• You have to be
  behind the bush, not in it to get the camo value. This is false. In fact
  a small tank like a Locust can get 360 degree camo sitting in a bush.




• If any part of
  your tank is sticking out of the bush, you are visible. This is false.
  Your long L100 barrel on your panther can stick a tank length out of the
  bush. The gun is not a visibility check point. It does not matter.
  Likewise, if the corner of your treads stick out. It does not matter. If
  the midpoint of your tread stick out, it matters. If the gun mount
  point sticks out, it matters.




• If I am behind a
  bush that is wide enough I always get camo. This is false. All of your
  visibility check points need to be blocked by the bush.




• If I see the
  transparent bush in sniper mode, I have camo. This is false. You may
  have one of several visibility check points exposed. Commonly, the top
  one which is at the max height of your tank is showing because the bush
  is too short.




• If I am behind a
  bush, I will always be invisible. This is false. See the calculations
  below. Depending on your total camo and the other tank's view range, you
  may be visible quite a ways from the bush. This applies to firing 15m
  behind the bush. You are not guaranteed to be invisible.

• Cover - Items
  that offer 100% Camo and are unaffected by shooting. Buildings, rocks,
  etc. You cannot be seen until the enemy is within 50m. Note: Some
  building have windows on both sides allowing you to be spotted and shot
  through them.




• Concealment -
  Items with <100% Camo that have their camo value reduced within 15m
  when firing. Bushes, Standing trees, felled trees.




• Camouflage - A
  calculated value used to determine the distance at which you can be
  spotted. See below for details and calculations




• Firing Penalty -
  the camouflage bonus provided by transparent objects in a 15m radius
  around your tank is reduced to 30% of the original value.




• Draw Distance -
  a technical limitation to being able to see tanks and other objects in
  the 3D world. Maximum is 707m. It is a cube, not circle. Your in games
  settings may reduce this.




• Spotting Range -
  the game mechanics limitation to spotting, i.e. "lighting up" a target
  yourself. Maximum is 445m. SR=VR-(VR-50)*Camo




• View Range - a
  tank specific value only used for calculating spotting range, without
  any relevance of its own. No theoretical maximum. View Range is the
  theoretical maximum distance that your vehicle's Commander (not you!)
  can see. depends on the vehicle's turret, the Commander's effective
  primary skill level, whether the Commander has the Recon skill and the
  Radio Operator has the Situational Awareness skill, as well as the usage
  of view range stat enhancing equipment like Coated Optics or
  Binoculars. The maximum possible view range you can currently (v0.7.3)
  achieve in game is nearly 598.842m with a Patton and 100% Commander and
  crew having the Brothers in Arms perk, the Commander having 100% Recon
  skill, the Radio Operator having 100% Situational Awareness skill, the
  tank having Improved Ventilation and Binoculars equipment installed and
  using Case of Cola premium consumable.




• Server Horizon -
  Even with your draw distance set to high, dynamic objects (i.e. spotted
  enemy vehicles, terrain destruction, tracers) may remain invisible to
  you. This is because the server decides whether to send information
  about dynamic objects to you based on whether they are within the
  boundaries of a separate 1000m x 1000m x 1000m cube centered on your
  tank but aligned to the map boundaries regardless of your view point.
  Every vehicle outside of that server cube will always be invisible to
  you in the default Arcade View or in Sniper View regardless of your draw
  distance setting.




• Spotting
  Mechanic - To determine whether you have line of sight to a vehicle
  within your spotting range and will thus spot it, the server calculates a
  virtual vision ray extending from one of two view range ports on your
  vehicle to each of the six visibility checkpoints of the target vehicle.




• View Range
  Ports - 1) Static View Range Port: A static location on the tank model,
  placed on its highest elevation and centered there. 2) Dynamic View
  Range Port: Located where gun is mounted to the turret, dynamically
  moves along with the turret.




• Visibility
  Check Points - 1) Top, Middle of Turret (same location as Static View
  Range Port) 2) Gun Mount (same location as Dynamic View Range Port)
  3)Front, Center of Hull 4) Rear, Center of Hull 5) Right Side, Middle of
  Turret 6) Left Side, Middle of Turret

Notes:

• Bushes or
  standing trees within the 15m diameter become transparent in sniper
  view. This helps you determine your distance from them.




