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MSFS20 Howto increase drawing distance

I did some further tests yesterday. I can confirm that the drawing distance cannot be improved using LODs, even when minSize is set for the lowest LOD. However, setting the MSFS material mode of the plane to invisible does work.

Furthermore, Reddit user srinivasman pointed out that one needs to apply the scale of the model befor exporting. Here is the corresponding discussion:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FS2020Creation/comments/j1huiz

My lighthouse was build using an upscaled cylinder. The corresponding scaling (e.g. factor 25 in z) was still in place. I could imagine that this actually can result in issues in the sim if it performs a simplified initial check that considers the object's size without applying the scale. I will test tonight whether applying the scale before exporting makes a difference. If so, it would be interesting to now if this is a problem of the Blender exporter or of MSFS.

@IronMinion and @the nanard Would you mind to check if there is a non-identity scaling of your objects as well?
 
So far I have created 2 buildings in Blender for my airport and applied the scale on both of them before unwrapping. They both appear fine in the sim and there is no late pop-in. Just to add to the evidence for what it's worth. I don't have enough of other types of assets to see if there is any difference.
 
Thanks for the information! I had no problems with my other buildings as well. However, they are a hangar and a tower building, and thus have a quite "normal" shape. Since I had problems with the lighthouse, which is rather tall, I assumed it is something related to the base area.

I just had the time to test my correctly scaled lighthouse without the plane in the sim and it is working! :D So please forget my wired idea with the plane and scale your building correctly instead!
 
SinusJayCee said:
I just had the time to test my correctly scaled lighthouse without the plane in the sim and it is working! :D So please forget my wired idea with the plane and scale your building correctly instead!
Click to expand...

This workaround is still good for small objects like runway markers. They still disappear too early even if scaling is applied.
 
SinusJayCee said:
Thanks for the information! I had no problems with my other buildings as well. However, they are a hangar and a tower building, and thus have a quite "normal" shape. Since I had problems with the lighthouse, which is rather tall, I assumed it is something related to the base area.

I just had the time to test my correctly scaled lighthouse without the plane in the sim and it is working! :D So please forget my wired idea with the plane and scale your building correctly instead!
Click to expand...

That didn't work for my pylons. I have tried to scale even 20 times bigger before exporting, and downscale in editor, but no success. Only the plane helped me out. And, actually, if you want you can fly over there, with my thanks again!

Messina, Sicily, Italy. City and Province Landmarks. for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS

✓ Messina, Sicily, Italy. City and Province Landmarks. is a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 mod created by IronMinion. Explore the iconic landmarks of Messina, Sicily with this add-on, featuring detailed custom models of notable sites like Duomo (Cathedral) and Sanctuary of Montalto...
flightsim.to flightsim.to
 
@karlo922 This is indeed correct. For small objects, you still can apply this method. I'll change the first post accordingly.

@IronMinion Just to be sure, you did not only scale the models but also applied the scale such that the effective scale is 1? If so, it is good to know that the scaling solution doesn't work under all circumstances. Your scenery looks really great! I downloaded it already and will take my next flight to Messina :D
 
SinusJayCee said:
@IronMinion Just to be sure, you did not only scale the models but also applied the scale such that the effective scale is 1? If so, it is good to know that the scaling solution doesn't work under all circumstances. Your scenery looks really great! I downloaded it already and will take my next flight to Messina :D
Click to expand...

Yes, the first thing I did (when I wasn't even on this forum) when I noticed the problem was just scaling the object in Blender with the right scale. Which actually it was 6 times bigger, so I thought I found the solution (I was sure it would have appeared 6 times earlier! :D). But then in the game it was the same, and I gave up...

Thanks, have a nice flight over Messina and don't forget to go to Tindari and Laghetti di Marinello, the sight is amazing there now with the Cathedral and Laghetti fixed!
 
I've no idea what makes the difference in your case. At least we have a working solution!

I'm planning a slow and low flight there tonight :D
 
Since version 1.10.7.0 (aka. update 5), the behavior regarding pop-up distances seems to have changes. In particular, MSFS removes single elements from objects depending on their size and the distance.

