LOD problems - Trees & Water

I think they downgrade quality to match with what consoles will be able to manage.
That’s perhaps aslo why they seem to not fixing the tons of bugs filled in Zendesk. They are working on console version for a release before christmas. They don’t seem to understand the true sim community is on PC.

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Exactly. X-Box release and Sony PS competition. “True sim community” is tens of thousands, X-Box and “ordinary gamers” - tens of millions. Money talks and it’s OK.

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sure, but they should fix things before release console versions because if gamers read about MSFS before buying and see how this game is alpha, they will not buy.

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MSFS goes beyond “the sim community”. Never ever , by far, have I seen such a hype for a flight sim everywhere on youtube, including from casual FPS players. Everyone. MSFS generated a massive hype for a flight sim almost exclusively on its next gen graphics and that is EXACTLY what Xbox players are eagerly waiting for without knowing what’s going on in the meantime behind the curtain…

Let’s use this to our advantage. Massive hype will lead to massive backlash. And it’s a long way enough before Christmas… just saying. We need to all do shocking screen comparisons whenever possible if we want these patches to bad buzz and put pressure where much needed. This is the only strategy that ever worked for customers in this industry, it has been proven before, for better or worst (remember mass effect 3 endings?)

Hi all,

I have the same problems. Scenery / terrain is just looking bad.

Below see some screenshots of NewYork.
Graphic settings everything ultra @ 1080p.

I also noticed that Flight Simulator is not streaming a single byte from Bing / Azure.
I do have no idea how to solve that issues.

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There is another discussion where I’ve posted the following information:
Another big patch, LOD still terrible

Let’s try to recap and please feel free to comment/correct so that we can try helping Asobo troubleshooting these problems.

Autogen LOD:

Description:

  • Synthetic buildings and vegetation made from a collection of generic 3D objects.
  • Building and Vegetation settings set the object details ranges (more or less complex representation of the same objects aka LOD).
  • Building and Vegetation settings set the distance rings where the different object LOD are displaying.

Problems:

  • Below a certain distance to the outermost ring, objects used to fade-in, now they seem to pop-up instead.
  • This is mitigated because they are displaying over their footprint picture found in the aerial ground texture displaying underneath.

Photogrammetry LOD:

Description:

  • Realistic buildings and vegetation made from textured mesh based on aerial photography of the real objects.
  • Building and vegetation textured mesh has different LOD built-in.
  • Lowest resolution LOD is displaying the farthest, then increasing resolution LOD are fading-in in place as the view is getting closer.
  • Terrain LOD setting set the distance rings where the different textured mesh LOD are displaying.

Problems:

  • Below a certain distance to the outermost ring, textured mesh is popping in over the flat aerial ground texture.
  • The LOD rings are smaller than pre-release therefore the lowest detailed mesh LOD is displaying too close.
  • It is often referred to as “melted buildings”.

Ground Texture LOD:

Description:

  • Realistic ground texture made from aerial photography.
  • Lowest resolution texture is displaying the farthest, then increasing resolution is popping up over as the view is getting closer.
  • Terrain LOD setting set the distance rings where the different texture resolutions are displaying.

Problems:

  • The LOD rings are smaller than pre-release therefore the lowest texture resolution is displaying too close.
  • It is often referred to as “blurry ground texture seen at altitude” and wrongly attributed to network bandwidth.

Analysis:

There is a single setting, Terrain LOD, which is affecting both ground textures and photogrammetry LOD, which makes sense when you’re considering the outermost ring where photogrammetry and ground texture meet must share a similar resolution.
The LOD distances (v1.8.3 and v1.9.3) are trading off distance for performance but they are adjusted to render objects at 1:1 zoom view in 4K (both photogrammetry and ground textures).
At this zoom level and in 4K, photogrammetry mesh and ground textures are displaying just the right amount of details to fill enough pixels on the screen for their respective projected surface size.
In short, the renderer is dropping some resolution and details which are imperceptible to the eye under a given viewing condition (zoom 1:1, distance to objects).
It is similar to JPEG compression which is displaying similar picture quality to the original at 1:1, but it is showing compression artefacts when zooming in.

