• New scenery objects in this version:
  • Added all flags from Flags of the World by Mr 3D and Chris Noe into OpenSceneryX. Note that the versions included in OpenSceneryX are rotated 90° from the originals, to conform to the standard of being aligned with the wind when placed at 0° (default) rotation.
  • Added all flags from Flags of the USA by Mr 3D and Chris Noe into OpenSceneryX. Note that the versions included in OpenSceneryX are rotated 90° from the originals, to conform to the standard of being aligned with the wind when placed at 0° (default) rotation.
  • Added missing temperate conifer forests from FlyAgi Vegetation library.
• Modified scenery objects in this version:
  • Replaced Finland and UK flags with new versions from Flags of the World, which no longer need a plugin for the animation. As a result of this, these flags are now correctly oriented to the wind when placed at 0° rotation (default). IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have already used either of these flags in a scenery package, please ensure the rotation is reset to 0°.
  • All the new lines added from DT_Library in v4.0.0 were missing their normal textures. These have now been added.
• Other changes:
  • Support upcoming feature of WED to lock the rotation of an object to a specific angle (e.g. for objects that rotate in the wind). All existing objects in OpenSceneryX that rotate in the wind have had this attibute added, to lock them to 0° rotation.
  • Object dimensions are now interrogated directly from the model, automatically. All objects in the library have had their dimensions injected into the documentation.
  • All items with seasonal variants can now have multiple seasonal screenshots in the documentation, displayed as an image carousel. Here’s a nice example. All objects have had seasonal screenshots generated, but forests probably won’t as screenshots have to be created by hand for those, and it would ba a mammoth task.
  • Updated the Backup Library to v2.4.0
  • Added a couple more simHeaven export paths for wind tur?bines for use in their packages.
  • The website descriptions of the Hawker Seafury and Supermarine Spitfire were swapped over. This didn’t affect the library, just the documentation.
  • The website description of the B29 Superfortress claimed it was a B17 Flying Fortress. This didn’t affect the library, just the documentation.
  • All documentation pages on the website now include tooltip hover help for lots of the information provided, giving more information about each item and links through to the official X-Plane® documentation where appropriate – just hover your mouse over the ? icons.
  • All documentation pages on the website that contain dimensions now have both metric and imperial values (metres, feet and miles as appropriate).

The post OpenSceneryX 4.1.0 Now Out! appeared first on OpenSceneryX.

This post will cover the final part of this process – How the library is released for download.

Stage 10a: Final Pre-release Jobs

The “Enhanced by OpenSceneryX” logo is re-made with the new version number and the release notes are completed. A sitemap for the new website is generated using Google’s own sitemap_gen Python script.

Stage 10b: The Manifest

The manifest serves an important process, described here.  The next job when releasing the library is to create it, and this is done automatically.

Stage 10c: Compression

The installer needs every file to be available, individually zipped.  So to prepare for this, a script is run across the library which zips each file.  Additionally, the entire library is zipped into a single archive for those users who have trouble with the installer. Finally, the new version of the website is compressed for ease of upload.

Stage 10d: Upload

All the compressed files are now uploaded to the web server, into a temporary location.  In total the upload is about 0.5Gb, so it takes a while and the old version of the site is still served up to users during this process, to minimise downtime.

Stage 10e: Uncompression

All the files that were compressed for upload are now uncompressed on the server, still in a temporary location.

Stage 10f: Making it Live

To make it live, the home page of the site is replaced with a “Site temporarily unavailable” version, all the current files and folders are moved to a backup location and the new versions are moved to the live locations. Once this is done, the new home page is deployed and the release is complete.

Stage 11: Announcements

Finally, various announcements are made in forums and messageboards, letting people know that a new version has been released.

The post How the Library is Built – Part 3 appeared first on OpenSceneryX.