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The Living Atlas "Terrain - Hillshade" layer no longer displays after 3.6 update

TrentonWalker

Hi everyone,

Prior to the most recent ArcGIS Pro update, I used the "Terrain - Hillshade" layer from the Esri Living Atlas on a daily basis. It's a fantastic resource that prevents me from having to manually load hundreds and hundreds of individual lidar tiles, and I've come to include it in nearly every map and project I make.

But after the most recent update, I haven't been able to get it to display at all. I've removed it and re-added it to my maps several times, I've checked that it's not affected by a limited display scale range, I've checked everything I know to check, and I still can't get it to work. I didn't change any settings on my end, so I'm forced to conclude that it's due to the 3.6 update.

If anyone has any suggestions on what to do to get it to display again, I'd love to hear it. This is a huge blow to my workflow efficiency, so I'm really hoping somebody has dealt with this before.

(Pre-)Edit: I've just realized that I can't get the "USGS Historical Topographic Maps" layer from the Living Atlas to display, either, and it's something I use several times per week. Some Living Atlas layers are still working (such as the "USA NAIP Imagery: Natural Color" layer), so it's not an issue across the board with the Living Atlas. Any assistance is welcome.

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danielri

One key change with ArcGIS Pro 3.4 and higher is the requirement to use DirectX 12 vs. 11, might check if your machine is supporting that. Some users may experience color rendering or display issues when using DirectX 12, prompting a switch to DirectX 11 or OpenGL for troubleshooting.

JamesCarroll7

OP, I tried loading those layers you mentioned from Living Atlas into GIS (I recently updated to version 3.6 also) and they displayed correctly, so this might not be an issue across the board with version 3.6. Worth checking what Richard suggested above.

danielri

Second issue to beware of, if you have a DELL computer, they released several DirectX12 driver updates for their graphics cards. Run Dell Command Update Center to check for driver updates. We have several machines that had graphics display issues that were resolved once the November 14, 2025 graphic driver updates were installed.

TrentonWalker

Hi Richard,

Thanks for both of your suggestions. I checked my Dell Command Update center, and it's fully updated (and showed the November 14, 2025 update in its history). I found out I was running on DirectX 11 and switched to 12, but it didn't make a difference.

The few other GIS people in my office don't seem to have a problem getting those layers to display, so it's clearly something on my end, even though we all have identical settings... I'll keep searching and troubleshooting. Thanks again.

HylonPlumb

Hello,

Just chiming in, I'm at 3.6 and revisited some maps with 'Terrain - Hillshade' from Living Atlas and the imagery is not appearing. Also 'Terrain - Elevation Tinted Hillshade' from "LA" is also not working. I tried removing and adding and adjusting the properties of the Hillshade through Image Service Layer eg. Symbology, Stretch Type, Alpha. I also checked the layer in another project, tried reverting to DirectX 12 --> 11, same issue.

MS Windows 11Business v 10.0.26200

Dell XPS 15 9520

OS updated

All drivers and firmware updated and patched, including nvidia studio driver v581.57

Thanks,

Hylon

danielri

This is starting to sound like a bug... I believe ESRI was replacing Atlas layers with vector tiles vs. image tiles, I wonder if there is a new version of the Hillshade layer that we should be using.

This old thread mentioned that the ArcGIS Pro projection being used impacted hillshade display quality (The Living Atlas "Terrain: Hillshade" layer has su... - Esri Community). May be worth trying to reset the Maps display projection. Try addingthe hillshade to a new/empty web map, and see if the resolution seems fine.

TrentonWalker

Hey Richard, that old post is actually one of mine, too (I'm a big fan of the Terrain - Hillshade layer... what can I say?). It turned out that for that specific problem, there were background updates happening to either the Living Atlas in general or the Terrain - Hillshade layer specifically, and once those updates were completed the issue resolved itself.

I was hoping that maybe this was a similar situation, but, unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be. I'm still combing through all of my possible options to see if there's a setting that's changed on my end, but no luck so far.

TrentonWalker

Hey HylonPlumb, I'm sorry to hear you're having problems, too, but I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. I've checked every possible setting, changed between DirectX 12, DirectX 11, and OpenGL, and cleared as many caches as I could find as many times as possible... and still no luck.

Other people in my office (with the same sorts of restrictions on how their computers can talk to other servers through our firewalls and other IT software, for example) have no problem getting the Terrain - Hillshade layer to display, so I'm beginning to think something in the user settings (like in those hidden User > AppData > Local > ... folders) is corrupted, but that's beyond my ability to diagnose, unfortunately.

