Relationship between TLOD and Trees

Trees settings pertain to their resolution, complexity, detail, and density. It is mainly GPU driven.

TLOD determines how far out they are drawn in increasingly larger circles when you raise the setting, making each increase an exponential one. It is mainly CPU driven.

2 Likes

ah so the draw distance of trees is not affected by low, medium or high settings? They are still defined by the TLOD value?

As best as I can tell.

TLOD = How far out graphic details get tracked and processed. Anything over 200 is asking for occasional Main Thread stutters. I’d say the best processors can maybe do 240-250. But that circle of detail keeps getting exponentially bigger with each increase and will eventually grind even the best machines to a halt.

Trees = How dense and detailed trees are. This taxes your GPU and GPU memory.

7 Likes

well explained - thanks!

1 Like

There is a tree debugging tool available in developer mode which kind of describes the relationship between tree render distance and the trees setting, in nautical miles I think.

2 Likes

It could, and I actually made a suggestion to the developers about this:
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/suggestion-for-performance-optimization-make-terrain-lod-only-affect-terrain-and-ground-textures-with-separate-lod-sliders-for-other-things/509780

3 Likes

agreed it would be great to be able to adjust the terrain photogrammetry for example without increasing tree and building rendering distances…

2 Likes

Another thing which has been suggested is a dynamic LOD system where terrain LOD depends on altitude. Certainly there have been a lot of great ideas thrown out, but we’re still having to deal with Main Thread issues caused by Terrain LOD going on 2 years now.

5 Likes

Here’s the debug tool in case anyone wanted to look at it without having to launch the sim:

The “Tree detail” is the Trees setting in graphics settings which affects the density and distance multipliers.

I think Seb said that latitude also affects tree rendering distance, which I think the community already discovered before.

Distances are in km, not nm as I said earlier.

6 Likes

Ooooooh coooool.

1 Like

What chance we can have the trees (and trees only) draw to the horizon whilst buildings and PG reside at more manageable LODs.

I thought they’d suggested a vegetation slider was in the offing. It would really help I think.

1 Like

I don’t know what the chances are, but that’s basically what I suggested in my topic above. Except, trees can’t be rendered all the way to the horizon with the way the sim is coded currently. Tree distance is limited by terrain LOD distance.

The buildings and trees settings already affect rendering distance, but they also affect geometry quality among other things. In my ideal world, the Buildings and Trees options would only affect object quality/density, and we’d have separate LOD sliders for rendering distances.

1 Like

How far can a i9-10900k go what do yu think?

Because of all the Main Thread load, especially in the busiest places and airports, I’d set it to an Ultra setting of 200 and forget it.

But it is a fast chip so I would probably eventually see if I couldn’t bump it from there without stutters.

260 seems to be about the end of the world for stutter free play on the fastest chips with the current MSFS build.

400 if you don’t mind the occasional stutter. Even higher if you like to edit your own files, and don’t mind stutter.

But 200 is fine. I’d start there and only worry if the image didn’t look good at that setting, and I have a hunch 200 looks just fine for most folks. Like other Ultra settings. Smooth play brings far more immersion than a ridiculously high TLOD.

3 Likes

Thats true I have the i9-10900k and LOD current at 150 Will bump it up to max 200 ayy thanks for the info man your really helpful :100:

1 Like

I’m assuming these high LOD numbers are based on using mostly GA planes? Because with higher complex glass cockpits(Airliners like the FBW A32X) anything over 150 LOD, you start to get some stutters. Even with a good CPU.

2 Likes

That’s not what I am experiencing. I can fly the FWB A320 with TLOD 500, clouds set to High, eveything else Ultra, Vsync @ 30, monitor refresh rate 60hz, Max FPS set to 30 in NVCP with no stutters

Does your monitor have VRR?

what’s VRR? I have a 1440p Acer Predator, 180hz

1 Like

Variable refresh rate. Looks like you might. That may be the key to your stutter free experience.

1 Like