15 minutes ago, Bond said:

What people can do is find a visual approach done in real life, like this one and pause the approach where you start to see the runway. Position your aircraft similar to the video and mess with TLOD until you match the video.

Great advice, thanks! 

I've found that with the most recent version of AutoLOD, it's possible to set a very high TLOD min (if there's headroom for it). 

1 hour ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Please let me know if you find more info on this. I will experiment more with different TLOD and OLOD settings using AutoFPS.

As much as I love the tool, I have clearly noticed that runway renditions are rougher and lower detail from a certain 'mid' distance, when using the AutoFPS tool.

If you're using AutoFPS and finding the runways hard to differentiate in the sim, load up a flight without using AutoLOD and see if they are clearer.   They were considerably clearer in my case.

I guess they say there's no such thing as a free lunch.  The whole purpose of the AutoLOD tool is to reduce visual quality to improve performance (mostly at times when we'd not notice the reduction a lot).  But I can see it when looking down to airports (and runways) from a high circuit (around 2,000' QFE).

 

Edited February 27, 20242 yr by JYW

2 hours ago, mmaclauchlan said:

easy-to-identify landmarks leading up to and around the airfield.

And that's where add-ons such as  (freeware) We love VFR

Region 1

Region 2

Region 3

come in handy, adding visual landmarks you can use to get your bearings.

 

As a sim only pilot, I was having this problem a lot.  What I noticed was that I was flying really far out traffic patterns.  I was far too wide and far too long for a normal traffic pattern.  I was often losing sight of the field.  I watched a lot of real world videos on traffic patterns and have been practicing a ton.  Now I'm flying what are hopefully better patterns and I notice I keep the runway in sight much, much better. 

No idea if this is your problem as well, but it might help. 

One tip is to check any flight tracker app that shows flight paths.  Look for GA airports on nice days and find people doing pattern work.  Zoom in with the satellite view and you can often pick up some visual points that are in the sim.  Then do lots of touch and gos, just like real pilots practice. 

It was obvious in hindsight, but something I never really thought about as a long time flight simmer. 

^^^ This isn't just a sim issue.  There is a significant real-world trend towards flying crazy wide patterns in GA airplanes.  It seems to be a function of generational creep - every new generation of instructors is accustomed to slightly wider patterns, so they then allow their students to fly slightly wider patterns for the sake of comfort (for both the new student and new CFI); those new students go on to become the new crop of CFIs, the trend continues.

It used to be standard procedure to understand that if you're beyond power off gliding distance from the runway, you're too far out.  People will try to argue that faster and more complex single engine aircraft require wider patterns, but this isn't true; it's a lack of comfort with the airplane or perhaps laziness.  You can absolutely keep a Columbia 400 or Cirrus or RV within a half mile of the runway with proper energy and config management.  

Of course in the sim, you can do whatever is comfortable for you, and maybe consider it a fun challenge to work your patterns in tighter.

2 hours ago, JYW said:

If you're using AutoFPS and finding the runways hard to differentiate in the sim, load up a flight without using AutoLOD and see if they are clearer.   They were considerably clearer in my case.

I don’t disagree with this, but it depends on the settings. Also when flying VFR in GA aircraft, you could get away with setting a much higher TLOD.

3 hours ago, Bond said:

TLOD is the main one.

What people can do is find a visual approach done in real life, like this one and pause the approach where you start to see the runway. Position your aircraft similar to the video and mess with TLOD until you match the video.

 

This was very helpful - thank you!

36 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

I don’t disagree with this, but it depends on the settings. Also when flying VFR in GA aircraft, you could get away with setting a much higher TLOD.

So, when trying to line up the visual on the YouTube video of the approach into LEPA, I came to the conclusion that somewhere between 250-300 TLOD tends to line up visually.

More than that and the photogrammetry adds too much around the airport vis a vis trees, etc. The runways get kind of lost in the density of things being drawn. Less than that and you start getting kind of featureless around the airport and the airport itself tends to get a little blurred. Still visible, especially against a relatively blank surrounding, but it seemed a bit too indistinct to pick out the runways.

I have settled on 250 as a minimum of TLOD and a maximum of 600 as I have set previously. This is not going to be an ideal setting to the likes of KLAX and KJFK, and since major airports have tons of lights, it would be unnecessary.

A monitor bigger in physical size helps. A lot of folks display their 4K on a large tv screen, say 45 inch for example.

With a 45" inch 16x9 there is no distortion at the far edges. And TV's are very much cheaper than monitors. Except they typically don't run at high refresh rates. But who cares about that in MSFS?

I run 1440p. Two 32" monitors side by side with NCP "Span Displays With Surround". Bezel correction adjusted in NCP to hide the bezel distortion. Things at the far edges are elongated (MSFS does this distortion at all aspects over 16x9). So I just stretch the image across one and a half monitors which reduces that distortion to not being bad at all. The other half of the 2nd monitor holds apps. LilNavMap. Charts. Whatever. (To run 2 monitor MSFS, the monitors should be the same make and model so that the images are identical without trying to fiddle with settings. Settings can't seem to make different monitors them look the same).

 

55 minutes ago, Stearmandriver said:

You can absolutely keep a Columbia 400 or Cirrus or RV within a half mile of the runway with proper energy and config management.  

0,5 NM is my sweetspot for the DA40 aswell. Yes she is a glider, but not in landing config and FADEC putting the prop into fine pitch. Down she goes.

(this is how a 0,5NM pattern looks like from 1000 AGL in the lovely greenhouse cockpit of a Diamond)

 

6 hours ago, mmcmah said:

Hi everyone,

I feel like an word not allowed for asking, but I find it really hard to line up the runway to land at many airports when the runway tends to blend into the scenery. Is this true in real life too?

Your major airports have lights that are easy to see far away, but smaller airports tend to be tough to see until very close (at least for me, with my graphics settings).

Do others have the same issue? If so, or if not, what graphical settings tend to help, especially if in real life it's easier to pick out an airport/runway?

Thank you.

Yes. Take a look at the incident report database, and see how many (GA and Commercial) have lined up for and even landed on taxiways. Landing at the wrong airport. Etc.

@Cpt_Piett I went back to the 100/600 TLOD settings, although could probably lower a little if needed (I just don't like terrain popping as I'm coming in to land). The trick is to change the DSR Smoothness factor. Based on other suggestions I had changed mine from the default 33% to 50%. For what we are trying to achieve here, though, I realize that I went the wrong way. I changed it to 20% and now I find myself picking things out better and it looks more like I would expect it to look in real life.

3 hours ago, Cpt_Piett said:

I don’t disagree with this, but it depends on the settings. Also when flying VFR in GA aircraft, you could get away with setting a much higher TLOD.

Yes agree, and turning off "TLOD min on ground" helps with GA/VFR, but there's still some effect of reduced LOD when you're close to your target airport.   For me, it's a worthy trade.   AutoFPS makes a great difference to performance so I'm not ready to give it up.

2 hours ago, mmcmah said:

So, when trying to line up the visual on the YouTube video of the approach into LEPA, I came to the conclusion that somewhere between 250-300 TLOD tends to line up visually.

Great finding, I’ll try this. Obviously not when doing traffic patterns at LAX (but I wouldn’t do that anyway).

3 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Great finding, I’ll try this. Obviously not when doing traffic patterns at LAX (but I wouldn’t do that anyway).

See my subsequent post. I prefer to keep the TLOD high and only reduce it if the FPS needs it. As such, I'm doing 100/600. The trick is the DSR Smoothness slider.

And because I don't like popping that isn't required for FPS, I've unchecked the min TLOD for landing/on ground.