ISSUE DESCRIPTION
Description of the issue:
In many cases it appears some combination of ground materials/objects, lighting, and textures are making ground scenery appear much worse than in MS2020.
To analyze this I looked at Leduc, Alberta, Canada, just across the highway from Edmonton International Airport CYEG. This spot has relatively good quality Bing imagery for it.
For example, here is the location pictured in 3 scenarios. I chose to compare both 2020 and 2024 from June at around 10:00 AM Mountain Time, for consistency in sunlight and to prevent the Seasons effect in 2024 from browning the ground textures.
I also included a comparison from MSFS 2020 in November when the sun is just coming up, because I think some of the lighting changes in 2024 are also exacerbating this issue. A summer mid-day time in this location is much brighter due to the higher sun, which can affect how the image is received by the player. You can see the shots in November 2020 look a bit better, probably because less direct sunlight is spotlighting the issues.
MSFS 2024, June
MSFS 2020, June
MSFS 2020, November
But I also still think there’s issues with the how the ground materials are beind handled. There’s more pebbles and grass visible in 2020 than in 2024, which I think are masking some of the texture. Without them in 2024, or with them applied differently, it appears worse. Example:
MSFS 2024, June
MSFS 2020, June
MSFS 2020, November
As you can see, MSFS 2020 in June with more direct sunlight on the area still looks considerably better than 2024.
Some more shots from different heights. I believe the problem gets better the higher you go, which agrees with my assessment its somewhat related to ground objects like grass etc
MSFS 2024, June
MSFS 2020, June
MSFS 2020, November
MSFS 2024, June
MSFS 2020, June
MSFS 2020, November
Finally, let’s look exclusively within MSFS 2024. It also seems like Seasons is affecting the ground foliage, swapping in different types. I don’t know if this is affecting the perception as well.
June, 6 AM
June, 1 PM
April, 8 AM
April, 3 PM
Once again the lighting is seemingly washing out all the nuance to the ground definition, you lose the details.
Lastly, here’s a look at one other spot I thought was really bad. This is the threshold of Runway 25 at CYQT, Thunder Bay.
I don’t know what happened here, I guess it looks like it’s using different imagery, but in my opinion it looks far worse in 2024.
MSFS 2024, June
MSFS 2020, June
Bing Maps Imagery (Bing.com, current)
I hope this thorough look at the ground quality issues can help, this definitely needs to be fixed as it looks quite poor in many areas.
ICAO, coordinates, or specific location:
Screenshots taken in Leduc, just meters east of CYEG Edmonton International, as well as CYQT Thunder Bay.
But this persists across the world in most spots I’ve checked.
[PC Only] Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons? If yes, are you still experiencing the issue?
Yes
FREQUENCY OF ISSUE
How often does this occur for you (Example: Just once, every time on sim load, intermittently)?
Every time
REPRODUCTION STEPS
Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:
- Compare the ground scenery with current live weather/day/time in 2024, to any almost any spot in 2020