CGLs vs 1GB file size limit [Xbox]

Questions & Community Discussions Airports & Sceneries
1

Hi. If the max file size for Xbox is 1GB then how can we include our CGLs,
which are often >1GB? We can split a CGL into several parts indeed, however
for this to work, all those BGLs must be put in separate packages. As far as
we (and other users) have tested, multiple CGL files can not be present in one
package. <https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/two-packages-using-the-same-
cgl-tile/244335> <https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/how-to-have-more-than-
one-cgl-in-a-folder/400821> Of course, the obvious solution is to go down with
the quality but is this the only solution?

2

Hello. I don’t know what kind of project you’re working on but there are 2
ways to solve this: - split your cgl in multiple non conflicting packages -
reduce the quality The former is more adapted if you plan to cover large areas
with your aerials, the latter for a localized aerial. Allowing multiple CGL in
a single package wouldn’t solve the root problem that is the amount of
available disk and ram space on an xbox. If you feel it is impossible to reach
acceptable quality with this limit, don’t hesitate to provide more feedback.
Regards, Sylvain

3

Hi, we’re facing the same problem. Our CGL file is > 1 GB, so we cannot
publish our add-on for the Xbox and reducing the quality is not an option. We
already reduced the quality to be able to meet the 4 GB limit. Someone on the
Marketplace team told us that they’ve seen other developers split the CGLs
into multiple files to work around the file size limit. While we can split the
files, it remains unclear how to put them in the same package. Has something
about this changed since July? Kind regards

4

Following. Additionally it would help a lot not to be stuck to LOD20 in terms
of aerial imagery, so the filesize of the CGL could be reduced considerably
for some projects - particularly away from the immediate airport vicinity.

5

Yes, that alone would likely solve our problems with meeting the file size
limits altogether. Our CGL files would be much smaller in the first place and
we wouldn’t even have to think about splitting them up.

6

Just curious, I’ve been trying to find the limitations that references this.
Is this limit still a thing, and if so, does anyone have a link? I assume this
file size is of the extracted package as well.?

7

Hi. This is not a package limitation - it is a single-file limit. You cannot
have a single file larger than 1GB and, apparently, for Xbox, you would not
want that. There are lots of OOM issues with Xbox so we tend to reduce many
textures in size to avoid that.

8

Thank you for the clarification! That changes everything.

9

Hi all, Can anyone please elaborate on these two choices indicated earlier;
-splitting into two separate packages, means we need to publish two scenery
packages (ie, as A-West, A-East) ? That doesn’t seem preferable for an airport
project. Is there another way to do that? -reducing quality of what exactly in
order to reduce cgl size, how? Thank you

10

Reducing quality is indeed difficult if everything is upsampled to LOD20…

11

You can reduce the resolution and the file gets smaller. That seems to be the
best solution.

12

Yes, but the final result will still be upsampled to LOD20. I understand that
the filesize will get smaller because we have lost detail in the process but a
direct conversion to a lower LOD would certainly be preferrable as the
filesize will be even smaller than with the upsampled variant.

13

Hi! We are also stuck on this. Does anyone have a clear explanation of whether
splitting one large aerial imagery CGL into several adjoining ones (forming a
mosaic of CGLs) works? We have a large aerial imagery covering 170
sq.km., for a total CGL size of 4.4GB.

  • This works fine for non-Marketplace vendors, in fact, our product is out already with 2 3rd party vendors.

  • The problem is that when we try to create a package for MSFS2020 Marketplace, we get the “over 4GB limit” error.

  • To address this, we can split the scenery into 2 (or more if needed) components which are within the SAME package (@Orcusiok @Sunay, to answer your question, you don’t need 2 separate packages, all you do is, set up your project to contain 2 or more CGL asset groups, with the output pointing to different folders whose names MUST contain “CGL”, in our case “CGL_NORTH” and “CGL_SOUTH”) (this “MUST contain CGL in the name” requirement popped up as an error in the console while we were figuring out how to do this)

  • This project set up results in a single package, containing two CGL components in separate folders. The RESULTING layout.json then looks like this:

                1. {
    2.   "content": [
    3.     {
    4.       "path": "CGL_NORTH/300/sai110.cgl",
    5.       "size": 182002528,
    6.       "date": 133113881906400486
    7.     },
    8.     {
    9.       "path": "CGL_SOUTH/300/sai110.cgl",
    10.       "size": 325773245,
    11.       "date": 133113882842953733
    12.     },
    13.     {
    14.       "path": "ContentInfo/photoreal-project/Thumbnail.jpg",
    15.       "size": 118977,
    16.       "date": 133107878906204924
    17.     }
    18.   ]
    19. }

While this works on the compiler side (as in “Build All” command produces the
package without any errors), the produced scenery package simply does not
work, either causing a freeze, CTD or no-show in the area. We’ve seen users
successfully splitting their CGLs as per above, but we are unsure if these
were aerial imagery projects or something else. So, does anyone know if there
are any limitations on multiple aerial imagery CGLs existing side-by side, as
a mosaic, comprising a large coverage scenery area? Thanks!

14

“- split your cgl in multiple non conflicting packages” What exactly is a “non
conflicting package”?

15

Hi, please check out my post below on how to split CGLs within the same
project

16

Hi, please check out my post below on how to split CGLs within the same
project

17

I honestly would just recommend making a projected mesh. You can play a lot
more with it, and reloads are a TON quicker.

18

What exactly is a projected mesh? 3D topography object mapped with aerial
imagery placed on top of default mesh?

19

Basically take your .tif or image, split it into how many tiles you want. Then
replicate the amount of tiles in your 3D modeling program (such as Blender). I
just do it using simple loop cuts. Then, you’ll want to unwrap your tiles so
it covers the whole of each of the tile images. After it’s all done, you
export it as one big object. Then switch to projected mesh in the SDK, and
place it down. And slowly scale it in Blender over and over till you get it
right.

20

Projected meshes have a limited visibility (50km or so, can’t recall the exact
value right now), so I would be careful with these. Particularly if you’re
planning to cover larger areas that look significantly different to default
imagery, they’re not an option. About a year ago I experimented with tiled
polygons + custom material libraries with decent results. But this requires a
lot of knowledge about how GIS tools and projections work plus some coding.
Far more complicated than the secondary aerial image workflow and not
guaranteed it will keep working with future sim updates so I dropped that idea
eventually.