Does the parking position "type" really matter?

[samisahusky 13]

Despite having been in the flight sim world since 1998, I still don't know if the parking position type matters in P3Dv5.3  ... For example, I just downloaded WSSS from Imaginesim and all the gates are marked as type "Ramp Mil Cargo" but have the correct airline codes assigned, and gate numbers. Does this really matter or would AI traffic and/or ATC work better if I went and changed them to type "Gate Small/Medium/Heavy"? I've always tried to keep everything in the correct naming format - mil to mil, cargo to cargo, gate to gate, etc. but if it doesn't matter then why waste time doing it

[vadriver 247]

Steven

I have not changed the type at ISS's WSSS & observe it works well for my AI inventory.

Comprehensively airline coded gates of the appropriate size is more important as also observed ....... at all airports.

At WSSS for example, both SIA and TGW need both wide & narrow body gates, so check your inventory with AIC to see how many of each is needed ......... you don't need A320's parked at A380 gates "normally" 

The other "tweak" is to use for example the code SIAC as the code for freighters to park at the cargo terminal & perhaps SIAX for those pesky A320's.

[Ronaldo1978 26]

I once going through all aircraft.cfg of my AI setup. Smaller Aircraft (all props, ERJ145, CRJs) got type RAMP, all other and bigger civil aircraft GATE or CARGO, military aircraft MIL_COMBAT or MIL_CARGO. I eliminate all multiple strings like GATE,RAMP or RAMP,MIL_CARGO and so on. And I did other things and cleaned the entries.

After that the AI traffic went smoother and I got more AI traffic. The parking positions at the airport was better scattered so better interactions, ATC behaviour etc.

I think well-maintained aircraft.cfg are pretty important for a good AI experience.

[ncngrr 8]

What AI utility do you use for p3dv5?

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

On 5/26/2022 at 4:48 PM, samisahusky said:

Despite having been in the flight sim world since 1998, I still don't know if the parking position type matters in P3Dv5.3  ... For example, I just downloaded WSSS from Imaginesim and all the gates are marked as type "Ramp Mil Cargo" but have the correct airline codes assigned, and gate numbers. Does this really matter or would AI traffic and/or ATC work better if I went and changed them to type "Gate Small/Medium/Heavy"? I've always tried to keep everything in the correct naming format - mil to mil, cargo to cargo, gate to gate, etc. but if it doesn't matter then why waste time doing it

This is a not very well known tweak that often comes up and people always wonder why some devs mark their AFCADS like that.

The reason for this was due to a finding by either FSDT or FlyTampa years ago. Marking the parking positions as Mil Cargo keeps the sim from possibly populating the parking gate with default objects like tow bars, etc. By doing so, devs can place their own scenery objects there without having to worry about default objects popping up and being out of place.

Unfortunately, a lot of users don’t know this reason and think it’s either an error or mistake on the part of the developer, when it was actual done on purpose for a reason.

[Christopher Low 5,332]

The other option is to disable the default airport objects.

[pgde 571]

8 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

The other option is to disable the default airport objects.

How?

[Christopher Low 5,332]

Ah, I am thinking about the airport vehicles. Having said that, I have never seen any rogue static objects at any of my airports, although I do not use any of the default ones.

Edited May 28, 2022 by Christopher Low

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

4 hours ago, pgde said:

How?

Because when you use MIL parking codes the sim won’t place default sim vehicles/objects at those parking positions,  it will still place them at parking spots with regular parking codes. Basically it acts as a exclusion box.

Think of it like this. If you have a default airport with regular parking codes and you have your slider for airport density (not sure the sliders exact name) maxed out, the sim will populate all the airline parking spots with tow bars, push back vehicles, etc. Now if a developer makes a custom airport and wants to place their own objects in those same spots the only way to exclude the default vehicles/objects would be to have the user turn the same density slider full left or off, which would effect all airports. Rather than do that, they use Mil Cargo as a way to disable those objects that way you don’t have to adjust your density slider.

Read this post by Martin at FlyTampa explaining this back in 2012.

http://flytampa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5756

[Christopher Low 5,332]

I think he was responding to my post. I keep forgetting that some people still use default P3D airports. It is a strange concept to me

Edited May 28, 2022 by Christopher Low

[samisahusky 13]

On 5/27/2022 at 4:12 PM, ncngrr said:

What AI utility do you use for p3dv5?

AIG AIM OCI. And any small edits or corrections are done using OWL AI aircraft editor.

[samisahusky 13]

On 5/27/2022 at 5:48 PM, cmpbellsjc said:

This is a not very well known tweak that often comes up and people always wonder why some devs mark their AFCADS like that.

The reason for this was due to a finding by either FSDT or FlyTampa years ago. Marking the parking positions as Mil Cargo keeps the sim from possibly populating the parking gate with default objects like tow bars, etc. By doing so, devs can place their own scenery objects there without having to worry about default objects popping up and being out of place.

Unfortunately, a lot of users don’t know this reason and think it’s either an error or mistake on the part of the developer, when it was actual done on purpose for a reason.

This makes sense. Thanks for explaining. When I use freeware airports, I have a process for getting the airport "ready" for my personal options, including making its own folder in my "freeware" folder - 1) open AFCAD with MCX and create a new OBJ file with all the models (this will make sense in a moment). 2) open ADE and first import the new OBJ file into library objects manager. 3) Open AFCAD with ADE and change options there including runway/taxi lights, ILS, parking position changes, draw flags, etc. 4) compile AFCAD with objects attached. 5) Add scenery to CFG using Lorby addon manager. The reason for extracting the objects in MCX first is because when you open decompile the AFCAD, the objects are all there and placed correctly, however, when you compile after changes, those objects are gone except those you already have in the library. By extracting the models and making it a separate file and adding it to the library, the objects stay in tact when loading the scenery. Additionally, for example, Ray Smith (and the person "updating" his files to P3Dv4/5 when its nothing more than just modifying the draw flags for aprons and taxiways) frequently add a lot of ground eye candy that I find clutters up the parking position when placing GSX vehicles. I can entirely remove those objects from the entire airport by deleting it from the MCX model list, and removing its placement from ADE. Some others model static jetways onto the terminal buildings, MCX can (most of the time) remove those (if the object part for the jetway is not shared with another part of the terminal).

But anyway, I've gone off on a tangent and slightly off topic lol. The reason I ask and said all of the above is, I don't like to make ANY changes to payware airports. Except those that did not label parking positions correctly (A34 where it should be B34, duplicate position names/numbers, etc) but I try not to change the name of the parking position type because ADE will automatically convert the size to the default size for that type. In a large airport like WSSS, I would have to change each position type one at a time and then reenter the correct size (24m, 31m, 18m, etc) which would be quite time consuming. So if all it does is tell P3D/FSX to place or not to place ground objects at the gate, then I'll leave it alone. But if it does that AND would prevent AI from parking correctly, then I should change it.

[Juliett Alfa Romeo 513]

3 hours ago, samisahusky said:

AIG AIM OCI. And any small edits or corrections are done using OWL AI aircraft editor.

This?

[samisahusky 13]

12 minutes ago, Juliet Alpha said:

This?

yes. but I only use it to change small things like making sure all the variants have the same ui_manufacturer, or ui_type. Everything else is done in the AIM OCI tool.

However, that program or what I use it for is not on topic to this thread. This thread is about if the parking position types in the AFCAD at airports (freeware or payware) make any difference to where AI planes will park or where ATC will tell AI planes to park.

[pgde 571]

22 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

I think he was responding to my post. I keep forgetting that some people still use default P3D airports. It is a strange concept to me

Correcto!