Small objects disappear on long distance

[MSFS 2020] Questions & Community Discussions Art
1

I have several projects involving small objects disappear on longer distance
when viewing (even LOD set to 100), such as wall or runway distance remaining
sign should be kept in view even in longer distance. Is there any way to
increase small object viewing distance? Or we can have some kind of sitch to
enable small object in view at a longer
distance?

3840×1905 2.03 MB

2

Hello @kcai, In this new version, we have changed the way LODs behave to get
massive performance improvements. Here is how LODs work in this new version:

  • Objects with one single LOD disappear if their screen size is lower than 5%. (MAJOR CHANGE IS HERE: it used to be 0,5% in previous versions).
  • Objects with two LODs disappear if their screen size is lower than 2%.
  • Objects with three or more LODs disappear if their screen size is lower than 0.5%.
  • This is why we advise people to create 4 different LODs for their models, as it was stated in our Xbox guidelines published a few months ago on http://docs.flightsimulator.com…

Did you add more than 1 LOD on your assets, to prevent them from
disappearing at a smaller distance? If not, you’ll get this behaviour on
Xbox. On PC version, we’ve decided to flip back to the former LOD behaviour,
so your users will see the exact same behaviour as they had in Sim Update 4.
But you’ll have an option in the DevMode, “Xbox LOD selection Mode”, which can
be activated and which will render the new LOD management system. This way,
you’ll be able to see how your scenery will render on Xbox.

3

…and what was the former LOD behavior of Sim Update 4?

4

Objects with one single LOD disappear if their screen size was lower than 0.5%

  • that’s why you would see items from a larger distance, while now they
    disappear sooner. And while this value of 0,5% can’t be changed, the way to
    see your objects from a larger distance is to add LODs (from LOD0 = best
    quality, lots of polygons to LOD3 or 4: low quality, less polygons, but
    visible from a very long distance). All details about LOD management can be
    found here: SDK Documentation
    (flightsimulator.com)
5

Ok! I got this, I will see what the new update behave and decide further ,
thanks!

6

@SonantAlpaca,

Some users are reporting objects pop in / out when panning the camera.

Is this also related to missing LODs? or is this a new behaviour when changing
viewpoint due to the new occlusion / memory flushing method rather than LODs?
Regards, Simbol

7

In that case, there seems to be a bug in the code because it’s not operating
as you described for PC platform. EDIT: Are you running two unique code paths
(one for XBOX and one for PC)? Or is everything single code path with decision
tree based on platform? Cheers, Rob.