Utility to automatically add parking codes to aircraft.cfg?

[duckbilled 310]

Hi,

Is there a utility that will automatically read the aircraft.cfg and insert (or even suggest) the atc parking codes based on the atc airline? I know I can use AI Aircraft Editor or ACA to do it manually, but I'm getting a little tired of having to redo the NGXu codes every time there is an update. GSX requires the parking code, and I can't understand why they simply will not include the code with the paints.

 

Thanks!

[regis9 4,014]

That’s a great idea, not sure if it exists though. 

It would be great if PMDG would just include the codes, I don’t understand why they never have.  I feel like I read a long time ago that they thought player aircraft didn’t make use of them for ATC?  That’s not correct, plus as you point out GSX uses them too.

I’m doing my first flight in the NGxu -700 and remembered that there are no airline codes only while sitting at the gate when GSX wouldn’t send the right ground vehicles.

Edited February 7, 2020 by regis9

[somiller 694]

I have to do this on a ton of AIG-OCI liveries to use them with PSXseecontraffic/RealTraffic. I've gotten to the point I rarely update AIC AI because it's just too painful!

I didn't even realize that PMDG liveries were missing parking codes. Thanks for telling me, now I gotta go update a bunch of PMDG...grr.

[fluffyflops 1,858]

1 hour ago, somiller said:

I have to do this on a ton of AIG-OCI liveries to use them with PSXseecontraffic/RealTraffic. I've gotten to the point I rarely update AIC AI because it's just too painful!

I didn't even realize that PMDG liveries were missing parking codes. Thanks for telling me, now I gotta go update a bunch of PMDG...grr.

Why would you want pmdg aircraft as ai aircraft? 

[vadriver 248]

i thought it was "easy" using AIAE.

but then i add "unique" codes to particular gates & one's aircraft so that not only is the gate always free but both GSX & VoxAtc seamlessly select that gate & the ground services to match.

sure it's a bit dull knowing the gate before touchdown, but how else can one make it real.

[virtuali 4,421]

You gave me an idea, perhaps we might add some kind of heuristic in GSX, which will *try* to guess the parking code based on other data, like the airline code or the livery name, which might help in case they are missing from the airplane.cfg

However, nothing in the *airplane* atc_parking_codes will have any effect on the GSX choice of Ground vehicles. This is a very common misunderstanding, which is explained in the manual too, but many users seems to forget. It would be silly if GSX tried to link the appearance of ground vehicles to the airplane own codes. That would result in your own ground crew following you everywhere you land, which is hardly realistic, like having a Japanese crew at JFK just because you are flying a JAL livery!

The parking codes in the airplane.cfg affects ONLY the choice of ULD containers, because they DO belong to your airline and you DO carry them from place to place and, more importantly, they shouldn't change from departure from destination. Of course, if the airplane doesn't have any parking codes, GSX will just use the ground operator livery for ULDs as well, which is better than no livery at all...

The choice of the actual ground operator in GSX is based ONLY on a combination of the airport ICAO code ( there's a file named rules_handling.cfg in the GSX texture folder that associates ICAO codes with operators ) , with a preference between all candidates operators on that airport based on the *scenery* atc_parking_codes for specific parking spots, as defined in the scenery AFCAD.

Edited February 7, 2020 by virtuali

[duckbilled 310]

 

4 hours ago, virtuali said:

You gave me an idea, perhaps we might add some kind of heuristic in GSX, which will *try* to guess the parking code based on other data, like the airline code or the livery name, which might help in case they are missing from the airplane.cfg

However, nothing in the *airplane* atc_parking_codes will have any effect on the GSX choice of Ground vehicles. This is a very common misunderstanding, which is explained in the manual too, but many users seems to forget. It would be silly if GSX tried to link the appearance of ground vehicles to the airplane own codes. That would result in your own ground crew following you everywhere you land, which is hardly realistic, like having a Japanese crew at JFK just because you are flying a JAL livery!

The parking codes in the airplane.cfg affects ONLY the choice of ULD containers, because they DO belong to your airline and you DO carry them from place to place and, more importantly, they shouldn't change from departure from destination. Of course, if the airplane doesn't have any parking codes, GSX will just use the ground operator livery for ULDs as well, which is better than no livery at all...

