its been bugging me

[basra Bob]

in one of the preview videos you see somone go into the cloak mode thing (where you turn invisible), problem is the guy still had a shadow?

this would be impossible as there wouldnt be anything there to stop light going through and cause a shadow.

very trivial issue i know buts its been anoying me

[JerKinXx]

The cloak mode thing just turn your suit into something like an uber light reflection...
*cough* science *cough*

The description.
Mimicking ambient light and background texture patterns through a microprocessor-controlled, fiber-optic, DLD (dynamic liquid display) fabric, the IT-33 Active Camouflage System enables a soldier to reduce his visibility by up to 90%.
90% only.

[Silent_Ops]

i can see y it wouldnt make sense but also how it would its pretty confusing and complicated but all works out for a balenced experiance

[Mr_Mondo]

does this mean that people w/o dynamic shadowing cant see them

[basra Bob]

does this mean that people w/o dynamic shadowing cant see them

now that would suck if it was true.....

[Chant]

alright here is why it doesnt work, it only reflects the images around it, it is still a solid object, therefore blocking the sunlight from passing thru it, if you wanted to have no shadow, it would have to have this little skirty thing at the bottom around your ankles to also reflect the ground image, minus the shadow...


there's that scientific crap for you...

[Mr_Mondo]

me no like duh brain hurt duh you bad

[basra Bob]

it dosent matter if its a solid object or not, light is still passing through it so shouldnt create a shadow. Take glass as an example, its solid but light still shines through and creating little shadow except from smudges and the edge.

[Mr_Mondo]

the active camouflage is 3D and the shadow is 2D they're to totally different dimensions. so one does not affect the other

[CrysisPwnz]

Glass doesnt reflect light in the same sense an active camo does, heck I doubt anyone here fully comprehends that description of the active camo, by all means if you do enlighten us but right now its stupid to try and make sense of something you dont understand, especially making analogies of something really different.

[ReaperOfsouls]

It adds to the balance of the game, if people were totally invisible then it would be unbalanced.

[Splinter]

the sound gives them away as well.

[SQUiB]

For the active camo to work there can be no shadow. The whole principal of active camo is that all light that is blocked by the object is recreated exactly and emitted on the other side of the object as though it never got stopped by anything.

Let me give you a scenario. You are looking at someone standing on top of a hill sillhouetted against a very bright sky. For the camo to blend in with the sky and be invisible it must be emitting as much light towards your eyes just like all the sky either side of the person wearing it. This light will be shining on the ground exactly where the light that is blocked from the sun would be and ensure there is no shadow.

For the camo to appear as though it is bright without actually emitting any light is impossible and kind of stupid but it will work a lot better for the gameplay and balance. Plus this is all complete BS anyway so I don't think the realism before gameplay really matters here.

[rowdyman]

it dosent matter if its a solid object or not, light is still passing through it so shouldnt create a shadow. Take glass as an example, its solid but light still shines through and creating little shadow except from smudges and the edge. Glass does cast a shadow; if you were to hold a window pane in full light above your head you'd see quite clearly where the entire glass was not just the edges. Because it is transparent it lets more light through, however, most of the UV rays are blocked which is why you do not get sunburned in your house or diving your car. The active-camo is not transparent or even translucent. It's like a flat panel LCD screen; it shows the viewer the image of what is behind the wearer. It is not capable of transmitting the sun's 386 billion billion megawatts of energy and therefore leaves a shadow. If anything the active-camo is a light source itself and would cast shadows all around. If you have ever watched TV in the dark you'll understand my opinion.:salute:

[colony]

With active camo, your body is still an object, thus still creating a shadow. Your suit is some kind of LCD with pixels that mimic the other side of you from the enemy perspective

[SQUiB]

Glass does cast a shadow; if you were to hold a window pane in full light above your head you'd see quite clearly where the entire glass was not just the edges. Because it is transparent it lets more light through, however, most of the UV rays are blocked which is why you do not get sunburned in your house or diving your car. The active-camo is not transparent or even translucent. It's like a flat panel LCD screen; it shows the viewer the image of what is behind the wearer. It is not capable of transmitting the sun's 386 billion billion megawatts of energy and therefore leaves a shadow. If anything the active-camo is a light source itself and would cast shadows all around. If you have ever watched TV in the dark you'll understand my opinion.:salute:
If it leaves a shadow then you will be able to see the person wearing the active camo as a darker sillhouette against the background. For there to be a shadow the person in the camo must be visible themselves. If they are invisible then they are emitting enough light so there will not be a shadow.

