RELEASED: HD Mesh Scenery v4 for X-Plane 11

[alpilotx]

The wait is over, and HD Mesh Scenery v4 for X-Plane 11 is now officially released!

HD Mesh Scenery v4 can be seen as a vastly improved version of the default scenery shipping with XP11. It is using/referencing the exact same set of artwork files (textures, object, autogens, forests) which ship with XP11, so you do not need other art assets to be installed while HD Mesh Scenery v4 will also benefit from any artwork improvements (autogen, texture) coming with future XP11 versions.


The most important advantages of HD Mesh Scenery v4 are

• The triangle mesh resolution is far higher than in the default mesh and even a bit above the level of the previous HD Mesh Scenery v3:: this give – obviously – better DEM (elevation data) representation (slopes, mountains etc.) BUT this also vastly(!) improves the landclass data representation (which in X-Plane is very closely coupled with the triangle size in the mesh). This is most obvious with forest detail.
  
• The vector data simplification is less aggressive than in the default mesh (where Laminar needed to do that to limit the overall size of the global scenery). Thus road / railroad bendings are more accurate and the same is true for rivers, shorelines (but where the OSM raw data is bad, this can’t help much either)
  
• HD Mesh Scenery v4 also has the new “high buildings” feature included, which I introduced with Laminar in XP11. This puts all (well, with some filtering of not reasonable stuff from OSM) buildings > 20m “height” or > 5 “building:levels” as some “high building” object (with a more or less correct height – as defined in OSM) in the scenery (“building:levels” are simply multiplied by 4m to get an approximate height). This usually gives most cities a much better look (New York is a great example, where in OSM almost all buildings already have a height defined). This same approach also “imports” antennas / masts from OSM (as antenna obstacles)
  
• OSM data is updated (its “date stamp” is 1st October 2017) . Which makes it newer than current XP11 default mesh data and of course much, much newer than the data in HD Mesh Scenery v3.
  
• Most of the Landclass data has seen an update (which already happened with my work for the XP11 default scenery … but HD Mesh Scenery v4 can represent the high res landclass data much better)

Coverage

• Europe (from the Canaries and Iceland in the west up to Moscow an and most parts of Israel in the East)
  
• North America (USA, Alaska, Canada)
  
• South / Central America
  
• Australia
  
• Japan
  
• Hawaii and most of the tiny Pacific Islands
  
• Himalaya

(Coverage to the north ends at 73 N !)

And a Warning!

The scenery requires at least X-Plane 11.00 !!! IT WILL NOT WORK WITH X-Plane 10.xx!

Screenshots

Here are the official screenshots accompanying the release of HD Mesh Scenery v4. Just follow the links to my albums:

• The gallery on my website will bring you to the Albums as direct links to the google albums are removed by the steam forum (the top two of the albums) : http://www.alpilotx.net/gallery/

Official Site

All other (continuously updated) information, download links and important instructions can be found on the official HD Mesh Scenery v4 Site:

• http://www.alpilotx.net/downloads/x-plane-11-hd-mesh-scenery-v4/

[Kilo_60]

Damn, so many single files to DL and Install...

Any plans to work more on the ME region and Hong Kong?

Love my flights to Dubai, Abu Dabi and Tai Kak!

[alboon2000]

There is a problem I think, if you use both HD and UHD mesh : zzz_uhd is alphabetically BELOW zzz_hd, so each time you delete scenery_packs.ini (when using SceneManager for example) you have to manually put zzz_uhd ABOVE zzz_hd, which you can easily forget after a while.
I tried renaming zzz_uhd into zz_uhd but the scenery then doesn't appear in xOrganizer so I suppose you can't rename it ?

[roarinelk]

Messaggio originale di alboon2000:

There is a problem I think, if you use both HD and UHD mesh : zzz_uhd is alphabetically BELOW zzz_hd, so each time you delete scenery_packs.ini (when using SceneManager for example) you have to manually put zzz_uhd ABOVE zzz_hd, which you can easily forget after a while.
I tried renaming zzz_uhd into zz_uhd but the scenery then doesn't appear in xOrganizer so I suppose you can't rename it ?

why not name it "zzy_uhd_.." ?

