Testing GSX last version to see if...

[laltamuro]

Hi,
As proud owner of many FSDT airports (and Flightbeam KSFO), I was interested in the purchase of GSX. As it is free for FSDT airports, I decided to take a look on it, before making a decisión.
First attempt was a little disaster, I suffered a long time from the error message "Could find a valid AFCAD...", even running FSX as Administrator, and UAC disabled. Finally, I got it working when I set scenery.cfg to show only my FSDT airports. Now I'm ready to let it work with other airports in scenery.cfg (I know GSX won't work on them, I only want to see if GSX works at FSDT airports with more sceneries installed).
My first impression was very good, it is a great addon, and I think the approach is better than AES one. But I have found some issues that make me stay at holding point...
1. Install and initial config can be a little tricky. I told you about my first attempt.
2. (Almost) Impossible to config aircraft: No matter how I try, aircraft go nuts, spining and moving fast in that special slew mode.
3. Fortunately, I was able to config my Blackbox A320 once... Useless, because, in spite of my corrected config values, jetways go to a fixed point (different on every jetway/airport), and not to the place they are suppossed to go (door 1). Usually, some pushback fix it, but... By the way, I set my airplane position at default position of a right jetway (I don't place my A320 at a heavy gate).
4. Catering vehicles, specially at cargo door 3, appear over corresponding cargo vehicle. Maybe it is not that way for a 777, but...
5. GSX tells me that fuel vehicle is not there because of deboarding procedure, even while deboarding is done for GSX, and only cargo is unloading... (maybe a not very fortunate message?).
6. Some work must be done on jetways, because it is not very realistic that up/down adjustments are made thru terrain level (jetway wheels disappear). I am talking, at least, about FSDT and Flightbeam sceneries.
7. Conflicts between GSX vehicles and those from sceneries (static or not).

Don't get me wrong. GSX is a great addon, I mean it, and I am willing to purchase it. But I think I shouldn't do it, at least, until having config issues resolved (installation, FSX and GSX scenery index updates, aircraft configutation. May new versions can solve those issues...
Thanks a lot, and keep up the good work, boys ;-)

[virtuali]

1. Install and initial config can be a little tricky. I told you about my first attempt.

We'll get to that, but it's surely a problem with your config, probably related to the fact that you couldn't initially find AFCADs.

As explained in other threads, you can try forcing a cache rebuild by removing the following folders:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\FSX\SceneryIndexes
C:\ProgramData\Virtuali\Couatl

2. (Almost) Impossible to config aircraft: No matter how I try, aircraft go nuts, spining and moving fast in that special slew mode.

This has been discussed many times too, and it's not a GSX problem, it's a problem of your joystick null zone that is set incorrectly, so the airplane slews away because the joystick is not centered. You can fix this either pressing CTRL+K to disable the joystick before entering the editor OR by un-assigning joystick axes in slew mode.

3. Fortunately, I was able to config my Blackbox A320 once... Useless, because, in spite of my corrected config values, jetways go to a fixed point (different on every jetway/airport), and not to the place they are suppossed to go (door 1).

This has also being discussed too many times on the forum, and of course there's an highlighted note in the manual. NOTHING in GSX affects, controls, is affected by the operation of jetways. Jetway would continue to operate (good or bad) exactly as they were before GSX, there's no interaction whatsoever between GSX and jetways.

4. Catering vehicles, specially at cargo door 3, appear over corresponding cargo vehicle. Maybe it is not that way for a 777, but...

They don't, if the airplane configuration is correct. If they appear on your airplane which you configured, it's because you configured it wrong, likely with overlapping doors. Catering vehicles should NOT go to a cargo door. Cargo doors as ONLY for loading vehicles. Catering vehicles should only be assigned to SERVICE doors.

5. GSX tells me that fuel vehicle is not there because of deboarding procedure, even while deboarding is done for GSX, and only cargo is unloading... (maybe a not very fortunate message?).

Don't confuse the deboarding of passengers, which is not something you "see", with the deboarding of cargo, which is what you see. The deboarding of passengers only feedback of process, is the sound of passengers inside the cockpit, and the final alert when deboarding is finished, and this can happen when the loading vehicles are long gone.

6. Some work must be done on jetways, because it is not very realistic that up/down adjustments are made thru terrain level (jetway wheels disappear). I am talking, at least, about FSDT and Flightbeam sceneries.

See above. Nothing to do with GSX. Jetways are animated by FSX itself.

7. Conflicts between GSX vehicles and those from sceneries (static or not).

That's the whole point of having a parking customization editor, so you can change all vehicles starting positions so they won't conflict with themselves and they would not conflict other scenery objects. As explained many times already, the only thing that GSX sees of the outside world, is the AFCAD, so you are supposed to use the parking customization feature to fix potential conflicts which are obviously easier on detailed 3rd party airports with lots of clutter at a parking.

Don't get me wrong. GSX is a great addon, I mean it, and I am willing to purchase it. But I think I shouldn't do it, at least, until having config issues resolved (installation, FSX and GSX scenery index updates, aircraft configutation. May new versions can solve those issues...

Not a single item in your report was a GSX issue or something that needed to be fixed. Everything you reported could have been fixed using the provided tools that are explained in the GSX documentation.

[laltamuro]

Thanks for your answer.
Well, I will left jetways apart. I am not saying that is a GSX issue, I am saying that I will love a more realistic behaviour. If it is out of GSX scope, perfect, no problem.
By the way, a question... If nothing is going to change how jetways work, why should I use aircraft config? Only for vehicles? Well, fine.

