Few quick questions for new user

[markturner 0]

Hi , I finally got it installed and it works !!!! I need to do some tweaking however. Regarding the FSX .cfg file, what values are essential in there for smoothrunning of the software? Does TileProxy write its own required values to the .cfg file everytime it starts? For instance, if I swap in another .cfg file to fly different scenery, next time I fly using tileproxy, do I have to do anything ?Does the LOD Radius setting in FSX .cfg file do anything, or does the settings in the proxy user .ini file override this value? Is there any easy way to tell what is limiting performance once you have it up and running ? IE downloads speeds or Processing power ? I noticed in another post in the FSX forum, another new user posted that he had made one parent folder for the 2 files Tileproxyphotorealworld & Cacheservice3. Is this necessary ? Mine works ok without this, but if it helps performance etc, I want to do it. Thanks, and looking forward to getting this set up right ! The potential is fantastic! PS, which is the best server for images of the western united states and canada ? Cheers,Mark

[cianpars 1,231]

For starters Mark,For canada and the US use service 3. For Europe, service 1 is best.You can play around with the following settings inthe fsx.cfg and see what results you get. Different people seem to have greater success with different settings and it's still a bit trial and error.I've tried lots of settings for TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT - 120 was the best compromise any less and I was getting slow texture loading and any higher stutters.FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION - for fast flying, I think 0.33 (which I bekieve is default). I get best results at 1.33 but again, this causes some stutters for me near airports. I'm using 0.99 at the moment.LOD_RADIUS= FSwill default to 4.5 every time you make an in game adjustment. However, on my system 6.00 is best. With a higher end system, up to 8.5. For fast flying use 3.5Then start tweaking the proxyuser .ini - You need to realy understand level mapping and I'm afraid every time I read an explanation, I just get more confused. I've experimented lots and have found the best for me is 9,10,11,13,14,14,15,16,17,18,19It depends however on what the mappingis like in the area you are flying. My setting is consdiered to be the intermediate setting.Keep tweaking and keep experimenting. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don't.Personally, I have never had any success flying faster that 100kts though.IAN

[MortenS 0]

I have no problems flying at 170kts, or even higher. Mostly default settings, using the best quality settings during installation. Changed the rate settings to match my internet speed, and of course if using service 1, you should update map version. I did some changes to level mapping, but that doesn't seem to change anything much.In FSX.cfg I've only changed the "FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION", to "0.33", no other changes.

[lliaudais 2]

Regarding the FSX .cfg file, what values are essential in there for smoothrunning of the software? Does TileProxy write its own required values to the .cfg file everytime it starts? For instance, if I swap in another .cfg file to fly different scenery, next time I fly using tileproxy, do I have to do anything ?

TileProxy does not alter FSX.cfg after the initial installation (if you allowed there)TileProxy does not alter the user.ini with use.Generally speaking I use the same FSX.cfg values both with and without TileProxy. The only thing I normally adjust is the scenery range - sometimes adjusting manually for longer (or shorter) range.If you swap (or alter) your FSX.cfg, it could affect some things but nothing that should make TileProxy stop working.

Does the LOD Radius setting in FSX .cfg file do anything, or does the settings in the proxy user .ini file override this value?

FSX LOD radius controls the range that FSX will be trying to show; the .ini parameters (with FSX) determine WHAT will be shown in those ranges. With level mapping you can make TileProxy use high res imagery for more remote scenery rings, or to use lo res imagery closer in than would otherwise occur. Commenting out the level mapping line is equivalent to setting it to LOD 8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17 - matching the 10 ovals displayed in the TileProxy console window. LOD 8-17 equates to tile levels 10-19

Is there any easy way to tell what is limiting performance once you have it up and running ? IE downloads speeds or Processing power ?

Performance analysis: I typically run with the performance tab of the Task Manager showing on screen 2 (along with the TileProxy console window).TileProxy is working at its max when it is downloading, saving jpg's, converting to bmp and updating all tiles in range and also feeding the bmps to FSX. You can see this in the console where jpg loading is indicated at the bottom. Bitmap processing is indicated in the top line. This line is still active for a while after downloading which indicates there's more than just downloading to be done. The length of time it takes for this to drop to 0% is an indication of CPU power/limitation and not a downloading bottleneck.Once all TileProxy processing is "current" (I'm also probably paused in the sim) my cpu2 load finally drops to essentially 0 and the only thing still going on is texture preparation and display by FSX - usually there are textures still coming into focus for a while after TP has done its thing... my limitation is cpu, not downloading

I noticed in another post in the FSX forum, another new user posted that he had made one parent folder for the 2 files Tileproxyphotorealworld & Cacheservice3. Is this necessary ? Mine works ok without this, but if it helps performance etc, I want to do it.

