8 hours ago, Chapstick said:

TBH part of me doesn't miss the logos. The way it chooses the operator/logo if you haven't customized every gate is downright clownish and every suggestion I've made to improve the user experience has been roundly ignored. 

The way GSX choose the operator logo without any per-gate customization is made in an extremely powerful, sensible and easy to customize way, which you doesn't seem to have spent any time understanding how it works.

I suggest reading the Addon Manager\texture\rules_handling.cfg file, the first lines are commented to explain how you can change rules for any operator and its relationship with the ICAO code of the airport and the parking codes of the scenery. This is how the stock assignment works. It's completely changed from old versions, but it has been like this for at least two years, after the PBR update came out.

And yes, GSX being the incredibly flexible program that it is, you are NOT supposed to change THIS file, because any Live Update will overwrite your changes.

We obviously thought of that so, that file should only be read as an example, but if you create a brand new rules_handling.cfg ( or rules_catering or rules_jetway ) in the %APPDATA%\GSX\texture folder, the rules defined in this file will override the stock rules GSX comes with, and this file won't be overwritten by the Live Update, like anything else in the %APPDATA% folder.

If you want to know more, please post on the FSDT forum, and make an example of what kind of generic rule you wanted to create, and I'll explain you exactly how to do it. 

 

13 hours ago, virtuali said:

The way GSX choose the operator logo without any per-gate customization is made in an extremely powerful, sensible and easy to customize way, which you doesn't seem to have spent any time understanding how it works.

I suggest reading the Addon Manager\texture\rules_handling.cfg file, the first lines are commented to explain how you can change rules for any operator and its relationship with the ICAO code of the airport and the parking codes of the scenery. This is how the stock assignment works. It's completely changed from old versions, but it has been like this for at least two years, after the PBR update came out.

And yes, GSX being the incredibly flexible program that it is, you are NOT supposed to change THIS file, because any Live Update will overwrite your changes.

We obviously thought of that so, that file should only be read as an example, but if you create a brand new rules_handling.cfg ( or rules_catering or rules_jetway ) in the %APPDATA%\GSX\texture folder, the rules defined in this file will override the stock rules GSX comes with, and this file won't be overwritten by the Live Update, like anything else in the %APPDATA% folder.

If you want to know more, please post on the FSDT forum, and make an example of what kind of generic rule you wanted to create, and I'll explain you exactly how to do it. 

 

I simply want a checkbox in the GSX settings that says, "Always show current operator as a handler option," no matter where in the world I am, without having to edit CFG files.

2 hours ago, Chapstick said:

I simply want a checkbox in the GSX settings that says, "Always show current operator as a handler option," no matter where in the world I am, without having to edit CFG files.

What do you mean with "current operator" ? The current operator is not decided until you are on an airport, according to the aforementioned rules.

GSX already has an operator that can appear everywhere, it's the Virtual Airlines override setting, and this can also be a list of multiple operators, but they will just replace every other operator.

So, maybe, you wanted to say you want a separate option for the Virtual Airline that will tell the operators specified there will be always available in ADDITION to the ones selected by the rules, instead of replacing them ?

That can be done, of course, but I don't recall anybody suggesting it before, if you would tell me your FSDT forum user name ( there's nobody registered as Chapstick ), and point me out to the post you made on our forum suggesting this feature, that would have been more useful than saying "every suggestion I made is ignored".

3 minutes ago, virtuali said:

What do you mean with "current operator" ?

By this I mean the airline whose airplane I'm flying. So, if I'm flying as Southwest, it reads the atc_airline of the plane I'm flying and presents Southwest as an operator option, regardless of the airport. If that's not possible, then anything other than having to edit the gate in the GSX dialog as I'm taxiing in on arrival would be an improvement. 

15 minutes ago, Chapstick said:

By this I mean the airline whose airplane I'm flying. So, if I'm flying as Southwest, it reads the atc_airline of the plane I'm flying and presents Southwest as an operator option, regardless of the airport. If that's not possible, then anything other than having to edit the gate in the GSX dialog as I'm taxiing in on arrival would be an improvement.

Now I understand what you meant with "current operator": the airline you are flying. This has been explained so many times, on the forum, and even on the manual, yet people don't seem to get it:

The airline YOU are flying doesn't have ANY effect on the ground operator.

Doing this is not realistic, because never in real life you have your own ground crew always available, everywhere. Would you find reasonable that, just because you are flying Alitalia, you land at JFK and there's your italian crew ready for you there ? That would be "clownish", to use your words.

