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Hi Dakka, this question has been bugging me for some time now. My best mate and gaming buddy wearing pretty strong glasses when he plays and constantly misjudges distance when he is moving units. It's never very far, no more than half an inch on troops and about the same for vehicles, he has similar issues with determining template casualties.

I know he's not cheating, he's my best mate, but his measuring just sucks. I've played with him for more than two years and it finally occurred to me, could it just be something to do with his glasses?

Anyway, if any of you know if this is possible I'd love it hear your reply.

It could especially if they're not worn all the time

I wear glasses for distance vision, but typically take them off when painting/reading as they make everything slightly smaller

you'd normally learn to adjust, but if you keep taking your glasses on and off (or have bifocals/varifocals) or if you've recently got new glasses it might be an issue.

then again he may just be rubbish at judging disances, some folk are

Yeah, I could imagine that being the case, I don't wear glasses so I wanted to speak to gamers who did. He might just be rubbish, his are for reading so he wears them during gaming.

No, it's probably to do with how his mind judges distances. Glasses, even strong ones, do not "distort" in that way. That would create wobbly bits all over your field of vision, which would be rather irksome to say the least.

if his eyes are bad enough and the glasses were an Aspheric or High-index lens type ... (or any other type of compression to make the lens look smaller then it is) those can cause some distortion near the outside most edge of the glasses ...

Ah I'll have to check that out, although I don't think they are that bad.

Seems unlikely but if he has bad eyes he might need a new prescription for lenses.

 Jihadnik wrote:
Ah I'll have to check that out, although I don't think they are that bad.

i know the last time i got new glasses the doc changed the compression to make the lens not be as thick on the edge ... and because of that unless i am looking at something straight on ... anything through the sides or bottom is slightly distorted ... messed me up for a few months afterwards when i would go to play pool ..

SilenzZzz wrote:

 Jihadnik wrote:
Ah I'll have to check that out, although I don't think they are that bad.

i know the last time i got new glasses the doc changed the compression to make the lens not be as thick on the edge ... and because of that unless i am looking at something straight on ... anything through the sides or bottom is slightly distorted ... messed me up for a few months afterwards when i would go to play pool ..

I cant play pool in anything but contacts for this reason.

Good glasses or bad glasses don't make 4" = 4.5".

Sounds like your mate likes to excentuate the positive possibilities of what might happen during a game.

If its a fun game of something and this happens once in a while fine; if its all the time and/or at tournaments th feller sounds like a cheat.

Perhaps you should get you mate a tape with big numbers or one of those measuring templates. He might get the hint.

I've worn glasses since about the age of 5-6.
About 40 years now.

Does it have an effect on the way I measure distances?

Hell no. That's why I use a tape measure.
Although I did spend quite a few years working in an industry where 1", 2", 3", 4", 6", 8" and 12" units were very common and I learned to judge them by eye and that does translate to tabletop, too.

I think your friend has issues, but they aren't measuring related, but purely vision related.

My optometrist insists on testing me yearly - even though the test results will show the same results from last year (my vision is at a plateau. It is neither getting better, nor worse. Which confuses him - as at my age, there should be some degradation.)

Okay, thanks for all the replies, it doesn't sound like its glasses then, which is good to know, I reckon he tape measure with big numbers is the way to go!

One of my buddy's in our gaming group use to measure terribly so we all just gave him so much crap about it and eventually he stopped.

I wear glasses and have no issue with judging distance. But since 40k allows you to premeasure its not really that big of a deal.

I used to wear glasses and they did take getting used to. Everything seemed slightly off compared to without them on, especially just after a new prescription. For example, when I was walking it felt like the ground was just slightly further away than it used to be. The effect really only lasted a couple of days though and my eyes adjusted fairly quickly. I can't imagine it taking a year to adjust to that.

That said, I'm no eye doctor, but I've definitely seen glasses that can distort your view. This could be a case of his eye doctor gave him the wrong prescription, or he's too lazy to get a new one possibly.

That, or he could just suck at guessing ranges.

Nope, unless he has some specific visual impairment. I've got really bad shortsightedness and I've got distances wrong... cos I guessed them wrong, no other reason. Having not made a note of it and just reflecting on the past, I would say in fact that my distance judgement has always been pretty good.

I wear glasses - glasses are used to make it so that I can see the same as everyone else - they're corrective.

They have no bearing on how I measure.
Also, there are people with 20/20 vision who can't measure too.

I did archery for a while as a kid - I got glasses part way through the course. I went from being mediocre to consistently being one of the higher scorers.
One of me friends didn't like that - he thought my wearing glasses was giving me an advantage
I had to convince him that they just meant I could see the same as everybody else.

Although I love the idea of having a zoom lense and targeter built into my glasses

Glasses in of themselves shouldn't cause any distortion, however, if when he measures he tries to measure he tries to look past the rim of the lens, especially if they are glass, the vision does become distorted as the lens is more curved at the very edges, causing a double vision type effect.

 Krellnus wrote:
Glasses in of themselves shouldn't cause any distortion, however, if when he measures he tries to measure he tries to look past the rim of the lens, especially if they are glass, the vision does become distorted as the lens is more curved at the very edges, causing a double vision type effect.

Well yeah, but he'd see it distorting and would be able to move his head to stop it

 Krellnus wrote:
Glasses in of themselves shouldn't cause any distortion, however, if when he measures he tries to measure he tries to look past the rim of the lens, especially if they are glass, the vision does become distorted as the lens is more curved at the very edges, causing a double vision type effect.

Nope. You go from being able to see, to not. In my case, anything over 6 inches away blurs

 Krellnus wrote:
Glasses in of themselves shouldn't cause any distortion, however, if when he measures he tries to measure he tries to look past the rim of the lens, especially if they are glass, the vision does become distorted as the lens is more curved at the very edges, causing a double vision type effect.

Hmmm, interesting, he does have a habit of looking over his glasses actually...I ll keep an eye out for that...so to speak...

 PredaKhaine wrote:


...

Although I love the idea of having a zoom lense and targeter built into my glasses

I was thinking about laser eye surgery, untill I found out that it did not, in fact, let you shoot lasers out of your eyes

On topic:

I wear glasses, and they make no difference. You put the tape measure down next to the mini, and move it along the tape 6" There is no depth perception involved. As long as you can perceive the "6" and the end of the tape, you should be good.

It used to be that guessing ranges was important. But that was a skill that could be learned. I found that us older folks with bad eyes and glasses could out guess and shoot the younger folks with better vision but less experience. YMMV.

I wear glasses all the time, but swap to contacts sometimes.
The contacts have the same prescription, but do look different when in. I'm careful when driving in them, just in case.

So, it could be the glasses, but if they're the right strength, etc, it'll be down to perception and not sight (there is a difference).

If it comes to it, try using a distance stick, like used in X-wing. You put one end at the front of the model, and move the model so the back touches back of the base. There's no way to move too far, if the stick is held down when being used. If it has a handle on it, its often quicker than using a tape measure.