File locations: any portion of TP can be anywhere you want it. I have TP itself on C:,most (but not all) tile caches on D:, World Scenery folder on D:. FSX is on G:The more parts of the whole that are on a single drive, the more the HDD has to jump around to get and put; you are continuously adding jpg's to the caches and adding/modifying the particular scenery .FLAT and .bmp files in the World photoreal scenery folder. The optimum situation (I would speculate) is to have caches and scenery at the front edge of separate HDD's - and these separate from FSX and the operating system.Or go solid state with minimal seek time once these become more affordable.You can name the cache folders anything you want and put them anywhere you want - you just have to update the info in the .ini file if you rename or relocate them. I also frequently rename the "service" - it's just a nametag. Don't get locked into thinking you have to use "service1" for anything at all. I confuse easily after using service1 for western USA, and then for Europe-North, and then for Australia and then for...#source=Service1#source=Service2#source=Service3a#source=Service3bsource=ServiceIndia#source=ServiceNAfrica#source=Service yhNE[serviceIndia]#-----------------------------------cache_folder=I:\CacheIndia[service2]#-----------------------------------cache_folder=D:\cacheEUN[service3a]#-----------------------------------cache_folder=I:\CacheAFGN#cache_folder=I:\CacheAUSms1[service3b]#-----------------------------------#cache_folder=I:\CacheAUSms2cache_folder=I:\CacheUAE[serviceWorld]#-----------------------------------cache_folder=D:\cacheWorldI personally use Service 1 most of the time for more consistant worldwide coverage at the lower resolutions; after that, it just depends on the quality and color preference.Loyd

[markturner 0]

Hey Loyd, thank you so much for taking the time to explain that for me, really appreciate it. I have had a frustrating few days trying to figure out how to set up the level mapping , but have just sussed it tonight. ( well, not completely, I still have to understand the finer points, but at least now the sim runs and looks pretty good)So gradually the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. Its not easy!!Also apologies for firing questions over so many posts, and thanks for everyones help, I will keep the discussion to this thread.Outstanding I still have the following questions: ( I am sure there will be more though!!)A) Do you need the Fibre frame entry? ( I thought this did nothing post SP2 ? ) You guys seem to be using it..... ? :( EdTruthans guide also mentions the bufferpools tweak, again, I dont have this in my .cfg file, but wondered if it was of merit when using TileProxyC) How big are the cache files and photoreal folders likely to get? Is it useful to clean them out or is it advantageous to keep the already coverted tiles on your drive for performance reasons ( presumably, they dont have to be downloaded and converted next time you fly over that area, yes? ) D) I moved both the cache and photoreal folders from the default location. I changed the service 3 entry in the .ini file to point to the new location for the cache folder, but could not see anything that referred to the location of the photoreal folder that I needed to change. Do I need to change anything? Thanks once again for all your help, I have to say, I was so impressed by how it looked and performed once it was set up. Much respect to Christian !Chers, Mark

[lliaudais 2]

Hi again Mark,it may be keeping me from flying at the moment but I enjoy the dialog also...

A) Do you need the Fibre frame entry? ( I thought this did nothing post SP2 ? ) You guys seem to be using it..... ? :( EdTruthans guide also mentions the bufferpools tweak, again, I dont have this in my .cfg file, but wondered if it was of merit when using TileProxy

I'm flying SP1 so I still have both. It's working so I will NOT do SP2 or Acceleration until the next re-install or build. How much they actually matter I can't say but I haveFIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.50PoolSize=12000000

C) How big are the cache files and photoreal folders likely to get? Is it useful to clean them out or is it advantageous to keep the already coverted tiles on your drive for performance reasons ( presumably, they dont have to be downloaded and converted next time you fly over that area, yes? )

Jpg tiles will vary in size because the compression depends on the variations in the image itself. How large a folder will get depends on how much terrain you want in the same folder and at how many levels of detail you have. Greater detail means many more files and much larger size so that suggests to me that I'd want to limit the geography that it covered. You can put every bit of it into a single folder but I limit to regions so I can control the content more easily. My western US is in four sections with 2-3

[markturner 0]

Whooooooaaahhhh!!My head certainly is spinning!!!!I am going to try and take all this in tomorrow, its about 10.30pm here in England and I think I need to hit the sack, as I have an early start tomorrow ( 5am!!! ) - Got to take my motorbike to be freighted to Spain for a track day next week.Thanks so much for your time and effort in helping me get this all figured out. To save mucking around, I have just done a re install and placed the files on a dedicated drive. Its still working, although I did a slightly foolish thing in that I changed several values in the ini file, without checking the effect of each individually.My problem now is that I am back to the long load times ( 20 minutes or so.) Can you save me going back to the default values for everything, by telling me which value is most likely to affect the loading times? Thanks again, Mark

[lliaudais 2]

My problem now is that I am back to the long load times ( 20 minutes or so.) Can you save me going back to the default values for everything, by telling me which value is most likely to affect the loading times?

believe it or not, at the moment mine seems to stall out loading - perhaps because I was looking for the smallest contexts value that I could use...bad file edit with word wrap turned on...Too large a scenery range in FSXnot enough space reserved for TPsome other application taking too many cpu cycles at the momentVirus program parsing files bound for the new location: I don't let mine look at anything but system files. STAY OUTA MY FSX FOLDERS!correspondence betweenmax_lod=11 <-----------min_level=10max_level=13 <-------- two higher than max lod // correct mapping for min-max range#____________10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17__guidelevel_mapping=10,11,12,13max_contexts=512- when I set this to 256 it takes forever, if it finishes loading at allcache_bytes_limit=1000000000 = 1G approx vs default 100Mcache_tiles_limit=0 <------------- unlimitedchanging the mapping will cause it to "rethink" the contents of the scenery files and reconfigure themPut things back like I had them and I think it's gonna load this time :( Good luckLoyd

[markturner 0]

