Author Topic: Custom PAX waypoints not working with Jetways  (Read 1942 times)

Wimma

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Custom PAX waypoints not working with Jetways
« on: August 29, 2022, 03:19:58 pm »
I am trying to create a custom profile for a 3rd party airport with jetways. I cannot use the custom waypoints because apperently GSX reads the jetway path from the AFCAD. The walking path in itself is correct, however, it is too high, meaning the PAX heads pop out of the jetway. Please, once we set up custom waypoints, make GSX ignore the AFCAD path and just use the cutom waypoints. For now, they are useless for non GSX jetways...

Phil7789

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Re: Custom PAX waypoints not working with Jetways
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2022, 07:06:41 am »
I thought about this too, but then I was not sure how this could properly be realized. The jetway moves and sometimes downwards on some airports.

As the pax way points are fixed the pax would wall through the walls of the jetway. I'm pretty sure MSFS doesn't allow to link several objects to another object so they move simultaneously, but I'm not 100% sure.

virtuali

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Re: Custom PAX waypoints not working with Jetways
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2022, 12:39:48 pm »
There's no such thing as a jetway "path" anywhere in the airport .BGL file, there's only a position for the jetway center and a rotation.

The jetway is an object that dynamically adapts to the combination of the airplane position and its door configuration, so it would never work with a preprogramed path. The main problem has been explained several times, last time today, here:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,27200.msg178152.html#msg178152

The SDK doesn't give any information about where the jetway currently is, when docked. If it did, you wouldn't even had to do a custom path to begin with, since GSX would be able to calculate one automatically very easily!

Passenger paths for jetways are only supposed to be used for the *fixed* part of the bridge, in case a scenery came with custom bridges you might want to see passengers through, continuing their path after the existed the jetway proper.

virtuali

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Re: Custom PAX waypoints not working with Jetways
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2022, 12:42:49 pm »
About the jetway height, it's a completely separate issue, and it also caused by the inability to know the height of 3rd party jetways, since this not a parameter that exists in the SDK, we added it to GSX jetways, and we have a small internal database of 3rd party jetways, associating their names to their height.

We plan to let this easier for users, having some kind of interface to this database, so users will be able to add the name of a 3rd party jetway and its height.

WernerAir

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Re: Custom PAX waypoints not working with Jetways
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2022, 10:23:31 am »
Actually I think there would be an easier solution.

Consider the example shown in the attached screenshot. This is Gate 7 at SAZS by SimulaciĆ³n Extrema, which is installed in my community folder, and GSX reads the correct AFCAD file. Still you can see that the passengers are walking too low along the jetway, so their legs stick out the bottom (cf. red line) So GSX obviously interprets the height at the airplane correctly, but not at the point where the jetway is connected to the building. I tried to fix this by adding 3 custom PAX waypoints: One at the connection between the bridge and the terminal, one at the end of the bridge and one at the jetway connection to correct the height. Unfortunately, what happens is that the passengers walk along their original route for the length of the jetway and then "step up" to my last custom waypoint. If instead my last custom waypoint were taken as to replace the point where the passengers go automatically, everything would be OK.

Maybe it's possible to include it as an option that the last custom waypoint replaces the automatic second waypoint? I agree the first automatic waypoint should remain bound to wherever the aircraft is.

Consider also a second example, shown in the second screenshot. This is Gate 4A at EDDH by Aerosoft/sim-wings. Since this is a marketplace scenery, GSX can't read the AFCAD file and is using the generic file instead, so all the gates are way off. I am trying to salvage what I can through manual customization, which for the most part works pretty well. The passengers, however, seem to float to some point related to where the jetway would be in the generic file (which is rather Gate 4B than 4A). I thought that by customizing waypoints up to the jetway connection (as indicated in the screenshot) I could make the passengers walk through the correct jetway, but it turns out that they still follow their automatic route before floating back to my waypoints - so all the custom waypoints have just been added, instead of replacing the wrong ones.


virtuali

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Re: Custom PAX waypoints not working with Jetways
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2022, 10:32:28 am »
So GSX obviously interprets the height at the airplane correctly, but not at the point where the jetway is connected to the building.

That's precisely what I've explained: there's no way for GSX to read the root floor height of a jetway automatically, because it's a value that is not stored anywhere in the standard jetways, so we added some jetways in an internal database of known sceneries, but clearly it's not enough.

Quote
Maybe it's possible to include it as an option that the last custom waypoint replaces the automatic second waypoint? I agree the first automatic waypoint should remain bound to wherever the aircraft is.

That's not the best way of doing it, because it would force you to customize too many waypoint unnecessarily, even if all gates used the same model, when the only thing really missing would be the height.

So what we are going to do, instead, is adding a list of all jetway models found in a particular scenery, with a space were you can set their root height, and it will be saved in the airport profile like the other data. This way, if you have a scenery that has, for example, two jetway models repeated across 30 gates, instead of having to set waypoints for all 30, you'll only have to type two numbers, the height of each model.

And, of course, you can also use the waypoint editor to "measure" the height.

WernerAir

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Re: Custom PAX waypoints not working with Jetways
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2022, 10:58:37 am »
That's not the best way of doing it, because it would force you to customize too many waypoint unnecessarily, even if all gates used the same model, when the only thing really missing would be the height.

You know what? I think you're right. actually. And what you describe does sound as if it would solve the problem. Thanks!

AUA9085

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Re: Custom PAX waypoints not working with Jetways
« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2022, 07:50:26 am »

So what we are going to do, instead, is adding a list of all jetway models found in a particular scenery, with a space were you can set their root height, and it will be saved in the airport profile like the other data. This way, if you have a scenery that has, for example, two jetway models repeated across 30 gates, instead of having to set waypoints for all 30, you'll only have to type two numbers, the height of each model.



Just to make sure, cause I was not able to find it, thats something which is not implemented yet right?

virtuali

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Re: Custom PAX waypoints not working with Jetways
« Reply #8 on: September 02, 2022, 12:29:04 pm »
Just to make sure, cause I was not able to find it, thats something which is not implemented yet right?

No, it's not, it's something we need to add, and will be thoroughly advertised when we'll do it.