Hoping for some insights from the knowledgeable simmers out there. I have recently been suffering from coloured spikes sticking up out of the ground when starting the sim. I was advised that this could be caused by having the graphics Displacement Mapping set on. I disabled Displacement Mapping and this solved the problem. But this started me wondering: what improvement does this setting make in the sim? The description of this setting in the sim says “Enable or disable a detailed relief method for close terrain”.
Quite frankly, I don’t understand what this means in practice. How close is close? Which close terrain? Like runways? Ground? Mountains? Has anybody checked this out and be able to share some insights and hopefully screenshots that shows what difference turning this on or off makes? Because of the “close terrain” comment, I tried looking at a runway surface and the surface of the ground next to the runway from like 3 feet above the ground. I really must say i could not see any difference between having this setting on or off!
Any insight would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
I saw it demonstrated on a YT video and it was literally like standing there in a field and seeing rocks appear in some detail vs. just some rocky ground. Could be something that a bush pilot or balloonist may appreciate, but for most of my free flight, either GA or Airliners, it is not a setting that I need to enjoy the sim.
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Thanks for the nudge to go look online for this! I did actually find a YouTube video that shows the difference for this - and many other settings - extremely well. Can be seen here: https://youtu.be/0UqkBST8-n0 Seems to make a noticeable difference in the right scene.
Cheers
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Yea it is really meant for countryside (not in PG areas) and any other terrain like that. Not runways at airports! I think it also controls if the ground can be deformed by your tyres, such as on sand and mud – making a groove in the ground as you roll over it which is also really neat.
But as that video shows very well it is a massive improvement given the right surface!
Re: The spikes you mention. Are you in VR? That is a bug caused by not having the same Displacement Mapping setting in VR and the normal (2D) graphic settings. If you have them both ON it is fine (or both OFF).
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Never done VR. So just in case I checked VR settings and Displacement Mapping was off. So I turned it on both in 2D and VR and I had the spikes again. Turned both off and all of a sudden it was a struggle again but after a few clearing of the rolling cache and restarts it worked OK again. Just seems very unstable.
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