Destiny Weapon Zoom and Zoom Mods Testing - Everything you wanted to know about zoom
Summary
This post is intended as a one-stop reference for zoom magnification. An equation is given that takes all relevant input factors that affect zoom, and outputs the the zoom level.
Additionally, this research shows the zoom contribution of year 2 sights and scopes, which has to this point only been partially covered.
Here are two imgur albums showing an assortment of zoom magnifications at my testing locations:
Sniper scopes: http://imgur.com/a/o9so0
Sights: http://imgur.com/a/irnwR
Relevance of zoom
Crucible play tends to favor low-zoom weapons and sights. Lower zoom offers a larger field of view. Also, sights tend to trade off zoom & range vs. stability & handling. For many weapons this tradeoff is one-sided: you'll probably want a low-zoom, high stability OAS for your pulse, and not the inverse.
Still, range has become a more relevant statistic recently, motivating a deeper look at zoom levels. Here's an excerpt from the strategy guide, which indicates that zoom provides a direct benefit to weapon range.
Important! Sights Multiply Range while ADS
Don’t miss this tip: when you equip your weapon with a sight and go into ADS, the zoom factor provides a direct multiplier to the base range of the weapon. Equipping a 2x zoom sight doubles the distance from which you can deal maximum damage. Unsurprisingly, sniper rifles tend to have the highest zoom factor sights. Combined with a high base damage to begin with, this gives them the best-long range performance of any weapon.
For primary weapons, switching between iron sights or a scope can completely change the character of a weapon. You can switch to irons for close-quarters combat, and use a more powerful scope for long-range outdoor combat. Of course, more intense magnification also tends to harm your ability to fight effectively at close range, and you often pay a cost in Stability or Handling characteristics for more sophisticated sights, or sometimes even Range…
I undertook this project because I wanted to bridge the gap between the range numbers on weapons and in-game phenomena: damage dropoff etc. The above excerpt suggests that zoom will be an important factor for that research, so this work had to come first. While zoom is certainly felt in-game, nowhere can we see the experienced zoom magnification numerically. Also, none of the new TTK sights, scopes, or unique weapons were documented, and I wanted to see them covered.
Zoom equation
This is the equation for finding zoom on any weapon:
Zoom = Cap( b + s + c ) * r
where:
b = base zoom level, as determined by the class (e.g. Scout) of the weapon
s = zoom contribution of the sight/scope equipped
c = custom optics perk, which adds 0.5x zoom if equipped
r = rangefinder, which applies a multiplier to the zoom
Cap is a capping function. Each weapon has Optics min & max values, available on many of our friendly Destiny websites. (Example: https://guardian.gg/en/items/weapon/special/fusion-rifle ) If the optics min/max is 15-19, then this indicates that the weapon has minimum zoom of 1.5x and maximum of 1.9x. Perks on the weapon cannot push the zoom outside of these bounds. Rangefinder is an exception to this rule--notice the Rangefinder multiplier is outside of the capping function in the equation.
Specific values for these parameters are in the next section.
Example: consider a Perun's Fire with Red Dot-ORS1 and Rangefinder. The parameters are:
b = 1.5 for a fusion
s = 0.6 for ORS1
c = 0 (custom optics not present)
r = 1.1 (rangefinder multiplier for fusions)
Cap: the datamined optics min/max is 15 - 19 for Perun's Fire.
