Since it seems unlikely that pilot avatars will be added back into 2020 aircraft any time soon I’ve figured out an interim method to get them to appear in some aircraft. It doesn’t work for all & copilots don’t seem to work at all which is why Asobo have disabled it no doubt. But if like me you would like to see a pilot in the seat for external views you can give it a try.
You need to add a folder called “navigation_graph” into Simobjects/Airplanes/name_of_your_aircraft
Create a file called navigation_graph_pilot.cfg inside the new folder with the following contents:
[VERSION]
major = 1
minor = 0
[NODE.0]
modelNode=PILOT_0
interactiveObject=“”
node_occlusion_factor=1.5
[NODE.1]
modelNode=PILOT_1
interactiveObject=“”
node_occlusion_factor=1.5
[NODE.2]
tag = SPAWN_EXTERIOR
pos = -19.497366,-0.00016,-12.608845
pbh = 0,0,0
projectOnGround = 1
[NODE.3]
tag = SPAWN_EXTERIOR_RTC
pos = -25.700489,-0.000107,-12.386658
pbh = 0,0,0
projectOnGround = 1
[MAINGRAPH.0]
nodes = 0,1,2,3
coordinate_system = relative
You then need to update the layout.json using MSFSLayoutGenerator.
If your pilot comes in and is sitting in the seat correctly all good. If he’s sitting in the air 10 feet in front of the plane or who knows where else then give up, it’s not going to work. There is provision to provide offsets in the node sections of navigation_graph_pilot.cfg but while they work for the external spawn they dont seem to work for pilots at present. It also should be possible to set up the attach points for hands and feet but that doesn’t work either so the pilot will be sitting with their hands in their lap.
Obviously this is for 2020 aircraft that you have stored locally. It is possible to mount the file as a mod for cloud based aircraft but it needs to be done per aircraft.
If you don’t mind messing about with simple hacks give it a try & report your results.
