What are runway tears, and why is it a big problem? Runway tears are issues with terrain data loading too slowly, which usually happens when landing or taking off with a faster plane, such as an airliner, in an area of photogrammetry. I believe what is happening in these cases, is the plane is moving faster than the terrain data can load, resulting in a “line” across the runway where the terrain is uneven. Hitting this line can ruin your day, as it has physics, potentially resulting in a crash. If you switch over to developer mode or drone camera and look at the same spot that just crashed you, you will not see any abnormalities, because you’re now moving slow enough for everything to load. If you swap over to a slower plane, like a 152 and take off or land on the exact runway that just crashed you, you also likely won’t see any abnormalities, as you’re moving slow enough for everything to load.
Why aren’t more people complaining about this issue? Actually, they are. The issue is not amplified because players seem to think these are isolated issues related to specific airports instead of one big broad issue affecting literally every airport in every photogrammetry area. It’s also likely that players with real beefy systems can load everything fast enough to never see this issue. The issue has been discussed several times on this Forum, but always in reference to isolated issues. I will attempt to consolidate as many of those threads as possible here to illustrate the consistency of this issue.
If aircraft speed is a factor, why does it affect you when on the ground? Does the issue go away if you just sit there to wait for the scenery to finish downloading? I suspect that it doesn’t.
This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. It has gotten to the point where I experience crashes on the runway DAILY since my main form of flying is in big cities in the US in the A320NX. The glitch is present most frequently when you fly around a large 3D city and in a complex airliner (A320NX in my case). I posted this in the other thread this morning but I’ll repost here:
After around 10+ hours of bug testing I think I have found a decent temporary solution to the runway tear glitch.
You need to restart your game every time you want to start a new flight. I did several tests last night and realized that the issue persists only after you load in your second flight and onward of the session.
For those interested in testing-- restart your sim and then load into any big airliner (preferably the A320NX due to it’s complexity/CPU usage) at KPWM (an airport very prone to this issue due to it being right next to a 3D city). Take off and do a pattern - you should have no issues landing. Then, end the flight and load into another 3D area without restarting the sim (this time I chose KORD). Now fly the pattern again and you’ll see when you go to land this time the runway glitch will likely be present.
I did these tests both ways at various 3D cities in the A320NX and without fail (…so far) and have yet to see a runway glitch on the first flight of the session. I’m guessing there is some sort of memory/coding leak in the sim that causes this issue after the first flight.
So now any time I want to start a new flight I plan to restart the game. Yes, this is annoying and wastes time but now flights in the A320NX are enjoyable again. Nothing is worse than ruining a great approach with a runway crack crash.
This was driving me crazy but I think this is the solution for now. I still have yet to test this solution on a long flight… but I will test this next and report back.
I also plan to post video evidence of this for bug reporting. I have SEVERAL recorded flights where the glitch happened. In fact, 2 of my last 3 VATSIM flights have ended in a crash upon landing and running into a runway tear upon slowdown. How embarrassing and disappointing to end your long flight like that.
For me, it’s happened in the airliners, the King Air, and add the CJ4 to your list. I always assumed it’s because of the speed you’re moving down the runway, rather than the complexity, but I guess it could be either one.
The Op is exactly on point and I’ve known this for some time but most folks here are too dense to understand the mechanics behind it.
Most GA aircraft can land and stop within the area downloaded ahead of you and are slow enough that even if you cross a “square” it’s had ample time to download even on slower connections like mine.
What would probably fix it is a download priority for an airport area when you fly near it. If a terrain square contains a runway or taxiway, it gets loaded a bit ahead of the others in your immediate area.
I know this isn’t the point you’re making but I wanted to share that manual caching does not fix the glitch. This theory was tested and debunked in another thread.
What is your internet download speed? (Or, was there a lack of bandwidth when you experience the issue?)
I have a high end system as well but 5Mbps down. If I come in to land in something fast, I’ll outrun the terrain ahead of me loading.
Another point, this won’t happen as frequently on airports you visit often as the terrain will get cached and be pre-loaded. Thus you might experience it once and then not again if you use that airport again soon afterwards.
Maybe it’s a LOD thing. It literally waits until you are so close to load it, you run over a 2ft tall ledge before it figures out you are already there?
I’ve had it in A320 and 787, but I also experienced it in the Carenado Cessna 182T, so it isn’t limited to just the big and fast aircraft. My solution has been to disable the rolling cache. That has worked very well for me.
I bet you it can happen in all planes given the right circumstances. From my experience it seems to happen more in big airliners. Disabling rolling cache was another suggested fix that was debunked in the other thread. It didn’t fix the issue for me and a few others. Happy to hear it did work for you.
I’m sure I’ve seen it a few times, and I only fly GA. I have 200Mb broadband, and I’ve seen taxiway years like that which could shear your landing gear off. I don’t think a single engine piston is taxiing too fast for the airport I landed at to load. But I can’t know for sure, of course.
I bet you’re right on this. Probably depending on a combination of your computer specs, your game settings, and your plane choice/speed, and possibly even internet connection.
I think I can offer support for your findings. I just did two identical circuits from and to the same runways at KBNA. The first went perfectly. The second, which I flew WITHOUT restarting the sim, had a rendering crack that tossed me up into the air and destroyed the plane.
@CaptHawkeye50
Thanks for compiling the issues together into one thread. This bug is really annoying!for me, only turning off photogrammetry helped, which is a shame, because cities look so good with photogrammetry. I will try raising objects LOD, but i doubt that this will help to mitigate the problem.
BUG REPORT - VOTE HERE: RUNWAY TEARS / TERRAIN ISSUES