Well........, I feel pretty stupid. The luck has not been good. I have changed everything but still have half hour loading times. I cannot see where the problem is. Can you see anything in this that is wrong? I am using service 3, my cache file is in the root of Drive N. tileproxy is isntalled in my FSX folder on drive M.## Start a line with # to comment it out.# Turn your text editor's Word Wrapping OFF for editing this document.## Read the manual for help with configuration. Do not contact the# author about the configuration for particular services. Thank you.#[TileProxy]# Enable or disable worldwide photographic scenery coverage (Yes/True/On to enable)master_enable=On# Write a logfile to disk. In recommend to only turn this on for debugging purposes.# When using FSX RTM or FS 2004, the logfile will grow VERY fast and affect performance.#logfile="C:\logfile.txt"# If you have concerns about possible copyright violations by caching JPEG and BMP tiles# on your hard drive, this switch is the solution. By enabling diskless mode, Tileproxy# will not store a single tile on your hard drive. Expect higher network usage though.# Note that offline mode will depend on tiles being available in the cache.diskless_mode=Off# Offline Mode - No network access will occur (Yes/True/On to enable)offline_mode=No# Resolution limiter: 17 = 30cm/pixel, 16 = 60cm/pixel, 15 = 1.1m/pixel, 14 = 2.3m/pixel, 13 = 4.75m/pixel# Lower resolutions load faster, but are visually less appealing. The 30cm resolution may only be feasible# if you have at least 2GB of system memory.max_lod=17# The following two settings allow you to tune Tileproxy to not preload specific LOD levels. This can# be used in conjunction with third party scenery products like "FS Altitude" that provides data only# up to a specific resolution. If you place this scenery higher than Tileproxy's world folders in the# scenery library then it will have precedence over Tileproxy for the specific LOD levels that it# contains. You can then instruct Tileproxy to not preload these low resolution LOD circles because# they are not needed anyway.# Lowest LOD ring to automatically preload tiles for. Must not be lower than 8.preload_min_lod=9# Lowest LOD ring to automatically preload tiles for. Must not be higher than 17.preload_max_lod=15# The maximum number of tile contexts that Tileproxy will send to the filter driver. A context# is essentially a very fast buffer for graphics data sitting in kernel memory that delivers# data right into FSX. Each tile context can hold an entire LOD 8...15 tile. Higher values# mean more use of your precious kernel memory though. The maximum number is 512. Lower if# you run out of RAM during flight and the PC starts to use the paging file a lot.max_contexts=512# Generate Water Mask. This brings back shader-rendered water and allows# for the use of planes with floats (Goose, Beaver, etc...). If you turn this# option off, you get the Tileproxy behavior of Beta 5 and earlier versions.water_mask=On# Recommendation: FSX users: Use water_blending=on, water_smoothing=off# to get soft land/water transitions## FS9 users: Use water_blending=off, water_smoothing=on# to get hard land/water transitions which# Tileproxy tries to match pixel-exact against coast-lines## Combining water_smoothing and water_blending is discouraged.# It's slow and gives weird results.# Use blending techniques to create a soft land/water transition with some# transparency effect near the shoreline. Compatible with FSX only.water_blending=On# The distance in meters that you want land/water blending to extend from the# shore line. Larger values require more processing. Large values are now possible,# useful values are up to 2000 meters. Very high values may be detrimental to water# mask resolution. Loading speed however remains mostly unaffected by this setting.blend_distance=500.0# The rate at which terrain is blended into the water color. 1.0 means a linear# blending, values > 1.0 blend faster. Values < 1.0 blend slower. This works# similarly to a Gamma Curve. An exponent of 2 gives a quadratic blend function,# an exponent of 0.5 results in a square root behavior.blend_exponent=1.0# The minimal and maximal transparency of the water. The lower you choose the min value,# the more reflective the deep water will be. The higher the max value is chosen, the less# reflective the water will be directly at the shore line. The reflectiveness transitions# linearly from max to min throughout the distance given by blend_distance from the shore.# Allowed values are between 0 and 1, and alpha_min should be smaller than alpha_max or# things may look weird.# The following alpha_min values will not give you any dithering artifacts on all-water tiles,# so the use of these is recommended. It is multiples of 16/239 (rounded up slighty)# 0.0700, 0.1339, 0.2009, 0.2678, 0.3348, 0.4017, 0.4687# 0.5356, 0.6026, 0.6695, 0.7365, 0.8034, 0.8703, 0.9373alpha_min=0.2678alpha_max=0.7# The water color in hexadecimal RGB notation. Prefix with #. This should be blue# or greenish blue or some shades of brown, depending on your preference.# Values of #000000 are discouraged when using water blending - it will result# in weird behavior at the shorelines.water_rgb=#000D1A# Try to smooth land/water boundaries by trying to match the water mask to the image content.# This is a a somewhat experimental algorithm.water_smoothing=Off# The decision threshold for water/land when water_smoothing is enabled. 