VOXATC and P3d V5

[mthomas904 0]

18 hours ago, cbd80 said:

Quote

1. Move the two VOXATC GAU files and vast.cfg from the P3d4 gauges subfolder to the same folder in P3d5.
2. Move the VOXATC SimObjects from the P3d4 SimObjects/Misc subfolder to the same folder in P3d5.

Using the above suggestion as a starting point I have got VoxATC working in P3D v5.

I have also got the Indexer and the Panel tool to work by tricking them into thinking they were still looking at v4.

I achieved this by creating a folder junction/symbolic link between an empty 'Prepar3D v4' folder and the new 'Prepar3D v5' in each of the following locations:

• C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin
• C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin
• I:\Lockheed Martin

I must say so far I'm very impressed with the performance of v5, it is leaps and bounds ahead of v4.

Using this method, I too have gotten the indexer to run successfully and have managed to enable and initialise the VoxATC gauge in-game. Haven't had chance to try a flight but all seems to be working so far. Currently only have a few ORBX airports installed on an otherwise clean v5.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

17 hours ago, cbd80 said:

However, slopes runways wasn’t impossible in FSX. Take Aerosoft’s Cuzco X for example. That had a sloped runway, but Vox didn’t have any issue with

But that was done by making the runway into a SimObject by adding what are called platforms. Most SimObjects like buildings, have what are called crash boxes which allow crash detection. But if you want to land a helicopter on either an aircraft carrier or a hospital building, those SimObjects also have to include platforms. Do the AI land and taxi at Cuzco okay? That would mean that VOXATC already controls them in three dimensions while on the ground. The more I look at the details of VOXATC, the more I realize that Tegwyn West is a master computer coder. But that wouldn't have been enough if he also wasn't a pilot.

What LM did in P3d5 is to add new record types to airport bgl files to allow for sloped features like aprons, taxi paths, etc.. The runway record was only expanded in size going from V4 to v5, but the Indexer must ignore all the extra information in the V5 bgl file.

 

[cbd80 3]

Certainly, AI did not like Aerosoft Cuzco. I can only assume that Vox is ignoring the extra data in the v5 bgl file.Time will tell...

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Here's a very partial list of stock airports in P3d5 with sloped features:

EGUO

LFFC, LFHU, LFKD, LFKX, LSGK, LFMB

KAVX, KCOD

VNBJ, VNFT, VNLK, VYKL

[vadriver 247]

16 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

that was done by making the runway into a SimObject

most interesting ...... i need to know more. 

will check FSDeveloper.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

On 4/19/2020 at 8:15 AM, mthomas904 said:

Using this method, I too have gotten the indexer to run successfully and have managed to enable and initialise the VoxATC gauge in-game. Haven't had chance to try a flight but all seems to be working so far. Currently only have a few ORBX airports installed on an otherwise clean v5.

Yep. It definitely works. 😎The Indexer must use a C switch statement and only processes BGL record types (cases) that it needs The new airport record types for sloped items are just ignored. Since the runway record in airport BGL files was only expanded in size, the Indexer must not look at the extended bytes.  There is one problem that dates back to FSX days, although after scratching my head and chin for a few minutes, I remembered how to get around it. The P3d folders have two types of files that could be "open in another program" and Windows will lock the whole P3d folder from being renamed. The files are font files (TTF) and the thumbnail database files, thumbs.db. If anyone runs into an issue with renaming the Prepar3d V4 folder (which one needs to do before creating a symbolic link with the same name), let me know.

Now, The next step is to see what happens at an airport with sloped features.🤞 My guess is that none of us really want to know. But I'm sure that someone will try it and tell us anyway.

[kevinfirth 1,392]

2 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

Yep. It definitely works. 😎The Indexer must use a C switch statement and only processes BGL record types (cases) that it needs The new airport record types for sloped items are just ignored. Since the runway record in airport BGL files was only expanded in size, the Indexer must not look at the extended bytes.  There is one problem that dates back to FSX days, although after scratching my head and chin for a few minutes, I remembered how to get around it. The P3d folders have two types of files that could be "open in another program" and Windows will lock the whole P3d folder from being renamed. The files are font files (TTF) and the thumbnail database files, thumbs.db. If anyone runs into an issue with renaming the Prepar3d V4 folder (which one needs to do before creating a symbolic link with the same name), let me know.

