The Map Enhancement tool went through a major rewrite, as users had a lot of issues with the last version. The developer just released version 6.0.0 Alpha 

https://flightsim.to/file/19345/msfs-2020-google-map-replacement

 

Quote

This is a alpha release of next generation of MSFS2020 Map Enhancement and working in progress version.
The major improvement is that it completely written using .net and winui3, no more nginx and python.
The loading speed increased a lot and stable. I'd encourge you to have a try and give me feedback.

Install

* Unzip the folder into any folder
* Download and install Windows App SDK: https://aka.ms/windowsappsdk/1.1/latest/windowsappruntimeinstall-x64.exe
* Run "MSFS2020 Map Enhancement.exe" inside the "win10-x64" folder

Not working feature
* HighLOD

Feedback
Please raise an issue or create discussions here:
https://github.com/derekhe/msfs2020-map-enhancement/issues
https://github.com/derekhe/msfs2020-map-enhancement/discussions

 

Edited August 13, 20223 yr by Sethos

I will wait a bit longer, I use High-LOD and the current version is working fine for me

I just downloaded v6 and installed it on the same drive and directory as before - deleting the old version. I am on Win 10 and MSFS SU10 beta3.

The downloaded the Windows App SDK file as directed. Once installed, I tried to start the main Map Enhancement .exe file. No deal nothing happens so far - no window or interface. I've not moved any of the files from where I installed them. 

Any help please? Have I done something wrong?

I'd be happier using v5.7 for the time being.

Thanks 

13 minutes ago, rayharris108 said:

I just downloaded v6 and installed it on the same drive and directory as before - deleting the old version. I am on Win 10 and MSFS SU10 beta3.

The downloaded the Windows App SDK file as directed. Once installed, I tried to start the main Map Enhancement .exe file. No deal nothing happens so far - no window or interface. I've not moved any of the files from where I installed them. 

Any help please? Have I done something wrong?

I'd be happier using v5.7 for the time being.

Thanks 

Yeah, seems several people, including myself, are having this issue judging from the comments. I commented and raised the issue on his GitHub. Suspect there's a missing dependency outside of the Windows App SDK we're missing. 

If anyone is using GitHub and has the same issue, feel free to comment here to bring awareness to the problem; Program doesn't open · Issue #218 · derekhe/msfs2020-map-enhancement (github.com)

8 hours ago, AppleUK said:

I will wait a bit longer, I use High-LOD and the current version is working fine for me

Yep. "Alpha" is a big NOPE for me. They honestly should have done this alpha testing in a private group to debug it. Not on a public website. It's just going to cause the developer numerous amount of headaches. 

So how do you get the previous version?  

This is not working for me.

The flightsim.to files, python and stable aren't the same as I was using prior to downloading the alpha.

 

Thanks

So how do you get the previous version?  

This is not working for me.

The flightsim.to files, python and stable aren't the same as I was using prior to downloading the alpha.

 

Thanks

 

Disregard.found it.

14 hours ago, AppleUK said:

I will wait a bit longer, I use High-LOD and the current version is working fine for me

I'm still on an old version that has the high LOD option but I haven't tried it... can you comment on if this option reduces the "tiling" effect that is sometimes seen? 

13 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

I'm still on an old version that has the high LOD option but I haven't tried it... can you comment on if this option reduces the "tiling" effect that is sometimes seen? 

I still see some 'tiling' but I think less than without high LOD.

High-LOD is a way of increasing the quality of ground textures without having to increase TLOD.

 

Two updates released;

6.0.1:

* Fix click setting button crash issue
* Please try if you crash to desktop when click the app

6.0.2:

* Fix missing ImageServerConfig.json
* Fix click setting button crash issue
* Please try if you crash to desktop when clicking the app

 

Didn't seem to fix the issue of not being able to open it full stop. 

This one worked for me: https://github.com/derekhe/msfs2020-map-enhancement/releases/download/v6.0.0/6.0.2.crash.to.desk.zip

Love this tool, but I'm not touching an alpha release.

It seems to have become the norm for MSFS for people to put out alphas of all sorts of things, and it just strikes me as crazy. Betas are a reasonable thing to put out, but unless I'm missing something an alpha seems to be very much along the lines of "hey, this may or may not work at all, but give it a go and let me know". Still, I suppose if you realise that's what you're getting in to it's ok.

Not a specific dig at this tool, btw. Like I said, I really like the tool and was happy to make an appropriate donation for my copy, but I feel I have too many products on my system that are getting updates pumped out to me several times a week, in some cases more than once a day. And some of those are commercial things that I would have long hoped to have become stable by now (MSFS changes permitting, of course) - F35? C414? And is there ever going to be an actual official release of the H145?

Probably an age thing. You would never have seen alpha releases of anything 30 years ago (apart from Linux <grin>)

It’s a stand alone program from the previous version so no harm in trying it out. It works fine for me using Windows 11 but there are apparently issues with Windows 10. 
 

I like the high LOD option which is not working in latest releases per the dev so I went back to previous release. 

It's garbage, Image server failed on every version and it messes up the windows hosts file.

2 minutes ago, American398 said:

It's garbage

Real mature there.