I've looked at many Scenery Manual Cache guides on Youtube and I can now create a manually cached area in low, medium and hi res. The area goes white when completed. However when I load the area in the sim, though I get more detail, the buildings and most landscape features (particularly cliffs) look completely generic, but in the correct place. Maybe my settings are wrong?

I'm finding I still need to enable online Bing maps and Photogrammetry otherwise the manual cache icon goes grey. Surely if I downloaded a detailed area then the whole point of running saved data is that you no longer need to be "online". I'm confused!

I'm pretty sure I saved the manual cache region correctly, so perhaps it is the DATA menu settings I have misunderstood. Would some kind expert be able to give a detailed explanation? Thank you.

33 minutes ago, robert young said:

I'm finding I still need to enable online Bing maps and Photogrammetry otherwise the manual cache icon goes grey. Surely if I downloaded a detailed area then the whole point of running saved data is that you no longer need to be "online". I'm confused!

I'm currently investigating offline mode. I think when turning off the data transmission in options, it will not use the temporary cache, even if it is available. Maybe same goes with manually downloaded data.

Following this logic, my guess is, that you will have to let online mode enabled. Its meaning is more like "use the online data, even if it is already downloaded". 😄 It will probably also use this data when there is no internet connection available and online mode is activated (wild guess).

Edited August 31, 20205 yr by tweekz

I would love to understand this better also..  I do have some areas selected as Manual Cached areas, but as soon as I turn off Photogrammetry, the detail disappears again..

I'm having a different experience in here. When I try the offline mode I'm still getting the online scenery in areas I've flown in before or manually cached.

3 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

I'm having a different experience in here. When I try the offline mode I'm still getting the online scenery in areas I've flown in before or manually cached.

Can you elaborate a bit... How do you "try offline mode"?

2 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

Can you elaborate a bit... How do you "try offline mode"?

Turning off Online Functionality which turns off the Bing data and photogrammetry options as well.

8 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

I'm having a different experience in here. When I try the offline mode I'm still getting the online scenery in areas I've flown in before or manually cached.

Are you sure? Because what I also found out - and that is quite epic - is that all the buildings are placed in the same way as in online mode !!

That's why I first thought it uses the precached online data when I first loaded my main hub in offline mode. So I went somewhere I've never been before and compared it to map data - et voila! Everything still matches the footprints!

This is basically what some guy told us a few weeks ago what XP12s' approach might be. Using map data without satellite images.

The only complaint I have about offline mode. The ground textures and streets are HORRIBLE !! 😄

3 minutes ago, tweekz said:

Are you sure? Because what I also found out - and that is quite epic - is that all the buildings are placed in the same way as in online mode !!

Absolutely sure, and I tested this in the area where I took my first few test flights to compare different settings so I am accustomed to each mode's look. Those two screenshots show the difference between the offline and online data in roughly the same area, and even when I go back to offline I still see the scenery from the second screenshot (and of course the offline data in new areas, with the thick roads and generic autogen textures). It would be exceptionally hard to mistake the two of them.

5 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

Absolutely sure, and I tested this in the area where I took my first few test flights to compare different settings so I am accustomed to each mode's look.

Interesting. I've switched to offline mode today. And when I went where I've flown yesterday online, it was that washed out offline texture. This was especially noticable as in online mode there is a very obvious transition from summer to winter. 😄

Is it possible that you have manually cached that area?

Edited August 31, 20205 yr by tweekz

4 minutes ago, tweekz said:

Interesting. I've switched to offline mode today. And when I went where I've flown yesterday online, it was that washed out offline texture. This was especially noticable as in online mode there is a very obvious transition from summer to winter. 😄

Does offline mode look this awful for you as well? I was thinking it could be my graphics settings, but turning them up to check would make even navigating the menus a pain.

Even the nearby buildings have a very flat look to them, and at a distance they turn into a grey mess, and the thick roads don't help either. I think it could be looking a lot better with some adjustments to the lighting and roads considering the building density is extremely decent, but they probably didn't give the offline mode a lot of thought, which would be kind of a shame. Though if it's just my graphics settings, it doesn't make sense because online looks nothing like that.

Thanks for the replies. It seems this is not straightforward. I sometimes get identical objects and scenery with online or offline. It depends on the location. One of the questions I asked was about the "generic" looking buildings as opposed to the bing map data which is supposed to show pretty accurate significant buildings (museums, stadiums, parks, churches etc), especially in high detail mode.

The question is, does the sim load detailed scenery with saved manual cache similarly to loading the same scenery using rolling cache? I suspect maybe not because the manual cache download size is surprisingly small for quite a sizeable area.

54 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

Turning off Online Functionality which turns off the Bing data and photogrammetry options as well.

That was helpful, thanks!

When I do that, indeed, all my cached scenery is being used 🙂

1 hour ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

Does offline mode look this awful for you as well?

Well, I think it get's a bit better with better settings, but fields look blurry and streets are just horrible.

40 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

That was helpful, thanks!

When I do that, indeed, all my cached scenery is being used 🙂

This make no sense to me. My understanding is that with Bing world data off, manual cache is also automatically disabled. Hence one should see no photogrammetry. Unless I'm misunderstanding.

I have found manual cache to be extremely helpful (smooth performance e.g. NY City) . However, rolling cache seems to create a higher load on CPU, hence more stutters.

54 minutes ago, flavik77 said:

This make no sense to me. My understanding is that with Bing world data off, manual cache is also automatically disabled. Hence one should see no photogrammetry. Unless I'm misunderstanding.

I have found manual cache to be extremely helpful (smooth performance e.g. NY City) . However, rolling cache seems to create a higher load on CPU, hence more stutters.

I do not know if the scenery came from my manual cache or the rolling cache, but in offline mode, I was able fly over downtown Victoria BC, and see all the buildings with photogrammetry, as detailed as I had seen it in online mode.