0 means everything# will be turned to land, 1 means everything turns to water. Chose some value inbetween.water_threshold=0.33# Maximum number of bytes allocated to BMP graphics tiles in RAM at any time (0 for unlimited)# The value below states 100 MB.cache_bytes_limit=1024000000# Maximum number of BMP tiles to cache in RAM at any time (0 for no limit).cache_tiles_limit=250000# The currently active service is configured here. Only ONE active source please.# The other source statements should be commented out.#source=Acme Globe Service#source=Service Example 1source=Service Example 3#source=Service Example 4# The sources you want to be able to switch from the GUI menu.# Separate the list entries with | and enclose in quotes. Make sure the# names specified here are valid services which are defined below.# You may want to rename the services according to your preference,# but make sure you replace all occurences of the strings.menu_sources="Service Example 1|Service Example 2|Service Example 3|Service Example 4"# Experimental API Hooking section. Disable if you see strange crashes and effects.# Currently we only have the DirectX 9 hook. More hooks are planned.enable_hooking=No# The DirectX 9 hook enables the moving map overlay. More features are planned.enable_dx9hook=No# A flag whether to show the moving map overlay initially or not.enable_movingmap=No# Dimensions and overlay colors of the moving map. Positions are percentages of the screen.# Width and Height refer to the full 512x512 pixel texture used for the map. To get a round# map circle, the ratio of width and height should match your screen's aspect ratio (e.g. 4:3)# Radius is given in the map texture's pixels where one pixel represents a LOD 15 tile. A# radius of 0 disables the round stencil and shows the entire 512x512 texture. Color is given# in a hexadecimal ARGB notation. movingmap_alpha=255movingmap_color=#ff000000movingmap_xpos=88movingmap_ypos=15movingmap_width=60movingmap_height=80movingmap_radius=60## Here begin the service specific configurations## This is new when you specify captcha_module## On encountering HTTP 302 redirects the captcha module will send Internet Explorer's cookies# stored for the specified service domain to the web server. It will also display whatever web# page the service redirects you to. This could be a page requiring you to enter a so-called# captcha. After entering the captcha correctly, the resulting session cookie will be stored as# a permanent cookie (expiration 1 day) in your IE Cookies folder and sent to the service on# subsequent requests. You will then be able to use the service as long as you wish, given that# you correctly enter the captcha dialog which may nag you once every 20 minutes or so.# # Explaining the captcha_config arguments:## cookiedomain from captcha_config specifies the domain name for which cookies are stored.# This might be the service name plus a top level domain like ".com"## cookieurl specifies a HTTP url from which an identifying cookie will be retrieved first, if# no existing identifying cookie is found. This may be required sometimes to make the captcha# dialog appear in the first place. This could be the service's front page URL (e.g. a search# engine)[Acme Globe Service]cache_folder=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\cache.acmenetwork_module=libnettilemodule_config="conn=20|rate=2.0|verbose=0|server=http://server*.acmeglobe.com|path=/terraintile?pos=%s&v=%v|quad=ABCD|balance=0123|agent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; The TileProxy Project)"captcha_module=captchaformcaptcha_config="cookiedomain=acmeglobe.com|cookieurl=http://www.acmeglobe.com"min_level=9max_level=17map_version=1color_hack=Nocolor_level=0bulk_extend=25[service Example 1]cache_folder=M:\cache.service1network_module=libnettilemodule_config="conn=20|rate=2.0|verbose=0|server=http://a*.ortho.tiles.virtualearth.net|path=/tiles/a%s.jpeg?g=%v|quad=0123|balance=0123|useragent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"min_level=9max_level=19map_version=304level_mapping=9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19#level_mapping=9,10,11,12,14,14,15,16,17,18,19 more radius HQ (13->14)#level_mapping=9,10,11,14,14,14,15,16,17,18,19 even more radius in HQ (12,13->14)color_hack=Yescolor_level=13bulk_extend=50[service Example 3]cache_folder=N:\cache.service3network_module=libnettilemodule_config="conn=20|rate=2.0|verbose=0|server=http://us.maps3.yimg.com|path=/aerial.maps.yimg.com/img?x=%x&y=%y&z=%z&v=%v&t=a|useragent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"min_level=9max_level=19map_version=1.9level_mapping=9,10,11,14,14,14,15,16,17,18,19color_hack=Yescolor_level=13bulk_extend=50[service Example 4]cache_folder=M:\cache.service4network_module=libnettilemodule_config="conn=20|rate=2.0|verbose=0|server=http://mapcache*.ask.com|path=/sat/%Z/%X/%Y?partner=|balance=1234|useragent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"min_level=5max_level=19map_version=1color_hack=Yescolor_level=12bulk_extend=50As I said, the above is the ini file as I edited it after reading through the manual. I changed the values of the following :cache bytes limitcache tiles limitAnd I also changed the service 3 settings I have changed everything back, but still get the massive load times so I must have missed something somewhere.Hope you help some more and thanks for your patiencecheers,Mark

