I had high hopes that they would fix my biggest concern with this latest update but .. no, not even close. Scenery/terrain pop-in, aka= morphing mountains, aka= shifting hills, etc.

Prior to the USA update, I flew for many hours every single day. Since the USA update, I have not flown once. The scenery loading directly in front of the plane absolutely kills the immersion for me. This did not exist prior to the USA update. 

I have been playing DCS ever since, just waiting, reading forums and hoping they fix whatever the heck happened to this once amazing sim. Just fired it up with everything updated and fingers crossed.

Flew out of Nanaimo towards Vancouver and watched as the once beautiful Gulf Islands (directly outside of my windshield within less than a mile), went from flat green strips to pointy small strips of green side by side pyramids to long green log shaped things with tree shapes spectacled 50ft above said log shaped things to finally something that resembled an Island once it was directly below my aircraft .. and it was still bloody morphing shapes!!

*On a positive note, they have improved the coastline glitch somewhat.

**Seriously, if there was an option to revert back to a build from prior to the USA update, I would do it in a heartbeat!!!

I will never totally give up on MSFS, but I guess its back to DCS until the next update, sheesh!

Edited February 17, 20215 yr by erick

Scenery popping sounds like a streaming scenery issue. Is your net limiting the inbound traffic? I went from playing on a high speed connection to standard wireless aussie net but i can stream scenery fine.

i dont have that issue. sounds like a userissue.

46 minutes ago, erick said:

*On a positive note, they have improved the coastline glitch somewhat.

Try flying south from CYCD to Maple Bay (CMAP)

Coastline is still totally messed up ☹️

48 minutes ago, erick said:

**Seriously, if there was an option to revert back to a build from prior to the USA update, I would do it in a heartbeat!!!

Me too.. 😉

Never seen this and not seen many others reporting this. Sounds like its more related to your PC/net connection.

I am running on a 32inch monitor so would notice something like that even if its in the distance. 

 

8 hours ago, Armchair Pilot said:

Scenery popping sounds like a streaming scenery issue. Is your net limiting the inbound traffic? I went from playing on a high speed connection to standard wireless aussie net but i can stream scenery fine.

This is 1000% NOT a connection issue on my end. I have 700 down and 120 up. Its the fastest current internet connection you can get from Shaw here in Canada. This also did not occur prior to the USA update and it has been seen by many other people. It is an LOD loading issue. Its as if the more detailed elevation data is not loading fast enough since these regional updates. It did not happen after Japan but it did start after the USA update and it is horrible. If you guys aren't seeing it then I don't know what to tell you. You're lucky.. I guess. It is game breaking for me! Here is a video I found of the same phenomenon.

8 hours ago, wim123 said:

i dont have that issue. sounds like a userissue.

See above.

 

7 hours ago, sanh said:

Never seen this and not seen many others reporting this. Sounds like its more related to your PC/net connection.

I am running on a 32inch monitor so would notice something like that even if its in the distance. 

 

See above

Edited February 17, 20215 yr by erick

35 minutes ago, erick said:

This is 1000% NOT a connection issue on my end. I have 700 down and 120 up. Its the fastest current internet connection you can get from Shaw here in Canada. This also did not occur prior to the USA update and it has been seen by many other people. It is an LOD loading issue. Its as if the more detailed elevation data is not loading fast enough since these regional updates. It did not happen after Japan but it did start after the USA update and it is horrible. If you guys aren't seeing it then I don't know what to tell you. You're lucky.. I guess. It is game breaking for me! Here is a video I found of the same phenomenon.

See above.

 

See above

pity for you, but the really interesting question is, why do some have it and not everyone.

the problem is windows has soo many variables , computers are not always compatible anymore, and all the stuff ppl running.

i do not have a fast internet at all, still no issues, maybe because i play at lower settings, so less to download??

and i optimised windows a lot, less background stuff running mainly.

38 minutes ago, wim123 said:

pity for you, but the really interesting question is, why do some have it and not everyone.

the problem is windows has soo many variables , computers are not always compatible anymore, and all the stuff ppl running.

i do not have a fast internet at all, still no issues, maybe because i play at lower settings, so less to download??

and i optimised windows a lot, less background stuff running mainly.

