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The Living Atlas "Terrain: Hillshade" layer has suddenly become very low resolution

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11-01-2024 05:42 AM
TrentonWalker
Occasional Contributor

Hi everyone,

I use the Living Atlas "Terrain: Hillshade" layer on a daily basis for my work. Until yesterday, this layer was always fairly high resolution (I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I would estimate somewhere between 5m and 1m). I need this fine detail to outline and classify relatively small features in the topography. The resolution of this layer was the exact same as the individual lidar tiles I've been provided for my state, except I don't have to load each one individually (and there are thousands upon thousands of them), and streaming the layer from Living Atlas is actually faster than trying to get the individually loaded tiles to display. In short, this layer is a lifesaver.

When I opened my ArcGIS Pro project this morning, the Terrain: Hillshade layer was extremely "pixelated" and obviously at a much coarser scale than normal. Nothing about my map had changed, and this very same layer worked perfectly fine yesterday. I removed the layer, searched for it again in the Living Atlas, and added it back to my map, but the problem remained. I can't see any of the details I need to see to do my work, and it's going to be a huge time-sink if I have to load my own lidar tiles manually.

Is anyone else having this problem, or have you had this problem before? I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks.

 

Quick edit: I've just checked another layer that I use in similar ways - "Terrain: Slope Map" - and it's having the same issue.

 

Edit 11/6/2024:

I reported the issue to Esri. I went through the troubleshooting process over a Zoom call with an Esri support specialist, who also had the same issue on their end, and we were not able to resolve the issue. I was told that the Living Atlas was being updated and that this may have something to do with it, but the support specialist couldn't directly confirm this. He said he would continue to look into it.

As of the afternoon of 11/5/2024, the imagery layer is now back to the correct resolution with no changes made on my end. I'm assuming that this problem was related to something on Esri's end, probably the updates to the Living Atlas. I'm adding this update for anyone else who stumbles across this thread in the future with a similar issue.

I will also add a separate comment down below to increase the visibility of this thread.

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5 Replies
Robert_LeClair
Esri Notable Contributor

So I'm seeing the same thing with regards to spatial resolution of the Terrain:Hillshade layer as well.  At 1:30000 and higher scale values, it's pixelated/blurry.  And at 1:31000 and lower scale values, it's clear/crisp - see images below

1:300001:300001:310001:31000

The Live Feeds Status is showing everything as normal but clearly there's an issue - ArcGIS Online Health Dashboard.  I think reporting an issue on this page would be the next step.

TrentonWalker
Occasional Contributor

Hi Robert. Thanks for confirming it's not just me! And thanks for the link - I'll report the issue now and relay your findings, too.

Edit (again, sorry): I can't seem to get the higher resolution version no matter what my scale is set at. There's no difference between 1:30k and 1:31k, and it seems like it's the low-resolution version all the way up to 1:200k and presumably beyond, although at that scale it's not really noticeable.

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TrentonWalker
Occasional Contributor

It seems like I'm not authorized to use the link you provided, but I can report a bug, so I'll use that avenue even though I'm not sure this technically qualifies as a bug.

TrentonWalker
Occasional Contributor

Update 11/6/2024:

I reported the issue to Esri. I went through the troubleshooting process over a Zoom call with an Esri support specialist, who also had the same issue on their end, and we were not able to resolve the issue. I was told that the Living Atlas was being updated and that this may have something to do with it, but the support specialist couldn't directly confirm this. He said he would continue to look into it.

As of the afternoon of 11/5/2024, the imagery layer is now back to the correct resolution with no changes made on my end. I'm assuming that this problem was related to something on Esri's end, probably the updates to the Living Atlas. I'm adding this update for anyone else who stumbles across this thread in the future with a similar issue.

ZacharyHart
Honored Contributor

@TrentonWalker  @Robert_LeClair 

We stumbled across this or at least something very similar, particularly with the Living Atlas hillshade but I believe we replicated the issue with another imagery service: 3DEP DEM Hillshade. 

At first we suspected that adding a layer that was not WGS84 WMAS to the web map prior to adding he hillshade would change the PCS of the web map...perhaps something to do with projecting on the fly. If we simply add the hillshade to a new/empty web map, the resolution seems fine. 

We don't seem to be experiencing the degraded resolution when consuming the layer in ArcGIS Pro or a web map referenced by an ExB web app. Perhaps more details to come. @RebeccaDiGirolomo  found this issue initially.

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