Hi,
I’d like to explain a problem I’ve been struggling with for several days regarding Aerosoft LEMD Madrid and the Ortho4XP patch, in the hope of either getting a practical solution or at least some guidance from Aerosoft.
My setup
· X‑Plane 12 on a MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon.
· Map Enhancement (XPME) for streamed orthophotos.
· SimHeaven X‑World overlays.
· Aerosoft LEMD Madrid X‑Plane 12 scenery:
o Aerosoft - LEMD Madrid - 1 - Airport
o Aerosoft - LEMD Madrid - 2 - Mesh
What works / what doesn’t
1. If I use Aerosoft’s mesh (entry “2 – Mesh”), the airport looks good but the mesh/orthos for the wider Madrid region are effectively overridden. I lose my Map Enhancement Pro and/or SpainUHD scenery around the airport and the surrounding area looks wrong or flattened.
2. If I disable Aerosoft’s mesh and keep:
o XPME Europe overlays above,
o SimHeaven overlays above those,
o Aerosoft LEMD “1 – Airport” at the top,
3. then:
o The terrain and imagery around Madrid look good (XPME + SimHeaven work together).
o But some terminals at LEMD (notably T1 and T4) have wrong elevation relative to the mesh: apron areas have bumps/steps, and parts of the terminals don’t sit perfectly on the ground. T4S looks fine, but T1/T4 are clearly misaligned.
My understanding is that this terminal elevation mismatch is exactly what the Ortho4XP patch is supposed to solve: it adjusts the airport mesh so the buildings sit correctly on a custom tile, instead of requiring Aerosoft’s own mesh to dominate the entire area.
The problem with the Ortho4XP patch
The documentation for Aerosoft LEMD provides an Ortho4XP patch and a TIF DEM, and explains how to:
· Put the patch in Patches/+40-010/+40-004/.
· Set the TIF as custom_dem.
· Build tile +40‑004 with Ortho4XP.
· Use the resulting zOrtho4XP_+40-004 tile under the airport.
In theory this is a good solution. In practice, on my Apple Silicon Mac, I have not been able to get Ortho4XP into a reliably working state for this tile:
· My existing Ortho4XP install repeatedly fails with:
o DEM not being created (tile.dem is None) and crashes like AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'alt_vec'.
o OSM “server busy / rejected” issues when trying to build vector data for the tile.
· Attempts to reinstall Ortho4XP and set up a new Python environment hit limits because:
o I’m on a pre‑release macOS version, where package managers and GDAL/Proj setups are less stable.
o Versioned Homebrew packages like python@3.10 are not available on my machine.
· I’m not comfortable doing deep manual debugging or custom Python builds just to get one tile working; I’m a simmer, not a developer.
So I’m stuck in a situation where:
· The patch depends on a tool (Ortho4XP) that I cannot realistically get working on my current Apple Silicon/macOS setup.
· The patch itself doesn’t include a ready-made tile or mesh; it only modifies a tile I’d have to generate with Ortho4XP.
· The product is advertised as premium scenery, but the recommended solution for users with Ortho4XP/Map Enhancement/SpainUHD relies on technical steps that are well beyond what many non‑technical users can reasonably do—especially on Apple Silicon.
What I’ve tried and confirmed
· I have XPME working correctly as a fallback:
o XPME overlays and SimHeaven above.
o Aerosoft LEMD airport on top.
· With Aerosoft mesh disabled:
o Madrid region looks good.
o Only the terminal elevations (T1/T4) are wrong.
· I’ve tried multiple imagery sources (BI, ARC, GO2) and different thread settings in Ortho4XP; the DEM/alt_vec crash persists even before imagery becomes a factor.
· I’ve spent hours following various Ortho4XP guides; none have led to a working tile for +40‑004 on this machine.
What I’m asking from Aerosoft
1. Is there any possibility that Aerosoft could provide:
o A pre‑built, Ortho4XP‑compatible tile for +40‑004 with the patch already applied (or at least a ready mesh/DSF) for LEMD?
o Or an alternative patch / mesh package that:
§ Fixes T1/T4 elevations,
§ Does not flatten or override the whole Madrid region,
§ Does not require users to successfully run Ortho4XP?
2. If not, would Aerosoft consider:
o Updating the documentation to make clearer that the patch assumes a fully working Ortho4XP environment on the user’s system (which many Apple Silicon users do not have).
o Providing guidance or minimum system requirements for the patch (e.g. “tested on Windows only”, or “Ortho4XP recommended but not supported on macOS Apple Silicon”).
3. As a last resort, given the hours I’ve spent trying to make the patch work and the technical barriers on my platform, is there any possibility of:
o An alternative solution (e.g. a small adjustment to the Aerosoft mesh so it coexists better with third‑party meshes), or
o A refund or store credit, if the advertised compatibility with Ortho4XP‑style setups isn’t practically achievable on my system?
I’m not asking Aerosoft to support Ortho4XP itself—that’s a third‑party tool—but the current situation is that the LEMD patch is effectively unusable for me, and the supplied mesh either breaks the surrounding scenery or requires me to give up Map Enhancement and SpainUHD.
Any suggestions, clarifications, or alternative files from Aerosoft would be very much appreciated. I’d like to keep using LEMD Madrid with my usual orthophoto (Map Enhancement Pro) and mesh setup without having to be a Python/Ortho4XP expert.
Thank you for your time and for any help you can offer.
J.
By
Joaquin Esteve ·
