Your hardware is capable of delivering good performance in MSFS SDK GUI; using reduced Render Scaling
and Settings > Graphics sliders may help.
There is always something new to learn with MSFS SDK, as it is complex, and often changes (usually for the better).
Regarding methods to implement the (eventual) MSFS 2024 LOD "mandate":
Dick recently mentioned an interesting option of a "
SimPropContainer" (...that I have not yet had time to look into):
"
Their LODs are already computed, so you don't need to mess with that. Lots of "props" can be added to a base object, without worrying about how to deal with their LODs. Could be a big time saver."
https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/msfs-2024-lods.459913/post-933155
https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/msfs-2024-lods.459913/
https://docs.flightsimulator.com/ms...on/Introduction.htm?rhsearch=SimPropContainer
Reading between the lines in Dick's posts and the SDK Docs linked above, Dick's example uses default objects that already have LODs.
For our own custom 3D objects, "we" must still make our own LODs (unless we want to attempt forcing MSFS to do so).
Dick infers IMHO, that the MSFS 202x streaming infrastructure (always ?) 'syncs' our \Community folder custom content with the MSFS (2024 ?) Azure servers.
If we provide LODs and glTF triangulation of Faces is the same or different than MSFS SDK 'intends', it reads all- and revises all- ...as it sees fit.
"ENFORCED RE-TOPOLOGY".
This means our scenery is pre-processed before it is streamed back over the inter-web, and is eventually rendered at run time on our computers.
If our 'synced' scenery content exactly matches MSFS' criteria of what LOD sizes and MIPMAPs "should" be, less pre-processing is done on Azure servers.
But in all cases, our scenery content will be "pre-processed"- and potentially edited- by Azure servers before sent back to a running session of MSFS.
That obviously raises a number of questions about whether / when / how ...locally "cached" scenery content ever actually gets displayed in MSFS 2024.
IIUC, by submitting a complex and larger than usual 3D model with multiple sub-objects (ModelParts ?) as a SimPropContainer, it forces optimization and LOD generation to be performed bv the MS Azure MSFS 2024 (and MSFS 2020 ?) servers before scenery content is sent back via the inter-web.
Will MSFS complain / refuse to display 3D models in SimPropContainers with "no" LODs, or does the local SDK compiler refuse to compile without LODs ?
IIUC, if MS did not want to burden their Azure servers with doing more than a 'budgeted' amount of work, we would be forced to submit "accurate" LODs.
In the FS2Kx era, the FS rendering engine would dynamically create MIPMAPs (and LODs ?) at run time if they were not submitted; this hit FPS in FS.
So we were "encouraged" to consider LODs and MIPMAPs as a 'requirement' in custom textured 3D models, or FS FPS would "feel the pain" at run time.
Can we purposely force MS Azure servers to make our LODs / MIPMAPs for us 'online' ?
Probably not, as the local SDK compiler requires them in order to make such meta-objects.
I daresay MS will force accurate LOD sizing as a requirement, or a penalty will be total non-display of \Community non-SDK compliant custom scenery content.
That is beside an inference that a result of "fooling" the rendering engine with invisible Faces / Cubes / Triangles etc. is it makes life tougher for XBOXERs.
At first glance, MSFS SDK SimPropContainers appears comparable to Arno's MCX option to create a 'Combined Object' via "Scene builder wizard:"
7.4 Scene builder wizard
With the scene builder wizard, see Figure 7.4, you can construct one single object based on a
scenery with multiple objects and object placements. This can be useful if you want your entire
scenery to consist of a single object, for example if you want to convert to it another system that
prefers to have an airport as one object, while Flight Simulator works more efficiently if you have
it split into multiple objects. What the scene builder does is use the placement information to
determine the offset of each object and in that way combine all objects into a single scene.
Figure 7.4: Scene builder wizard
On the right side of the wizard you see a list of scenery files that are selected to be processed. You
can add new scenery files with the Add Scenery File button, while you can remove the selected
item from the list with the Remove Scenery File button. If you want to clear the entire list you
can use the Clear Files button.
On the left side of the wizard you can set options for the wizard. The following items can be set:
• With the Round Earth Input checkbox you can indicate if the input scenery has been
corrected for the round earth or not. If so, the tool will first reverse this correction before
building the combined scene from the objects.
• With the Round Earth Output checkbox you can specify if the combined scene that the
wizard generates should also be corrected for the curve of the earth.
• When the Only Highest LOD checkbox is checked, the wizard will only use the highest
LOD from each object in the scene. For sceneries where objects have different levels of detail
you might otherwise get an unexpected result with certain objects only visible at specific
level of detail values.
• When the Limit Area checkbox is checked, the scene builder wizard will only include object
placements that are within the specified area. You can specify the minimum and maximum
latitude and longitude values of this area using the text boxes below.
Once you are happy with all the settings you can press the Generate Scene button to start the
generation. For a complex scenery with many objects and placements this might take a while.
Once the wizard is done the combined scene object is shown in the preview window. The Placed
objects and Missing objects labels show how many objects have been included in the combined
scene and how many placements have been skipped because the referenced object could not be
found. With the Show missing GUIDs button you can get a list of the GUIDs of the objects
that the scene builder wizard could not include.
Figure 7.5 shows an example of a combined object of an airport that was made with the scene builder wizard.
Figure 7.5: Merged scene made with scene builder
I will need to test to confirm whether MCX itself generates the LODs for these "Combined Scene" meta-objects.
When researching the MSFS default VHHX RWY-13 sequenced approach lights, I used MCX to make a Combined Scene from the MSFS 2020 default VHHX scenery:
ModelLib.bgl
...and:
vhhx_scene.bgl
NOTE: The MCX output yielded LODs 0 through 13 !
I did not make them, nor did I request them from MCX; I just need to confirm if they already existed in source BGL(s).
If they did
not already exist in MSFS, then kudos to Arno for solving LOD issues in an even more sensational way.
If they did already exist in MSFS, then a 'new' request for Arno to solve LOD issues in an even more sensational way.
GaryGB
).
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