I fly a few different aircraft on Vatsim and a slightly annoying thing for me is that in the simulator when you specify a registration number, the sim uses that same number for whatever aircraft you choose to fly. Is there a way I can “hard code” the various registration numbers I use into say a specific config file for each aircraft, so that I don’t have to change it every time I swap aircraft?
Hi there,
As this is more an SDK-related question, I have moved it to the SDK sectîon.
We absolutely can, I do this all the time. Basically, you just need to enter the registration number on the livery’s aircraft.cfg file under “atc_number” if I’m not mistaken.
Once you have that entered in the aircraft.cfg file, make sure your tail number in the flight customisation menu in the world map is left blank. Because otherwise, that will take precedence over the one filled in the aircraft.cfg.
So as long as you have every aircraft.cfg filled in with the registration number that you want for each of those liveries and the tail number in the flight customisation blank all the time. You will automatically use the different registration number every time you change liveries.
Additionally, you can also enter the proper callsign and flight number in the aircraft.cfg as well. Using this method it would actually bypass the censorship and mispronounciation limitation that you would get if you enter the callsign from the flight customisation page. Because it allows you to use both Uppercase, lowercase, and spaces for your callsign.
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That’s awesome, thank you.
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For those of you who are wishing to do this I thought I’d take a moment to elaborate upon the helpful information provided by @NeoKingRthur above. Just a minor correction is that in the aircraft.cfg you’re looking for atc_id=“xxxxxx”. Modify that to your liking. There may be several of these entries if you have multiple liveries for a particular aircraft so be sure to modify the correct one (or do as I did and modify all of them). Ensure that your “Tail Number” field under ATC options in the sim is blank.
Many thanks again to @NeoKingRthur for pointing me in the right direction. Since I “buy” my aircraft in OnAir they come with an assigned registration. I would often forget to change the “Tail Number” field under ATC options when switching aircraft, and then when flying on Vatsim my registration uploaded to the controllers would be different to the one displayed in front of me. Since I only fly in VR and can’t make use of a hastily scribbled note to remind me of the correct registration, this would cause problems.
atc_id yup, that’s the one… I couldn’t remember the specific one from the top of my head.
Sad to say I can’t find how to do it for the FFX VisionJet however. Perhaps they’ve coded this into their G3000 mods.
It’s actually dependent on how the aircraft itself was designed in the first place by the original developer to use the dynamic decal that’s derived from the aircraft.cfg or flight customisation page or not. The SDK provided by Asobo is there and available to use, but it depends on whether the developers themselves want to use it or not.
Like for example, the A320 was developed by Asobo, and the FBW A32NX was originally derived from there. So it got carried over and the A32NX does support the dynamic decal with an additional feature added on top to disable/enable them via the EFB Flypad.
The Headwind A339X, however was designed from the ground up for the exterior model, so they seem to not use the dynamic decal function (or at least, it half-works if that makes sense). Most of the liveries for A339X has had their tail number directly painted onto the livery texture themselves, so having the dynamic decal function in there makes little sense, especially when they are not yet able to adapt to the positioning or background of the livery underneath (ie. the tail registration number is always black font at the exact same position all the time. So having a black livery underneath would make the registration number almost impossible to read).
Bottom line is, MSFS provides that function and it works for their default aircraft models. But for third-party aircraft, it’s up to the developer whether they want to use it or not. If they don’t want to use it, then it won’t work.
In the case of the Vision Jet, @StevoSim 's issue is he bought it from the Marketplace (the only option for this plane), and the aircraft.cfg file is encrypted and unavailble. You don’t want to be adjusting any files in the OneStore directory anyway.
There is a workaround, however. Assuming you’re on PC, which you must be anyway if you’re editing Aircraft.cfg files, you can create a livery for the plane, and then you can adjust anything you want from the original aircraft.cfg file.
If you want to adjust things like the name of the plane in your hangar (I hate it when authors name the manufacturer after themselves), you must make sure the livery which you are editing information is first in the list. To do this, the directory containing the livery must be first alphabetically, the one inside the package at the SimObjects\Airplanes\blahblah, I make it SimObjects\Airplanes\01_blahblah, then that aircraft.cfg takes precedence.
atc_id is always changeable, but ui_manufacturer will only be read if it is read first.
Another thing Authors nearly always screw up are all the icao_ variables which are required to be correct for model matching with Live_Traffic.
IOW, for the VisionJet, download a livery, and you’ll have a copy of an aircraft.cfg file that you can either use directly if you like that livery, or, you can use it as a template, and copy whatever livery you like to your Community directory from the default one, and create your own livery package by reviewing the setup of the livery you downloaded. Edit the manifest.json and livery.json for the new data and whatever changes you make to directory names, replace the texture files, and edit the aircraft.cfg to your liking.
Don’t forget to include the
[VARIATION]
base_container = "..\name_of_original_plane_directory"
section if you’re creating your own livery
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Very helpful! Thank you.