Author Topic: New Features Ideas  (Read 6186 times)

simonj110

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New Features Ideas
« on: May 07, 2018, 04:07:43 pm »
Return to gate
Ever pushed from the gate and discovered an issue that needs to be resolved before starting a flight. A “return to gate” option would be very handy in this situation. This is where the tug that just pushed you out comes back out and pulls you back into position on the gate.

Tow from/to parking
In some situations at the busiest of airports, gate spaces come at a premium, some aircraft may be parked in a parking lot area to free up gates for others. The ability to do powerup in the parking lot then get towed to the gate to conduct boarding/loading or to finish deboarding and get towed to parking to shut down overnight. Brings something new to the world of vatsim too. Maybe use the brake/parking brake function in the sim to pause a towing scenario coming to a smooth stop and then when ready to continue, release the parking brake and the towing continues. Also, just landed in an emergency, how do you free a runway with no engine power. Get towed to a gate/parking of choice. For those flying on vatsim, have GSX find a number of routes through the airport and have the pilot request for that route. The pilot selects the route then when cleared, unset the parking brake and the towing begins.

Captain has enough to do!
For as long as I have flown in real life I have never seen the captain open any doors other than the flight deck door and the local toilet door. Is it possible that the GSX engine could handle opening cargo hatches and other doors excluding the main exit? Reason for excluding the main exit is because this is done by cabin crew when the procedure for checking pressures etc has been completed and the jetway/stairs have been positioned.

Just a couple of ideas that probably will work with the GSX engine.

Above all, Thank you for developing such a tool. It has changed Airline ops in many versions of ESP for the best.

Thank you, Simon Jones

virtuali

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2018, 03:25:08 pm »
the tug that just pushed you out comes back out and pulls you back into position on the gate.

Pushback pull feature has been discussed many times and yes, it planned to be added at some stage.

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In some situations at the busiest of airports, gate spaces come at a premium, some aircraft may be parked in a parking lot area to free up gates for others.

This is the same as the above feature. Once the pushback will be able pull too, it will be able to do a parking-to-parking move.

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For as long as I have flown in real life I have never seen the captain open any doors

See here for a reply why we haven't modeled this:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,11172.msg86182.html#msg86182

simonj110

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2018, 03:36:39 pm »
Thank you for your reply virtuali, I don't normally use forums so I'm not used to the format.

aayyppxx

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2018, 03:52:47 pm »
Hi Umberto,

Look forward to all the new features being released one day. I wanted to ask if there is any plan to add the facility to do custom pushback routes on the fly like we can do with the betterpushback plugin ?

Thanks

virtuali

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2018, 04:09:49 pm »
I wanted to ask if there is any plan to add the facility to do custom pushback routes on the fly like we can do with the betterpushback plugin ?

This has been discussed many times on the forum, and we'll surely have a pushback routes editor, but surely not cumbersome to use as that "better" pushback plugin, which requires you to do a lot of unrealistic operation you are surely not supposed to do, as a pilot, each time you ask for pushback.

The better pushback plugin works that way, because it's not as smart as GSX in figuring out 95% of all possible pushbacks just looking at the airport, which is how GSX works, and it's very hard to do indeed.

So no, while we surely add it, it won't look like that but, instead, it will be done in the proper way: something you edit once, not each time you fly, and only for the most unusual pushback routes.

c912039

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2018, 04:03:22 am »
Hi Umberto,

I have a suggestion that would allow automation of cargo doors.

If you were to provide an additional LVAR that tracks the status of the cargo loaders, then end users and 3rd party aircraft providers might be able to write automation routines, such as LUA scripts, that react to the LVAR values.

Whilst you do have some LVARs already available (such as FSDT_GSX_DEBOARDING_STATE for example), the change in these values doesnt quite match up to when the loaders have arrived, or are clear of obstruction to allow the cargo doors to close.

For example, the belt loader's conveyors are still angled upright when your LVAR indicated that loading has completed.  In my automation routines in LUA I have tried adding a timed delay between this LVAR value changing, and an automated LUA code to close the cargo doors.  I needed to add a timer to delay this, as the belt loader needs to lower the belt, to ensure its clear before the cargo door can be closed.

If you could add an additional LVAR specifically tracking the state of the loaders (when they pull up and the doors can be opened) as well as when the loaders have been lowered so that the doors can be closed without obstruction, then we could do our own automation/customization of our aircraft without GSX having to know about each and every aircraft's requirements.

Regards
David


virtuali

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2018, 10:35:51 am »
If you were to provide an additional LVAR that tracks the status of the cargo loaders, then end users and 3rd party aircraft providers might be able to write automation routines, such as LUA scripts, that react to the LVAR values.

We already have all required L variables (animations wouldn't work otherwise), it's just that we haven't documented them all, but some enterprising users already figured them out. If you check the SIM.CFG file of each GSX vehicle, in the [Couatl] section, the lines that starts with ANIM_ describe an animation, the variable used, and its length.

