 10 nm range:

 

I've just tried but nothing changed it seems. I still see planes withing extremely short range, no dots that mark them for spotting and dogfighting, still red and blue boxes and only on selected target, not all. Only things that changed are i don't see any label or info box anymore, some fonts are smaller, i only see altitude when low, that's it.

I copied and pasted the files into the Flight directory, having to overwrite HUDDATA.INI, there was no TWFONT.FX to overwrite.

I thought this was a mod that made you have little red dots for every enemy and blue ones for every friendly within 10nm, and then you can turn the red dots into black dots, just like in DCS you can choose to have little dots on enemies to keep track of them.

Apparently almost nothing changed. Let me know if i'm missing something or if got what the mod does wrong.