- Sat Nov 02, 2019 3:26 pm
#539267
Hi!
I'm a member of a leading VA in the UK. I would ideally like to open a short dialogue with the developer of vPilot if possible to ask about a specific situation we're trying to resolve in the VA.
The VA uses several franchises who currently run all under the same callsign prefix. We have our own set of model matching rules so that our aircraft liveries are correctly depicted by vPilot. This is fine where an airframe is used only by ONE franchise. For example, lets say that the VA's callsign prefix is ABC and there are two franchises, X and Y. If the 738 is ONLY used by franchise X, then the matching rule is fine as follows:
Because ALL 738s with the ABC prefix will always be the same livery (franchise X) this works fine.
However, some airframes are used across both franchises. So for example, if BOTH franchise X and franchise Y use the 777-200LR (each with their own livery) this causes a problem:
We have been able to work around this to a certain extent because the flight numbers used by the respective franchises fall into different ranges, giving:
So far, so good. Now... this is where we have the issue... sometimes there is more than one member wishing to fly the same flight online or we hold an online event for the VA where everybody on the event would be flying the same flight. At this point, we need to differentiate between the flight numbers used on VATSIM in order to connect and also so that communication is clear with flight numbers which aren't all too similar. Ideally we would use alpha numeric flight numbers. However, these would then not fit into a numbered range as required for the model matching rules (VMR) which would allow the correct livery to be depicted.
Historically, we have gotten around this by using our own none ICAO type codes (e.g. B77X and B77Y), but we have dropped this policy as clearly that may be less than ideal for users of VATSIM who do not have our models and rules installed.
My question is this: Is it possible to use alpha numeric flight number ranges? If so, how does that work? If not, would it be possible to add this feature in a new build at some point? From a development point of view it would work for us if prior to processing the flight number vPilot simply removed any alpha characters and THEN checked it as previous in flight ranges.
Apologies for the LONG post, but I wanted to explain clearly what we were trying to resolve and what we'd already done. We already understand that one solution would be to use different prefixes for the different franchises, but we are trying to avoid that so that it is easy for controllers to see and recognise our already well known callsign.
Any suggestions / solutions are much appreciated.
Kind Regards
Adam
I'm a member of a leading VA in the UK. I would ideally like to open a short dialogue with the developer of vPilot if possible to ask about a specific situation we're trying to resolve in the VA.
The VA uses several franchises who currently run all under the same callsign prefix. We have our own set of model matching rules so that our aircraft liveries are correctly depicted by vPilot. This is fine where an airframe is used only by ONE franchise. For example, lets say that the VA's callsign prefix is ABC and there are two franchises, X and Y. If the 738 is ONLY used by franchise X, then the matching rule is fine as follows:
Code: Select all
<ModelMatchRule CallsignPrefix="ABC" TypeCode="B738" ModelName="738_Model" />Because ALL 738s with the ABC prefix will always be the same livery (franchise X) this works fine.
However, some airframes are used across both franchises. So for example, if BOTH franchise X and franchise Y use the 777-200LR (each with their own livery) this causes a problem:
Code: Select all
<ModelMatchRule CallsignPrefix="ABC" TypeCode="B77L" ModelName="772_Franchise_X" />
<ModelMatchRule CallsignPrefix="ABC" TypeCode="B77L" ModelName="772_Franchise_Y" />We have been able to work around this to a certain extent because the flight numbers used by the respective franchises fall into different ranges, giving:
Code: Select all
<ModelMatchRule CallsignPrefix="ABC" FlightNumberRange="0-499" TypeCode="B77L" ModelName="772_Franchise_X" />
<ModelMatchRule CallsignPrefix="ABC" FlightNumberRange="500-999" TypeCode="B77L" ModelName="772_Franchise_Y" />So far, so good. Now... this is where we have the issue... sometimes there is more than one member wishing to fly the same flight online or we hold an online event for the VA where everybody on the event would be flying the same flight. At this point, we need to differentiate between the flight numbers used on VATSIM in order to connect and also so that communication is clear with flight numbers which aren't all too similar. Ideally we would use alpha numeric flight numbers. However, these would then not fit into a numbered range as required for the model matching rules (VMR) which would allow the correct livery to be depicted.
Historically, we have gotten around this by using our own none ICAO type codes (e.g. B77X and B77Y), but we have dropped this policy as clearly that may be less than ideal for users of VATSIM who do not have our models and rules installed.
My question is this: Is it possible to use alpha numeric flight number ranges? If so, how does that work? If not, would it be possible to add this feature in a new build at some point? From a development point of view it would work for us if prior to processing the flight number vPilot simply removed any alpha characters and THEN checked it as previous in flight ranges.
Apologies for the LONG post, but I wanted to explain clearly what we were trying to resolve and what we'd already done. We already understand that one solution would be to use different prefixes for the different franchises, but we are trying to avoid that so that it is easy for controllers to see and recognise our already well known callsign.
Any suggestions / solutions are much appreciated.
Kind Regards
Adam
