So I’m flying around and looking at USA scenery mesh (mountains, valleys, etc) and even with the USA update, imo, it doesn’t look very high quality. Anyone know what DEM the USA is using in MSFS?
I found that USGS has a 1 meter DEM for all of the USA, I’m wondering if anyone has taken a crack at importing this into MSFS?
When I was flying Xplane, I downloaded and used some incredibly high mesh for some places (like New Zealand) and the difference was astronomical. Cliffs along sea shores were crisp, sheer and life-like. rocky mountains had incredible relief and craggy lines woven along the surface. Rivers were actually sunk down in their valleys!
Even in updated MSFS now, the mountains are all pretty smooth up close. So we know it’s possible to use super-high quality DEM, just wondering if anyone knows if this has been implemented anywhere, or anyone planning on trying it?
I’m looking for some also. Thanks for the link. I don’t think that the update 2 really says what they were using but since then they have “optimizes” for better frame rates.
We used to get better mesh for the older MSFS’s.
I would like to know how to compile them in.
That’s a big part of it. The simulator/render engine will round the mesh and make it look melted, even if it’s the highest LOD, and it will only degrade the further away it is. They discussed in the Q&A sessions about dynamically detecting this such that they can keep certain mesh vertices sharp and angular, rather than always smoothly interpolating them. Mountain peaks and cliffs for example. It’s probably on the backlog with a million other features though.
The mesh quality varies quite a bit too. A small hill at the local park is nearly exact, although it’s a pretty simple shape. Looks like it’s a 4m resolution area per the map.
They also said there would be more US world updates coming (this might have changed since then though), I know they mentioned three US world updates to cover all of US.
