Ground level moving up and down

[pstrsto]

I'm using the demo of KMEM and have encountered a strange issue. In spot view the ground level of the airport moves up and down depending on the angle of view. If viewed from above the ground elevates making buildings and ground vehicles sink into the ground. Changing to a completely flat angle gives the correct ground elevation. The aircraft does follow these changes in elevation but nothing else does. Aircraft ground shadow does not display.

I'm on P3Dv3.2, I have never encountered a similar issue at any other airport.

See attached screenshots.

[virtuali]

It's normal the ground would raise/lower a bit depending on viewing angle, because this prevents ground flickering. All our previous sceneries used this method.

What is not normal, instead, is the other objects and the airplane won't raise accordingly. Do you have other sceneries, like mesh scenery, something that might have changed the ground elevation ?

[kikigey89]

I can confirm this issue, I have Orbx FTX Global and Vector installed as global sceneries. I had to deactivate KMEM in Vector because otherwise the aircraft was below the runway (as reported in another thread here).

[virtuali]

I cannot reproduce this. Are you using the normal spot plane view, or some kind of special camera ?

[pstrsto]

I didn't have time to do much testing but here's what I can tell you.

I do have FTX Vector installed and had to disable elevation correction so that the aircraft does not sit underground. The problem I reported persists regardless of the elevation correction being enabled or not.

I do have a terrain mesh installed (FreeMesh X Global), disabling the terrain mesh did not solve the problem.

GSX vehicles do sink into the ground as well. The simple stair model sometimes moves along with the ground and becomes locked at the highest elevation causing it to float in the air when the ground lowers. See attached screenshot. I never got the other stair model (attached to a truck) to do the same.

I am using the regular P3D spot view and do not have any camera addon installed. The issue occurs in spot view, locked spot and top-down view. The elevation of the aircraft as displayed by Ctrl+Z changes in spot view from 349ft to 353ft. In top-down view the issue occurs when zooming in or out, elevation fully zoomed in is 349ft, quickly going up to 375ft when zooming out, so the ground apparently moves by up to 25ft.

Movement of the ground causes the aircraft to bounce, severity depends on how fast the view is being changed. Quickly zooming in or out when using top-down view causes a crash when crash detection is enabled.

When the trial period expires the ground markings (gate center line, red/white border, taxilines) remain floating at the elevation the ground was at when it unloaded.

[virtuali]

I don't have any of the problems you reported: here's a video I just made:

Yes, in Top Down view, there IS a small lag when objects goes back down together with the terrain, but they always snap correctly and, more importantly, there's no airplane crash, regardless of the crash detection setting, which I turned off and then on in the video.

Are you sure you have *both* KMEM AND GSX updated ? GSX requires the Full installer to be run: updating the Addon Manager is not enough.

[kikigey89]

I made a video showing the problem: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bhx0wihw1kllx3z/VID_20160603_190835.mp4?dl=0
I noticed this at KIAH as well, I recorded the video at KIAH (currently flying KIAH/KMEM).
Yesterday I uninstalled KIAH and GSX then I downloaded KIAH, GSX and KMEM (also bought KMEM) and installed all 3.

I do not have an addon mesh installed, only FTX Global and Vector.
Running on P3D v3.1.

[kikigey89]

I just arrived at KMEM and well, GSX had some issues (floating vehicles and marshaller way up high in the air). Don't know if it's related to this issue.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0229kc1uoe2j148/2016-06-03_212242.jpg?dl=0

[virtuali]

I noticed this at KIAH as well, I recorded the video at KIAH (currently flying KIAH/KMEM).

I just checked KIAH at gate D9, the same you were using in your video, and still I cannot reproduce the problem. See the new video:

What exact version of P3D you have ?

[kikigey89]

I installed GSX, KIAH and KMEM on my desktop computer (I have a home cockpit) in P3D v3.0 which is - in contrast to my home cockpit computer - an almost untouched version to test such things.
Here I have exactly the very same problem as on the other computer. No FTX installed, just FSUIPC, Aerosoft EDDT and an addon aircraft installed (it's mainly used to test my flightsim software which connects via FSUIPC).

Desktop computer: P3D v3.0 Academic
Home cockpit computer: P3D v3.1 Academic

What might be an idea (if it helps) could be to uninstall v3.0 and install v3.3. As there is almost no addon installed this could be done quickly.

[kikigey89]

I installed GSX, KIAH and KMEM also in P3D v2.4 Academic on my desktop computer (have this old P3D as a backup) and here I have no issues at all...

[virtuali]

I installed GSX, KIAH and KMEM also in P3D v2.4 Academic on my desktop computer (have this old P3D as a backup) and here I have no issues at all...

I have P3D 3.3 in that video so, it's not something that happens under P3D 3.x. Best if you try with 3.3 first.

[kikigey89]

Ok I found the issue: I had "Avatar Mode" deactivated in P3D as I didn't know what it is. Deactivated Avatar Mode causes this issue, when activated, the ground and floating objects issue was solved. What is not solved is the marshaller being in the air. Could you check this (gate B10 at KMEM)?

[mistyblue]

I can confirm this fix.  I had Avatar mode disabled and was having all sorts of strange issues once I switched to outside view (S key).  Vehicles were below ground level, the jetway returned to parked position and wouldn't work any longer, and the aicraft (PMDG NGX) would seem to drop from a few feet height each time I hit the S key.  Once enabling Avatar mode, everything worked as it should.

[majorpaynepoo]

I can confirm that turning Avatar mode on fixed my issues of the sinking GSX textures as well as the nose of my aircraft.  Prepar3d 3.3