Read my explanaintion above your origninal post. Although this whole argument is pretty stupid since it's all about something that isn't possible with current technology and isn't really even possible in theory.

[tw1g]

What's this "noise" it makes? Is it loud and easy to spot out or would you not be able to hear it during a battle?

[Muffinthief]

What's this "noise" it makes? Is it loud and easy to spot out or would you not be able to hear it during a battle?

It's a buzzing from the device.

[JustAnotherGrunt]

A really irritating, constant, screeching sound.

Not too good on the ears when you're using headphones.

[tw1g]

A really irritating, constant, screeching sound.

Not too good on the ears when you're using headphones.

LoL.

So can only the user hear it or can everyone? Also is it distinguishable during a big battle that you would be easily spotted. Or can you only notice it during a general silence?

[BlackCougar]

now that would suck if it was true.....

It's true, I can't play the game with shadows on, lags to bad and when people go cloak I can't see them. But people actually don't use it that much.

[Kradath]

Thats true, I have only seen one up to now.

[NiSsE]

I got like 120+ knife kills... cloaking whore :p and that's in 3 days of playing.

[CrysisPwnz]

Wow... I cant even fathom how you did that... the last I tried chased down a PAC dude for like 3 minutes and he hopped into a damn Mech and stepped on me...

[sumguyhavinfun]

Can sentry guns/accipiter detect cloaked recon soldiers and fire on them ..?

[Lugal317]

Active camo is something that would most likely never work anyways. Your suit would have to know exactly who was looking at you and from what angle. Then it would project that image back to the person looking at you.

For the sake of the game though, remove the shadows while camoed.

[Dyram]

Active camo is something that would most likely never work anyways. Your suit would have to know exactly who was looking at you and from what angle. Then it would project that image back to the person looking at you.

For the sake of the game though, remove the shadows while camoed.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak3.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak.htm

Note, though, that they don't use electronics to work.

On the topic of shadows since many seem to lack the grasp of why, here we go:

No matter what happens to make you or your suit invisible, you're still a solid object and you're still there. If there's a light source, you WILL cast a shadow. If the suit is electronic and casting an image of the other side onto the suit, you are a solid mass. If the suit is retro-reflective material (See first link), you are a solid mass. Yes, some solid objects let light pass through them, such as glass, but that's because of those objects' transparency. You, my friends, are NOT transparent, thus our need of a cloaking suit in the first place. Your shadow is the absence of light blocked by your mass. By making yourself look like the surroundings, you aren't changing the fact you're a solid mass blocking light.

Think of it as placing a light in a white room. Add to that room a white chair. Even though it's hard to see as it blends with its surroundings, it's still there and it will cast a shadow.

Understand? ;) Besides, don't worry about the shadow aspect of it, as it's fairly easy to see at medium-close range. You are a big fuzzy semi-cloaked dude. :rolleyes:

[Lugal317]

"Capturing the background image requires a video camera, which sits behind the person wearing the cloak. The video from the camera must be in a digital format so it can be sent to a computer for processing."

In otherwords this is exactly what I was saying. The only way an 'active camo' system would work is if you had cameras on all the enemies helmets so you knew where they were looking from.

See: http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak6.htm

[SQUiB]

Or we could go into the future and use the theoretical version that somehow projects light that hits one side of it out from the other side as though it never got blocked by anything.

Clearly the technology they show in the 'How Stuff Works' page isn't capable of anything like what the active camo in BF2142 is capable of. It would kind of screw you over if you accidentally moved your hand in front of the camera and you suddenly turn a pale pink colour.

[coolbho3000]

does this mean that people w/o dynamic shadowing cant see them

Turning on Dynamic Shadow would give more disadvantages than advantages. It's hard to see lots of things with it on, I would leave it off, even on high end systems.

[ReaperOfsouls]

http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak3.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak.htm

Note, though, that they don't use electronics to work.

