Simheaven's LAX OrtoScenery sharing...?

[Lisette]

Hi Guys,

When flying on PE I'm using the default X-plane scenery which is great but not very reallife like (except for roads, lakes etc...)
I really would like to install some nice Ortho Photo scenery as this will make flying VFR in the SoCal area more real.
Does anyone knows if nice OrthoScenery is commercially available for the area, and if it is, is it any good?
Alternative would be to get my hand on the SimHeaven Photoscenery tiles for the area but they are not available anymore as Simheaven closed it's doors long time ago.
Anyone willing to share the SimHeaven tiles with me, if so send me a message so we can setup a sharing session with my Synology NAS???
Thanks in advance.

regards, Lisette

[Kyle.Sanders]

Until you get ahold of those orthos, I suggest this as a general alternate.
http://www.x-aviation.com/catalog/produ ... maxx-p-102

[lizz]

Thanks Kyle for the tip but that is not really the direction I would like to go....

I did some reading here on the PE forum specifically on OrthoPhoto scenery for X-PLane and realised that my question/proposal to just share the SimHeaven tiles is not a very realistic one taking into account the size of the material covering the whole of the SoCal area.
In stead of this I donated some money to the developer of G2XPL so I can make the tiles mysef using this wonderfull software. I already made one European tile using the demo version and it worked very well and quite easy.
In the Video & Screenshot section I saw some amazing results that pilot's achieved using the G2XPL software, e.g. KERDO had some really nice video's utilizing the orthophoto scenery.
So I have to rephrase my original "sharing" question to a somewhat more realistic question:

Is there anybody here who can share his G2XPL experience/knowledge (kerdo...???) about what settings to use in the .ini file and which datasources to use for the conversion of the SoCal tiles??

Regards,
Lisette

[sanjiv]

Hi Lisette,

Have you considered using Ortho4XP.

There are some sample videos on youtube like this. I haven't started on it yet but find the videos quite amazing.

Sanjiv

[Marcus Becker]

Thanks Kyle for the tip but that is not really the direction I would like to go....

I did some reading here on the PE forum specifically on OrthoPhoto scenery for X-PLane and realised that my question/proposal to just share the SimHeaven tiles is not a very realistic one taking into account the size of the material covering the whole of the SoCal area.
In stead of this I donated some money to the developer of G2XPL so I can make the tiles mysef using this wonderfull software. I already made one European tile using the demo version and it worked very well and quite easy.
In the Video & Screenshot section I saw some amazing results that pilot's achieved using the G2XPL software, e.g. KERDO had some really nice video's utilizing the orthophoto scenery.
So I have to rephrase my original "sharing" question to a somewhat more realistic question:

Is there anybody here who can share his G2XPL experience/knowledge (kerdo...???) about what settings to use in the .ini file and which datasources to use for the conversion of the SoCal tiles??

Regards,
Lisette

I recently took the dive into G2xpl. Typically, I am not a fan of photo scenery but have been mostly satisfied with the results I've received. Understand that sharing is typically very difficult because one section of scenery is several GB worth of data. I've found that using a zoom level of 17 is sufficient for flying above 1500' AGL and keeping a really good view below you. To get ZL 17, you have to donate for the full version of the plugin. It took a couple days to get an email from the developer so be patient. When it comes to creating the tiles, it takes a long time. I think my average was just over an hour per tile if I only did one at a time. The most important thing to remember that if you want higher quality photo tiles, it's going to take CPU/GPU muscle and more storage space.

[Lisette]

Have you considered using Ortho4XP.

No not really, but now I downloaded the software but would like to stick for the moment at G2XPL. Ortho4XP does also require quite some configuration to do as well as a Pyton install.

Yes I donated so I received the unlimited version by mail today.
G2XPL is working but I can't seem to get any hires orthophotos out of it.
It is way too fast as one tile is finished in 10 minutes or less. It does create a folder in the Custom Scenery folder in which all .dds's are stored. But they are either lowres or partially dds files (whatever that may imply). In the .ini file I defined that I want ZL17 files but obviously the files or not.
I'm also unsure as to which service to use and how to use (configure) it.
I hope that there is someone who did the same recently, can help me configuring the tool correctly.....

[RyanK]

Have you considered using Ortho4XP.

No not really, but now I downloaded the software but would like to stick for the moment at G2XPL. Ortho4XP does also require quite some configuration to do as well as a Pyton install.

Yes I donated so I received the unlimited version by mail today.
G2XPL is working but I can't seem to get any hires orthophotos out of it.
It is way too fast as one tile is finished in 10 minutes or less. It does create a folder in the Custom Scenery folder in which all .dds's are stored. But they are either lowres or partially dds files (whatever that may imply). In the .ini file I defined that I want ZL17 files but obviously the files or not.
I'm also unsure as to which service to use and how to use (configure) it.
I hope that there is someone who did the same recently, can help me configuring the tool correctly.....

I don't have it in front of me, but one of the config parameters is something like "delta_res", which lowers the zoom level by that amount once you get a certain distance (something like "max_res_radius") from the coordinates. Set that to zero and the entire tile should be ZL17.

[Lisette]

Hi RyanK thanks for the tip.........

I don't have it in front of me, but one of the config parameters is something like "delta_res", which lowers the zoom level by that amount once you get a certain distance (something like "max_res_radius") from the coordinates. Set that to zero and the entire tile should be ZL17.

This was indeed the trick, this value was 3 so meaning that all textures will have 17-3=14 zoomlevel.
Just started the tool with value=0 and now it indicated that it need to work for 1 Hr 25 min (I have a slow PC) but it exits with a message that the Quota (600000 Kb) was exceeded. The service in use was Google (Bing maps). Now I changed over to VirtualEarth and see what's happening.

What is the best service to use for the SoCal area, and how do you manage this Quota?

[Lisette]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your help.
It is working now, downloaded 4 tiles already, they are big (~6 GB) but woow... what an improvement compared with the default X-Plane textures.
I will post a short video in the Screenshot & Video section of my sim in action using the Ortho textures.
Meanwhile I need to keep on making training flights on PE, next step = V2

Regards,
Lisette

[JonFly]

For what it is worth. I do not mess with the .ini file much other than to change the name of the folder I am going to output to. I do an entire tile at ZL17. I start all my tiles at the command line

g2xpl -a -118 33 17

I think this command line option is only available in the later versions, I use 6.89.

I press enter and then it does the entire tile at ZL17

I am working on the entire USA from Denver to the west coast and top to bottom. This will have me ready for the PE expansion. I am about 65% done.

Ortho4XP is next after this initial g2xpl project is complete.