GSX level 2 questions / suggestions

[Mad_X]

After reading the announcements and seeing all the videos about GSX level 2 I am really impressed. It will definatly be a day one buy for me.
However, I have a few suggestions that you might want to consider because I have not seen them so far in the previews. Allow me to list them one by one so we can have a discusiion shall we?

Disable stairs for a specific aircraft door
This is something that will be espacially known by all MD-82 and NGX pilots. Currently it is not possible to disable staircases for an individual door (mainly the main entrance). This becomes a problem if your aircraft has built in stairs on the main exit you want to use (e.g. the MD-82 and some B737). I know you can disable them completly per parking spot but when using that spot with another aircraft it defeats the point doesn't it? Also I cannot edit all parking spots I might fly to. So, that would be a great addition either to level 2 or GSX in general.

Boarding 3D- passengers via built in aircraft stairs
Somewhat related to the point above; will it be possible to see persons board the aircraft via built in stairs? I am thing about the Q400 here which has no GSX stairs. Also the above mentioned MD-82 and B737 would be affected. Basically all aircraft with low to the ground build in stairs or own stairs with, hopefully, deactivated GSX stairs.
I could think about a per aircraft customization via the known editor by defining two points (beginning of the built in stair and top of the built in stair) to define the "slope" of the stairs the passengers could move on.
The MD-82 would be somewhat difficult as it has the back stairs which are not 90° to the aircraft. But maybe you can get it to work

Moving 3D Passengers on the Apron
For airports without bus boarding but passengers walking to the aircraft; would it be possible to define a path from the terminal to the aircraft (maybe 3 waypoints or so in the editor) the passengers would walk on?

Catering trucks in the left side of the aircraft
A lot of planes are catered from the left side as well (e.g. the B747 should be catered on the left side for the exits behind the wing according to Boeing). The MD-82 even only has a catering door on the left side. Therefore, it would be a great addition. And by knowing that you have mastered it with the baggage loaders, it would be awesome

A few minor things
- Maybe it will be possible in the future? In general parallel services?
- Lavatory trucks etc? I mean the positions are there
- A new tanker model with hoses for planes where the bigger ones do not fit underneath?


That is basically it. But I want to add what a great tool GSX is for me and I appreciate your constant improvements and development.

[virtuali]

This is something that will be espacially known by all MD-82 and NGX pilots.

Boarding 3D- passengers via built in aircraft stairs

This will be made properly: the airplane editor will have a new option to support an "Embedded Staircase", and when enabled, it will be possible to specify the positions of the stand/end points of the staircase, so passengers will be able to climb/descend correctly.

Moving 3D Passengers on the ApronFor airports without bus boarding but passengers walking to the aircraft; would it be possible to define a path from the terminal to the aircraft (maybe 3 waypoints or so in the editor) the passengers would walk on?

This is planned, but not for the initial release. We need a proper "universal" visual waypoint editor, which will be used in lots of other part of the program, most notably the upcoming Pushback improvement, to define fully custom routes. So, we want to take our time to do it right, and not rush it "just" to support passengers on apron with no bus.

Catering trucks in the left side of the aircraft A lot of planes are catered from the left side as well (e.g. the B747 should be catered on the left side for the exits behind the wing according to Boeing). The MD-82 even only has a catering door on the left side. Therefore, it would be a great addition. And by knowing that you have mastered it with the baggage loaders, it would be awesome

Didn't knew even the 747 would load catering vehicles from the left. In any case, that's something for the core GSX program so, it doesn't really require GSX Level 2 but, before doing anything new to GSX, we must release Level 2 first, since we don't want to delay it.

A few minor things Maybe it will be possible in the future? In general parallel services?

We surely would like to have more services running in parallel but, at the same time, is difficult to do that and at the same time preventing conflicts between vehicles which users will see as GSX bugs, because vehicles doesn't have means to yeld one to another and this would require a completely different way of programming them, since a whole new class of problems will be introduced, if we tried to have the vehicles sorting out their potential conflicts on the apron automatically, like traffic deadlocks.

So, we minimize them but removing the chance of them operating at the same time.

- Lavatory trucks etc? I mean the positions are there

And there's a reason why we added such positions...

A new tanker model with hoses for planes where the bigger ones do not fit underneath?

Already discussed so many times and, of course, this is planned.

[thedutchguy1992]

i have just bought and installed level 2. great addition! I would like to make one pressing suggestion though. After searching the forums for a previous post i found this one. So instead of starting a new thread i would like to bump the request mad_X made.

Quote:
Moving 3D Passengers on the ApronFor airports without bus boarding but passengers walking to the aircraft; would it be possible to define a path from the terminal to the aircraft (maybe 3 waypoints or so in the editor) the passengers would walk on?