The choice of the actual ground operator in GSX is based ONLY on a combination of the airport ICAO code ( there's a file named rules_handling.cfg in the GSX texture folder that associates ICAO codes with operators ) , with a preference between all candidates operators on that airport based on the *scenery* atc_parking_codes for specific parking spots, as defined in the scenery AFCAD.

The main reason I want the codes in the PMDG cfg's is at startup. I always have P3D place me on the active runway, and then I ask GSX to warp me to an appropriate gate (my understanding is this is the best way to start a flight with GSX). Without the code, GSX doesn't know which gates are appropriate (of course, you know this because you created GSX - more for the reader's benefit).

Umberto, one thing I would love to see is when GSX gives you the gate choices, it would be cool if the assigned parking codes for the gates were listed in the menu as well (ex: "Gate A 32 - J/S (DAL,AMX,KLM,)". This way GSX wouldn't have to filter through the gates based on the user aircraft's codes. The user could just look through the list an pick a gate that has the appropriate airline assignments. Of course, gate assignments upon arrival is a different story, but I rarely taxi to the gate after a flight. I typically shut down the sim after landing due to time constraints, so my perspective may be a little different.

In the end, I just wish PMDG would include the codes. I have no idea why they don't. After all of the work that goes into developing PMDG aircraft and creating paints, it seems like an incredibly easy thing to do. A utility that reads the callsign and inserts the parking code would also be cool.

8 hours ago, vadriver said:

i thought it was "easy" using AIAE.

but then i add "unique" codes to particular gates & one's aircraft so that not only is the gate always free but both GSX & VoxAtc seamlessly select that gate & the ground services to match.

sure it's a bit dull knowing the gate before touchdown, but how else can one make it real.

It is easy with AIAE, but it is a little time consuming - especially with PMDG. Also, you have to know all of the parking codes. I know a lot of them, but I do have to look some of them up. I can go through and assign all of the codes, but as soon as there is a NGXu update, all of the codes are deleted, and I have to redo them. While the PMDG Operations Center reinstalls all of the orphaned textures, it doesn't recover the parking codes I already inserted.

So yest, there is a fix, but the best fix would be having the codes included from the beginning. It seems like an easy ask for a product at PMDG's price point.

11 hours ago, somiller said:

I have to do this on a ton of AIG-OCI liveries to use them with PSXseecontraffic/RealTraffic. I've gotten to the point I rarely update AIC AI because it's just too painful!

I didn't even realize that PMDG liveries were missing parking codes. Thanks for telling me, now I gotta go update a bunch of PMDG...grr.

The AIG stuff should have the parking codes, and usually work great with GSX. They are, however, missing all of the UI entries, because the are AI aircraft. I have never used PSXseecontraffic/RealTraffic, but I know the missing UI entries make it impossible to use the AIG OCI stuff with UTL. Those entries are necessary for the aircraft to show up in the UTL aircraft assignment UI, so if you want to use aircraft installed by AIGAIM in UTL, you have to add all of the UI entries.

 

[klamal 282]

17 hours ago, duckbilled said:

Hi,

Is there a utility that will automatically read the aircraft.cfg and insert (or even suggest) the atc parking codes based on the atc airline? I know I can use AI Aircraft Editor or ACA to do it manually, but I'm getting a little tired of having to redo the NGXu codes every time there is an update. GSX requires the parking code, and I can't understand why they simply will not include the code with the paints.

 

Thanks!

I don't think there is a tool anywhere.  You can also just add the lines via a text editor as well.

But, this is something I talked about several years ago now.  I took some slack for stating it but I'll say it again.  If the people that create the paints just took that extra 2 minutes to do it once, that would save 1000 other people from having to each do it too.  This is not meant to burden the painters with more work or to belittle their awesome work that they do in providing the community with these beautiful works of art.  But, still, it seems to make way more sense to me to have it done w/ the paint - 1 time and done.  People also argued that the parking codes weren't used.  And, here is an example of yes, they still are used.