GSX Level 2 - Reviews?

[DAL1850 51]

Has anyone dropped the $29USD on GSX Level 2 expansion? I was a little sticker-shocked based on the advertised feature set and wondered if it really "elevated" the base product experience THAT much. Anyone have reviews/testimonials/caveat emptors to offer?

J

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

I think all the OVPA guys have it now and like it.  I like it very much, new voice sets, additional capabilities and flexibility, increased animations... it's work it in my opinion.  I've found some bugs and reported them... and that's going to be true of any complex software designed to work with other complex software.

I believe you can grab the manual to read up on V2 on the FSDT website.

Best wishes.

 

[beechcaptain 105]

Well, for what it offers as far as SODE jetways for any airport, with the ability to add at least 2 and supposedly up to 4 jetways per gate, with a variety of jetway appearances you can select from, I would say makes it definitely worth the price. 

I like the idea of SODE jetways at all of my airports! 

 

[vadriver 247]

Glenn

Have you used SODE's Autodock ..... which didn't work with GSX1.

[VeryBumpy 272]

I bought it. In its current state, I feel it is over priced for what you get.

I feel there are several features that should be added or implemented for it to be a good value.

 

•               needs less backpack people and more with suitcases with wheels
•               inability allow popup msg to stay longer
•               customize exact # of pilots, attendants, pax, baggages loading
•               where is the lower height gasoline truck the promised 3 years ago?
•               AI not using the new global jetways
•               inability to globally set all of the sim's jetways to a certain model you want
•               inability to select vehicle models i.e. the nondescript buses are boring
•               inability to globally remove 'parking too small for grnd services' check
•               allow plane to determine if bus is needed, not each and every jetway
•               allow multiple services at once
•               design GUI to work with 4k monitors with >100% display scaling

•               no global way to force bus loading(to enjoy the pax animation) at all parking spots

•               no pax loading from terminal to plane (this is a biggie IMO!!)
•               no winter clothing during winter pax loading
•               several problems with smaller planes and the pax

 

 

Edited September 15, 2018 by VeryBumpy

[Swiss2259 23]

On 9/10/2018 at 12:19 AM, vadriver said:

Have you used SODE's Autodock ..... which didn't work with GSX1.

The autodock in GSX2 works 😃

 

7 hours ago, VeryBumpy said:

AI not using the new global jetways

you can change the settings when you open the sode tool (where you register it). there you can set it up to detect / dock to ai planes.

 

7 hours ago, VeryBumpy said:

no pax loading from terminal to plane

if you have a jetway with glas textures, you can see pax boarding when you are parked at a terminal...

Edited September 15, 2018 by Swiss2259

[Luke 782]

10 hours ago, VeryBumpy said:

I bought it. In its current state, I feel it is over priced for what you get.

I feel there are several features that should be added or implemented for it to be a good value.

•               customize exact # of pilots, attendants, pax, baggages loading
•               inability to globally remove 'parking too small for grnd services' check

You can certainly set the exact number of passengers, and you can customize the gate positions to accept larger aircraft.

My ACARS software gets a passenger load from the virtual airline, sets the payload on PMDG aircraft and then sends that number to GSX.

Cheers!

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

3 hours ago, Swiss2259 said:

you can change the settings when you open the sode tool (where you register it). there you can set it up to detect / dock to ai planes.

The replacement non-user jetways in GSX2 are not animated. They are designed to replace the animated stock sim jetways and visually match the SODE jetway at the user's parking spot. It's been explained about ten times by Umberto. If one has a 3rd party airport that comes with a full complement of its own SODE jetways, then the AI will automatically dock, as long as that option has been ticked in the SODE configurator utility.

This has been explained officially as being a performance issue, but if you "read between the lines" in the dialog about this issue on the FSDT official forum, you can figure out that it is more complicated than just being about performance.

[VeryBumpy 272]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

You can certainly set the exact number of passengers, and you can customize the gate positions to accept larger aircraft.

My ACARS software gets a passenger load from the virtual airline, sets the payload on PMDG aircraft and then sends that number to GSX.

Cheers!

 

 

True, pax can be set to a specific number, the others not.

Globally was my key beef is all; I'm finding it really tedious to have to change and edit individual things each time.

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

Which reminds me that today I decided to try GSXII out with the CS 757 at Ramp 221 at KLAX (not a gate)(West parking).  Didn't realize I did not indicate the number of passengers.  When I called for boarding, the pilot/co-pilot arrived and then 3 flight attendants.  All 3 passenger doors had to be opened and stairs were located at each.  I waited and waited for the passengers and finally a small bus arrived and a small kid with a backpack got out and ended up being the only passenger as GSX stated boarding was complete.  I see now that I can enter the number of passengers via the FMC Menu.  Going to have to see if that works.  Will be interesting to know if GSXII can 'see' the number of passengers.

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

1 hour ago, Jim Young said:

Will be interesting to know if GSXII can 'see' the number of passengers.

 

Check the setup options. There's a checkbox to estimate the number of passengers.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

The benefits far out way the few bugs. I have found a few but for the most part you can ignore them, for example does this really bother you:

Or just focus on your flight planning instead 😎

[Delta111 29]

Looks like he didn't need an airplane, but a slight adjustment with his transporter,,!!!

[Ray Proudfoot 8,932]

I’ve managed to create my first custom jetway today after scratching my head watching the official tutorial. I wasn’t opening the Control Panel which allows the BGLs to be compiled.

 Now that is done the process seems reasonable straight forward albeit after a short but steep learning curve.

It does highlight issues at 3rd party airports such as LatinVFR TFFR where a static jetway was interfering with my nice new SODE one. After a fair bit of investigation disabling the relevant BGL fixed it.

Nice to see my passengers boarding Concorde via the glass jetways although their dress sense leaves something to be desired. 😁 

[MarkW 1,491]

On 9/16/2018 at 12:55 AM, Matthew Kane said:

The benefits far out way the few bugs. I have found a few but for the most part you can ignore them, for example does this really bother you:

Or just focus on your flight planning instead 😎

There is another post where Umberto explains what is happening here and how it can be fixed by changing the gate to one from GSX 2.