releases

Ortho4XP_FSX_P3D

A scenery generator for the X-Plane flight simulator

Work in progress at adding FSX/P3D (ESP support)

*Note: Checkout my updates to FSEarthTiles - https://github.com/stackTom/FSEarthTiles FSEarthTiles (FSET) has much better algorithms to avoid distortion of ortho imagery inside the sim. It supports FSX, P3D, and FS9, and allows for the creation of tiles which don't have to be 1 degree by 1 degree like Ortho4XP.

Use at your own risk

Prerequisites

Windows Vista (or greater) 64 bit is required.
Please also install Microsoft Visual c++ redistributable. Download it here: https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe
Please install ImageMagick before attempting to run, otherwise the night/season creation won't work. An installer has been provided inside the dist/ directory. Run the installer with the default settings. The same installer can also be found here: https://www.imagemagick.org/download/binaries/ImageMagick-7.0.8-10-Q8-x64-dll.exe
NOTE: Need to provide the location of your resample.exe from the P3D or FSX SDK in Ortho4XP.cfg, like this:

ESP_resample_loc=C:\\LOCATION\\TO\\resample.exe

Notice the double backslashes \\ instead of single \.

You can obtain the P3D resample.exe by installing the P3D SDK provided by Lockheed Martin on their site where you download P3D. For FSX, resample.exe can be found by installing the FSX SDK found in the FSX Deluxe Disc 1 or in FSX Acceleration Pack (or FSX Gold which includes the Acceleration pack). The Steam edition of FSX does have an SDK but doesn't include the resample.exe executable, so you will have to install the regular SDK from any of these other sources (the FSX SDK has its own installer and can be installed separately without having to install the full game).

Running from exe

An executable (.exe) file has been provided in the dist/ directory, if you don't want to build the binary yourself. Simply double click on it, and it'll run. It cannot run without the parent folders though.

Running with Python

To install, follow the install guide for Ortho4XP, making sure to install all python libraries, and run Ortho4XP_v130.py from the command line.

To create autogen with ScenProc

Credit to Harry Otter for the default ScenProc script!

NOTE -> the included default ScenProc script needs improvement. I will improve it as time permits. There is also the possibility to improve it yourself, or simply add new scripts which ScenProc can use (see below steps on how to do this)

Download ScenProc from here: https://www.scenerydesign.org/development-releases/ Either the x86 or x64 version, depending on whether your operating system is 32 bit (x86) or 64 bit (x64)
Extract ScenProc to the location of your choice
Make sure to run scenProc.exe at least once, and set the path to your sim. Do this by running scenProc.exe, accepting the message box which appears, and then selecting the sim you are using along with the path to the sim in the window which shows up
Set the path to scenProc.exe in Ortho4XP.cfg, like this: ESP_scenproc_loc=C:\\path\\to\\ScenProc\\scenProc.exe
OPTIONAL: You can create more scripts to guide ScenProc in creating autogen. They MUST be placed inside the ScenProc_configs folder. You can select which script for ScenProc to utilize, by changing the following line in Ortho4XP.cfg: ESP_scenproc_script=default.spc, where default.spc is the name of the script you wish to use inside the ScenProc_configs folder IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE to include the @0@ and @1@ in the same locations in your custom ScenProc scripts as are found in the default ScenProc script. Namely, the first and last lines: IMPORTOGR|@0@|*|building;landuse;natural;leisure|NOREPROJ and EXPORTAGN|FSX|@1@ Everything else can be changed, just not @0@ and @1@, as ScenProc needs these so Ortho4XP can tell it where to load the OSM data from and where to output the autogen files to, respectively

Example run from exe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkvmlbJXAq4

Building binary (only tested on windows 10 64 bit):

Use pyinstaller like this:

pyinstaller --clean -F -p src Ortho4XP_v130.py

Then, copy spatialindex-64.dll and spatialindex_c-64.dll (from rtree python module) into the dist folder where the new executable is:

cp /c/Users/fery2/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python36/Lib/site-packages/rtree/lib/spatialindex* dist/

