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SBuilderX Question

falcon409

falcon409

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Staff member
Yea, I know, the scenery forum is elsewhere, but I'm trying to saturate the forums with this question in the hopes that someone can come up with an answer.

When I first starting using SBX (which I use mainly for downloading and enhancing photo images for airport design), I was able to download nice hi-res images wherever they were available. I did quite a few if you remember the Maine airports I worked on. Then, somewhere along the way, I started having problems with one server or another, but I could still get at least one that would render a nice hi-res image. It was suggested that I try updating the server dll's which I did and yet that didn't really change anything.

Now, I'm unable to download anything Hi-Res. Anyone familiar with SBX understands the process. . .load FSX to an airport you wish to enhance. . .in SBX click on "view background" which gives you a random satellite image. Next click "view aircraft" and that centers the image on the area you are sitting at in FSX. . .now just zoom into the image until you have the airport centered and filling most of the screen. Now select "add Map"/"from background" and you get a smaller pop up window with a selection of resolutions available. The higher the resolution, the more tiles required and the larger the file size. This is where SBX goes south on me. If I set it to, say, 16 or 18, it will download the tile sets and then you get a box that tells you basically to click "ok" again to download the final version of the hi-res image and that's where it quits. . . .click ok a few times (after hiding the popup) and it eventually says it can't build the image. Now if I go to the lowest resolution. . .bam. . .image loaded.

Long winded explanation I know, but I'm trying to anticipate all the "did you do this, or did you do that" questions that I'd have to answer anyway so I don't have to go through all that more than once.

So, is there anyone, currently using SBX313 (the very latest version as far as I know) that can give me some idea of why this has suddenly quit working for me? I almost forgot. . .I uninstalled the program completely. . .cleaned the registry to be sure nothing was left. . .then reinstalled, updated the dll's and tried with a fresh copy and nothing had changed.

HELP!!+
 
Wish I could help Ed. it's hit or miss for me and seems like it has to do with how many tiles you d/l at a time, or what DLLs you use, know it doesn't help much though. The image I got for Winter Haven was surprisingly different and much higher res than what google showed in my browser. It also seems to me that if I don't get it in the first try, then it gives me squat if I go back again at a later date and try. Port Angeles was this way, I could never get the full airport view to load all the tiles for a background, but if I zoomed in to 18 and scrolled around, I could see all the tiles.
 
Try doing it the other way. Load FSX at the airport you want to alter, then start SBuilderX and choose view aircraft, then open the background. There is a update to SBuilderX ... V313.
If you don't have that ....... you outa luck on the backgrounds.
 
Thats the latest, as far as I know, V313. Do you have Google Satalite chosen? Have you tryed to dump the tiles? Thats a big No-No. If so you may have to uninstall and re-install.
 
Google's servers will block you for short periods of time if you exceed the "limit" for downloading too many tiles. I'll even have it happen to me when I use Google Earth, "too much", and switch to Google Map to check on something else. (I have no idea what constitutes using it too much). I get an error message that I have too high of usage and to check back later. I must be on the "naughty' list, it happens to me quite a bit lately. :a1310:
 
Once you get the tiles down it doesn't need to connect any more.
NEVER BLOW OUT THE TILES NO MATTER HOW MUCH SPACE THEY TAKE UP !
 
I've had massive problems with Google Maps through SBuilderX recently, to the point at which they have been utterly useless.

I'm now using Virtual Earth (which I believe is technically now Microsoft's "Bing!" map tool) instead and have had no problems whatsoever until you get right down to maximum resolution, in which case nowhere near as much of the Earth is covered as Google does. But when Google is just serving up white squares...?
 
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