On Xbox Series X and, as with the beta, I’ve noticed a loss of visual quality. However, while noticeable, I’m not seeing anything like the level of degradation that other users are reporting. My memory might be spotty but I don’t recall MSFS 2004 looking anything like as good!
In any case, as others have pointed out, this has been recorded as bug logged so it’s likely that there will be some remedial action in time. However, I do think some proactive communication from the devs or CMs - even if it’s just to say that they are aware and looking into it - might help ease people’s worries.
Long time lurker, first-time poster here. The change in visuals and performance on XSX caused me to finally make an account.
My experience with SU10 was nothing short of amazing. I was in the middle of a North American tour with the V35 just before SU11 launched. Not one CTD, smooth frames, and stunning scenery the entire time. Definitely not the same experience post-SU11.
Like most of you, I’ve seen the LOD decrease dramatically compared to SU10, the general level of detail (within the LOD ring) be downgraded, and lots of terrain pop-ins while changing view directions.
I love MSFS, (been flying since FS9), and the fact that we are lucky enough to have it on Xbox is even better. Not to mention all the freebies we got with the 40th Anniversary Edition. I just wish on the console side we didn’t have such a downgrade in performance and visuals from SU10.
Hopefully, with the number of replies this thread seems to be getting, the devs have seen it and can either provide a fix or at least an acknowledgment that they are working on it.
He is referring to a patch regarding newly released A310 in regards to low quality textures in cockpit. This is another topic and does not affect discussion within this thread for LOD issue with SU11
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Don’t mean to be defeatist but it may be ultimately we’ve reached close to the boundaries of the Xbox capabilities, and at best we’re offered some method of balancing one demand (eg Lod) over another. Eg a slider style equilibrium that the user can adjust.
It may be that this just isn’t a bug, an error, code fault etc. I appreciate it’s tagged as bug logged but that might be Asobo’s way of acknowledging the strength of feeling and seeing what they can tweak…
I won’t beat a dead horse like some on this thread ("… as long as it performs, who cares how it looks…? yada, yada…) as I have already stated my disappointment.
But, I like to do low(ish) altitude VFR flying in the Kodiak and C-172 to the various backcountry airports in Idaho in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Frank Church Wilderness of No Return. The downgrade is actually quite comical. Literally, hundreds if not thousands of acres of forest trees regenerate out of nowhere along the flight routes and around the airstrips (oh, and I can’t forget to mention the “natural looking” hard geometric/polygon lines of the mountains themselves). Having flown into many of these airports myself IRL, it was amazing how realistic and stunning the scenery was before this unfortunate change. It is no longer fun. And, if only Mother Nature could regenerate the forests the way MSFS is now doing after all the terrible wildfires we’ve had the last few years.
It looks like one change was wildly reducing LOD in the directions where the camera is not pointing, which creates huge pop-in during both day and night flights that removes immersion entirely. That also explains a video above where Chicago disappears and reappears as the pilot pans the camera back and forth.
At night, panning the camera to the side creates pop-in of miles of city lights if flying over an urban area, as another example.
This is what I feel, especially on the XBOX S but also X which despite being more powerful with 4K capabilities performs in a rather similar way. No matter how much I would love all those PMDG and Fenix Airbus, or the A310 that just landed and works well on XBOX, they were forced to cut corners into what to me was the main asset of MSFS, the stunning graphics we had on SU10. Probably the Anniversary made it a rushed SU too so they had to produce the aircraft they promised and they had to be working. I agree with you on the limits and I think they should just be honest and say they are doing all they can but there are trade-offs to be made. I think if they were more open to us nobody would blame them for not implementing all features they can on PC… I would be very happy to fly good GA and planes like Hondajet and wait for developers that can make good if not study level airliners ( Concorde, Hondajet are examples of that ). One day there might be new console out that can work with all the bells and whistles but with the amazing graphics we can have I’d rather stick to what was in SU 10…
This is an extremely common game engine technique called occlusion culling. The game (or simulator in this case) only renders objects within the field of view (FOV), and disables rendering outside of the FOV. Here’s a link to a cool demonstration on reddit.
What many seem to be noticing is that occlusion culling is sluggish with this new update; it just takes longer for objects to render as the FOV changes. As far as development goes, I’m not sure how closely related the occlusion culling is to LOD; maybe less detailed mips render and cull slower.
Regardless, sluggish occlusion culling definitely is a visual downgrade, so I suppose it belongs in this thread. I’d be interested to know if occlusion culling is even more delayed on the Series S.
It’s worth trying to contact Digital Foundry, the graphic experts that did an analysis of console version of MSFS after realese. I wonder what they would say now about the ‘true next gen experience on Xbox’. Here are the Twitter accounts of the editors.
This is speculation but If the A310 or other add on aircraft was too much of a resource hog for the XSX, then it should just not have been part of the Xbox portion of SU11.
There is a reason some 3rd party software is not available for download on the Xbox but available for PC only.
I would easily give up the A310 to get back the graphics we had before.
This doesn’t feel right and I think it is premature. I think it’s fair to give the Devs a reasonable opportunity to address or resolve this issue before trying to escalate by bringing to the attention of the gaming media.
The strange thing to me is that people on PCs are now also reporting low resolution textures and reduced LOD. I’m curious to find out if they also experienced the same during the beta. Would be weird if their beta went smoothly and then the quality decreased on release.
