Paintball

[uv_halo]

Let's add a couple key points for consideration:

The Human eye is only designed to detect color in the central portion of each eye. The rest of the eye is optimized for movement and contrast. In other words, color will make a difference if they look at your position, and that's assuming you don't have something (a bush) blocking their ability to see your colored jersey.

The rest of the time, it's a matter of how much movement and contrast you present within their field of vision.

So often, yes it's a matter of how much you move and how you move but, not all the time.

Personally, I do not think folks should wear bright orange, neon yellow, or black and white striped jerseys. At the least it can cause opposing players to hesitate before firing (except those ***hats that like to shoot refs), at worse it can cause the opposition to disregard your movement when they think you're a ref.

In regards to ACU's, I found them to work great here in Northern Va in the late fall and winter (where all the grass and leaves have turned light tan and the wood has all taken on tones of gray).

[idkfa]

The best use of camo I have ever seen was a friend of mine who wore olive drab. It didn't completely match the local foliage/terrain, but he moved cautiously enough that he was damn near invisible.

[Melvin]

Originally Posted by dundadun

Huh, I have a 4x6' of this stuff. If I break it up into small pieces do you think a disco ball suit would be effective?

eh...I was thinking more like a cardboard robot costume all blocky but hyper reflective

[Harbinger[TG]]

Originally Posted by Crimson Death

These guys were about 20 feet from me and were looking for me. I was doing John Woo rolls earlier when they were out of range.

commando roll!!!

[1996XJ]

Regardless of movement, dark clothing is going to be much harder to spot moving through brush. When your watching someone wearing green walking through green brush, they go in and out of sight as the foliage breaks up their form. It is much easier to track someone in a bright pink jersey in this situation.

Detecting contrasting colors may not be your eyes main priority, but they are definitely important.

[Born4Evil]

Originally Posted by Chappy

I've gotten a lot of eliminations in my day that I wouldn't ave gotten if the other player had blended in better. Enough that I'll stick wit my camo and subdued Hawaiian Its not needed, and can certainly be overcome. And conversely, just because your wearing camo doesn't mean you blend in. But I'll take my green, Brown, and black over other colors any day.

THIS. Thanks for saving me some typing Chappy!

[Melvin]

I'll be ripping off this idea for kicks and giggles soon.

[Luckless]

Originally Posted by uv_halo

Let's add a couple key points for consideration:

The Human eye is only designed to detect color in the central portion of each eye.

With precision. You can still detect colour at the edges of your vision, and hunter orange is still going to stand out among some trees, but the big difference is that if you are focused on it so it is centered in your eye you will be able to see that it has a two tone blaze orange checker pattern as opposed to a solid colour.

And another note that has been touched on a few times here: Pure black. Pure black is rarely found in natural plant life and landscapes. You get dark areas, but the human brain can pick out unnatural blacks, especially in large patches such as pod packs and masks, with surprising ease. Consider what points you have stand out when you are doing up your kit if you really want to get as much advantage as humanly possible.


Camouflage helps you the most when you have gotten somewhere, and the opponent does not know for sure where you are. You're being still, blending in, and their eyes wash right over you and you go unnoticed. Someone somewhere else on the field starts up, moves, shoots, whatever, and otherwise draws attention to themselves, and the opponent locks in on them. This means they can either move up into a position you can ambush them, or that they are less likely to notice you when you make your own move.

Camouflage helps, but not as critically, when you're on the move with partial cover between yourself on an opponent. Bright colours, whites, reds, oranges, etc that aren't normally found in your area attract their eye, especially when they're flashing in and out of view between trees. It doesn't make you invisible, and it won't stop you from being noticed when you're running in a dead sprint blowing a whistle and cursing every other step, but it makes you harder to notice.

Where camouflage does not help is when you're running around like a mad man in the open, doing jumping jacks, and blowing an air horn while you make references to the martial state of your opponents father at the time of their birth.



So, can you play well and go unnoticed wearing blaze orange hunting vests with blinking neon lights? Sure. Can you do the same thing and be even harder to spot in camo? You bet.

[Justus]

My experience is that a guy really good at sneaking around doesn't need camo. A guy who's really bad at sneaking around, camo won't help him. But for all us regular guys in the middle, it can help.

If anything, last weekend I was reffing a woodsball game and one kid had on a bright orange sweatshirt. Scanning the trees, he popped out every time to me, very quickly. And it wasn't because he was moving - it was because spotting bright orange in the woods means I don't even have to pay attention to or process movement or shape. The other guys were wearing stuff ranging from jeans and grey hoodies to MARPAT camo. For them, I had to pay attention to movement to spot them.

So no, camo isn't going to make you invisible. And if you're good at sneaking around you don't need it at all. But wearing camo (or even just subdued colors) certainly doesn't hurt, and is usually enough to get a minor advantage.

[Mar]

since there are probably lots of opinions floating around, I will answer this definitivly: yes.

Ask the army.