FSDT's AFCADs?

[Drumcode 1,892]

Could someone please explain the reason why FSDT's afcads have all gates set to RAMP GA?

[okupton 308]

I've always wondered that myself. 

[duckbilled 310]

I believe it disables ground vehicles or something. I don't like the approach.

[anden145 2,273]

Yes. It disables the default FSX/P3D ground vehicles, to make room for GSX's own. Apparently it's a workaround, since it's (again apparently) is impossible to remove them without this.

I can understand that it's annoying that everything's called RAMP. But it's a necessity to make GSX function correctly.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Other developers use this tweak as well to surprise the default ground vehicles, not just FSDT. Seems weird if your not aware of the reason why but it works.

Btw, it's not only for GSX but since some developers place static vehicles near the gate, using this tweak eliminates the default vehicle from showing up and sometimes overlapping or colliding with their vehicles.

[virtuali 4,419]

GSX is not really the issue here, since it will remove the default ground vehicles from the gate you selected in GSX. However, such vehicles can respawn and/or come from other parking spot after a while, getting close to your airplane, and eventually conflicting with GSX vehicles that might doing their thing. So, it was best to remove the problem at the source, by preventing the vehicles to be created in the first place.

But the main reason for this, is to prevent default ground vehicles to appear and conflict with static vehicles and other detail around the apron, which is both customized for the airport, and much easier on fps. Many other developers use the same method.

Having all the parking named as GA Ramp in the "Go To Airport" menu might seem to be a problem but, if you use GSX, there's no need to use the default Go To Airport menu to select a parking, because you can use it just to move to an airport (on the default runway, for example), then use the superior GSX menu, which is much easier to use, since it groups all parking by terminal, instead of presenting a long list with all parkings (like the default menu), and in some airports that have a full GSX customization, the terminal names have their realistic names.

[Drumcode 1,892]

Thank you for the clarification. Did Mir find a new solution for this since the gates at MSP are no longer set to RAMP GA?

[Ray Proudfoot 8,903]

@virtuali, but there's no consistency with FSDT airports. From memory LSZH, PHNL and LSGG have conventional gate names but KORD, KJFK and a few others don't, just RAMP_GA.

I know I can use GSX on approach to select a suitable gate but how do I choose when starting a flight?

I've spent 2 hours this afternoon using ScruffyDuck's ADE to identify those gates that have jetways and writing them all down. It's an enormous task but I can't think of another solution to find suitably sized gates with a working jetway. That seems bonkers in this day and age. 

What would be really helpful is a utility that scans all AFCAD BGLs and outputs a list of gates in size order and noting those with a jetway.

[Daniel M 8]

4 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I know I can use GSX on approach to select a suitable gate but how do I choose when starting a flight?

Outside of knowing which real world gates have jetbridges, when needed I spawn to the default runway and you can use the GSX menu to select a gate you will fit at, and then warp to it.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,903]

2 minutes ago, Daniel M said:

Outside of knowing which real world gates have jetbridges, when needed I spawn to the default runway and you can use the GSX menu to select a gate you will fit at, and then warp to it.

But does GSX list gates with jetways?

[nealmac 260]

No it doesn't Ray, but when you spawn at the airport, a quick look around will show you what gates have jetways, and once you find a suitable gate, you can just warp there. There is of course a problem with this, in the sense that GSX won't let you go to a gate that's already in use.

 

It's nothing more than a work around, but at least it makes it possible

[Ray Proudfoot 8,903]

Thanks Neal. That sounds like a real dog's dinner. 

Has anyone tried editing the AFCAD and changing the names for more suitable ones? Just changing a couple should show whether it's going to be a major problem or not. I haven't noticed any problems at LSGG or LSZH. Has anyone else?

[duckbilled 310]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@virtuali, but there's no consistency with FSDT airports. From memory LSZH, PHNL and LSGG have conventional gate names but KORD, KJFK and a few others don't, just RAMP_GA.

I know I can use GSX on approach to select a suitable gate but how do I choose when starting a flight?

I've spent 2 hours this afternoon using ScruffyDuck's ADE to identify those gates that have jetways and writing them all down. It's an enormous task but I can't think of another solution to find suitably sized gates with a working jetway. That seems bonkers in this day and age. 

What would be really helpful is a utility that scans all AFCAD BGLs and outputs a list of gates in size order and noting those with a jetway.

This doesn't answer your question, but I read that a upcoming feature for ProATCx is a listing of gates by airline. I'm looking forward to that feature.

These days, part of my preflight is going into ADE to identify the appropriate gate for a starting position. If I know the airport, I'll just use the ProATCx map. To me, I don't like starting a flight and having to rejigger things once the flight is loaded. It may sound silly, but I feel like that impacts immersion.

While I don't like like the FSDT gate renaming, I understand it is a necessary evil and other developers do the same thing. I've just run into a few issue in the past when using other tools that are expecting the default naming scheme. I just don't like when one add on start to influence unrelated add ons. One of the most annoying examples of this is LH Simulations LHBP assignment of SHIFT+D for some action at that airport. SHIFT+D happened to be my command for first officer view With EzDok in FSX. Regardless of where I was in the world, If I switched to first officer view, I had to close a dialogue box generated by the LHBP scenery.

[Drumcode 1,892]

Is there ADE version that actually works in v4? Could someone please link to the download?

[Ray Proudfoot 8,903]

19 minutes ago, duckbilled said:

This doesn't answer your question, but I read that a upcoming feature for ProATCx is a listing of gates by airline. I'm looking forward to that feature.

These days, part of my preflight is going into ADE to identify the appropriate gate for a starting position. If I know the airport, I'll just use the ProATCx map. To me, I don't like starting a flight and having to rejigger things once the flight is loaded. It may sound silly, but I feel like that impacts immersion.

While I don't like like the FSDT gate renaming, I understand it is a necessary evil and other developers do the same thing. I've just run into a few issue in the past when using other tools that are expecting the default naming scheme. I just don't like when one add on start to influence unrelated add ons. One of the most annoying examples of this is LH Simulations LHBP assignment of SHIFT+D for some action at that airport. SHIFT+D happened to be my command for first officer view With EzDok in FSX. Regardless of where I was in the world, If I switched to first officer view, I had to close a dialogue box generated by the LHBP scenery.

As a long-time user of RCv4 I don't feel the need to switch to ProATCX but I'm sure many will be pleased with that feature.

Yes, I too like the immersion factor of starting cold and dark at a suitable gate. I really don't want to have to position at a default runway, bring up GSX and then slew to a suitable gate. I appreciate the facility may suit many but not me I'm afraid.

I'm going to rename a few gates at a FSDT airport and see the effect on the area around the aircraft. I wonder why they didn't employ this RAMP_GA feature at LSGG and LSZH. No-one has come back with an answer to that yet.