Request: Add dynamic pax density based on departure time

[Copper]

Coming from the real world processes, the boarding is started as soon as the aircraft is ready for it and it ends usually close to departure time (assuming no delays), usually with pax coming last minute.
The later the boarding starts, the higher the density of the pax boarding usually is.

With GSX, we only have the option to set a density and then the number of pax as well as additional time needed for buses controls the time it takes for boarding to finish.

I would like to request a "dynamic density" option in the settings that does the following:

• When passenger boarding is started, GSX shall calculate the time it has until the departure based on Simbrief
  
• With the number of minutes and number of pax to board, the density should be calculated in order to complete in time for the departure time.
  - If Jetway or walk-in is used, that is mostly pretty straight forward (pax paths might extend the time but usually just a matter of a minute or so)
  - If buses are used, GSX needs to set the density when the bus arrives(!) based on the time left, taking into account how many buses will be sent and how long it took for the first bus to arrive.
  
• GSX shall use maximum density if the time is not sufficient, to keep the departure delay short
  
• GSX shall use a minimum density if the time is very long until departure to make sure boarding still completes and is not extended for too long
  
• The dynamic density shall be ignored if either simbrief is not available or invalid or the pax number is somehow unknown
  
• If possible, maybe the density can be varied if time permits in case of jetway/walk-in (higher density at the beginning, lower density towards departure)
  
• For deboarding no dynamic density is required and the regular density slider shall have effect
  

I know it's a bit much to ask for, but having that optional feature would really help adding immersion and also a kind of meaning to the departure time displayed on the VDGS. Also for people using online networks like vatsim and having a departure slot, having that kind of simulation would be really good to have.

If the above is too complex, is it maybe possible to be able to set the density of boarding via SimVar (just like the pax number) so that it has immediate effect during boarding for new spawned pax? This way we could use external software that would control the density instead of having to go into the GSX settings.

Thank you!

[virtuali]

While it might be possible to change the passenger density dynamically, it wouldn't be very precise to control, because there are many things GSX does to have passengers look more like a crowd and less like an army of robots, and are:

- every passenger has a different walking pace and stride.

- every passenger randomly plays different walking cycles, and they are even played at a slightly different speed from each other, randomly.

- the time between each passenger is not fixed, but it's randomized between different min/max values, which depends on the Density slider

- if a parking position is a Walk/In, the time it takes for passengers to walk to the airplane will change depending how long the path is, and this can change wildly from a few meters, to several hundreds of meters.

The Passenger Density controlling the boarding speed is mostly a side effect but, the main reason for having it is performances, to set a value that is appropriate for the user system.

Also, with the current issues of AI Injection combined with GSX resulting in the maximum number of objects being hit, causing entire airports to disappear and fps collapsing, adding an option that might result in not being able to keep the object number under control, might not be a very good idea right now, at least until the problem will be fixed by Asobo.

[Copper]

For people having the issues with performance or object limits, that option could be disabled , that's the main reason.
As you said, the walking paths can be quite long and the density will not always result in more or less pax to be rendered, it then depends on the walking distance too if I understand that correctly.

Another way to cope with that would be an option that starts with boarding begin and spawns pax all the time until the user either stops it or the departure time is reached so that one could stop boarding and only the spawned remaining pax would finish their boarding path.

I'm just thinking into different directions since I actually don't care if the number of animated pax matches the number of my loadsheet - I don't count them, I just see them walking and then continue preparation. For me it's much more important to control the duration of the boarding in a realistic way than to see the exact number of pax walking around.

I'll try to figure something out myself to maybe modify the number of pax for controlling the duration since this is something we actually can define without going into menu. It doesn't even need to be exact, +/-5min is totally fine and should cover basically every uncertainty in the process.