Any reason not to use an improved mesh

[BrettT]

Hi,

 

I am considering getting the Pilot's Ultimate Mesh download.  I presently have all the US FTX regions except for the UK/Ireland regions along with the global products.  My understanding is that the simulator will use the finest mesh it has regardless of other products installed and placement in the scenery folder (i.e SAK has a 20m mesh...if the coverage with pilots ultimate is a finer mesh for that region then that mesh will get used and the mountains will have a little more definition to them)  I understand that most of the ORBX offerings are made with the Pilots FTX mesh as their base.

 

So is there any reason not to do this (aside from cost and possibly loading times).

 

Also if any one has used this in an FTX region and seen an improvement, I would like to hear (and possibly see) any improvement. 

 

I would prefer not to get into a freemesh vs. pilots discussion please :-)

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

 

Adding a more detailed mesh is something of a two edged sword.

These are some of the facts to help you make a decision.

 

1. FTX regions, except the two Ireland ones, already contain their own mesh.

It is very good and also tailored to the regions' features.

If you add a higher resolution mesh, you may add anomalies that were not previously there.

You are unlikely to see a noticeable improvement.

 

2.  Where there are no FTX regions, you will see higher definition terrain elevation but you may

also see unwanted cliffs around airports and water that is either much higher of lower than the

surrounding terrain.

If you own FTX Vector, the adverse effects will be minimised.

 

 

[BrettT]

Thanks Nick!   I do have vector so that is a little encouraging.  I may opt for the 2018 FTX mesh but am still interested in other feedback for those interested

[BrianV]

Relatedly, would it be advisable to use a mesh with the forthcoming FTX OpenLC South America? This region does not have the same quality mesh as, for example, NA or Europe I believe.

[Nick Cooper]

Relatedly, I would recommend you await the release of OpenLC South America.

[Jon Clarke]

I could not possibly assume then Nick that OLC SA may contain customised mesh could I? That would be most presumptuous 

[Kev D]

I seem to recall that, a couple of years ago there was a lot of discussion about this and, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, the answer was that whether you used Holgermesh, Orbx inbuilt mesh or a commercial mesh such as Pilots, the sim would display the best mesh elevation.  It was a while ago, maybe Holger can commemt?

 

Kev

[walterg74]

10 hours ago, jjaycee1 said:

I could not possibly assume then Nick that OLC SA may contain customised mesh could I? That would be most presumptuous 

 

Being that OLC products have no mesh, yes you can assume it *won't* have any...

[walterg74]

7 hours ago, Torchy821 said:

I seem to recall that, a couple of years ago there was a lot of discussion about this and, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, the answer was that whether you used Holgermesh, Orbx inbuilt mesh or a commercial mesh such as Pilots, the sim would display the best mesh elevation.  It was a while ago, maybe Holger can commemt?

 

Kev

 

Holgermesh is only for a very reduce area(s). Orbx "buil in" mesh (which I assume stemmed from collaboration with Pilots anyway) is only for the regions. so for all other areas, if yo uwant more accuracy yes, Pilots or other vendor's mesh.

[Matt McGee]

5 hours ago, Torchy821 said:

whether you used Holgermesh, Orbx inbuilt mesh or a commercial mesh such as Pilots, the sim would display the best mesh elevation.

Yes, the sim will use the highest quality mesh installed for the area that it is displaying.  BrettT is correct in his OP.

 

19 hours ago, BrettT said:

My understanding is that the simulator will use the finest mesh it has regardless of other products installed and placement in the scenery folder (i.e SAK has a 20m mesh...if the coverage with pilots ultimate is a finer mesh for that region then that mesh will get used and the mountains will have a little more definition to them) 

 

Regarding the OP question, in general I think an improved mesh is a good thing to have.  Especially if you want to fly outside the US, Canada, and Europe.

 

IMHO the negative aspects of an improved (meaning better resolution than the default) mesh are:

- Cost.  Some are expensive and may not offer much noticeable improvement over the default or available freeware mesh.

- Amount of storage space required.  The finer the resolution, the larger the files get.

- Plateaus and trenches at airports.  Caused by incorrect elevation data for some default airports, since they were designed to lay flat on inaccurate default mesh.  Any accurate (free/pay) mesh will have this issue.  Vector includes corrected elevation data for many of these airports, so they will lay flat on accurate mesh, but you will still find some that are not automatically fixed.  They can be manually flattened.