[cianpars 1,231]

Just another thing that slows down loading times is the LOD_RADIUS setting in FSX. The higher it is the slower it will take to load.Also I note you are using the 30m textures. Even Christian says anything over 1m is experimental. This causes a really long loading time and you can run out of memory (unless you have a lot).Loading will always be faster in areas you already have cached though.IAN

[lliaudais 2]

Well........, I feel pretty stupid. The luck has not been good.

I didn't see anything obvious, but when I tried to use it as presented, I must have missed something 'cause it didn't work.What I ended up with that did work is the following (important parts only)max_lod=16 < see notes below as to why not 17..preload_min_lod=8preload_max_lod=17max_contexts=512water_mask=Onwater_blending=Onblend_distance=1500.0blend_exponent=1.0alpha_min=0.2678alpha_max=0.7# original water_rgb=#000D1Awater_rgb=#004D5A#water_rgb=#003F8B#water_rgb=#003F2Awater_smoothing=Offwater_threshold=0.33cache_bytes_limit=1000000000cache_tiles_limit=0source=Service Example 3[service Example 3]cache_folder=N:\cache.service3network_module=libnettilemodule_config="conn=4|rate=1.0|verbose=0|server=http://us.maps3.yimg.com|path=/aerial.maps.yimg.com/img?x=%x&y=%y&z=%z&v=%v&t=a|useragent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"min_level=10max_level=18#____________10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19__guidelevel_mapping=10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18map_version=1.9color_hack=Nocolor_level=0bulk_extend=50-------------------------------but I note the following: You didn't say where you were trying to go (airport or coordinates) so I can't exactly duplicate what you're attempting but I observed that Rotterdam in service3 and KRIV airport do not have actual level 18 or 19 tiles at YH. You can zoom in with a brower to the map service and it "shows" zoom 18 and 19 but I think these are just enlargements of level 17 because I have NO level 18 jpg's after going to these locations even though the level18/lod16 ring was filled in the console display. TP had to have substituted 17 for 18 to fill the blank. Zoom to 20 at KRIV and you do get a new level of higher res imagery of the air museum BUT you can't use 20 in the .ini. So, in spite of the appearance of having 9 rings filled, it tops out at perhaps only 2m; it sure doesn't look like 1m quality - and it certainly isn't 60cm.You have to sometimes "study" the source before you can get an idea of what you can expect - and then it still may surprise you...what I said earlier about the level mapping.. I tried this 9-19 thing but TP appears to ignore the 9. I got NO level 9 imagery anywhere. When I did 10-to-anything but substituted 9,11,12 etc, I did get 9 imagery so if you have more than 10 in your mapping list, chances are you're not getting what you think you are. You can't make extra scenery RINGS in FSX by telling TP: 5,5,7,7,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19. Perhaps it just ignores the line if it contains more than 10 entries...If you are still having issues, exactly what is your target location or airport?My load time at range 4.5 is about 5 minutes or lessLoyd

[markturner 0]

Hey Loyd and Ian, thanks to you both for the detailed help. In the several hours since my earlier reply, I have been relentlessly tweaking , but hopefully in a more controlled manner! BTW, all my flights are in the western USA, I love the scenery there and am familiar from my photoscenery.I have discovered this:Previously flown areas load faster - usually 3 - 5 minutes. This makes testing difficult as you cant see the effect of a change unless you move area. These are my current settings, it works , but has lots of room for improvement: ( So I am now going to eagerly try out your suggested settings Loyd ) Ian, I had already set the LOD to 4.5, following your logic! , thanks for the tip. [service Example 3]cache_folder=N:\cache.service3network_module=libnettilemodule_config="conn=20|rate=2.0|verbose=0|server=http://us.maps3.yimg.com|path=/aerial.maps.yimg.com/img?x=%x&y=%y&z=%z&v=%v&t=a|useragent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"min_level=9max_level=19map_version=1.9level_mapping=9,10,11,12,15,15,15,16,17,18,19color_hack=Yescolor_level=13bulk_extend=50I have been trying these settings using service 1 as well:[service Example 1]cache_folder=M:\cache.service1network_module=libnettilemodule_config="conn=20|rate=2.0|verbose=0|server=http://a*.ortho.tiles.virtualearth.net|path=/tiles/a%s.jpeg?g=%v|quad=0123|balance=0123|useragent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"min_level=9max_level=18map_version=304#level_mapping=9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19#level_mapping=9,10,11,12,14,14,15,16,17,18,19 more radius HQ (13->14)level_mapping=9,10,11,14,14,14,15,16,17,18 even more radius in HQ (12,13->14)color_hack=Yescolor_level=13bulk_extend=50Time for first load in a virgin area is about 6 - 7 minutes. Is this to be expected? No matter what I do, I still cant get the highest res tiles to display around the plane for longer than about 30 seconds or less. After that, you need to pause . I am flying at approx 100 - 120 kts. My PC and hard drive system are pretty state of the art, ( see signature) so I am hoping to be able to push the limits a bit, but obviously not as much as I expected. I do realise the value of knowledge and plugging away at something, I use photoscenery exclusively and it took me about 2 months of tweaking and forum discussions with top chaps like yourselves before I figured out how best to use it. (The TBM setting is the key ) So I guess this is the same.I have been using the performance monitor to look at how my PC handles it as well. During loading, my CPU is at 100%, in fact unless I am paused, its maxed out all the time. Disk activity is sporadic and never very much, some occasional spikes. memory stable at about 70 - 80% usage . Any clues there? Is there mileage in using the affinity mask tweak with this software do you think? If so, what settings for a quad core? lastly, if you overfly an area too fast, IE before it has a chance to download and convert all the high res tiles, what happens next time yo u go to that area? Does TP only download the "missing tiles" from the cache? Or does it suck them all down again if the area is incomplete? Gonna try out your settings loyd, speak soon, and thanks again, you are a star!! This forum is a wonderful place!! PS< Christian must despair of the stumblings of peole like me, if he catches this thread, its ok to make software for configuration by the end user, than you have to watch them muck it up !!!! LOLcheers, Mark

[lliaudais 2]

Mark,I mis-stated the load time... for tiles 10 to 17 (that I already have) about 5 minutes and 2-4 more for FSX to complete the rendering.Flying too fast? Remember three things going on:1 - image tile download (pretty quick)2 - scenery file CREATION (at the fringes of the scenery range); UPDATING each and every scenery tile with higher resolution as new TILES become available and in range of the scenery rings.3 - Scenery rendering/display by FSXThe most sluggish is FSX. I have all the tiles for a region and have flown over the area and already brought the scenery files to the max and still I fly slow because FSX can't load 'em fast enough. This is true even if I fly for 5 miles down a road and then turn around and fly over the same road for the second time, I still have to pause for FSX to catch up. This is even true with DEFAULT scenery tiles to a slight extentTileProxy is not the bottleneck for most of us - maybe yes with an OC'd quad core that can run FSX "wide open".I LOVE the whole West Coast... I fly up-down California hwy49 along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range from O68 to O02 but I still get lost if I'm not using a map to keep me on the road. Beautiful country! Lots of history: Calaveras County, Gold rush, Donner Pass.Now, unless you KNOW that the map server has level 19 tiles, TP or FSX will have to synthesize equivalent scenery from the nearest available tiles... they won't be any sharper than if you just cut it off at level 17 - but you will have added to the workload by adding an extra task.

