3rd party airports

[harpsi]

Hi

I need to make the question again because on this forum we are unable to find messages our already sent messages and where they are.

How can we costumize 3rd party airports? Is there anything special we need to do? It was said somewhere that the program only works with default airports...

Thanks

[virtuali]

How can we costumize 3rd party airports? Is there anything special we need to do? It was said somewhere that the program only works with default airports...

Whoever said this, probably referred to JETWAY customization can't be done as in P3D, which could only be achieved to a combination of SODE and the L2 Expansion.  This is currently not possible due to how Jetway replacement is made in MSFS.

But all the remaining features of airport customization features are fully working, and many of them have been expanded in this version.

[FlyingAce]

I hope this is the right place to post this question...

When you click on "Exclude 3rd party airports" in the Config section of the installer, shouldn't all 3rd party airports be listed in the "DISABLED" list, or am I wrong about this? I clicked it today after updating, and only 5 of my 20+ purchased airports got listed.

[virtuali]

shouldn't all 3rd party airports be listed in the "DISABLED" list, or am I wrong about this? I clicked it today after updating, and only 5 of my 20+ purchased airports got listed.

Quoting from the manual, Page 7:

The “Exclude 3rd party” button will automatically move all the installed 3rd party airport in the “Disabled” list, it’s typically used after installing a new scenery. In order to be successfully recognized, airport packages must use the standard MSFS naming convention developer-airport-icao-name.

If you have airports not conforming to this official standard, you must add them to the Disabled list using their ICAO.

Also, all of this is only valid if the DEFAULT airport you have a 3rd party add-on for had Jetways in the first place. It doesn't matter if the 3rd party airport has jetways: if the *default* airport for the same ICAO didn't, there's nothing you need to do in GSX, since what you are doing there, is disable the GSX jetway replacement files which has been based on default airport, but if the default airport didn't had any jetways, there's no need to disable anything: the GSX replacement file is just not there.

[FlyingAce]

Thank you for the quick reply...

If you have airports not conforming to this official standard, you must add them to the Disabled list using their ICAO.

Also, all of this is only valid if the DEFAULT airport you have a 3rd party add-on for had Jetways in the first place. It doesn't matter if the 3rd party airport has jetways: if the *default* airport for the same ICAO didn't, there's nothing you need to do in GSX, since what you are doing there, is disable the GSX jetway replacement files which has been based on default airport, but if the default airport didn't had any jetways, there's no need to disable anything: the GSX replacement file is just not there.

I could be wrong, but I think it's safe to assume that CYYZ by FlyTampa is one of the airports that conforms to the official standard. The same goes for LVFR KMIA. Neither of those two airports (plus others like them) got excluded.

Is there a way to check if a given 3rd party airport conforms to the developer-airport-icao-name standard?

[virtuali]

I could be wrong, but I think it's safe to assume that CYYZ by FlyTampa is one of the airports that conforms to the official standard. The same goes for LVFR KMIA. Neither of those two airports (plus others like them) got excluded.

I checked it now, and I can confirm FlyTampa CYYZ IS detected by the "Exclude 3rd party button" and it's added to the Disabled list as expected.

As explained in other threads, the exclusion of 3rd party airports is done in either of these cases:

- When you first install GSX Pro

- When you Unlink or Relink GSX Pro with the FSDT Installer

- When you perform an Update for GSX Pro.

- When you click the "Exclude 3rd party" button

This means, if you installed the add-on scenery AFTER you did any of these above operation, and you never performed any of them after installing the scenery, it won't be disabled, since no process that would retrigger its detection has been done.

[FlyingAce]

I can tell you with 100% certainty, that CYYZ FlyTampa was installed PRIOR to all the conditions you listed. In fact, I did a GSX update just before I posted my question and I also clicked the "Exclude 3rdparty" button immediately after the update. Furthermore, just as an added step, just now I removed CYYZ from the excluded list, and I clicked on "Exclude 3rdparty" again, and it wasn't added to the DISABLED list. It has to be something else

[FlyingAce]

This means, if you installed the add-on scenery AFTER you did any of these above operation, and you never performed any of them after installing the scenery, it won't be disabled, since no process that would retrigger its detection has been done.

Out of curiosity, where does GSX look for the 3rd party airports? In the Community folder? If so, then it's definitely something else, because I made sure that CYYZ was added to the Community folder via the Addons Linker prior to running Exclude 3rdparty function.

[FlyingAce]

One other thing, once a 3rd party airport is added to the DISABLED list, GSX Pro still operates the jetways for that airport right? I ask because when I tried to operate the jetway at CYYZ, I got a message from GSX saying "this airport is using a default jetway" or something along those lines.

