Failed to create aircraft using model...

[Richard Asberg]

I've noticed how I keep getting the below message pretty much on every flight and it always seems to be referring to the same model but for different callsigns of course.

Is there any way I can tell vPilot not trying to use this model anymore? I'm a bit surprised why I see this since I thought I was only using AIG models via a custom rule set created by ModelMatchingMagic. Based on AIG models downloaded using AIG Manager I think the tool is called. Where this error message seems to suggest it's an Asobo model of the A320 NEO 🤔

This is the message I keep seeing:

[13:17:02] Failed to create aircraft GOLD1 using model "Airbus A320 Neo Asobo AirTraffic 00". The model may be corrupt or missing. vPilot will try to create the aircraft with a different model.

[Ross Carlson]

Check your VMR files for that model name and remove it.

[Richard Asberg]

Thanks, will check it out. Just a bit puzzled why that model would be found since to my knowledge, I'm only using AIG models.

[Ross Carlson]

Actually it's probably vPilot trying to use that model. That's one of the models that is included in the autogenerated rules that vPilot builds for MSFS. It will use that model for just about any popular twin jet (including Boeings and Airbuses) if no suitable match is found in your VMR files.

So the question is why isn't that model installed in your sim? It's included in all versions of MSFS. Did you uninstall it?

[Richard Asberg]

Ah, that explains it. I did uninstall any aircraft I never fly. Including the default A320 Neo.

I could of course reinstall it but is there any way to tell vPilot to never use any of the default MSFS models?

[Don Desfosse]

You can't tell vPilot to never select an MSFS aircraft.  You can, however, select a different default aircraft (one that's installed 😉 ).

 

Additional reading, in case it's helpful, from the vPilot Tips, Tricks, FAQ and Troubleshooting Guide

Q: I occasionally get an error message about failing to create an aircraft using a model. Any ideas?
A: The most common reason for this error is the user either changing the default display aircraft title to an invalid title, or deleting the default aircraft from their computer. You can select any valid aircraft as your default that you wish, but will need to type its exact name into the Title window). See this relevant section from the Documentation here: https://vpilot.rosscarlson.dev/Documentation#model-matching for more information.

Q: I'm thinking about changing the default aircraft model that vPilot uses for model matching. I'm thinking about using a payware flyable aircraft (e.g. PMDG NGX).  Any pitfalls with that?
A: STRONGLY suggest you DO NOT use a high-resolution flyable aircraft.  Using flyable aircraft as AI generally slows your sim to a crawl, as your sim will attempt to render a higher resolution image, eat up your system resources, lower your frame rates, and in an area where there are a lot of aircraft being rendered, may lower your frame rate to the point that the simulator is unusable.  AI utilize low resolution models that have a low impact on your frame rates.

[Ross Carlson]

1 hour ago, Richard Asberg said:

Ah, that explains it. I did uninstall any aircraft I never fly. Including the default A320 Neo.

I could of course reinstall it but is there any way to tell vPilot to never use any of the default MSFS models?

No, there is no way. Though it should be adding that model to the list of erroneous models in your vPilotConfig.xml file. It will not try to use that model again until the erroneous models list is cleared, which happens any time a scan of your installed models is performed, which happens any time any model aircraft.cfg files are added, deleted, or modified.

[Richard Asberg]

2 hours ago, Don Desfosse said:

You can't tell vPilot to never select an MSFS aircraft.  You can, however, select a different default aircraft (one that's installed 😉 ).

 

Additional reading, in case it's helpful, from the vPilot Tips, Tricks, FAQ and Troubleshooting Guide

Q: I occasionally get an error message about failing to create an aircraft using a model. Any ideas?
A: The most common reason for this error is the user either changing the default display aircraft title to an invalid title, or deleting the default aircraft from their computer. You can select any valid aircraft as your default that you wish, but will need to type its exact name into the Title window). See this relevant section from the Documentation here: https://vpilot.rosscarlson.dev/Documentation#model-matching for more information.

Q: I'm thinking about changing the default aircraft model that vPilot uses for model matching. I'm thinking about using a payware flyable aircraft (e.g. PMDG NGX).  Any pitfalls with that?
A: STRONGLY suggest you DO NOT use a high-resolution flyable aircraft.  Using flyable aircraft as AI generally slows your sim to a crawl, as your sim will attempt to render a higher resolution image, eat up your system resources, lower your frame rates, and in an area where there are a lot of aircraft being rendered, may lower your frame rate to the point that the simulator is unusable.  AI utilize low resolution models that have a low impact on your frame rates.

Many thanks, will try to change the default model used. Just need to find some "neutral" one 🙂 Or maybe just to make my life easier, I install anything currently not installed in MSFS. Meaning vPilot should find whatever it's looking for as far as MSFS goes anyway.

