Frequently Given Answers

…for some rather Frequently Asked Questions `:)`

We (as in "me", the developer of the Gateway Map) often get to answer questions similar to one another on various platforms; through email, forums (both official and unofficial) like Discord, Reddit, Youtube, etc. so … just in order to avoid repeating things - here are some "frequently given answers for some rather frequently asked questions".

Is this site operated/sponsored by Laminar Research?

Short answer; no, it is not.

Longer answer; the Gateway Map is a privately maintained/funded project. The site mainly relies on data that is available through Laminar Research's public API for the X-Plane Scenery Gateway. The developer of the Gateway Map has no influence on e.g. the approval process of Laminar Research - nor any say in matters regarding the development of the simulator itself.

To whom is this site targeted for?

Mostly for the scenery developers of the X-Plane Scenery Gateway. The original idea behind the Gateway Map was to allow scenery developers to easily find specific airports to improve on the simulator.

End users of the simulator are admittedly a secondary target. The map does provide a transparent view on the development status of the scenery airports and does provide a way for users to be "ahead of the curve" in regards to official X-Plane releases.

Should I download sceneries from the X-Plane Scenery Gateway directly?

As a scenery developer? Absolutely! That is kind of a major part of the scenery development pipeline; you either start from zero - or - you aim to improve an existing airport scenery. These days, the situation is usually the latter.

As an end user of the sim? That depends on whether you want to - and understand "how to" - manage scenery updates manually. All approved and recommended airport sceneries will eventually be included in official X-Plane releases (usually within a few months, following the release cycle).

If you download sceneries directly from the gateway, X-Plane will continue to use your downloaded version even when newer sceneries become available - you'll need to manually check for and install updates.

Most casual users are better served waiting for official releases, which handle updates automatically.

Is the Gateway Map in sync with the Scenery Gateway?

This, too, is a bit of a tricky one, because … the Gateway Map doesn't synchronize its data with the Scenery Gateway API in "exactly synchronous manner"; rather - things are done - "not everything at once". The reason for this is to avoid applying unnecessary pressure towards Laminar Research's servers.

The airport scenery metadata … including things like name/code (as it will be represented in X-Plane) of the airport, status of the scenery submission, etc. get updated/synced approximately hourly. Most of this data is used for drawing the markers on the map.

The more "detailed renders" of the sceneries (which is basically the full airport layout in simplified 2D) get synchronized … generally, for sceneries that have been updated … about once a day. Reason for this discrepancy is that, in order to render a visualization of the airport scenery, the Gateway Map needs to download the actual scenery files and decode the contents into a renderable representation which X-Plane obviously does by itself, but … as a third party actor, the Gateway Map needs to jump through a few more hoops.

What's up with the various Scenery tags?

Again, a bit of a multi-faceted answer to a question that has multiple possible responses … things have somewhat changed over the years.

In the (nowadays) "distant" past, the cyan map markers were used to signify airports that had never been updated since X-Plane 9. At the time airports in X-Plane mainly consisted of a simple runway and a parallel taxiway. Since then, tons of things have changed and these days the meaning of a cyan marker is supposed to be "this airport has not been touched by a developer in quite some while" (such airports are usually in need of some tender loving care).

The orange markers on the map are meant to signify an airport that has been modified by a scenery developer … and has been included in an official X-Plane release.

The red markers on the map are meant to signify an airport scenery that has been modified by a scenery developer … and will be included in a future official X-Plane release.

The "white" markers on the map signify airports that either have no sceneries available - OR - airports that have been deprecated (usually due to the real-world airport having been closed).

The scenery popover(s) represent a bit more fine-grained detail; like … tags in the "Airport Sceneries" list show which X-Plane version the scenery was initially included in. The currently "recommended" scenery is tagged with a green marker. Sceneries that have been "superseded" by a later scenery (i.e. versions replaced by a later approved/recommended version before release) are also tagged nowadays.

Why does the site look like something from over a decade ago?

Mainly because - for the most parts - it quite literally is. The site was originally built when X-Plane was still in version 10 and the X-Plane Scenery Gateway was originally created and has only had few minor facelifts done since.

Secondly, the developer isn't exactly a master of graphical design, and thus the site is more of a technical resource rather than a ton of eye-candy … it does its job so - let's not break something that works.

In case you have questions not answered here, feel free to send email to the developer for further details.