active Mesh included in Regions question plus clarification

[Jon Clarke]

I admit to not fully understanding the in's and out's of mesh in the P3D sim.

Most FTX Regions come with a mesh included and in various detail like 5m or 10m or 20m etc.

From what i understand the sim will choose and display the highest detailed mesh regardless... correct?

So if I have for example 5m mesh for the whole of NA what purpose does the e.g. 10m mesh included in the region play?

Logically I could disable it because it is not going to be displayed as it will be replaced by the addon 5m mesh....correct?

I also am not totally understanding the various definitions regarding Mesh. We have LOD, we have e.g 10m ( what is that in LOD?) and then within the sim Settings options we have another option for setting mesh detail.

I experimented with no mesh and set 1m as the mesh detail. P3D explains that the Settings option for mesh covers the "detail" in which the mesh will be displayed, i.e. that the mesh will be displayed in greater detail ( sharper cliffs for example) at 1m than the 20m setting which will be more of a slope. It looked quite good in NA because I believe the NA default mesh is 38m.

When I enabled my addon mesh of 5m and set the P3D Settings option for Mesh detail at 2m there was a huge difference (obviously)

Orbx suggest setting the mesh option to 5m regardless of the actual mesh included in a Region. So I am currently unsure as to why it is suggested to be 5m if you have 20m inbuilt mesh. I assume to get more "detail" like less sloping?

I am therefore seeking clarification regarding:

The usefulness of included regions mesh if your addon mesh is of a higher Detail/Resolution/LOD ( don't know what to call it !!)

The difference or breakdown of Mesh terminology.

The actual purpose of setting the Mesh detail option in the sim to a higher "detail" than the actual mesh itself, as in setting 5m in the sim when you have 20m Mesh in a Region.

Disregard the potential problem of airport elevation errors in any replies as I am aware of that but would be very grateful for any replies from those with knowledge on the subject of Mesh.

@Nick Cooper If this is not the right forum then please move to the appropriate one, but I would please like a Dev possibly to also respond as I feel they would be potentially the most knowledgeable in the subject.

Many thanks

jon

 

 

 

[Alex Goff]

Hi Jon,

 

There are a couple different definitions that need to be covered here.

 

Mesh resolution - measured in meters per pixel, eg. 5m/pixel, 10m/pixel, etc. This defines the horizontal resolution of a mesh and generally how "crisp" and well defined it appears.

LOD - level of detail, there are specific predefined "steps" in resolution for mesh, I forget the exact resolutions defined in the SDK but it would be something like LOD1 = 100m/pixel LOD2 = 50m/pixel LOD3 = 25m/pixel. Compiled mesh files contain every LOD up to their highest resolution so at a distance the simulator will load a lower LOD. 

 

Mesh detail slider - sets a maximum limit of mesh LOD that will be loaded. If you have a 20m mesh, and set the slider limit to 40m, the second highest LOD will be loaded. If the slider is set to 5m, then the maximum LOD of the 20m mesh will be loaded.

 

Our mesh recommendation is generally for airports which contain their own higher resolution mesh, and additionally to have a target resolution for all airports to work at so users do not have to change their slider. 

 

If you have a global 5m mesh, it will take precedence over regional mesh that is lower than 5m/pixel in resolution. Using another third party mesh will probably have no issues, but we tune regional object placement to the included mesh so differences in elevation may have unintended results. 

[Jon Clarke]

Many thanks Alex for your comprehensive reply. Consider me now "informed"