Effectiveness of TI (thermal imaging)

[gingertanker]

The TI shows hotter objects as brighter, so if the temperature of the terrain is warmer than a human, the terrain will be brighter. but you would still see the human because of him being in a different shade than the terrain.

As far as IDing AFVs, I think for a trained gunner at decent contact ranges (1500-2000) telling western and eastern designs apart is quite easy. telling the exact variant can be very hard but than again telling the exact variant of tanks (for instance T-55 or T-62) at 2000 meters with the regular sights in broad day light is not that easy either....