Ground textures are blurry, LOD System is too aggressive, and Loss of Detail in 2024 - streamed scenery looks worse than 2020

[nenenui]

@JalopyJetsam

Dynamic setting is off. I have tried it on, at 30, 60, 120 etc. no difference either.

I have seen similar places.

Usually I stop my drone cam … and wait in place to watch if something will change if I allow time to make progress on some static data (texture) downloads.

My feeling is, that FS2024 might have similar caching bugs like FS2020. In FS2020 it could be triggered by a very rapid movement of a (drone) camera.

I suspect what happened in FS2020 and might exist in a similar form in FS2024 is something like this:

• Camera moves to a position
• 3D rendering needs to define a 3D mesh and texture for that place
• A low res texture was just downloaded … because the cam was approaching that place
• Now a high res texture is requested from the server
• … but in the meantime an extrapolation of the low res is used … until the better res arrives
• and somehow … that better res never replaces the low res for that location
  • … because the system now remembers the extrapolated “low res” as the cached “high res”

In FS2020 no amount of waiting could heal that display bug. The only solution was to move far away … get the 3D data purged from the GPU … and then come back to that location.

Perhaps the more “aggressive” caching in FS2024 adds a new flavour to this kind of bug.

A “bad cache” overrides “the truth”.

I could clean my cache to test this idea … but so far I was too lazy.

PS: I have a number of places on Maui and Lana’i where I can clearly see a “line” where low res ground meets high res ground. And that clearly is not FPS etc. related. All data by now comes from the Rolling Cache. Here is one location … and on the very right, if you look closely, you can see a sharp line where the level of details changes:

[BlackFleib]

Been cleaning my Cache multiple times already. No difference at all, it always looked the same.

[twenty4fan9O]

same on my end xbox x. rolling cache settings doesnt matter and reinstall doesnt help either

[twenty4fan9O]

yeah pretty poor. go over the Bahamas and the water looks just as bad in some spots.

again- how did all of this get missed with 1.5 yrs post announcement

[LeafBolt8]

Status on xCloud on a laptop:

• Gaining distance and altitude makes the texture really blurry.
• The scenery texture is more blurry under the plane than the side views.
• Objects disappear within a short distance.

Note: I have an 80mbps connection!

Please give XBOX Cloud Gaming users justice!

[Foxhound6050]

It’s the same issue for PC users

[Jeffsim6956]

I think Xbox has an extra problem of dynamic settings probably lowering LOD when the game gets demanding in airliners

PC does not have that because you can disable that setting

However it’s clear that the base textures on PC are still low resolution in many spots even at LOD 400

[SimSoaringClub]

Flying out of Nelson, New Zealand. I’m honestly speechless.

Feels like I’m flying FSX.

[Foxhound6050]

even the clouds are bad quality, i really don’t understand what they did

[ToriDadriel]

So I have been playing around with dev modes of both sims. And from there it is pretty clear that the zoom level that is loaded is the same for both sims. So the underlying data is fine and has the same details on both sides.

Here you have an example of random area in Brasil north-east of Rio.

MSFS2024 (TLOD 400 at 25000ft):

Resulting level for the tile is 15 as you can see where I marked it, if I try to lget higher zoom level it says not streamed.

MSFS2020 (also TLOD 400, slightly below 25000ft):

Managed to find the exact same tile, also 15 is the highest I get here.

Also when I look closer even in 2020 the tile doesn’t look all that great…

So what’s actually going on? Besides some clear streaming issues and LODs limited due to performance heavy ini planes, I also agree with the general feel that it looks a bit softer on the ground than in the old sim.

But I thought back at another hot topic of weather in career which in the end just came down to the time of the year. And tried something similar here:

Different location, this time over the US southwest. But at least to me the summer ground looks more defined and sharper. Which really should not be surprising, as most photographers know, higher sun equals harsher light with deeper contrasts. Which is exactly what we perceive as sharpness up to a certain extent.

Also tried the same experiment over Germany where the results are similar. Might actually even better at showing, that it is the whole picture that appears softer.

So maybe it’s just the community being startled by the initial loading problems, that clearly still persist for some people, and then started chasing geese? Aided by a lighting engine, which is now much better a depicting the subtle differences in lighting conditions throughout the day and year? Because I think, unless one starts really pixelpeeping from high altitudes, it does look just fine if the streaming does its job.

And just concluding with a random picture from my current career flight, I really like these vistas. Because at reasonable zoom they just look much better than what the old sim managed.

[SimSoaringClub]

If you look at comparisons like this one it’s quite clear that we have a bigger issue, than soft lighting during different seasons.

[ToriDadriel]

I have seen the comparisons. And I still stand by my point, because they either display clear signs of data streaming problems or dynamic detail in action. Especially the comparison with the beluga vs GA was taken on XBox, where the dynamic setting is always active.

And on the other hand I have four years of screenshots showing, that even the old sim doesn’t always look great

Like these mountains here.

Or something like this

In this one, I grant that it might be slightly sharper under the plane, but it is also lower altitude. But even in the mid-distance it also becomes a muddy mess.

I still have to see a proper comparison old vs new, at a zoom level that is not pixel peeping to show me that there is really a huge difference.

[PSVwally]

flying with towers of clouds, but never catch them…

[Foxhound6050]

omg what a mess, horrible horrible !!!

[SimSoaringClub]

Mt Cook, New Zealand

2020

2024

Same graphic settings and same date/time in the sim.

What I’m seeing is:

• Lower quality of the aerial imagery in 2024
• Lower resolution of the aerial imagery in 2024

Side by side

You really don’t have to be pixel peeping here.

I’m hoping this is just an issue on my end.
But I’m really afraid it’s not.

10900k, rtx 3090, 32 gb
500 mbit connection

Settings ultra 4K HDR
TLOD 300

The image compression when uploading to the forum doesn’t help in these comparisons. It’s even more obvious when looking at it in 4k.

[WellREDBarron]

What FPS are you getting?

[SimSoaringClub]

80-100 fps in 2020
Slightly less in 2024

Dlss quality + frame gen

[WellREDBarron]

This might seem counterintuitive but Dynamic Settings might help a little. You can set a target of 60 FPS and any time you are above that target, you will get the most LOD your system can handle while maintaining at or above your target FPS.

So set the FPS, then crank Terrain and Object LOD.

Or just play with 400 TLOD without Dynamic Settings to test it. I do find it helps with distant mountain detail, but I am not sure if it would help you any in this case. But in general, it does keep distant mountains sharper and in focus.

Those textures look different enough I wonder if they aren’t entirely different satellite photos. That makes this comparison difficult because some terrain always looks better and other terrain worse when new photos are taken. In any case, there are things I like about both engines.

IME on Ultra Texture Settings, the streamed textures have been about 1/2 the resolution I tend to get from 2020. Just a little fuzzier. The Q&A hinted that this is a bandwidth issue, and the bug has been logged, so hopefully we see better textures soon.

For now, you might as well see how much you can get from your LOD, and maybe appreciate the various seasons and stuff, as looking for cases where 2020 looks better could become an overwhelmingly depressing hobby , and 2024 looks quite nice too if you get the most from it. The improved lighting, shadows, and geometry can be quite good when it all comes together.

[SimSoaringClub]

I appreciate your suggestions, but i’ve already tried TLOD 400 and it’s not the solution to this issue.

I’m considering a complete reinstall at this point.

[WellREDBarron]

I see signs of data streaming issues on the left side of your 2024 pic especially.

I often pause and watch tiles of textures slowly load in.

Is this a uniquely bad scenario or is this all the time and everywhere? Do you always get these results in that same location?