 

At some point the noticeable visual benefits of increasingly higher resolution mesh will start to plateau, while the cost and storage size continue to climb.  That point is variable depending on the user and where they like to fly.

Flat terrain looks flat with 76m mesh and still looks flat at 38m or 10m.  

Terrain with a bunch of 40m tall rolling hills can go from flat to bumpy, once the mesh resolution is finer than the hill height, but it may not change much beyond that resolution.

Mountains may go from tall, but rounded, to tall and jagged.

 

You will find a point where the mesh looks pretty darn good and any increased resolution just doesn't produce enough (or any) noticeable improvement to outweigh the cost and additional storage required.

 

[Jon Clarke]

1 hour ago, walterg74 said:

 

Being that OLC products have no mesh, yes you can assume it *won't* have any...

I agree that OLCs released so far have no mesh. That does not necessarily mean that future OLCs will not. We are in a new generation now of addons, and I see no reason for an OLC not to have a compatible mesh. I am not saying that the OLC SA will or will not have a mesh but when a Moderator does not answer a question in a straightforward manner, but says "  I would recommend you await the release of OpenLC South America. " then you could interpret that as a sort of "don't spend your money yet on a mesh for South America, until you see what is contained in OLC SA" I could be very wrong and be seeing something in that statement that isn't there, if that is the case then I think there was no reason to give such a "shrouded"  response.

 My answer to the Op of the original post would be to say yes get some good SA mesh but to note the potential adverse, but not insurmountable anomalies you could get like plateus.

[Rolfspan]

I am a bit confused. We were encouraged to install pilots 2010 mesh way back. I am now waiting for the pilots 2018 mesh to install in P3D v4. Am I to understand that this is no longer necessary if you have vector? Any input will be appreciated.

Regards,

Rolf

 

[Nick Cooper]

Hello,

You're right.

What started out as a simple question has had answers to several other questions.

The AEC part of FTX Vector was designed to minimise the adverse effects on airports

of installing Fs Global mesh.

Nothing has changed and if you feel you need for yet another mesh product, you should

go ahead and buy one.

[Rolfspan]

Nick, thanks for your reply. It just dawned on me that the mesh I installed is not P3D or

 FSX specific. It applies to all sims. Is that correct? If that is the case there is no need to concern myself 

about different versions of P3D. 

Regards,

Rolf

[Nick Cooper]

Yes, mesh works across all the platforms.

[Luis Linares]

As someone who flies in South America quite a bit, I'm looking forward to OpenLC. That said, this is one of the regions, where high-res mesh is a must, particularly in the Andean region.  I own NEXTMap for South and Central America but have not installed in into P3Dv4 yet.

[blackbird7]

I decided to pull the trigger on PILOT's Next Generation mesh (the download version).  

 

PILOT's listing at the online store does say that "This edition was designed to support FS Global Vector as well as Orbx FTX Global Texture, Vector and LC as they are made available."  This made me feel a little better about the purchase, but I do have doubts like others due to the double-edged sword Nick spoke of earlier.  

 

I just hope that I don't regret the purchase to the point where I end up needing a lower resolution mesh such as the 2018 version. 

[BrettT]

Quote

I decided to pull the trigger on PILOT's Next Generation mesh (the download version).  

 

PILOT's listing at the online store does say that "This edition was designed to support FS Global Vector as well as Orbx FTX Global Texture, Vector and LC as they are made available."  This made me feel a little better about the purchase, but I do have doubts like others due to the double-edged sword Nick spoke of earlier.  

 

I just hope that I don't regret the purchase to the point where I end up needing a lower resolution mesh such as the 2018 version. 

Hi Blackbird,

 

I would really be interested in your experiences with it....especially any differences in the FTX regions.

 

Thanks,

 

Brett

[blackbird7]

16 minutes ago, BrettT said:

Hi Blackbird,

 

I would really be interested in your experiences with it....especially any differences in the FTX regions.

 

Thanks,

 

Brett

 

Yes, will do.  Once I get all the files downloaded, I should be able to start playing with it. 

[olderndirt]

FWIW - my 5 disk set for Ultimate Europe/Africa 40 gb and 6 disk Ultimate The Americas 25 gb made no noticeable difference in any of the Orbx "Fat" sceneries but was an improvement over what I had elswhere.