Talk about variables. I got a 3070 pushing this game at ultra and even on a mediocre net connection i have nothing that assimilates to that vid. 

9 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

Try flying south from CYCD to Maple Bay (CMAP)

Coastline is still totally messed up ☹️

But there is a lot work done with this update, most coastlines looking bright good IMO, also clouds got a big improvement - all around well done Asobo !

 

cheers 😉

I get that morphing / popping effect occasionally,  Doesn't really bother me that much. If I had a choice, I would prefer not to have it, but it definitely does not make the sim unusable for me. I guess everyone has a different tolerance level, when it comes to immersion.  The fact that your sitting in a chair flying a  computer is the biggest immersion killer.

I have read, that if you have a high speed internet connection, try disabling your rolling cache. Since it does not have to pull the info to the disk, then read it, it may free up some CPU cycles, preventing some stutters and popping effect. I have not tried this, so it might be a bunch of bull, but it may be worth a try. 

17 minutes ago, rickjake said:

I get that morphing / popping effect occasionally,

Me too. I've seen it on every sim I've ever flown. I just ignore it...

24 minutes ago, b1bmsgt said:

Me too. I've seen it on every sim I've ever flown. I just ignore it...

To be more definite, I've seen it on every MS-code based sim so far. And in Prepar3d (every version) it's much more pronounced, even more if you use high-resolution mesh like Pilot's. I agree, it occurs in MSFS as well (rarely) but not to the extent I find it actually disturbing, but yes, it's there.

On the other hand, it's nearly absent in X-Plane and AeroflyFS2 using another code-base, but even there I have seen it in very rare occasions.

I'm pretty sensitive to this and have posted about it in the Prepar3d forum several times over the years, and others did as well. We never got an acknowledgement by LM or a statement they are working on it. 

Now, I don't care any longer

Kind regards, Michael 

While terrain morphing has been an issue with many flight simulators, and this one is no exception, it should be noted that this thread is addressing the issues that arrived with Sim Update 2. Before that patch, you wouldn't get mountains constantly shifting up and down or changing shape. Apparently this can affect landmarks too, and coastlines since the UK World Update. I recommend checking out these threads in the official forums for more information:

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/mountains-continually-changing-shape-morphing-and-popping-up-and-down-not-terrain-spikes/339453

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/landmarks-shifting-up-and-down-half-of-them-not-loading-correctly-still-not-fixed-in-1-13-16-0/326397

You can test this quickly in Glacier Park, an area that seems to be especially affected. Input its co-ordinates (48.79863871008522, -113.62626162201853), use the Showcase camera, set drone to speed to 100% and then go back and forth. It appears that this issue is less obvious with a higher Terrain Level of Detail setting, but it would be unreasonable to expect everyone to keep it maxed out considering how CPU-intensive it is. And even Asobo cannot escape this issue it seems, for example the Honolulu shot in the Xbox Series X trailer, it looks extremely bad in there.

Does it make the simulator unusable? Depends on the areas you fly in. Since Sim Update 2, I find that it completely ruins the look of areas like Glacier Park above, and much of Japan which I particularly enjoyed since it was updated with some really good mesh. The UK World Update has unlocked several areas that I find enjoyable to fly in, mostly thanks to the new water masks, but if those LOD issues aren't fixed in a timely manner I guess I will have to put this simulator back on the shelf for a while.

I appreciate that this doesn't seem to bother some people. For me, it is the absolute worst, even worse than the terrain spikes. Its like watching the world being constructed outside of the airplane as I fly, instead of the area being built whilst I'm in a loading screen.

Anyway, here is a very specific example illustrated by back to back photos in sequence. This illustrates exactly what I described in my first post. Prior to the USA update this area was perfect. Completely formed, with zero movements or morphing or any LOD issues whatsoever. 

*If anyone wants to try leaving from CYCD Nanaimo airport and fly east towards CYVR Vancouver airport. Follow the path in the following images and show me something different than what I'm seeing (the highlighted Island in particular) then I will happily eat my words!! 

 

BONUS PHOTO- This last image is from before the latest England Update. It shows that the "coastline glitch" has been improved. BUT if you look at the highlighted island, you will see that the LOD issue is actually worse now!! FUDGE!!