Author Topic: Have we fixed the problems with EGCN default scenery?  (Read 1104 times)

smoothchat

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Have we fixed the problems with EGCN default scenery?
« on: August 30, 2022, 10:50:50 am »
Jetways not found by GSX, Jetways moving to right side of aircraft. Passengers walking in thin air.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4WML9KX7dE

« Last Edit: August 30, 2022, 10:55:39 am by virtuali »

virtuali

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Re: Have we fixed the problems with EGCN default scenery?
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2022, 11:14:38 am »
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Jetways moving to right side of aircraft. Passengers walking in thin air.

None of these are GSX "problems". In passengers "walking in thin air" were the ONLY thing correct in that video.

GSX Jetways are JUST a graphic replacement for the default ones, not unlike similar products on the market, like those from Latin VFR or Simultech, the main difference GSX jetways are different for each airport, while those products replace the Asobo model with a single version.

Other than that, GSX Jetways will work exactly the same, with the same bugs of the default one because, other than how they look, they ARE default jetways, and their animation is controlled entirely by the sim.

The "Jetways moving to right side of aircraft" problem happens with every kind jetway, default of replacement, because it's a fundamental flaw in how the default Jetway system works. The sim tries to dock a jetway on every door it can, instead of restricting it to, for example, doors on the left side and ahead of the wings root.

See the discussion here on Asobo devs forum, in which I suggested that, rather than try to dock "everyhere", the jetway should restrict itself only to sensible locations, because it would be better not to dock at all, rather than dock at impossible places, like the catering door with the head twisted backwards.

https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/questions/9771/some-longstanding-jetways-issues.html

THIS was my suggestion:

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However, my point was that, instead of MSFS trying to dock the jetway on any possible door, it should filter out doors that will never use jetways in real life, for example all doors on the right side of the fuselage, which will force the jetway to end up in an unnatural pose, but also any door behind the center of mass should probably excluded. 99% of the times, jetways connects only to the first 2 exits on the left side of the fuselage so, if you just exclude all doors on the right side and all doors behind the wings, it should be the most realistic case.

I think it's best to just say the jetway cannot be docked ( which is a message that already exists ), which looks intentional, rather than docking in weird spots, which looks like a bug.

This was Asobo developer answer:

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1) We have no way to distinguish between main exit at the moment but I know our designers are looking to improve this.

They are clearly aware their system needs improvement.

But even with these shortcomings, they wouldn't be such a big problem, if only we could know where the jetway actually docked to. If we KNEW the jetway docked on the right side, absurd as it might be, we could just direct passengers to exit from the Service door, it's not something done in real life, but at least you won't see passengers "walking in thin air", which you and many users are mislead assuming to be a "GSX bug", when clearly isn't.

But this is not currently possible, we have some variables in the SDK that tell the jetway status, but we don't have one which can tell us WHERE the jetway has extended, or to which door it connected.

If we could get this info from the sim, passengers will always walk in the correct direction. Now, we can only HOPE the airplane will be parked in a position that will result the jetway always docking on the Main exit, becasue we have no way to know if it hasn't.

We asked for this to be added to the SDK, of course:

https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/idea/10671/please-add-a-way-to-know-where-jetways-have-docked.html

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This feature is very important for us: we need to have passengers walking through Jetways, but is not very easy to do, unless the jetway has docked on the airplane main door, which is not always the case. Sometime the jetway docks at other doors, but there's no way to know which ones.

Maybe variables related to the interaction points ? It might be very useful to know if a jetway is attached to a door, if a gpu is attached to its point, etc. Basically, a state we can read through Simconnect to know if an interaction point has its related vehicle attached or not.

Some users commented "Do you want to see GSX at its best ? Try it on a parking spot on a Apron". Of course it works so much better there, since on Aprons what you see it's JUST GSX working, without having to interact with a limited default system, which is the one that controls Jetways.
« Last Edit: August 30, 2022, 11:19:24 am by virtuali »

smoothchat

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Re: Have we fixed the problems with EGCN default scenery?
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2022, 12:08:51 pm »
I accept what you say, but Gate 4 seems to work fine without GSX, but with GSX, GSX doesn't see the Jetway.

I can call the GSX Jetway via the normal ATC method, but GSX still doesn't see the Jetway.

GSX also often says the Gate or Parking areas are too small, which is not the case.

Perhaps I misunderstand the issue.

EGCN Gate 4
« Last Edit: August 30, 2022, 12:16:40 pm by smoothchat »

virtuali

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Re: Have we fixed the problems with EGCN default scenery?
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2022, 12:13:35 pm »
I accept what you say, but Gate 4 seems to work fine without GSX, but with GSX, GSX doesn't see the Jetway.

That's only because the Asobo jetway has less movement constraints, which will allow their model to dock more easily, even if this result in an unrealistic twist of the jetway end, as can be seen in your screenshot.

We tried to model the jetway as it should, with realistic mechanical contrains, also because passengers walking on a twisted floor would look weird, and you'll still think it's a "GSX bug".

Does the jetway work if you park differently ? Do you know you can TEST the jetway against different parking position in the GSX parking editor ? It's the NumPad5 key, which are can use while adjusting the  parking STOP position,.

virtuali

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Re: Have we fixed the problems with EGCN default scenery?
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2022, 12:26:00 pm »
My first reply was just to explain the solving of the jetway.

If GSX doesn't even "see" a jetway is there, that seems to indicate it hasn't loaded the correct .BGL, you can check this in the customization page.