[markturner 0]

Hey Loyd, I have been doing some flying and fiddling and making lots of notes. This has generated lots of interesting observations and inevitably plenty of further questions.First thing to say, is that your recommended settings as applied seem to work very well. While not eliminating the catch up effect, it is very very much improved, so as to be almost imperceptible. Which is great! Thank you very much for sharing that with us. What i did notice, is that the settings display much better over scenery without urban build up. i think there where you have so many stright lines ( roads, houses etc) the out of focus bits show much more clearly. Without changing anything, as soon as i left the urban area of Colorado Springs and flew over the frontrange, it was like a differnt sim. Interestingly, whilst paused and waiting for the scenery to "catch up", even though all the ovals were filled, it still took a while for the scenery to snap into focus. Does that mean that its simply processing power the bottlneck here?Curious, I have been playing around a bit. I tried using everything the exact same at a saved flight over the frontrange, but just substituted the details ( just the internet stuff) for service one. All other variables were exactly the same. However using the exact same settings for service produced crap results. Scenery was a lower resolution and I shortly overflew area that no matter how long I waited, did not snap into focus. Again, even though the ovals all indicated full. I have included some screen shots below:Why do you think the differnt map services display so differently? And why did the scenery never catch up?And how can the same settings have such differnt results? In case I made some elementary mistake that accounts for what I saw, I have cut and pasted the 2 versions of the .ini file for you to compare:This one is yours as you recommended:# Loyd's Service 3# Start a line with # to comment it out.# Turn your text editor's Word Wrapping OFF for editing this document.## Read the manual for help with configuration. Do not contact the# author about the configuration for particular services. Thank you.#[TileProxy]# Enable or disable worldwide photographic scenery coverage (Yes/True/On to enable)master_enable=On# Write a logfile to disk. In recommend to only turn this on for debugging purposes.# When using FSX RTM or FS 2004, the logfile will grow VERY fast and affect performance.#logfile="C:\logfile.txt"# If you have concerns about possible copyright violations by caching JPEG and BMP tiles# on your hard drive, this switch is the solution. By enabling diskless mode, Tileproxy# will not store a single tile on your hard drive. Expect higher network usage though.# Note that offline mode will depend on tiles being available in the cache.diskless_mode=Off# Offline Mode - No network access will occur (Yes/True/On to enable)offline_mode=No# Resolution limiter: 17 = 30cm/pixel, 16 = 60cm/pixel, 15 = 1.1m/pixel, 14 = 2.3m/pixel, 13 = 4.75m/pixel# Lower resolutions load faster, but are visually less appealing. The 30cm resolution may only be feasible# if you have at least 2GB of system memory.max_lod=16# The following two settings allow you to tune Tileproxy to not preload specific LOD levels. This can# be used in conjunction with third party scenery products like "FS Altitude" that provides data only# up to a specific resolution. If you place this scenery higher than Tileproxy's world folders in the# scenery library then it will have precedence over Tileproxy for the specific LOD levels that it# contains. You can then instruct Tileproxy to not preload these low resolution LOD circles because# they are not needed anyway.# Lowest LOD ring to automatically preload tiles for. Must not be lower than 8.preload_min_lod=8# Lowest LOD ring to automatically preload tiles for. Must not be higher than 17.preload_max_lod=17# The maximum number of tile contexts that Tileproxy will send to the filter driver. A context# is essentially a very fast buffer for graphics data sitting in kernel memory that delivers# data right into FSX. Each tile context can hold an entire LOD 8...15 tile. Higher values# mean more use of your precious kernel memory though. The maximum number is 512. Lower if# you run out of RAM during flight and the PC starts to use the paging file a lot.max_contexts=512# Generate Water Mask. This brings back shader-rendered water and allows# for the use of planes with floats (Goose, Beaver, etc...). If you turn this# option off, you get the Tileproxy behavior of Beta 5 and earlier versions.water_mask=On# Recommendation: FSX users: Use water_blending=on, water_smoothing=off# to get soft land/water transitions## FS9 users: Use water_blending=off, water_smoothing=on# to get hard land/water transitions which# Tileproxy tries to match pixel-exact against coast-lines## Combining water_smoothing and water_blending is discouraged.# It's slow and gives weird results.# Use blending techniques to create a soft land/water transition with some# transparency effect near the shoreline. Compatible with FSX only.water_blending=On# The distance in meters that you want land/water blending to extend from the# shore line. Larger values require more processing. Large values are now possible,# useful values are up to 2000 meters. Very high values may be detrimental to water# mask resolution. Loading speed however remains mostly unaffected by this setting.blend_distance=1500.0# The rate at which terrain is blended into the water color. 