It would be great if the terrain texture were provided at the highest zoom level (22), and I also agree that they used to be sharper earlier in 2020, but I think we need to accept a compromise because it’s not practical or economically viable that a million players continuously stream so much data. As it is now, the terrain is far from blurry or unsharp; it is very pleasing and all necessary and also not necessary details can be identified.

Edited December 18, 2025Dec 18 by Mark1616

Seb said many moons ago when you set texture resolution to ultra it only means that the highest quality texture available will be used.

dd

Edited December 18, 2025Dec 18 by Sky_Pilot071

At the last twitch session, they said they were totally surprised users were claiming the sim was using 512 previously, as they couldn't find the code for it.
This is why I am filled with such confidence in what they are doing. 

Edited December 18, 2025Dec 18 by bobcat999

7 hours ago, Noel said:

That they exist is a puzzle to me.  It seems so possible to learn their basic structure via AI analysis or what have you, and turn them into the surrounding texture, or trees/shrubs, etc.  I keep PG off for that reason, and that I fly airliners so don't hang around long low down.  

Don't really know much at any detail level (or any level, really) about what AI can and can't do in this field. Like anything else software related it's going to be down to the quality of the human coding/rules etc that goes in to it initially. From all the press AI gets, I would expect it to be able to completely eradicate these blobs, and maybe throw in a few dancing dogs as a bonus. But oersonally, I have my doubts.

Also, isn't there something about MAsobo not using Blackshark AI now? Again, don't know the background or story to that, but thought I'd seen that somewhere in one of the original 2024 blurbs. It might explain the apparent degradation though.

And yep, if you're flying the tubes this is not much of an issue. But me, I get a virtual nose-bleed if I get much above 5000 ft and probably actually spend most of my time a lot lower than that. I also feel that MAsobo rightly make so much noise about, and obviously put so much effort into, the visual aspect of the sim that I'm surprised that they don't seem concerned about this issue. But like I say, it's not a deal breaker, even for me. But if they did manage to fix it, they really could start talking seriously about a true digital twin. And imagine how it would look if it had the look of Google streetview - amazing.

On 12/18/2025 at 10:46 AM, andy1252 said:

 

Also, isn't there something about MAsobo not using Blackshark AI now? Again, don't know the background or story to that, but thought I'd seen that somewhere in one of the original 2024 blurbs. It might explain the apparent degradation though.

 

The partnership has ended - it was mentioned some time ago, and that they were looking at doing it in house now - not sure if that's actually started though, and I'm concerned that we won't see any development here.

IMO The blackshark thing never produced or fulfilled its potential, after day 1 I never saw any improvement with the models - no evolution at all. 

Edited December 19, 2025Dec 19 by hanhamreds

On 12/18/2025 at 12:35 AM, Mark1616 said:

It would be great if the terrain texture were provided at the highest zoom level (22), and I also agree that they used to be sharper earlier in 2020, but I think we need to accept a compromise because it’s not practical or economically viable that a million players continuously stream so much data. As it is now, the terrain is far from blurry or unsharp; it is very pleasing and all necessary and also not necessary details can be identified.

IMO they downgraded it to the Xbox (and now PS5).  The Xbox cannot perform as well as a AMD 9800x3d with RTX 5080 etc...  so since (IMO) most of their sales on via console they kinda had to downgrade the PC experience.  This is all only my guess - I have no proof to back it up.  Except that I'm very confident their console sales outperform PC.

53 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

Except that I'm very confident their console sales outperform PC.

Have you read this somewhere? Or just a feeling?

I was coming here today to see if anyone was talking about exactly the opposite.  I flew around NYC last night and was FLOORED at the new much sharper PG scenery.  Previously my home was clearly pre 2015 imagery and blobish and blurry.  Now its the right shape, clearly defined features and looks to be from 2022, I can even see my car in the driveway now! 

45 minutes ago, FlierHawk said:

I was coming here today to see if anyone was talking about exactly the opposite.  I flew around NYC last night and was FLOORED at the new much sharper PG scenery.  Previously my home was clearly pre 2015 imagery and blobish and blurry.  Now its the right shape, clearly defined features and looks to be from 2022, I can even see my car in the driveway now! 

whats the settings because my 2024 visuals are trash compared to 2020./