Micro Pauses on Approach

[Tino]

Good evening,

Currently running P3Dv5 with latest Hotfix. I've noticed an issue with a 3rd party airport that utilizes GSX Level 2 for all parking and jetways. I am having an issue when I make an approach into the airport, I get a number of micro pauses that really affect the landings. I noticed this happens when the jetways get loaded. (Roughly 5-7NM from the airport and last all the way until I exit the runway).

Now reading your comments on this issue in other threads, you mentioned that it could be caused by different PBR jetways getting loaded at once. In this case, the scenery uses only 1 type of jetway.

My question to you is: Is there a way to have GSX\Jetways load before I am established on the approach? I do not have this issue with any other airport, but I'm afraid it's not the airport itself as flying the approach with GSX disabled is fine. Is there a way to have a single long pause?

I understand that having the SimObjects load with Multi-threading needs to be a sim enhancement. (Like terrain).

Thanks for your time.

[virtuali]

My question to you is: Is there a way to have GSX\Jetways load before I am established on the approach? I do not have this issue with any other airport, but I'm afraid it's not the airport itself as flying the approach with GSX disabled is fine.

No, because the loading range has been carefully chosen to be sure only jetways for a single airport are used, and this is even more important in P3D V5, to save as much VRAM as possible, you surely wouldn't want to risk a crash just because we might have load jetways for two nearby airports at the same time, which is what will happen if we loaded them from a longer distance.

You can TRY using the airport_visibility command, explained at Page 26 of the GSX manual, which is usually used to reduce the loading range of an airport, to prevent conflicts with small airports, but you can also use it to increase the loading range of the main airport in the area, but you should do that only where you are reasonably sure there aren't any airport you want to use close, because if you increase the loading range too much, GSX will not load the nearby airports if they are overlapped by a big loading range of another one.

Is there a way to have a single long pause?

You are supposed to see exactly that, a long pause. We don't load jetways in stages, their are loaded all at once but, again, from our point of view the load commands are sent all at the same time, but what the sim does, is entirely outside our control.

[Ioan92]

Load your gate once you pass 8000'

You should really change this system, having pauses on final is unacceptable if you are handflying and can screw up sequencing at busy airports.

[virtuali]

Load your gate once you pass 8000'

As usual, things are not so easy as users assume. Just checking the altitude is not enough. What if you are 7000' ft and are flying in the NYC area ? Which jetways should we load, JFK, LGA or EWR ? ALL of them ? Triple the pause, because we cannot possibly know where you intend to land ? Triple the VRAM requirement ? Lower the fps, so you won't get too many pauses ?

You really think we haven't thought about ALL of this ( and more ) ?

You should really change this system, having pauses on final is unacceptable if you are handflying and can screw up sequencing at busy airports.

You are not having "pauses", you are having a single pause. Pauses, plural, is exactly what you'll get if we tried to load jetways in stages. No, the real solution should be the simulator should support multi-threading when loading Simobjects, just as when it loads terrain.

[Ioan92]

I was telling OP to load his gates via the menu while he's still flying. It works and attenuates the PAUSES that come when you get closer to the airport. The downside is that sometimes the gates load improperly and you have to restart couatl and pray it doesn't go to sleep like it does most of the time.

>You really think we haven't thought about ALL of this ( and more ) ?

Here's an idea, allow the user to input his destination airport via the menu, and have this load the jetways for x airport at about the same time most addon airports do so. We can select number of passengers so I don't see why this can't be done.

[virtuali]

Here's an idea, allow the user to input his destination airport via the menu, and have this load the jetways for x airport at about the same time most addon airports do so. We can select number of passengers so I don't see why this can't be done.

No, because then users will forget to set the correct airport, and will come here complaining "no jetways on arrival". Same if they divert to the alternate, or just change their mind.

It's also is a fairly unrealistic procedure that adds an additional burden to the pilot with not resemblance to any real world activity.

[Ioan92]

You do realize this is basically the same as selecting a gate below 10,000' but earlier, right? You'll still get your jetways if you forget, just with one big fairly unrealistic procedure that is flying finals with a big pause.

[virtuali]

You do realize this is basically the same as selecting a gate below 10,000' but earlier, right?

No, it's not. Again, things are not as easy as they sounds, if you don't know how GSX and the simulator really work. When you pre-select a gate, GSX is not creating anything, it has only saved the gate, but it will start to create vehicles only after you land.

This because, when you are far away from an airport ( but close enough to be able to select it ), the terrain for it is not loaded at the final resolution, so the ground elevation will be invariably wrong, resulting in floating objects if we tried to create them so early, that's why we don't try to create objects too early and, in case of GSX vehicles, only after you land ( assuming you pre-selected the gate )

[Ioan92]

When I pre-select a gate at an airport where I have L2 jetways on, I get a huge pause afterwards. This is the pause that I'd get on finals if I hadn't pre-selected it. So what exactly is GSX doing then?
Sometimes after I land, some jetways are broken, you have safedocks floating on taxiways as well, wonder what that is about.

the terrain for it is not loaded at the final resolution

I assume it's that?

[virtuali]

When I pre-select a gate at an airport where I have L2 jetways on, I get a huge pause afterwards. This is the pause that I'd get on finals if I hadn't pre-selected it. So what exactly is GSX doing then?

It's loading jetways, of course.

Would you please stop arguing, as if we don't know what we are doing ? I already explained to you why the correct method is the best possible choice, considering the limitation of the simulator, which doesn't load Simobjects in multi-threading. I'll explain them again:

- Jetways are loaded on a fixed distance, which is not too large to risk loading jetways for more than an airport at the same time.

- It's not possible to be sure which airport you are going to use, without pre-selecting an airport, which would be an additional burden, as I've said.

- It's not possible to do what you suggested, that is linking the airport to the gate pre-selection, because the gate pre-selection can be made even as far as 30 NM from the airport, and for that distance the terrain would surely be wrong, that's why we DO NOT load any GSX vehicles (which in your proposal could include jetways too ) when you pre-select a gate, because the will always float or be underground, since the would be placed on a terrain which hasn't loaded yet.

- Loading jetways *fairly* close, as they are now, is ensuring none of these issues will happen, but we cannot obviously load them AFTER touchdown ( as we do with OTHER GSX vehicles when a gate was pre-selected in flight ) because, while you might not notice or care if the GSX vehicles for your own parking appears only after touchdown, you'll surely notice an airport without jetways.

So no, they cannot be loaded too much earlier than they are, and they cannot be loaded after touchdown, like other GSX vehicles.