Although muzzle flash and smoke add realism, they often block your vision in actual combat, making it hard to see where your shots land or track your target. This seriously hurts the gameplay experience. You don’t notice it as much when fighting toward the sun, but it becomes very obvious when you’re facing away from the sun, especially indoors or in low light environments.
For the sake of rigor, all videos are from the recent test server
Spoiler
Auto rifle
https://youtu.be/8xAnIi0x1w4
https://youtu.be/Gp5iKX8TlmQ
https://youtu.be/L-xYalTZ0_4
https://youtu.be/Fjm1kRDwfoE
SMG
MG
https://youtu.be/TBwAnkJ_1iI
https://youtu.be/KVoIemC8Sc8
https://youtu.be/aU-pJUeybtE
https://youtu.be/hjXARDHd6mE
Most weapons suffer from this problem, and for MGs like the MG 81, it’s even worse in outdoor engagements.
The screen is almost covered in smoke, and the sight is completely obscured by muzzle flash
Compared to the Stinger
Maybe the developers did this intentionally to replicate real life effects, but the feedback a screen gives to players just can’t compare to what the human eye sees.
In reality, gun smoke is a translucent, grayish white cloud. The human eye has an extremely high dynamic range, allowing you to see both the layers of smoke and the dim outline of a target behind it at the same time. Your pupils adjust rapidly, and your brain automatically subtracts the brightness of the smoke, letting you see through it and lock onto the target. Your focus is on the sight and the enemy. When you concentrate on a distant target, the smoke just centimeters in front of your eyes becomes completely out of focus. Blurred smoke hardly obstructs your vision at all, much like how you don’t notice a few specks of dust on your car windshield when looking at the scenery outside.
In games, the camera simulates a limited exposure. To make the smoke appear “white,” its brightness is set very high. This bright area acts like a lamp, reducing contrast across the screen, including on your target, and sometimes making the target blend entirely into the background. In practice, this becomes a solid wall of fire and white smoke, and players cannot see any enemy behind it.
That’s why I think muzzle flash and white smoke should be reduced. It would help all automatic weapons across every BR. Devs should prioritize gameplay, just like how they already allow players to aim down sights with a 10 kg machine gun without having to go prone.
- Yes
- No
- Allow players to adjust its size
- Yes
- No
- Allow players to adjust its size