1 hour ago, Ross Carlson said:

No, there is no way. Though it should be adding that model to the list of erroneous models in your vPilotConfig.xml file. It will not try to use that model again until the erroneous models list is cleared, which happens any time a scan of your installed models is performed, which happens any time any model aircraft.cfg files are added, deleted, or modified.

To me, it looks like vPilot is always scanning through all my models whenever I launch vPilot. Even when no changes have been done to my installed aircraft and liveries.

[Ross Carlson]

6 hours ago, Richard Asberg said:

To me, it looks like vPilot is always scanning through all my models whenever I launch vPilot. Even when no changes have been done to my installed aircraft and liveries.

Interesting ... shouldn't be doing that. Can you send me the latest log file? It's in the same folder as the exe.

[Richard Asberg]

Did a quick test and it seems, first time I start vPilot, it will scan for new models. If I then close it and relaunch, it won't scan. I'm thinking if what triggers the scan maybe is when I've had MSFS running?

One thing's for sure is how I haven't made any changes myself to any of my online models.

Found 7 log files in total, below is the latest one.

2022-06-15 02:18:49.396 +02:00 [INF] vPilot version 3.4.3 starting up
2022-06-15 02:18:49.419 +02:00 [INF] Running in "Standalone" mode
2022-06-15 02:18:51.766 +02:00 [INF] Downloaded 7 servers
2022-06-15 02:18:52.186 +02:00 [INF] Validating "Msfs"
2022-06-15 02:18:53.297 +02:00 [INF] Aircraft config paths hash is different
2022-06-15 02:19:03.844 +02:00 [INF] vPilot version 3.4.3 starting up
2022-06-15 02:19:03.861 +02:00 [INF] Running in "Standalone" mode
2022-06-15 02:19:05.137 +02:00 [INF] Downloaded 7 servers
2022-06-15 02:19:05.541 +02:00 [INF] Validating "Msfs"
2022-06-15 02:34:32.451 +02:00 [INF] Connecting to network
2022-06-15 02:34:32.560 +02:00 [INF] Connected to network
2022-06-15 02:55:27.741 +02:00 [INF] Disconnected from network
2022-06-15 21:07:17.995 +02:00 [INF] vPilot version 3.4.3 starting up
2022-06-15 21:07:18.012 +02:00 [INF] Running in "Standalone" mode
2022-06-15 21:07:20.123 +02:00 [INF] Downloaded 7 servers
2022-06-15 21:07:20.535 +02:00 [INF] Validating "Msfs"
2022-06-15 21:07:23.522 +02:00 [INF] Aircraft config files have changed
2022-06-15 21:07:31.492 +02:00 [INF] vPilot version 3.4.3 starting up
2022-06-15 21:07:31.510 +02:00 [INF] Running in "Standalone" mode
2022-06-15 21:07:32.869 +02:00 [INF] Downloaded 7 servers
2022-06-15 21:07:33.271 +02:00 [INF] Validating "Msfs"
 

[Ross Carlson]

From that log snippet, I see that you ran vPilot 4 times today. The first time, it did a scan because of this:

31 minutes ago, Richard Asberg said:

Aircraft config paths hash is different

When vPilot starts up, it scans your system for aircraft.cfg files. The above message means that it found a new aircraft.cfg file, or one was removed, or one of the aircraft.cfg paths changed in some way. That change could be as simple as the letter casing changing. (E.g. one of the letters in the path changed from upper to lower case.)

The second time, no changes were detected.

The third time, it did a scan because of this:

36 minutes ago, Richard Asberg said:

Aircraft config files have changed

This means that one of the aircraft.cfg files changed in terms of its byte size or its last-modified timestamp.

The fourth time, no changes were detected, assuming the snippet you provided wasn't truncated after that last line.

[Richard Asberg]

Not that big of a deal I guess but what I don't understand is what's behind these changes you mention. Because once again, I don't make any changes myself. The only thing  I do is launch MSFS and vPilot.

Haven't touched any of my online models for quite some time now. The only time I would understand changes are done is when I'm running AIG AI Manager. Which I haven't done in weeks now or perhaps even months. Reason being it's such hard work and time consuming to update the VRM file generated by ModelMatchingMagic afterwards. To make sure ICAO codes are correct both when it comes to aircraft type and airlines. Unfortunately, I've noticed how those are often quite messed up with many incorrect codes whenever I've ran an update via AIG AI Manager.

Back to my initial issue with the "Failed to create aircraft using model..." message, I've now installed all default aircraft models in MSFS and hope that will fix that issue. Will find out soon enough I guess once I get time to do some more flying.

[Ross Carlson]

Note that the "Official" folder is included in the scan, so if MSFS is changing anything with the aircraft.cfg files in the official folder, that would trigger a scan as well.

In that log snippet, you started vPilot 4 times. Was MSFS restarted each time as well, or no?

[Richard Asberg]

Got it. Well, what MSFS decides to do in the background when I launch it, that I know nothing about 🙂

Can't recall to be honest but what I do remember is how I tried starting vPilot a couple of times just before posting in here. In order to see if it would keep scanning for new models every time it was launched.