[alboon2000]

If it doesn't work when renaming ZZ, I don't see why it would work when renaming ZZY...

[🐉 Ðŗąçø 🐉]

Change the order of scenery_packs.ini yourself!

[roarinelk]

Messaggio originale di alboon2000:

If it doesn't work when renaming ZZ, I don't see why it would work when renaming ZZY...

did you edit scenery_packs.ini correctly?

[alboon2000]

OK I wasn't clear : I'd like a solution that wouldn't involve editing scenery_packs myself EACH TIME I delete it...

[🐉 Ðŗąçø 🐉]

Messaggio originale di alboon2000:

OK I wasn't clear : I'd like a solution that wouldn't involve editing scenery_packs myself EACH TIME I delete it...

You shouldn't need to delete scenery_packs.ini. Last time I had to do that was back in April, and since then I've added a LOT of custom scenery.

[alboon2000]

I'm pretty new to Xplane and I sometimes need to delete scenery_packs.ini, as I use SceneManager. I have several hard drives and I'm still searching where to put all my custom sceneries... For example, the US scenery that is being shared on the .org website by Forkboy2 made me change my organisation, as I hadn't planned to download gigabytes of data :)

Anyway, I don't understand how come I can't rename zzz_--- folder...

Still, thank you Alpilotx for sharing your work, and thank you steam users for your answers !

[Allen63]

Downloaded the entire offering and installed every file (using suggested folder arrangement and names). So far so good.

Doubt I'll actually fly into all the areas. But, its comforting to know they are there.

Thanks again for the effort and thought!

[opjose]

Messaggio originale di Kosmozuikis:

So what this do exactly? I've tried and it's just ugly. There are no building as i uderstand? Only ground textures? I either do something wrong or it really looks worse than default. Ground texutures are completely wrong, accuracy is worse than default XP11. I can;'t see any difference from v3.
Where do i need to put this in .ini? I put it above ortho and below w2xp. So it could overwite ortho and still have w2xp buildings.

What part of the world are you looking at?

All this does is add ground meshes. It does not add ground textures.
HD Scenery does not add buildings outside of the OSM ones from alpilotx.

The alpilotx OSM overlays actually REDUCE the number of buildings displayed for many parts of the world. This is because the same World2XP creation process was used, which provides poor coverage outside of the EU.

You can use the HD textures in conjunction with Ortho4XP textures and Ortho4XP overlays.

You want the Ortho4XP overlay folder to show up above both the HD textures and the Ortho4XP textures.

The Ortho4XP overlays must be above the X11 overlays, but below all of your custom airports and downloaded 3D scenery (excepting, meshes and textures).

Below the Ortho4XP overlays should be the Ortho4XP textures, and below that the HD Scenery Meshes.

XOrganizer is a good way to sift through all of this, but you will need to catogorize the folders for it to do its job. Once done it organizes the .INI file automatically whenever you run it.

[Kosmozuikis]

Messaggio originale di opjose:

Messaggio originale di Kosmozuikis:

So what this do exactly? I've tried and it's just ugly. There are no building as i uderstand? Only ground textures? I either do something wrong or it really looks worse than default. Ground texutures are completely wrong, accuracy is worse than default XP11. I can;'t see any difference from v3.
Where do i need to put this in .ini? I put it above ortho and below w2xp. So it could overwite ortho and still have w2xp buildings.

What part of the world are you looking at?

All this does is add ground meshes. It does not add ground textures.
HD Scenery does not add buildings outside of the OSM ones from alpilotx.

The alpilotx OSM overlays actually REDUCE the number of buildings displayed for many parts of the world. This is because the same World2XP creation process was used, which provides poor coverage outside of the EU.

You can use the HD textures in conjunction with Ortho4XP textures and Ortho4XP overlays.

You want the Ortho4XP overlay folder to show up above both the HD textures and the Ortho4XP textures.

The Ortho4XP overlays must be above the X11 overlays, but below all of your custom airports and downloaded 3D scenery (excepting, meshes and textures).

Below the Ortho4XP overlays should be the Ortho4XP textures, and below that the HD Scenery Meshes.

XOrganizer is a good way to sift through all of this, but you will need to catogorize the folders for it to do its job. Once done it organizes the .INI file automatically whenever you run it.

