Regional aircraft selections

[truthknown 4]

Thanks for all the changes! I am still trying to understand all of the changes and grasp how to best use them. However one thing is driving me crazy and that is the automatic regeneration of the liveries file each time we load PSXT. It is overwriting all of my customization in the file (registration codes for special liveries and regional jets, etc. that I manually put in the atc_id fields). Also do not know how the reg_code field is being used. I also delete a few liveries that I do not want in the file (ex. an FLai model that I would rather only have the AIG version of).

Maybe there is a better way of doing this that I am not aware of.

 

 

[kiek 1,215]

2 hours ago, truthknown said:

a) However one thing is driving me crazy and that is the automatic regeneration of the liveries file each time we load PSXT. It is overwriting all of my customization in the file (registration codes for special liveries and regional jets, etc. that I manually put in the atc_id fields).

b) Also do not know how the reg_code field is being used. I also delete a few liveries that I do not want in the file (ex. an FLai model that I would rather only have the AIG version of).

@a)  PSXT_MSFS does not touch your aircraft.cfg files, so it does not overwrite your customisations! If you have a livery with just one registration code for a special livery it will never be changed to something else in the AI_liveries.xml file unless there is a clash with another livery that has the same code (which would be wrong ...).

Note that the AI_liveries.xml file is meant for computer - computer communication, not for people. So do not pay attention to it and never make changes in it! Making changes to it makes no sense while it was only used for your previous run and may only be used by Learner. The next run a new one is created.

How to use regional carrier liveries is very simple, as wrote in the update notes box of the Release Notes. You only have to make sure your livery has the correct registration code. All the rest goes automaticcally. You don't even have to write the correct operator airline code in the icao_airline field...

 

@b  The regcode is used in the first step of the matching proces. If the regcode in the real traffic data is the same as the regcode of your livery it will be used for the creation of an aircraft in MSFS. 

You can prioritze with the folder parameters, suppose you have two paths to folders in parameters  lfolder0 and lfolder 1. 

If a KLM B738  livery is present in both packages, the one in lfolder0 is taken unless the one in lfolder1 has a registration code that is not available in lfolder0.

 

Edited November 21, 2021 by kiek

[truthknown 4]

I've always made changes in the AI_Liveries.xml file to add custom atc_id fields. For instance:

<livery airline="SKW" type="CRJ7" folder="1" cargo="false" title="AIGAIM_American Eagle Bombardier CRJ-700 - opb Skywest" atc_id="N745SK,N374CA,N606SK,N611SK,N613SK,N614SK,N63*SK,N65*CA,N70*SK,N70*EV,N71*SK,N71*EV,N72*SK,N72*EV,N73*SK,N73*EV,N74*SK,N74*EV,N75*SK,N75*EV,N76*SK,N76*EV,N761ND,N77*SK,N870DC,N872DC" regcode="N745SK" />

Where am I supposed to do this? In the aircraft.cfg? Can the atc_id field of the aircraft.cfg take all of that? 

I am also afraid that the aircraft.cfg changes would also get overridden in an AIG OCI update. Not sure how best to manage this.

[kiek 1,215]

12 hours ago, truthknown said:

Where am I supposed to do this? In the aircraft.cfg? Can the atc_id field of the aircraft.cfg take all of that? 

Yes in the aircraft.cfg field (as indicated in the Manual ..) .

And yes FSX/P3D/MSFS  can handle very long strings!  I and a lot of people I know about are doing that for almost 5 years now.... 

I am not sure about AGI OCI, I'm not using that myself. To my knowledge it will only reinstall the livery in the aircraft.cfg file if the title has changed and thus it thinks you do not have that livery. Since 29.1 PSXT does not touch the title anymore, so I believe you are safe.

 

[truthknown 4]

Ok, so i tried some stuff and it seems i'm making things worse. This is relating to static aircraft loading. I am getting tons of random liveries for planes spawning (using KORD as a test bed).

One issue I see is the following: 

I placed the registration codes into the aircraft.cfg as you suggested, but if I have multple reg codes on a regional aircraft livery, it does not end up converting the airline to the right regional carrier

For example, there are 2 liveries for the Skywest United Express. I placed the long registration list on the first one.

