Tileproxy - guide in English

By patgarret in Home September 5, 2011 at 16:47 -  With many thanks to JohnG3 from the Avsim community for the translation help.

 

Updated Mai 2020

Note : Service 4 Webatlas, Service 3 Yahoo Maps & Service 2 Google Map are not available to the Tileproxy users, but we can use Service 1 Virtual Earth/Bing maps, see below my proxyuser.ini

 

 

 

Everest with Service1 + Alouette II from Peter Salzgeber (Turbocompressed by myself in order to land to the summit...)

 

 What is Tileproxy

 

This is a free software developed by Christian Büchner which loads in real time via the Internet and use in Microsoft Flight Simualtor X, P3D or Microsoft Flight Simulator FS2004 textures of real pictures of the ground, satellites or aerial images, from servers such as Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and Virtual Earth / Bing Map.

 

Tileproxy offers us the opportunity to discover, sometimes with an astonishing realism, a lot of beautiful places of our planet or revisit familiar places with pleasure, all using our  favorite airplanes and helicoptersl in Flight Simulator. If, like me, you are passionate of VFR mountain flights is this there, and with some good meshes, you'll find your paradise in the Alps,  in the Rockies and why not at the Mc Kinley or the Everest.

 

If I started as a "newbie" trieing to install Tileproxy, I admit that I would be a little confused. This is primarily a software "unfinished" and once installed :  IT IS NOT READY TO USE and you must have to configure the "proxyuser.ini" file. The original English documentation is not necessarily clear to everyone. If I was visiting forums that have topics (sometimes rivers ...) devoted to Tileproxy, I wonder if I would have the courage to read everything. And even if I did, I think it would confuse me. Because often we find there really everything and anything.

 

User of Tileproxy, TP for short, since the first time I want to show to those who want to try, that installing and using TP is actually relatively simple. As far as you know what you need to know.  I am here !!!

I hope this little guide now in english will help you....  

 

 

 

The Chantilly Castle, France... This is my home country in 30 cm/pixel with the service 1 Bing maps & the "superbe" freeware Tiger Moth from Ants

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

INDEX

1) The prerequisites for satisfactory use of Tileproxy Beta 8

2) Download Tileproxy

3) Documentation about Tileproxy

4) Before installation

5) Installation

6) After installation and BEFORE running Tileproxy

7) Flying with Flight Simulator & Tileproxy

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

1) The prerequisites for satisfactory use of Tileproxy Beta 8

 

1.1) Software:

Tileproxy works with FSX with or without SP1, photo-realistic textures loading performance is better with SP2 or Acceleration.

 It also works with P3D V1 and V2, V3 with certain manipulations to "lure" the installer Tileproxy. I warn you that if you want to acquire P3D only to hope for a possible performance improvement with TP ... No way... I tested, no significant improvement in sight, so it's in my opinion unnecessary spending money under for nothing . I speak for those, who like me use TP to 100% of their flights. Nevertheless, it may of course, be many reasons other than TP, which can quite justify the acquisition of P3D. 

TP also works with FS2004 (fs9) + SP1 patch, but with a resolution limit of 4.5 m / pixel. So  in this latest version of my guide, I decided to remove any information relating to this facility.

 

1.2) Materials:

A good ADSL line is essential.

Then test the your: http://mire.ipadsl.net/speedtest.php and also: http://www.speedtest.net/

Both tests can give you different results, the same test five minute intervals will also give you different results. It's normal. The key is to come to lie as often as possible between 512 kbps to 2048 kbps. A bunch of other external factors can also intervene to vary a lot depending on when its flow. Last element, imaging servers are more or less depending on the period requested.

 

Another basic material aspect: The Discs

To simplify, depending on the position of your plane and the direction you are going, the TP application load the  "tiles" that it needs to the imaging server you have chosen. Basically, these are square pictures in BMP format that weigh more or less heavy in terms of bytes depending on their definition. TP will then store these tiles or "Tiles" in a folder called "cache.service" then convert them to different file formats used by FSX and store them in another folder called "Tileproxy photoreal World". It is only then that  FSX will  read and then display the textures ... You can imagine the dance led by the read / write heads on disks.

