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Subject: the sr's tracer rounds
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Hey guys, I've been wondering this for ages and now I finally have reached the point of curiosity where I'm going to pose it for you all.

We all know that the sniper rifle has those nice, visible tracer rounds that warn you of someone who's going for a head shot (and missing). But how does the game determine where the smoke trail is? What I'm saying is this: You can aim your sr at some random point and pull the trigger four times. You'll get a couple smoke trails in slightly varying positions, and I'm wondering if this is randomly designated or if there is some pattern of where the smoke trail comes in relation to the bullet. Knowing this could potentially help one dodge a bit better. Anyone who can take a guess is welcome to!

  • 01.24.2006 6:17 PM PDT
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A contrail marker is attached to the sniper rifle's bullet. When fired, a particle spawns as the bullet moves. The physics applied to this particle cause variences in its appearence. They are kinda random in its effect on the particle.

  • 01.24.2006 6:22 PM PDT
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basically it follows where the bullet goes. thats all that it really does. then it might drift to the side if theres wind. i dont know the technicalities... but it would be nice if they had made it without the tracers... would have seemed more like a rifle to me. heck, i play ut tho. so what am i talking about

  • 01.24.2006 10:16 PM PDT
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thats what i said...

  • 01.25.2006 12:48 AM PDT
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the bullets aren't tracers...tracers are chemically treated bullets that give off a glow when they are fired so u can see them. As to why it leaves a smoke trail, i think, is because of the fins. Also they are sabot rounds which means that their shell shreds off during flight. Kind of what happen to the space shuttle Columbia, when it started tearing off its skin during reentry.

  • 01.25.2006 7:41 AM PDT
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The AR and 'Hog use tracer rounds.. the smoke would be from "special" chemicals used for improved propulsion, and laso for the ejecting of the SABOT casing from the projectile ...
Actually they put the contrails on the thing so that snipers would not completely rule the map.

  • 01.25.2006 7:55 AM PDT
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meant in a good way..

i don't think any chemical, no matter what it is would make a bullet go any farther. And if any gun fired tracers, when u were being fired at, u would see red, or green, or orange (or whatever color they are) bullets coming at u. I don't know about u but i haven't seen colored bullets flying my way anytime i was playing.

  • 01.25.2006 8:07 AM PDT
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Actually, there are different chemicals which do affect the rate of burn, expansion and etcc.. which equals out to making the bullet fly faster, which equals it going further. The military does do research into this, and over the years better compounds have been found that do the job better and more efficiently. Tracers are mostly a white- yellow; the Shots you "see" from the AR and the Warthog Gun are what tracer rounds look like, and they help a lot in placing long distance shots in real life.

  • 01.25.2006 8:29 AM PDT
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The wind sound in blood gulch is just a sound. There is wind, but it isn't enough to affect the "smoke trail". It has its own physics applied to it.

  • 01.25.2006 8:32 AM PDT
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Posted by: Chewy Gumball
The wind sound in blood gulch is just a sound. There is wind, but it isn't enough to affect the "smoke trail". It has its own physics applied to it.

Interesting; didn't know they even had a wind constant going on in BG.

  • 01.25.2006 8:40 AM PDT
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its kinda funny that they would say the sr is discarding sabot... because by its nature discarding sabot is incredibly inaccurate. it was meant for tank shells and things like that. basically its sorta like a bullet inside a bullet, and after the bullet leaves the barrel, the second bullet fires out of the first...

its a bit more complicated than that, but i dont have the knowledge to fully explain it... but it makes the bullet go incredibly fast, which by the laws of physics implies greater range (i could explain it but i dont want to...). the only thing is... its not accurate. so i find it ironic that they made the sr discarding sabot.

  • 01.25.2006 12:21 PM PDT
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I understand SABOTs. and I know exactly what you're saying... it's mainly because of the added interactions between the air and the external casing as it blasts apart. However Halo being in the future can use the "we'll figure out a way to negate that by then" clause...

Theoretically, if you can get the casing to blast aprt evenly and sychronized it won't affect the main proctile's flightpath. and you can probably use some sci-fi mumbo jumbo that isn't too far out to negate the instabilities involved in shedding the outer casing.

  • 01.25.2006 3:23 PM PDT
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whatever it is i think it was a good idea, its balances the sniper rifle to the other weapons i think what makes halo a great gamne is its balance of weapons.

