Question/opinions about terrain mesh add-ons

[Maurice]

I have noticed a very unfortunate side effect about terrain mesh add-ons.  I use FSGenesis but i'm pretty sure that would apply to any terrain mesh product out there.

What I see when I get relatively close to the ground are portions of the terrain jump up or down or both at various times. At first, I though that was just the autogen but on closer look, the elevation of the terrain is definitely changing abruptly.

I find this behaviour very disturbing especially when landing and you see the ground ahead of you abruptly change elevation. I confirmed this was due to the terrain mesh add-on by uninstalling it and I don't see the ground jumping or sinking anymore.

Anyway, for me, it looks so bad that I am probably going to remove all terrain mesh but I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this effect. A good place to see it if you have the FSGenesis mesh (or other Canadian mesh) is while flying over Toronto (CYYZ). It would be very nice if someone could confirm that they see the same thing. If not, then maybe I did not configure something properly.

It does make sense that the terrain elevation would be different than the default FSX elevation but I would have thought that the new elevations would always take precedence over the default elevations and not compete with them as you are flying. So maybe it is a question of setting the correct mesh priority if such a thing exists.

Thanks,

Maurice

[blueskydriver]

Maurice,

Just installed FSGenesis last week for USA and you might be seeing the problem with the plateau issue(s) around the airports; especially, with add-ons (and some default airports). There was a post on the FSGenesis site about this, the programmer is working on it, but not all are done, and likely the Canada set is not done yet either.

Just to check, did you set your mesh to 10M in the FSX Display settings? Not sure how that gets handled to deal with the problem, but you should just check it... Another question; are you checking your scenery libraries to make sure your add-ons are higher up...here is a link about FSGenesis as being layered to the FSLibrary:

http://www.fsgenesis.net/forum/index.php?topic=355.0

Also, check this:

http://www.fsgenesis.net/forum/index.php?topic=676.0

And most recently, read this one:

http://www.fsgenesis.net/forum/index.php?topic=1061.0

Hope this will help some...

BSD

[XOrionFE]

Hi Maurice,

I have never experienced this but I don't use that software.  I only use UTX terrain mesh.   

Scott

[Maurice]

Maurice,

Just installed FSGenesis last week for USA and you might be seeing the problem with the plateau issue(s) around the airports; especially, with add-ons (and some default airports). There was a post on the FSGenesis site about this, the programmer is working on it, but not all are done, and likely the Canada set is not done yet either.

Just to check, did you set your mesh to 10M in the FSX Display settings? Not sure how that gets handled to deal with the problem, but you should just check it... Another question; are you checking your scenery libraries to make sure your add-ons are higher up...here is a link about FSGenesis as being layered to the FSLibrary:

Hi BSD,

My problem is not related to the airport plateau. I know all about those. A plateau does does not jump up or down, it remains at the same elevation. Also, I installed all the Genesis areas with the automatic install which is supposed to put things in the right place.

Several months ago, I posted my question about this same problem in the FSG forum and Justin had no answer or suggestions for me, so I disabled the mesh at that time. I only re-installed it now because I rebuilt my FSX PC and I thought it was worth another try.

So basically, I was just curious to hear if anyone had seen the same problem. Strangely enough, the problem is not nearly as severe in the US regions, at least not in the ones I tried so maybe the default elevation was more 'correct' in the US.

Thanks for the links anyway. I'll check them out and maybe learn something. I suspect though that this is not something that can be seen & reported by anyone using small LCD screens since the elevation jumps would hardly be visible. With an extra large projected image, the elevation changes are almost startling.

Thanks,

Maurice

[Maurice]

Hi Maurice,

I have never experienced this but I don't use that software.  I only use UTX terrain mesh.   

Scott

Hi Scott,

I also have UTX but I believe UTX is not really terrain mesh but rather land class so it does not change the elevation of the terrain. I certainly could be wrong here but with just UTX, I do not see that problem anyway.

If you make it to my place in June, I will show you exactly what is happening as it very easy to re-install & remove the FSG mesh. Maybe I'm not seeing what I think I am seeing so I would like another opinion.

Thanks,
Maurice

[andarlite]

I have noticed a very unfortunate side effect about terrain mesh add-ons.  I use FSGenesis but i'm pretty sure that would apply to any terrain mesh product out there.

What I see when I get relatively close to the ground are portions of the terrain jump up or down or both at various times. At first, I though that was just the autogen but on closer look, the elevation of the terrain is definitely changing abruptly.

I find this behaviour very disturbing especially when landing and you see the ground ahead of you abruptly change elevation. I confirmed this was due to the terrain mesh add-on by uninstalling it and I don't see the ground jumping or sinking anymore.