 

Let me be very clear, if you only have one drive, you may be disappointed. Two discs is much better, with, preferably, your operating system and FSX on a disk, and on the other, one or two partitions reserved for the file "Tileproxy photoreal World" and for the "cache.service1 , 2, 3  and 4". Remember that it is perfectly long and unnecessary to defragment these TP files and therefore those requires a place on a partition dedicated to them .

 

A good configuration, two or three discs with an SSD for "Cache.service" and "Tileproxy photoreal World" files, or better, if you have lots of available RAM, use, like me a RAM disk such as Dataram Ramdisk. 

 

CPU side:

There, it is rather the good news Tileproxy removes the Autogen of FS, therefore, no more trees or generic buildings. It saves FPS and allows properly turn FSX and Tileproxy on CPU configurations that are normally a little weak FSX to operate with a "normal" Autogen enabled.

 

While TP removes the Autogen, but leaving in FSX settings Cursor "scenery complexity" right, all specific settings appear well in TP: Scenes of altiports, DZ, specific airports. Monuments, bridges, dams, buildings and even at night, part of street lighting in case one has UTX.

 

Memory: Minimum 3GB. And, more and more are better ...

 

 

2) Download Tileproxy

 

The latest release date of November 2008, is the Beta 8: http://sourceforge.net/projects/tileproxy/files/tileproxy/Beta 8 Release/

 

3) Documentation concerning Tileproxy

 

Although the original documentation in English from the autor Christian Buchner, delivered with the software.

Also, always in English, read the Quick Guide of Ed Truthan: http://www.edtruthan.com/tileproxy/tutorial/

 

 

4) Before installation

 

WARNING :

With Vista and W7, W8, W10. It is necessary to disable UAC (User Account Control) as follows: "Control Panel"> "Account"> "Disable User Account Control"

I use two small .bat programs to disable or enable the UAC. Once the UAC is disable, you can restart your computer as you want the UAC stay disable.

With 64-bit Vista, W7, W8, W10 64bit.  You have to disable the Signature Verification Drivers: F8 at boot. to enter the boot menu and then select the option "disable signature check" then started. To avoid doing this each time want to use lab you can find on the Net a few small programs that automate this.  Note: Different procedure for W8 and W10, easy to find !!!

Concerning W10 and how to disable the Signature Verification Driver I use this procedure :

 

 http://www.howtogeek...signed-drivers/

 

The problem is : If you shut down and restart your PC, remember that at each time  you will have to disable again the driver verification signature otherwise TP will not work

 

4.1) Preparation of partitions:

On a different disk that are placed or Windows and FSX, create a partition of 30-100 Gigabytes that will be reserved to the  "Tileproxy photoreal World" folder and to the "cache.service" folders. You can also, like me, put these folders on a 10GB virtual disk in RAM. Personally, since a long time I did not "canned" the "tiles", I did the cleaning of these files regularly and therefore I am as sure of downloading the latest imaging versions available.

 

Note the drive letters or corresponding partitions. They will be needed for installation.

If necessary, use a partitioning tool such as this one (on Windows) and increasingly free: Free Partition Master EASUS http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html 

Important: With this tool, never touch the primary partition C: windows or otherwise high risk of problems !!!

Avoid absolutely to install the TP folders in partitions / drives where Windows and FSX. Otherwise, you risk having serious performance problems due to permanent disk access and significant fragmentation on the dossier "Tileproxy photoreal World" and those of "cache.service".

Note: Never install Tileproxy and folders on FAT32 partitions but still NTFS format and never change the folder name "Tileproxy photoreal World"

 

4.2) Precautions before installation:

Although the installation, TP makes a backup of your FSX.CFG scenery.cfg and there has sometimes been incidents in the past ... So ... Make extra copies to another folder.