Zoom = Cap(1.5 + 0.6 + 0) * 1.1
= Cap(2.1) * 1.1
= 1.9 * 1.1
= 2.09
Parameter references
Parameter b:
| Class | b (base zoom) |
|---|---|
| Auto | 1.5 |
| HC | 1.5 |
| Pulse | 1.7 |
| Scout | 2.0 |
| Fusion | 1.5 |
| Shotgun | 1.2 |
| Sidearm | 1.2 |
| Sniper | 4.0 |
| MG | 1.5 |
| Rocket | 2.0 |
HCs had base zoom of 1.7x before update 2.0. Hand Cannons: Base Optics (zoom) reduced so Aiming Down Sights grants more width (in favor for depth)
Parameter s table for sights (sniper scopes split out to following table):
| Sight | s (zoom contribution) |
|---|---|
| all barrels: smooth, cqb, etc | 0 |
| all launch: verniers, hard, etc | 0 |
| Year 1 sights | |
| FastDraw IS | 0 |
| QuickDraw IS | 0 |
| SteadyHand IS | 0 |
| SureShot IS | 0 |
| TrueSight IS | 0 |
| Red Dot-OAS | 0.2 |
| Red Dot-OES | 0.2 |
| Red Dot-ORES | 0.3 |
| Red Dot-ORS | 0.3 |
| Red Dot-ORS1 | 0.6 |
| Focus Lens FLS2 | 0.4 |
| Focus Lens FLA5 | 0.6 |
| Ranged Lens RLR5 | 0.8 |
| Ranged Lens RLS3 | 0.6 |
| Year 2 sights | |
| Red Dot-ORA | 0.3 |
| Red Dot-ORA2 | 0.3 |
| Reflex | 0.3 |
| MD-Reflex | 0 |
| OEG | 0.4 |
| OEG Riflescope | 0.6 |
| Hakke sights | |
| GA Post | 0 |
| GB Iron | 0 |
| SC Holo | 0.3 |
| SD Thermal | 0.1 |
| LB Assault | 0.5 |
| LC Ranged | 0.5 |
| LD Watchdog | 0.5 |
| Suros sights | |
| SLO-12 | 0 |
| SLO-19 | 0 |
| SPO-26 | 0.2 |
| SPO-28 | 0.3 |
| SRO-37 | 0.5 |
| SRO-41 | 0.5 |
| SPO-57 | 0.3 |
| Omolon sights | |
| Spark IS6 | 0 |
| Torch HS2 | 0.2 |
| Candle IS2 | 0 |
| Signal MS5 | 0.5 |
| Flash HS4 | ? |
| Impulse MS2 | ? |
Parameter s table for sniper scopes. Since these scopes only occur on snipers, an additional column for total zoom is provided (it's just the 4.0 base sniper zoom + the scope zoom contribution).
| Scope | s (zoom contribution) | total zoom |
|---|---|---|
| Standard scopes | ||
| Ambush SLH25 | 0.5 | 4.5 |
| ShortGaze SLH10 | 0.5 | 4.5 |
| LongView SLR10 | 1 | 5.0 |
| ViewTac SLH20 | 1 | 5.0 |
| WildHawk SLS20 | 1.5 | 5.5 |
| HawkEye SLR15 | 2 | 6.0 |
| TacSys SLS15 | 2 | 6.0 |
| LongView SLR20 | 3 | 7.0 |
| SightSys SLS20 | 4 | 8.0 |
| EagleEye SLR20 | 5 | 9.0 |
| Hakke scopes | ||
| ATA Scout | 0.65 | 4.65 |
| ATD Raptor | 1.15 | 5.15 |
| ATB Long Range | 1.65 | 5.65 |
| Omolon scopes | ||
| Faucon SS1 | 0.8 | 4.8 |
| Yepaki SS2 | 1 | 5.0 |
| Condor SS2 | 1.2 | 5.2 |
| Aquila SS4 | 1.5 | 5.5 |
| Corvo SS2 | 1.5 | 5.5 |
| Custom scopes | ||
| Black Spindle | 0 | 4.0 |
| Hereafter | 0 | 4.0 |
| Hereafter, crouching | 6 | 10.0 |
| Icebreaker | 1 | 5.0 |
| No Land Beyond | 0 | 4.0 |
| Patience and Time | 3 | 7.0 |
| Queensbreaker's Bow | see note | |
| Defiance of Yasmin | 0 | 4.0 |
| Praedyth's Revenge LongView SLR10 | 3, see note | 7.0 |
| Stillpiercer | 0.15 | 4.15 |
Notes:
Queensbreaker is 4.0x (total) with marksman sights, 2.5x with combat sights. Note that it's technically a fusion, so that's a 2.5x / 1.0x bonus for each sight, respectively.