Anyway, for me, it looks so bad that I am probably going to remove all terrain mesh but I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this effect. A good place to see it if you have the FSGenesis mesh (or other Canadian mesh) is while flying over Toronto (CYYZ). It would be very nice if someone could confirm that they see the same thing. If not, then maybe I did not configure something properly.

It does make sense that the terrain elevation would be different than the default FSX elevation but I would have thought that the new elevations would always take precedence over the default elevations and not compete with them as you are flying. So maybe it is a question of setting the correct mesh priority if such a thing exists.

Thanks,

Maurice

Yep, I see this too ... when I first setup my system with FSX, I was flying in and out of Toronto a lot and it was extremely annoying (not to mention embarrassing when showing people my cockpit). It's less noticeable in rural areas, but since I never had this problem with FS9, I figured it was probably just my slow computer. Then I upgraded to an i7-920 overclocked to 4MHz, GTX570 video, etc and it was still happening. I ended up un-installing FSGenesis.

Regards,
Henry

[Maurice]

Yep, I see this too ... when I first setup my system with FSX, I was flying in and out of Toronto a lot and it was extremely annoying (not to mention embarrassing when showing people my cockpit). It's less noticeable in rural areas, but since I never had this problem with FS9, I figured it was probably just my slow computer. Then I upgraded to an i7-920 overclocked to 4MHz, GTX570 video, etc and it was still happening. I ended up un-installing FSGenesis.

Regards,
Henry

Well, that is good & somewhat bad news at the same time  . The good news is that I was not hallucinating and the somewhat bad news is that adding terrain mesh is not always a good idea. I guess it depends where you are flying and since it is easy to remove the add-on mesh, it's not that big a deal.

Over Toronto, the FSG mesh did not make things look any better since the terrain is relatively flat anyway, so no problem removing it. And over the Rockies, you shouldn't really be flying low enough to see an improvement unless you are doing some VFR sightseeing with a G.A. airplane.

Thanks Henry,

Maurice

[andarlite]

Maurice

This is what I use instead of FSGenesis:

http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fname=canada19.zip

http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=SEARCH1&fname=can19x_1.zip

It's freeware .... note that the coverage is only for the Rockies .... but like you said, you're not going to notice elevation changes anywhere in Canada but the Rockies.

If you do a search for Raimondo Taburet, you'll see that he has done terrain meshes world wide.

http://www.flightsim.com/file.php?cm=INDEXCALL&sPos=0

I've been using his meshes with no problems.

Regards,
Henry

[Maurice]

Thanks Henry but I think that for now at least, I'm going to forget about using any add-on mesh and see how things look. I don't think the mesh adds that much more once you have add-ons lite UTX, GEX, FTX etc..

I have flown over the Rockies and scenery looked pretty good without the FSG mesh. I have left in on in the US and so far, I haven't seen the ground elevation jump where I have been flying in the US but time will tell I guess.

Thanks,

Maurice

[XOrionFE]

I wonder if Orbx puts in their own mesh.  I now have all of the Orbx packs available for North America and also for Australia.  I love flying over this scenery as it is the best I have ever seen.   I like flying between Seattle, Portland, Vancouver and Ketchikan.   Note that Orbx just released Ketchikan.  I bought it but havent found time to load yet.   Don't want to derail thread but just curious if anyone knows if Orbx does the mesh also because it is so realistic looking.

Maurice, I wold definitely try to plan a visit to your sim when I come in June if the invite is open.   I really want to see your split floor design also as well as how the FDS shell and liners look.  Looking forward to seeing your visuals as well.

Best regards,
Scott

[DEDHead]

ORBX does all of their own meshes.  Most if not all are done by Holger Sandman who is also known for his Tongass Fjords which just so happen to mesh perfectly with ORBX's Pacific Fjords.  They loving refer to his meshes as "HolgerMesh".

Cheers,

Don

[Maurice]

I wonder if Orbx puts in their own mesh.  I now have all of the Orbx packs available for North America and also for Australia.  I love flying over this scenery as it is the best I have ever seen.   I like flying between Seattle, Portland, Vancouver and Ketchikan.   Note that Orbx just released Ketchikan.  I bought it but havent found time to load yet.   Don't want to derail thread but just curious if anyone knows if Orbx does the mesh also because it is so realistic looking.

Maurice, I wold definitely try to plan a visit to your sim when I come in June if the invite is open.   I really want to see your split floor design also as well as how the FDS shell and liners look.  Looking forward to seeing your visuals as well.

Best regards,
Scott

Scott, the invite is definitely open and it will be really great if you can make it. I do have the Orbx scenery as well but I haven't flown with it yet since I only installed after my recent FSX PC rebuild and I'm still testing everything. Looking forward to try it though.

Sounds like the annual get together will be a lot of fun.

Cheers,

Maurice