X-Plane Ortho4XP Guide

[fearlessfrog]

@Sine_Nomine

Carnet_d_adresses.py (sic)

Cool. I used that file to compile a nicer list of what the sources acronym’s mean (from comments in the source code):

####################################################
# Bing (restrictive copyright)
# Viewer on www.bing.com/maps
####################################################
BI


####################################################
# Google (restrictive copyright, version as of 2015)
# Viewer on maps.google.com
####################################################
GO2, GO, g2xpl_8, g2xpl_16

####################################################
# Here.com (was asked for, similar to Bing in many places it seems) 
####################################################
Here


####################################################
# Arcgis Online
# Copyright is the one of the underlying provider
# Has an IP ban if download is heavy
####################################################
Arc



####################################################
# Openstreetmap (open data)
# Viewer on www.openstreetmap.org
####################################################
OSM



####################################################
# The National map (USGS) 1 foot orthoimagery / WMS
# Permissive copyright
# Beware that the US territory is not completely in
####################################################
USA_1



####################################################
# The National map (USGS) 1 foot orthoimagery / TMS
# Permissive copyright
# Same as above but filled with some data where 
# missing (this is actually 'Arc'...)
####################################################
USA_2


####################################################
# The Alaska Statewide Orthoimagery Mosaic
# Permissive copyright
####################################################
ASK_1


####################################################
# The Alaska Statewide Orthoimagery Mosaic
# Permissive copyright
####################################################
ASK_2


####################################################
# National geographical institute for France
# Restrictive copyright (should adapt to INSPIRE!)
####################################################
FR
  
FRorth

FRom


####################################################
# National geographical institute for France
# Restrictive copyright (should adapt to INSPIRE!)
# Low resolution (visible on geosud.ign.fr)
####################################################
FRsat


FRsat2


FRsatp  # Pleiades 2014, very limited coverage... but for some specific islands
 
####################################################
# National geographical institute for France
# Restrictive copyright (should adapt to INSPIRE!)
# Just for fun over topo map
####################################################
Top25
  


####################################################
# German Geo Data Centre - DOP Online
# Copyright is the one of the underlying provider 
####################################################
DE


####################################################
# National geographical institute for Spain
# Permissive copyright
####################################################
SP


####################################################
# National geographical institute of Italy
# Slightly permissive copyright 
####################################################
IT


####################################################
# National geographical institute of Sweden (thanks to Magnus1)
# Permissive copyright
####################################################
SE2

####################################################
# Sweden Hitta 
# Unsure about copyright
####################################################
Hitta


####################################################
# Sweden Eniro karta (thanks to Durian)
# Unsure about copyright
####################################################
SE


####################################################
# National geographical institute of Poland 
# Unsure about copyright
####################################################
PL


####################################################
# National geographical institute of Norway 
# Unsure about copyright
# !!! Doesn't work as of September 1st 2016 !!!
####################################################
NO, NO2



####################################################
# National geographical institute of Denmark
####################################################
DK 



####################################################
# National geographical institute of Belgium (Wallonie only)
# Permissive copyright
####################################################
BE_Wa 


####################################################
# National geographical institute of the Netherlands (lufoto2005)
# Permissive copyright
####################################################
NE 


####################################################
# National geographical institute of the Netherlands (dlnk2014)
# Permissive copyright
####################################################
NE2 


####################################################
# Geoportal Slovenia
####################################################
SLO


####################################################
# Geoportal Croatia
####################################################
CRO


####################################################
# National geographical institute of Austria 
####################################################
OST 


####################################################
# Swiss Federal Geo Portal
# Restrictive copyright + water marked 
# (see http://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/internet/swisstopo/en/home/swisstopo/legal_bases/use_without_licence.html
####################################################
CH



####################################################
# Mapy.cz CZ
# Viewer on mapy.cz (thanks to 'suplere')
####################################################
CZ


####################################################
# Australia South Wester territory : Sixmaps
# Unsure about copyright
####################################################
AU_1


####################################################
# New Zealand (partial but very good in some places)
# Open data
####################################################
NZ


####################################################
# Japan 2007 imagery (partial but very good in some places)
# Unsure about copyright
####################################################
JP



####################################################
# Kortal.fo (Farao Islands)
# Unsure about copyright
####################################################
FO


####################################################
# Estonian Geoportal
# Visible on http://kaart.delfi.ee
# Permissive copyright
####################################################
EST



####################################################
# La Loire atlantique vue du ciel
# Open (and nice) data ! 
####################################################
F44


####################################################
# Geneva area
# Visible on ge.ch/sitg
# Permissive copyright
####################################################
GE

Hopefully that will be useful, as I wouldn’t have guessed some of these

[Camembert]

Oh dear I knew it wouldn’t take long for some technical stuff to creep in to get me completely lost.