1.0 means a linear# blending, values > 1.0 blend faster. Values < 1.0 blend slower. This works# similarly to a Gamma Curve. An exponent of 2 gives a quadratic blend function,# an exponent of 0.5 results in a square root behavior.blend_exponent=1.0# The minimal and maximal transparency of the water. The lower you choose the min value,# the more reflective the deep water will be. The higher the max value is chosen, the less# reflective the water will be directly at the shore line. The reflectiveness transitions# linearly from max to min throughout the distance given by blend_distance from the shore.# Allowed values are between 0 and 1, and alpha_min should be smaller than alpha_max or# things may look weird.# The following alpha_min values will not give you any dithering artifacts on all-water tiles,# so the use of these is recommended. It is multiples of 16/239 (rounded up slighty)# 0.0700, 0.1339, 0.2009, 0.2678, 0.3348, 0.4017, 0.4687# 0.5356, 0.6026, 0.6695, 0.7365, 0.8034, 0.8703, 0.9373alpha_min=0.2678alpha_max=0.7# The water color in hexadecimal RGB notation. Prefix with #. This should be blue# or greenish blue or some shades of brown, depending on your preference.# Values of #000000 are discouraged when using water blending - it will result# in weird behavior at the shorelines.water_rgb=#004D5A# Try to smooth land/water boundaries by trying to match the water mask to the image content.# This is a a somewhat experimental algorithm.water_smoothing=Off# The decision threshold for water/land when water_smoothing is enabled. 0 means everything# will be turned to land, 1 means everything turns to water. Chose some value inbetween.water_threshold=0.33# Maximum number of bytes allocated to BMP graphics tiles in RAM at any time (0 for unlimited)# The value below states 100 MB.cache_bytes_limit=1000000000# Maximum number of BMP tiles to cache in RAM at any time (0 for no limit).cache_tiles_limit=0# The currently active service is configured here. Only ONE active source please.# The other source statements should be commented out.#source=Service Example 1source=Service Example 3#source=Service Example 4# The sources you want to be able to switch from the GUI menu.# Separate the list entries with | and enclose in quotes. Make sure the# names specified here are valid services which are defined below.# You may want to rename the services according to your preference,# but make sure you replace all occurences of the strings.menu_sources="Service Example 1|Service Example 2|Service Example 3|Service Example 4"# Experimental API Hooking section. Disable if you see strange crashes and effects.# Currently we only have the DirectX 9 hook. More hooks are planned.enable_hooking=No# The DirectX 9 hook enables the moving map overlay. More features are planned.enable_dx9hook=No# A flag whether to show the moving map overlay initially or not.enable_movingmap=No# Dimensions and overlay colors of the moving map. Positions are percentages of the screen.# Width and Height refer to the full 512x512 pixel texture used for the map. To get a round# map circle, the ratio of width and height should match your screen's aspect ratio (e.g. 4:3)# Radius is given in the map texture's pixels where one pixel represents a LOD 15 tile. A# radius of 0 disables the round stencil and shows the entire 512x512 texture. Color is given# in a hexadecimal ARGB notation. movingmap_alpha=255movingmap_color=#ff000000movingmap_xpos=88movingmap_ypos=15movingmap_width=60movingmap_height=80movingmap_radius=60## Here begin the service specific configurations#[service Example 3]cache_folder=N:\cache.service3network_module=libnettilemodule_config="conn=20|rate=2.0|verbose=0|server=http://us.maps3.yimg.com|path=/aerial.maps.yimg.com/img?x=%x&y=%y&z=%z&v=%v&t=a|useragent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"min_level=10max_level=18map_version=1.9level_mapping=10,11,12,13,16,16,17,18,18color_hack=Nocolor_level=0bulk_extend=50And this one is my version of yours with the service 1 details inserted:# Service 1 loyds settings# Start a line with # to comment it out.# Turn your text editor's Word Wrapping OFF for editing this document.## Read the manual for help with configuration. Do not contact the# author about the configuration for particular services. Thank you.#[TileProxy]# Enable or disable worldwide photographic scenery coverage (Yes/True/On to enable)master_enable=On# Write a logfile to disk. In recommend to only turn this on for debugging purposes.# When using FSX RTM or FS 2004, the logfile will grow VERY fast and affect performance.#logfile="C:\logfile.txt"# If you have concerns about possible copyright violations by caching JPEG and BMP tiles# on your hard drive, this switch is the solution. By enabling diskless mode, Tileproxy# will not store a single tile on your hard drive. Expect higher network usage though.# Note that offline mode will depend on tiles being available in the cache.diskless_mode=Off# Offline Mode - No network access will occur (Yes/True/On to enable)offline_mode=No# Resolution limiter: 17 = 30cm/pixel, 16 = 60cm/pixel, 15 = 1.1m/pixel, 14 = 2.3m/pixel, 13 = 4.75m/pixel# Lower resolutions load faster, but are visually less appealing. The 30cm resolution may only be feasible# if you have at least 2GB of system memory.max_lod=16# The following two settings allow you to tune Tileproxy to not preload specific LOD levels. This can# be used in conjunction with third party scenery products like "FS Altitude" that provides data only# up to a specific resolution. If you place this scenery higher than Tileproxy's world folders in the# scenery library then it will have precedence over Tileproxy for the specific LOD levels that it# contains. You can then instruct Tileproxy to not preload these low resolution LOD circles because# they are not needed anyway.