If you do find a way to get it to display again, please let me know. And I'll be sure to do the same, too.

danielri

Is the Living atlas layer ‘Terrain - Hillshade ‘ identified below the one you are talking about? Works fine in ArcGIS Pro 3.4 SP 5 😉[cid:image001.png@01DC65EA.40B727D0]

HylonPlumb

Hello @TrentonWalker , I appreciate that you created the post in the first place. I'm not certain it's a 3.6 issue w/o a lot of testing. I do know the layer worked on 3.5.4 in November. Generally, its best practice to upgrade only after 'at least' one patch is released but I was experiencing unresponsive black screens which I hoped 3.6 would fix. The upgrade didn't fix my unresponsiveness issues, but creating another project did, so I'm happy AGP is fluid and quick again. Additionally, creating another project didn't fix the rendering of "Terrain: Hillshade". I'll keep watching this thread for sure. I miss the content, but I can work around it.

Best,

Hylon

danielri

Have you tried loading the CoordinateSystemsData for ArcGIS Pro? The installer is available from my.esri.com, downloads. These are needed if you did a per user install vs. per machine.

HylonPlumb

@RichardDaniels Thank you, I found it was not installed and do not have access to the code, the following is a good and easy fall back.

@TrentonWalker through ArcGISOnline portal, check out 3DEPElevation

Hylon

TrentonWalker

@HylonPlumb Thanks for that suggestion. Unfortunately it also only displays when the map is set to WGS 1984, and I can only use NAD 1983 (2011) StatePlane [my state] for my daily work. Testing it on machines around the office that do and do not have 3.6 installed seems to have proven it's a 3.6 issue.

Quick edit: This is using the "USGS 3DEP Elevation - 30 m" layer through the Living Atlas. I can't use non-authoritative user-made layers found in ArcGIS Online on my work computer.

danielri

It really sounds like you're missing the Coordinate Systems Data required to do on-the-fly transformations of the data to another datum. Install the ArcGIS Coordinate Systems Data installer package to test this.

Also, in ArcGIS Pro ensure you have a transformation setup for your map containing the HillShade.

DerekMStrout

Hi all,

@TrentonWalker, have you found a culprit for this issue? I just wanted to chime in and say that I found this thread after starting an annual update of some maps that use the "Terrain - Multi-Directional Hillshade" imagery layer, which is not displaying as it once did. I am running ArcGIS Pro 3.6.1 now. I've checked everything @TrentonWalker has, including drivers, transformations, etc. to no avail. I'm able to use other Esri-hosted terrain layers but they do not allow the level of detail at the scales I have my maps set to (which vary). For what it's worth, I am getting an error when trying to view the source URL (https://elevation.arcgis.com/arcgis/services/WorldElevation/Terrain/ImageServer).

Cheers,

Derek

danielri

The https://elevation.arcgis.com path leads to an ArcGIS Server, but NO services are available. Have you tried https://elevation3d.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services?

DerekMStrout

Thanks, @RichardDaniels. I misspoke about trying everything; I just installed the Coordinate Systems Data, though it appears that just switching from my maps from NAD 1983 (2011) StatePlane to NAD 1983 StatePlane seemed to do the trick. I made no changes to the transformations in the map. I am not familiar with all of the 2011 datum updates or why the original version seems to allow the hillshade layer to draw, but from all I've read, this change will not impact my map requirements or design. I hope this helps, @TrentonWalker.

danielri

Probably had a missing Transformation in the NAD 83 (2011) coordinate system definition for the layer. But interesting to hear that installing the Coordinate System pack resolved the issue.

TrentonWalker

Hi @DerekMStrout

Thanks for tagging me on this. Would you care to briefly walk me through how - and, more importantly, where - you installed the Coordinate Systems Data to get it to work? I tried it previously and it didn't seem to work, but I suspect I didn't install it to the correct folder.

Also, if distance and area measurements are essentially the same between NAD 1983 StatePlane and NAD 1983 (2011) StatePlane, I might just live with that. It appears to work for me, too, without installing anything else.

DerekMStrout

No problem, @TrentonWalker. I got the Coordinate Systems Data from My Esri here, though I actually installed the incorrect version, so I don't think that made the difference. I installed the 'per-user' version when I should have used the 'per-machine' version. I plan to grab the right one soon and just install it at the default location the installer offers (C:\Users\[myfolder]\Documents\ArcGIS 12.0). Then I'll check out the transformation options (I didn't see an option that seemed to work after my initial install).

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