If I were Microsoft and experiencing server load issues with the level of demand that the new release has created, it would be an obvious move to try to reduce the server load and one of those methods would be to reduce the size of the textures streamed.
It seems that this is the case based on my side by side scenery comparisons between the new release and last. Hopefully this is a temporary thing.
After testing last night your theory seems more and more likely. All textures seem a little lower resolution than 2020 in ultra… but it can be harder to notice in some situations because 2024 also adds a lot of ground shading and detail.
As for servers, that is an issue with almost any Xbox Studios release when new. And seeing how they struggled the last couple weeks, imagine if they were also streaming higher resolution textures.
This issue tends to work well self out with time as MS figures out the average number of players and builds capacity for them.
Always right when a game is new and player count is peaking, and it seems to take a few days for them to add more servers if they are needed.
As player counts drop, a lot of these issues work themselves out.
Not sure these textures are meant to help with the servers, or an intentional downgrade for other reasons. A feature, not a bug. Hopefully they will address it.
It sure is server load issue, as far as I can tell. MSFS 2020 also had the same issue when servers were busy (i.e. after major updates, etc.). So hopefully this will be fixed over time and as the server loads are configured better by the MSFT team.
But you’ve got another issue with contrails ))look like only apu works on FL
I’m not so sure about that. 
I think this discussion should stay focused on the ground textures - there’s a lot of posts about photogrammetry quality which may be valid but that’s a seperate issue.
For the sake of the dev team attention it probably makes sense to keep this thread centered on the ground textures for this bug report
Definitely not server-related. The assets appear to be loading into cache correctly, it’s just the pop-in is utterly garbage. (See my above clips)
The mods merged the topics into this one so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Plus, I’m pretty sure both are caused by the same issue, which is a significantly poorer graphical system compared to 2020.
Yeah not sure! There are days/times that it looks crispier than other times. I hope they figure it out. Some areas are really bad, worse than the others.
Boss, you were having server issues and you were getting ridiculously blurry ground textures.
That issue has since fixed itself for you.
But we are noticing that the Ultra Texture Resolution seems to be sending lower resolution textures to users in 2024 than in 2020. This appears to be for everyone. It is just how the textures are being streamed.
Now in the grand scheme of things, textures still look very good, and this isn’t a game breaking issue. And things that aren’t texture related like the terrain mesh and clouds look better in 2024.
But it also seems like folks using the Ultra Texture Resolution setting are experiencing a downgrade of sorts.
And again, this isn’t a huge deal, more like going from 4K down to 1440p, both look great but one is clearly sharper.
This issue is especially noticeable at higher altitude since details are so far away and therefore smaller, like dirt roads, walking paths, and field boundaries. They look more jagged in 2024 than on the same settings in 2020.
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
How often does this occur for you (Example: Just once, every time on sim load, intermittently)?
Every time
Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:
I agree, the Vexcel areas are more detailed but the colors are totally messed up. Other non Vexcel areas are looking pretty often worse than FS2020. The ground textures are super low res… For exampleI was flying in the Alps few minutes ago, the non Vexcel areas were disapointing, looking worse than FS2020 (Mont Blanc and around). Even the elevation map seems low res… And I play in 8K DLSS Quality with a 4090 LOD at 400 and everything maxed out. The trees are still way too big in all photogrametric areas as well. Lots of issues.
Yes the blurry texture even on Photogrammetry is bad, road markings and parked cars are very blurry. I know exactly whats causing it all, the pebbles, grass and new ground texture detail overlay. It is every where including if you go on roof tops etc. It needs to be exclued from photogrametry and other great detailed areas and not blanketed world wide. If anything it should only kick in if you are on the ground and not meshed over everything. If there was an option to turn this feature of it would be great. Go down to street level on a road you will see the pepbles and gravel mesh overlayed. As you go higher it blurs the Photogrametry underneath
I agree that seems to be the issue.
I think in 2020 it was disabled once you got off the ground at a minimal height so they just need to reintroduce that here
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Description of the issue:
Currently, the visibility of grass, flowers, bushes is not adequate. Please allow grass, flowers, bushes to be visible in a larger area and further away.
When the user flies at low altitude, grass, bushes, certain types of small trees pop out of nowhere. These bushes, small trees can be seen and detected from further away. Currently, they suddenly appear, which is very disturbing and spoils the experience. Increase the visibility of grass, bushes, small trees at least three times.
ICAO, coordinates, or specific location: Everywhere
[PC Only] Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons? If yes, are you still experiencing the issue? YES
How often does this occur for you (Example: Just once, every time on sim load, intermittently)?
Every time
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What peripherals are you using, if relevant:
[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?
NO
[PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12?
DX 12
[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?
RTX3080TI
[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?
Windows 10 64bit
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It was asked a long time ago to separate the draw distance and LOD from each other. You should be able to have a big draw distance and a low LOD and vice versa but they didn’t listen.
@BattyPlains5374 You’re right, this setting option would be very important. It’s quite funny and very disturbing at the moment that bushes, small trees, grass… appear out of nowhere. These plants can also be seen from lower heights, not just near the ground.
I tried to find this setting in the CFG file and could not. Yes this is very disturbing but I guess this was done as a big performance compromise… Though they could do a low LOD grass and bushes (maybe in 2D) for longer distance. Combined with somewhat lower texture resolution than 2020, this makes flying low level pretty disapointing… Shame because they new 3D trees are a big improvement at low level (appart from their height that is very often excessive, as well as their sheer number)
It’s good that you wrote it. Isn’t it in the CFG file then? It would be nice to rewrite the numbers and enjoy the view of the grassy, bushy areas.
