I see that the sim update 5 testers made enough noise to get the
implementation of LOD levels for models on PC delayed for this update. Will we
be getting a firm date for when it will be put in place? I for one will be
deleting any project of mine that has numerous models. It’s too much utterly
thankless work and I was too bone idle to create LODs when level 0 worked
absolutely fine. I didn’t even know what it was until a long time after I
started creating. For projects with a handful models I will probably look into
it, but if it is to happen I certainly want to know when in advance.
1st - The new LOD Method is OPTIONAL, can be changed via settings. 2nd - You
can do whatever it pleases you with your model but I personally think like
this. I want who dowloads my sceneries to enjoy them regardless of the
settings. Just because I have a mid-high end machine, it doesn’t mean I have
to design a scenery around that. I’m spending 4 days by now creating LODs for
my models, and tbh I just feel like it’s the best thing to do 3rd -
I for one will be deleting any project of mine that has numerous models. It's too much utterly thankless work and I was too bone idle to create LODs when level 0 worked absolutely fine.
I’m not here to state what you should or shouldn’t do, but isn’t this a kind
of exaggerated reaction? I personally knew I’d have to do updates when I
started the adventure on MSFS, and also “getting to know LODs after a long
time since you started scenery creation”, is kinda weird. Someone who like to
do something (or in my case, work with it) should find out about LODs pretty
soon. It’s basically front-page when it comes to Assets Creation in the
Official Online Documentation, and also is a common practice in every
videogame or rendered movie.
The new LOD method, or rather the existing one, was going to be mandatory on
PC for sim update 5. They’re saying it’s just been delayed. That’s what this
question is.
Whenever it is, It took me 4 days to sort out 44 models out of my time off my
regular job. It isn’t much of a challenge once you get into the workflow. And
personally, I never do 4 LODs, only 3.
Hello, I’m going to sum up the situation, hoping it will be clearer. 
TODAY
: - On XBOX, you have the new LOD management system. Which means that an
object with only 1 LOD will disappear if its size is inferior to 5% of the
screen (used to be 0,5% before). - On PC, we restored the former system: your
object will disappeared if it’s smaller than 0,5%. But we added an option in
the DevMode (XBOX LOD Selection Mode) which will enable the Xbox behaviour
(described above). It allows you to check how your sceneries would look like
on Xbox. This being said, we strongly advise you to create at least 3 LODs for
your objects. We mentioned it in the online documentation :
https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/index.htm#t=Asset_Creation%2F3D_Models%2FLoDs.htm
But I reckon that we could have stated it louder. There are no other plans for
a close future but we’ll keep you posted ASAP. If you have more questions let
me know!
Cool. Thank you. I knew about the LOD system and the Xbox changes. But this
sentence in yesterday’s development update is the reason for this thread - 'We
have temporarily reverted the LOD selection mechanism to its previous state on
PC. ’ So is it the case that keeping the system is no longer temporary? I’ll
do it in future but it’s not practical for certain existing projects.
Thanks Alizee, that’s some great communication We as developers should all
know the sdk guidelines, those lod"s instruction are there since the
beginning! But you know, if something work, and doesn’t throws exceptions…Who
cares! We Just Need a Little bit of “push” or Better, a kick in the right
direction before changes happens. we love deadlines, Just tell us: the new
solution Will be online within 2 or 3 months, be adviced! Of course
optimization Is welcome, more FPS means more space to add process new things,
and you have lot of stuff to add to the Sim and overall resource Is finite, we
could not count on technology Evolution only
Actually at the moment I don’t know how long the “temporary” part will last -
but getting the former behaviour at least allows people to enjoy the same
experience as before, on PC. So the best advise would be to add more LODs
anyway. 3 is enough. If you have small objects (with few polygons and low res
textures), you can duplicate the LOD 2 times. But make sure you ONLY do that
on SMALL objects, otherwise you’ll exceed the memory space and that never ends
well…!
I’ll have to admit that our communication wasn’t good enough in that
particular case. I sincerely apologize for that … And the only promise I can
make is that we’re trying to do better for next time. We’re currently thinking
about ways to keep you posted about major changes, either in the DevMode or
here on the DevSupport platform.
Hi Alizee, The biggest issue is we are unable to test upcoming builds until
they are available to public where such changes just hit us in the face
forcing us to implement radical changes when things break. Typical example
model behaviors changed tags and we just found out when 1.18 became public.
Mouse react points are behaving differently and we just found out when the
built was published. Although the fix for mouse movements are easy, when you
have large projects in the pipeline, having to fix all of them suddenly
presents not only a bigger challenge, but also lots of stress when your
customers or other 3rd party developers that you with demands immediately
repairs to multiple projects in order to satisfy their customers since they
are upset because products stopped working. It seems developers with access to
market place had access to beta builds among other devs like Pmdg, etc. But
others were just unable to participate. It would be ideal if other 3rd party
developers who are under NDA already with MSFS (like myself) Could also get
access to such beta builds so we could not only be alerted of key changes to
the platform, but also report issues before it becomes a real problem after
release, for example pink textures issues due to faults with the 1.18 gLTF
reader and the packaging tool. After all we are all partners in this business
with the end goal to provide the best experience possible to MSFS users.
Finally I would like to thank you for the time and effort your are putting to
keep us in the loop and help us as much as possible, I know you don’t have
enough resources to do all you wish for 3rd party developers and the SDK, so
every single second you take to communicate with us is incredibly apreciated.
Hope we can find ways to improve the relationship and increase efficiency. All
the best, Raul
The issues I see: 1. Documentation says 4 LODs 2. This is impacting PC end
users with SU5 so there might be a bug. 3. Initial creation of 3 or 4 LODs
isn’t the biggest issue, but when updates are necessary that cycle can start
to get tedious. 4. Modern game engines like UE5 don’t require LOD (handle by
the engine). I appreciate what you are trying to do for the XBOX version and
be more inclusive in user base (that’s good for everyone), but if I were to
suggest anything as “temporary” looking into future game engines/platforms,
then the LOD system would be top of the list as something that will and is
going away for content providers (for good reason). I just find it hard to
embrace “modern” as being DX11 and LOD. Please add my request to move to DX12
to gain performance as XBOX now supports full DX12_2 and deprecate end
user/dev LOD based model processing. Cheers, Rob.