  • 01.25.2006 4:59 PM PDT
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Fin stabilized rounds would be unlikely to cause a vapour trail, which is what seems to be formed (almost exactly like banshee contrails) because it's too close to the ground (and gravity, meaning air density is normal, unless something weird is with Halo... which is possible). It's not tracer, which is ONLY to judge where a shot will land (and only really used in fast automatic weapons) but probably just to make it not own. Which it still does.

(also, gas powered rifle just means it uses the expanding gas from the rifle to re--blam!- the mechanism so it is semi-automatic. The gas expelled is the same as from any other gun).

Stupid blocker. re-blam!- meaning to pull the 'loading' handle back and releasing. To -blam!- a gun is a perfectly standard meaning...

[Edited on 1/25/2006]

  • 01.25.2006 5:23 PM PDT
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i think he is trying to say c0ck. and i mean this in all seriousness in the way he means it. like to pull the lever back to eject a casing and load a new shell from the magazine into the firing chamber

  • 01.25.2006 7:06 PM PDT
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Posted by: vectorracer
whatever it is i think it was a good idea, its balances the sniper rifle to the other weapons i think what makes halo a great gamne is its balance of weapons.
Which is why they put it in there, as well as it looks cool.

  • 01.26.2006 8:44 AM PDT
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Posted by: Reaver225
Fin stabilized rounds would be unlikely to cause a vapour trail, which is what seems to be formed (almost exactly like banshee contrails) because it's too close to the ground (and gravity, meaning air density is normal, unless something weird is with Halo... which is possible). It's not tracer, which is ONLY to judge where a shot will land (and only really used in fast automatic weapons) but probably just to make it not own. Which it still does.

(also, gas powered rifle just means it uses the expanding gas from the rifle to re--blam!- the mechanism so it is semi-automatic. The gas expelled is the same as from any other gun).

Stupid blocker. re-blam!- meaning to pull the 'loading' handle back and releasing. To -blam!- a gun is a perfectly standard meaning...

Ya. the AR and the WartHog use tracer rounds.

  • 01.26.2006 8:47 AM PDT
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i agree with ur "we'll figure it out" theory.

  • 01.26.2006 9:55 AM PDT
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Also gas powered does not necessarily mean just using the gas kickback to reload. some wepons (usally very large caliber weapons, like mortars and howitzers, and etc..) use a propellant supply seperate from the projectile, so the amount can be modified to achieve different target objectives- so for instance the range finder in the SR is used to calculate whether more or less gass is needed and that is then pumped into the chamber behind the shell.

  • 01.26.2006 10:03 AM PDT

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OK, guys the contrail is for game balancing purposes. It's so you can find the damn sniper and kill him other wise he would own everyone on the map from his hidey hole. The sniper rifle is modeled after the 50 cal. sniper rifle used by the SEAL teams. This weapon is sub-sonic so it won't make a contrail except under certain weather conditions. A discarding sabot is used in the M1 Abrams tank. The actual projectile is a uranium-tipped rod (bullet)that is surrounded by a plastic casing so it will travel straight down the length of the much larger tank barrel(120mm). When the round exits the barrel the plastic casing (sabot) rips off and the projectile travels down range at 1mile/sec until it strikes the target. The uranium is more dense then most metals and when it impacts armor at a mile/sec it generates enough kinetic heat to burn throught the armor and the rounds continues thru. The round has no explosives, it kills by punching a hole in the tank and out the other side, and the change in air pressure inside the tank actually tries to pull the contents of the tank(crew) out thru the hole it created. My co-worker was a tank driver and said that the rounds made contrails and if you fired down the length of the gravel road the round would pull the gravel up off the ground as it passed, like a supersonic jet will do when it travels low over the water.
Very cool.

  • 01.26.2006 10:54 AM PDT
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how do u guys know all this shi t?

[Edited on 1/26/2006]

  • 01.26.2006 11:21 AM PDT
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Posted by: Iggwilv
My co-worker was a tank driver and said that the rounds made contrails and if you fired down the length of the gravel road the round would pull the gravel up off the ground as it passed, like a supersonic jet will do when it travels low over the water.
Very cool.


friggin awesome -blam!-. i never knew about this stuff... :D

  • 01.26.2006 12:37 PM PDT
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WOW I got a lot more out of that question than I thought! Nice, I've learned some really sweet info today!

I've always wondered why the AR had such funny looking yellow lines coming out of it. I always thought that was pretty unrealistic but goes to show how much I know. But why would it need tracer rounds if it's only a short range weapon?

Anyway, I guess the answer to my original question is that the contrails are random.

P.S. I've heard that Halo's pistol shots are affected by gravity.

  • 01.26.2006 6:54 PM PDT

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