Spoiler

 

[fltsim.26]
title=AIGAIM_United Express Bombardier CRJ-200 - opb Skywest Airlines
model=UALX-United Express_opb Skywest Airlines
texture=UALX-United Express_opb Skywest Airlines
atc_id=N223JS,N207PS,N221PS,N246PS,N41*SW,N423SW,N43*SW,N440SW,N443SW,N45*SW,N46*SW,N468CA,N47*CA,N487CA,N492SW,N494CA,N593ML,N629BR,N652BR,N679SA,N69*BR,N701BR,N809CA,N85*AS,N86*AS,N87*AS,N880AS,N881AS,N889AS,N90*SW,N90*EV,N91*SW,N91*EV,N92*SW,N92*EV,N93*SW,N93*EV,N94*SW,N95*SW,N96*SW,N97*SW,N98*SW
atc_airline=SKYWEST
atc_parking_types=GATE,RAMP
atc_parking_codes=UALX
ui_manufacturer=Raven AI Labs
ui_type=Bombardier CRJ-200
ui_variation=United Express SkyWest
ui_createdby=Provided by: KAIW Filename: rfsl_ualx_crj2_p3d.zip
description=RFSL_CRJ-200-200(fs20)
isAirTraffic=1
isUserSelectable=0
icao_airline=UALX

[fltsim.27]
title=AIGAIM_United Express Bombardier CRJ-200 - OC opb Skywest Airlines
model=UALX-United Express_OC opb Skywest Airlines
texture=UALX-United Express_OC opb Skywest Airlines
atc_id=N920SW
atc_airline=SKYWEST
atc_parking_types=GATE,RAMP
atc_parking_codes=UALX
ui_manufacturer=Raven AI Labs
ui_type=Bombardier CRJ-200
ui_variation=United Express SkyWest
ui_createdby=Provided by: KAIW Filename: rfsl_ualx_crj2_p3d.zip
description=RFSL_CRJ-200-200(fs20)
isAirTraffic=1
isUserSelectable=0
icao_airline=UALX

 

These are the results in the AI_Liveries.xml

Spoiler

 

<livery airline="UAL" type="CRJ2" folder="1" cargo="false" title="AIGAIM_United Express Bombardier CRJ-200 - opb Skywest Airlines" atc_id="N223JS,N207PS,N221PS,N246PS,N41*SW,N468CA,N487CA,N492SW,N494CA,N593ML,N629BR,N652BR,N679SA,N69*BR,N701BR,N809CA,N85*AS,N86*AS,N880AS,N881AS,N889AS,N90*SW,N90*EV,N91*SW,N91*EV,N92*SW,N94*SW,N95*SW,N96*SW,N97*SW,N98*SW" regcode="" />

 <livery airline="SKW" type="CRJ2" folder="1" cargo="false" title="AIGAIM_United Express Bombardier CRJ-200 - OC opb Skywest Airlines" atc_id="N920SW" regcode="N920SW" />

 

Notice the first one was never changed from UAL to SKW but the second one was with only a single regcode. This is happening to all of the regional carriers with multiple regcodes. I tried flipping them, moving the reg codes to the 2nd livery and the same thing happened to the 2nd livery while the 1st one was changed to SKW.

 

So first question - why is this happening? Second question, do I even need to keep doing this with your dbase.xml? Third, how do I get the right liveries to show up with static aircraft?

 

Thanks!

[kiek 1,215]

7 hours ago, truthknown said:

So first question - why is this happening? Second question, do I even need to keep doing this with your dbase.xml? Third, how do I get the right liveries to show up with static aircraft?

First: thats because with a long list in atc_id and no regcode in the title, PSXT cannot decide in the conversion from atc_id to single unique regcode, what the regcode would be, resulting in an empty regcode field. With no (unique) regcode PSXT cannot use the database to correct the operator code.  

However, lyou do not need to put a long list in atc_id= field, just 1 registration code, preferably the exact one of the livery will do! (and PSXT will do the rest)

Okay, if you do like I said, you will have two SKW for UAL liveries known to PSXT. For live aircraft matching you are then all set for a match in step1 or step 2.

