How to increase load distance for airports in P3Dv4?

[vgbaron 3,496]

Just now, pmb said:

You hopefully don't consider me an enemy. I could't stand that.

Kind regards, Michael

LOL - not at all. I find yours to be one of the more valuable opinions here. There is no one on these forums (fora?) that I would consider an enemy and many that I consider friends.

Vic

[kand 205]

Pretty sure some sceneries are designed to unload when out of view as a way of saving VAS pre 64bit days, Aerosoft LHR did it in v3 and whe installed in v4 does also. Looking forward to purchasing the pro version in the hope that this has been removed during the recompile 

You can try and treat the symptoms by increasing the value within the p3d.cfg TextureMaxLoad=XX 

[vgbaron 3,496]

3 minutes ago, kand said:

You can try and treat the symptoms by increasing the value within the p3d.cfg TextureMaxLoad=XX

http://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6312&t=126408#p165542

Vic

[somiller 694]

I don't know about  appearing and disappearing black textures, but I can confirm that no matter the TextureMaxLoad or TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP setting I use, I NEVER see a 3rd party airport load out further than about 15 miles. Vic, I notice you don't include any complex aircraft in your signature, which is probably part of why you don't see the texture issue, but I would also argue that you are not seeing hires 3rd party airports load beyond about 15 miles.

My system is not as robust as yours, but I have tested this issue by reducing P3D settings until cpu is coasting, flying a simple aircraft at a low speed, TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10, P3D fps limit which I NEVER get below, and no matter what I do, I cannot make a 3rd party airport load beyond about 15 miles. Its SO irritating, because it's hard to find airports, and almost impossible to see runways, let alone ensure alignment for visual approaches. This ruins immersion even more than occasional stutters.

[cowpatz 243]

1 hour ago, somiller said:

 Its SO irritating, because it's hard to find airports, and almost impossible to see runways, let alone ensure alignment for visual approaches. This ruins immersion even more than occasional stutters.

+1

[branks737 29]

2 hours ago, somiller said:

I don't know about  appearing and disappearing black textures, but I can confirm that no matter the TEXTUREMAXLOAD setting I use, I NEVER see a 3rd party airport load out further than about 15 miles. Vic, I notice you don't include any complex aircraft in your signature, which is probably part of why you don't see the texture issue, but I would also argue that you are not seeing hires 3rd party airports load beyond about 15 miles.

My system is not as robust as yours, but I have tested this issue by reducing P3D settings until cpu is coasting, flying a simple aircraft at a low speed, TextureMaxLoad=10, P3D fps limit which I NEVER get below, and no matter what I do, I cannot make a 3rd party airport load beyond about 15 miles. Its SO irritating, because it's hard to find airports, and almost impossible to see runways, let alone ensure alignment for visual approaches. This ruins immersion even more than occasional stutters.

TextureMaxLoad tweak under [display] just about fixed my black building texture issue at airports. I had to go as high as TextureMaxLoad=48 to pretty much completely get rid of this issue. Now I can look away from an airport (close or whilst in the distance) and look back at the airport and no more black building textures.

Try it you might need a lower setting or slightly higher but go up or down by 3's.

 

 

[somiller 694]

In my previous post, regarding airport scenery load distance, I meant to indicate I have used TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 in an effort to increase load distance. I have edited my post to correct my error.

 

I suppose in a perfect world, I would like to see airports load at somewhere between 30 and 50 miles. It would also be nice to have the ability in P3D scenery settings, to be able to specify which types of airports load further out...default, 3rd party, or all, or the ability to specify individually.

I can see situations (Southern California) where there could be many airports within a large load radius that would cause tremendous stress on resources, so a method to limit which ones load would make sense.

[joemiller 269]

On 8/21/2017 at 11:55 PM, vgbaron said:

I think a lot of what is being said is the result of pushing your hardware beyond it's capabilities. I do not have any of the problems described. No black textures when looking away and I can see the scenery to the horizon. In some cases it's actually better than I can see in real life.

Vic

Well, I am no where close to having the knowledge that Vic has or many of you.. Though I have been simming for a very long time and have learnt a few things. I see Vic's point which makes sense. And personally, I experience these black textures when flying heavy, low, and high settings. The biggest example is departing and/or arriving KSFO. (However), in my case I have all payware KSFO, ORBX, San Francisco, and any high-end a/c. In fact, when nearing KSFO (some 12-16 miles out) parts of my outer a/c textures turn to a light "blackish" color- along with downtown San Francisco appearing  black.. At or around 8 miles heading in, I pause the sim and allow it to "catch-up"  and after about 3 minutes all textures come back to normal colors... meaning KSFO, San Fran, and the a/c appear fully and in natural colors.. including fully rendered terrain. 

Correct, as you have guessed, my settings are very high, including weather, and as Vic explained, though I have a pretty high-end system, the textures are taking long to load due to heavy ad-dons and settings. On-the-other-hand, if I lower the settings significantly or fly at a  lower quality airport, all textures appear fully rendered. Now, don't get me wrong, of course, I still fly and adjust my settings to balance and/ or counter this issue. But, all around KSFO is so beautiful that I'm fine with using high settings, pause the sim for a few moments for it to "catch up", then continue with the landing. Therefore, in the final analysis, it's all about balance.. finding (or lowering) your settings to an acceptable level- not too high...not too low.  I guess we need to wait for an an improvement by LM, or hopefully some day (some day),  AMD, Intel, or someone comes up with a 6.5Ghz plus processor. (or another sim)

My System: Intel 7700k @5.0ghz, 16Gb of Ram@3800mhz, and MSI 1080  graphics card. 

Cheers! 

[somiller 694]

On 8/20/2017 at 10:27 AM, 238932 said:

With all the memory in the world available in v4 it really bugs me that  airport sceneries still only load at a 15nm distance.

Is there a way to increase that distance ?

 

Maybe we could steer this thread back to the original issue, which has, if I understand correctly, NOTHING to do with black or slow loading textures. Some of us would actually like answers that deal with the OP. I can see hires scenery to the horizon, I just can't see my 3rd party airports to the horizon, because they won't load until within about 15 mi.

Thank you

[somiller 694]

Some interesting info. regarding airport load distance.

 

[vgbaron 3,496]

Very good points made by Oliver. I had forgotten that FSX has/had? a 10nm limit for airports. I'm guessing that LM made some changes to that limit. I'll have to double check, it's very possible that even though I'm seeing to the horizon, the actual airport is not there until the limit is reached.

If that is the case, it would take  a 3rd party tool to make any modifications to that and would probably have a negative impact on performance.

Vic

[somiller 694]

Vic,

Yeah, since my communication with Oliver, I've rethought this. You're probably right that a different value would affect performance. Can you imagine southern California, it's hard enough on resources already.

It would be a nice tool to have to be able to control loading distance, especially if one could choose which airports you want to load further out. Maybe a tool that could read the loaded flight plan, and only load departure, destination, and alternates at a further, user limit. I know it's asking for the world...but one doesn't get what one doesn't ask for.