7 hours ago, tttocs said:

Please help me understand what this has to do with MSFS. These are completely different products, with completely different technologies behind them. If you really don't understand the difference, then...

You come across as quite insulting for no reason, which makes me wonder if you are feeling alright.

I tend to respond in kind to rude people anyway.
He answered somebody else's question perfectly, not the one you had in your head.
If you really don't understand the difference, then...

Edited September 22Sep 22 by bobcat999

7 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

UrgentSiesta asked this question… “When have you seen MS do this with any of their other products.”

I gave an example from the same company - Microsoft.

Yep, I missed the context. My apologies!

Scott

6 hours ago, bobcat999 said:

I tend to respond in kind to rude people anyway.
He answered somebody else's question perfectly, not the one you had in your head.
If you really don't understand the difference, then...

Yes, I missed the context. My mistake and I already apologized.

Scott

On 9/21/2026 at 8:17 PM, fppilot said:

Well stated Ryan.

Yeah I might have went on a bit of a rant that day. It's frustrating to see the sim downgraded, the PC version I guess.

Still though, there are a lot of really nice addons coming out that keeps me engaged in 2024. I am also flying more XP12 though. I've got it looking really nice with XPME, Orbx Global Forests, and some freeware mods, along with my usual small fleet of GA aircraft. Oh, and the TDS GTNxi...another nice-to-have feature coming Soon TM.

21 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

Yeah I might have went on a bit of a rant that day. It's frustrating to see the sim downgraded, the PC version I guess.

What exactly has downgraded in yours and consensus others estimation? This must be somewhat region dependent? I flew from KSGU to KJAC the other day and was stunned by the quality of detail in the terrain in that entire flight all the way to and including the Grand Tetons. I certainly believe you and others are seeing the degradation but I'm not sure what it really is. I'm also someone who from Day 1 2020 could hardly appreciate the difference between TLOD of 100, and 400. Yes, I saw a very slight change in some detail in the distance but it really was meaningless, certainly relative to the impact on CPU.

Cheers

25 minutes ago, Noel said:

What exactly has downgraded in yours and consensus others estimation? This must be somewhat region dependent? I flew from KSGU to KJAC the other day and was stunned by the quality of detail in the terrain in that entire flight all the way to and including the Grand Tetons. I certainly believe you and others are seeing the degradation but I'm not sure what it really is. I'm also someone who from Day 1 2020 could hardly appreciate the difference between TLOD of 100, and 400. Yes, I saw a very slight change in some detail in the distance but it really was meaningless, certainly relative to the impact on CPU.

Cheers

I think you're just not noticing it as much due to the nature of your high altitude airliner ops. When you fly much slower over terrain and much lower, there is a stark contrast of how things look now vs how they used to look when 2024 first came out. It's not TIN areas (some of those are actually improved). It's just general aerial imagery that used to be quite sharp at a fixed TLOD (say 300), and now it's blurry.

17 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

I think you're just not noticing it as much due to the nature of your high altitude airliner ops. When you fly much slower over terrain and much lower, there is a stark contrast of how things look now vs how they used to look when 2024 first came out. It's not TIN areas (some of those are actually improved). It's just general aerial imagery that used to be quite sharp at a fixed TLOD (say 300), and now it's blurry.

I thought perhaps it had to do with that thanks. Why, so late in the game did they feel the need to do this? Too many out of vram errors on Xbox perhaps? I wonder if it's the basic architecture that dictates it's too difficult to now put a fork in the road for control over something like that based on users' hardware, to have one pathway for Xbox and a 2nd for PC, or something along those lines. Unfortunate if that's the case it seems if they had considered this early on it seems very plausibly possible. I guess we hope for Project Helix to arrive to let them turn the detail back up.

On 9/17/2026 at 12:45 AM, ndts said:

The problem is that with the ever increasing demand for chips driven by AI, there's essentially no way Microsoft can keep the next-gen Xbox under $1000, so MSFS28 would be for a console that'll be very difficult to afford, or PC's that are even less affordable than the $1000+ Xbox, and flight sims are enough of a niche genre that I wouldn't be at all surprised if MS decides to wait a couple of years to see where things go with hardware costs and the entire Xbox division being a bit of a question mark at the moment before they commit to a new flight simulator.

Has AMD sold out to AI? If not is this why MS in their Project Helix is using AMD chips?

On 9/16/2026 at 12:10 PM, ryanbatc said:

Better FPS and Performance: at a HUGE cost of downgrading visuals. This is what has been happening and it's terrible.

I'm beating the dying horse here for the benefit of newer followers to the thread who might read your comment. It's critical to note something about your characterization of visual downgrade as HUGE: it's ground textures in some areas or maybe most areas that have been degraded and that within in a context of ultra detailed PG and object definition and unbelievable density. As well I'm seeing incredibly crisp detailed terrain in the recent fly from KSGU to KJAC and I swear it seems better than ever. So, in terms of 'visuals', we have to include EVERYTHING, not just some or even many sections of flat ground textures. And that EVERYTHING includes all of the detail in planes, airports and surrounding environs, all the photogrammetry, all of the trees and shrubs and grasses and rocks, airport ground services and airport ground vehicles and so forth. Put another way if you degraded all of the detailed objects mentioned, everyone would notice this, but it's not the case at all. Flying into EDDK the other day I was stunned to see the detail from a few hundred feet up at an area I walked around a few months ago as we took a walk to see what was happening at a political rally there. In short, if we list ALL elements of visuals, what's been downgraded is a very small percentage of what impacts one's visual experience in the sim. So I give Asobo massive accolades for exactly how they degraded the entire visual experience if that was required to help a large core group of users have a better total experience, and for that matter that better performance matters hugely to those with modest PC hardware as well, and even my own system.

42 minutes ago, Noel said:

Has AMD sold out to AI? If not is this why MS in their Project Helix is using AMD chips?

Yes, AMD has absolutely sold out to AI. Lisa Su is the little AI pushing sister to Jensen Huang of NVIDA. AMD and her as the leader at AMD have pushed AI almost as must as NVIDA. It has been all over tech news for the last year.

Just one example:

AMD CEO Lisa Su on AI demand and hyperscaler spending: 'We're seeing the returns'

Edited September 24Sep 24 by sniper31

12 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

It's not TIN areas (some of those are actually improved).

Well, except for the *&$#! wonky colors in most of the TIN areas.

Scott

HUGE downgrade? Doubtful or maybe a trip to the eye doctor is required.

Truth is that MSFS graphics are still HUGELY superior to any other sim.

dd

To be honest, I have not actually noticed a lot of the downgrading in terrain texture resolution that many others claim to see. Maybe it is because I use a relatively small 24" monitor, and the effects are not as noticeable? I have certainly noticed LOD issues, but the terrain textures generally look OK to me. Of course, if they have been downgraded, then I would prefer them to be upgraded again, whether I notice it or not 😉🤣

14 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

To be honest, I have not actually noticed a lot of the downgrading in terrain texture resolution that many others claim to see.

It's not a claim, it's a bonafide fact!

2 minutes ago, MarcG said:

It's not a claim, it's a bonafide fact!

And it's a Bonafide fact that of ALL the elements of what comprises 'visuals', what was downgraded is a very small piece of the total pie and that is in part why not everybody is impacted the same by this clearly carefully chosen method to reduce performance demand. I have a reasonably high end system and would not want performance degraded in trade for what element was degraded to accommodate low end PC and consoles. Like Christopher, I hardly notice it at all, and will add I have a 34" display running at virtual 5160x2160.

Edited September 24Sep 24 by Noel