I have a few airports in development for MSFS2024, which I may or may not release now that I’m retired from scenery development. None of my airports now display the custom background. It’s been suggested that after SU1 if a CGL doesn’t exceed the default Bing resolution then it will not display. This doesn’t make sense to me, as there are reasons beyond resolution why I’d want a custom background, mainly quality.
I really just want to know first if this is a bug or a new ‘feature’.
EDIT: I’ve changed the location of this thread from the discussion forum, as I initially asked for input from other developers, and now that it appears that this isn’t just me who is affected, it needs to be flagged as a bug.
I think the only guarantee that a cgl will display is if it is level 20. And then it can be overridden by photogrammetry. I thought this was true of 2020 also.
All my CGLs are level 20, and none are in photogrammetry areas. They all worked in 2024 until SU1, now none of them work.
If you give me some coordinates I could verify on my end.
Thanks for that, I appreciate the offer, but these are all my own unreleased airports.
I’m hoping that we’ll get some official word on what’s changed with SU1, but the lack of response to this and other posts may mean that it isn’t an issue for most developers. Still, I’m not sure if the week has even started for official channels, so I’m waiting patiently.
We’re also having issues with some Ortho CGLs not loading after the sim update.
From what we can tell this happens when there are multiple CGL packages in close proximity to each other.
Cheers, that could well be the issue I’m having. Unfortunately I’ve not been able to test this, as I can’t get any of my CGLs to show up, even if I disable any others nearby. I don’t know how many, if any, CGLs are streamed though. Since my country has had a World Update it may have some here and there?
I certainly hope this is a bug, if it’s a new feature then it doesn’t seem very useful:)
I have checked four of my airports in MSFS2024 after SU1 and all of these still have their photo ground layers… I do the South African airports for MSFS, but I have also done FHSH Saint Helena and KCMI Willard Airport. These are just fine with SU1.
For those interested, I use QGIS and TILES2BING for all my ground layers. I compile all of them at an LOD of 19 and there is no issues here.
Maybe this will help someone out there to fix the issues they have? Hope so! 
That’s very interesting, at least I know that it should be possible to fix, and it probably isn’t a LOD limitation. However I don’t think there’s anything I can do to change the way I create the CGLs, I use Global Mapper ‘Export to Web’, and select Bing Maps as the format. Everything things without problem in the SDK, and the CGLs which I get from the 2024 SDK work fine in 2020.
I use QGIS to export the area as a geotiff. I can use any resolution I want. For example I can export at 0.5 meters. I make sure the image is EPSG:3857, so the image is in a metric projection. I can then use paintdotnet to edit the tif, as it saves the image as geotiff.
I then use Geotiff2Tiles to slice and re-image the tiles to LOD20. I then use tiles2bing to convert the tiles to Bing format. Here’s the batchfile that does the magic:
rmdir /s /q TestTiles
rmdir /s /q aerial_images
...\tools\GTiff2Tiles\GTiff2Tiles.Console.exe --input test.tif --output TestTiles --minz 20 --maxz 20 --tms FALSE -c mercator
...\tools\tiles2bing\tiles2bing TestTiles /o PackageSources\CGL\aerial_images /y google
rmdir /s /q TestTiles
pause
In this way, it doesn’t matter what the source resolution is, as it will still make LOD20 tiles.
AerialWorkshop.zip
After a lot of thought, I don’t think that the way I build my CGLs is an issue, as I always get a perfectly workable CGL, which works as it should in 2020. It seems there no change with these files in 2024, as when I build them in 2024 they are fully compatible with 2020.
So I’m thinking that it may be something specific to my sim, although today I reinstalled it and no change.
I’m also having issues with my custom aerials in 2024. They all work fine in 2020.
Before SU1, they worked in MSFS 2024 if I copied an MSFS 2020 SDK compiled package or a 2024 SDK compiled package into the 2024 Community folder, but they didn’t work if they were streamed.
After SU1 they don’t work either if they are copied into the Community folder or if they are streamed …
The LODs of 2024 are not the same as the LODs for 2020. 2024 has more areas maxed at LOD19. So as per the SDKs, we should be using LOD20 to insure their display.
I do have some projects with lower LODs. For example I have a project with LOD18 over an area with only landclass display in 2020. Isla La Blanquilla (SVLB).2020 LOD here is 13 for both 2020 and 2024. And the aerial displays in both sims.
Does it display both as installed package (community folder) and in Marketplace streamed version?
It’s not on the Marketplace.
Thanks for that, tomorrow I’ll submit a bug report here.
