Installing and Upgrading Version 8

Note!! This page applies only to versions 8.00 through 8.15. To install later versions, see the network install page.

If you installed X-Plane from the DVD, the installer should have installed the scenery. If you decided not to, or if you first got the demo download and have now bought the DVD, read on...

First off, it depends on which DVD you bought. There are two different DVD packages, the one sold direct by Laminar Research and X-Plane.org, and the Graphsim DVD sold through retail outlets.

Note: I've been told there are some DVDs with the Graphsim artwork that are structured like the Laminar DVD. So if you have a Graphsim DVD and the instructions aren't making sense, try the instructions for the Laminar DVD instead. Remember these instructions apply to the single DVD kit only! The later multi-DVD kits use a different install procedure. See the network install page.

Installing from the Laminar/X-Plane.org DVD

The DVD contains three sets of Zips. Each of these can be opened with WinZip on a PC or Stuffit Expander, ZipIt, or BOMArchiveHelper on a Mac. Extract the contents into the appropriate folder as follows:

• Data1/Scenery7/ne.zip, nw.zip, se.zip, sw.zip
  This is the generation 7 worldwide scenery. (These are identical to the contents of the four generation 7 scenery CDs.) For these versions, this is your only choice if you want to fly in areas other than the United States. Extract each of these into the Resources/Earth Nav Data folder.
  
  
• Data1/scenery/+nn-nnn.zip
  This is the generation 8 US scenery. (There are 16 numbered Zip files in this folder.) Create the Resources/Default Scenery/US/Earth Nav Data folder; then create numbered folders here corresponding to the names of the Zip files; then extract each Zip file into its corresponding folder. (See the illustration below.)
  
  
• Data1/earth_texes.zip
  These are textures used to display the earth's surface as seen from space. They are used at altitudes too high for the normal terrain rendering to make sense. Extract these into the Resources/Bitmaps/Earth Orbit Textures folder.

There's no requirement to install all of these - just the ones you want. If you're never going to fly above 50,000 feet, for example, the earth orbit textures aren't going to do you much good. Also, if you want to use the generation 7 scenery in the US, don't install the generation 8 scenery; X-Plane looks first for gen 8 scenery and falls back to gen 7 scenery if it doesn't find it.

Note: Each Zip contains a set of folders; they should appear in the containing folder described above. For example, for the generation 8 US scenery, you should have the following path: Resources/Default Scenery/US/Earth Nav Data, in turn containing a bunch of numbered folders. For the earth orbit textures, you should end up with a set of PNG files in the Earth Orbit Textures folder.

WinZip in Windows usually gets this right. On the Macintosh, Stuffit Expander and BOMArchiveHelper may create the resulting folder structure elsewhere, and you'll have to pick through it to find the right folder and move it. If you end up with additional containing folders, move the top level folder(s) from the Zip into the correct destination and discard the intervening folder(s). See the scenery page for a description of how the scenery naming conventions work and other information about scenery.

Installing from the Graphsim DVD

The DVD contains three huge Zips. Each of these can be opened with WinZip on a PC or Stuffit Expander, ZipIt, or BOMArchiveHelper on a Mac. Extract the contents into the appropriate folder as follows:

• Resources/Earth Nav Data.zip
  This is the generation 7 worldwide scenery. For these versions, this is your only choice if you want to fly in areas other than the United States. Extract this into the Resources folder.
  
  
• Resources/Mars Nav Data.zip (this one is not huge)
  This is a small portion of the Mars scenery. Depending on which version of X-Plane you have installed, this data may or may not already be present. Extract this into the Resources folder if you don't already have it and you want to fly on Mars.
  
  
• Resources/Default Scenery/US/Earth Nav Data.zip
  This is the generation 8 US scenery. Create the Resources/Default Scenery/US folder and then extract this Zip into it.
  
  
• Resources/Bitmaps/Earth Orbit Textures.zip
  These are textures used to display the earth's surface as seen from space. They are used at altitudes too high for the normal terrain rendering to make sense. Extract these into the Resources/Bitmaps folder.

