How does SF treat stealth?

[LightningIII]

It really irritates me getting detected (sometimes shot at) at long range in a F-22 or F-117. Does the game have a good approximation of stealth i.e. can you, through good planning and tactics, be practically invincible in the F-117?

Also, when I am flying in the F-22 going against some modern fighters, I find it hard to lock on sometimes. Is this a bug in the F-22 or is this the result of stealth features or ECM of the aircraft I am targeting?

Lastly, is the effect of external stores decreasing stealth modeled? I.E. will flying with wing bombs or missiles on an F-22 or F-35 make the aircraft much easier to detect and kill?

Thanks

Edited September 2, 2012 by eaglef15strike

[FastCargo]

SF treats stealth by the size of the 'hitboxes' described in the data.ini file (what you see as Min/MaxExtent numbers) and determines an overall 'size' of the object. Makes sense overall.

 

Then a modifier can be placed in the data.ini...it's just a simple multiplier...less than 1 reduces, greater than 1 increases.

 

Also, ECM strength does have an effect on lock ranges and missile tracking abilities.

 

However, realize this is a lite sim, so don't expect things like detailed RCS changes based on aspect or on amount of stores hanging.

 

FC

[Fubar512]

Stealth ingame works as a fraction of the aircraft's "gross" RCS (as FastCargo explained), but it also depends on the "MaxVisibleDistance" parameter. For example, if you set a given model's "RCSmodifier" value to 0.0001 meters squared, that model will not be detectable on in game radar displays until it is practically on top of you.

 

But the game engine still allows one to visually acquire the model out to its set max visible distance value, even at night. So, I set that value to 1500 meters, or less, on low observables.

[LightningIII]

Ok, but that still does not explain the F-22 obnoxious refusal to lock on. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the F-22 only has a TWS radar mode in the game (no standard search and track modes when I looked in the INI)???

[Fubar512]

Radar and ECM values are way overmodeled in this series, and that goes especially so with 3rd party models. With the default planeset and groundobjects, it's mostly done for missile tracking purposes.

 

Also, define "lock". Are the targets breaking track after you acquire missile lock inside of visual range, or at BVR distances?

Edited September 3, 2012 by Fubar512

[LightningIII]

By "lock" I mean that when I put the radar cursor over the target, no matter how many times I mash the "lock radar target" button on my stick it doesn't lock. Sometimes, however, when I have it designated in TWS the radar will lock on by itself without my input. Is that what's supposed to happen with TWS? Not to be noobish, but I am more used to the traditional search mode than TWS, so maybe I am doing something wrong. To be clear, I am not "losing" lock or track, I just cant get it to lock on to a target which is designated. Also, this only happens in the F-22. I have no problem in any other aircraft.

Edited September 3, 2012 by eaglef15strike