[fearlessfrog]

Sorry, yep - the above list just helps explain more what those entries list in the ‘map provider’ list do, as in where they get they map images from:

[fearlessfrog]

For the US, the ARC map source is quite a nice choice. Here’s using zoom level 16 and Portland, Oregon, with PDX on the left, downtown to the right and Mt Hood in the background:

Plus bonus Mt St. Helen’s shots, showing where half the mountain cone is missing due to that loud mishap in the 80’s. A fascinating place to visit if you ever get the chance:

[BeachAV8R]

Wow…those are great shots. I need a “roll up my sleeves” night to tackle this project…

[fearlessfrog]

@Sine_Nomine

Might get to the bottom of what I’m doing wrong

What rectangle lat/long? I could have a go too?

EDIT: I’m trying Bing at zoomlevel 16 for -1, -79 at the moment to see what happens. I don’t have HD v3 mesh for the overlay data for South America though.

EDIT2: Maybe post a screenshot of your XP10 or 11 Custom Scenery folder - maybe a level is being overwritten or out of order?

[fearlessfrog]

I generated Quito using these settings:

and it looks great! (although it’s annoying the clouds are built into the textures… )

Until I turned around and saw this

Looking on Bing Maps for that location, it just looks like they didn’t do a zoom level 16 aerial photography set for that area. You can see where the details change here Bing Maps - Directions, trip planning, traffic cameras & more :

So I think it’s worth trying a different provider, but it’s possible one might not exist? The easiest way is to use the ‘Choose custom zoomlevel’ button and use the ‘preview’ in there or browse the maps online and see where they provide something better than the zoom level 15 or less satellite ‘crayon’ look.

[fearlessfrog]

@Sine_Nomine

There are some good Landsat or what-knot images/data on the NASA site, where you can even scroll through dates to pick a nice cloud free day, but how you would go about “integrating” (I think that’s a good word) it into that list, I cannot hazard to guess.

If you find an online map viewer with imagery you like I might be able to alter/add the python code to include it. They all use a similar z/x/y 256 pixel tiles layout generally, so it would just be about crafting a URL that works in Ortho4xp. If you find one, post a link here and I’m happy to give it a go.

[BeachAV8R]

@Sine_Nomine

Though what is there is pretty fabulous, it suffers from the same gaps of the apparent and encroaching ice age cataclysm, with encrusted (as opposed to embedded) cloud!

They are going overboard with their salt production in Costa Rica…

[fearlessfrog]

That looks awesome @Sine_Nomine

Did you try OSM overlay data for autogen too, as in use the path to the HD Mesh to grab it’s data when generate those tiles? It actually sometimes looks better without it (plus speeds up framerates as well as a nice bonus). Cool!

[RainerBerlin]

Your X-Plane Ortho4XP Guide: What a great work.
Thank you very much!

[Brix]

I’m going to have to give this a try. I watched the vid this morning - and just now bought FlyInside for XP. £38 is not cheap - but I can’t complain, as I only paid half price for the FSX/P3D combo.

I’ve been flying the default C172SP - which is miles better than the FSX one - around the Shetland Islands and the scenery is really pants. The mesh is reasonable, as are the airfields - even the small ones - but the roads and fields are awful.
I’ll get ortho downloading the area this evening while I’m out.

[Kludger]

Do it man!

Coming to XP11 as a spoiled P3Dv3 user with tons of expensive ORBX scenery, I followed that guide and the Ortho4XP scenery with overlay has put P3D+ORBX to shame, especially when flying in areas I know in real life, it’s so much more realistic looking.

Ortho4XP is the killer app that turns X-Plane 11 into an awesome GA sim… the only downside is the disk space needed, but when compared to ORBX scenery size it’s not bad at all.

[Brix]

I had a problem. I left it downloading, but at an early stage it got stuck - no idea why, but I will try again tomorrow.

[Kludger]

It looks like it had problems downloading the data from that Base Source, try to switch it to BI which is Bing and see if that works for you.

[Brix]

I’ll try that, thanks. Was just following the advice in the video.

Edit: It worked!

[Brix]

I’m having some issues with this and would be grateful for any assistance.

I have downloaded 7 tiles covering Shetland, Orkney and Caithness… I used a Symlink to X-plane’s Custom Scenery folder. I’m really not convinced it is loading, as I don’t see any difference between default terrain and this.

I looked in the scenery_packs.ini file and found the

SCENERY_PACK Custom Scenery/yOrtho4XP_Overlays/

entry, but nothing else. According to the tutorial video, there should also be entries for each of the seven tiles, but they are not there. Did I miss something? I followed the video and double checked after, but I don’t see anything different to what I did.

[Brix]

Thanks - I’ll do that. I just flew around the complete area to make sure and it definitely isn’t showing the ortho scenery.

I don’t have the AIPilot HD meshes.

If I deleting the ini file doesn’t work, I’ll have another go with my local senery. I just flew the area in default XP and it was dire. I will definitely know if that has been improved or not.

Oh - I also moved the ortho folder to Custom Scenery and deleted the link.

[Brix]

No - and I just saw that in another tutorial video earlier and will try it tomorrow. I have watched 3 tutorial videos and they each say to install it a different way.

Thanks

[Brix]

The subfolders for each tile that I have are names diferently - without the Ortho4XP prefix - inless you added those?

So if I moved the individual tiles into the Custom Scenery folder, they would be named, for example, “+40-010” rather than “zOrtho4XP_+40-010” - does this matter?

I’ll have a quick go and see how it turns out.