There's no requirement to install all of these - just the ones you want. If you're never going to fly above 50,000 feet, for example, the earth orbit textures aren't going to do you much good. Also, if you want to use the generation 7 scenery in the US, don't install the generation 8 scenery; X-Plane looks first for gen 8 scenery and falls back to gen 7 scenery if it doesn't find it.

Note: Each Zip contains a set of folders; the top level folder in the Zip matches the name of the Zip file and should appear in the containing folder described above. For example, for the generation 8 US scenery, you should have the following path: Resources/Default Scenery/US/Earth Nav Data, in turn containing a bunch of numbered folders. For the earth orbit textures, you should end up with a set of PNG files in the Earth Orbit Textures folder.

WinZip in Windows usually gets this right. On the Macintosh, Stuffit Expander and BOMArchiveHelper may create the resulting folder structure elsewhere, and you'll have to pick through it to find the right folder and move it. If you end up with additional containing folders, move the top level folder from the Zip into the correct destination and discard the intervening folder(s). See the scenery page for a description of how the scenery naming conventions work and other information about scenery.

You didn't get the scenery folder structure right. Here's a picture of what it should look like on OS-X (only there's a lot more files and folders). You can see a similar display with Windows Explorer.

The installation of the generation 8 DSF files should look like this:


The installation of the generation 7 ENV files should look like this:

For more ins and outs of handling scenery, see the scenery page.

Also check out the links on the X-World page. Note that Avsim.com requires you to establish an account (no money or committment involved). There are links from the x-plane.org registry to aircraft stored on Avsim. These won't work until you've established your account and logged into Avsim.

You can order CDs with terrain for the entire planet from the X-Plane order page or from the X-Plane.org store.

Planes built by other X-Plane users are typically packaged as compressed archives of the plane's folder structure. All planes can be used on either PC or Mac, regardless of where they were built. Most are packaged as ZIP archives. On a PC, you'll need WinZip or something similar. On the Mac, either Zipit, Stuffit Expander, or BOMArchiveHelper will do the job. Archives named .SIT are Stuffit archives from a Mac. Stuffit Expander is included with Mac OSX only through 10.3. You can download Stuffit Expander for the PC for free from http://www.stuffit.com/win/expander/index.html; for Mac from http://www.stuffit.com/mac/index.html.

In the Aircraft folder, make yourself a folder named "Third Party" or "Custom Planes" or something like that. Put the folder for your new plane in here. You'll see why when we talk about upgrading.

If you're downloading planes from the X-Plane.org registry, check the version number. The X-Plane.org registry has separate categories for the major X-Plane versions, but planes don't always get registered in the right categories. Check the individual plane descriptions. The aircraft format changes regurlarly, and planes built for earlier versions will require conversion or fixups. See the Aircraft Format and Conversion page.

Caution: The terrain file format has changed several times in X-Plane's history. V8 will accept V7 custom scenery packages but not earlier versions.

To install custom scenery, simply extract the scenery package archive into the Custom Scenery folder. You should end up with a folder with the name of the custom scenery package inside the Custom Scenery folder. For more information on how a scenery package should be structured, see the scenery page.

The mini-updates require manual installation of the files. This tends to be error prone and has caused so many complaints and support calls that it's been mostly abandoned.

Just move them from their locations in the old X-System folder to the corresponding locations in the new X-System folder:

• The US folder in Resources/Default Scenery
  
• All the numbered folders in Resources/Earth Nav Data
• All the numbered folders in Resources/Mars Nav Data (if you installed the separately available complete Mars scenery)
• All the PNGs in Resources/Bitmaps/Earth Orbit Textures

Don't simply move over the Resources/xxx Nav Data folders, because they also contain the airport and navaid data files, which are frequently updated in new X-Plane versions.

Custom Planes:
That's why I told you to put your add-on planes into a separate folder. Just move it from the old X-System folder into the Aircraft folder in the new X-System folder.

Custom scenery:
Simply move the folders in your Custom Scenery folder from the old version to the new version.