High res terrain mesh data

[dfournie]

Pete,

If higher resolution 3rd party terrain mesh data is installed in place of the default FS2004 terrain data, will FSUIPC calculations (Rad Alt, etc) that use this higher quality data be any more precise? Or are the resulting elevation calculations still based on the original lower quality (and higher spaced apart) Microsoft terrain mesh data?

[Pete Dowson]

If higher resolution 3rd party terrain mesh data is installed in place of the default FS2004 terrain data, will FSUIPC calculations (Rad Alt, etc) that use this higher quality data be any more precise? Or are the resulting elevation calculations still based on the original lower quality (and higher spaced apart) Microsoft terrain mesh data?

FSUIPC doesn't do any calculations. The ground altitude is read directly from FS. I don't know where it gets it from -- when over an airport it's definitely set by the airport elevation, which overrides any mesh settings. Otherwise I would have thought that it would be the ground altitude set by whichever mesh it is using at that place. I can't see FS deliberately going to find other values when it needs the currently operating mesh to actually draw the surface and detect crashing/landing.

Regards,

Pete