# Lowest LOD ring to automatically preload tiles for. Must not be lower than 8.preload_min_lod=8# Lowest LOD ring to automatically preload tiles for. Must not be higher than 17.preload_max_lod=17# The maximum number of tile contexts that Tileproxy will send to the filter driver. A context# is essentially a very fast buffer for graphics data sitting in kernel memory that delivers# data right into FSX. Each tile context can hold an entire LOD 8...15 tile. Higher values# mean more use of your precious kernel memory though. The maximum number is 512. Lower if# you run out of RAM during flight and the PC starts to use the paging file a lot.max_contexts=512# Generate Water Mask. This brings back shader-rendered water and allows# for the use of planes with floats (Goose, Beaver, etc...). If you turn this# option off, you get the Tileproxy behavior of Beta 5 and earlier versions.water_mask=On# Recommendation: FSX users: Use water_blending=on, water_smoothing=off# to get soft land/water transitions## FS9 users: Use water_blending=off, water_smoothing=on# to get hard land/water transitions which# Tileproxy tries to match pixel-exact against coast-lines## Combining water_smoothing and water_blending is discouraged.# It's slow and gives weird results.# Use blending techniques to create a soft land/water transition with some# transparency effect near the shoreline. Compatible with FSX only.water_blending=On# The distance in meters that you want land/water blending to extend from the# shore line. Larger values require more processing. Large values are now possible,# useful values are up to 2000 meters. Very high values may be detrimental to water# mask resolution. Loading speed however remains mostly unaffected by this setting.blend_distance=1500.0# The rate at which terrain is blended into the water color. 1.0 means a linear# blending, values > 1.0 blend faster. Values < 1.0 blend slower. This works# similarly to a Gamma Curve. An exponent of 2 gives a quadratic blend function,# an exponent of 0.5 results in a square root behavior.blend_exponent=1.0# The minimal and maximal transparency of the water. The lower you choose the min value,# the more reflective the deep water will be. The higher the max value is chosen, the less# reflective the water will be directly at the shore line. The reflectiveness transitions# linearly from max to min throughout the distance given by blend_distance from the shore.# Allowed values are between 0 and 1, and alpha_min should be smaller than alpha_max or# things may look weird.# The following alpha_min values will not give you any dithering artifacts on all-water tiles,# so the use of these is recommended. It is multiples of 16/239 (rounded up slighty)# 0.0700, 0.1339, 0.2009, 0.2678, 0.3348, 0.4017, 0.4687# 0.5356, 0.6026, 0.6695, 0.7365, 0.8034, 0.8703, 0.9373alpha_min=0.2678alpha_max=0.7# The water color in hexadecimal RGB notation. Prefix with #. This should be blue# or greenish blue or some shades of brown, depending on your preference.# Values of #000000 are discouraged when using water blending - it will result# in weird behavior at the shorelines.water_rgb=#004D5A# Try to smooth land/water boundaries by trying to match the water mask to the image content.# This is a a somewhat experimental algorithm.water_smoothing=Off# The decision threshold for water/land when water_smoothing is enabled. 0 means everything# will be turned to land, 1 means everything turns to water. Chose some value inbetween.water_threshold=0.33# Maximum number of bytes allocated to BMP graphics tiles in RAM at any time (0 for unlimited)# The value below states 100 MB.cache_bytes_limit=1000000000# Maximum number of BMP tiles to cache in RAM at any time (0 for no limit).cache_tiles_limit=0# The currently active service is configured here. Only ONE active source please.# The other source statements should be commented out.source=Service Example 1# The sources you want to be able to switch from the GUI menu.# Separate the list entries with | and enclose in quotes. Make sure the# names specified here are valid services which are defined below.# You may want to rename the services according to your preference,# but make sure you replace all occurences of the strings.menu_sources="Service Example 1|Service Example 2|Service Example 3|Service Example 4"# Experimental API Hooking section. Disable if you see strange crashes and effects.# Currently we only have the DirectX 9 hook. More hooks are planned.enable_hooking=No# The DirectX 9 hook enables the moving map overlay. More features are planned.enable_dx9hook=No# A flag whether to show the moving map overlay initially or not.enable_movingmap=No# Dimensions and overlay colors of the moving map. Positions are percentages of the screen.# Width and Height refer to the full 512x512 pixel texture used for the map. To get a round# map circle, the ratio of width and height should match your screen's aspect ratio (e.g. 4:3)# Radius is given in the map texture's pixels where one pixel represents a LOD 15 tile. A# radius of 0 disables the round stencil and shows the entire 512x512 texture. Color is given# in a hexadecimal ARGB notation. movingmap_alpha=255movingmap_color=#ff000000movingmap_xpos=88movingmap_ypos=15movingmap_width=60movingmap_height=80movingmap_radius=60## Here begin the service specific configurations#[service Example 1]cache_folder=N:\cache.service1network_module=libnettilemodule_config="conn=20|rate=2.0|verbose=0|server=http://a*.ortho.tiles.virtualearth.net|path=/tiles/a%s.jpeg?g=%v|quad=0123|balance=0123|useragent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"min_level=10max_level=18map_version=325level_mapping=10,11,12,13,14,16,16,17,18color_hack=Yescolor_level=13bulk_extend=50I am going away to Spain to race my motorbikes tomorrow, until Sunday, so will not be able to continue this very interesting discussion untill next week. Take care and speak soon, Cheers, Mark

[MortenS 0]

What have you locked FSX FPS at, in the sim options? If this is too high, this will cause a problem to catch up.