The animated jetway project

[pommesschranke]

Quote from http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php?ti ... ed_jetways

A jetway definition file will be created and written to $FG_HOME/Export/ICAO.xml, where ICAO is the ICAO code of the nearest airport. (The exact location of this file is printed to the console window.) This file should be submitted to Terrasync

how ? where?

where do I put the xml to test it on my local PC ?

[pommesschranke]

ok, I found it:

Airports/K/S/F/KSFO.jetways.xml

but is KSFO the only airport that uses this kind of Jetways?

[bugman]

but is KSFO the only airport that uses this kind of Jetways?

Feel free to expand the FG universe with this awesome but unfortunately underutilised infrastructure

Regards,

Edward

[pommesschranke]

I expanded the FG universe quite a bit since I am a part of this wonderful community, but...
Pilots prefer jetways that can move.
do you maybe have an idea how/why it got broken or how to fix it ?

[bugman]

do you maybe have an idea how/why it got broken or how to fix it ?

Nope, not in the slightest! Ryan Miller, the creator of this old topic, was quite active and hugely productive in FG a few years back, but I believe he has retired (moved on from being a student, maybe?). No one else seems to have picked it up, the last relevant commit in FGData seems to be:

Code: Select all

commit 9b19d5e20e87e0f2e3e4473fa6162285fd2b1fe7
Author: Ryan M <tpbspammail <att> gmail dot com>
Date:   Mon Feb 4 15:42:08 2013 -0800

    Animated jetways: Remove obsolete use-custom-scenery-data property


So, the ball is just sitting there, not moving. Feel free to pick it up and run with it

Regards,

Edward

[Thorsten]

but is KSFO the only airport that uses this kind of Jetways?

I thought Las Vegas had some as well, but I might be mistaken (never fly airliners much...)

[legoboyvdlp]

GATWICK has static ones, Hamburg has moving ones (all move), terminal 2 at Frankfurt has moving ones.
Colgone I think also.

[pommesschranke]

I placed those at Hamburg a few days ago.
EDDK has the same type (OBJECT_SHARED entry in an .stg file in the Scenery/Terrasync Objects path)
with ctrl-C they become yellow and they move when you click on them.

they have some issues:
* you click one and all start to move
* they only work when placed in front of the aircraft, I can not use them when the terminal building is on the side of the aircraft.
* movement is not visible via multiplayer


The ones that Ryan Miller made are different.
they use the jetway editor and live in

/Airports/.... ICAO.jetways.xml

and/or

/AI/Airports/ICAO/jetways.xml

but how activate them ?

[pommesschranke]

I'm on page 17 reading this thread from the beginning

...and continue experimenting:

jetway-movable.xml
jetway-movable-2.xml
jetway-movable-3.xml

they contain all the nasal they need to work as they do (with the issues I stated above)

but what you usually place with the jetway editor is generic.xml
and it depends on something that is not there, I guess:

Code: Select all

   <!-- Parameters set by the script -->
   <toggle-action-script type="string" />

<!-- Animations -->
   <!-- Click action -->
   <animation>
      <type>pick</type>
      <action>
         <button>0</button>
         <repeatable type="bool">false</repeatable>
         <binding>
            <command>nasal</command>
            <script alias="../../../../toggle-action-script" />
         </binding>
      </action>
   </animation>



so... what/where ist this toggle-action-script?

In $FGDATA/Nasal/jetways I found jetways.nas
but don't know if an how it is used.
In jetways.nas I read:

Code: Select all

# The script dynamically generates runtime model files, writes them to
# $FG_ROOT/Models/Airport/Jetway/runtimeX.xml, and places them into the
# simulator using the model manager.
#


I did not find any runtime*.xml but instead found them here:
~/.fgfs/runtime-jetways

[pommesschranke]

further investigation....

jetway-movable.xml
jetway-movable-2.xml
jetway-movable-3.xml

they try to read theses properties (x-m,x-y,...):

Code: Select all

if (props.globals.getNode("/aircraft/door[0]/x-m") != nil and props.globals.getNode("/aircraft/door[0]/y-m") != nil and props.globals.getNode("/aircraft/door[0]/z-m") != nil)
              {
              var xm = getprop("/aircraft/door[0]/x-m");
              var ym = getprop("/aircraft/door[0]/y-m") - 2.65;
              var zm = getprop("/aircraft/door[0]/z-m") - 3.752;


but the aircrafts do not set them. The aircraft do what the wiki says(position-x-m, position-y-m, ...):

Code: Select all

<sim>
  <model>
   <door>
    <position-x-m type="float">X-M</position-x-m>
    <position-y-m type="float">Y-M</position-y-m>
    <position-z-m type="float">Z-M</position-z-m>
    <jetway-hood-deg type="float">HOOD-DEG</jetway-hood-deg>
   </door>
  </model>
 </sim>


why does it work then ?
because there is a fallback to the older convention, which is not documented in the wiki:

jetway-movable.xml

Code: Select all

# old system (legacy support)
             elsif (props.globals.getNode("/aircraft/jetway-pos/x-tra") != nil and props.globals.getNode("/aircraft/jetway-pos/y-rot") != nil and props.globals.getNode("/aircraft/jetway-pos/z-rot") != nil and props.globals.getNode("/aircraft/jetway-pos/hood-rot") != nil)
              {
              # rotation angles and extension lengths are predefined
              var xtranslate = getprop("/aircraft/jetway-pos/x-tra");
              var yrotate = getprop("/aircraft/jetway-pos/y-rot");
              var zrotate = getprop("/aircraft/jetway-pos/z-rot");
              var hoodrotate = getprop("/aircraft/jetway-pos/hood-rot");
              }


aircraft-set.xml

Code: Select all

<aircraft>
 <jetway-pos>
  <x-tra>-2</x-tra>
  <y-rot>2</y-rot>
  <z-rot>18</z-rot>
  <hood-rot>0</hood-rot>
 </jetway-pos>
</aircraft>


[bugman]

because there is a fallback to the older convention, which is not documented in the wiki:

It'd be awesome to resurrect this old infrastructure, expand and complete the wiki article, and then use Ryan's (Skyop) work for improving airports everywhere

Regards,

Edward

[skyop]

...Someone call for me?

* you click one and all start to move

That shouldn't happen. Something must have broken it over the years.

Here's the truth: It's a cool idea but the whole nasal-based system is a piece of garbage and should really be rewritten in C/C++. However the format (of the models and airport XML files) is pretty stable so any work done until now would not be lost.

I'm being trained as a systems programmer right now at university (which is partially responsible for my withdrawal - I first started becoming involved with FG in secondary school ) so I might revisit the project in the future, time permitting.

* they only work when placed in front of the aircraft, I can not use them when the terminal building is on the side of the aircraft.

You should be able place a jetway at any position/angle on the left side, not strictly at the front. See some of the jetways placed at KSFO.

* movement is not visible via multiplayer

Yes that was never implemented, because it would be rather complex...

I tried to make up for this by having the jetways in your session automatically attach to nearby AI and multiplayer aircraft. That portion of the code was rather buggy and didn't succeed 100% of the time.

why does it work then ?
because there is a fallback to the older convention, which is not documented in the wiki:

Yes it's an older convention and should not be used.

[skyop]

Linking this here for the benefit of the forum.
http://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/mai ... /34725917/

[Yesrev]

So i keep getting this error when i try to activate the jetways. I have installed flightgear 3.6rc like 5 times already and still haven't found the problem but here it is from my console.

[legoboyvdlp]

Add it to FG_AIRCRAFT, then...