That means that the plane trick doesn't work anymore for small objects, since the overall object will appear early enough (because of the large plane), but MSFS will not render the element of interest (e.g. a runway sign) because it is too small.

Can someone confirm this observation? And are there any ideas to address this? An option would be to attach the plane directly to the element of interest. But this feels quite wrong.

I absolutely see the point of implementing such a behavior, since the MSFS is obviously very demanding. And this behavior make sense when you remove small elements, e.g., from a building. But there should be a convenient way to control this for small, important objects. It is quite ridiculous when you have runway markers next to your grass runway that appear after touchdown when you are 10m away from them.
 
Last edited:
SinusJayCee said:
Since version 1.10.7.0 (aka. update 5), the behavior regarding pop-up distances seems to have changes. In particular, MSFS removes single elements from objects depending on their size and the distance.

That means that the plane trick doesn't work anymore for small objects, since the overall object will appear early enough (because of the large plane), but MSFS will not render the element of interest (e.g. a runway sign) because it is too small.

Can someone confirm this observation? And are there any ideas to address this? An option would be to attach the plane directly to the element of interest. But this feels quite wrong.

I absolutely see the point of implementing such a behavior, since the MSFS is obviously very demanding. And this behavior make sense when you remove small elements, e.g., from a building. But there should be a convenient way to control this for small, important objects. It is quite ridiculous when you have runway markers next to your grass runway that appear after touchdown when you are 10m away from them.
Click to expand...
Hi,

yes - I can confirm this. The draw distance of my runway markers has defintely decreased since last update. I also used the "big plane" method. But it is still better than in older versions without the plane.
 
Thanks for confirmation!

This matches my observations. In fact, the overall drawing distance seem the be better now, i.e., when you use no plane at allow. However, you now cannot achieve the same results as before the patch, except if you add the plane to the single elements of your model.
 
karlo922 said:
Found the solution for me: I just hit "CTRL + j" to join the objects (my runway markers and the invisible plane below) before exporting. This solved it with MSFS 1.10.11.0
Click to expand...
Yes, exactly! I manually added a plane to my objects instead of joining it with the existing one, but the result is the same ;)
 
SinusJayCee said:
Yes, exactly! I manually added a plane to my objects instead of joining it with the existing one, but the result is the same ;)
Click to expand...
Sorry for resurrecting this topic, but now I have the same problem. I placed blue barrels (the default ones found in the simobject library) as runway edge markers (our airfield has similar stuff IRL), but they only appear when you are very close to them.
What should I do then to make them visible from far away? What is this "join object method"?
 
I'm not aware of a method to change/increase the drawing distance of stock objects. My suggestion would be to create an own barrel model in Blender and then apply the method(s) described above.

"Join objects" is a functionality of Blender, where you join several objects into one. However, we are talking about Blender objects here, not about MSFS sim objects. For MSFS (or more precisely the scenery editor), a Blender model will be seen as one sim object independent of whether the Blender objects inside the model has been joined or not.
 
SinusJayCee said:
I'm not aware of a method to change/increase the drawing distance of stock objects. My suggestion would be to create an own barrel model in Blender and then apply the method(s) described above.

"Join objects" is a functionality of Blender, where you join several objects into one. However, we are talking about Blender objects here, not about MSFS sim objects. For MSFS (or more precisely the scenery editor), a Blender model will be seen as one sim object independent of whether the Blender objects inside the model has been joined or not.
Click to expand...
Agree, but if hidden objects are not joined to visible objects, then it seems that they are not refleced to the size of the object during export.
 
The next SDK is going to provide a way to group objects, so that might alter the drawing distance.
 
SinusJayCee said:
I'm not aware of a method to change/increase the drawing distance of stock objects. My suggestion would be to create an own barrel model in Blender and then apply the method(s) described above.

"Join objects" is a functionality of Blender, where you join several objects into one. However, we are talking about Blender objects here, not about MSFS sim objects. For MSFS (or more precisely the scenery editor), a Blender model will be seen as one sim object independent of whether the Blender objects inside the model has been joined or not.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the explanation. I guess now I have to live with this or find and try a custom model to put as runway markers.
 
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