Model Match Warnings

[Brian Pryor 810138]

Is it possible in a future build/version to set it so any model matching issue warnings can be disabled?

 

TBH I love flying on the network with vPilot until I roll into a busy airspace, and despite trying different AI sets, I still get model matching errors.

 

And hearing:

BEEP

seeing red text

(BEEP)

seeing red text

 

etc. go across the screen until it finally gets to a model it likes is distracting.

 

I'm content when it finds some model to use, and I have tried using the default options and i've also tried using the tool to scan your a/c and build a custom file. Yet I still have the semi frequent model matching errors till it settles on one.

 

Thanks.

[Bradley Grafelman]

Is it possible in a future build/version to set it so any model matching issue warnings can be disabled?

Ross has repeatedly turned down this request in the past... and I can't say I fault his logic; if you don't have your model matching set up, the nuisance warning is hopefully enough of a nuisance to push you to fixing them.

 

Using VMRGenerator to generate a custom ruleset should have solved that, unless your FSX isn't correctly configured to look in the same directories that VMRGenerator thought it was or you didn't remove other rulesets after adding the custom one VMRGenerator created.

[Don Desfosse]

Agree. Disabling the alerts is putting a band aid on; the right thing to do is cure the illness. Run VMRGenerator.

[Brian Pryor 810138]

I'll give VMR another try, pretty sure the models are installed and working as it eventually does find something that fits.

[Daniel Parkin]

I appreciate this is quite a bump for this thread but I'm going to add my voice for having an option to remove the matching warning sound. An incorrectly matched model doesn't have a material effect on my enjoyment of flying on VATSIM but an annoying beep I can't switch off does.

 

You'll probably say, as you have above, that I need to fix the problem not the symptom, but without spending hours scouring the internet for a reasonable model for the aircraft that are missing there is no solution, you can't easily set a bespoke model like you can in FSInn (a more complicated but far superior system imho). Lets also clarify that packages like WOAI aren't perfect, some of them are old and out of date. Also there's little or no contingency to deal with other pilots on the network who have incorrectly configured aircraft.

 

All the above factors increase the incidence of model matching error messages. While you're at it let us turn off or change the volume of the text message noise

[Ross Carlson]

You'll probably say, as you have above, that I need to fix the problem not the symptom, but without spending hours scouring the internet for a reasonable model for the aircraft that are missing there is no solution.

 

The problem isn't that you are lacking a suitable model for any given aircraft. The problem is that you have loaded a .vmr file that points to models that you don't have. The errors are fixable without any scouring of the internet. You just need to uninstall the .vmr files that refer to models that are not installed in your sim.

 

Lets also clarify that packages like WOAI aren't perfect, some of them are old and out of date. Also there's little or no contingency to deal with other pilots on the network who have incorrectly configured aircraft.

 

All the above factors increase the incidence of model matching error messages.

 

That's actually not correct ... neither of these situations will cause the errors. I'll address them individually:

 

1) Regarding WoAI being out of date. If you load a .vmr file for one of the WoAI packages that is out of date, say for example it contains a model for an aircraft that the airline doesn't actually fly any more, that will not cause errors as long as you actually have that package installed.

 

2) Regarding other pilots incorrectly configuring their pilot client, that will not cause any errors. The only thing that happens in that case is that vPilot won't be able to find a valid match for that pilot, and it'll fall back to using your default model to show that pilot. Again, no error is shown in this case.

 

You just need to identify which .vmr files you have downloaded which are for models that you don't actually have installed in your simulator. Then remove those .vmr files. That is how you get rid of the errors. The model matching test is helpful here.

 

You can also just remove ALL of your installed .vmr files, and use VMRGenerator to build a custom .vmr file for you to add manually.

[Bradley Grafelman]

use VMRGenerator to build a custom .vmr file for you to add manually.

... which, I suspect, is what a great many number of vPilot users have done. The downloadable rule sets are great for tightly coupled sets of models (the default ones that come with the sim, complete products like MyTraffic, etc.)... but not so much for buffet-style package collections like WoAI. For that, it makes the most sense to skip the pre-made rule sets and generate your own customized one.

[Ross Carlson]

The downloadable rule sets are great for tightly coupled sets of models (the default ones that come with the sim, complete products like MyTraffic, etc.)... but not so much for buffet-style package collections like WoAI.

 

They work fine for WoAI too, you just have to download only the rules for the packages you actually have installed. You can't just grab them all and hope it'll work, which is what I think a lot of users are doing.

[Bradley Grafelman]

They work fine for WoAI too, you just have to download only the rules for the packages you actually have installed. You can't just grab them all and hope it'll work, which is what I think a lot of users are doing.

