(My apologies if there’s already a wishlist item for this; I did search and couldn’t find one. Feel free to merge this with another topic if there is a more suitable one already!)
I now have bought several aircraft in the Marketplace, including two (the Jabiru J-160/J-170 and the MB-339) that were previously available through third-party sellers and have since appeared in the MSFS Marketplace as well. While I appreciate the central management of updates and find that a selling point for using the Marketplace, there is one area where it falls down compared to third-party sellers: documentation.
Most third-party aircraft mods from other sellers come with a PDF manual or POH which includes technical specs on the aircraft, release notes and documentation for the mod, and recommended procedures and expected performance information which are very helpful for the virtual pilot.
Without the MB-339’s PDF manual I’d have had a hell of a time figuring out how to operate the emergency gear hydraulics, for instance… and the Marketplace version simply doesn’t have a place to offer a manual, so I have to refer to the one I downloaded from a previous vendor.
I think it would be great if the MSFS Marketplace added support for downloading and viewing documentation files, whether specifically for PDFs or a general support-file-download-and-launch.
(At a minimum, the ability to link from the aircraft specs page or content manager to an online manual would be nice, but I understand add-on authors may prefer to limit access to manuals to paying customers so that may not solve everyone’s problems well enough.)
[Update] It seems that at least some packages do include PDF documentation in the Marketplace downloads, but they’re not in a standard location (some are deep in a directory hierarchy) and there’s no exposure to the user interface, not to mention that you have to be able to find the hidden MSFS packages directory in the first place. But this does imply that there could easily be a way to add to the package manifest some sort of link to those files to make them easy to open.
I only found the documentation for my aircraft when I poked around the aircraft files afterwards. It definitely needs to be more accessible. Many people aren’t even going to know how to access the files unless they know how to dig through the sim’s complex directory structure.
Not just marketplace aircraft. All aircraft, AND avionics. In many cases, the manuals can be found on the manufacturer’s website (especially Garmin), so it’s not like they can make any copyright claims! If NOTHING else, a pdf with some links would be nice.
First, AWE SOME…! This sim is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!
You have released some new planes, including Tante Ju, the new Porter, and the air racing ‘fleet’ including the brilliant Aero L-39.
It occurred to me, the issues with having a manual in the sim somewhere, that a good way around that would be a ‘web based’ manual system. You could make a basic manual for each plane that tells people air-speeds and fuel load-outs, show a person where some of the controls are, like fuel levers and cut-offs, things that are much needed, so a person could read through, find the information they need, and then be able to attack a flight in them with a bit of knowledge.
For instance… Where the fuel levers are in the Tante is needed. The fuel gauge for the Aero L-39. I had to find it online on actual Vodochody discussions. I have no idea what her ideal landing speed is. Same for Tante. We need this. Please consider creating basic manuals with screenshots to show us how we can better fly these amazing creations you have made for us.
I have noted that making a very nice manual, not too long but very informative, with screenshots, allows a person to better see everything about the plane. This also acts like a sales brochure for people that are considering buying it at the Market Place. Think of it also as a sales brochure.
Keep up the great work. God bless you all. Amazing amazing AMAZING work.
All - We go into World Map first, select AC and that plane has drop down menu, put any plane manuals there/tutorial flights under a heading “DOCUMENTATION ON PLANE”. Then it’s easy to find. If aftermarket plane, most if not all have something and as part of it’s Intergration into sim, any documentation should be tied to its selection. This way, we are not hunting all over the place for things. This is especially true for a detailed description to the hundreds of different settings that can be made for various flight control devices.
Example: I have Virpil TM-3 Throttle unit. I have three switches set for battery, avionics and landing gear. In F-14 Battery/avionics/landing gear switch work perfect, in 747 no on battery/avionics but landing gear does work. In PMDG, no on the battery/avionics but again landing gear does work. Custom assigned TOGO button and it works on all the planes so equipped. And almost positive, I did not change my 2-engine jet profile in settings to 4 engine jet, but all four throttles worked, and my guess is, since it only has two levers, lever one is bound to throttle one and two, same for lever two, throttles 3 & 4, so even though wrong profile, it still operated them. Think, as suggested months ago, this should be plane specific, and once plane is selected, it then selects how/which profile is used to make it work. Many of our profiles are almost the exact same with small variations.
But this does imply that there could easily be a way to add to the package manifest some sort of link to those files to make them easy to open.