When creating custom objects in Blender and importing them to MSFS2024 through developer mode, they appear fine in the sim. However, they only show up when flying close to them, a few hundred meters away. They actually pop out of the blue, while autogen can be seen for miles.
Why is it happening? Has anyone encountered this issue and managed to resolve it?
I should say that these objects are not complex in shape, so it really baffles me.
Your models really need LODs (levels of detail), which are explained in the SDK documentation. A quick way to see how LODs work is to turn LOD debugging on in the Devmode Debug menu, and see how the numbers change as you move away from objects. You’ll see that the ‘autogen’ and other default models have a lot of LODs, which switch in and out depending on the distance.
LOD implementation is quite strict in MSFS2024, so models which worked in 2020 require a lot more work on the LODs in 2024.
Hello, thank you for your reply. I think that I have now read the relevant parts in the SDK manual and watched a few tutorials. I still can’t get to see the objects I create from the distance, but I have more information now.
My object currently has:
- 2,248 vertices in LOD0
- 464 vertices in LOD1
- 362 vertices in LOD2
- 178 vertices in LOD3
- 48 vertices in LOD4
I assigned them accordingly on the XML and the SDK:
I checked the LOD debugging and I see the object popping up at about 2.2 miles from the camera view.
The strange thing is that the item dissapears/popping out when reaching a size of ~3.2. This is what is written in the debugging window, where the sudden popping up/disappearance happens:
Lod[3/4] Size:3.23 MinSize:1.00 OriginalMinSize:1.00 Lv:[178/426]The object disappears before even reaching LOD4.. and other autogen is still apparent for over miles. I can’t seem to understand what I am doing wrong.
The Statistics Profiler should should give you a clue to what is happening here. Normally it’s drawcalls which are the problem for me.
Your LODs seem fine, but there are other things to look at besides vertex count – you should reduce materials, textues, and drawcalls as well. You might be able to remove PBR textures at the second-to-last LOD, and the final LOD can just be a polygon with vertex colours, so no materials at all.
I’m almost too afraid to look at my LODs in the current sim, as I expect that things will get tougher with SU3.
Do you think that Sim Update 3 could solve the issue? No matter what I tried, it doesn’t work 
I did see that it was mentioned in the latest MSFS livestream, so surely I am not the only one.
I wish it was as easy as creating scenery for X-Plane because there the issue is nonexistent.