Gate Search Feature

[TootY]

Hello,

I'm just curious, would it be possible to add a small search bar which allows you to search for a gate quickly?

When it comes to larger airports and you have to click through 'x' amount of pages to get to a gate where a small text search would be greatly appreciated

[virtuali]

When it comes to larger airports and you have to click through 'x' amount of pages to get to a gate where a small text search would be greatly appreciated

I understand this might be useful but, the way GSX Menu works is that it doesn't have any knowledge of anything about the airport, the gates, etc, it's just a dumb menu that displays what GSX tells it to display, and the only thing it does, is to send which menu option you selected back to GSX again to do something with it.

This requires some back and forth communication between GSX and the menu, which due to how limited the SDK is ( very limited interaction possible between Simconnect apps and the HTML/JS menu subsistem, which is not even documented ), is more complex than it should normally be, which means a search box that would need constantly do that while you are typing, will be quite clunky and slow to use, so it might be just faster to browse for the gate page by page.

[The_swiss_Simaviator]

My following question might not be too related to the main topic, but I guess, it might could be in connection with the answer, so I'm going to ask it here =)

Yesterday, I flew into London Heathrow and then from there on to Hamad International Airport in Doha. Both times when I landed, I got a gate by the ATC. I then localized the gate on the airport charts provided by Navigraph. However, when I wanted to select the gate in GSX, the offered possibilities didn't match the "real" gate numbers from the charts. I finally decided to chose gate "10" and used the "follow me car" feature, which lead me to - according to Navigraph - the real gate C7.

I had the same problem a few weeks ago, when I flew into Sharm-el-Sheikh, but as I had a third party airport installed from flightsim.to, I expected that it was due to some incompatibility between GSX, MSFS and / or the scenery. However, on yesterdays flight, I hadn't any additional scenery installed for neither Heathrow nor Hamid Intl.

Any idea, why the gates offered to choose from by GSX don't match the "real" gates as on the charts provided by Navigraph?
Thank you very much!

[HeicoH]

It seems that GSX does not use the official names of the gates provided by Navigraph (or other charts), but uses the names provides by MSFS. But on the other hand, "Gate 10" does not match C7. E.g.: if you want to start from C7, in MSFS you have to choose "Gate 16". If you choose "Gate 10", it is B5 on the charts.

Edit: I tried it with GSX, and indeed choosing "Gate 10" in GSX leads me to B5, not C7.

[virtuali]

Any idea, why the gates offered to choose from by GSX don't match the "real" gates as on the charts provided by Navigraph?

GSX matches the Gate in the scenery, it cannot possibly decide by itself the gates in the scenery are not what you see on Navigraph: that's the responsibility of the scenery developer or, in case the airport is default, Microsoft/Asobo.

[virtuali]

Edit: I tried it with GSX, and indeed choosing "Gate 10" in GSX leads me to B5, not C7.

First, is not clear which airport you are referring to, and if you are using the SU10 Navdata API option in GSX so, let's try some general rules:

If you are not using the SU10 Navdata API in GSX

Normally, GSX will read the gate names from the airport .BGL that comes with the scenery. The only thing you need to check here, if GSX has loaded the correct file ( checking the GSX airport customization page ).

- If the correct .BGL has been loaded, you can be sure GSX will show the gate names as they are in the scenery so, if they don't match real world, it's something the scenery developer must fix.

- If the wrong .BGL has been loaded, if the scenery has been bought on the Marketplace ( or it's part a default Premium airport ), its .BGL cannot be loaded because it's encrypted, so GSX would use the default airport data, unless you enable the SU10 Navdata API option.

- If the wrong .BGL has been loaded, but the scenery is not encrypted, the scenery might have been rejected because it's too big, and there's a way to change the maximum search threshold by changing the airportCacheMaxBGLSizeBytes setting as explained here:

https://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,17221.msg121243.html#msg121243


If you are using the SU10 Navdata API

- Nothing related to loading the right .BGL applies here. GSX will just make a Simconnect call to ask a list of the parking spots to the simulator, which will reply with data, no matter where its coming from.

- If you have conflicting sceneries, GSX will get everything from Navdata, conflicts included.

Be sure you had Disabled all 3rd party add-ons in the GSX Config panel, to prevent them to have their jetways replaced by GSX because, while when using the Navdata, GSX is smart enough to skip its own jetway replacement .BGLs to be added to its airport cache, when using the Navdata, there's no way to prevent them to cause a conflict if you don't Disable 3rd party airports as you should.

The disabling of 3rd party airports from GSX is made automatically:

1) when first installing GSX

2) when updating GSX

3) when you click on the "Exclude 3rd party" button in the GSX Config panel.


This means, if you install a NEW 3rd party scenery AFTER you install GSX, you MUST run the FSDT Installer again and click the "Exclude 3rd party" button again, to add the newly installed airport to the list of airports Disabled from GSX jetway replacement.

Or you can add its ICAO, which is also what you are supposed to do, in case the airport package doesn't conform to the official naming standard of developer-airport-ICAO-airportname, so it won't be automatically recognized for exclusion.


I think this covers all possible cases of gate mismatching between GSX and a SCENERY, with "scenery" meaning "the data provided by the scenery".

Under no circumstances GSX will show the same parking names as in real world, UNLESS they have been set like that by the scenery developer, assuming all the issues of getting the right data has been solved.

[HeicoH]

In this case, I am referring to OTHH.

I have the GSX Navdata option on.

In this case, I use the scenery that comes originally with MSFS. No premium, no 3rd party.

I have OTHH excluded in the GSX configuration.

-------

Edit:

Another case (which is my standard test case).

My airport is EDDL.

I have the GSX Navdata option on.

I use the 3rd party scenery by Justsim (bought NOT on Marketplace).

I have EDDL excluded in the GSX configuration.

=> GSX knows the correct gates, i.e. GSX and Navigraph charts match correctly.

[The_swiss_Simaviator]

Thank's a lot for the many replies!

I guess, that therefore the scenery somehow missmatches the navigraph charts.
Just testes it with the FSDT LSZH scenery (bought through Marketplace) and the gates were showed correctly.

Will try above mentioned steps on the other sceneries.

[virtuali]

In this case, I use the scenery that comes originally with MSFS. No premium, no 3rd party.

It's not clear then what your problem is. If your problem is only the scenery not matching real world, it's a known issue of all default airports, GSX cannot fix this. Basically, as long as GSX is listing the same parking spots you see in the Main Menu, everything's OK from a GSX point of view.

[TootY]

When it comes to larger airports and you have to click through 'x' amount of pages to get to a gate where a small text search would be greatly appreciated

I understand this might be useful but, the way GSX Menu works is that it doesn't have any knowledge of anything about the airport, the gates, etc, it's just a dumb menu that displays what GSX tells it to display, and the only thing it does, is to send which menu option you selected back to GSX again to do something with it.

This requires some back and forth communication between GSX and the menu, which due to how limited the SDK is ( very limited interaction possible between Simconnect apps and the HTML/JS menu subsistem, which is not even documented ), is more complex than it should normally be, which means a search box that would need constantly do that while you are typing, will be quite clunky and slow to use, so it might be just faster to browse for the gate page by page.

Thank you for coming back to me and I appreciate the explanation as to why this wouldn't be a good feature, thank you!