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Description of the issue:
Since the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, ground textures and the LOD (Level of Detail) system appear significantly reduced in fidelity compared to MSFS 2020, particularly when flying at higher altitudes. Terrain, buildings, and distant objects become blurry and indistinct, turning once-crisp landscapes into low-resolution textures. Some users initially assumed this was purely a server issue, but multiple tests suggest that even when the simulator is fully buffered and not downloading new data—indicated by stable bandwidth usage and cached data—textures remain degraded. The question should be why is the terrain in 2024 no longer as high resolution in the distance as it was in 2020? The mountains and landscapes look worn out in the distance, and are no longer as detailed as in MSFS 2020.
For some users, manually clearing and resetting the rolling cache has temporarily improved texture quality, suggesting that certain conditions or configurations may influence how textures are streamed or displayed. However, these improvements are often short-lived, and the LOD system still appears to aggressively downgrade textures with altitude or distance. As a result, cities, fields, and mountainous regions lose definition and look flat or “melted.” Even when adjusting TLOD (Terrain Level of Detail) to higher values, the expected sharpness does not return, indicating that the simulator itself may be capping available resolution or imposing dynamic LOD adjustments.
It’s not only a high-altitude issue—some users report that, at lower altitudes, textures also appear to be at a lower baseline resolution than in MSFS 2020. Others speculate that this might be a temporary measure to manage server loads, yet the lack of clear communication from the developer has fueled frustration. Various community members note that if it is indeed a resource-management decision, it should be acknowledged openly.
On platforms like xCloud, users with adequate bandwidth still witness blurry landscapes, poor-quality photogrammetry, and objects disappearing at relatively close distances, further indicating that it’s not solely a bandwidth or server constraint. Developer Mode comparisons between MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 at similar altitudes and LOD settings show that while the underlying data remains the same, MSFS 2024’s representation appears softer. Even considering lighting conditions and seasonal variations, the overall consensus is that MSFS 2024 often presents terrain less sharply than MSFS 2020, causing many users to feel that this aspect of the simulator has regressed and that the development team may not fully understand the community’s concerns.
ICAO, coordinates, or specific location:
This issue seems to be global and not limited to a specific location or ICAO code.
[PC Only] Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons? If yes, are you still experiencing the issue?
Yes, the issue persists even with no community mods or add-ons installed.
FREQUENCY OF ISSUE
Every flight, especially noticeable during high-altitude cruising and in external or zoomed-out views, but also reported at lower altitudes. Distant mountains, objects etc blur out very quickly, washed out and melt away, LOD system is way too aggressive and unsharpens everything very quickly and it is immediately noticable.
REPRODUCTION STEPS
- Launch MSFS 2024 and set up a flight at a high cruising altitude (e.g., FL300 or above).
- Fly over various terrains—urban areas, mountainous regions, and coastlines—observing the ground and distant scenery from both cockpit and external views.
- Compare to previous experience in MSFS 2020 at similar altitudes and LOD settings. Note how in MSFS 2024 the ground textures rapidly lose sharpness and detail.
- Clearing and resetting the rolling cache may temporarily improve the situation for some, but ultimately, textures still fail to maintain the crispness seen in MSFS 2020.
YOUR SETTINGS
- No community mods/add-ons.
- Multiple LOD and graphical preset adjustments have been tried, including maximum settings, with no lasting improvement.
- Attempts to isolate the problem by monitoring bandwidth usage, clearing rolling cache, and comparing lighting conditions have been performed.
What peripherals are you using, if relevant:
Standard flight controls and peripherals have no impact.
[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?
no dev mode-related changes resolve the issue.
[PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12?
N/A for MSFS 2024.
[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080ti – No GPU-related improvements seen.
[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?
Windows 11, Intel Core i7-12700k, 64GB RAM, Samsung NVMe SSD – High-end hardware does not alleviate the issue.
Terrain LOD in MSFS 2024 affects not only mesh complexity but also texture resolution. While that might have been the case in MSFS 2020, the difference is now much more pronounced. Even when pushing TLOD to 400 in MSFS 2024, the resulting image quality still looks worse—texture-wise—than TLOD 100 did in the previous version. This suggests a more aggressive or poorly balanced LOD system that fails to preserve the crisp, detailed landscapes users have come to expect.
The developers’ recent, somewhat vague comments from the latest Dev Stream have done little to inspire confidence that these issues will be resolved in the near future.
The LOD system is too aggressive.
