Ambiguous Altimeter

[xtp]

I spent my working life flying real aircraft, but retired before glass cockpits became common.

When trying to fly at a round 1000 feet altitude using the FSX integrated display, the altimeter reads X000 when just above the datum, and (X-1)000 when fractionally below.

[born_2_fly]

Press B on your keyboard to adjust the Mb. of mercury to the appropritate amount. This SHOULD give you an accurate reading, don't have FSX myself so this may not be your problems..

[Fr. Bill]

This ambiguity seems to me both misleading and dangerous.

Is this a realistic simulation of a real display or a programming error?

No, it's simply some buggy coding that crept into that particular gauge...  :(