[virtuali]

I can tell you with 100% certainty, that CYYZ FlyTampa was installed PRIOR to all the conditions you listed. In fact, I did a GSX update just before I posted my question and I also clicked the "Exclude 3rdparty" button immediately after the update. Furthermore, just as an added step, just now I removed CYYZ from the excluded list, and I clicked on "Exclude 3rdparty" again, and it wasn't added to the DISABLED list. It has to be something else

And I can tell you with 100% certainty that FlyTampa CYYZ IS correctly detected and added to the Disabled list. That, of course, assuming:

- its package IS really named as it's supposed to be: flytampa-airport-cyyz-toronto-pearson ( check the case as well, it might matter, packages are usually all lower case )

- ifs package IS located either in the Community or the Official folder that has been detected in the FSDT installer.

[virtuali]

One other thing, once a 3rd party airport is added to the DISABLED list, GSX Pro still operates the jetways for that airport right? I ask because when I tried to operate the jetway at CYYZ, I got a message from GSX saying "this airport is using a default jetway" or something along those lines.

There's no difference whatsoever in regard to GSX operation between a GSX replacement jetway, a 3rd party jetway, or a default Asobo jetway. They are all default jetways.

The reason for having to Disable 3rd party airports is because, even if you manage to SEE the GSX replacement jetway, it will likely not work, since the parking assignment for it is based on the default airport, and the GSX jetway replacement files will create a conflict (not always, it depends on the loading order ) if an add-on of the same airport is installed.

[FlyingAce]

And I can tell you with 100% certainty that FlyTampa CYYZ IS correctly detected and added to the Disabled list. That, of course, assuming:

Ok so it works on your machine, so what? How does that help me? And how does that negate the fact that there still remains an issue with GSX PRO? The fact that CYYZ is disabled on your machine when you run the Exclude 3rdparty feature does not negate that a problem still exists. You cannot expect all your customers to have their computers/sim configured exactly as yours and/or have the same add-ons as yours does. As the developer, it is your responsibility to determine potential problems with your product (aside from human errors) that might arise due to certain sim configurations and/or 3rd party add-ons. Isn't that what beta testing is for? Perhaps, before you release a product for revenue generation, it might a good idea to have it beta tested by various people on various machines.

Whenever someone brings an issue to your attention, if it is not reproduced on your end, you simply dismiss it leaving the person stuck with the problem to deal with it on his/her own. I've witnessed you do that a lot over the years. And quite honestly, it's very infuriating. You listed certain conditions that have to be met in order for the feature to work. I assured you that all those conditions were met, but just because it happens to work on your end, you dismmised the matter without any further action or solution.

[virtuali]

Ok so it works on your machine, so what? How does that help me?

Of course it helps you a lot. Now you know the issue doesn't normally happen, you could might want to guess why it only happens only on your system, possibly supplying with an extra information that might help us to cover YOUR unusual case as well.

And how does that negate the fact that there still remains an issue with GSX PRO? The fact that CYYZ is disabled on your machine when you run the Exclude 3rdparty feature does not negate that a problem still exists.

Right now, the only fact we have, it only happens for you. Obviously, if more and more users reported this, it might be worth checking what all these users have in common, for example.

Whenever someone brings an issue to your attention, if it is not reproduced on your end, you simply dismiss it leaving the person stuck with the problem to deal with it on his/her own. I've witnessed you do that a lot over the years. And quite honestly, it's very infuriating.

The FIRST step of ANY troubleshooting when somebody reports a problem, is ALWAYS trying to reproduce it first. And then, asking the user for more information, which is exactly I've made here, but you failed to to that, as follows:

In this case, you might have not noticed the OTHER advice I told you about WHAT could possibly cause a failure to detect a 3rd party scenery ( assuming its package is named correctly ) and it was the case of the filename. I'll copy again the relevant part of my reply you missed, quickly ( and wrongly ) flagging my reply as being "dismissive" of anything:

And I can tell you with 100% certainty that FlyTampa CYYZ IS correctly detected and added to the Disabled list. That, of course, assuming:

- its package IS really named as it's supposed to be: flytampa-airport-cyyz-toronto-pearson ( check the case as well, it might matter, packages are usually all lower case )

- ifs package IS located either in the Community or the Official folder that has been detected in the FSDT installer.

Since you haven't said anything like "yes, I checked the case, and it's all lower case" or "yes, I checked the name and it's correct", I can only assume you must have missed that part.

[virtuali]

@FlyingAce,

I apologize for not having realized I was replying to you, not to Harpsi, the OP ( who was a Beta tester ), so I removed all references to Beta testing. Please stick to the troubleshooting I listed in my last reply, which I'll repeat again here:

I can tell you with 100% certainty that FlyTampa CYYZ IS correctly detected and added to the Disabled list. That, of course, assuming:

- its package IS really named as it's supposed to be: flytampa-airport-cyyz-toronto-pearson ( check the case as well, it might matter, packages are usually all lower case )

- ifs package IS located either in the Community or the Official folder that has been detected in the FSDT installer.

Just check these two and, if still doesn't work, we'll go from there.