Since the release of MSFS 2020, the quality of photogrammetry has not changed. When flying at low altitudes, buildings and vegetation still melted.
I thought the release of MSFS 2024 would improve the quality of photogrammetry. I don’t know if Microsoft plans to improve or develop photogrammetry in the future.
I don’t know that I would agree with the statement that photogrammetry quality has not changed. It may vary in quality for different locations but taking London as an example, I never saw it looking this good at this altitude previously:
Now if they could just improve the River Thames …
With kind of respect and from my own point of view I have the feeling that your complaints might be caused by your local system.
In my case I am pretty happy with how 2024 performs on my rig.
i5 13600K, 32 GB DDR5 ,2 TB SSD, RTX 4070ti, 1100W platinum powerplant etc.
Happy 
The photogrammetry can only ever be as good as the captured data. If this data looks ‘melted’ that’s how it looks in the sim. And 2020 and 2024 share the same data. A lot of it is over 10 years old by now and there is just no magical tool to easily improve this.
But actually photogrammetry is improving. They are now (and have been for some time) sending out planes that not only take photos but capture distances too (I think it’s lidar?). This does improve the overall quality but it will take years until we get to see more of this data.
If you want to know the reason why it is taking so long just watch a dev stream. It feels like every single stream they explain this
And as good as software, hardware, and connections can handle. Microsoft could provide more detailed data, but our systems cannot handle it. Keep in mind that Xbox defines the upper limit of what is used. FS2020 and FS2024 do not share the same data. In FS2020 I see one car on my parking, in FS2024 I see my two cars.
I almost never see melted stuff; when you do, it means that there is a bottleneck somewhere in the pipeline between your system and the Microsoft servers. The bottleneck can be anything, from running low on memory to a router somewhere in the world misbehaving.
Mathijs Kok
PMDG
@GONEFLYING1234 My PC is perfect for me. My bandwidth is 300 mbit/sec. There are cities with better and less good quality photogrammetry. However, it can be stated that overall there has not been much progress in the recent period. I agree that there are some attempts by Microsoft, but I still think this is not enough. No major changes have occurred.
Ultimately true, but the captured data could still be higher quality than what we get in the sim. It obviously has to fit within the limits of storage, streaming and performance, which may well require a reduction of detail from the source.
Edit: What Mathijs said above 
It’s a big problem that the XBOX’s performance is hindering the quality of MSFS2024. PC users can’t enjoy the great quality of MSFS because of the XBOX’s performance. They are degrading the visuals of MSFS.
I too have to disagree with your “statements”.
London has been provided as one example where big improvements have been seen. Barcelona and the Nice to Monaco area as well. This also includes a good example of the new countryside TIN with incredibly detailed cliffs etc.
I spend most of my time low level in helicopters over varied terrain, including cities, and am pleasantly surprised by the quality of photogrammetry and improvements being made.
As far as systems go I’m on Xbox X with a very good fibre internet connection and using a 65” LG OLED TV.
If you haven’t noticed the significant progress maybe your data is being throttled or you’re only looking at areas that haven’t been updated in the 5 years since launch.
I see a marked improvement on the recent PG over the first ones of about 5 years ago. They have improved the quality of the capture or improved post processing or both. Washington DC, the new London, Rio de Janeiro, all of them have superior quality to the first ones (e.g. japan WU, the old London) which were a bit bad.
They still need to up their game regarding the size of the data though. I know we don’t all agree on that point. That’s fine. But that’s how i see it. I would love to get my hands on those files.
There are two main types of PG:
Aerial Photogrammetry:
Terrestrial Photogrammetry (also called close-range photogrammetry):
I believe the sim uses aerial PG, which is unsuitable for closeup views.
Or maybe they use Terrestrial PG, but use 2D photography to create 3D objects.
Terrestrial PG using 3D scanning technologies are meant for creating closeup detailed 3D models. Way too expensive for the sim.
It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is, and frankly, I think it’s pointless to ask Asobo how they create their PG objects.
Regardless, photogrammetry is not ‘broken’ in the sim. Rather, it’s limited to aerial views, and is meant to be viewed at altitude.
Kind of a bummer for ‘low-and-slow’ helicopter flights, and completely useless in a vehicle like the Juice Goose.
