OrthoStreamXP 1.2.2

What's new

• Clearer Ground detail help. The text under Ground detail in Settings now explains the setting in plain words: it adds a grass and dirt pattern on top of the photos, seen on the ground or when flying low. At 0 % (the default) the ground looks exactly like the photos; higher values add texture up close but make the photos look grainier. The setting itself works as before (#21).

What's Changed

• Improved CI speed for PR for doc only by @flysimdev in #19
• Develop by @flysimdev in #20
• Improved ground texture help text by @flysimdev in #21
• Release 1.2.2 by @flysimdev in #22

Full Changelog: v1.2.1...v1.2.2

OrthoStreamXP 1.2.1

What's new

• Light or dark window. A new theme button at the bottom of the sidebar switches the window between following Windows, always light, and always dark. Your choice is kept for the next start. Thanks to @MarcelL94 for building it (#13).

Fixes

• Black text in dark mode. Some text in the window, such as the sidebar links, the quality preset cards and the on/off switches, showed in black on the dark background and was hard to read. It now uses the theme's text colour in both light and dark mode. Thanks to @MarcelL94 (#13).

• Photo scenery missing on the first flight after installing. If you ticked Launch OrthoStreamXP now at the end of the installer and then pressed Start XP, X-Plane started without the photo scenery and removed the OrthoStream packages from its scenery list. Restarting OrthoStreamXP made it work. Start XP now starts X-Plane the same way a double-click in Windows does, so the first flight shows the photo scenery too. Your X-Plane start options are still passed to X-Plane as before. Thanks to @MarcelL94 for reporting it (#14).

What's Changed

• X-Plane skips the mounted package when streaming is started from the setup wizard ("Start OrthoStreamXP now") #14 by @flysimdev in #15
• Add a theme switcher to the sidebar and fix black text in dark mode by @MarcelL94 in #13
• Release notes v1.2.1 by @flysimdev in #16
• Develop by @flysimdev in #17

New Contributors

• @MarcelL94 made their first contribution in #13

Full Changelog: v1.2.0...v1.2.1

OrthoStreamXP 1.2.0

What's new

• Ground detail. X-Plane draws its own procedural grass, shrubs and dirt over the ground up close. On sharp aerial photos this looks like noise: dark speckles and pale stony patches that the real imagery does not have. It is now off by default, so the photos look as they do on the map. If you like some extra texture when flying low, raise Ground detail in Settings › Quality: anything between 10 and 90 % is a lighter version of the effect, and 100 % is X-Plane's full effect. Your scenery packages are not changed.

Good to know

• After updating, the ground up close looks cleaner than before. To get the old look back, set Ground detail to 100 %.

What's Changed

• Added explanation about scenery packages managment by @flysimdev in #11
• Add Ground detail setting by @flysimdev in #12

Full Changelog: v1.1.2...v1.2.0

OrthoStreamXP 1.1.2

OrthoStreamXP 1.1.2

New names for downloaded regions

The regions OrthoStreamXP downloads now have their own names:

Region	Before	Now
Europe	OSXP_Eur	OrthoStream_Eur
North America	OSXP_NA	OrthoStream_NA
South America	OSXP_SA	OrthoStream_SA
Africa	OSXP_Afr	OrthoStream_Afr
Asia	OSXP_Asi	OrthoStream_Asi
Australia and the Pacific	OSXP_AusPac	OrthoStream_AusPac
Roads, forests and buildings	OSXP_Overlays	OrthoStream_Overlays

The old names looked very much like OrthoStudio XP's own packages (z_osxp_eur, y_osxp_overlays). If you run both, it was hard to tell which package came from which program. Thanks to the OrthoStudio XP developer for pointing this out.

You don't need to do anything

If you downloaded regions with 1.1.1, OrthoStreamXP renames them the first time it starts after the update:

• Nothing is downloaded again. Renaming takes a moment, even for the largest regions.
• Your textures are kept. The textures OrthoStreamXP already built for those regions move with them.
• Your scenery order stays. In X-Plane's scenery list, each region keeps its place, and a region you turned off stays off. The previous list is kept as scenery_packs.ini.bak.
• A stopped download can still be resumed.
• Other programs' packages are left alone. OrthoStreamXP renames only the folders it installed itself.

If a region folder is open in another program, for example File Explorer, it is renamed at the next start. Until then, Install and Delete on the Packages page tell you which folder to close.

Install or update

• Already have OrthoStreamXP? Choose Update and restart on the Home page when the update is ready. Stop the scenery streaming first.
• New install? Download OrthoStreamXP-Setup.msi below and follow the user guide.

Your settings, cache and flight history are kept.

Updating from 1.0.x? This version also includes everything from 1.1.1, including downloading scenery regions from within OrthoStreamXP.

Full Changelog: v1.1.1...v1.1.2

OrthoStreamXP 1.1.1

OrthoStreamXP 1.1.1

Highlights

Download scenery packages from within OrthoStreamXP

You no longer need scenery packages before your first flight. OrthoStreamXP can now download the ground mesh of a whole region for you:

• Europe
• North America
• South America
• Africa
• Asia
• Australia and the Pacific

You can download a region from the new Packages page, or right in the setup when you have no packages yet. Each region is installed as a package of its own in your scenery packages folder, next to your own packages.

