SU5 graphics quality

[RebuffedBee9595]

A summary of my current graphical issues as a VR user on a high end machine, ranked in order of personal annoyance:

1. Nearby and distant building and tree pop in on head move - very immersion breaking in VR. Widely acknowledged with clear examples in the bug thread, hopefully to be fixed in next update
2. Anti-Aliasing issues - Strong aliasing on overlay windows and in game shimmering on buildings in the medium and far distance, particularly towards the sun. Aliasing on EFIS such as the A320 displays. I am on Quest 2 at native resolution and 100 render scale and cannot seem to remove this no matter what settings. This is widely reported in the bug thread but no acknowledgement from the devs yet. I suspect the sharpening filter may be causing this but am not an expert. Since release I have also had aliasing on thin objects such as masts.
3. Generally washed out / over exposed image. I can get around this slightly by running my Quest 2 through virtual desktop and adjusting the gamma, but it is still not ideal and for those who cannot do this it has a large impact on perceived image quality.
4. Potentially increased checkerboarding/frustrum culling of terrain on head move, particularly on airport and water textures and on SteamVR runtime. I am still experimenting with this, and I cannot be certain that SU5 caused this.
5. I perceive a general reduction in lighting/shadow quality which results in a slightly more cartoony look to the terrain and buildings. I cannot revert to SU4 to compare but my guess is there was more variation to the terrain lighting due to interactions with clouds, giving a more realistic lighting effect. However this all may be simply due to 3) above.

I am very glad that more people can enjoy MSFS due to the performance improvements. And even from a selfish level it is good as it means more money into the industry and more content. However for users who played in VR with a high end PC (in my case bought specifically for MSFS!), we do not benefit from the performance improvement but do suffer the above problems.

EDIT I also forgot, in no particular order:
-Water Reflections - broken in VR since SU5, they will dance around if you move your head even slightly.
-Morphing terrain - mountain areas popping up and down at much closer range than previously
-Airport objects such as taxi markers loading at close range despite sliders at 200

[CodeLoran69]

FYI I use a workaround for point 1, pop-in, by creating a ramdisk of 4,5GB at Windows boot, and setting a Rolling cache of 4GB on it , R:\Temp, R is the default letter for the ImDisk tool I used. More information here, really easy to set : RollingCache revisited, essential now with the aggressive culling - #13 by SvenZ

It’s a temp solution until devs fix it. Pop-in is greatly reduced, nearly invisible.

And just change a little your conclusion as it’s machine dependent : I have a big benefit with SU5 optimization on CPU and GPU side as I’m now able to raise all my VR settings including Render Scale from 70 to 80%, Clouds at ultra, etc. and still keep my 45fps locked ASW OFF

Saying that, I agree will all the rest of your post

[PHSepp796]

This is what tricker me to say what i want to say what i have on my mind on this downgrade and xbox talk.

In the first place i’m still very happy with this simulator/ game because for me it is usable in both ways, i think or like to think the sim adapts by how you fly, if its my imatination thats fine by me.

But the thing i absolutely dont like is the fact that Microsoft/Asobo decide for many who bought new high end pc systems that it must be port over to run on a gameconsole xbox.
THIS TO ME IS THE REAL DOWNGRADE, and i do not see the benefit for pc users, to develop a game through the pc user community, and the make a face behind the scènes to those users by devaluate their piece of property value which could have bought them sort of like 10 or 12 xbox xes for the same amount of money.

So i trust Microsoft/Asobo realise this as well, and now that the xbox project has seems succesfull, i hope they go back to the track for pc and start with pc devellopment again.

Sincere

Sebastiaan

[TwoSuitz]

@anon17491698

I couldn’t care less what it looks like on XBox. We had an absolutely gorgeous simulator for PC and they ruined it. I don’t care how or why, but it needs to be fixed.

Can you please tell me where the images shown below are ‘ruined’?

(Images taken just now)

[TidalPopcorn618]

Personally I do not expect miracles of the VR yet, they pretty much only implemented it and there has not been much optimizations let alone other work done on it since it was launched. Quite honestly, I am rather surprised it runs as well as it does on so many headsets.

Now that the SU5 with the massive code updates to the core game is done to improve the overall performance, I would slowly start expecting more attention to VR.

