How much should I lead from the indicator?

[lolequisde]

Hi, I'm trying to improve my aim in War Thunder (arcade) and I watched a lot of videos and asked persons and all of them say that you have to aim ahead of the lead indicator but I have some doubts: how much should I lead and should I lead the same distance even at close range?

[halolo39]

the lead indicator are quite reliable so a little lead should suffice, but you need to be mindful of your gun's position relative to the plane to land shots and the gun convergence. for closer ranges you may need to lead more due to parallax effect in third person view.

as a general rule for wing mounted guns try to align your guns to the enemy's wings so to have the greatest area for the bullets to land on, for nose mounted guns this isnt much of an issue so you can just shoot where you aim. for the gun convergence, this setting can influence where most of the bullets will land at a predetermined distance lets say 400m, at 400m is where you expect all the bullets fired will converge or cross paths. with the lead indicator which comes in at ~800m and shooting at that distance you could miss shots due to the bullets losing energy assuming no lead and parallax, once again nose mounted guns are not susceptible to parallax.

[Acidic__Thought]

It depends on the angle and speed of your target as well. You might have to aim in front of the indicator or even behind it depending on the situation. You’ll get a feel for it eventually.

[Hydra]

note that your target isnt going to be flying in a perfect line. you will usually have to lead ahead of the indicator based on where your target is turning towards