Multi-player traffic not reporting Transponder state and code in simconnect (MSFS2020 vPilot 3.4.0)

[Jeff Damphier]

Hi just started playing around with VATSIM and noticed some odd behavior.

When getting data on the remote Traffic (SIMCONNECT_SIMOBJECT_TYPE_AIRCRAFT) via sim connects SimConnect_RequestDataOnSimObject with a data structure defined containing "TRANSPONDER CODE:1" and "TRANSPONDER STATE:1" both of these value return 0.  Most of the other values seem to return correctly.  Is this something fixable?  I was using the transponder state to let me know the aircraft was active vs inactive static airport airplane.  Best alternative I've found for is "LIGHT BEACON" state.  I still would like to get the transponder code to send priority GDL90 messages.

I've also noticed that most VATSIM traffic seem to hover 0-6 feet above the ground instead of being on the ground.  The simconnect var OnGround will frequently be 0, even though the plane should be on the ground.  I was able to work around this by using "PLANE ALT ABOVE GROUND MINUS CG" and then checking if < 10 feet.

Thanks.

[Ross Carlson]

That's normal, vPilot doesn't set transponder data on other aircraft models.

The hovering aircraft is probably due to geometry differences between the model used by the pilot and the model used in your sim for depicting the aircraft. I'm currently testing a change that should take care of that in most situations. It'll use the STATIC CG HEIGHT simvar to render the aircraft when the aircraft is reported as being on the ground.

vPilot does not set the PLANE ON GROUND simvar for other aircraft because this causes lots of problems with ground clamping between sims with different terrain elevations.