Missing taxiway lines and runway/taxiway signs

[KingCat]

I have a problem with the FSX version of KDFW. In some places on the airport, some of the taxiway lines and runway/taxiway signs are dissappearing when taxiing from the 2D cockpit. Whenever I swith to the VC, all of the taxiway lines and runway/taxiway signs are there again. Also when I switch to spotview, everything is back again.

It's not everywhere, but in some areas (e.g. when landing on runway 31R, and then taxiing on taxiway Z towards the bridges. See the attached screenshot). The airplane I'm using is the PMDG B744.

And yes, I have the mesh complexity and 100 and the mesh resolution at 10m as suggested in the manual and on the forum. I'm also using the latest version available.

It's a bit strange this is only happening at some places on the airport and only in the 2D cockpit.

I hope you can help me solve this problem. The only other addon I have for this area is MegaSceneryX Dallas.


Best regards,

Jon Kinket

[virtuali]

It's a bit strange this is only happening at some places on the airport and only in the 2D cockpit.

The scenery respond differently to the zoom setting, and all objects in the scenery are optimized for fps to disappear if out of view, based on realistic zoom settings, which are usually around 0.70 in the VC.

Although it's possible to go up to 0.50 in the VC without having lines disappearing, in the 2D cockpit, since it deforms perspective, the zoom settings behave differently, so the zoom ratio must be higher while using the 2D view, about 0.90-1.0

Since the vast majority of users use the VC, especially when taxiing, we optimized the scenery to be visible with a realistic zoom setting on the VC. As usual, everything in the scenery it's made for a reason, usually because of performances.

[KingCat]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. If I adjust the zoom to 1.50 in the 2D cockpit, then the taxiway lines and runway/taxiways signs appear again.

If the reason for dissappearing lines/signs is due to maintaining good fps in the scenery, then it's not a problem for me. I'd rather have a fps friendly version and adjust the zoom here and there, than a scenery that is unusable due to poor fps.

One more thing I noticed. Is it correct that the scenery automatically disables the setting "Aircraft casts shadows on the ground"?


Jon

[virtuali]

One more thing I noticed. Is it correct that the scenery automatically disables the setting "Aircraft casts shadows on the ground"?

Yes, it will disable that option automatically, after a certain altitude from ground because, due to how the scenery is designed (fully 3d, fully native FSX), leaving that option On the airplane shadows wouldn't be visible anyway after a certain altitude but, they would impact fps just the same and that is valid for the AI as well, so the fps saving is significant.

[Buziel-411]

While I applaud FSDT's effort to make an FPS friendly add-on, I'm not sure if a 0.70 zoom is "realistic." This what that looked like during my taxi in the Qualitywings 757 today (first flight out of FSDT's DFW):

http://tapatalk.com/mu/479a05bd-7b44-fffa.jpg

That feels a little cramped to me...

Aside from this, it's a lovely scenery!

[virtuali]

This has been discussed several times already:

The 0.70 zoom level is universally considered the most correct in the VC, if you search around, someone even posted a complete explanation of it.

Also, if you read my reply carefully, nowhere is said you can't go wider than 0.70 IN VC MODE, because you can, I only said we use that value as a reference, but in most of scenery you can go even with 0.50 or less.

The issue reported here was relevant to the 2d panel ONLY, and in 2d the perspective changes so the zoom level acts diifferently which means, in 2D a less wide setting needs to be used.

[Buziel-411]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I know you can sometimes zoom out farther than .70. For the majority of the taxi I was at .50 or .60, but at one point I was forced to zoom out all the way to .70.

Sorry that is is off topic, but out of curiosity, will KLAX have similar LODs?

[virtuali]

I know you can sometimes zoom out farther than .70. For the majority of the taxi I was at .50 or .60, but at one point I was forced to zoom out all the way to .70.

That's exactly what I've said: we try to ensure everything will display at 0.70, which is our reference value, most of the times you can go wider than that, but not always.

Sorry that is is off topic, but out of curiosity, will KLAX have similar LODs?

Basically all our sceneries are made like this, it might be more or less noticeable, depending on the airport layout.