Custom Ortho Tiles

Use your own pre-built ortho tiles alongside XEarthLayer's streamed scenery.

If you already have pre-generated Ortho4XP tiles for your favourite airports or regions, you do not have to give them up. XEarthLayer’s patches system lets you drop those tiles into a directory so they are served directly to X-Plane instead of streaming imagery for those areas.

This is ideal when you want to keep specific zoom levels, custom imagery sources, or hand-tuned scenery for regions you fly most often, while still getting XEarthLayer’s streamed coverage everywhere else.

How Patches Work

A patch is a folder containing standard Ortho4XP output — DSF meshes, terrain definitions, and DDS textures — placed inside the XEarthLayer patches directory. When XEarthLayer starts, it scans the patches directory for valid tile data and registers which 1 degree by 1 degree regions are covered. Any request from X-Plane that falls within a patched region is served directly from your local files rather than being streamed.

Patched regions completely replace package files for those 1 degree by 1 degree areas. There is no blending or mixing — your custom tiles take full priority.

Directory Structure

Place your Ortho4XP output folders inside the patches directory:

~/.xearthlayer/patches/
├── A_MyRegion/
│   ├── Earth nav data/
│   │   └── +40-080/
│   │       └── +41-074.dsf
│   ├── terrain/
│   │   └── *.ter
│   └── textures/
│       └── *.dds
└── B_AnotherRegion/
    └── ...

Each subfolder inside patches/ is one patch. The required contents are:

Configuration

Patches are enabled by default. The relevant settings live in the [patches] section of ~/.xearthlayer/config.ini:

[patches]
enabled = true
directory = ~/.xearthlayer/patches

You can also manage patches from the command line. See the CLI Reference for available xearthlayer patches commands.

Prefetch Integration

XEarthLayer automatically detects which 1 degree by 1 degree regions are covered by your patches and excludes them from streaming and prefetching. This means:

• No bandwidth is spent downloading tiles you already have locally
• Prefetch cycles skip patched regions entirely
• No configuration is needed — detection is automatic based on the DSF files in your patches

Verification

Use the CLI to confirm your patches are correctly set up:

# List all patches and their validation status
xearthlayer patches list

# Validate directory structure and file integrity
xearthlayer patches validate

The list command shows each patch folder, the 1 degree by 1 degree regions it covers, and whether the required files are present. The validate command performs a deeper check on directory structure and file integrity.

In flight, patched areas are easy to spot — your custom tiles appear immediately with no download delay, while streamed areas may take a moment to load on a cold cache.