New features suggestions

[vcaptain747 44]

Hi Nico,

Thank you again for your continuous effort on this program!

I thought of two features that I would like to suggest:

Suggestion 1:

In real world, some international flights are scheduled only once or twice a week, take AUA74 for example which comes to Montreal on mondays, wednesdays and saturdays. Hence, seeing Austrian parked in Montreal on fridays kinda "ruins" the experience for realism freaks  😂.   What I suggest it to add lines in the airport file to prevent specific airline form showing during specific days , something like this:

<airlines_schedules>

<sched  airline="AUA"  days="1,0,1,0,0,1,0">  

<sched  airline="TAR"  days="0,0,1,0,0,1,0,">

</airline_schedules>

 When the program starts, it check the current sim day of the week, and applies schedule restrictions accordingly. For airlines with no schedules, it just loads them as usual.

 

Suggestion 2:

I usually tend to start the simulator few hours before making a flight and have the aircraft sitting on the gate waiting for the real life flight Ill be following to depart . During this time, PSX would have enough time to update most gate positions with real life traffic and I end up with an accurate snapshot of what's going on on that airport, and most importantly have that real life flight i'll be following parked at a gate. Now you come to fly and realize that something is wrong with sim and you need to restart it. By doing so, you simply loose that data as PSX will just load aircraft positions based on the parked_updated airport file when restarted. Sure thing the Actual hours and Real Only options come handy in this situation , but not all the time, especially when you have a many parking options for each gate for the same hours.   

What if we have a feature to take a snapshot of the airport positions and be able to load that snapshot during the next start if desired? the snapshot in this case is an airport xml file with only one entry for each gate or no entry if that gate was empty at the time of the snapshot.    

 

Thank you in advance and apologies for the lengthy post!

Amine.

 

 

 

[somiller 694]

A better solution is already provided with PSXT - the Learner program. Run the Learner with RealTraffic for a day at the airports you want to fly from-to and let it build a 24 hour snapshot, then whenever you start the sim and run PSXT/RealTraffic you'll have traffic and parked aircraft appropriate for your current time.

[kiek 1,213]

9 hours ago, somiller said:

A better solution is already provided with PSXT - the Learner program. Run the Learner with RealTraffic for a day at the airports you want to fly from-to and let it build a 24 hour snapshot, then whenever you start the sim and run PSXT/RealTraffic you'll have traffic and parked aircraft appropriate for your current time.

Not really.  I think what the OP means is that, if you exit PST and restarts it 5 minutes later, you'll get a different allocation of the aircraft parked over the gates if you have more options per gate for that hour, due to the randomness built in....

Edited December 12, 2021 by kiek

[kiek 1,213]

18 hours ago, vcaptain747 said:

Suggestion 1:

Suggestion 2:

Hi Amine,

Thank you for your suggestions!

@1) This is of interest to very few people I guess... Do you mean that you want to add these day schedules by hand your self? A more generic solution would be that PSXT also stores the day of the week (next to the hour), like this:

Spoiler

 

    <parkpos id="A43" latitude="52.300316" longitude="4.755363" heading="58.1" radius="15.1" cargo="false" ramp="false">
        <aircraft>

           <day1>
                    <option airline="KLM" type="E190" real="true" hours="10,11,19" />
                    <option airline="KLM" type="E75L" real="true" hours="12" />

           </day1>

           <day2>

                   <option airline="AUA" type="E190" real="true" hours="14" />
          </day2>

             ...

         <day7>

                 <option airline="KLM" type="E75L" real="true" hours="16" />
                 <option airline="NJE" type="C56X" real="true" hours="10" />
                 <option airline="SAS" type="CRJ9" real="true" hours="10,19" />
         </day7>

       </aircraft>
    </parkpos>

 

But that would multiply the size of the airport files by 7... That will cost more time to process and it takes more memory. Computers are fast and have lots of memory these days, but do we want this...?

 

@2 I see what you mean. This may be of interest to many more users, and it is not difficult to implement.

I'm thinking of generating a snapshot file (again ICAO code.xml but in subfolder SnapShots of parked_updates) with date and time of day parameters. This file contains the parking positions, indicated by the gateId, of static and live aircraft with their registration codes, airline, type and opf codes  That not only when you exit PSXT but when you fly away from an airport too! If you restart PSXT within say 30 minutes or if you return to the airport within that time frame (due to engine failure ;-)) you'll see basiccally  the  same aircraft still standing at the same gates in the very same livery (assuming your liveries have a registration code),  and maybe some new live aircraft too, of course.

I'll add matching of a static parked aircraft based on registration code, just for this purpose.

I'm already exited to work on it!

