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Instructions

Linux Setup

Assumptions:

  • You have installed X-Plane 11.50+
  • You have a reasonably fast CPU and broadband internet
  • FUSE is installed and setup (Enable user_allow_other in /etc/fuse.conf, if not already the case.)

Steps:

  1. Download the most recent packaged release (autortho_lin_####.bin) from here
  2. Make executable if needed chmod +x autoortho_lin.bin
  3. Run the program ./autoortho_lin.bin
  4. Configure your settings and paths for your system
  5. Download and setup an ortho set from the 'Scenery' tab.
  6. Click 'Run' to run the program
  7. Configure your scenery_packs.ini file appropriately
  8. Run X-Plane and choose a location for an ortho set you have downloaded

Windows Setup

Assumptions:

  • You are running 64bit Windows 10+
  • You have install X-Plane 11.50+
  • You have setup and configured either: Dokan or WinFSP
    • If you have trouble with one, try the other! Some users on Windows 11 have better luck with WinFSP for some reason. Windows users should always attempt both before asking questions on forums!!!
    • If both Dokan and WinFSP are installed, Dokan will be preferred. Users can force preferring WinFSP by setting prefer_winfsp=True in their config file.
  • You install all components, including scenery, on a local NTFS drive.

Zip File Steps:

  1. Download the most recent packaged release (autoortho_win_####.zip) from here
  2. Extract the downloaded directory.
  3. Run autoortho_win.exe from within the extracted dir.
  4. Configure your settings and paths for your system
  5. Download and setup an ortho set from the 'Scenery' tab.
  6. Click 'Run' to run the program
  7. Configure your scenery_packs.ini file appropriately
  8. Run X-Plane and choose a location for an ortho set you have downloaded

Experimental Installer Steps:

Alternatively, there is now an installer that can be used. This is experimental ATM:

  1. Download the most recent packaged release (AutoOrtho_####.exe) from here
  2. Run the program.
  3. If there is a prior install you will be prompted to uninstall first. Do this.
  4. Run AutoOrtho from your system start menu.
  5. Configure your settings and paths for your system
  6. Download and setup an ortho set from the 'Scenery' tab.
  7. Click 'Run' to run the program
  8. Configure your scenery_packs.ini file appropriately
  9. Run X-Plane and choose a location for an ortho set you have downloaded

Requirements and Compatibility

To run from source, this project requires python3.x and all pre-requisites in the requirements.txt file. Also, a copy of X-Plane 11.50+ of course.

Most testing is done on Ubuntu 22.04 using FUSE. Other Linux flavors ought to work as well. MacOS very likely should work, but I have no way of testing it.

I have done testing on Windows 10 with the Dokan project. This does appear to work fine, but this is not how I use this project, so it's not my primary concern.

Known issues and limits

  • Currently I try to limit the memory usage, though it's possible it will exceed this in certain scenarios.
  • Not really possible to post-process the satellite photos. You get what you get.
  • Will add a couple minutes to initial flight time for new areas. That's to be expected though.
  • Will require and use a lot of internet requests (surprise!) and writes a lot of small files locally.
    There are many parts along your path that may need tuning or may not like this (ISP, DNS, Wifi, drive speed, CPU speed, etc).
    User's should be ready to diagnose their specific setup and determine if this project fits withing their own personal computing requirements.
  • Windows has too many variations with how filesystems are handled, links are done, intrusive malware detection systems, etc and will likely always be slower and more difficult to use with this project.

TODOS

  • ~See if this will work on Windows with WinFSP~
  • ~Allow for overriding the satellite source type. Since this pulls on the fly, we aren't stuck with what was setup initially with Ortho4XP.~
  • ~Package a set of DSF files to get started with~
  • Attempt to make a workable OSX version

Warnings, Warranty, etc

This project is provided free of charge and is not warrantied in any way. Use at your own risk.

Accessing map data from 3rd parties may or may not be allowed and is up to you the end user to determine and use appropriately.