Tiles in elevation.tpkg(s) render anomalies when zooming/panning.
I started creating custom elevation tile packages (tpks's) about a year ago in hopes hopes packaging up my 3D layers for an offline mobile app featuring 3D bathymetry.
I'm able to create the lower-res custom elevation basemap tpkx and hi-res seafloor elevation tpkx layers with no issues. One issue that has greatly impeeded the project's progress is this ongoing issue the tpkx's functioning as expected for a day or two, then start exhibiting anomalies, like tiles becoming disconnected, large areas in the models disappear/reappear, the hi-res layer doesn't render in hi-res, and blocky extusions shoot in and out of the 3D model as I pan in zoom over the afficted areas.
I opened a ticket with Esri Support last July (2023) which addresses this issue which happens in both ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Scene Viewer. Esri Support hasn't come up with logical explaination, solution or workaournd despite our weekly meeting to discuss the topic. I've become quite well versed with the myrid of requirements that must be met when created custom elevation tile packages as well as many combinations that can be used to build and share tile layers accross the ArcGIS suite of products. So the usual culprits have been checked and checked twice, including the correct tiling schemes being used for elevation layers, tiling schemes have to match basemap, LERC compression requirements, coordinates reference systems match across all related layers. And usually if there's something amiss with a tpkx's configuration, ArcGIS Online or Scene Viewer is quick to let you know about it.
Could this be 'Z fighting'? The 3D layers control doesn't give me the option to move the hi-res layer to #1 priority in the list.
Could this GPU settings? I have new computer with NVIDIA 3060 GPU, so should do the job, however the settings may not be configured correctly.
Here's a few examples the anomalies the render when zooming/panning around the 3D model.
At some zoom levels, the 3D model disappears completly.
Image 1a - 8035m above 3D terrain - No tiles in terrain model are visable (desite caching tiles a Level 20 in the scale)
Image 1b - 6045m above terrain, half the tiles in the area in focus display with the upside-down V wall at cut off point.
Image 1c - 4089m above terrain, more tiles missing, some show back up.
Image 2a - 4764m above terrain, shot taken over seemingly stable area of model.
Image 2b - 4279m above terrain - zoom in a few hundred meters and the entire area in focus show many missing tiles and walls shoot up everywhere.
Thanks for any feedback.
Matt
Hi John,
Thanks for reaching out and offering to help with my 3D issues. I've seemed to tamp down the erratic behavior with tiled block shoot up all the scene, but that was just an impediment in the road to the goal of getting my custom elevation layers (in my ArcGIS Pro scene) to somehow make it to the point where it can be used to create a mobile app (offline) showing the true elevation and bathymetric seafloor features which my scene is designed to highlight. Problem is that as soon as the scene crosses over into AGOL, the large-scale elevation characteristics of the bathymetry and the high-resolution details defining specific seafloor features is dropped and I end up with a relatively flat and featureless, blurry layer that was high-resolution and super defined. That carries over to all the app builder tools that Esri has and pretty takes away all the unique 3D attributes the scene and mobile app are supposed offer the end user. It makes no sense to me why this is functioning as designed, because it acts in a manner that absolutely destroys a 3D scene.
I've been testing my data (mspk, tpkx & tif layers) in ArcGIS Earth Desktop and ArcGIS Earth Mobile (both the the latest release version and the latest beta version). Though I see the large-scale elevation and hi-res attributes showing in ArcGIS Earth Desktop, the layer order has changed and I can't move layers up and down in a mspk in ArcGIS Earth Desktop. The result is my 2D image/symbology layers defined in ArcGIS Pro are not layered in the appropriate order, so the blending and transparency settings aren't applied. The symbology depicts seafloor hardness, so now it's just the color scheme that the Stretch colormap selected.
I tried to import my mspk into iOS and Android versions of ArcGIS Earth and cannot get the elevation layers to show in 3D. Also, the layer order set in ArcGIS Pro before the scene was saved as a mspk is all switched up and I can't rearrange the layers to correct order needed to show detailed 3D seafloor features and 2D image symbology blending and transparency.
I've tried to import a mspk from AGOL into Earth Mobile (iOS & Android), fully aware the 3D elevation attributes of my scene have been thrown out by AGOL. I can load the elevation and 2D layers, but the order of the layers is so confusing and locked down, that I gave up even trying to load other 3D layers (tpkx or EsriGrid, kmz, etc) which may supplement the discarded 3D elevation layer I built.
I have the mspks, tpkx's, Esri Grids, 2D image layers and vector layers available if you'd like to see what I'm working with, and hopefully straighten me out. I seem to think that I'm trying to do the impossible and grinding forward towards a completely unsupported goal based on the response I've received from Esri Support. That is 3D exaggeration is not supported in web or mobile applications. That's crazy to me since Esri is a premier provider of 3D design and development software. I will say if I can figure out how to get the shaded relief blending to work in ArcGIS Earth Desktop, it seems like it would display the scene much as it was designed to display in ArcGIS Pro. (see screenshots below)
Thanks!
Matt
ArcGIS Pro Scene (top) / ArcGIS Earth Desktop (bottom) 
This is what my scene looks like in ArcGIS Scene Viewer and any app that requires a Scene to be hosted in AGOL before it can be imported into a 3D app template. I don't understand how how 3D apps are createrd if AGOL stips the elevation values from the scene? How is this possible? It's not a 3D scene anymore, this is the question I've been trying get answered for a about year now.
Hello John,
Thanks for the follow up. My ongoing Esri Support Case# is 03412481. I have a meeting scheduled with a new analyst this afternoon. I created a mspk from a functional scene in ArcGIS Pro and uploaded it to AGOL. I've created a group for ArcGIS Earth PM sharing in AGOL and shared the mspk with this group. I've also uploaded the mspk to my Dropbox and included the layers which were extracted using the Extract Package Geoprocessing tool to share with you.
I have gone through so many interations of creating and discarding layers while that my naming I"ve lost control of a logical naming convention system, the date/times of initial creation and the source of the sources. The mspk I shared with you failed to load to ArcGIS Earth Desktop this morning with the following message displaying in the application.
I have many more versions of my custom elevation layers, 2D layers and ArcGIS web services that I've created during my testing so trying to orgainze all this data to avoid cross contamination and false reporting of issues. Also, I'm trying to educate myself on ArcGIS Earth Desktop and Mobile processes to minimize user error when runnning tests.
Thanks again for your help!
Matt Ellis
