7 hours ago, planechaser said:

At first i was disappointed with the High LOD would not work

 

However , the increased DEM with the 2020 maps make up for it. On my system ( beefy 4k) my terrain LOD looks better than SU15 ( that is at default) . The mountain terrain is way more defined ( like a super mesh was applied to it).  Flying in the Alps at 30,000 feet is amazing

In a nutshell, the texture resolution is somewhere between default SU15 and Map Enhancement High LOD. 

I still use Map Enhancement ( abet without the High LOD) , because i feel in certain areas ( western Canada especially) . 

I do have to increase Terrain LOD in the settings though , plus use Image Sharpening in the NVidia control panel ( i use 0.45) which is a sweet spot.

night lighting is much improved also.

I'm not sure why people are finding night lighting better?

I'm still getting glowing fields high above Dubai.  Looks absolutely dreadful, just thick pasty lines of orange where there is a freeway.  

I've just gone on a little research run and there's certainly conflicting reports regarding this whole "texture regression" theory, and that's all it is is a theory because as per usual Asobo don't tell us squat! There's a few scenarios that are playing out in my head;

• It's absolutely nothing just a placebo thing as people are over thinking (coupled with the Mod guys information being completely wrong/assumed)
• they have actually regressed the textures to better suit Streaming and/or Xbox and having history of regressions year on year this wouldn't surprise me in the slightest (lest we forget SU5...)
• they're trying out new techniques to help improve performance which can be a good and bad thing depending on whether they get it to work properly or not, again history of half-baked attempts isn't great

All we can do for now is wait and watch with interest until someone brings it in a Q&A for Jorg to waffle on about without actually answering the question so we'd still be in the dark 🙃

 

Cancelled the ME mod downgrade and can continue using HIGH LOD. It looks FINE to me as is, in most of the world using latest Bing maps. This was last night Jamaica (Montego Bay fly over Kingston).

I'm not using MSFS beta, hope nothing changes for a while! I'm content with both detail and color, seems natural at cruise.

https://imgur.com/gallery/map-enhancement-mod-high-lod-bing-maps-jamaica-BHCc3Hk

21 minutes ago, MarcG said:

I've just gone on a little research run and there's certainly conflicting reports regarding this whole "texture regression" theory, and that's all it is is a theory because as per usual Asobo don't tell us squat! There's a few scenarios that are playing out in my head;

• It's absolutely nothing just a placebo thing as people are over thinking (coupled with the Mod guys information being completely wrong/assumed)
• they have actually regressed the textures to better suit Streaming and/or Xbox and having history of regressions year on year this wouldn't surprise me in the slightest (lest we forget SU5...)
• they're trying out new techniques to help improve performance which can be a good and bad thing depending on whether they get it to work properly or not, again history of half-baked attempts isn't great

All we can do for now is wait and watch with interest until someone brings it in a Q&A for Jorg to waffle on about without actually answering the question so we'd still be in the dark 🙃

 

The guy who made the maps enhancement mod confirmed that the 512x512 tiles which are able to be pushed into MSFS SU15 can't be loaded into MSFS SU16. That's why the high LOD feature no longer works. So Asobo did do something which has prevented this from working. Such a shame really, the high LOD setting looked absolutely outstanding at all altitudes. I would even pay a subscription to have that level of detail working as it just looked that good. Sigh. 

https://github.com/derekhe/msfs2020-map-enhancement/issues/863

1 hour ago, DModjo said:

The guy who made the maps enhancement mod confirmed that the 512x512 tiles which are able to be pushed into MSFS SU15 can't be loaded into MSFS SU16. That's why the high LOD feature no longer works.

Maybe this is also the cause of pink textures at EHAM and other airports in SU16? Too high-res textures for these "handcrafted" airports by Asobo?

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/pink-textures-so-far-eham-only-default-asobo-scenery/729894

Edited July 27, 2025Jul 27 by MrFuzzy

Imagine taking your car in for a service and finding out the mechanics performed a mandatory update to the ECU that made it more fuel efficient but less powerful to match the latest model......

55 minutes ago, MrFuzzy said:

Maybe this is also the cause of pink textures at EHAM and other airports in SU16? Too high-res textures for these "handcrafted" airports by Asobo?

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/pink-textures-so-far-eham-only-default-asobo-scenery/729894

Don't think it's related, it has something to do with the terrain LOD system. 