And yet my experience:
MSFS 2024 never claimed to use new photogrammetry that would replace the existing 2020 photogrammetry as far as I know - it was potentially adding new areas, but those areas would be rolled into MSFS 2020 as well as part of one unified globe. The new natural landscape terrain data, which can be seen as a form of photogrammetry (see: the Grand Canyon in 2024) is exclusive to 2024, and a major graphical improvement over its predecessor.
Actually, Jorg said exactly this in one or two of the Q&A’s surrounding the influencer demos. But, he said it would be implemented over time, over the next few years I imagine, not on day one of release.
@Momos1989 To say pg hasn’t improved in the last 5 years is completely false.
Are there issues for some people, 100%. Is the specification to work on Xbox the issue in what you’re talking about? Not likely. I’m no expert, but, if you can’t get enough data for full detail fast enough, that has nothing to do with streaming less data, not having full detail that’s capable of being streamed, in order to fit in the Xbox memory space. If you’re seeing melted buildings, you’re not getting the full detail that is available in the first place. The reduction in quality for Xbox should actually help you. It’s not. You’re not even seeing the full level of detail that’s available based on what you said.
Sure, your local 300 MB/sec should be fast enough (even though technically that’s pretty slow these days, or at least low average). But, clearly, there’s some sort of bottleneck between your PC and the source. Where? I dunno. Fact is, you’re not seeing, necessarily, the full detail available in either 2020 or 2024 based on what you said.
But, technically, that depends on where you’re talking about, and what you’re talking about. All you said was you’re seeing melted buildings and trees. That’s not enough information to really understand what your problem is. Obviously there’s users out there who are seeing good PG, in some locations. Are you expecting good PG everywhere? Are you seeing good PG anywhere? Do you ever see good PG? If you wait a little longer, does your PG “catch up”?
One thing I would comment… Way back when Jorg first introduced 2024, he said all the PG trees would be replaced by better trees. Apparently, that didn’t make the cut. Otherwise, PG is working pretty well for me in 2024, and 2020 for that matter, except for those stupid forests and trees everywhere. I hope they address that problem someday.
I’ve asked this question before, but I have yet to see a single example of a good looking PG tree when asking for one. It’s just not possible, but it always gets cited as an example of bad PG.
Quality varies from region to region presumably because different hardware was used to capture data as well as the amount of data i.e. resolution. More points probably leads to better looking buildings as they do vary a lot. Some you can read the signs inside shop windows or words on a wall or roof.
Yeah, I didn’t watch the last Dev Q&A yet, but, like I said, Jorg said they had a PG tree solution back when 2024 was first announced, and in one of the recent Q&A’s I think he hinted it didn’t make the cut. I’d like to hear details on what happened there. But I don’t think that’s @momos1989 problem. He mentioned buildings, too. The PG not downloading fast enough across the board is a different issue (that I don’t know the details on what the problem might be).
Land on the Las Vegas strip without the FlyTampa City mod.
Or any other PG major city.
How do the buildings look?
I don’t consider that as a valid test. This is a flying simulator and not a driving simulator.
I do fly low level over cities though and while flying, your focus tends to be ahead of the a/c not directly at the buildings alongside you. It’s not perfect by any means but as scenery available in a home simulator it is pretty amazing.
Just compare to what was available 5 years ago and then 5 years before that. I remember wireframe twin towers in a flight simulator and that was leading edge home computer flight sim graphics at the time.
OK, then I will discontinue lamenting the state of PG for low-level helicopter flights.
I like driving the Juice Goose in my flight simulator.
I like flying various aircraft in my flight simulator.
I think it’s an amazing piece of software, and a beautiful digital world.
I think it would be even better if you could get close to PG buildings in your helicopter, and I could get close to them in the Juice Goose or other vehicle, and in each case have them not look like post-apocalyptic melted candles.
But like I said earlier…
I’ll stick to the country in the Goose, where everything looks amazing, and stick to flying over big cities at altitude.
You do what makes you happy.
One of the cool things about MSFS is that you can turn off photogrammetry if you want… and honestly, in most cases, the scenery still looks pretty darn good. Hopefully with Machine learning and lidar integration they will be able to clean up the data and apply more corrections automatically. Its only a matter of time.