 

FSX.CFG is located:

For XP: C: / Documents and Settings / your user name / Application Data / Microsoft / FSX

For Vista / W7, W8, W10: C: / Users / your user name / AppData / Roaming / Microsoft / FSX

I recall that FSX.CFG is a "hidden" file and then, only to see it is first necessary to go to "Tools"> "Folder Options"> "View" and then allow the option "Show hidden files and folders"

Do the same with the file (also hidden) scenery.cfg which it is located:

For XP: C: / Documents and Settings / All Users / Application Data / Microsoft / FSX

For Vista / W7, W8, W10: C: / ProgramData / Microsoft / FSX

 

 

5) Installation

The installation itself is very simple. We will here a standard installation with a resolution of 1.1 m / pixel configuration for a PC running correctly with FSX.

 

- First screen: "Please select a language" Visit "English" there is no French version

 

- Second screen: "License agreement" to "I agree"

 

 - Third screen: "Select Components", nothing to touch, to "next"

 

- Fourth screen: "Choose Install Location". Normally, TP or automatically detects your FSX installed, check that the path is correct, otherwise made ??"Browse" and enter the correct path to your main FSX folder and do "next"

 

 - Fifth screen: "Install Option page," this is where you specify the drive letters / partitions you chose to install "Tileproxy photoreal World" and your "cache.service"

Note: After installation, it is easy to change the location of or rename cache.service changing the Proxyuser.ini. As against it is impossible to change the location and the name "Tileproxy photoreal World". If later you want to change its location, it will proceed with an uninstall / reinstall TP.

 

 - Sixth screen: "Install options". FSX let on "1.1 m / pixel. You can always change after ... Make "Next"

 

 - Seventh screen, choose "Medium"

 

 - Eighth screen, leave to "Normal"

 

 - Ninth screen:

 

Let checked "Optimize for high airspeed" if you have a good set CPU / graphics card for FSX.

Leave unchecked "Disk-less fashion"

Let checked "Keep Any Existing ProxyUser.ini" for Relocation or upgrade.

Let checked "Disable NTFS Last Access is Timestamping"

 

 

Click "Install" and it rolls ...

 

 Once installation is complete, two windows will open automatically: One, with the User manual in English, that you have the right to read ... And another one , with the famous "ProxyUser.ini" original which is only an example and whose content is NOT OPERATIONAL and YOU will therefore have to change it.

 

6) After installation and BEFORE running Tileproxy

 

Tileproxy is delivered and installed with a ProxyUser.ini which is only an example not operational. hence coming replace it with one that works properly with the four imaging services currently available:

 

Virtual Earth, Bing Maps / Google Maps / Yahoo Maps / Webatlas

 Note : Yahoo Maps and Webatlas are not working anymore

Many "newbies" recopy on the Net some ProxyUser.ini more or less fanciful, sometimes downright "out of date." These recopiages, often misunderstood, are the first source of potential problems with TP ... Problems often quite unnecessarily clutter the forums and have greatly motivated me to write this little manual.

 

You will need to edit two files: your  FSX.CFG file and your ProxyUser.ini file. Of course you can still access it via START> Programs> TILEPROXY. The quickest solution is to create for these two files, a shortcut on your desktop.

 

6.1) First step: Edit and review your FSX.CFG

At installation, TP changed your FSX.CFG. This concerns the following:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Display]

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT = 400

[Main]

Maximized = 0

DisablePreload = 1

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION = 0.33 where 1.33 (Depends on the choice made ??during installation)

[GRAPHICS]

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD = 1024, where 2048 where 4096 (Depends on the choice made ??during installation)

TEXTURE_QUALITY = 3

Image_quality = 0

[GROUND]

LOD_RADIUS = 2.5, where 3.5 where 4.5 (Depends on the choice made ??during installation)

MESH_COMPLEXITY = 85

MESH_RESOLUTION = 22

TEXTURE_RESOLUTION = 25, where 26 where 27 (Depends on the choice made ??during installation)

DETAIL_TEXTURE = 1

[Bufferpools]

PoolSize = 5000000

[Display.Device.Your Graphics Card Name.0]

MipBias = 6

Anisotropic = 1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your FSX.CFG is now configured to work with TP.