If the executable crashes with errors like OSError: could not find or load spatialindex_c-64.dll, then follow these instructions: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64398516/pyinstaller-exe-oserror-could-not-find-or-load-spatialindex-c-64-dll

(Basically, find the Ortho4XP_v130.spec file, which should be in the same directory as Ortho4XP_v130.py. Add this import to it: from PyInstaller.utils.hooks import collect_dynamic_libs. Then, change the line that says binaries=[] to binaries=collect_dynamic_libs("rtree"). A sample Ortho4XP_v130.spec file is provided for reference, but it is recommended to use the one produced by pyinstaller and edit it with the lines just mentioned. After doing this, run pyinstaller Ortho4XP_v130.spec).

To build the imagemagick based c++ dll, use the Visual Studio Native Tools Command Prompt, and do something like:

"F:\ExtraPrograms\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.14.26428\bin\Hostx64\x64\cl.exe" /LD /I "C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.8-Q8\include" /I C:/Users/fery2/AppData/Local/Programs/Python/Python36/include src\cpp\fast_image_mask.cpp src\cpp\FSET_ports.cpp C:\Users\fery2\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\libs\python36.lib "C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.8-Q8\lib\CORE_RL_Magick++_.lib" "C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.8-Q8\lib\CORE_RL_MagickCore_.lib" "C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-7.0.8-Q8\lib\CORE_RL_MagickWand_.lib"

Make sure the visual ++ environment is set to the correct bit of your python (32 vs 64 bit), and rename the .dll to .pyd

Note: Imagemagick is required, specifically the q8 quantum depth version. To build it on UNIX from source code, configure like this:

./configure --with-tiff=yes --with-quantum-depth=8

WHERE TO FIND the .bgl FILES FOR FSX

Ortho4XP generates a bunch of .bgl files for each tile inside the Orthophotos directory (for instance: Ortho4XP_FSX_P3D-master\Orthophotos\+30+000\+39+002\BI_16\ADDON_SCENERY). Rename the ADDON_SCENERY folder to whatever you wish, and move it wherever you wish (recommended is inside the Addons Scenery folder inside FSX/P3D). Then, add the scenery using the add/remove scenery option inside of the sim

FINISHED:

base satellite imagery creation for FSX and P3D water masks for FSX and P3D build binary night/seasonal texture creation options

TODO:

remove extra steps not needed for ESP scenery creation improve default scenProc spc file so it looks good in as many areas of the world as possible

BUGS:

Certain tiles don't appear when their BGL is too large in size (like when creating tiles at ZL 12 and enabling all the seasons which creates 2+ gig BGLs). Not sure if limitation of the sim, or some other issue.

Original Readme

Ortho4XP

A scenery generator for the X-Plane flight simulator.

NOTE 15/02/2024 : In transition to version 1.40.

Version 1.40 is mostly a compatibility update for XP 12 water requirements. Some newer code related to 3D waterbed rendering is included, but one will have to wait for XP 12.1 to potentially revise it. The default setting is XP11 (i.e. overlay based ) water rendering + bathymetry for 3D water and physics plane interaction. The new Ortho4XP tiles also automatically bring the seasons, sounds, etc raster from the corresponding Global Scenery tiles.

The code as been updated to work with recent versions of the python modules it depends on (you may have experienced some deprecation warnings or even some code break due to Numpy, Pyproj and Shapely, these should be fixed with this update). The only new python module used is skfmm (Fast Marching Method) and is only needed when using the distance_masks_too option, the program will run even without it.

TODO :

Update install instructions (after user first tests). The ones included have not been updated at all, but the same list of decently recent python modules should work out of the box.
Check and update providers status.
Compile nvcompress for OSX ARM64 (the included version is the old one renamed without the .app). A Linux version of nvcompress is included now because some distros are apparently no longer shipping it. Triangle4XP has been updated for all OS, including ARM based Mac. I have not tested anything but Linux software.
Incorporate some code changes that were in the old "devel" version (the present is an update from the v130 master branch only).
Do something about the 3rd party initiatives to provide some Docker or other Plug and Play versions.