MJC Q400 and the Stairs on Exit 1

[Captain45]

Since a recent update Stairs are appearing at Exit1 of the Majestic Q400. That was not the case in the past. It's a bit useless, because that exit has it's own stairs on the backside of the door. At first I thought it was a mismatch, but when I select GSX - Customize Aircraft, it does read mjcq400.

Now I can disable that exit, but that is not very elegant. Can we please have the old situation back? Thank you.

And one more thing....
In the past the fuel truck came on the port side of the aircraft and now on the starboard side. I don't know where the access point for fuel is on the real world Q400, but only if 'right' is correct it's OK.

Cheers,

Dirk

[virtuali]

Since a recent update Stairs are appearing at Exit1 of the Majestic Q400. That was not the case in the past. It's a bit useless, because that exit has it's own stairs on the backside of the door. At first I thought it was a mismatch, but when I select GSX - Customize Aircraft, it does read mjcq400.

This has already been discussed here:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,17602.msg123437.html#msg123437

But, while we haven't set this new parameter for the default King Air, I checked the default configuration that comes with GSX, and it DOES exclude the stairs. And in fact, as you can see from the attached screenshot, NO stairs appears on Exit 1.

The likely problem is, if you made your own configuration, is taking over the GSX internal one. Use the Reset button to revert to the default configuration that comes with GSX.

In the past the fuel truck came on the port side of the aircraft and now on the starboard side. I don't know where the access point for fuel is on the real world Q400, but only if 'right' is correct it's OK.

This has been changed long time ago, as explained here:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,16887.0.html

So, in old versions, the fuel truck was always on the port side, now it respects either the fuel position (if it's high enough for the large truck to go under it) or, if it's not, if will respect at least the side. The real Q400 IS refueled from the starboard side, and that's how GSX is internally configured for.

[Captain45]

Thanks for the reply Umberto.  I have NOT made my own config for the q400! It's the default one that comes with GSX. But I did a quick test doing the reset and as you can see there is till a Stairs at Exit1.
Since I cannot set the height to zero (as I understand from the linked post) what can I do to solve this?

Dirk

[virtuali]

Thanks for the reply Umberto.  I have NOT made my own config for the q400!

Are you sure ? What's the GSX airplane editor is saying about where GSX is taking the airplane configuration from ?

But I did a quick test doing the reset and as you can see there is till a Stairs at Exit1.

If you had a GSX.CFG file in the Airplane own folder, GSX won't Reset it, because that location is supposed to be used by airplane developers, so you must remove the file
manually AND do a "Restart Couatl", to be sure the new config is being read.

[Captain45]

I'm 'on the road' until May 12th. 
As soon as I'm back home, I'll check it out.

Dirk

[Captain45]

I'm home for a short time, so I could check things out; after running FSDT Live Update:

The Customize Aircraft function gives me mjcq400 as the file in use. Pax1 is selected as 'Door with Open/close as FSX Door #1'.

There is no gsx.cfg in the ..\SimObjects\Airplanes\mjc8q400 directory

I also cheched the ..\AppData\Roaming\Virtuali\GSX directory, but nothing specific for the q400 on that place

So, my guess is, that there is something wrong with the default GSX aircraft file for the mjcq400.

Greetings,

Dirk

[virtuali]

The Customize Aircraft function gives me mjcq400 as the file in use. Pax1 is selected as 'Door with Open/close as FSX Door #1'.

What's the GSX airplane editor is saying about where GSX is taking the airplane configuration from ? You said "file", but you don't say where it's located. If the airplane configuration window doesn't say "Internal GSX database", it means you are using your own custom configuration.

So, my guess is, that there is something wrong with the default GSX aircraft file for the mjcq400.

There's nothing wrong with the default configuration that comes with GSX for the mjcq400. I checked it again, and yes, it correctly disables the stairs at Exit 1. Which you also can see from the screenshot I've posted earlier: the stairs are only on the back door.

[Captain45]

The GSX - Customize Aircraft window shows:
        mjc8q400
Aicraft data available from these sources:
   Internal GSX database
Aircraft data used by GSX:
   Internal GSX database

See attachments.