I really would like to see an example of what the washed out image looks like. I maybe having it as well, just don’t know about it.

[CodeLoran69]

From those nice pictures the only thing which bother me is the menu up arrow. If you focus on it all the time you can possibly start to be crazy and go back to other sims

[CodeLoran69]

Washed out depend time of the day and sun position. Around midday the light is too strong, really. But on other times you can have some great quality and colors.

[TidalPopcorn618]

Really nice pics. My sim is nowhere near that pretty, running just on 1080p monitor! Can’t wait for the GC scalper prices finally to come down so I can get me a 3080, also for VR!

[KevyKevTPA]

@CodeLoran69

From those nice pictures the only thing which bother me is the menu up arrow.

You can use this mod to make that go away. It’s su5 compatible, and I can personally attest that it works as advertised. I don’t know how long it will be necessary, as that is a “bug” that might be fixed as soon as next Tuesday, but it was driving me nuts so I handled it.

No pun intended.

[CptLucky8]

@TidalPopcorn618

the claims of graphical degradation were true

@TidalPopcorn618

these new engines are so much better

Cutting a full sentence to make someone saying the contrary is convenient. I’d appreciate you to consider quoting my sentences in full so that we can keep a sane and constructive dialogue.

[TidalPopcorn618]

Ah, I see… yes, I tend to set the time in VR when I fly VFR to morning or afternoon, also I like to fly mostly with scattered clouds and the vistas are generally nice.

[TidalPopcorn618]

Which headset are you using?

[TidalPopcorn618]

My intention was not to make you say the contrary, my apologies, just to counter the argument that majority are experiencing huge degradation in the quality of graphics. I quoted the bit because it illustrated perfectly the allegation in your post that I were thinking majority were delusional.

[GentlestCurve98]

@KevyKevTPA

Not to mention that the truck that was the subject of that photo that “proves massive downgrades” is such a tiny part …

Thank you so much for mentioning me so lovingly in your post regarding the ridiculous image and statement “massive downgrade” and other funny things in konsens.

I would like to write a few things about this.
The original picture is not from me and appeared in full glory before the hotfix here, in other forums and on Campag.org (the link in question was obviously removed by the moderation here in the forum.) This was mainly about the extreme overexposure (which Incidentally from some people in this forum was declared null and void) which was fixed with the hotfix.

However, I talked to that time some people elsewhere and the image detail was taken there as an example In the original image, there were no abnormalities in the pixel structure between the two images in the foreground; the details showed identical quality, apart from artifacts due to overexposure. In the overall background, however, the discrepancy in the processing of the textures became apparent.

I created the image section with simple Strf-C / Strg-V, that is, no changes to the compression were made (not even intentionally).

After more than 25 years in DTP, I can assure you that simply moving a section of the image will not result in any further compression or deterioration of the material.

I am sorry that I have already deleted the comlete image I did not create. I saw no point in keeping it.
It can no longer be found at Campact, as the point mentioned has been fixed with the patch.

I only set the cropping here because T.S. asked repeatedly and repeatedly and repeatedly for material with visible changes.
When he also repeatedly asked for the originals, I did not comment again, as I had already thoroughly chewed through the topic with T.S. 10 hours beforehand, also by PM, but he could no longer remember it in any way.
Probably he couldn’t sort it anymore after hundreds of posts

At no point in time did I, as was often proposed by consensus, say that it was a “massive downgrade”.
Instead, my statement on the subject was:

As a result of your professional implementation, I must therefore say THANK YOU. They are a shining example of the fact that some people parrot a lot after “long research” when they are inoculated hundreds of times elsewhere. Exactly as advertised by T.S. in different posts.

Excuse my english, i’m not a native spreaker.
Have a nice flight.

[KevyKevTPA]

What city is that?

[GentlestCurve98]

Attention! is cropped. xD

[TwoSuitz]

Shanghai, China. Very beautiful city, which I am fortunate enough to have visited.

[TwoSuitz]

I don’t have the first clue what you are you talking about now.

[GentlestCurve98]

we can also made a Lee Marrow track out of this.

[TwoSuitz]

I still don’t see what you are trying to say or why you are being so cryptic?

Are you suggesting the image has been faked or altered? Are you feeling okay?