Hi team, I’m curious as to what changes will need to happen in terms of
workflow when the xbox version is released. Can we continue to model and
export models as we used to or? I ask as I’ve heard a lot of rumors around the
different forums where some beta testers of the SDK say we have to completely
re-do models and include LOD’s - Is this true? I’m yet to add any LOD’s to any
of my commercial products as performance has been good so far and very worried
now that I’ll possibly have to re-do a lot of my work. Thanks in advance for
your answers. -LA PALABRA
However, the SIM UPDATE V is a real disaster when it comes to problems with
the visibility of objects in the distance, Jetways that are not visible,
objects that are usually small, such as vehicles or people a few meters away
from them you can no longer see them, even the simulator terrain itself where
there is terrain is a complete disaster. There are only a few days left for
the release of SIM UPDATE V and so far this has not been solved, this will
bring many problems.
You do not have to re-do your models. In the SDK check this:
https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/index.htm#t=Xbox%2FXbox.htm I agree so
far using LOD’s was not always neccessary, the engine of MSFS could handle
easily the high vertex and material objects. In the new Sim Update V there is
a so called profiler tool which analyzes the scene and gives suggestion what
to do in terms of optimizations. The tool is a kind of statistic tool do not
expect much. Counts the applied textures at each LOD’s, counts the vertices
and maybe instances. They want to have 4 LOD’s for each object.
They also want us to reduce texture sizes on lower LOD’s. To be honest I
disagree with it, please check it here:
https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/t/3239 On the last LOD they want us
to use vertex colors instead of any texture. Creating the LOD’s is not that
hard. But if you have hundreds of objects like me, it takes a while 
Especially editing the xml’s and finetuning the LOD minsizes.
From developer point of view the Sim Update V is a disaster. We cannot finish
our update before the Xbox release.
This is a concern, if I read the links correctly we either have two versions
of our product (one for desktop and one for console), or we have one really
low quality version that will work on both console and desktop? Perhaps I’m
not understanding? I was hoping the XBOX version would do the necessary
optimization. Cheers, Rob.
Thanks for the reply and the links. I’ve read them but still drawing a bit of
confusion. I make primarily tiny airstrips. Will LOD’s be MANDATORY after
sim update V regardless of performance without them or are they merely a
recommendation? This is in regard to products placed on the marketplace. If
that is the case and it’s “mandatory” - Is it only for the XBOX products or
will all be requiring this? I’m hearing way too many conflicting things and
look forward to a definitive answer from one of the SDK devs. Thanks again!
-LA PALABRA
Please note that XBOX can not handle files >1GB. This might require changes in
some CGLs.