Well I stand corrected, they did increase the tree distance:
Trees Ultra, Terrain LoD 200
The tree distance mods do nothing to increase it further.
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I donât think they claimed it would be rendering out to the horizon, only that the smaller trees would now be rendered further out. So are you seeing no change at all from what it was like before WU4?
I find this thread is nitpicking at its best, is a simulator not a representation of 100% of the real world, people give it a rest.
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Itâs the ying and yang of msfs, in one thread are the people that want trees and photogrammetry / Autogen to draw out 100+ nm and in the other the fps brigade complaining that theyâre not getting 60+ fps everywhere and bagging the optimisation⊠
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Since tree draw distance is tied to the tree height, the change might only be apparent in areas with trees above a certain height threshold.
I do think it took way to long for them to even mention/attempt to address this, since the size vs draw distance being the reason for some of the changes was pointed out in like October or November.
Sorry but this argument is no longer valid in 2021! You can also expect from a simulator to be graphically top notch these days. And btw Immersion is a very important factor for a simulation or why would you think real training simulators have expensive hydraulics to simulate the motion of the aircraft. I dont find it immersive to see a visible line where suddenly trees and buildings dissappear. I honestly dont care about there X-Box console â â â â . Iâm not into consoles. Fact is that on release of this sim trees and Buildings were visible to the horizon and then they started degrading it from update to update and iâm honestly not fine with getting reduced graphics just because for the sake of XBox compatibility!
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Disagree entirely, it was working very well at release, then got broken and broken again and appears to of not been properly fixed with this recent update. As a customer Iâm not happy to see graphics regress, they should improve or at least be the same as first release not worse.
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Pictures or it didnât happenâŠ
Please show us what you think release looked like without any lod hacks
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Current tree distance beats release version, at least in this area:
Trees Ultra, Terrain LoD 200
Still, I would like to have a tree slider to increase it even further now that the tree distance mods are locked out completely.
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This is a brilliant screenshot!
So, based on this, they categorically have fixed it - itâs now better than it was at release!
Unless anyone else has screenshots to prove otherwise?
Cue people changing their tune and saying âno no no I meant it was never good in the first place honestâŠ!â
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The tree draw distance has indeed improved (a bit) compared to the version before - i canât compare to the release version, as i have no screenshots of it anymore. In areas with mountains/hills you can compare them easier.
But to be fair, if you have touched the tree distance mod, you could indeed say that the tree draw distance was never really good. The mod had at least doubled the draw distance in the last update and before SU3 it was extended even further. It bugs me because the draw distance increase had almost no performance impact but increased the visuals a lot.
For me its not a matter of how realistic it is (how far you can see single trees IRL above a forest before they become a brown/green mass - its clearly a thing of visual conditions), but in my oppinion the higher draw distance made the sim look better a lot - especially when there are hills or mountains.
Terrain and Objects Level of Detail and Tree Quality all affect draw distance. Trying to find out what the absolute max is now.
100 - 100 - Ultra
200 - 200 - Ultra
100 - 200 - Ultra
200 - 100 - Ultra
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The Xbox port is detrimental to the pc version quality.
They are readying the xbox version and hardlocking performance to suit a lesser system.
Donât ever forget that XBOX is Microsoft, and Microsoft will potentially make more money of casual gamers. They surely wouldnât want the xbox version to look subpar to the pc version, especially since the xbox crowd will only really want the eyecandy.
They also donât want 2 branches of the same engine (xbox/pc) to save on dev costs. So they are manipulating the pc version to fit the xbox system, and what is the most taxing on any system, view distance detail aka object lod.
Only hope I have left is Asobo mentioning during the last Q&A livestream that they are âlooking intoâ graphics settings beyond âultraâ for pc.
This is common practice in the gaming industry by the way. Remember Watchdogs e3 versus console version? E3 was running on a high end pc to show what was possible. Selling the dream.
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Yeah, you mentioned this in at least one other thread already.
I thought it was nonsense the first time as well. 
If anything, the impact of the XBOX project will be beneficial to the PC version. The required optimizations in the DX12 version will yield more FPS with the same level of eye candy in the PC version, which in turn will make room for more even more eye candy.
Itâs beyond me why anybody would think that MS or Asobo would deliberately sell out on the PC version when itâs completely unnecessary. Already today, the sim supports a wide range of PC systems by means of all the configuration sliders.
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Jip, vegetation draw distance is buggered. I run on almost max settings, object load distance or whatever itâs called, canât recall is on 150, 90% of my settings are on either high or ultra at 1440p. FPS is fine for the vast majority of the time but vegetation doesnât render above 5-6km away. The free vegetation mod used to solve that, the last MSFS update killed it tho, the Author has confirmed itâs completely useless now, really saddening, MSFS was really fun during alpha and beta, post full release as the mods popped up, it was superb but as the official updates come, more and more downgrades, Iâm also leaning towards the xbox theory.
Here is an image, the trees on the hill in the backgroud are roughly 5-6km away, I know that, I live a few minutes from the airport, haha.
Fingers crossed Asobo or someone actually speaks up about this.
PS. This is the latest version of MSFS. I wish I had a screenshot like this prior to the updates that killed the object view distance.
But there are trees on that hill? What were you expecting to see, in comparison I mean? Itâs difficult to make a judgement call without comparing A with B. To my eyes that looks fine, but I donât spend a lot of my time squinting at the horizon, unless I am looking for an airstrip of course.
I sincerely hope youâre right.
Ps: I opted for spreading my post on two topics. This one is more recent and gets more visits 
. I know itâs a sh** move.
I, and some others, have found a way to do an exact before/after comparison of release version and previous version which was already said to have considerably downgrade the visuals since the beginning.
Turned out the game is better looking now than it was on release (even if you donât take into account the fact that the TAA and especially the sharpening filter was crap on release and was later on changed to AMDâs FidelityFX sharpening filter).
The tree distance was only ever amazing using, and only by using, the vegetation draw distance mod and certainly not vanilla.
I too was saying âdowngrade!â here and there before I decided to settle this once and for all.
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Yes, a 2d image of what are supposed to be trees. I can fully understand those who fly jetliners canât care less but those of us that fly GA (low and slow) love to see details in the distance and not have the autogen and vegetation turn into pubic growth and fade to nothing past 5-ish km.
I know itâs hard without an exact before and after screenshot, but it wouldnât be brought up if it wasnât an issue/not noticed
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I would and you would do it. Because it is the only thing that makes sense business wise when a new console release is ahead while PC release sales have exhausted because PC release was almost a year ago. People on PC do not seem to understand that they do not matter anymore. MS has their money, nothing to get from them anymore. Xbox is where the new giant pile of money awaits. And Xbox CAN NOT look worse than PC in every second Youtube video. Because otherwise nobody buys it for Xbox or buys the Xbox in this case because MFS is a system seller.
I tell you without blushing, I would go this exact route if I was a MS suit. Downgrade PC because it is only second priority at this point. Make first priority shine because new money is there. I would do the exact same thing. And you would too.
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