Horizontal Resolution of Grids

[Guest pecrowther]

While playing with DrawPoly3, it dawned on me that while the vertical resolution of grids is good - accurate to 1/256 of a meter, the horizontal resolution is accurate to only a few meters. (Which is why steep cliffs look like blocks.)I am sure that this has been discussed somewhere, but I am not sure what terminology is used to describe these grids. Is there a math formula to describe the exact location of these horizontal data points? Is it a subdivision of a cell? Or can anyone point me to where this has already been discussed?Thanks,Phil

[Guest pecrowther]

To reply to my own inquiry, it appears that the horizontal resolution is 1/16 of an LOD13 grid. I think this is equal to around 76.8 meters or 252 feet, almost the length of a football field.I suppose that if one were so inclined, one could sculpt a higher resolution "face" using fsds or gmax objects.Phil

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Phil.I believe the horizontal resolution of LWM flattens is controlled by the LOD of the mesh that is being used. In the above case, it appears you have an LOD9 mesh installed. Also, if you have altered the default fs9.cfg to increase the default TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19, that will also affect the display of the flattens.As far as all flattens in FS9, we are using an ax to sculpt, not a scalpel. That's why remeshing with LWM polys is so difficult.The better vertical resolution is needed for runways. MS seems a bit unconcerned with the rest of the terrain, and I can understand that. This is a flight sim, not primarily a terrain modeling program. Dick

[Guest pecrowther]

DickI used a 10 meter dem and set LOD=auto, so I am not sure what LOD I got. Is LOD9 a good compromise? I would always like more detail, but hate to kill frame rates.As it is, I ended up "propping up" the area I was working on by creating a landable surface and using FSDS to create a kind of surrounding landscape. A real "kludge", but it closely matches the real landscape.Phil

[Guest pecrowther]

Dick,To reply, once again, to my own reply - I tried assembling the bgl using several different LODs and it appears that LOD 12 gives the closest approximation. However, I understand from other posts that:1. LOD 11 (19.2m) is the highest resolution that fs9 can display (so I will never see the full detail from my 10m dem); and2. the only way to see LOD11 is to set TMVL to 20 or higher.I used the LOD 13 bgl and cranked the TMVL up to 21 and the drop-off was still there! I might be able to do some more accurate sculpting with DrawPoly3 at those settings, but I hate to force people to suffer a loss in performance. So the "kludge" will stay.These changes did remove some of the "blockiness" from nearby cliffs, so it was somewhat worthwhile.Thanks for focusing my attention on an area that I had forgotten about. In designing my scenery, I need to consider that other users might be using different settings.In the meantime, I assume that LOD 9 and TMVL 19 are good baseline settings to use in designing the scenery.Phil

[Guest Jouvarn]

thnx :(but whre to get it?i mean the DrawPoly3

[Guest pecrowther]

Looks like I manage to use the wrong name in two different posts. It is LWMPoly3 and LWMPoint3 (not DrawPoly3).Phil