Popping/changing mountain mesh

[chrisjuh1]

Hi LM,

I have an issue with popping/changing mountain mesh with a fresh install of p3dv4.5+.

My hardware:

- i9 9900k (stable overclock 5.1ghz)
- Asus rog strix z390-f gaming (latest bios)
- G.Skill Trident Z F4-3200C14D-32GTZ
- Gigabyte RTX 2070 windforce (no overclock)
- Samsung evo 850 ssd for OS and Samsung evo 970 for p3dv4.5+
- Dell ultrasharp u2715h display at 30hz

Software:

- Windows 10 1903
- Nvidia driver 436.15
- Latest driver evo 970 ssd

Addons:

No addons


I did a clean install of Windows 10 aswell. Also I removed the generated files and shaders.
With the default graphic settings in p3d the issue is still there. Tweaks in the cfg won't help to solve this issue.
I hope there is a solution for this issue.

[pmb]

This is an age-old issue which Prepar3d inherited from the ESP engine. All simulators based on the ESP/FSX engine share it to a degree. Even Dovetail's FSW sported that "feature". I've been told it's caused by higher resolution meshs being progressively loaded while approaching a certain site.

It becomes the more prominent the higher the resolution your mesh is. Pilot's high definition meshs ("Ultra") are popping all over the place, thus I finally gave up on them, how nice they may look. In comparison, mesh popping is much less prominent in the default Prepar3d mesh, but still present in certain places. You can find dozens of threads on this at AVSIM over the years, with no one offering a working solution (except flying on flat terrain only...).

After making an extended series of tests with numerous different settings a couple of years ago, I've thrown the towel. I only hope the new MS simulator will not be infected by the same disease. On the other hand, neither X-Plane nor AeroflyFS, both being based on different terrain engines, show this issue.

Kind regrads, Michael

[JorgenSA]

Interesting... I don't think I have ever seen this happen... but I use FreeMesh worldwide.

Jorgen

[pmb]

Interesting... I don't think I have ever seen this happen... but I use FreeMesh worldwide.

Jorgen

I think it depends on the style of flying, too. I suppose, pure airliner pilots might never become aware of the issue. On the one hand, you wan't notice mesh popping at FL350. On the other hand, most major airports for takeoff and landing are surrounded by a patch of more or less flat terrain being void of popping. Plus, you're usually too busy to watch mesh popping during final approach in a liner.

I fly mainly GA, low and slow, in fair weather, and that's where the issue is prominent.

Kind regards, Michael

[JorgenSA]

Michael,

What you wrote here makes perfect sense. But I fly mostly with the Beech King Air sto.... er, ported over from FSX, and I don't think I have seen it including when flying outside of airports...

But this is definitely something I will have a look at next time I take off.

Jorgen

[chrisjuh1]

Well with my previous system I didn't had this problem.
That was Windows 10 1803 and p3dv4.4. I hope LM will fix this anoying issue.

[Martyson]

Well with my previous system I didn't had this problem.
That was Windows 10 1803 and p3dv4.4. I hope LM will fix this anoying issue.

Maybe do a quick video of the problem (default P3D scenery area) and other pilots could go to the same area for testing.

[chrisjuh1]

Well with my previous system I didn't had this problem.
That was Windows 10 1803 and p3dv4.4. I hope LM will fix this anoying issue.

Maybe do a quick video of the problem (default P3D scenery area) and other pilots could go to the same area for testing.

Here is a short video of the issue I'm talking about.
Location is Grand Canyon. But it is also near Las Vegas or anywhere with mountains.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uKabQ4 ... e=youtu.be

[keenrw]

Hi

I see this too but after using FSX (and most FS versions since FS4) i just put it down to the out-dated engine and dont really worry about it to be honest..

Rich

[pmb]

Being a VFR low and slow flyer, I find it immersion-killing, even more as the clip shows the bare-bones version only. Add higher resolution mesh ORBX scenery or Pilot's Ultimate mesh and the effect will be much enhanced.

Kind regards, Michael

[chrisjuh1]

Than I will have to live with this anoying problem.
Lets hope that with the new Microsoft flightsimulator this will belong in the past.
Thanks all for you input!

[ianrivaldosmith]

This issue is still prevalent in P3DV5 and as a VFR pilot, it totally destroys the sim.

[Mischung]

This is an age-old issue which Prepar3d inherited from the ESP engine...

I absolutely agree with Michael,

this has been around since I can think of it :-(

Sometimes it's the changing mesh-resolution as you're getting closer and other times it's the changing texture resolution when you're approaching the terrain.

Both is an immersion killer in my opinion and I spent many...many hours to get rid of this, but with no avail.

Affinity settings, Frame-limiter (internal/external), mesh and texture resolution, cfg-tweaks (Texture_Size_Exp, LOD-radius, Texture_Request_Distance, buying a new computer and many other things I forgot.

It has improved a bit sometimes, but it is always there and it's not because I have an overloaded sim and all sliders to the right!
My system is perfectly balanced and as soon as I hit the "Pause"-key, my cores go to idle immediatelly so they can perfectly keep up with texture loading. Also my GPU is not the bottleneck and it's always important to check the GPU load as well ;-)

Hopefully there will be a "fix" in some near future, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Marc

[geloxo]

I agree with you. What I have seen is that problem is caused by the higher resolution mesh (5m, 2m, 1m). If you go below 10m then it´s really annoying as it also affects the flat areas with a little slope. For some reason the mesh LOD change distance (or level of detail radius) has no setting available in game. We have one for the terrain textures, but not for the mesh. You can only set the resolution in meters.

The solution would be to be able to force the LOD changes at greater distances. Workload on the PC is not that high due to mesh loading. Scenery and autogen causes much more. We really need a solution for this… Meanwhile I would suggest you stay at 10m mesh. The effect is less noticeable.

Cheers

[high-5]

I think the popping mountain mesh is one of those old FSX/ESP bugs that is simply never going to be fixed.

Two other such well-known old bugs, which in my opinion should be pretty trivial to fix, are the floating buildings http://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic ... 2&t=137854 and popping runway lights http://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic ... 2&t=137120

These bugs affects everyone and there are plenty of users willing to provide comprehensive bug reports and other help.
Unfortunately there seems to be about zero interest from the developers to fix it.