Have a look at the LINDA script for the PMDG 777, made by Guenter Steiner and Emile Bax: it reads several GSX animation variables to do things like closing the door automatically, check the refuel status, etc.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2018, 10:38:28 am by virtuali »

pmartin

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2018, 10:55:33 pm »
Hello umberto!
I hope one of the future things are make a network version (make inputs on a client computer).

best regards
peter

pmartin

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2018, 12:18:10 pm »
Hello Umberto!
At first will be possible to "hide" the display or make it possible to "move" the screen to another monitor then the "main-display".
best regards
peter

simonj110

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #9 on: May 17, 2018, 10:37:30 am »
Mod, Please Lock this topic. I may do a FAQ for you as you are repeating yourself over and over

Speedbird ATC

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #10 on: June 11, 2018, 03:05:31 am »
I wanted to ask if there is any plan to add the facility to do custom pushback routes on the fly like we can do with the betterpushback plugin ?

This has been discussed many times on the forum, and we'll surely have a pushback routes editor, but surely not cumbersome to use as that "better" pushback plugin, which requires you to do a lot of unrealistic operation you are surely not supposed to do, as a pilot, each time you ask for pushback.

The better pushback plugin works that way, because it's not as smart as GSX in figuring out 95% of all possible pushbacks just looking at the airport, which is how GSX works, and it's very hard to do indeed.

So no, while we surely add it, it won't look like that but, instead, it will be done in the proper way: something you edit once, not each time you fly, and only for the most unusual pushback routes.

Here is where I feel you are wrong. The thing that makes better pushback shine is the fact that it pusbacks are different. In real life, pushback trucks don't work like trains on tracks. They can move where ever they like. There will be times when ATC will give you a specific pushback route, or when ATC will in fact ask you to pause your pushback. When we get gate to gate towing, this on rails attitude will create even more issues: The follow me facility is as of now unusable because there is no way to make it follow a specific planned taxi route. If the same on rails philosophy applies to towing, it will create even more issues. I want to be able to tell the tow truck exactly where I want my plane to go. I do not want to have to use the cumbersome editor to make permanent decisions every time I fly for every single gate. Especially when going into slew mode with my crappy joystick means sending my plane slewing all across the ramp. I cannot comprehend what's wrong with giving us more control over pushback.

virtuali

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #11 on: June 11, 2018, 02:19:41 pm »
Here is where I feel you are wrong. The thing that makes better pushback shine is the fact that it pusbacks are different. In real life, pushback trucks don't work like trains on tracks. They can move where ever they like. There will be times when ATC will give you a specific pushback route, or when ATC will in fact ask you to pause your pushback.

- The ATC in FSX/P3D doesn't care about pushback so, this is irrelevant if you are using that one.

- If you are using a human controller, if it change directions once your pushback started, planning a route of the x-plane plugin won't help either. If it's just the issue of a allowing for a pause, we can easily add a pause/wait command in the GSX pushback.

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When we get gate to gate towing, this on rails attitude will create even more issues: The follow me facility is as of now unusable because there is no way to make it follow a specific planned taxi route.

I'm not sure I understand the issue here. Does the x-plane pushback plugin has a follow me feature to that interacts with it, so you can plan both a gate-to-gate feature AND have the follow me car following it too ? Or, were you just saying something about you wanted to add to GSX ?

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I want to be able to tell the tow truck exactly where I want my plane to go. I do not want to have to use the cumbersome editor to make permanent decisions every time I fly for every single gate. Especially when going into slew mode with my crappy joystick means sending my plane slewing all across the ramp.

Fact is, at many airports that have special pushback needs (those that couldn't be sorted with the standard Left/Right logic), DO have PERMANENT pushback routes and arrival points and, having to be forced to pre-plan them over and over, is unnecessary AND "cumbersome", when you might simply have them saved.

So, ideally, we would have to have all 3 different features, and I'm listing them from the most commonly used:

1) The standard Left/Right logic, with the ability to change a different ending point and save it, which is how GSX works now.

2) The ability to create custom routes and save them, without having to repeat them each time

3) The ability to create a new route to be used only once, with the ability to change direction after pushback is started (does the x-plane plugin allows this ? ) and to pause if required.

GSX already has #1, so we'll surely add #2, initially, and we might eventually get to #3 but, again, doing #3 before having #2, is just wrong, because it would then force to redo over and over the same route, even when it's not required.

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I cannot comprehend what's wrong with giving us more control over pushback.

Because having to be forced to ALWAYS pre-plan the pushback route, it's not the right way to do it. The right way to do it would be working automatically most of the time, and being able to do a custom route too.

One thing we were thinking, to get you "more control", would be allowing you to DRIVE the pushback in first-person mode. That would be far more fun and immersive than using a CAD-like interface, as if you were a airport planner/architect.

Speedbird ATC

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Re: New Features Ideas
« Reply #12 on: June 19, 2018, 09:58:26 pm »
Actually driving the pushback truck genuinely sounds like a lot of fun. Jardesigns ground handling and Flight Factors pushback solutions use this method.