About GSX installation and config, let me tell you that I did everything that I could find in the fórum about it. So I deleted both folders a lot of times, I ran FSX as admin, etc., etc. Not every time I added an scenery (and did the complete procedure) I could get your text telling me about indexing progress percentage (GSX one). I really don't know what happened, but believe me, I actually know what I am doing on my PC. Maybe, my scenery.cfg had an entry for an incompatible scenery, but I don't think that trial and error is a reasonable procedure. I know that is very difficult, because there are a lot of sceneries, but more information about them will be an extra help.

 About point 4, I think it is not a config problem, but a size problem. Cargo and service doors (forward) are too close in A320 to let both vehicles be at their respective positions without overlapping.

Sorry if I didn't read everything related to these questions in the fórum. It is not that easy... Even to find the key words that describe a problem, when English is not your native language. I will do better next time.

At last, I was not trying to identify GSX problems nor things to be fixed. Some of my comments were strange behaviours that I was sure you would be able to clarify to me (even if they were in my side), others were part of my wish-list, and who knows if another could by an issue...

First thing I wrote was that I was a proud owner of many of your products, and I was willing to purchase GSX. I think my post doesn't deserve your last paragraph (Not a single ítem...). Anyway, congrats, I was not able to find a single issue.
Far, far away from my intention...
;-)

[virtuali]

Well, I will left jetways apart. I am not saying that is a GSX issue, I am saying that I will love a more realistic behaviour. If it is out of GSX scope, perfect, no problem.

None of my replies said that any of this was due to being out of GSX scope, I've said that everything you reported weren't issue at all, and would be handled either by using the customization tools provided by GSX, or just reading the documentation.

By the way, a question... If nothing is going to change how jetways work, why should I use aircraft config? Only for vehicles? Well, fine.

Of course, you configure doors that are all going to be served by GSX vehicles.

Not every time I added an scenery (and did the complete procedure) I could get your text telling me about indexing progress percentage (GSX one). I really don't know what happened, but believe me, I actually know what I am doing on my PC.

This is not very clear. With "not every time", you mean that *sometimes* you HAVE seen the reindexing process, or you haven't seen it at all ?

Maybe, my scenery.cfg had an entry for an incompatible scenery, but I don't think that trial and error is a reasonable procedure. I know that is very difficult, because there are a lot of sceneries, but more information about them will be an extra help.

It's possible you have either a problem with the scenery.cfg, like a syntax error or an illegal character in one name, but also it might be a corrupted scenery file.

And no, of course we have better than "trial and error" troubleshooting options. There's a Troubleshooting section in the GSX menu, that allows you to turn on logging. If you do that, repeat the whole reindexing procedure, and then provide with your Couatl.LOG and (eventually) Couatl.ERR files, there might be some hint of what the problem might be.

About point 4, I think it is not a config problem, but a size problem. Cargo and service doors (forward) are too close in A320 to let both vehicles be at their respective positions without overlapping.

They don't. See the attached screenshot showing the baggage loader and the catering vehicle on the A320 from Aerosoft working together without any overlap. This is using the default configuration that comes with GSX.

As you can see, in order to prevent overlapping on the (realistically) limited space on an A320, we configured the Aerosoft model to have a large cargo loader in the back, and a smaller belt loader in the front.

That's the whole point of having the "ULD Code" field in the editing dialog for cargo doors, it defaults to "Auto" (select the vehicle type depending on the door's height), but you can force it to read "BELT", which means the smaller conveyor belt will always appear on *that* door, so you won't have problems with the larger cargo loader that might overlap the catering truck.

There are reasons why you have being offered with so many customization options: so that you can use them, to adapt GSX to the multitude of 3rd party airplanes and sceneries out there.

[laltamuro]

Self-explanative image...

http://img.overpic.net/thumbs/e/q/c/xeqc2wnz798rlw3lnawvc_s.jpg

Ok, Clear for me that default is not an option for that cargo door in my airbus. Changing it to BELT:

http://img.overpic.net/thumbs/5/v/o/x5vo8rhnvdjxxq4h9whgr_s.jpg

Narrow margin, but fits! But unfortunatelly, cargo vehicles overlap...

http://img.overpic.net/thumbs/l/6/z/xl6zd0aacsr9tjpgng25f_s.jpg

About the indexing process, in my initial attemps, I tried several times to get GSX running. In every case, I deleted both sceneries and ran FSX as administrator and not all times I was able to get that message (most of times I was, some not). Now, I am running it with my FSDT and Flightbeam sceneries as the only sceneries in my scenery.cfg and no problem at all. Probably is all about some particular sceneries I had in my scenery.cfg in every case. I will take a look at the log files...
;-)

[virtuali]

Ok, Clear for me that default is not an option for that cargo door in my airbus.

That's fairly obvious, and that's exactly what I've said, and is explained in the manual too. Those vehicles have real world size, so a large cargo loader won't fit on the front together with the catering vehicle even in real life, which is why you have that customization option in the first place.

Narrow margin, but fits!

It surely does, just like my own screenshot. As you can see, it was just a matter of configuring GSX properly.

But unfortunatelly, cargo vehicles overlap...

http://img.overpic.net/thumbs/l/6/z/xl6zd0aacsr9tjpgng25f_s.jpg

Easily fixable in TWO different ways:

1) Put a belt loader even on the back

OR

2) Angle the front loader, so it won't overlap the vehicle in the back, and it will also give the catering vehicle a better margin. See the attached screenshot. Again, problem fixed just by using tools provided by the GSX airplane customization page.

3) A combination of 1 and 2, put belt loaders on front and back, and angle them a bit in opposite directions.

Now, I am running it with my FSDT and Flightbeam sceneries as the only sceneries in my scenery.cfg and no problem at all. Probably is all about some particular sceneries I had in my scenery.cfg in every case. I will take a look at the log files...

Fairly sure the problem was one of the scenery or the scenery.cfg itself. I await your report.