Looks like vPilot doesn't care about custom model matching rule

[Richard Asberg]

More often than not, I see this generic twin engines airliner in MSFS even when I have thousands of AIG models downloaded I created a customer model matching rule from using Model Matching Magic.

In the example below, I don't see why vPilot will not pick up the correct aircraft type and livery when both the ICAO code for airline and aircraft is correct. Am I missing something obvious here which would explain why the generic model is used by vPilot...?

[Ross Carlson]

That model probably got marked as erroneous. Try version 3.4.0 in the Beta channel.

[Richard Asberg]

OK, will do.

[Richard Asberg]

Hey Ross, quick question if I may. When will you see anything here and I'm not fully sure when you would use it?

In my case after downloading 3.4.0, it stayed blank. First, I wasn't sure if it maybe was like a sorts of "built-in" .aircraft view but that I've learned is not the case.

Edited May 28, 2022 at 10:18 AM by Richard Asberg

[Ross Carlson]

That view lists all the models that vPilot found in its scan. Since yours is blank, then for some reason your models are not installed in the "usual" way. Where do you have your models installed?

[Richard Asberg]

Ah, that's odd why vPilot doesn't find my models. Since they are located in the Community folder via a junction point as seen below.

As you can see, the actual location is C:\AIG\aig-aitraffic-oci-beta but in the Community folder, I have the junction point called aig-aitraffic-oci-beta pointing to that folder.

[Ross Carlson]

Ahh, yeah, the standard folder enumeration code that vPilot uses probably ignores junctions.

[Ross Carlson]

I confirmed that it does, and here's a note from Microsoft as to why:

[Ross Carlson]

Richard, did you create the junction point, or did the AIG installer?

[Richard Asberg]

The junction point is created automatically by AIG AI Manager and my understanding is having the folder located inside the Community folder directly without the use of a junction point isn't recommended. Since that might result in paths longer than 256 characters. Hence when you use AIG AI Manager, you can point to a folder of your own choice (in my case C:\AIG to make it as simply and short as possible) and then the AIG AI Manager will create the junction point to this folder in your Community folder. For MSFS to find your models.

Not sure if there's a better way doing this?

Should also mention, even if the list in vPilot is empty as shown in the initial post, the model matching overall seems to be working pretty OK.

[Ross Carlson]

1 hour ago, Richard Asberg said:

Should also mention, even if the list in vPilot is empty as shown in the initial post, the model matching overall seems to be working pretty OK.

Yeah, it's not necessary for vPilot to find your models in order for them to be used for model matching. They'll only be used through a VMR file, not automatically.

Makes sense about the long path names, that has definitely been an issue because the community folder (at least for store purchases, not so much for steam users) already has a pretty long path name.

I'll look into alternative ways to support reparse points while searching the directory structure. I'm sure there's a way, it just might be a bit more involved.

[Richard Asberg]

Many thanks Ross!

[Ross Carlson]

Here's something odd ... I just moved the AIG models on my system into a different folder and created a junction, and vPilot found them just fine.

[Richard Asberg]

That's odd indeed. I thought of doing the same myself but decided not to to avoid ending up in a situation where AIG AI Manager won't find the models. 

Maybe I'm not thinking straight, too tired right now 😴

...could it be dependent on what type of junction point is used...? There are a couple of different ones and I'm not fully sure exactly how they differ from the top of my head

Edited May 29, 2022 at 12:10 AM by Richard Asberg

[Ross Carlson]

I used the /j option, since that's the only one that creates a junction. Using /D creates a symbolic link that shows as <SYMLINK> in the directory listing. Using /H gives me an Access Denied error even though I ran the CMD prompt as admin. I believe this is because hard links only apply to files, not directories.

[Richard Asberg]

Ok, maybe I'll play around with it some more later on.

[Richard Asberg]

An update, just tried deleting the existing junction point (created by AIG AI Manager) and then recreating it myself. Just to see if there's something special about junction points having been created by AIG AI Manager that would cause this issue. Still same issue though with vPilot not showing any models.

Where do you keep your models at @Ross Carlson?

In my case as shown above, I have an AIG folder right under the root of the C drive. Then for the junction point, that one obviously needs to be located in the Community folder...or at least that is my understanding.

Edited May 29, 2022 at 05:29 PM by Richard Asberg
Correcting some spelling and grammar...

[Ross Carlson]

I use the Steam edition, and I have it on my D drive. My full community folder path is D:\MSFS\Community. I put the AIG models in D:\AIG, so my junction looks like this:

[Richard Asberg]

Got it.

As you've seen from previous screenshots, I'm using the MS Store version. With the quite long and complicated path to the Community folder.

That's the only difference I can think of 🤔

[Ross Carlson]

@Richard Asbergcan you please try this version?

https://vpilot.rosscarlson.dev/Assets/Files/Installers/vPilot-Setup-3.4.0.1.exe

This version fixes a bug with reading the layout.json files. It might be causing your issue.

[Richard Asberg]

@Ross Carlson

Success 👍

 

[Ross Carlson]

Okay that explains it ... there was a bug in reading the layout.json files that would cause the whole scan to abort prematurely without throwing a visible error. (Was only in the log files.) The whole junction point thing was a red herring.

I'll get the fix out soon.

[Richard Asberg]

Brilliant Ross, happy I could be of help testing this for you.

[Richard Asberg]

Hello Ross, hope you're doing well and had a good start of 2023!

Quick question about the Model Matching-Advanced page in vPilot, could you please refresh my memory what the difference is between found models and identified models?

I just started using the FSLTL models instead of the AIG models I used before. I've added the vmr file to vPilot for the FSLTL models which is created automatically during the installation process. After doing some quick tests, things seem to work well and I do have what appears to be good overall model matching with these new models.

What makes me a bit worried is how vPilot tells me it only identified 56 models out of 2626 models found. That doesn't sound very good but maybe not an issue since the model matching seems to work? I'm just curious why so few models are said to be identified by vPilot.

I also noticed how unchecking the top level on the advanced page in vPilot settings doesn't uncheck the items below. Which seems a bit odd. Usually when you untick a box in this type of list, that will automatically also untick anything below. And vice versa, ticking a box at a higher level will automatically tick all boxes below.

Looking at the models found by vPilot and listed on the Advanced page, I saw how all Asobo models were found as well as my PMDG 737 models. Since I don't want any of these to be used for online model matching, I went ahead and manually unticked all of them but obviously kept the FSLTL models.

Not sure though if this step was required since I haven't head anyone mention it in the tutorials I've seen on installing the FSLTL models to be used for model matching by vPilot. All of them pretty much said all you need to do is add the FSLTL vmr file to vPilot and then you're good to go. I guess in a way they are right in the sense that your model matching will work. On the other hand, for performance reasons it makes sense to untick any aircraft which wasn't built for model matching. Like all the Asobo aircraft and the PMDG models. Or am I missing something?

Thanks in advance for any clarification around all this. I posted a similar question over in the new Vatsim forum as well. Not sure where you spend your time these days 🙂

[Ross Carlson]

Answered in new forums.