[Ross Carlson]

It would be helpful to know what triggers the rescan. My guess is that it's something MSFS is doing when it starts up. Maybe it's modifying one of the aircraft.cfg files in the Official folder, thus causing it to have a new last-updated timestamp, which would trigger vPilot to rescan. To check if this is the case, try starting MSFS, then vPilot, and note whether or not it does a scan. Then, keep MSFS running, but exit and restart vPilot, and again note whether or not it does a scan. Then repeat this again to see if you can restart vPilot multiple times without it doing a scan, as long as MSFS stays running. Then, exit both MSFS and vPilot, and start both again, and note if it does a scan. This is to determine whether or not it's the MSFS restart that triggers it, versus something else.

[Richard Asberg]

See below:

1. Deleted all old vPilot log files
2. Started MSFS and loaded a flight
3. Started vPilot which scanned for new models
4. Restarted vPilot with MSFS running, no rescan made by vPilot after 3 attempts
5. Restarted MSFS followed by vPilot which now scanned for new models again

So there we have it, apparently MSFS will change something every time you launch it. Which makes vPilot think something changed to the models.

After doing the above, I had one new log file created with the below content:

2022-06-16 00:10:18.420 +02:00 [INF] vPilot version 3.4.3 starting up
2022-06-16 00:10:18.439 +02:00 [INF] Running in "Standalone" mode
2022-06-16 00:10:20.743 +02:00 [INF] Downloaded 7 servers
2022-06-16 00:10:21.176 +02:00 [INF] Validating "Msfs"
2022-06-16 00:10:22.450 +02:00 [INF] Aircraft config files have changed
2022-06-16 00:11:14.482 +02:00 [INF] vPilot version 3.4.3 starting up
2022-06-16 00:11:14.501 +02:00 [INF] Running in "Standalone" mode
2022-06-16 00:11:16.057 +02:00 [INF] Downloaded 7 servers
2022-06-16 00:11:16.496 +02:00 [INF] Validating "Msfs"
2022-06-16 00:12:39.718 +02:00 [INF] vPilot version 3.4.3 starting up
2022-06-16 00:12:39.738 +02:00 [INF] Running in "Standalone" mode
2022-06-16 00:12:41.284 +02:00 [INF] Downloaded 7 servers
2022-06-16 00:12:41.712 +02:00 [INF] Validating "Msfs"
2022-06-16 00:12:51.961 +02:00 [INF] vPilot version 3.4.3 starting up
2022-06-16 00:12:51.981 +02:00 [INF] Running in "Standalone" mode
2022-06-16 00:12:53.514 +02:00 [INF] Downloaded 7 servers
2022-06-16 00:12:53.943 +02:00 [INF] Validating "Msfs"
2022-06-16 00:18:03.639 +02:00 [INF] vPilot version 3.4.3 starting up
2022-06-16 00:18:03.658 +02:00 [INF] Running in "Standalone" mode
2022-06-16 00:18:05.229 +02:00 [INF] Downloaded 7 servers
2022-06-16 00:18:05.668 +02:00 [INF] Validating "Msfs"
2022-06-16 00:18:06.900 +02:00 [INF] Aircraft config files have changed
 

[Ross Carlson]

I guess so ... that's unfortunate. I may have to rethink what triggers a scan.

[Richard Asberg]

Or...move to manual new models detection instead. Where you add a Rescan button to the UI the users need to click whenever they changed anything to their models.

Choosing that path, maybe an option to specify where to look for models could also be added. That way, you wouldn't have to worry about it 🙂

 

 

[Ross Carlson]

That button already exists ... the problem is that users don't read documentation, and then they'll complain when vPilot doesn't find their models.  

[Richard Asberg]

What you say is often very true and I'm apparently proof of that 😂

One thing I think could help is adding something I'm pretty sure isn't there already, a button or direct link to the most current documentation for vPilot. Like a question mark or similar in the upper, right corner like you often see.

The way it is now where you have to search for it if/when you want to read it, that I think will make it even less likely for people to find the answer to some of their questions in the documentation.

[Ross Carlson]

You have far more faith in the average person's desire to read documentation to begin with, than I do. 😛

[Ross Carlson]

So far I am unable to reproduce this. I have started MSFS multiple times and it never changes any aircraft.cfg files.

Richard, would you be willing to run a debug version of vPilot to see exactly what files are changing? If so, please find me in the VATSIM discord in the #software-support channel.

[Richard Asberg]

Since everything is working OK over here and it appears to be a local thing since you're not able to repro the issue, I don't feel we need to take this any further. If you however find it useful, I'll be happy to help you out by running the debug version you mention.

If so, let me know 👍

[Ross Carlson]

Yeah, I'd like to know what files are changing on your system each time MSFS starts.

[Richard Asberg]

OK, I'll give it a go.

Can you send me an invitation to the Vatsim Discord server?