If later you want to use FSX without Tileproxy, you're supposed to edit your FSX.CFG and bring the following two settings to their original values, namely:

[Display]

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT = 40

[Main]

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION = 0.33

Personally, I do not change anything when I switch to TP + FSX FSX alone and it works perfectly.

 

 6.2) Step Two: Edit and change your ProxyUser.ini

 

Go to: Start> All Programs> Tileproxy> Edit ProxyUser.ini

Or, go directly seek ProxyUser.ini Tileproxy in the folder that is in your main FSX folder

Or, double-click the shortcut that you put on your desk.

Open the ProxyUser.ini then made "edition" and "select all" and "delete" . Further  paste and save the Proxyuser.ini  which follows. It is standard with a basic setting of the texture resolution 1.1 m / pixel. It is tested and adapted to configurations that normally work with FSX. You will have time once everything works properly, have fun to test other settings. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TileProxy]

master_enable=On

diskless_mode=Off

offline_mode=No

 

max_lod=15

preload_min_lod=9

preload_max_lod=15

 

max_contexts=512

water_mask=On

water_blending=On

blend_distance=500.0

blend_exponent=1.0

alpha_min=0.2678

alpha_max=0.7

water_rgb=#407B80

water_smoothing=Off

water_threshold=0.33

 

cache_bytes_limit=100000000

cache_tiles_limit=100000

 

source=Virtual Earth

#source=Google Maps (do not use)

#source=Yahoo Maps (do not use)

#source=Webatlas (do not use)

menu_sources="Virtual Earth|Google Maps|Yahoo Maps|Webatlas"

 

enable_hooking=No

enable_dx9hook=No

enable_movingmap=No

movingmap_alpha=255

movingmap_color=#ff000000

movingmap_xpos=88

movingmap_ypos=15

movingmap_width=60

movingmap_height=80

movingmap_radius=60

 

[Virtual Earth]

cache_folder=X:/cache.service1

network_module=libnettile

module_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=11

max_level=17

map_version=5423

level_mapping=11,12,14,14,15,16,17

color_hack=Yes

color_level=13

bulk_extend=25

 

Former Services

Yahoo Maps: No longer works as of sometime in early 2015 - gives 503 error (Unavailable). Yahoo shut down their maps service.
WebAtlas.no: Gives 404 errors. This Norwegian map service has changed their API to a paid plan and is no longer available for free.
Google Maps: Kind of works but we are not permitted to use it.

[Google Maps] (do not use)

cache_folder=X:/cache.service2

network_module=libnettile

module_config="conn=5|rate=2.0|verbose=0|server=http://khm*.googleapis.com|path=/kh?t=t%s&n=404&v=%v|quad=qrts|balance=0123|useragent=Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; GTB6.3; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)"
captcha_module=captchaform
captcha_config="cookiedomain=google.com|cookieurl=http://www.google.com"

min_level=11

max_level=17

map_version=184

level_mapping=11,12,14,14,15,16,17

color_hack=No

color_level=0

bulk_extend=25

 

 [Yahoo Maps] (do not use)

cache_folder=X:/cache.service3

network_module=libnettile

module_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=11

max_level=17

level_mapping=11,12,14,14,15,16,17

map_version=1.9

color_hack=No

color_level=0

bulk_extend=25

 

[Webatlas] (do not use)

cache_folder=X:/cache.service4

network_module=libnettile

module_config="conn=20|rate=2.0|verbose=0|server=http://ts1*.webatlas.no|path=/qt_1881/%s.png?s=%v|quad=0123|balance=0123456|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=11

max_level=17

map_version=1

level_mapping=11,12,14,14,15,16,17

color_hack=Yes

color_level=13

bulk_extend=25

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

IMPORTANT: The only things you need to change this is to indicate ProxyUser.ini instead of X in purple to the right path of the cache.service you have chosen for installation. In the configuration of the four services, replace the letter X in the 4 lines: cache_folder = X: ... with the correct drive letter or partition that you have chosen.

