Hi,I have a problem where some airfields/runways are raised in an unrealistic way high above the ground making it look like they are on a hill. I've seen this mainly in Sweden where I fly alot and I have TerraMesh 15 & 16 from Lago installed. Have tried disabling those from the scenery library to see if those were the cause of the problem but no change.I think this might be a rather common problem? Does someone know if it could be fixed in any way?Below is a picture showing what I'm talking about, in this case the a/c is located on runway 12 at ESSF in Sweden and you also see other parts in the terrain further away that are "raised" in this weird way.Thanks in advance for any tips on how to fix this if possible.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/134601.jpg

I think you'll need a "flatten" command in your scenery.cfg for this. Either you can make one yourself, or the scenery developer may have one on their forums. This happens to me sometimes.

The default airports in FS9 are placed on terrain that has been "flattened" to a single elevation, instead of following whatever mesh elevations are defined for the area.Generally, there can be 3 problems which cause the airport plateau problem (it could also be sunken in a hole as well).1. The default airport elevation was done incorectly by Microsoft. This can be checked by going into slew mode while on the ground, and reading the Alt variable on the screen. This should be a few feet higher than the actual airport elevation, as determined from online sources or other info you might have available. If Microsoft made a mistake, it should be obvious with only the default mesh installed. The fix is to either search out a replacement scenery or build one yourself. Doing it yourself requires using a scenery design tool to create a new flatten area at the correct elevation, and a revised AFCAD file to set the runways, taxiways, and start positions at the correct elevation.2. The default airport is at the correct elevation. You have installed addon mesh with bad data. In this case the solution is to remove the bad mesh and look for a better mesh. I have no experience with the Lago product.3. The default airport is at the correct elevation and addon mesh is installed that is also correct. This is most often due to the real airport being somewhat sloped, rather than perfectly flat. Once you observe terrain away from the flatten area, it slopes from the flatten altitude to the mesh altitude. This effect is exagerated when high resolution mesh is used, as the linear distance from the edge of the flatten to the first mesh elevation is short, the slope is steeper. Often this problem can be determined by observing all around the airport. The steep cliff is usually only on one side of the airport. There may be a reverse cliff on the other side like this (elevation view):Higher mesh terrain---*** Airport flatten****__________*************** Lower mesh terrain****************____________ Unfortunately there is no easy fix for this. Most simmers "live with it".scott s..

After reading your answers I guess I'll just have to live with it since I'm far from a scenery expert, don't even want to think about how the terrain would look after me trying to modify it ;-)Guess it's a problem with default MS then since I have already tried disabling LAGO's Scandinavian mesh without any improvement and I can't think of any other mesh I have installed for this region.Thanks anyway for your answers and for your in-depth explanation Scott!All the best,

Hi there,based on your screenshot I'm sure you're looking at a bad mesh file. It's not "normal" to have everything perfectly flat and the airfields on a plateau like that. If this was either Scott's points 1 or 3 (nice summary, btw!) then you'd see some terrain undulations in between.Usually, a bad add-on mesh will flatten the surrounding terrain to sea level. Thus, if you slew around that area and check whether the low areas are perfectly flat and at 0 ft then you've got to start the hunt for the culprit.Cheers, Holger

OK, thanks for the tip Holger - maybe I'll try that or otherwise I'll just "live with it".The problem to go for a mesh hunt is that I really don't have any other mesh installed for Scandinavia than the Lago mesh and like I said above I already tried disable that without any improvement.

Hi there,it's not necessarily a mesh for that area. In fact, it probably isn't because otherwise the developer would have noticed the issue himself. For example, there was an Alaska mesh available that flattened everything south and east of Alaska all the way to Mexico. Thus, I'd start by removing any and all add-on mesh you're using and then return them one by one to find the faulty file.What is a bit odd here is that the LAGO mesh, as far as I know, is compiled at a pretty high LOD: LOD10, or 38m. If that's the case for your area as well then the problematic mesh would have to have at least a LOD10 resolution as well.Cheers, Holger

Hi Holger,I do appreciate you trying to help me but I have almost 80 mesh packs for almost every corner in the world so to say the least it would be a very time-consuming thing to start trying each and everyone of them out to find the culprit.Mostly I'm nothing but pleased with all the great freeware I've found during the years mostly here at AVSIM, so I guess some plateau airports is the price I'll have to pay ;-) The last package I downloaded was Silver Wings for FS2004 by Lynn and Bill Lyons and that was truely amazing - the ground and water never looked so good before in FS!!All the best,

I had somewhat similar issue a while ago with some mesh that came with a scenery airport in Italy. It completely changed the demography of certain places in Portugal and most of Spain (I had already some mesh for these areas so it might have been a conflict).The issue you are having could very well also be from a totally different scenery somewhere in the world that has some local mesh incorporated.

Hi everyone,I'm a stubborn #### ;-) and couldn't help myself from trying to find the culprit and finally I did...some SRTM mesh for Denmark made by a guy called Johan Clausen.Might drop him an email regarding this but on the other hand I'm just happy now that the issue is solved and I don't think I will miss the mesh for Denmark that much anyway since someone over at LAGO's forums wrote that the difference between the real world and what you get 'out-of-the-box' with FS for Denmark isn't very big.Below is a picture showing you what the same place looks like now in the same angle with the Denmark mesh gone...no more unrealistic "hills" in the horizon and no more plateau airports...in this part of the world anyway...;-)Once again, thanks everyone for your help!!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/134665.jpg

Glad you have success. Sometimes troubleshooting and fixing things can be fun too!scott s..

Thanks Scott and yes, I agree with you that even if the thought of start troubleshooting a problem like this one can feel very hopeless it really pays off in the end when you manage to solve it!