Texas photo scenery not showing up in X-Plane 12 after install and ini edit

A couple of common gotchas with photo scenery in XP12

John, if XP12 is seeing the folder in Log.txt and it’s listed in scenery_packs.ini but you’re not actually seeing the imagery in-sim, it’s usually one of these (and they’re easy to miss).

1) Confirm it’s installed in the right place
Make sure the scenery folder is here (not nested an extra level down):

X-Plane 12\Custom Scenery\Your_Texas_Scenery_Folder\

Inside that folder you should see at least one of these:

• Earth nav data
• terrain
• textures

If instead you have something like:

X-Plane 12\Custom Scenery\Texas\Texas\Earth nav data

…then XP will “see” the folder name in the .ini, but it won’t actually load any DSFs because they’re one level deeper.

2) Check the .ini order (photo scenery needs to be below airports)
XP draws scenery by layer order. Photo scenery (ortho) should generally be below airports and overlays.

In Custom Scenery\scenery_packs.ini, a typical working order is:

1. Airports near the top
2. Overlays above the ortho (things like roads/buildings/trees overlays if you have them)
3. The ortho/photo scenery entries lower down
4. Meshes at/near the bottom (if applicable)

So as a test, move the Texas photo scenery entry down below any airport packs for the same area and below any overlay-type packs you may have. Then start XP12 again and re-check the area.

3) Verify you’re looking in the actual coverage area
This sounds obvious, but a lot of Texas packages are split into tiles. If you only installed (say) one or two tiles, you won’t see anything outside those DSF squares.

A quick way to sanity check is to open Earth nav data in that scenery folder and see if there are DSF files under a Texas region (example layout only):

Earth nav data\+30-100\+30-097.dsf

If there are no .dsf files at all, it won’t display anything.

4) The “Graphics tab scenery list” detail
Just to clear that part up: XP12 doesn’t really give you a reliable “here’s all the custom scenery I loaded” list in the Graphics settings the way people sometimes remember from older sims/add-ons. The two places that don’t lie are:

• Custom Scenery\scenery_packs.ini (what it tries to load)
• Log.txt (what it actually loaded / any errors)

5) What to look for in Log.txt
Since you already checked that it’s “recognized,” scroll a bit further down around the scenery loading section and look for any errors like missing DSFs or missing library items.

If you paste the handful of lines around where it loads that Texas pack, we can usually tell immediately what’s going on.

A few quick questions so I don’t send you in circles

• What is the exact folder name as it appears in Custom Scenery and in scenery_packs.ini?
• Inside that folder, do you have Earth nav data, and does it contain .dsf files?
• Are you using any overlay scenery for Texas (roads/buildings), or is this strictly ortho imagery?
• Can you paste the Log.txt lines where XP12 loads that scenery pack (and any lines immediately after that mention errors/warnings)?

Good catch on the extra folder nesting

John, glad you found it — that “one level too deep” packaging is probably the #1 reason people think ortho “installed” but doesn’t show.

On the “flat” look: that’s pretty normal at first glance with ortho, and it usually comes down to two separate things:

1) Ortho imagery = photo texture only (it won’t add 3D by itself)
Photo scenery replaces the ground textures, but it doesn’t magically add buildings/trees/roads unless you also have an overlay layer on top. If you’re looking at bare photo ground with little/no autogen, it’ll feel very “flat” even though the terrain mesh may still be there.

2) Terrain shape (mesh) is separate from overlays
Even with correct overlays, the “3D-ness” of hills/valleys comes from the mesh elevation data. Some ortho packages ship with (or are built with) a mesh that can look smoother/less detailed than you expect, especially in areas that are mostly flat to begin with (and a lot of Texas is…).

What to do next (in order)

1. Make sure you’re judging it in an area that actually has terrain relief (Texas can trick you). Try somewhere like the Hill Country / west of Austin or anywhere you know has obvious elevation changes.
2. Confirm your overlays are actually being loaded above the ortho. Yes — that yOrtho4XP_Overlays folder is the typical overlay layer (roads, buildings, forests, etc). If it’s present, it generally needs to sit above the ortho entry in scenery_packs.ini.
3. Check the order in scenery_packs.ini. A common working arrangement is:
   • Airports
   • yOrtho4XP_Overlays (and any other overlay-type scenery)
   • Your Texas ortho/photo scenery entries
   • Any mesh-only scenery (if you have it)

   If the overlays are below the ortho, you can end up with “pretty photos, but dead-flat/no life”.

4. Verify overlays are actually loading without errors. In Log.txt, you should see it loading that overlay scenery without a bunch of missing-library complaints. Missing libraries won’t usually remove the ortho itself, but they can absolutely wipe out the “stuff on top” that makes it feel alive.

A quick clarification on “flat”
If you mean “no buildings/roads/trees”, that’s almost always overlay ordering (or missing overlays).

If you mean “the ground has no hills / looks like a tabletop”, that points more toward the mesh/elevation side — and then we’d want to confirm what type of Texas package you installed (pure ortho textures vs ortho + custom mesh).

A couple quick questions so I can steer you properly

• When you say “flat”, do you mean no autogen/roads/trees, or do you mean no elevation/terrain relief?
• In your scenery_packs.ini, is yOrtho4XP_Overlays listed above the Texas ortho entries?
• Any errors in Log.txt about missing libraries right after it loads yOrtho4XP_Overlays?
• Which area/airport are you using to evaluate it (so we can sanity-check whether it should look “terrain-y” there)?