 

You then update the map_version, shown in red, referring to the section of this blog you will find the latest map_version. http://tileproxy.eklablog.com/les-dernieres-map-version-a5446431

 

Normally, when you launch your first flight with the service 1 - Virtual Earth / Bing maps, Tileproxy will create itself the folder cache.service1 to the location you specified for installation.

 

6.3) Step Three: Create a shortcut on your desktop to launch Tileproxy

Go to the main FSX folder, open the folder and create a Tileproxy shortcut ProxyUser.bat file you place on your desk. It allows you to quickly launch TP.

 

 

7) Flying with  Tileproxy

We are done ... Well, almost !!!!

Close all running programs.

 

7.1) Antivirus and Firewall:

Before starting construction, you may have to disable your antivirus. (not necessary with Microsoft Defender for W10 that I use)

If you use the standard Windows Firewall in "Control Panel"> "Windows Firewall"> 'Exceptions' check that are present and checked "Microsoft Flight Simulator X" and "ProxyUser.exe". Otherwise add them. For other Firewall, beware: You may need to disable them.

Reminder Vista users and 64 bit W7, W8, W10:

Have you disabled UAC and mandatory verification of signature when you start your PC drivers. F8 at boot to enter the menu, select the option "disable signature check". The procedure is slightly different for 8.1 W and W10, but easy to find on the Net ... I leave you a little look!

 

7.2) Select the image service you want to use:

Double-click the shortcut to the ProxyUser.ini, and go to the following lines:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

source = Virtual Earth

# source = Google Maps (do not use)

#source = Yahoo Maps (do not use)

# source = Webatlas (do not use)

Here the selection is service1 iVirtual Earth/Bing Maps

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Save the file and close.

 

7.3) Starting Tileproxy and FS:

In order. . First, double-click the shortcut ProxyUser.bat A DOS window will open The last message, right at the end, must be: Proxyuser: TileProxy is ready for takeoff.

 

Only then you start FSX and before the launch of the first flight, you will:

7.3.1) In SETTINGS> Library decorations: Make sure all Tileproxy entries are well above your other Add'ons, and WORLD_LOD8 is placed below all 99 lines of the WORLD _....

WORLD_1107

WORLD_1106

...

WORLD_0001

WORLD_0000

WORLD_LOD8

 

7.3.2) Then in SETTINGS> Customize> Graphics> Adjust the slider of the target frame rate to a value of 12-20 FPS. Personally, a steady 20 FPS and without jerking fits me perfectly.

Note: There appears to be a direct relationship between the FPS and tile loading performance. With FSX, the more you increase the FPS and the more the  loading of "Tiles" slows.

Do not use "FPS Limit" with Tileproxy.

7.3.3) Then in SETTINGS> Customize> Scenery> Adjust the slider in the "Resolution Texture" to 1m. Ore to the resulution you have choose in your proxyuser.ini like 60 or 30 cm/pixel

 

7.4) you are ready to take off.

Launch your flight. If when loading the flight, there is blocking FSX to 30-45%, or if, after loading you see the "tiles" black. These are the most common symptoms that indicate Tileproxy do not find the "cache.service". Then go check your cache.service verify you have specified the correct path disk / partition thereof in the configuration of your ProxyUser.ini.

 

During your first flight, or during a flight in a new place, you always need a little patience. The seven oval LOD 9 to 15 must be loaded from the internet. The first oval, he will not fill and it is normal because it is loaded directly from the WORLD_LOD8 that is already stored on your hard drive.

 

Once airborne, if the textures become blurred, do "Pause" a little while and let Tileproxy FSX and load sharp textures. If it is unclear, you can also "Window" mode to choose "supplements"> "Tileproxy"> "Refresh Scenery".

 

Good flights to all and have fun with Tileproxy.

 

Again thank  to Christian Buchner, designer of Tileproxy and
to JohnG3 from the Avsim community for the translation help.

 

Patrice Garret - March 2016