I don't use ortho overlay, i only use ortho ground textures. I use w2xp combined with ortho. If i put hd mesh above both of these, i get ugly looking city and ground textures. If i put it below w2xp but above ortho i get good looking city(w2xp) with horrible textures. And if i put it below both it has no effect. So what does it do exactly? It takes a bit of space so it should do something.

[opjose]

HD Mesh should be under both W2XP and Ortho folders.

The order should be:

Your other add-on airports
W2XP Overlays (If you are using them)
Ortho4XP Overlays (if you are using them if not omit)
Global Airports (X11 supplied 3D airports)
Texture folders for your other add-on airports
Orth4XP Texture folders
HD Mesh Scenery Folders

This pemits the Ortho textures to sit on top of the HD Meshes and conform to them.

[Kosmozuikis]

Messaggio originale di opjose:

HD Mesh should be under both W2XP and Ortho folders.

The order should be:

Your other add-on airports
W2XP Overlays (If you are using them)
Ortho4XP Overlays (if you are using them if not omit)
Global Airports (X11 supplied 3D airports)
Texture folders for your other add-on airports
Orth4XP Texture folders
HD Mesh Scenery Folders

This pemits the Ortho textures to sit on top of the HD Meshes and conform to them.

So hd mesh only improves forests slightly? I'm looking at the comparison screenshots and there's barely any difference except for forests which look more accurate. In cities i see hd mesh add different buildings, but for me it adds ugly out of place buildings and everything else is just ugly. There's dirt instead of grass, houses are placed all wrong, lakes/ponds looks horrible. Why does it take so much space if it doesn't change anything?
If ortho is above what's the point of hd mesh then? That doesn't make sense.

[opjose]

The HD Meshes improve the "folding" of the ground so to speak.

The HD meshes increase the amount of triangles used to define the ground bumps and folds.

The effect can be hard to see or very subtle in some areas, or very dramatic around mountains and mountain peaks.

Forests are 3D objects controlled by one of the overlays you are using.

They are actually separate things.

HD Meshes ALSO provide overlay files based upon OSM data. You do NOT have to use the HD Overlays. In fact I would advise against using them outside of the EU.

Those HD Mesh Overlays (not meshes) are very sparse for areas outside of the EU, showing very few buildings in those areas.

If you want high 3D object density in areas outside of the EU, you are better off using the Ortho4XP overlays in addition to the ground textures.

For areas within the EU, excluding some areas such as Norway, the World2XP overlays do better.

Then there is the issue with "Exclusion Zones".

Think of each of these as a layers that when combined by the computer give you the 3D world you fly in.

Overlays are the 3D objects, buildings, roads, lights, etc.
Textures sit under the objects.
Meshes sit under everything

The computer blends them together. It gives higher priority to the layer above another.

In some cases, particularly around airports, you WANT an "exclusion" zone that prevents underlying layers and objects, meshes and/or textures from showing through. Normally these are good things.

However Exclusion Zones are also used by Ortho4XP, World2XP, HD Meshes, etc. and that may reduce what you see.

Ideally you want to see your add-on buildings take precedence over everything else.
If there is no add-on buildings in an area, you want the World2XP buildings to show up.

Since World2XP buildings can be sparse, you want the Ortho4XP buildings to show up where there are no World2XP buildings.

Where there are no Ortho4Xp nor World2XP buildings, you want default X11 and autogen scenery to show up.

However World2XP creates exclusion zones for everything. So NO buildings that sit "under" World2XP show up... ugh!

That makes areas outside the EU look like empty wastelands if you are using World2XP.

IMHO the OSM scenery used and filtered by Ortho4XP is better because it is far denser and DOES NOT have exclusion zones that prohibit autogen scenery from displaying. The difference is very dramatic.

But Ortho4XP's OSM scenery really screws up forests!

As an example the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speed shows up in World2Xp, but there are no houses around it. The Speedway is lacking many of the infield buildings and golf course.

In Ortho4XP overlays, the Speedway looks great, it has the infield buildings, the golf course, the green house. Gasoline Alley shows up... BUT there are TREES all over the TRACKS! Houses surrounding the Indianapolis 500 show up well.