How to display models for new aircraft?

[Ned Hamilton 1215492]

Now that I've begin to enjoy Model matching and am getting the hang of it, I have a part technical and part philosophical question:

 

In the WOA models most airlines don't have the new Airbus and Boeing models. For example there is no model B787 for BAW but folks are flying the 787 in VATSIM.

 

I want to stick with the WOA models, but

 

I don't like the B787 planes showing up as FSX'x default A321 model. I think if someone is flying a B787 for BAW, I'd prefer it show up as maybe a B767 with BAW colors rather than as a white A321.

 

So I think I have two ways to do this: (1) I could add a B787 to the vPilot SimilarAircraft file so that vPilot "thinks" the 787 is a 767, or (2) I could add lines to the ModelMatching rules for each airline to render a TypeCode 787 aircraft as a 767.

 

Is my thinking in the right direction?

 

How have others solved this problem as new aircraft are added to airlines?

 

Thanks for any input.

[Ross Carlson]

I don't like the B787 planes showing up as FSX'x default A321 model. I think if someone is flying a B787 for BAW, I'd prefer it show up as maybe a B767 with BAW colors rather than as a white A321.

 

So I think I have two ways to do this: (1) I could add a B787 to the vPilot SimilarAircraft file so that vPilot "thinks" the 787 is a 767, or (2) I could add lines to the ModelMatching rules for each airline to render a TypeCode 787 aircraft as a 767.

 

Is my thinking in the right direction?

 

Yes, and I would definitely recommend your second option. The reason I say that is because if you go with the first option (adding B787 to the 767 line in SimilarAircraftTypes.txt) then you could cause vPilot to choose a 767 model for an aircraft when you actually have a 787 variant installed.

 

For example, if you encounter an aircraft that says it's a B783 with callsign DAL123 (totally contrived example, obviously) and your model matching rules include a rule for both a DAL B762 and a DAL B788, then vPilot might choose the B762 when you would rather have it choose the B788. It will depend on the order the rules appear in the file.

 

In other words, the SimilarAircraftTypes.txt file should only be used to list variants of the same base aircraft type, or to correct erroneous codes, such as A380 or B777. (That being said, the file does have different base types on the same line in some cases, but they are usually the more obscure types, not common ones like Boeings and Airbuses.)

 

For those reasons, I would recommend adding specific rules to your BAW rule set, as well as other airlines for which WoAI doesn't have the newer aircraft types.

 

I'll put some thought into adding another config file to vPilot that would allow for cross-matching similar base aircraft types. I'll probably end up doing this soon, so you may want to hold off on creating those rules since they'll be redundant if/when I add this feature.

[Ned Hamilton 1215492]

Thanks, Ross.