Water Fade/Reappearance Based on Distance After Elevation Recalibration

[MSFS 2024] Bug Reports Airport & Sceneries
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Version: 1.8.14.0

Frequency: Frequently

Severity: High
Very negative rendering quality
Blocker - prevents from releasing the product

Context: in finalization before release; In flight.

Bug description:

Context
Product concerned: compilation of a terraforming rectangle over a mountainous area. Since the native MSFS mesh is off by roughly -35 m in this zone, the terrain height is raised during compilation to recalibrate the data against the real elevation.

Observed symptom
After compiling with this elevation offset, water rendering becomes distance-dependent relative to the observer:

  • Water only displays fully when the observer is very close to it.
  • As the observer moves away, the water surface progressively disappears.
  • The effect is symmetric: moving closer = reappearance, moving away = disappearance.

Timeline clues

  • The bug appears to have started around SU6, though this can’t be stated with full certainty (working on several projects in parallel makes precise dating difficult).
  • It is, however, certain that a few months ago this same type of compilation worked correctly.

Suspected correlation
The onset of the issue seems to coincide with the introduction, in a sim update, of the ability to pass through the ground and see the underside of the mesh (the so-called “ground penetration” / view of the mesh’s back face). The hypothesis is that a change in culling or mesh depth handling (related to this new behavior) interacts poorly with terraforming rectangles whose altitude has been raised, disrupting the distance-based visibility calculation for the water layer.

Technical hypotheses to investigate

  • Interaction between the applied terrain altitude offset and the water layer’s LOD/culling calculation.
  • A rendering engine change (since SU6 or a nearby version) affecting depth handling / z-fighting between the raised terrain and the water plane.
  • A possible link to the new ground-penetration behavior (rendering of the mesh’s underside), which may have altered how water/terrain occlusion is evaluated based on camera distance.

Would it be possible to switch to private for the rest of the conversation and the sending of representative video or even test file ?

Repro steps:

Attachments:

Private attachments: Send a PM to @PrivateContent with the link to this topic and the link to download your content

2

No one from Asobo to answer me ? On vacation ?

3

Hello @FuturKiwi1965 ,

I’m not sure to understand.

May I ask whether this was written with the help of AI?
If it’s the case, I would advise checking the terminology used, as it can sometimes lead to confusion for us.
For example, we are not sure what you mean by the introduction of ground penetration in a recent update ?
Also, when you say “Observer,” do you mean in a devcam / player context, or both?

Are you using a rectangle with a heightmap or a profile for the terraforming?

Can you provide us with your project along with video/screenshot if you want ?
See 3) Provide Private Content

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4

Hello @FuturKiwi1965
With your package I was able to reproduce the behavior.
This will be reviewed by a Dev.

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