What does "use High-Resolution terrain textures" affect?

[dongdongliushui 49]

13 hours ago, honanhal said:

My 8 GB GTX 1070 basically choked on the 10 setting. I ended up running out of physical RAM (and getting an OOM of all things!) as I think it was trying to compensate for running out of VRAM. I'm now using 9 without any issues. It works great.

James

I have an 8gb GTX1080. When I set it to TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10, the ground texture further away seem to be a bit sharper, and there is no noticeable loss of FPS, but the loading time is much longer. I might stick with TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10.

[Guest]

Well, I gave it another try (the option from the settings menu which is 9 afaik). I set up a flight with a default plane on autopilot and running at 4x the speed. I let it fly for a minute and then took a screenshot. I did this with and without the setting. And yes, there were subtle differences to be seen when I closely compared the screenshots. The textures further away were a bit more high res with the setting on. Not mind blowing much and I seriously doubt if I actually notice it during a regular flight (instead of comparing 2 screenshots) but it does make a slight difference. And since this doesn't seem to have an impact on performance I might as well use the setting. I do not think however this is one of THE best things of v4 as some say. It is way too subtle for that.

[vgbaron 3,508]

8 hours ago, J van E said:

I do not think however this is one of THE best things of v4 as some say. It is way too subtle for that.

I agree BUT there are times, when breaking out of the clouds when I can see clearly to the horizon and it's sharp and crisp - they take my breath away. Reminds me of many time IRL when that would happen. In those moments, I would have to disagree with you.

I believe it's the overall flight experience(s) that people are commenting on - not just a single flight or screen cap or video.

Vic

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

20 minutes ago, vgbaron said:

 

I believe it's the overall flight experience(s) that people are commenting on - not just a single flight or screen cap or video.

Vic

That sums it up very well!

In my mind, there is not a single thing that makes P3DV4 better, but the sum of all the parts that produces a more convincing experience. 

I have not started up FSX in weeks now..

[Guest]

2 hours ago, vgbaron said:

I believe it's the overall flight experience(s) that people are commenting on - not just a single flight or screen cap or video.

Yes... When you buy a new sim you tend to focus too much on details while it is all about the bigger picture. I'll stop focusing on details immediately and simply enjoy my flights.

[vgbaron 3,508]

6 minutes ago, J van E said:

simply enjoy my flights.

And THAT'S what it's all about. I did some hurricane hunting yesterday using ASP4/ASCA - talk about sweaty palms - it took me back quite a few years to some similar RL situations. 

P3D is not perfect - far from it - but the plusses WAY overshadow the minuses, especially if you don't focus on them.

It's like having a dead pixel in your TV or monitor - one pixel doesn't really make any difference at all EXCEPT for the fact that you know it's there and it bugs you.

Enjoy - 

Vic

[dongdongliushui 49]

I switched on and off "use High-Resolution terrain textures", and the difference is minimal. I compare TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 and 9, and the difference is minimal, but the difference in loading time is huge. So I just turn it off, and changed TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP back to 9. Still wish LM could allow us to increase lod-radius to bigger than 6.5. In the old FSX this is something that really helps.

[AnkH 2,233]

2 hours ago, dongdongliushui said:

So I just turn it off, and changed TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP back to 9. Still wish LM could allow us to increase lod-radius to bigger than 6.5. In the old FSX this is something that really helps.

You are aware about the fact that "default" is NOT TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=9 but no entry like this inside the prepar3d.cfg? So, if you want to do a proper comparison, you have to compare the visual appearance of P3D once without any texture_size_exp tweak and LOD 6.5 vs your 9er setting. Otherwise it is apples vs. pears...

[dongdongliushui 49]

7 hours ago, AnkH said:

You are aware about the fact that "default" is NOT TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=9 but no entry like this inside the prepar3d.cfg? So, if you want to do a proper comparison, you have to compare the visual appearance of P3D once without any texture_size_exp tweak and LOD 6.5 vs your 9er setting. Otherwise it is apples vs. pears...

In FSX, when I set LOD_RADIUS to 12, all the blurries, far and near, are gone.

In P3D, the difference between TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8, 9, 10, or no such line, is minimal.

It's not apple and orange.

[AnkH 2,233]

You do not get the point. If you want to see what this TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP line really does, you have to uncheck the tick at "use high-resolution textures" AND remove the line from your config. Then you see how P3Dv4 looks like with the simple LOD 6.5 setting. If you use the tick at "use high-resolution textures", you basically have the same setup such as using TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=9. So, you have to compare the basic LOD 6.5 setting to EITHER "use high-resolution textures" OR TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=9. Comparing other stuff does not make sense. Certainly not, if you compare TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8, 9 and 10 while having the tick constantly set at "use high-resolution textures"...

[GSalden 4,656]

Feature off = 256x256 ground texture

Feature on = 1024x1024 ground texturen

Grond texture size in FSX : 1024x1024

Ground texture size in Fs2004 : 256x256

I was stunned to read from LM that P3Dv4  uses a lower ground texture resolution by default than FSX.  Surely to improve the framerate ..

If you check this feature than P3Dv4 performs less ( depending on your system ) and it might be even less than FSX ( SE ) ...

http://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6312&t=126479

[Denco 48]

Wait, this topic really confused me. Do we need to have the"use high-resolution textures" enabled for TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP to work or does the tweak work without it?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Denco said:

Wait, this topic really confused me. Do we need to have the"use high-resolution textures" enabled for TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP to work or does the tweak work without it?

You either use the setting or the tweak. Not both. So if you enable the option in the sim itself, do not edit the cfg. What you get is EXP 9. If you want EXP 10 then you have to disable the option and edit the cfg. 

[Denco 48]

15 minutes ago, J van E said:

You either use the setting or the tweak. Not both. So if you enable the option in the sim itself, do not edit the cfg. What you get is EXP 9. If you want EXP 10 then you have to disable the option and edit the cfg. 

Thank you for removing my confusion. I had both the tweak and the option enabled. Between the two, which one do you personally recommend?

[pmb 5,137]

28 minutes ago, J van E said:

You either use the setting or the tweak. Not both. So if you enable the option in the sim itself, do not edit the cfg. What you get is EXP 9. If you want EXP 10 then you have to disable the option and edit the cfg. 

I think you are right. While the horse's mouth - Beau Hollies - states:

"Using the TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 in combination with enabling high resolution terrain textures will effectively quadruple your LOD radius."

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

Kind regards, Michael