Eh... "work fine" is a highly subjective opinion (one that I don't share). Yes, the tedious task of reading through hundreds of downloadable rule sets in the vPilot dialog and carefully selecting only the relevant ones, IMHO, "works."

 

Contrast that with VMRGenerator - minimal input from the user and you're a couple of mouse clicks away from a tailored VMR ruleset (one that doesn't depend on new/updated/etc. packages from being analyzed and uploaded to the Metacraft server in the form of an updated/new rule set). That is something that "works fine."

[Ross Carlson]

Yes, our respective definitions of the word "fine" may not match. Using the WoAI rules files worked fine for me ... I just grabbed all the US airlines and a handful of the non-US airlines that I see frequently on VATSIM, and I was done in no time, because all the US airline rules can be selected with a single click. That's why I grouped them the way I did. If you want to pick and choose within each category, then it'll certainly take longer, but I'm not sure why you would do that.

 

Really, the right way to do model matching is to have vPilot scan the FSX.cfg file, look for the SimObjects lines, and then scan those folders for aircraft.cfg and sim.cfg files, and p[Mod - Happy Thoughts] those into accurate model matching rules based on established heuristics. This would be the best of both worlds ... no external app, no configuration, and it'll be guaranteed to only scan folders that are actually properly configured in the sim. This is something I've been planning to do for quite some time, but I've been holding off because I've been talking to the swift devs about a totally different model matching system that we may implement together. Such a system may or may not include an "official" VATSIM model set, which is something I really think we need.

[Brian Pryor 810138]

Still, do we really need one of the most annoying sounds in the world as something that is not toggle-able?

 

Would it really cause any harm to keep on screen warnings and the sound as something that can be disabled or at least changed to something more acceptable.

 

If you fly in during an event and any of the files are out of sync, good luck as it'll sound like a slot machine from hades going off as you're trying to listen to the controller (whose mic may or may not be of any reasonable quality)

[Don Desfosse]

You can change the sound to anything you like, as described in the tips and tricks post.

 

We've given the advice out dozens of times -- run vmrgenerator -- cure the illness, don't mask the symptoms. Most listen, do just that, and have great results (and many even come back and thank us for the advice).

[Ross Carlson]

To the same degree to which you are baffled that I won't add the ability to silence the error beep, I am baffled that you would want to continue using vPilot configured incorrectly.

 

Still, do we really need one of the most annoying sounds in the world as something that is not toggle-able?

 

It is toggle-able ... you silence the errors by fixing your configuration.

[Daniel Parkin]

Most listen, do just that, and have great results (and many even come back and thank us for the advice).

I am listening, I'm just choosing to ignore your advice

 

To the same degree to which you are baffled that I won't add the ability to silence the error beep, I am baffled that you would want to continue using vPilot configured incorrectly.

Because my priorities are obviously different to yours, Ross. Having every single aircraft perfectly matched is much lower in my priorities than turning off an annoying beep.

 

I better add that I'm not ungrateful for the immense time and effort you've put in over the years to provide this software (and others) for free. I'm just frustrated by the inability to easily develop a bespoke setup using vPilot that suits my needs.

[Ross Carlson]

Because my priorities are obviously different to yours, Ross. Having every single aircraft perfectly matched is much lower in my priorities than turning off an annoying beep.

 

I fear you're still not quite understanding why you're getting errors. The error is NOT telling you that you have an imperfect match. It is telling you that vPilot cannot create the aircraft AT ALL because you have configured vPilot to use models which you do NOT have installed. vPilot is trying to do what you have told it to do, but it cannot, because you have told it to do something impossible. (Namely, you have told it to use models which do not exist on your system.) To silence the errors, you must fix your configuration. End of story.

 

To fix your configuration, all you have to do is remove the model matching rules that you've downloaded which refer to models that you don't have installed. For example, if you've downloaded the rule set for Ultimate Traffic, but you don't have Ultimate Traffic installed, then remove the Ultimate Traffic rule set from the list of downloaded rule sets.

 

If you truly don't care about model matching and you want the shotgun approach to fixing your configuration, just remove ALL the downloaded rule sets and just use the default rule set for your sim. That will get you extremely basic model matching with no errors. (Unless of course you've manually deleted some of the default models from your sim, which I'll [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume you have not.)

 

I'm just frustrated by the inability to easily develop a bespoke setup using vPilot that suits my needs.

 

The way to get a bespoke setup is to use VMRGenerator. Whether or not that meets your definition of easy, I can't say. You said you tried it but still get errors. When you tried it, did you have ONLY the model matching rule set generated by VMRGenerator loaded?