Mesh, LOD and TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL

[Guest]

It seems that FS2002 only support LOD = 11 or lower. I have created a very detailed mesh of Devils Tower (altitude data every 10 meters, LOD=12 ani it was imposible to see until I discover TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL parameter in FS2002.cfg, the default is 19 but I have tested until 35 and there is a grand diference.The fist Image is my scenery without the cfg changeThe second was with TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL = 35But still we have a problem, if we are far of the scenary, more than aprox 4.2nm the mesh disappear "image 4"and whe we are near, less tha 4.2nm the mesh appear. "Last image"Someone know the changes in configuration to have very detailed mesh terrains far than 4.2 nm?Any sugestion or idea to test?Thaks and i hope my discovers serve to someone

[Guest]

Mgros, I'm sorry I don't have an answer to your terrain question but I can see in your screenshots the thing that most depresses me about FS2002, the microsoft rivers.No matter how good and impressive addon scenery is it is always brought down to cartoon level by the "go anywhere" rivers and roads.Unfortunately most of my favourite addon flying areas are mountains and canyons, with rivers painted on the walls. When in these areas I now remove the "riversu.bmp" file in scenerydb/world/texture and this looks much more realistic. The rivers are too wide for small valleys anyway.Perhaps your scenery could benefit from this.RegardsBaz

[Guest sgreenwood]

Mgros,Your experience is very interesting. I have done a little testing in these areas and have a couple of observations.1) Maximum LOD: Justin Tyme(fsgenesis.com) recently reminded me that any replacement mesh must cover a full quadrant of the underlying fs mesh; otherwise it will not be used. I then constructed a bgl file at LOD 12 using 10 7.5-min quads of 10m data (a 2x5 rectangle - probably much larger area than yours). This was rendered correctly. There does not seem to be any limit on the LOD value itself other than the max of 15 listed in the SDK.It is likely that your replacement mesh is too small to cover the grid quadrant beneath it, especially if your are placing it over the fs default mesh. 2) TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL: I recently (old forum) posted some of my own test results with different values for this parameter. I used 100m and 30m source files at LOD9 and LOD10. Improvements were obvious for values of 20 and 21, but I was not able to see any additional improvement for values above 21. 3) Most of my sim flying now is over 30m source data at LOD10, with TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=21. I do not see any degradation of the terrain such as you have illustrated. Some suggestions come to mind:1) Increase the coverage area of the 10m data you are using, or try placing it over 30m mesh for the area (the higher the LOD the better since the underlying grid area you need to cover will will be smaller).2) Try lower values for the vertex level parameter. I don't believe this will solve your "4.2nm" problem, but it would be helpful to confirm the fact that values above 21 make a difference when higher resolution mesh is used. (The value of 35 does seem larger than necessary, but the tower is there...)Good luck,Steve

[Guest]

Thanks for your help.I kown that Resample support LOD until 15 and I know all the problem about the area of resample anl LOD quadrants.Te question is. why I can see the new scenery only changing the TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL value? The resample is correct because it's appear with the new value.Thas right that a value of 21 is enough, but I believe that 35 (the limit) not degrade visuals neither fps and perhaps improve the mesh resolution.I think the fs2002 Terrain SDK at last solve all our doubts.

[Guest]

I have searched Microsoft for the SDK Terrain for FS2002 without any result.Can you give me a lead as to where to find it, please.

[Guest christian]

For disappearing highres mesh the solution is to use, say, LOD 8 + LOD 10 together... It works.Cheers, Christian

[Guest]

Christian,Are you saying to compile the same area say 10-meter and 30-meter elevation data on top of each other. I was playing around with that and got some unusual results, some good and some bad !! LOL !!Just curious if that would actually work ??Cheers Jackknife............

[Guest christian]

no, I didn't mean to compile 2 LODs together (although that may work also, probably it does but it's less flexible).Simply enable both LODs as scenery in FS2K2. Cheers, Christian

[Guest]

What might work really well is to resample 100 meter data as LOD 8 or 9 and take the 30 / 10 meter data and resample it at LOD 10 / 11. I believe this is what Christian is getting at. Then by placing both sets over the default mesh, a really good effect may result. Also, you don't have to worry about which scenery gets used by MSFS. I have found that the default mesh is used over the longer distances. And as you move closer, the mesh with the higher LOD takes effect. So in theory, having a stepped series of mesh sceneries with differing LODs might prove to provide a better overall visual appearance.Leland Steffensen.