What’s wrong:

The LOD ring sizes have been reduced since pre-release and this is affecting mostly photogrammetry and ground texture.
Photogrammetry and textures were popping in with previous versions but it was less noticeable because it was happening farther away.
Because LOD ring distances are now closer:

  • ground texture quickly drops resolution when viewed from not so high an altitude.
  • the simulator is displaying too low resolution texture too close to the aircraft and this is especially visible when flying over non-photogrammetry areas.
  • you can’t zoom-in otherwise you’re viewing magnified lower resolution mesh and textures.

A few solutions:

  • Decouple photogrammetry and ground texture LOD with 2 sliders instead of 1 so that each user can balance performance/details depending on hardware and preference.
  • Revert LOD ring distances to pre-release values.
  • If FS2020 ships with same setting levels for both PC and Xbox, add a “Extreme” setting just for PC restoring the previous LOD.
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Dude, with all due respects especially in regard of the quality of your post, I think you’re over thinking this.

The answer is simple: decouples every LODs and put a slider on each of them and don’t downgrade the graphics for all users. Restore back what it looked before each patchsince it performed nearly the same anyway and accept that some people may prefer better graphics than FPS or will sacrifice the earlier for the later AT THEIR OWN DISCRETION.

I don’t want people to suffer from this because they can afford a PC twice as powerful as mine and I can’t! No need to enforce people into higher FPS at the expanse of everyone! Hell… there was a time in FSX and before that where having more than 20fps around cities was considered a luxury. People with lower grade PCs like me, or an Xbox that costs a third of a PC beast, will not have as satisfactory an experience as people with latest big RTX. It’s a fact of life, let me deal with it like an adult do.

Downgrading little by little is the absolute worst case scenario that can happen in a game, whatever it is, and is a horrible way to deal with costumers as it is rightfully felt like being tricked and deceived, which it is, especially if you don’t motivate it and explain it at least.

I believe these are antinomic words? Regardless, thank you for your kind words.

It is an humble attempt to recap and classifying these 3 types of LOD issues which are different in nature so that others contributing can try finding what it is about they are experiencing and can try referring to these when they are posting bug reports.

Nevertheless, over thinking it or not, we share the same view: offering separate LOD sliders and restoring back pre-release LOD levels for PC users!

I took some pictures during my flight today. I think the sight is pathetic … Ugly water, worn mountain slopes …

Ultra settings, render 180.




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Sorry, it wasn’t meant to, my bad :slight_smile:

Location?

With all due respect, there are parts of land where tree’s don’t grow. Have you compared that area with satellite imagery?

Around the 3W5 Concrete Municipal Airport…

Did a flight over Stockholm today. The same place as the first day when I got the sim. It is totalt different, the LOD is so bad.

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Follow the money my friend !!! :joy: :sweat_smile: :joy:

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Compare two versions:

To see that in the early version the buildings were sharper, the forests denser, there is no spotted texture. In a word, the landscape was more beautiful, more spectacular, more enjoyable.

Please restore the sharper texture, dense forest, more beautiful trees.


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Draw distance confirmed will be improved on update on last Q@A, these was needed for higher altitude

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Dakar

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To me it looks just different, but not necessarily worse or degraded (let aside the much higher sun angle in the second image, weather and vis settings). Especially your claim, that the forests were denser (i.e. more tree modes per area) in the 1.7 version, seems to be based on feelings, not facts. If you count the trees on a small area, you will find that there is no significant difference. The details on building roofs on the second image are really less visable, but the higher sun casts shorter shadows, so there is less contrast.

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And what exactly are your markings on those screenshots supposed to show?

It looks exactly as it should: https://tinyurl.com/yc6rav2g

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