Here a prototype of a snapshot file:

Spoiler

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<parameters>
    <parameter name="last_update" value="Dec 12, 2021" />
    <parameter name="last_hour" value="10" />
    <parameter name="last_minute" value="9" />
</parameters>
<snapshot>
    <parked id="B35" regcode="" airline="PVT" type="A20N" opf="" />
    <parked id="C14" regcode="" airline="PVT" type="B737" opf="" />
    <parked id="C7" regcode="EI-IMX" airline="ITY" type="A319" opf="" />
    <parked id="C9" regcode="PH-BXA" airline="KLM" type="B738" opf="" />
    <parked id="D54" regcode="" airline="PVT" type="B737" opf="" />
    <parked id="D7" regcode="EC-MSZ" airline="AEA" type="B789" opf="" />
    <parked id="E18" regcode="N512DN" airline="DAL" type="A359" opf="" />
    <parked id="E20" regcode="" airline="PVT" type="A339" opf="" />
    <parked id="H4" regcode="OE-IJS" airline="EJU" type="A320" opf="" />
    <parked id="K23" regcode="VH-TGG" airline="PVT" type="CL60" opf="" />
    <parked id="P2" regcode="PH-EXG" airline="KLM" type="E75L" opf="" />
</snapshot>

Nico

 

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by kiek

[vcaptain747 44]

8 hours ago, kiek said:

 That not only when you exit PSXT but when you fly away from an airport too! If you restart PSXT within say 30 minutes or if you return to the airport within that time frame (due to engine failure ;-))

Thank you sir for taking that suggestion to the next level! It'll definitely increase realism .

Bellow are some clarification regarding the first one:

8 hours ago, kiek said:

Do you mean that you want to add these day schedules by hand your self?

Indeed. The user would be responsible of defining the schedule for airlines he chooses. for remaining ones , it just loads them as usual.

 

8 hours ago, kiek said:

A more generic solution would be that PSXT also stores the day of the week (next to the hour), like this:

Originally I thought of it the same way you proposed. But this approach has many drawbacks. Aside from the substantial file size increase and the incurred performance hit, we will have to run the learner, or the sim for at least a week to get real data for all days, otherwise we end up with an empty airport (or filled woth not real a/c positions) if no data for the current day is found. and then good luck updating the file if that airline schedule changes, which they do frequently especially with the dreaded COVID-19 situation.

So, to overcome these drawback (and eventually simplify the implementation if you consider it) ,  I propose  to add the schedules section to the beginning of the airport file like this with no other changes to the remainder of the file , like this: 

   

Spoiler

.... truncated...

<parameter name="actual_hour_only" value="1" />
    <parameter name="learn" value="1" />
    <parameter name="real_only" value="1" />
</parameters>

<airlines_schedules>

<sched  airline="AUA"  days="1,0,1,0,0,1,0">  

<sched  airline="TAR"  days="0,0,1,0,0,1,0,">

</airline_schedules>

<parkpositions>

.... truncated...

<parkpos id="g57" latitude="45.459808" longitude="-73.754555" heading="195.6" radius="33.1" cargo="false" ramp="false">
        <aircraft>
            <option airline="AFR" type="A320" real="true" hours="16" />
            <option airline="AFR" type="A359" real="true" hours="0,21,22,23" />
            <option airline="AMX" type="B38M" real="true" hours="4,6" />
            <option airline="AUA" type="B763" real="true" hours="1,2" />
            <option airline="BAW" type="B788" real="true" hours="0,1,2,3" />
            <option airline="BAW" type="B789" real="true" hours="1,2" />

Let's say the current day is Tuesday,  and time is 0100Z. Currently if you start PSXT, the is a chance that AUA will be parked at G57 , even though is doesn't fly to YUL in that day in real life. With the feature ON, PSXT will get the sim or system current day , then checks the  <airlines_schedules> section. it will find that AUA days are "1,0,1,0,0,1,0" (Mo,Tu,We,Th,Fr,Sa,Su) ,  and will block any aircraft  with airline AUA from loading at any gate. No file size increase, a small performance footprint and very easy way to update schedules when needed. 

I remember you have added a feature at some point to prevent PSXT from loading more than two aircrafts of user defined airlines in the xml. Maybe you can re-use the same code or the block callsign code to achieve this?  

 

8 hours ago, kiek said:

This is of interest to very few people I guess

I agree . but for those who care a "bit too much" about realism , it makes a difference 🙂 . Anyways, I hope you consider it if it's not too much of a hassle to implement, as you already did once for my Destination Gate suggestion 😉

 

Thank  you !

Amine.

Edited December 12, 2021 by vcaptain747

[vcaptain747 44]

8 hours ago, kiek said:

I'm already exited to work on it!

 

Glad to see you like the idea!