On the topic of shadows since many seem to lack the grasp of why, here we go:

No matter what happens to make you or your suit invisible, you're still a solid object and you're still there. If there's a light source, you WILL cast a shadow. If the suit is electronic and casting an image of the other side onto the suit, you are a solid mass. If the suit is retro-reflective material (See first link), you are a solid mass. Yes, some solid objects let light pass through them, such as glass, but that's because of those objects' transparency. You, my friends, are NOT transparent, thus our need of a cloaking suit in the first place. Your shadow is the absence of light blocked by your mass. By making yourself look like the surroundings, you aren't changing the fact you're a solid mass blocking light.

Think of it as placing a light in a white room. Add to that room a white chair. Even though it's hard to see as it blends with its surroundings, it's still there and it will cast a shadow.

Understand? ;) Besides, don't worry about the shadow aspect of it, as it's fairly easy to see at medium-close range. You are a big fuzzy semi-cloaked dude. :rolleyes:

Exactly, could not of said it better my self.

[Donkey]

I kind of wished they made cloaking like Planetside. In Planetside it took skill to be a cloaker. In PS you didn't have a shadow. But if you moved fast or moved in the open people would see a little blob(sp?). But you could crouch or walk and move slower and you would be less noticable and you would stand out as much. So it took skill/patience to be a good cloaker in PS.

[JustAnotherGrunt]

It also takes skill to be a cloaker in BF2142. Actually pulling it off properly I mean.

Even the Newbies are getting very, very sensitive to any sort of noise or shadow movement. Get too close and cloak-out or something, and you're pretty much vulnerable.

[Vundu]

It also takes skill to be a cloaker in BF2142. Actually pulling it off properly I mean.

Even the Newbies are getting very, very sensitive to any sort of noise or shadow movement. Get too close and cloak-out or something, and you're pretty much vulnerable.

Yep some noob cloaked directly in front of me, walked along a wall and crouched in a corner last night. Obviously I got his dogtags :)

[Elinombrable]

OMG Learn to use the active cammo....use the building shadows,use it at corners,in a middle of a battle,in front of a mech or a tank (they arent going to stop and look your shadow).You shouldnt use it and run along de battleground feeling like a god because someone will see you and you will die.

[Deadeye313]

also, maybe they'll make anti-personel mines and sentry guns immune to being fooled by the cloak. call it infrared vision or something; but although I think the sentry should still get you, at least the mine should still blow.

[JustAnotherGrunt]

I think Claymores already do that.

No worries though, no-one uses them...or Grenades. :)

[Lugal317]

I think Claymores already do that.

No worries though, no-one uses them...or Grenades. :)

Thats just because I haven't gotten used to pressing "7" to bring up my nades... Wth is with that anyways... 7? What happened to 4?

[CrysisPwnz]

From my perspective cloaking requires no skill, I get dogtags doing the uncloak and dagger thing all the time. It just the same as how you would do it in BF2, except an extra step and you can camp... I play on high shadows to and you can still see a persons shadow even if they're under a huge shadow from another object, its darker than most shadows. Sometimes I dont even cloak, usually I dont do that wait in one spot and then knife thing, its pointless unless all you want are dogtags I really just use the knife when the enemy is unsuspecting. (Like a camper that I found, or some measily dude trying to get away from the fray not checking behind him as he runs down the path)

I just watched The sentinal last night, it kinda sucked but they had sensors that could see movement in shadows, so I guess if they implement them in the Accipeter and then Enforcer it would make sense, but be imalanced. The squad leader or support could be like a walking sensor :S

[Princess_Sparkle]

Thats just because I haven't gotten used to pressing "7" to bring up my nades... Wth is with that anyways... 7? What happened to 4?

I use the engineer kit a lot.. so my nades are always at 7, so i've swapped the inputs so when i press 4 it brings up weapon 7, now i'm quick-drawing nades like i used to :)

I still use my mouse wheel occasionally when using other kits.

[Lugal317]

Thats just because I haven't gotten used to pressing "7" to bring up my nades... Wth is with that anyways... 7? What happened to 4?

I use the engineer kit a lot.. so my nades are always at 7, so i've swapped the inputs so when i press 4 it brings up weapon 7, now i'm quick-drawing nades like i used to :)

I still use my mouse wheel occasionally when using other kits.

Ya I switched it to 4 last night and I'm doin alot better ;)