There is a FIFO system dating back to OFP in place it seems. The amount of shape visible at the same time was never upped with engine upgrade. Performance wise it should be a non issue to have considerable more generated. There are some community mods to script the same.
To bring the system up to current standards, there should be a way to tweak the amount shown - preferably by script for best flexibility. Otherwise a config value if needed (or both).
Ref: https://youtu.be/3ccg3oDHiy8
https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/204710-solved-how-to-create-footprints/
https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/206405-tracks-from-tanks/
class CfgCoreData footStepL = "A3\characters_f\footstep_L.p3d"; footStepR = "A3\characters_f\footstep_R.p3d";
The count of them is not limited, its not a FIFO.
They fade out over time and get deleted when faded out
For foodsteps (humans and animals) the time is
50 seconds for thermal vision or
10 seconds for non-thermal vision.
The time to live for tank tracks is 60 seconds, but it also cleans up if the track is outside of a bounding sphere of 20m.
So max lifetime is 60 seconds, max distance from tank is 20m.
If I understand this right.
So its not as simple as tweaking a number of "max active tracks"
But I don't see a reason not to up the lifetime to like double or triple the current value, and also up the range for tank tracks.
Hm interesting, so maybe something along the lines of
lifetime =
180-250 seconds thermal (if that applies)
130-180 normal
range = 50-60m
to throw some initial numbers into the room
Not sure how big of a performance impact that would have, but I think values along those lines would make it a lot more immersive when you're watching/ following a tank.