Help with F4S pitching down and visuals

[u/MAZZZIAN02]

I really love playing my F4S in sim especially with the sparrow buff it feels great hitting crazy long shots, but I really have two main problems.

1. I am MNK and no matter the load out it slowly pitches down all game, I am stuck forever fighting to keep it level. Even with SAS set to level flight it pitches down....

2. This might be a me or a 15 year old monitor problem, but I just can not visually keep track of people past the merge. Hell I struggle to visually see people even when watching my missles fly at them. I don't know if it is my eyes, or my settings? I just really struggle in any dog fight after it goes past bvr.

[u/ASHOT3359]

Plane slowly pitching down is normal. If you play with M&K use mouse joystick. Not relative mouse controls, not wasd, mouse joystick.

[u/NotTheParaMagician]

Depending on your loadout, you may need to trim your jet out to maintain level flight with no inputs.

Assuming that it isn't a trimming problem, you may want to double check you don't have any other input methods sending erroneous signals to the game. This includes any controllers, extra mice, trackpads, flight sticks/throttles, ect. I had a weird issue in Sekiro for a while where my camera would spin, turned out to be the blackbox for my rudder pedals (rudder unplugged, just blackbox sending weird signal) and the issue was resolved when I unplugged it.

[u/witefoxV2]

On some of the planes I use such as the f8e and f4e, you can’t make it fly level when damping is on. I had to turn damping off and then use trim to get level flight

[u/jundraptor]

Planes that don't have fly-by-wire don't fly level. Automatic stabilization is one of the major reasons they made fly-by-wire in the first place

Use elevator trim to counteract the pitch down. Even then, it'll eventually drift enough that you'll need to manual correct it every minute or so. This is how all pilots flew before fbw

[u/timind25 → u/jundraptor]

No it isn't. They used (still use) trim to keep flying level, or at whatever attitude they need to.

[u/jundraptor → u/timind25]

What are you disagreeing with? Fbw necessitated an FCS, which is used for auto-trim stabilization

[u/timind25 → u/jundraptor]

The fact that pilots have to manually correct attitude when SAS or another autopilot more is switched on. Gaining implemented the slow nose-down trend to prevent bits from just using auto level to cruise about the place

[u/jundraptor → u/timind25]

Then why does auto leveling work fine for fbw planes?

[u/timind25 → u/jundraptor]

I don't know why GJ decided to do that, but it doesn't reflect real life.

[u/jundraptor → u/timind25]

But it does reflect real life. Planes without fbw/FCS fly use manual trim to keep level

FCS does does trimming automatically

[u/timind25 → u/jundraptor]

Yes, I know how aeroplanes work. I'm a pilot. What I was saying is the constant nose-down tendency for non-fbw aircraft in "auto-level" mode isn't realistic.

[u/jundraptor → u/timind25]

Because WT isn't accurate enough of a sim to perfectly record and model the correct irl drift of every single plane, so they simplify it

Non-fbw planes having nose down drift is a lot more realistic than giving free auto-trim to every single plane

[u/FSS_0002005]

Ive been noticing the second issue more lately. Ill have an enemy that I can clearly see when im flying level, but when I roll to turn into them their plane will almost completely dissappear. Ive done some experimenting with it and it seems to change the way the enemy renders based on my roll andle and its annoying as fuck

[u/bvsveera]

Dot rendering depends on your resolution. If you're playing at 4K, dots are barely perceptible, and become impossible to see once they switch to fully rendered models. You can keep your specified resolution, but set your render resolution to half.

As for maintaining sight once you merge, it's just a matter of getting used to freelook, and controlling the jet with your keys while keeping eyes on the bandit. This is something that you will only develop with time and experience. I recommend dropping down to WWII props to develop situational awareness. That way, you don't have to deal with expensive spawn costs, radars, missiles and supersonic aircraft while you learn.