Preselect Gate

[mroschk]

Hello,

in real live the Pilot's get's the gates via Acars.

Now i want to ask if it is possible to have the following in GSX:

During the Flight we select a Gate at the Destination Airport. If GSX did not know
the Destinatiion Airport we enter the ICAO Code.
The GSX can read the available Gates and Parkings and we can select one of These.

Then after landing we must only call the GSX Window and have a new Menu entry like "Preselected Gate".
Or better , if ist possible, we call this via a Shortcut.

So we dont have to stop Taxiing and this was very more real.

Thx
Matthias

[Bruce Hamilton]

But unless you know where you're going, you'll still have to stop and wait for the follow me...

[mroschk]

Hello,

yes, but it is much much faster ( and even mor real ) as to go thru the Menu's to
select the Gate and Follow me.

Matthias

[streichholz]

This would be nice to know if this is possible.

[virtuali]

GSX doesn't do anything if you are not parked on an airport (for example, flying), and it works only at the airport you are currently landed on, one airport at time.

[mroschk]

Hello,

i dont want to work GSX with more then one Airport.
As i explain...select the Airport via the ICAO code.
That means only ONE Airport and GSX should do nothing else then
Reading the available Gates/Parkings after getting the ICAO.
Then AFTER LANDING ( on the Ground ) we only have to call one Shortcut or Menuentry.

Would be great to have

Matthias

[virtuali]

i dont want to work GSX with more then one Airport. As i explain...select the Airport via the ICAO code.

It would have to, in order to do what you are asking, because the moment you insert an ICAO, before you would be able to pre-select your gate, GSX should:

- Scan the WHOLE airport database, to find if you entered a valid ICAO. All 20.000 of them, of course. The GSX airport cache is not optimized to lookup an arbitrary ICAO all over the world, but it's optimized to search the ICAO closest to the area nearby your position, which is what it needs now. This means this search might be slow, compared to the immediate results you get now, after landing.

- Get the name of all the matching AFCADs for that ICAO. Sort them according to the Scenery Library priority.

- Open that AFCAD momentarily, to load a list of the available parkings.

This, while you are still flying, meaning you could always change your mind later and be able to switch to a different airport and/or switch to a different parking.

To allow for a fast ICAO search, we would need to have the airport cache structured in a different way, with data organized in multiple ways, depending on the kind of search needed, but this will have of course an impact on the cache creation every time you change something in the Scenery Library, so users that won't mind waiting to land to select the parking, will be annoyed by this "feature", that will affect the cache regeneration time.

You are asking for fairly large chances, with potentially annoying side-effect such as the increased cache regeneration time, with very little payoff in term of added features, when we could spend our time doing something more useful, like new service vehicles, new models, new liveries, new sounds, that *everybody* will notice.

[mroschk]

Hello,

ok, that's right. I did not know that you have not created an optimized Cache of the Airport's. I thought you have.

So..if it is like this you have to had first to optimize you code.

Matthias

[virtuali]

ok, that's right. I did not know that you have not created an optimized Cache of the Airport's. I thought you have.

And why should we ? We don't need it, except for the ability to let you search for an ICAO all over the world, which is not how GSX ever worked so far.

So..if it is like this you have to had first to optimize you code.

First, it's not the "code", it's more like the airport database, and that IS optimized, to be as fast as possible when *returning* the ICAO code of the airport closest to you, which is entirely different (it's the opposite, basically), as if it was optimized to search *starting* from an ICAO.

And it's BECAUSE is optimized, that we don't have an additional database organized in a way we don't need, that would only result in a slower cache regeneration time, because each time you change something in the Scenery Library, more data would need to be recreated, slowing the cache regeneration for everyone, even those not interested in pre-selecting the parking,

[mroschk]

take a range of .. lets say 20 or 30 NM araound the airplane.
So you have a small list of Airports to search without any changes.

Also you can have , for all those things not every one want to have, a litle litle Enable/Disable Option
in the Addon Manager .. easy or :-)

Matthias

[virtuali]

take a range of .. lets say 20 or 30 NM araound the airplane. So you have a small list of Airports to search without any changes.

Doesn't make much difference, the issue is not just searching if an ICAO exists in the whole world. In order to allow you to select its gates in advance, there must be a pre-generated database that matches that ICAO with its own AFCAD, and that IS the airport cache I keep discussing. And again, THAT one is optimized to give you the name of the AFCAD closest to you, as fast as possible, which is the only thing that GSX needed.

Without even mentioning that it would be frustrating, having the gate pre-select feature, but not being able to select an airport until you are "in range".

Also you can have , for all those things not every one want to have, a litle litle Enable/Disable Option
in the Addon Manager .. easy or :-)

As explained many times already, it's just wrong having options in the program that MIGHT allow it to behave erratically, because if that option ever existed, users will turn it off in order to have the cache regeneration as fast as possible, but will then forget to turn it back on when they need to preselect a gate, going back here asking for support why they see the wrong gates listed.

[mroschk]

...again, if you dont want it it is ok for me if you say that.
But i have also a bit programming knowledge in C# and i know how easy it is to have a
litle List<String, int> to hold the Airport ICAO and ist ID or Coordinates. ( as a class )

Now, when we Need the Airport from the Cache we only have to search this list, which is very fast.
Then we have the ID to seach in the Cache or the coordinates of the Airport. With
the coordinates GSX can work as it works when the plane is on Ground.
So .. ist easy and take not so much time.

About the users who Forget to enable or disable something.
Thats a reason which you talk about to find a reason for what you say. For This users .. please RTFM. (sorry)

Matthias

[virtuali]

But i have also a bit programming knowledge in C# and i know how easy it is to have a litle List<String, int> to hold the Airport ICAO and ist ID or Coordinates. ( as a class )

Now the programming lesson...LOL

Of course it's easy to use a list, ONCE YOU HAVE IT! In fact, it's even easier in Python than in C#, but the issue you keep missing, is that list must be generated each time the Scenery Library changes, THAT'S precisely what the cache regeneration does but, instead of having a relationship with the ICAO, it's organized to get just the ONE AFCAD which is closest to you.

Again, for the 3rd time, to do what you are asking, we would have to keep YOUR "list", which is basically another cache, with the ICAO as the key instead, and of course BOTH must be generated at the same time and kept in sync, each time the Scenery Library changes.

Now, when we Need the Airport from the Cache we only have to search this list, which is very fast.

Again, you are still missing the point. Of course it's fast and easy, once you HAVE the list ready. The point is precisely having that list always updated to the current Scenery Library.

So .. ist easy and take not so much time.

Just stop repeating it, it might be easy to code, but it will slow down cache regeneration, and that's already something that many users find "annoying", so we don't really need new ideas how to make it even slower, for a very marginal feature.

[mroschk]

How often are you changing the Scenery Library?

[virtuali]

How often are you changing the Scenery Library?

There has been several threads in just the last few days, that users are using external utilities to turn on JUST the sceneries they need for a flight at EACH FSX startup, in order to save the last bit of memory for the sim and not getting OOMs.

And the request was, of course "could we make the GSX cache regeneration any FASTER" ? If we would had to explain that, it will instead become slower, because of this feature, I'm not sure it will be taken very well.