Edited July 27, 2025Jul 27 by DModjo

16 hours ago, sloppysmusic said:

I'd have no problem with that, IF X-Split/LM step up their scenery game and give us the 'hardcore' PC sim that there is definitely a market for.

As I understand it, Laminar are indeed pushing forward - weather and lighting have seen major improvements in the latest version of XP12. Meanwhile, I’ve grown increasingly concerned about the direction MSFS seems to be heading. While MSFS currently does serve the needs of serious flight sim users very well, some recent decisions appear to prioritize a unified experience across PC and Xbox, possibly at the expense of PC-specific capabilities.

For example, seeing the Map Enhancement Tool now state that high-res textures are no longer supported feels like another step in that direction. I do enjoy MSFS 2024, there’s a lot to love, but it’s starting to feel like the platform’s future may be geared more toward the Xbox audience, rather than fully leveraging what modern PCs can offer.

6 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

I do enjoy MSFS 2024, there’s a lot to love, but it’s starting to feel like the platform’s future may be geared more toward the Xbox audience, rather than fully leveraging what modern PCs can offer.

Ever since Xbox compatibility came into the picture the platform's future became tied towards the Xbox audience at some level.  My guess is the unified architecture model is taking into account where MS will take XBox in 2027, the anticipated release of next gen Xbox which aims to for "major leaps in graphics processing" and ray tracing.   Current guesstimates come in at 32Gb of GDDR7 and 800-1Tb per second bandwidth--roughly the same as RTX 4090. Right now they're stuck with much older hardware in the latest Xbox's.  IOW, they really have to make the sim work for that hardware right now.  So for me, today, 2024 delivers everything I care about in a desktop sim, used for entertainment, and lots of it.  So no way would I give up what I have now to jump into Xplane, there's just little to no point because 2024 already delivers.  I see the platform is only going to get better and better over the next few years, so being concerned that the platform's future is being thwarted by its Xbox connection becomes less and less the case over time as Xbox improves.  If for whatever reason MS pulls the plug and stops the servers, then off we go to Xplane, but only then for me.

How does your sim compare image quality wise from 41K feet to this shot captured by yours truly yesterday over the midwestern US?

Edited July 27, 2025Jul 27 by Noel

1 hour ago, Noel said:

How does your sim compare image quality wise from 41K feet to this shot captured by yours truly yesterday over the midwestern US

Like this I guess? 

https://imgur.com/gallery/zCBLIX5

1 hour ago, Noel said:

I see the platform is only going to get better and better over the next few years, so being concerned that the platform's future is being thwarted by its Xbox connection becomes less and less the case over time as Xbox improves.

You could be right - I hope you are. MSFS 2024 deserves to keep improving, there is a lot to like with it.  I try not to give the idea I find it a poor sim - it isn't, but right now XP12 is giving me a more immersive experience.

FL410 - don't get up there much in my GA!  Maybe soon as I am learning the Hotstart Challenger 650.  I'm on a flight over the NE USA at 5000ft, so I slewed up to get the following image.

It's the first thing you see when you load up flight sim.

XBOX Game Studios

I will re-post my reply from the official forum of which it is now hidden.

The sole motivation that kept me from using FS20/24 (especially FS24) is that high lod feature. I've been using it from day one (about 2~3 years ago) for every single flight.

Regardless of how they've improved the terrain DEM on FS24 SU3, the resolution on the aerial textures is simply not acceptable even with 200 TLOD.

It's not like the simulator can't stream higher ZL aerial images, it's just that it doesn't want to show it (which is ridiculous). 

 

Edited July 28, 2025Jul 28 by 21grams

1 hour ago, 21grams said:

I will re-post my reply from the official forum of which it is now hidden.

The sole motivation that kept me from using FS20/24 (especially FS24) is that high lod feature. I've been using it from day one (about 2~3 years ago) for every single flight.

Regardless of how they've improved the terrain DEM on FS24 SU3, the resolution on the aerial textures is simply not acceptable even with 200 TLOD.

It's not like the simulator can't stream higher ZL aerial images, it's just that it doesn't want to show it (which is ridiculous). 

 

100% this. The default aerial imagery looks worse than the default urban texture tiles of FSX. We are going backwards, it’s complete idiocy. 

Edited July 28, 2025Jul 28 by DModjo

3 hours ago, DModjo said:

100% this. The default aerial imagery looks worse than the default urban texture tiles of FSX. We are going backwards, it’s complete idiocy. 

What nonsense.