"droning" around, getting familiar with the looks and operation of MSFS.  For lack of the technical term, when I see buildings that look like a melted candle (even if I stand still at that location for awhile), is that because:

1. Settings are not high enough?  (Currently I have everything at Ultra to see results but see no improvement)
2. Area photogrammetry is not of highest quality for that area (testing in San Diego, CA, USA)
3. My bandwidth speed is not fast enough?  (currently at 20Mbps)
4. I Need a rolling cache?  If so, what's a good number? 30GB, 50GB? 100GB?
5.  A hardware issue? (I am running an i7-2700k, 32GB RAM, GPU 1080 with 8GB)

Just want to see if I can improve when I am low and slow.

Man... a lot to take in coming from P3Dv 5.1  😝

Sort of answer 2 i think.

 

They dont make photogrammetry pictures (like 3D pictures) but just shoot 2D pictures or maybe even video, and run a program on it to compare one frame/picture with the next frame/picture and then infer that something has height/depth.

If they run that algorithm on less detailed base pictures it would start making mistakes, and/or the algorithm needs to be improved.

Edited December 2, 20205 yr by StoreyedTrain

I think it is (2).

You will also find deformed bridges, harbor cranes and trees in photogrammetry cities. I don't understand how people her can live with this ... I'm using MSFS only for recreational sight seeing flights in non-urban (non photogrammetry) areas.

I think the melted buildings have to do with the load distance and CPU processing to render the photogrammetry data into the sim (my understanding is the CPU has to do some work on the data before it gets passed off to the GPU). Even people with fast PCs and fast internet see it, so I don't think you are doing anything "wrong".

If you turn off photogrammetry entirely the autogen buildings are pretty good in many instances, and the melted buildings are avoided.

I am hoping they will improve the loading and processing of the photogrammetry in the future, it's on the list of wishlist items.

Edited December 2, 20205 yr by marsman2020

I found citys looks always a little from the Movie I am legend 😁

 

They reduced the LOD dramatically probably for performance reasons and it looks horrible.  I have turned off PG altogether.  It was perfect in Alpha 1.....so I heard.....

26 minutes ago, Clutch Cargo said:

2. Area photogrammetry is not of highest quality for that area (testing in San Diego, CA, USA)

As others have said, mostly this - but also realize that the highest quality locations look great because they have been HAND adjusted and corrected. 

The AI technology to auto correct all interpretation errors just doesn't exist. Think about a simple overpass. How do you know it's an overpass and not a ramp or a hill? If it is an overpass, what do you fill in below it (since the camera doesn't have that data)? Grass? A road? If there is another road underneath, how wide? Which direction? Etc...Similar logic applies to buildings when shadows and lighting interferes with the algorithm. 

The most recently dev update included a map of the elevation resolution for all areas of the US - it'd be cool if they also included a list of all of the hand-corrected locations - I wasn't able to find one anywhere. 

Melty buildings in most areas are normal though - not due to your settings. 

31 minutes ago, Nemo said:

I think it is (2).

You will also find deformed bridges, harbor cranes and trees in photogrammetry cities. I don't understand how people her can live with this ... I'm using MSFS only for recreational sight seeing flights in non-urban (non photogrammetry) areas.

You don't understand how people can live with the most accurate and extensive scenery data set ever created in a flight simulator at any price? One that streams terabytes of data over the Internet and renders it in real time as you fly? Yes - many structures are rendered incorrectly - but that's not sloppiness - that's literally the limit of the sum total of today's AI and imaging technology. Google Earth has the exact same limitation. 

Surely it looks better than the old auto-gen stuff, no?

 

16 minutes ago, Flic1 said:

They reduced the LOD dramatically probably for performance reasons and it looks horrible.  I have turned off PG altogether.  It was perfect in Alpha 1.....so I heard.....

Yeah turning it off is a good option.  Cities still look pretty good.  It was way better in TA1 for sure.

The "melted-candle" look is generally photogrammetry that isn't properly resolving. It could be issues with 3 (I found that on a separate test system where network settings were creating latency and bandwidth issues, though that isn't always the cause). Double check that the sim is on a server closest to you with a low latency, and that your network NAT settings aren't causing any issues. You can check the Windows 10 Xbox networking services as well.

For #4, if you have a fast drive (SSD, M.2) try enabling a setting of 32GB. That was suggested in the latest dev Q&A.

Maybe post a location you're getting this in and we can confirm what it looks like on other systems.

Good luck

 

57 minutes ago, Clutch Cargo said:

"droning" around, getting familiar with the looks and operation of MSFS.  For lack of the technical term, when I see buildings that look like a melted candle (even if I stand still at that location for awhile), is that because:

1. Settings are not high enough?  (Currently I have everything at Ultra to see results but see no improvement)
2. Area photogrammetry is not of highest quality for that area (testing in San Diego, CA, USA)
3. My bandwidth speed is not fast enough?  (currently at 20Mbps)
4. I Need a rolling cache?  If so, what's a good number? 30GB, 50GB? 100GB?
5.  A hardware issue? (I am running an i7-2700k, 32GB RAM, GPU 1080 with 8GB)

Just want to see if I can improve when I am low and slow.

 

thx for the replies, guys.  So it's sort of at this point is "it is what it is".  it's interesting.  After watching the 30-40 minute docu on how MSFS came to be and seeing it now for myself I am pretty mind-blown what they have achieved.  Yet on the other side I tend to start nit-picking little things (or maybe they are not little things).

I started with FS3 so I did not think I would ever see this type of world detail in my lifetime.  But I still have P3Dv5 installed so I imagine I will continue to fly both for some time.  Lot's of fun to explore the world.  Ha... I haven't even flown a flight yet, just the drone!  😄

Definitely bandwidth too... I have 100 MBPS and you can see everything loading in... because the streaming data is not coming in fast enough. Look at task manager. It shows 2 MBPs... which is word not allowed poor. I am sure the streaming quality has a lot to do with seeing stuff as blurry, melted. In my case photogrammetry often looks like black shapes too. Not loaded in properly. 

49 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

Yeah turning it off is a good option.  Cities still look pretty good.  It was way better in TA1 for sure.

As was the night lighting.

31 minutes ago, Clutch Cargo said:

. Yet on the other side I tend to start nit-picking little things (or maybe they are not little things).

 

You are a perfect fit for Avsim MSFS forums then. 

Amongst our extensive weaponry are such diverse elements as: nitpicking, tantrums, ruthless criticism, and an almost fanatical obsession with finding fault with everything ...

 

 

its global warming