That's why GSX never consider the airline you are flying to be the "current operator". The operator, as it is in real life, depends only on the airport, which is why GSX uses that extremely powerful and flexible set of rules that, again, DOES NOT require to edit gates. You need to edit gates on an airport only if you want extra detail ( a set of gates served by a specific operator, for example ), but to control the operator availability, the correct way is the rules_handling.cfg file, which controls the scoring of each operator across airports and airline codes of the parking spots.

The airline you are flying controls only one thing: the logos on the ULD containers, to prevent having containers unloaded at the arrival with different logos than the ones loaded on departure.

Now, the PROPER way to do what you are suggesting, and give your airline SOME influence over the operator chosen, is make some kind of table that associates airlines to the operators they prefer doing business with so, they will automatically choose that handler, but only if it's available at that airport, that's what happens in real life.

Edited July 9, 20214 yr by virtuali

8 minutes ago, virtuali said:

Now I understand what you meant with "current operator": the airline you are flying. This has been explained so many times, on the forum, and even on the manual, yet people don't seem to get it:

The airline YOU are flying doesn't have ANY effect on the ground operator.

Doing this is not realistic, because never in real life you have your own ground crew always available, everywhere. Would you find reasonable that, just because you are flying Alitalia, you land at JFK and there's your italian crew ready for you there ? That would be "clownish", to use your words.

That's why GSX never consider the airline you are flying to be the "current operator". The operator, as it is in real life, depends only on the airport, which is why GSX uses that extremely powerful and flexible set of rules that, again, DOES NOT require to edit gates. You need to edit gates on an airport only if you want extra detail ( a set of gates served by a specific operator, for example ), but to control the operator availability, the correct way is the rules_handling.cfg file, which controls the scoring of each operator across airports and airline codes of the parking spots.

The airline you are flying controls only one thing: the logos on the ULD containers, to prevent having containers unloaded at the arrival with different logos than the ones loaded on departure.

Now, the PROPER way to do what you are suggesting, and give your airline SOME influence over the operator chosen, is make some kind of table that associates airlines to the operators they prefer doing business with so, they will automatically choose that handler, but only if it's available at that airport, that's what happens in real life.

I understand how it works, and I know that you're going for realism. I'm asking for a fallback when the programming fails. E.g., one I recently encountered: flying into KBNA, the only operator option I had was "OneJet."  Why wouldn't Southwest be an option? That's a major hub for them. 

57 minutes ago, Chapstick said:

I'm asking for a fallback when the programming fails. E.g., one I recently encountered: flying into KBNA, the only operator option I had was "OneJet."  Why wouldn't Southwest be an option? That's a major hub for them. 

And why you think the programming "failed" ? Checking the stock rules_handling.cfg file, it shows that KBNA has a maximum score for J1 ( OneJet ) and Swissport only, so you are not supposed to see Southwest there, just Swissport and OneJet.

I tried it just now at KBNA and, guess what, the menu suggested exactly Swissport and OneJet so no, the programming hasn't "failed", it's working exactly as expected.

Now, OneJet closed in 2018, but Swissport surely operates there and, according to this page:

https://centreforaviation.com/data/profiles/airports/nashville-international-airport-bna

There are other handlers at KBNA, but NOT Southwest.

So, let's see what would be the proper way to replicate the current situation in GSX, for example adding Menzies, AA, Delta and ASIG, which are all available in GSX.

- Make a copy of the rules_handling.cfg file from the Addon Manager\texture folder to the %APPDATA%\Virtuali\GSX\texture folder. this way your custom rules won't be overwritten by the next FSDT Live Update.

- Find all sections for all the handlers you want to assign to KBNA, that would be [AA], [AA_white], [ASIG], [DL] and [MENZ]

- Add KBNA to the list of ICAO in all these sections.

- Optionally, find [J1] ( OneJet ) and remove KBNA there, to simulate their closure.

- In the sim, choose "Restart and rebuild the airport cache" from the Couatl menu once GSX loads.

Now, KBNA will show American, ASIG, Delta, Menzies and Swissport, exactly as in real life. Your custom rules_handling.cfg file can be edited at your will, to assign any handler to any airport and, if it's copied in the %APPDATA%\GSX\TEXTURE folder, it will take precedence over the stock file and won't be touched by updates.

This, of course, is way better and more realistic than having a "wildcard" operator that pops out everywhere.

Edited July 9, 20214 yr by virtuali