FS2002 vs FS2004 Terrain Resolution - Page 3
An examination of the maximum resolution at which terrain can be displayed in FS2002 and FS2004. IMPORTANT! Since this article was written, FS2004 Update has restored FS2004 to 19m capability.
Definitions (continued)
Vertex
A point at the corner of one of the many polygons which make up a scene in a 3D application such as a flight simulator. When terrain mesh scenery is displayed in Flight Simulator, each set of four data points making up a rectangular area in the compiled terrain mesh scenery is displayed as four points or vertices at the corners of two adjacent triangles dividing the rectangle diagonally from corner to corner.
Vertex Level
Vertex Level refers to the distance between adjacent East-West or North-South vertices as they are displayed in the scene. As with LOD, increasing Vertex Levels correspond to decreasing distance between the vertices and therefore increased resolution in the displayed object or feature.
The following table shows this relationship:
| Vertex Level | Resolution | Equivalent LOD |
| 19 | ~76.4 | LOD 9 |
| 20 | ~38.2 | LOD 10 |
| 21 | ~19.1 | LOD 11 |
| 22 | ~9.6 | LOD 12 |
| 23 | ~4.8 | LOD 13 |
Terrain Max Vertex Level (TMVL)
This is the Flight Simulator setting which defines the minimum East-West and North-South distance between adjacent vertices as displayed in the rendered scene in Flight Simulator.
In order to display at this level, the terrain mesh scenery used must be of sufficiently high compiled resolution to be able to provide the vertex data at this resolution.