• Roads, forests and buildings included. By default, each region comes with X-Plane's roads, forests and buildings for its area. Turn this off if another package of yours already provides them.
• Stop and resume. A download keeps what it has. Resume continues where it stopped, even after OrthoStreamXP was closed or the connection dropped.
• Never half-installed. A region appears in your packages folder only once all of it is there.
• Updates and deletion. When a newer release of a region comes out, the Packages page says Update available. Delete removes a region and its roads, forests and buildings, and leaves other regions untouched.
• Your packages come first. Your own packages stay above the downloaded regions in X-Plane's scenery list. Where both cover the same area, yours are shown.

Sizes range from about 6 GB (Australia and the Pacific) to about 33 GB (Asia). Leave about 1.7 times the download size free on the drive.

A clearer setup

• The Scenery packages step now explains what a scenery package is, and what to choose: the folder that holds your packages, not a package itself.
• If the chosen folder has no packages, the message tells you what to do, and Download a region now opens the list of regions right there.

Documentation

• New Packages page in the user guide.
• The First setup and Installation pages describe both ways to get scenery packages: downloading a region in OrthoStreamXP, or using your own.
• Refreshed screenshots for the setup, Settings, About and the new Packages page.
• The user guide PDF is attached to this release.

Good to know

• One region downloads at a time.
• You can install a new region while OrthoStreamXP runs; it is used from the next start. Updating or deleting a region needs OrthoStreamXP stopped.
• Where one of your own packages already includes roads, forests and buildings for an area, a downloaded region's may be drawn there too. If you see doubled roads, turn off Roads, forests and buildings before you install, or delete and reinstall the region with it off.

Install or update

• Already have OrthoStreamXP? Choose Update and restart on the Home page when the update is ready. Stop the scenery streaming first.
• New install? Download OrthoStreamXP-Setup.msi below and follow the user guide.

Your settings, cache and flight history are kept.

Full Changelog: v1.0.3...v1.1.1

OrthoStreamXP 1.0.3

OrthoStreamXP v1.0.3

Better scenery_packs.ini handling

• Overlay packages go above the photo packages. If your scenery packages folder has a package with "Overlays" in its name, OrthoStreamXP now places it first among its own packages in scenery_packs.ini. The overlays then draw on top of the photo scenery. Airports and other custom scenery above OrthoStreamXP's packages stay where they are.
• No more duplicate entries. If scenery_packs.ini already lists a package with the same name as one OrthoStreamXP mounts, the old line is removed and replaced with OrthoStreamXP's entry. This covers packages you had added from their original location. Each package now loads once, from OrthoStreamXP.
  • Only exact folder names match. Packages whose names merely start the same way are left untouched.
  • A package you had disabled stays disabled.
  • Your previous file is still saved as scenery_packs.ini.bak before any change.

Full Changelog: v1.0.2...v1.0.3

OrthoStreamXP 1.0.2

OrthoStreamXP v1.0.2

Better support for OrthoStudio XP packages

You can now point OrthoStreamXP straight at your OrthoStudio XP tiles folder (for example C:\Users\<you>\.orthostudio\tiles). OrthoStreamXP shows X-Plane fresh, streamed imagery instead of the photo textures OrthoStudio XP generated.

What changed

• The package's own photo textures are ignored. The .dds photo files OrthoStudio XP put in textures\ no longer appear in the mounted scenery and are never shown in X-Plane. Every photo texture now comes from OrthoStreamXP's online imagery and cache, at your chosen quality preset and with seasons and colour matching applied.
• Water and coastline masks are kept. water_transition.png and the coastline masks (..._ZL16.png and similar) are passed to X-Plane exactly as OrthoStudio XP made them, so sea and shorelines look as before.
• Your files are not touched. OrthoStreamXP only reads your package. Nothing in your OrthoStudio XP folder is changed, moved or deleted.

This applies to all base packages, including those made by Ortho4XP.

Good to know

• Areas you haven't flown before now load from the internet the first time, starting blurry and sharpening within moments. They used to appear instantly from the package's own photos. After your first visit, they load from the cache.
• The background-textures setting relied on the package's own photo files, so it now has little effect on these packages.

Optional: free up disk space

OrthoStreamXP no longer needs OrthoStudio XP's photo .dds files. If disk space is tight, you can delete the .dds files in a package's textures folder. Keep every .png file and all other folders.
⚠️ Only do this if you always fly with OrthoStreamXP running: without it, X-Plane will show those areas with no photo scenery.

How to update

1. Close X-Plane and stop OrthoStreamXP.
2. Download OrthoStreamXP-Setup.msi below and run it, or let the app update itself.
3. Start OrthoStreamXP, click Start, then start X-Plane.

As always, start OrthoStreamXP before X-Plane.

Full Changelog: v1.0.1...v1.0.2

OrthoStreamXP 1.0.1

What's Changed

• x-plane custom scenery validation by @flysimdev in #1
• Added user-guide in pdf by @flysimdev in #2
• CI adjustment by @flysimdev in #3

New Contributors

• @flysimdev made their first contribution in #1

Full Changelog: v1.0.0...v1.0.1

OrthoStreamXP 1.0.0

Full Changelog: https://github.com/flysimdev/OrthoStreamXP/commits/v1.0.0