Why do VATSIM aircraft 'bounce' on the ground?

[ErichB]

It's been happening for a a long time, but I have never come across any explanation or solution for this.  The multiplayer aircraft  on the ground sometimes 'bounce' up and down slightly which is quite jarring and immersion breaking.  Does anyone know why this happens and if there  is any known or planned solution for it.  Not sure if it's a VATSIM or a MSFS anomaly.  

 

EDit:  **Seen the question being asked, but no clear solution or explanation

Edited August 1 by ErichB

[BrammyH]

It is because they use GSX for pushback. It’s gotten better but GSX pushback uses slew mode to move the plane. 
 

it used to porpoise like crazy. 

[Lord Farringdon]

You can see this effect with AI as well. I have also noticed when I use Flight Control Replay that the user aircraft will skip and bounce like this too on replay. But in that case, it seems to be associated the application of the brakes. That may just be one trigger for this weird and annoying effect but lets hope whatever it is, that it gets fixed in FS2024. 

I don't use GSX, so I don't think it's associated with that. 

 

Cheers

Terry

Edited August 1 by Lord Farringdon

[ErichB]

27 minutes ago, BrammyH said:

It is because they use GSX for pushback. It’s gotten better but GSX pushback uses slew mode to move the plane. 
 

it used to porpoise like crazy. 

This isn't when GSX is actually performing an action.  The bouncing happens when other aircraft are taxiing, or even when they start/complete their takeoff or landing runs.

[frogs]

I believe it has to do with taxiway and runway elevations. The user aircraft will adhere to the ups and downs of the taxiways and runways smoothly but it seems AI aircraft follows a less detailed contour map (more jagged) so the AI aircraft follows a step up and down while moving……probably to save frames. 

[B777ER]

OP: I see it as well on Vatsim. It’s one thing that destroys immersion for me. Looks so mid-90’s tech. 

[ErichB]

3 hours ago, B777ER said:

It’s one thing that destroys immersion for me

Very much so

[-Belga-]

AFAIK the problem is caused by the different sceneries in combination with the various simulator platforms.

Think of the following: the MSFS default scenery of a certain airport has a taxiway elevation of 100 ft. The XP12 default scenery of the same airport may have an taxiway elevation of 102 ft. The P3D default scenery... you get it? Now add all those 3rd party sceneries to the equation...

So you VATSIM client can get wrong altitude informations from all those other airplanes which then are drawn maybe 2 feet above the taxiway.

So what can you do about it? IIRC, the Swift client is able to correct that offset. I don't know how vPilot deals with the problem, since I'm using Swift exclusively. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[ErichB]

14 minutes ago, -Belga- said:

AFAIK the problem is caused by the different sceneries in combination with the various simulator platforms.

Think of the following: the MSFS default scenery of a certain airport has a taxiway elevation of 100 ft. The XP12 default scenery of the same airport may have an taxiway elevation of 102 ft. The P3D default scenery... you get it? Now add all those 3rd party sceneries to the equation...

So you VATSIM client can get wrong altitude informations from all those other airplanes which then are drawn maybe 2 feet above the taxiway.

So what can you do about it? IIRC, the Swift client is able to correct that offset. I don't know how vPilot deals with the problem, since I'm using Swift exclusively. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Thanks Belga.  I've not heard of Swift.  Is it compatible with MSFS?.

The explanations make perfect sense.  I am just surprised, given where we are with tech, that some kind of universal smoothing has not been introduced.

 

Edited August 2 by ErichB

[-Belga-]

Swift is compatible with many flight simulators, among them also MSFS.

https://swift-project.org/#

If you want to try it, I recommend to download the current Alpha version (runs absolutely stable). Be advised, Swift is not as easy to use as vPilot but has way more features.

On the website you'll find installing and configuration tutorials. I recommend watching the video tutorials. They show the setup for XP11, but the setup for MSFS is mostly the same.

 

Edited August 2 by -Belga-

[ErichB]

56 minutes ago, -Belga- said:

Swift is compatible with many flight simulators, among them also MSFS.

https://swift-project.org/#

If you want to try it, I recommend to download the current Alpha version (runs absolutely stable). Be advised, Swift is not as easy to use as vPilot but has way more features.

On the website you'll find installing and configuration tutorials. I recommend watching the video tutorials. They show the setup for XP11, but the setup for MSFS is mostly the same.

 

In your opinion, what is the additional benefit of using Swift over vPilot? 

 

[-Belga-]

5 hours ago, ErichB said:

In your opinion, what is the additional benefit of using Swift over vPilot? 

 

 For me, lighting and especially model matching is far superior to vPilot. Swift has its own model database, so there is no need for messing around with a vmr-file. It works flawlessy with AIG or FSLTL models. I currently have more than 10.000 models in my database.