Disappointing mountain terrain (in the alps and many other areas)

Such an improvement! Thank you so much for this! Now I can finally enjoy flying in the Alps.

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thanks have tried, not really issues observed. all fine !

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Thanks for your explanation about the mod. About the mesh resolution with 1 or 2 meters, do you think Microsoft/Asobo could implement these mesh resolutions on the server side? I do not understand very well, but as far as I know, MSFS runs on Azure, and I think its power is enough to do such task.

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Yes, Asobo has all the tools to implement and optimize data with much denser mesh resolution. And they are doing that - every world update. We have seen a 1m mesh in parts of France for an instance. I’m looking foreward to compare this mesh with Asobos official as soon as they release their world update for Austria.

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I think there are other methods too to implement elevation data into the sim. So far I know, uses ORBX another method to implement the data, that shouldn’t have much impact on the performance. This method they use is most likely more complex as the method used in the mod.

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Hi, creator here.
Your comment is absolutely correct. My method is overwriting the elevation data by terraforming, whereas generic elevation data (and also Orbx payware) is loaded via the native .CGL format. There is a possibility to implement that as well, however, I tried to look into this for hours /days and did not make it work. So very fortunately for me and the community a finnish mate came to our rescue and invented his method. An algorithm is used to part the desired region into evenly split rectangles (which will later turn into terraforming rectangles) and the digital elevation data is is applied via terraforming feature of the sim.
Hopefully many people will support this wonderful creation and also chime in on creating new meshes!
Visit here: elev | MSFS Toolkit

This solution will most likely only be temporary until either Asobo updates their data or someone makes the CGL conversion work!

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Thank you for your work and your explanation here in the forum.

I mentioned earlyer in this thread the Zhangjiajie pillar like mountains.
Do you think even such „special“ structures like these would be possible in the sim?

(Here again the link):

I can imagine it would be difficult to get accurate data…

Best regards

Yeah, just taking a peak at the forum from time to time and just saw this thread and had to read it!

Its the same problem as with my latest release (The Italien Dolomites). The satellite Data is not suited for such shear drops. The sat images simply get distorted and thus look awful. No matter how detailed the mesh gets, if it looks like a super detailed blob of color, it does not resemble a mountain very well.
I think the solve for these kind of mountains have to be 3D scans.
Lets see what the future will bring :slight_smile:
Best regards :slight_smile:

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Wow, really nice screenshots!
If you feel so inclined you can actually upload screenshots to the user gallery on the mods download-page :slight_smile:
Have a nice weekend and I wish you many more scenic flights!

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You already have a few pretty spectacular screenshots up there yourself. I just didn’t find a way to save & share them - that’s why I just made my own pictures. Good idea with the user gallery. I see what I can do tomorrow. :wink:

Have a nice weekend as well.

Frank Dainese is the guru on that kind of approach.
He did it multiple famous mountains, including the Dolomites, for FSX (freeware) then went to X-Plane and I saw on his blog that he already tested them in MSFS.
So far he is not yet happy with the outcome of the tests, because of the baked in shadows, the way you have to painstakingly terraform the mesh to put the 3D model in.
So currently he has no active plans on developing them for MSFS. But that might change in the future.

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Yes I am a big fan of Frank Dainese. I really wish he could be hired by Asobo!

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At last! This problem has been listed as “under investigation” in the new feedback snapshot. I am thrilled that my biggest complaint has seen some light of being solved.

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Guys, check this out!

It’s pretty awesome! :slight_smile:

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Wow this looks great from the pics. I will give it a try. Thanks for the link!

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The height updates are great. Thanks for those.

But MSFS is/was to much United States concentrated i think. And the first big update also. But the rest of the world has te wait i guess. I love the rocky mountains and also Grand Teton NP looks awesome, but in the rest of the world there is a lot ‘wrong’. Yes, the sim graphics are great, but you know what i mean.

I don’t know, but i really hope bing maps will also regularly update. Not only the big mountain terrains over the world, but also the somewhat lower mountains and hilly terrain is lacking. Also a lot of sky resorts are completely covered as woods or tarmac?

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I tried Orbx NZ and it defintely looks really good. Now, how much did the Orbx Mesh improve the experience compared to the default Asobo/MS Dem, I’m unsure. Here’s a video that seems to capture stock vs Orbx. Hopefully, 5m or lower from Orbx in the future might improve things a lot more.

if guys removes snow and shadows, and we stay only with shadows from sun, and snow from clouds, this will best update what they can do for mountains terrain

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Why is it still listed as “under investigation” on the newest snapshot? I suppose it’s not difficult to find the cause?

The cause is the underlying mesh which is 50m in some areas.

Even the 10m mesh Orbx use for New Zealand is way better (though some people still claim “it makes no difference” so depends on the person I suppose). Orbx have promised to go to 5m or 1m resolution when they can.

There are freeware interpolated hi-res meshes kicking about which remove some artefacts but they seem to make the “smoothing” effect worse if anything. To get rid of the smoothing you need true high resolution meshes.

Here is a video I made a few months back in the Turbo Arrow with the Orbx 10 meter mesh. To me it looks way way better, but as I said many people claim they “see no difference” and that any improvement it is a placebo effect.

Also - a more recent video of the mesh in a less mountainous area, much more subtle but still a difference for me: