Activate the ICAO airfields already stored in the FS4 database

ApfelFlieger · August 31, 2022 at 6:41 PM

In the FS4 database, besides the airfields shown in FS4, many other ICAO airfields are already available with their technical data. These non-visible airfields can be called by creating a folder in the user folder "airports" for each of these airfields with a tsc- and a wad-file, which contain as code only ...

Code

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I tried this with these airfields on Hawaii:

I have attached the file as a ZIP file, please unzip it in the user folder "airports".

The airports activated in this way still have some "deficiencies", but they can still be used very well for simulation already. As far as from FS4 already objects are present (like e.g. in Germany) this looks also optically well. Likewise images of the community look good. Unfortunately, however, it may be that the airfields themselves are uneven. And in Hawaii unfortunately also the FS4 objects are missing.

What these airfields also lack are the positions for START and LANDING.

=> Question to @IPACS:

Couldn't these positions be displayed automatically as well?

Independently of this, the airfields activated in this way can be included in the route planning with their individual runways. Although the START must be done manually before the copilot can take over, but from then on the flight takes place without problems until the safe landing.

=> Question to @IPACS:

For me now also the question arises, how useful it is, if user projects of airfields in parallel to the FS4 database once again contain the runway data itself? Here a uniform default would be m.E. not bad, because otherwise the numbered airfields will accumulate and it becomes confusing.

Example Honolulu International Airport:

Since PHNL already exists in the FS4 database, this airfield must now be created in the HAWAII project for FS4 under PHNL1 in order to be found securely (to my knowledge, FS4 always reads out only the first airfield found for ICAO airfields with the same name).

Jet-Pack (IPACS) · August 31, 2022 at 7:31 PM Official Post

Empty TSCs can cause all kinds of issues down the road. Then Aerofly doesn't know how to load this "thing" what ever it is. It's neither airport nor building, it's undefined and causes undefined behavior and potentially crashes later on.

The Aerofly FS airport database contains most airports around the world but only the base data such as name, ICAO, IATA codes and up to 4 runways. This database is used to look up the location of an airport so that the airport TSC does not need to be loaded at all until the user flies close to it and is used by air-traffic to navigate even when there is no actual airport modeled or when the airport is far away and not yet loaded.

If you design a detailed airport with custom models with runway and apron starting positions you need to define a TSC file just like in Aerofly FS 2 with runway end points and parking positions (if desired) and you must use the correct ICAO code and not some nonsense "PHNL1" which doesn't exist in the database, otherwise it slows down Aerofly during startup. If the airport you're creating doesn't have an ICAO code you can create a six digit code (non-icao). Aerofly FS then has to load the TSC to know where the airport is located during startup and adds that airport to the world database. That's why it's important to use the correct ICAO, otherwise the same airport may exist twice. It's not a conflict if you create an airport that is known to be an airport. That's the intended way of doing it actually. Aerofly FS sees the folder name as being a known ICAO and then can load that airport when you get close to it in the sim or on the map view.

As mentioned before, we're still working on the airport SDK, please be patient and don't try to hack things in now, this may just cause more issues or crashes for other users.

ApfelFlieger · September 1, 2022 at 7:08 AM

Thank you for the explanation. I suggest to include the described basic principle in the wiki.

I consider very important the hint to refrain from modified ICAO codes (e.g. PHNL1, PHNL2 etc.) . Unfortunately, in fscloudport.com it often happens with airfields in interesting areas that different people do not edit the same airfield together, but each creates his own and then designates it with the ICAO code plus a sequential number.

MartinM · October 2, 2022 at 1:47 PM

Thats an interesting find. But it appears to have a limitation. I added 11 airfields in CH now, that were missing. If I add one more, cultivation is no longer being loaded.