I decided to have a play with Ortho4XP, to see if the scenery was any better than what the Map Enhancement Tool can produce (I was thinking of doing just the UK).  I used an overall setting of ZL17 with ZL18 around airports.  Results were good, but I wasn't happy with the colour balance. I used XnConvert so I could process the JPGs before using Ortho4XP to generate the DDS files. This meant I could change colour balance, levels etc. Although the results were good, I still felt the Map Enhancement tool gave overall excellent ortho without the considerable time and effort required by Ortho4XP.  the Map Enhancement Tool has controls for saturation, brightness and contrast and I found those controls sufficient to get the scenery looking good on my 4K display.

Just a little info if anyone else was wondering the same between the two methods of getting ortho into X-Plane.

I'm well into my second month with XP12.2 and am thoroughly enjoying the enhancement over MSFS 2024.  I have said before one of the big reasons to switch to XP12 is to experience a sky full of visible traffic. In MSFS2024 the traffic is invisible outside a small bubble around the aircraft, but in XP12 it is visible many, many miles away.  I am mostly a GA flyer, so a sky full of visible traffic is a must for realism imho.   My last flight was in the CIS Piper Seneca with the TDS GTN 750 installed in the panel.  I flew in the UK from Shoreham to Dundee at FL180.  Approaching East Midlands airport I saw something departing the westerly runway. I zoomed in to see an Atlas Cargo B747.  I saw it climb to the west of me right through my level.  Seeing this is not possible in MSFS2024.  Approaching Edinburgh I could see the traffic being vectored to the ILS way down below!

Edited July 1, 2025Jul 1 by MrBitstFlyer
Changed Wandering to wondering (Wandering Star is the name of my narrowboat home :-)

I have terabytes of Ortho, and much in higher zoom level.  I switched to Map Enhancement and haven't looked back...it works great and love the ability to switch providers on the fly.  I have to 16 TB drives sitting dormant right now.

There are things I do like about MSFS but overall I prefer the "look" of XP12.2+ with ortho.

Laminar needs to move into this century with some sort of streaming service if one chooses.

2 minutes ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

I have terabytes of Ortho, and much in higher zoom level.  I switched to Map Enhancement and haven't looked back...

The Map Enhancement tool seems to use Decals over the terrain.  I have asked the developer if this could be an option.

Ive been using it map enhance,ent too, works really well....I use Traffic global from just flight but its showing its age I think, I bought it for XP11 so thats a few years ago now.....is there anything better out there you can recommend guys??

Is there anything better than the LiveTraffic plugin?

1 hour ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

Laminar needs to move into this century with some sort of streaming service if one chooses.

They just recently stepped on this idea pretty hard (again).

1 hour ago, Captaintull said:

Ive been using it map enhance,ent too, works really well....I use Traffic global from just flight but its showing its age I think, I bought it for XP11 so thats a few years ago now.....is there anything better out there you can recommend guys??

Update it with the regency traffic pack and its great 

40 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

(again)

And again and again. Always and forever. Is it LR's fault that the biggest roadblock there are lawyers and litigation-happy service providers?

33 minutes ago, blingthinger said:

Is it LR's fault that the biggest roadblock there are lawyers and litigation-happy service providers?

Never said it was LR's "fault", did I...?

Regular people are the reasons we can't have nice things and thus need profit-motivated Lawyers.

2 hours ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

Laminar needs to move into this century with some sort of streaming service if one chooses.

They are working since over a year on a new scenery. That won’t be streamed orthos simp’y because the licence-costs are horrendous. A service like map-enhancement when paying is pretty illegal and as a commercial company LR cannot stream them for free. What they will do is generate a scenery based on orthos. It’s very possible that because of its size it will be streamed. This could even have some advantages over streaming orthos at the end.

48 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Never said it was LR's "fault", did I...?

Explicitly? No. But your wording left open the possibility that their decision is simply that they don't want to or are too unmotivated to bother developing that capability and that they repeatedly crush the concept as far as internal development goes (thankfully Austin's been quiet on that front of late). Just clarifying is all.

I certainly wouldn't blame "regular" folks either. It's the profit-motivated corporations who hire the lawyers. Which in turn helps feed the wall street machine and the 401k of quite a few folks...so meh, I guess many of us regulars are passively at fault to some degree.

2 hours ago, blingthinger said:

Explicitly? No. But your wording left open the possibility that their decision is simply that they don't want to or are too unmotivated to bother developing that capability and that they repeatedly crush the concept as far as internal development goes (thankfully Austin's been quiet on that front of late). Just clarifying is all.

I certainly wouldn't blame "regular" folks either. It's the profit-motivated corporations who hire the lawyers. Which in turn helps feed the wall street machine and the 401k of quite a few folks...so meh, I guess many of us regulars are passively at fault to some degree.

Way to take and idea and run, sir.

Very impressive. 👎

How the hell did he think up that first paragraph, as a reply to your very short post?  He has to be a conspiracy theorist.

You poor souls have clearly never worked with lawyers. Words matter. Regardless of how much either of you seem to think they don't. I'm sure your personal relationships suffer accordingly.

Clarification never hurt nobody. I didn't say that is what you meant. It was a question derived from your pathetically fuzzy and unclear verbage. It's not my fault you can't handle precision...

Get over the fact that LR will never bundle ortho with the sim. Get over the fact that it's not their fault. Regardless of how much you both try to push that it is.

21 minutes ago, blingthinger said:

You poor souls have clearly never worked with lawyers. Words matter. Regardless of how much either of you seem to think they don't. I'm sure your personal relationships suffer accordingly.

Clarification never hurt nobody. I didn't say that is what you meant. It was a question derived from your pathetically fuzzy and unclear verbage. It's not my fault you can't handle precision...

Get over the fact that LR will never bundle ortho with the sim. Get over the fact that it's not their fault. Regardless of how much you both try to push that it is.

Funny - I deal with lawyers and negotiate contracts on a regular basis. That's how I know there's a lot of wiggle room.

My verbiage is quite clear. Perhaps you're simply too literal, or binary.

I don't need to "get over" anything - perhaps YOU need to lighten up, Francis.

Edited July 2, 2025Jul 2 by UrgentSiesta