Dirk

[virtuali]

The GSX - Customize Aircraft window shows:
        mjc8q400
Aicraft data available from these sources:
   Internal GSX database
Aircraft data used by GSX:
   Internal GSX database

Then, the only possible explanation, is that you aren't running the current update. See the attached screenshot, which shows no stairs on the front, took immediately after running the FSDT Live Update, just to be sure.

The file that disables the front stairs on the mjc8q400 it's online since October 2017 so, it's not a recent update.

[Captain45]

Well.... as I wrote yesterday, I ran the FSDT Live Update yesterday before the test. It does does give a lot of skipping, which is logical.
I ran it again just now. Started P3Dv4 and there are still stairs at Exit1.
I remember that a few week ago I got within P3D the message to download the standalone AddManager. Which I did from your website and installed it. Maybe that's the source of the problem.

My guess is, that the only thing I can do is uninstall GSX and install it after download. Or do you have another suggestion? I do have f.i. FSDT Geneva installed as well. So I want do do it correctly and not corrupting other installs.

Dirk

[Captain45]

I uninstalled GSX and the AddonManager, answering yes on the delete question.
Then I downloaded the full install and installed everything.
Then I fired up P3D and checked within the AddonManager to see the GSX and Geneva are both still active. It had saved the keys.
Then I checked GSX Customize Aircraft to see that it it getting data from the GSX datase.
Then I selected deboarding and there are still stairs at Exit1.

So far, I guess that most likely the GSX database is not deleted with the uninstall or you use another database than the one that's in the download. But I give my opinion for anything better.  

I must say, this surprises me. Everything was fine until approximately the moment that I downloaded the Stanalone AddonManager on March 31st.

What's next to do?

Dirk

[Captain45]

When I started P3D today on LOWS (Addon scenery),parking W3, I had to tell GSX via the Customize aircraft that I don't need the fuel function because the mjcq400 has it's own and I did a re-install of GSX. To my surprise there was no staircase on exit1.
But....
After flying from LOWS to LOWW and arriving at a parking without a jetway, at the deboarding there was a staircase back at exit1.

Leaving everything on a being away for lunch; when I got back there was a popup:
The addon <unknown> is causing the Couatl Scripting Engine to restart. Please downoad etc.
The Couatl error log is attached.

If I remember well, everything went OK until I got this message for the first time weeks ago. After that moment, and after I had downloaded and installed the standalone addonmanager, there was the issue with stairs at Exit1.

Is this the smoking gun?

Dirk

P.S.
Although I consider it a bit overdone since my re-install yesterday, I followed the instruction and downloaded and installed the standalone addonmanager. It gave a lot of 'update skipped' which is logical. Startup P3D and there are stairs at exit1.
I modify the Exit1 to 'No Exit' to get rid of the problem and that worked. But it's not what it should be.

[virtuali]

When I started P3D today on LOWS (Addon scenery),parking W3, I had to tell GSX via the Customize aircraft that I don't need the fuel function because the mjcq400 has it's own and I did a re-install of GSX. To my surprise there was no staircase on exit1.

Doing this, you created a custom configuration for it. But of course, since it's taken starting from the GSX internal one, there were no staircase on Exit1 too.

After flying from LOWS to LOWW and arriving at a parking without a jetway, at the deboarding there was a staircase back at exit1.

This simply shouldn't happen. My screenshot was made on a parking without a jetway too. With a jetway, no front stairs will ever appear, regardless of the airplane.

The addon <unknown> is causing the Couatl Scripting Engine to restart. Please downoad etc.
The Couatl error log is attached.

You log shows an error which is likely caused by an error in the scenery AFCAD, like orphaned/unreachable parkings, overlapped nodes, etc. It doesn't have anything to do with the staircases. After such error, GSX simply stops.

Although I consider it a bit overdone since my re-install yesterday, I followed the instruction and downloaded and installed the standalone addonmanager. It gave a lot of 'update skipped' which is logical. Startup P3D and there are stairs at exit1.

As I've said, I did the same, and I cannot see any stairs.

I modify the Exit1 to 'No Exit' to get rid of the problem and that worked. But it's not what it should be.

Sure, and in fact that's not what it's happening here.

[Captain45]

Thanks for the reply Umberto.

This is a kind of 'ghost performance' that sometimes happens in IT (I know, I was in the business for 25 years).

The 'no door' solution is not elegant, but it works for me. We probably get rid of it when arriving at P3Dv5 

Greetings

Dirk