Use X-Plane Map Enhancement with SimHeaven X-World correctly: set scenery priority and fix missing imagery, buildings or roads.
Yes. X-Plane Map Enhancement can supply the photographic ground imagery while SimHeaven X-World supplies buildings, roads, forests and other overlays. They are complementary, not alternatives. Keep every X-World overlay above the Map Enhancement scenery entries in Custom Scenery/scenery_packs.ini, and avoid enabling another orthophoto or base-mesh package for the same tiles.
What should the scenery_packs.ini order be?
X-Plane gives packages near the top of scenery_packs.ini higher priority. The exact X-World folder names vary by region and release, so preserve the order supplied with your X-World package rather than copying an old folder list.
| Priority | Scenery layer | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Highest | Custom airports and landmarks | Airport exclusions must take priority over regional buildings and vegetation. |
| High | Global Airports | Keeps airport areas clear of conflicting regional objects. |
| Middle | All X-World component packages | Adds buildings, roads, forests and regional details over the terrain. |
| Lower | X-Plane Map Enhancement entries | Provides the photographic ground layer beneath X-World. |
| Lowest or disabled | Alternative orthophoto and base-mesh packages | Overlapping terrain sources do not blend; the higher-priority source wins for a tile. |
This is the standard airport–overlay–imagery–mesh hierarchy. Our explanation of how X-Plane scenery layers fit together covers the wider distinction between airports, overlays, photographic terrain and mesh.
How do I configure Map Enhancement and X-World together?
- Install the correct X-World region. Use an edition intended for your X-Plane generation, extract all required component folders, and make sure they sit at the expected level inside
Custom Scenery. An extra nested folder can prevent X-Plane from finding them. - Set up Map Enhancement. Complete its scenery integration so its entries appear in
scenery_packs.ini. Follow our Map Enhancement installation and integration instructions if the photographic layer has not yet been configured. - Let X-Plane register the packages. Start X-Plane once after adding the scenery, then close it before editing
scenery_packs.ini. - Arrange the entries. Put airports above X-World, retain X-World's supplied internal order, and place every X-World component above the Map Enhancement entries.
- Check for competing terrain. Disable downloaded orthophotos, streamed terrain or custom mesh covering the same test area unless you deliberately want one of them to override Map Enhancement.
- Test one known location. Confirm that photographic terrain loads first, then check that buildings, forests and roads appear above it.
A mistake we see constantly is sorting every package alphabetically. X-World's numbered or otherwise structured components are intended to load in a particular sequence; changing that sequence can remove details or make exclusion layers behave incorrectly.
Why are the imagery or X-World objects missing?
Photographic imagery is missing
Check that the Map Enhancement entries are enabled and have priority over any competing base terrain. If the selected operating mode requires a companion process or local service, that must also be running. Network, cache and imagery-source problems can produce default X-Plane terrain even when scenery_packs.ini is correct.
Two photographic or base-mesh systems covering the same tile will not combine. Choose the one you want and disable or lower the other; our comparison of streamed photographic scenery methods explains this layer conflict in more detail.
Buildings, roads or forests are missing
Move every X-World component above Map Enhancement and confirm none begins with SCENERY_PACK_DISABLED in the configuration file. Also check that you installed the correct region, included its required components and libraries, and have not set X-Plane's object-density controls too low.
An airport may legitimately suppress nearby X-World objects through exclusion zones. That is desirable around runways and terminals; moving X-World above the airport can instead produce houses, trees or roads across the airfield.
Roads or objects appear twice
Disable any additional regional overlay that duplicates X-World's roads, forests or autogen. Roads already visible in the photographic image cannot be removed by scenery ordering, so slight doubling can remain where the live X-World network does not align perfectly with imagery captured on another date.
Will running both packages reduce performance?
Using both can increase load, but each package stresses a different part of the system. X-World's object and road density mainly raises CPU and rendering demand, while high-resolution photographic scenery uses network bandwidth, cache storage and graphics memory.
If frame rates fall around cities, reduce object or vegetation density before sacrificing terrain imagery. If the ground becomes blurry or pauses while loading but object-heavy areas perform normally, investigate Map Enhancement's imagery resolution, cache and connection instead.