I've been flying Tileproxy regularly for the last year and studied, experimented with and thought about this topic most of the time...I'd like to share some conclusions with all of you who are interested in the topic.A very difficult topic to do without lots of diagrams but here

Hi Loyd,Like you I have been experimenting a lot with Service 1and 3 and lots of Level combinations.Right now I have a good balance between perfromance and image quality.Service 1 is better for the Netherlands , but it jumps from high res to low res , because there are no levels in between.Service 3 does not have that.So I use Service 3.What I did was :- Activate the Lod8 scenery for the most outer ring- Use a low Level for the last outer rings- Use a higher Level for the first several ringsThe outer rings have the most tiles, so if you reduce the level value for them you can performance which yiu cab use for image quality near the aircraft.max_lod=15preload_min_lod=8preload_max_lod=15min_level=5max_level=17map_version=1.9level_mapping=5,5,5,5,5,8,11,13,15,16,17,17,17In FSX Weather set maximum visibility to 30 mls.Or use your weather program and reduce maximum visibility to 50 mls. The many clouds will "hide" the outer lod8 ring.I use 2 26" monitors for one wide view and because of that the scenery gets blown up twice.Therefore I had to test lots of settings before I found the above settings to be good.Like I wrote in another thread : Christian is way ahead of his time with TP.The program only uses 7-10% processor performance , but FSX has difficuluty handling it.Therefore your ptocessor will be stressed to the limit.Within a couple of years with faster pc's we will be able to fly at 250knots at 2500 feet with sharp textures useing TP.Imho this concept willbe the future : a flightsimulation where the aircraft , objects and "autogen: will be on several DVD's.The underground will be downloaded and immediately processed and presented in the simulation.Then you have what everyone wants : a high resolution photoscenery underground with autogen and custom 3d objects.It will look a bit like the Swiss Pro X addon.Perhaps a future version of TP could be made to work on a client pc and use WideFs for data transfer.Or Christian will find a way to deliver the data into FSX and get them processed with less processor perfromance.

Hi Gsalden, you will see from some of my other questions I am struggling with this. I just for example used exactly the settings you described just now, but TileProxy crashes as FSX starts up.sorry for the cut and paste, but here is my .ini file after my changes to match your version. can you see any mistakes or areas of problems? ## 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=15# 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=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=100000000# Maximum number of BMP tiles to cache in RAM at any time (0 for no limit).cache_tiles_limit=100000# 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=M:\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=5max_level=17map_version=1.9level_mapping=5,5,5,5,5,8,11,13,15,16,17,17,17color_hack=yescolor_level=0bulk_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=50loyd, that was a vey interesting and useful piec you wrote, and very relavent to my current issues. I think I will need to read few times to fully understand however. I am so desperate to get this working properly! But the set up seems so sensitive to variations, it is very difficult.One thing i did wonder from GSaldens .ini file changes, in EdTruthans guide to level mapping, he states that the number of entries must equal the range value, which yours does not. IE min range 5, max range 17 , sia difference of 12, therefore you should have 12 entries in the mapping string. Is this why it crashes on me? trying desperately to understand it all, Mark

Mark, Crash can be from corrupted .ini if word wrap was on, or a character was deleted or a space added at the wrong spot. Don't know if mismatched settings would do it...

One thing i did wonder from GSaldens .ini file changes, in EdTruthans guide to level mapping, he states that the number of entries must equal the range value, which yours does not. IE min range 5, max range 17 , sia difference of 12, therefore you should have 12 entries in the mapping string. Is this why it crashes on me?

I didn't see the discrepancy you mentioned reflected in your .ini but DO recall that range 5 to 17 is not a difference of 12 but INCLUDES both limits so there would need to be 13 entries. I keep a reference line just above my actual mapping statement to keep me "aligned".max_lod=15preload_min_lod=8preload_max_lod=17-min_level=10max_level=17map_version=325#____________10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19__guidelevel_mapping=10,11,13,13,15,15,17,17other comments on the .ini:-everything related to "Acme" can be deleted; this is a FICTITIOUS example.-You need to bring your service1 map version up to current 325-I've deleted all the captcha stuff that was in there for G**gle; no side effects from removing this.-I crash if I attempt to change services because my settings are so different so I removed the services menu listing so I can't accidently click on one when I'm in the menu.#menu_sources="Service Example 1|Service Example 2|Service Example 3|Service Example 4" ----- disabled-when you change the mapping, don't forget to make sure that the max_lod= at the top is changed to reflect what you want to map to. This alone determines how many ovals show in the console and the max level of detail that TP will attempt to provide. max_lod has to be large enough to encompass the high end of your level mapping.-level_mapping=5,5,5,5,5,8,11,13,15,16,17,17,17 ??Since there are only 10 ovals, I infer that TP only provides a maximum of 10 different levels of detail and do not see any point in trying to load additional levels. If I want low-budget level 5 imagery out at the horizon, I'll use it to fill my LOD 8 ring (oval 1 in the console) and set my scenery LOD in the FSX.cfg to 5.5 - this takes me out to the horizon usually. But then I'm not at 30,000' where the horizon might be 200-300 miles away. Can anyone actually show any value to attempting 13 levels of detail? I could be missing something...Loyd