Praedyth's Revenge has a funny LongView SLR10 scope. It gives +3x zoom instead of the normal +1x zoom of the Long10. The other scopes on Praedyth's are normal. (Black Hammer's scopes are also normal.)
Murmur gets a 0.2x bonus to zoom in solar mode. That's 1.5x (total) as arc, 1.7x as solar.
No other exotics or fixed-roll legendaries have special zoom modification. E.g. Mida is simply 2.0x magnification: 2.0 as a scout, + 0 from any chosen barrel. (Testing is almost, but not quite exhaustive over the set of exotics/fixed-perk legendaries.)
Parameter c: Custom Optics adds 0.5x when equipped.
Parameter r: Rangefinder multiplies the (composite) zoom level by 1.1 (i.e. 10% bonus) for all weapons except shotguns, for which it multiplies by 1.05 (i.e. 5% bonus).
Optics min/max values not provided in this post, see outside references.
Methodology
The methods applied are similar to what was used here: link. Screenshots are taken from fixed locations (pushed into a corner), with a fixed aiming point. Image measurement software is applied to find the distance between two on-screen reference points in each screenshot. This distance scales proportionally to zoom--higher zoom, more distance between reference points.
With these zoom levels in hand, I then performed some black-box modeling to figure out which weapon features (perks, class, etc) were relevant to zoom, and how they played together. At this point I've measured 181 images from a broad cross-section of weapons.
Initially I used KLONK image measurement software. Later I switched to ImageJ, which was fantastic for this project.
Exceptions & omissions
I don't currently have an Omolon weapon with the Flash or Impulse sights, so those two don't have values in the above tables (yet!).
I have a Red Spectre that's not fitting the model. It gives 2.1x zoom for both the FLS2 and ORS1 sights. Red Spectre's a strange weapon, in that
-
it's had it's datamined stats changed / manipulated at some point, and 2.1x might be the real optics max value despite the datamined source saying it's 23
-
it's an auto rifle with optics min of 17 (prototype Red Death indeed, it's inherited the base zoom of a pulse rifle). This may be evidence that the capping function in the equation needs to be rearranged to something like:
zoom = [ min( opticsmax, max( b, opticsmin ) + s + c ) ] * r
but even this equation doesn't fit my Red Spectre. There are very few weapons for which the optics min/max values constrain the zoom, so more research may be necessary, focusing on that small subset.
The "Private Eye" perk is supposed to give +50% zoom when crouched, per the strategy guide. I don't have a weapon with this perk. I'm not even sure if this perk can occur on any of our current weapons. Let me know if you find one of these chupacabras, eh? (Edit: it does exist! It's just really hard to find. Will update once I get one.)
Bonus: enemy highlighting
Some year 2 sights highlight enemies. I have only dabbled with the highlighting mechanic, but here's a screenshot gallery showing some of them in action:
Enemy highlighting shots: http://imgur.com/a/vD03p
The conditional highlighting on the Signal is interesting. (Perk text: "Highlights long-distance enemy targets at optimal combat range.") There appears to be 3 distance intervals, close, middle, long. At close range it does not highlight enemies, unless they're unaware of you (see album. also, not yet tested in crucible). At middle distance all enemies are highlighted. At long distance nothing is highlighted--and long distance starts at exactly 200m. I'm pretty sure 190 meters is well outside of any scout's optimal range, but so it goes.
The LD Watchdog will highlight majors but not red bars (see album example). I don't have crucible images for it to check the 'charged supers' condition.
Special thanks
u/dosto_ for hooking me up with a large batch of sniper screenshots on weapons that I didn't personally own. Thanks again!
u/juliettgolfpapa for a Black Spindle screenshot. Thanks!
Posted Jan 15, 2016, 6:23 PM UTC · edited