Air Traffic visibility culling kills realism. LOD not respected, graphics logic culls traffic indiscriminately

Bug Reporting Hub ATC, Traffic & NAVAIDs
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1

ISSUE DESCRIPTION

Also happened in MS2020, but now its worse. I have manually added the GAmod bgl files and airplane objects. Simconnect shows hundreds of planes as “existing” in the sim (e.g. through LittleNavmap").

Traffic awareness and avoidance is a key component of flight training. Yet in 2020 and 2024 the traffic object graphics logic is just terrible.

No matter the combination of settings on the airport aircraft and Air Traffic quality: Ultras or not, the any existing air traffic is culled by the graphics engine just a few meters away from the user.

Its impossible to see airplanes in the air, they’re just not drawn to the screen!

In Devmode, adding nameplates or details to air objects shows the objects in the air, but unredered.

This is a serious issue for realism. The user must be able to control the draw distance of air traffic.

Clearly, tree density and draw distance is FIXED and starts quite far away. So objects ARE possible to be drawn from far away.

Please allow the user to override graphics engine logic or pre-render steps to have air traffic actually draw (even at min LOD, or just even pixels) from far away.

In real life, you can spot GA planes as dots on clear days from several miles (3-4 maybe?) and their strobe and nav lights from even further away (especially at night).

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

always

REPRODUCTION STEPS

Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:

YOUR SETTINGS

defaults, plus:

Any functioning BGL traffic file (not the empty one) or live traffic.

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2

This is so true but the drawing distance logic in MSFS unfortunately kills it all. Objects in distance are not being rendered properly.

3

not the trees in 2024, they are hardcoded draw distances, i believe air traffic should be the same, and even further away.

4

I usually have to fly within 200-300m to see another multiplayer aircraft that is flying. Not a good experience. I wonder if it depends on what the other person is flying, and if there is no LOD models for it to display so it just displays nothing.

5

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ISSUE DESCRIPTION

Description of the issue:

I only see logo & landing lights on AI aircraft close to me, no NAV lights or Beacon lights, in the air and starting or landing traffic.

If applicable, which aircraft is experiencing this issue:

Every aircraft

[PC Only] Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons? If yes, are you still experiencing the issue?

Same with empty comunity folder and default AI traffic

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

How often does this occur for you (Example: Just once, every time on sim load, intermittently)?

Every flight

REPRODUCTION STEPS

Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:

  1. Start MSFS24
  2. Start freeflight with AI traffic
  3. Watch AI traffic close to your aircraft and you cannot see all the AI planes lights

YOUR SETTINGS

If the issue still occurs with no mods and add-ons, please continue to report your issue. If not, please move this post to the User Support Hub.

What peripherals are you using, if relevant:

Not relevant

[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?

No

[PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12?

DX12

[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?

RTX4080TI

[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?

Not relevant

MEDIA

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6

i was able to to catch core files of all Asobo AI model from VFS (virtual file system). I did test some of the GA models and indeed, LOD files were corrupted in several Ai models.

  • model.cfg files were ok.
  • They had identical exterior.xml files with the LOD adjustements
    • LOD0 10%
    • LOD1 5%
    • LOD2 4%
    • LOD3 3%
    • LOD4 2%

However, some of the aircraft didnt still work (dissapeared next to close range, were missing tires or wings next to close range), even that those LOD level are good for AI. So theres have to be broke .gltf (model) files. Today i will investigate, could i fix situation with duplicating LOD0 .gltf files to representin all the LOD steps. I did try to use only one 0lod value with one model file, but model was invisible.

7

Same thing happens with animals.

Looking for elephants in Africa, can see wildibeasts at 5 miles, as little specs (tested with another player parked at their location)

Elephants only pop into view at 1/2 mile.

They should be much greater distances because of their size.

Aircraft just popping into view 1/8th mile away or less, and hovering a few feet above the ground, then snap to the ground as you get to a couple aircraft length away.

Myself and a friend were using the Cownsim H-125, and its LOD was amazing, could see it far away without it vanishing and its lights.

8

I must say I have this too.
Draw distance of other AI traffic is terrible.
Flying on VATSIM using AIG and FSTL model matching. On ground I see planes without issues. But when I look up, there are no contrails at all on the sky. In MSFS20 I see contrails on the sky.
I am in cruise in MSFS24. See the traffic on the radar that there should be 3 planes around me within 10nm cca. Yeah I am checking from cockpit or even from external view and see nothing. NO contrails , no planes, nothing.
Again in MSFS20 I would already see contrails and planes.
But in MSFS24 those planes need to be really close like 2nm from me so I can see something. I really hate this and hope Asobo fixes this and increase that draw distance when we are in cruise to see other planes around me.

9

I think the LOD issue is for Asobo´s native AI aircraft models problem only. It is hardcoded to them. Modifying exterior.xml isnt working. But i dont believe MSFS2024 is using agressive LOD to 3rd party aircraft, but as you said in the ground they are ok.

I must check the LOD´s in the sky later today with 0.25x sim rate. In the sky airplanes are harder to spot because clouds and sky, but navigation lights make it better to spot.

10

It is using aggressive LOD with 3rd party AI like FSLTL…

11

Are they dissapearing in close range?

12

Additionally, as noted before, no AI planes or third party traffic shows beacon or strobe lights at night, so you really can’t see any of them, when in fact all of them should be visible from far away in clear air.

This is another thing that worked perfectly fine in 2020 but somehow reverted to not working at all in 2024.

13

so many many many graphics issues in msfs 24 :(((

14

Hello sir,
Sorry was not checking the forum for some time.
I am not sure. But I think there are some issues with other planes around you when in cruise. Either MSFS draw/lod issue. Or possibly AIG / FSTL issue. Or both. Not sure. But for example. MSFS20 sitting on ground at gate. See contrails above me. Was checking one plane that was flying around. I was able to see it till 25nm without issues.
Together with some friends we did some testing and looks like draw distance in MSFS24 is cca around 8nm maximum.

15

SU2 beta has fixed these! Try it out. Great LOD for aircraft.

16

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ISSUE DESCRIPTION

Description of the issue:something has to be done about the extremely low drawdistance for traffic and multiplayer aircraft, or aircraft in general. Its laughable low. Aircraft dissapear after 2km and some others before 2km.

Did you experience this issue before you joined the Beta?

If applicable, which aircraft is experiencing this issue:

[PC Only] Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons? If yes, are you still experiencing the issue?

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

How often does this occur for you (Example: Just once, every time on sim load, intermittently)?

REPRODUCTION STEPS

Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:

1.the description explanes it all.
2.
3.

YOUR SETTINGS

If the issue still occurs with no mods and add-ons, please continue to report your issue. If not, please move this post to the User Support Hub.

What peripherals are you using, if relevant:

[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?

[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?

[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?

MEDIA

Please add a screenshot or video of the issue occurring.

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17

it was an issue with FS2020 where planes disappear after using the length of a runway and at this point, theres hardly anything left to say but:

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18

No it havent been fixed..

19

What you mean. Asobo AI models doesent dissapear anymore in close range. I use 20 of them in GAmod (update im working on right now) and everything seems to be working. Only landing gears dissapearing but pretty ok distance.

20

They dissapear after about 2.5km for me and you can clearly see when they pop out and vanish. The distance should be 4-5km before dissapearing. Specialy at night the lights just vanish.