• No camouflage
  bonus is provided by Grass (no matter how tall or thick) or Player tanks
  (dead or alive) (Player tanks can provide cover)




• Once spotted, a vehicle stays lit up for a minimum duration of 5 seconds which can extend up to 10 seconds




• You
  can never spot a vehicle further away than 445m (A T69 has a 400m view
  range. Binoculars bring that up to 500m. You will not spot tanks at
  500m. However it is not useless as it still will be used to "beat"
  someone's camo allowing you to see them sooner.




• You will always spot any vehicle that comes within 50m of you, regardless of line of sight, cover, camo, etc.




• If you are more than 15m from a bush that is between you and your target, you can fire without losing the bush's camo value.




• If you are more
  than 15m from a bush that is between you and your target, you will
  likely need to rely on other tanks to spot your target.




• To abuse the
  bush mechanic, Start 20m behind the bush. In sniper view pull forward
  slowly until the bush becomes transparent. Spot your target. Back up
  until the bush turns opaque. You will still see the red outline of the
  tank. Fire at the tank. Congratulations. Your enemy has been shot by an
  invisible tank. You will lose the target 5 to 10 seconds after the bush
  turned opaque. Pull forward until it becomes transparent to re-acquire
  the target.

3) Camo Paint is added not multiplied



Essentially
camo nets and paint were worthless on tanks with low base camo values
prior to 8.6. Now all tanks get the same benefit. Because of this, TDs
were hiding too well so the amount of camo from trees and bushes was
reduced.
Camouflage and view range mechanics, formulas, and examples




Camo = Base * (0.00375 * skill + 0.5) + pattern + net + env (Pre 8.6: Camo = Base * (0.00375 * skill + 0.5) *pattern *net + env)




Base Camo = Set of 3 tank inherent values. One for still. One for
moving. One for Still and Shooting. Generally Heavy Skill = Average camo
skill of all crew members pluss bonuses from equipment and perks.
((CommanderSkill + VentBonus + (CrewSkill + VentBonus + (CommanderSkill +
VentBonus) * 0.1) * NumberOfNonCommanderCrewMembers)) /
TotalNumberOfCrewMembersIncludingCommander)




Pattern = if you bought a camo pattern for this tank that matches the map(summer, winter, desert) 5%




Net = Camo net = 25% after hull (not turret) is motionless for 3 seconds




Env = Environmental factors Solid objects like Houses, rocks, terrain =
100%. Semi-Transparent objects like Bushes, trees (up or felled) 0%
(dead trees w/ no leaves, bamboo trees) to 51% (Big dense fluffy bush)
(Note 51% was based on a calculation. Looking at the list below, the max
is 50%)
Examples:




Say our target has a base camo coefficient of 25% or 0.25 while standing
still. The entire crew of 5 has 100% Camouflage skill level and the
Commander has 100% primary skill level. Improved Ventilation equipment
is installed. Our tank is sitting completely inside of a dense bush and
has not been moving for more than 3 seconds. No camo paint or net.
The effective camouflage skill is:




Skill = (100 + 5 + (100 + 5 + (100 + 5) * 0.1) * 4)) / 5 = 113.4
Camo Calculation:




Camo behind best bush = 0.25 * (0.00375 * 113.4 + 0.5) + 0.51 = 0.7413125
Spotting Distance:




Now to get a complete spotting example, let's add an example spotter
with an effective view range of 400m (T69). Spotting range is calculated
as follows:




400 - (400 - 50) * 0.7413125 = 140.5m spotting range to see tank behind bush
What if the T69 was using binoculars?




(400 * 1.25) - ((400 * 1.25) - 50) * 0.7413125 = 166.4m
What if they had camo net and paint?




Camo = 0.25 * (0.00375 * 113.4 + 0.5) + 0.51 +0.05 + 0.25 = 1.0413125




Spot = 400 - (400 -50) * 1.0413125 = 35.54m (but you would spot at the minimum 50m range)




Notice the HUGE difference the camo net and paint made.