[kiek 1,213]

Suggestion 2 has been implemented in version 29.8, see the Release Notes

Nico

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by kiek

[vcaptain747 44]

Thank you Nico! Will give it a try tonight.

Amine.

[kiek 1,213]

Suggestion 1 has been implemented in version 29.9, see the Release Notes.

Any more suggestions? 😉

 

[vcaptain747 44]

7 hours ago, kiek said:

Suggestion 1 has been implemented in version 29.9, see the Release Notes.

Thank you for the early Xmas gift!

 

7 hours ago, kiek said:

Any more suggestions? 😉

well.. I do have 2 more actually. 🙄 

I'll open another thread for the first and withhold the second until I can figure out all specifics in my head.

Thank you again,

Amine.

[vcaptain747 44]

Hi Nico,

I did some testing and confirm that both features are working like a bliss!

However, it seems that a bug might have slipped in version 29.9 . The Actual Hours option is no longer functional and the following warning message is displayed whenever you turn it on: "No static aircraft to be parked ,there is no gate with real + time option that fit at this hour"  .

I  confirm that my parked_updates  file is 1300+ lines long and does have entries for the actual hour.  When I launch 29.8 with the exact same file , it works just fine.

 

18 hours ago, kiek said:

Suggestion 1 has been implemented in version 29.9, see the Release Notes.

Back to suggestion 1. Sadly, It seems like international travel bans due to COVID19 are more likely to be reinstated,  and sooner than later , airline schedules will start to shrink as some airlines will cut international flights to several airports altogether. So, the idea is to add day="0" (fantasy of every grown man with a hobby , the NO wife, NO work NO kids day! in that order..😂) as an option in the schedule definition to prevent specific airlines from ever showing at the airport. 

One last thing. Simply wanted to highlight a new benefit of the snapshot feature which is the flexibility to position an aircraft at a designated gate if you have the information . So if you know that a real-world flight is departing for a certain gate (information from flightaware), you could edit your snapshot file manually to have PSXT place it exactly where you want it to be.

Thank you!

Amine.      

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by vcaptain747

[kiek 1,213]

10 hours ago, vcaptain747 said:

However, it seems that a bug might have slipped in version 29.9 . The Actual Hours option is no longer functional and the following warning message is displayed whenever you turn it on: "No static aircraft to be parked ,there is no gate with real + time option that fit at this hour"  .

I  confirm that my parked_updates  file is 1300+ lines long and does have entries for the actual hour.  When I launch 29.8 with the exact same file , it works just fine.

Strange, it works over here just like before ... 

Could you test it again please? Maybe it is a combination of a schedule and the hours that makes your resulting set zero, and don't forget to take the real option into acccount.

Note that in 29.9 a bug was fixed that let some options slip through ..

Edited December 17, 2021 by kiek

[kiek 1,213]

6 hours ago, vcaptain747 said:

So, the idea is to add day="0" as an option in the schedule definition to prevent specific airlines from ever showing at the airport. 

I like this possibility, but I don't like to define a new day number. I propose to make it such that it interprets an empty days value as  a whole week, like this:

    <schedule airline="UAE" days="" />  will be interpreted as <schedule airline="UAE" days="1,2,3,4,5,6,7" />

(The same method is already in place for  hours=""  which is interpreted as all hours.)
 

Edited December 17, 2021 by kiek

[vcaptain747 44]

Hey Nico,

 

4 hours ago, kiek said:

 <schedule airline="UAE" days="" />  will be interpreted as <schedule airline="UAE" days="1,2,3,4,5,6,7" />

Won't this make UAE show up no matter what the day is? The idea is to make it the other way round meaning  if the days attribute is empty , then no gate should be allocated  for any aircraft from that airline.

Thanks,

Amine.

 

[vcaptain747 44]

6 hours ago, kiek said:

Maybe it is a combination of a schedule and the hours that makes your resulting set zero, and don't forget to take the real option into acccount.

I thought that might be the issue at first, so here is the test case I followed:

1. Delete the parked_updated xml file and the snapshot file
2. start version 29.9 and let it run for few minutes until it gets some gate updates.
3. Close PSXT . A fresh parked_update xml file is then created
4. Delete the snapshot file to force PSXT to use the new  parked_update instead.
5. start version 29.9 with Actual hour only on. The error message is displayed . confirm that the xml file contains options for the current hour.
6. uncheck actual hour, close PSXT, delete the snapshot file and start PSXT again.
7. Traffic is loaded with no error.
8. if you still have version 29.8 installed, then copy the new updates xml file from 29.9 to you 28.8 installation updates folder and delete any snapshots in there.
9. start 29.8 with actual hour ON and traffic loads with no issues.

Hope it helps!

Thanks,

Amine.

Edited December 17, 2021 by vcaptain747