Now, The next step is to see what happens at an airport with sloped features.🤞 My guess is that none of us really want to know. But I'm sure that someone will try it and tell us anyway.

This is really encouraging, thanks..

Be useful to post a single thread containing a full list of actions to get vox to work?

[koli 0]

with these instruction (in german)
instruction
99% of all P3D v4.5 programs can be installed in P3D v5 as normal.
These settings only need to be made once.
I was also able to install VoxATC perfectly in P3D v5.

I have only one problem in VoxATC:
All instructions are repeated several times ... :

Edited April 21, 2020 by koli

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

It's not necessary to uninstall P3d4, only to rename the three P3d4 folders, as cbd80 pointed out in this thread. The advantage to renaming is that one can revert to P3d4 more easily.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

8 hours ago, kevinfirth said:

This is really encouraging, thanks..

Be useful to post a single thread containing a full list of actions to get vox to work?

Kevin,

I think that koli's post just above is the cleanest way to install VOXATC into P3d5. It just doesn't allow for reverting to P3d4 quickly. From what I've seen, once the weather add-ons like ASP4 are updated for P3d5, that shouldn't be a concern.

Jay

 

[kevinfirth 1,392]

8 minutes ago, jabloomf1230 said:

Kevin,

I think that koli's post just above is the cleanest way to install VOXATC into P3d5. It just doesn't allow for reverting to P3d4 quickly. From what I've seen, once the weather add-ons like ASP4 are updated for P3d5, that shouldn't be a concern.

Jay

 

Does Koli's method enable all the app functionality of Vox, ie the advanced settings, flight plan trainer, voice config etc?

[kevinfirth 1,392]

On 4/18/2020 at 6:13 PM, cbd80 said:

Using the above suggestion as a starting point I have got VoxATC working in P3D v5.

I have also got the Indexer and the Panel tool to work by tricking them into thinking they were still looking at v4.

I achieved this by creating a folder junction/symbolic link between an empty 'Prepar3D v4' folder and the new 'Prepar3D v5' in each of the following locations:

• C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin
• C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin
• I:\Lockheed Martin

I must say so far I'm very impressed with the performance of v5, it is leaps and bounds ahead of v4.

Stupid question - can I just check the gauge names and the simobjects, as I don't seem to have any in the relevant P3Dv4 folders? :S

Also, the PATH I:\Lockheed Martin... is that the sim installation folder itself?

[cbd80 3]

2 hours ago, kevinfirth said:

Also, the PATH I:\Lockheed Martin... is that the sim installation folder itself?

Yes, that is the P3D install folder. The files from the Gauges folder are:

• VAGauge.gau
• VAInfo.gau
• vast.cfg

From the SimObjects\Misc folder you want:

• VXArrow
• VXTaxiGreen
• VXTaxiLightRed

Edited April 21, 2020 by cbd80

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

2 hours ago, kevinfirth said:

Does Koli's method enable all the app functionality of Vox, ie the advanced settings, flight plan trainer, voice config etc?

That method does not change where the VOXATC configuration files are stored, so all the utilities will continue to work. 

[kevinfirth 1,392]

On 4/18/2020 at 6:13 PM, cbd80 said:

Using the above suggestion as a starting point I have got VoxATC working in P3D v5.

I have also got the Indexer and the Panel tool to work by tricking them into thinking they were still looking at v4.

I achieved this by creating a folder junction/symbolic link between an empty 'Prepar3D v4' folder and the new 'Prepar3D v5' in each of the following locations:

• C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin
• C:\Users\Chris\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin
• I:\Lockheed Martin

I must say so far I'm very impressed with the performance of v5, it is leaps and bounds ahead of v4.

Presumably one could just amend the registry entries for vox instead...?