Quote:
This is planned, but not for the initial release. We need a proper "universal" visual waypoint editor, which will be used in lots of other part of the program, most notably the upcoming Pushback improvement, to define fully custom routes. So, we want to take our time to do it right, and not rush it "just" to support passengers on apron with no bus.

I already cant wait for you to release this feature. it's the biggest missing feature within level 2 in my opinion.     

[Hazza]

Hi Umberto,
Fantastic add-on and even though it is only Day 1 I am really enjoying this new Expansion to GSX.

But, of course, there is something that I am wondering whether it could be improved (NOT urgent though!!). When customizing the new jetways would it be possible to adjust the height of the support pillar. As you can see in the picture below, there is no way to align the height where the default and GSX intersect. NB* Building textures are Rex Worldwide Airports HD, scenery is ORBX NZ South Island, airport is NZCH Gate 28.

[stassone]

Nell áeroporto di ENHK come anche in ESSA ci sono dei jetways fissi ( senza ruote ).
Come fare a modificarli e quindi sparire dallo scenario di default usando il gsx l2 cp ?
Anche tutto il crew che sale sull'aereo dovrebbe avere la sua valigetta ( trolley )>>>>
Per il B777 per esempio ci sarebbero 11 assistenti di volo e normalmente 3 piloti.
E'possibile aggiungere questa modifica ?
Grazie e complimenti per questo programma.

[virtuali]

Adjusting the height will cause many issues:

- SODE calculates the wheels contacts points at *compile* time, when the jetway is created in 3DS Max. If we place it higher, wheels will float and if we place it lower, they'll sink into the ground, which was the most annoying bug of the old system.

- Jetways alternate between a static and an animated model, which keeps the frame rate very good, since only the one you are using is animated, the rest are all static. The static one is like a "snapshot" of the dynamic one, taken in a particular situation. Even if SODE could be updated to handle different heights, there would be an annoying switch when you activate the jetway, between the static (which is clearly always the same), which will appear with its wheels floating/sinking, and the dynamic, which will pop-up fixing the wheels. Assuming SODE would eventually be updated to support dynamic height changes.

[schladde@gmx.de]

Hello,
First of all, a big compliment for this super expansion. You did a great job.
But I would have a small thing, is it possible to add a few Jetways in different heights, in the next update? Because, for example in Dubai you need quite high jetways for the A380.


Best regards

Keep it up

[Hazza]

Thanks Umberto for your reply! Probably not what I wanted to hear but if it can't be done then it can't be done. Still love the Expansion!

[rumpelstilskin]

I have a problem with gsx level 2. I boarded normally but then when I arrived at destination and I selected deboarding, baggages deboarded but passengers not. The bus comes and open its doors but no passengers came out of the aircraft.

[virtuali]

I have a problem with gsx level 2. I boarded normally but then when I arrived at destination and I selected deboarding, baggages deboarded but passengers not. The bus comes and open its doors but no passengers came out of the aircraft.

Run the FSDT Live Update, because we fixed this yesterday.

[Hazza]

Actually Umberto, I just had a thought about this. How about this idea? The support pillar could be made extendable (just like the hydraulic legs that raise/lower the wheeled portion of the air bridge) but there would be no visible difference between the top and bottom portions thus making it appear static. Then the height that is set could be used by the static and animated models.

I'm fairly sure I have missed something but as I said "here's an idea"

[keukenrol]

Some more suggestions:

1) Ground power pits (can be customized so that the ground power cable can come out of the ground as well)
2) Fuel pits (instead of using a tanker, a fuel pump truck comes by, also customisable using the menu)
3) Crew and pilots board at the same time instead of delay
4) Crew does not deboard and board again during a turnaround (should be an option)

Thanks for the nice expansion!

[virtuali]

The support pillar could be made extendable (just like the hydraulic legs that raise/lower the wheeled portion of the air bridge) but there would be no visible difference between the top and bottom portions thus making it appear static. Then the height that is set could be used by the static and animated models.

And you don't think we already thought about this, and discarded it ? It won't solve the main issue, which is the bad visual effect of wheels going down/up when switching from static to dynamic, because the whole mechanic of the static jetways is valid only for ONE position of the dynamic.

[harleyrebel42]

Jetway numbers not available for FSX users. I understand why, but a option could be to have numbers only option for side panel choices on the jetway and why in the world is DELTA not one of the panel choices? Can anyone tell me if these can be created by myself ? I like the expansion and have had no issues installing it.     

[virtuali]

We can add Delta.

Jetway numbers for FSX are out of the question, they cannot be made in the same way as P3D4 (the simulator simply lacks the required feature in the SDK) and doing them in a different way would make the number of objects to be created to explode, killing whatever performance is left in FSX.