However, for static aircraft matching, the problem is that the entries in the airport file don't have registration codes. That's why I came up with the solution to add opf="xxx" to the entries if an regional carrier parks.  Before you can take advantage of it, you will have to let PSXT learn the airport for a while...

I've to tested some hours at KORD recently and it works like a charm, see for instance this snippet:

    <parkpos id="C1" latitude="41.976315" longitude="-87.910660" heading="7.9" radius="18.0" cargo="false" ramp="false">
        <aircraft>
            <option airline="GJS" type="CRJ7" opf="UAL" real="false" hours="21,22" />
            <option airline="SKW" type="E75L" opf="UAL" real="true" hours="2" />
            <option airline="SKW" type="E75L" real="true" hours="1,2,18" />
        </aircraft>
    </parkpos>
 

The second SKW entry without an opf is an old entry from before the introduction of opf. I recommend to remove KORD.xml from  your Parked_updates folder and start fresh again. With the current traffic volumes you'll have a good airport file in a day. The Learner app is a perfect tool for that.

Enjoy!

Nico

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by kiek

[truthknown 4]

Ok, i'm getting somewhere. Now I am getting a few weird matchings for static aircraft. These all have liveries assigned, yet are matching incorrectly.

Spoiler

 

AAL19_    AAL A319 =6= AIGAIM_Slovak Government Flight Service Airbus ACJ319 - OM-BYA
AAL22_    AAL B772 =8= AIGAIM_Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777-200F - Expo 2020

THY33_    THY B77W =7= AIGAIM_ANA Cargo Boeing 777-200F - Blue Jay
UAL40_    UAL B753 =7= AIGAIM_Aviastar-TU Boeing 757-200WL - SF
CSN62_    CSN B77L =6= B77L BOX
AAL67_    AAL A321 =7= AIGAIM_Kingdom of Cambodia Airbus ACJ320 - B-6738
AAL68_    AAL A321 =7= AIGAIM_Kingdom of Cambodia Airbus ACJ320 - B-6738
SOO79_    SOO B738 =6= AIGAIM_His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn Boeing BBJ2 WL - SN HS-HMK

 

 

Also, for this livery, the registration used to be owned by Dow Chemical and now is American Eagle operated by Skywest. So I get why the livery was placed as SKW. Therefore I added it to the specials list so it wouldn't be used for static aircraft, yet it still spawned in place of an American Eagle Skywest livery:

SKW51_    SKW CRJ7 =2= AIGAIM_Dow Chemical Bombardier Challenger 870 - N872DC
 

[kiek 1,215]

12 hours ago, truthknown said:

Now I am getting a few weird matchings for static aircraft. These all have liveries assigned, yet are matching incorrectly

Just a quick comment via my smartphone: 

That's because you have set your static matching depth too high. If you set it at 3 you will  see good static parked aircraft matches only.

Please read the Manual carefully,  especially Chapter 9.

 

 

[truthknown 4]

Ahh yes. I had this set correctly for P3D. Forgot to change these for MSFS... Looking much better now! Thank you so much for these changes, the regional jet solution is really elegant. Doesn't require much work from us at all. I was doing too much! LOL!

I have one livery where PSXT doesnt seem to want to take the registration code N744P. This code is in the dbase file with the correct airline and aircraft type, although it's not the full 6 character code that would be expected. When PSXT runs, it does not put the regcode for this livery into the AI_Liveries file. Since it is a special livery, I have the code in the specials list, but because its not adding the regcode, its spawning them randomly as static aircraft. 

 

 

[kiek 1,215]

On 11/26/2021 at 8:34 PM, truthknown said:

I have one livery where PSXT doesnt seem to want to take the registration code N744P. 

Will be fixed in 29.4

[somiller 694]

Wouldn't it be nice if payware from other vendors was supported as well as FREE PSXT?!!!

Of course the option exists to throw Nico a bone for all his hard work!

[truthknown 4]

5 hours ago, somiller said:

Wouldn't it be nice if payware from other vendors was supported as well as FREE PSXT?!!!

Of course the option exists to throw Nico a bone for all his hard work!

Absolutely! Support here is tremendous and I have thrown him a bone!