A bit worrying: it seems I am seeing a lot of nearby loading of textures (and mesh?) since the last update. This reminds me a lot of FSX/P3D and that's not a good thing. I flew over the grand canyon with the Airbus and saw things popping up very frequently and very close to the plane too.
I took the screenshot below a split second after the canyon in front of me was partially 'updated' which is a LOT closer than what I am used to in AFS2. Kind of immersion killing. In the past I hardly ever saw things being loaded! But now I see it all the time.
I hope the improvement in performance wasn't achieved by loading things later on...? This is one of the selling points of AFS2 (compared to other sims).
EDIT
I disabled the beta and I am seeing the same popping up. Maybe this has to do with the grand canyon... or maybe I simply missed this before...? I always told others how great AFS2 is when it comes to having no pop up...! I will try a flight elsewhere and see if I get this popping up there too.
EDIT 2
Hm, I am seeing similar things happening elsewhere too. Maybe I didn't notice it like this before because 1. I usually fly the Dash 8 which gives you less time to look around, , 2. I was flying quite low over the canyons, 3. the contrast between light and dark is pretty big above the canyons so loading is more obvious then near (for instance) San Fransisco, 4. I am paying more attention to it now after the update. Still, there is more pop up than I thought. I will have to stop saying on the forums I visit that AFS2 doesn't have popup.