Wires and Poles

There are many sims that model utility poles and the wires that are propped up on them. Personally, I think they are a waste of resources. Can we imagine a sim world these things are buried underground? Would we lose any realism if these objects were not in the sim? Thoughts?

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Can’t you dial down your settings to make them “disappear” if you want to save resources?

Around cities, sure, but they do play a role on approach and takeoff when close to airports.

I imagine when flying low / VFR and Helicopters they would also play a part.

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Ideally, yes, but just those objects, not all the details in the scenery. I am sure some like them.

Sure, if there is a “famous” obstacle around an airport, by all means, add it.

I think it only becomes an issue if they are detected by photogrammetry techniques, then they become a horrible mess of objects with complex surfaces that suck up resources while simultaneously looking ugly. A prime example of this are overheard powerlines for trains. Take a look at parts of London for examples of how it can look at its very worst. If they were tidied up, fair enough, I think they are worth it in the context of the airport or other scenery as presented. But not if they look like the last level of Dark Souls.

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That would be a yes. If the real world has them and the sim doesn’t then it’s less real by that simple fact.

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Flying into Locher airfield, and seeing those wires is better than not seeing them. It adds to the experience.

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There’s an entire sector of aviation that’s devoted to inspecting and maintaining them. Every other sector is devoted to avoiding them.

They are also commonly used as landmarks when flying using pilotage navigation.

They’re part and parcel of aviation, so for the sake of realism, the more the merrier. There’s actually a mod on flightsim.to devoted to ensuring every line and tower is in the sim: Powerlines and Solar Farms » Microsoft Flight Simulator

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Agreed. Though what you’d want is a discernible wire/cable, not what looks like a shish kebab that has been left on the BBQ for hours.

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I use this addon.

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I think you’re talking about when it’s baked into the photogrammetry, and I agree with that. There are lots of verticalities (especially those that are thin or complex) that get messy in the sim.

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I like the chimneys, cooling towers masts, powerlines and pylons and have downloaded several files from flightsin to to add these along with a couple of files that add smoke, etc. To me as a low and slow type of flyer they add much more realism albeit at the expense of a couple of FPS. You really need to be careful of powerlines when you land or take off from quite a few small airfields, especially in a low powered aircraft or ultralight.

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Gives you a nice 50’ obstacle so you don’t have to imagine it when practicing short-field work. :wink:

Yes, I have a recurring nightmare about trying to climb out past a maze of wires.

Does the mod require that the Asobo poles be there, or does it provide their own poles? Any on/off solution that Asobo makes might break that mod.

So, the only options today are: get a mod to make them look half decent, or live with the current ones.

Good question. I haven’t checked closely to see how it integrates with the photogrammetry areas (if I understand your question correctly), but it seems to provide its own models, and uses OpenMap powerline data to generate paths and even tower and wire size.

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I use that as well. Very nice addition to the sim. The same dev has some others that are also ver6 good. Cable cars and my personal favourite the Marinas mod.

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If Asobo did something similar to their ai renditions of buildings, it shouldn’t be too hard to do something with ai generated “defult” telegraph poles and wires that that are layed in areas suspected or known telegraph/electrical wires. Would that be a wee bit less taxing than the 3d modeled ones in those cities.
Also for those who love VFR and have crash detection on, I would be kinda cool if there was a solid invisible structure area around the poles that detect your usual crash “end of flight”

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