Adding/Creating Specific Airline Logo to CSL File

[Nelson Hoffman]

Hello:   

I fly XPlane11, and have the Bluebell CSL installed which enables me to se many aircraft in the matching colors/logos of the callsign.   I fly the Rotate MD80 with a TWA color scheme, downloaded and added to X Plane and I would like for other pilots to see the TWA markings correctly.   According to other pilots I appear to be Aerolineas Argentinas or Walker Air Transport.   Is there a way to configure a CSL file to represent the TWA  colors to others on the network?

Thank you.

[Andreas Fuchs]

Hi Nelson,

first of all: you have to understand that what each user gets displayed depends on what information is received from your pilot client and what aircraft models THEY have installed on their computers.

First, make sure you are logged in as "TWAxxxx" and that you have configured the aircraft-data in your pilot client correctly (MD80, TWA livery). Otherwise the principle "bad information sent to others = bad model matching for other users" will apply.

Secondly, only if other users have an MD80 in TWA colors as part of their model set, will their pilot clients be able to display you correctly. I am using X-Plane 11 and MSFS. For X-Plane 11, there is a TWA MD81 as part of the X-CSL package. For MSFS I do use the AIG model set and there is not a single aircraft from McDonnell Douglas, no MD80s at all.

If a pilot client does not receive the correct set of information it does not know what to do. And if it receives correct information, but does not have a corresponding model in its local set, it can only guess and attempt a match with something similar.

You see, it always takes two to tango 🙂

Edited February 7, 2022 at 09:27 AM by Andreas Fuchs

[Nelson Hoffman]

Andreas, thank you for your response.  That helps me better understand what other pilots may see or not see, and helps explain how that works.  I looked in my CSL folder and see a number of MD80 liveries, but no TWA.  This CSL library was downloaded and installed last night as part of installing the new XPILOT client  however, I do not see a TWA variant:

Also, I am not certain where to look to see if I have configured the aircraft-data in the pilot client correctly (MD80, TWA livery). Would you provide a bit more explanation on that statement? 

Thank you for your time in assisting me.

 

 

[Andreas Fuchs]

The definition of your OWN aircraft data should be in the logon-dialogue of xPilot:

https://beta.xpilot-project.org/#/client?id=connecting-to-vatsim

Indeed, for xPilot it seems to be sufficient to just enter a callsign and a valid aircraft type code. The first three letters of the callsign will be used to guess what airline you are using.

Now, if you logon as "TWA123" and Type Code "MD81", other clients will search for MD81s or another type of the MD80-series that has the livery of TWA. If there are MD80s, but none of TWA, it will pick an MD80 with another livery.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Hi, Nelson --

One thing it is often difficult to come to terms with is that on VATSIM you often will appear differently to different people.  It's one of the side-effects of the fact that there are, I think, at least 8 major sim platform versions able to connect on the network (MSFS2020, P3Dv5, P3Dv4, XP11, XP10, FSX, FS9, and FlightGear -- possibly other older versions of these too).  Within each sim, its user's Pilot Client has an infinitely variable library of AI models to use when representing other players, depending on whether that user has installed additional libraries, has focused on adding GA or commerical air carrier or military models, or has just left it to the sim and/or PIlot Client's default library, or what.  So it's just a fact of life that different users will see you differently.

Anything you do such as the above to improve the models YOU have installed may well improve how YOU see OTHERS, but will NOT unfortunately have any impact on how THEY see YOU.  For that, just make sure you're signing on with the correct three-letter air-carrier callsign (i.e. UAL instead of UA, AAL instead of AA, etcetera) and the correct aircraft ICAO code (i.e. B722 for a 727-200 instead of B727, etcetera) and hope for the best.

And if you happen to like flying under legacy callsigns for which there are not commonly AI models with appropriate liveries out there for anymore, don't worry.  Others will see you as something close, hopefully -- and you'll still help the memory of the aviation icons of the past live on.  😄

Edited February 7, 2022 at 07:18 PM by Robert Shearman Jr
clarified

[Nelson Hoffman]

Robert, thank you for your explanation and comments.   I now have a better understanding and appreciation of how aircraft may or may not be correctly portrayed on VATSIM due to the various sims and CSL files in use.   I enjoy flying as a legacy from the past, but sometimes the younger controllers have no idea of who North Central or Allegheny were.  And I don't think there was ever a three letter air carrier for those airlines when they were in operation.  The OAG listed them simply as NC or AL. 

Thank you.

[Nelson Hoffman]

Andreas,  thank you again for your time.  I confirmed that I correctly configured the airline code and aircraft type in the XPlane dialogue box.  I now understand how the CSL libraries and different sims on VATSIM work and the limitations.   VATSIM keeps getting better and better over time.   

Thank you sir.

[Andreas Fuchs]

7 hours ago, Nelson Hoffman said:

I enjoy flying as a legacy from the past, but sometimes the younger controllers have no idea of who North Central or Allegheny were.

If not done already, you may want to add a remark about the radio telephony callsign in your flightplan remarks-section: e.g. RTF/xxxxxx, CALL/xxxxxxx or CALLSIGN/xxxxxx. This will help ATCOs in getting your callsign right.

You are always welcome, VATSIM is a very helpful place.

Edited February 8, 2022 at 10:21 AM by Andreas Fuchs