Meaning of asterisk ( * ) next to aircraft while setting up flight?

[PopsMcDaddyo]

As shown in the pic. This is next to the PMDG 737-700, but not the other -700 variants (BBJ and BDSF Freighter).

Thanks in advance!

[hobanagerik]

Is that the only plane you have with that mark? I can’t say I’ve ever seen that.

[Speed1994]

I’ve never had that either, I wonder if it’s a bug within the 737-700’s name text field?

[PopsMcDaddyo]

Yes, it’s the only plane with the *, but all the liveries for that variant have it to😳

I was able to load it and fly it without issue.

[hobanagerik]

It’s probably in the “manifest.json” file I expect, possibly even a typo.

[PopsMcDaddyo]

Strange, isn’t it?

As soon as I get some time on the PC, I’ll load up PMDG Operations Center and see if it detects any problems.

[PopsMcDaddyo]

Great idea! I’ll check that asap and report back.

[OneToBeamUp3871]

I recall there was a mod that let you order favorites at the top of the aircraft selection screen by inserting a character into the name in manifest.json, so they’d sort to the top. This sounds a lot like that.

[hobanagerik]

That method typically involves renaming the folder that that contains the addon, and not messing around with its “internal” name, that affects how it is displayed in the sim.

A common trick to force something to load last is to prefix its folder with “zzz”.

[PopsMcDaddyo]

So far, no joy. I’ve looked at folder names and looked in the manifest.json file as well.

I did try the free version of the @Sonicviz Aircraft Manager at one point, but I don’t remember seeing asterisks anywhere during that timeframe.

So, the passenger variant of the PMDG 737-700, and all liveries for that variant, have the asterisk. No other aircraft. It’s not causing any problems or issues, but I’m sure curious about it

[Sonicviz]

The only addon I know that does that to names is the previously mentioned one which tries to reorder planes by editing the names, which I don’t think is a good practice tbh. It’s also not 100% reliable due to various reasons. Unless you tried it once and forgot to reset it?

I don’t have any PMDG’s so can’t check, but the name data comes from the aircraft metadata that MSFS UI framework assembles to feed the plane selection UI, and no *'s are added afaik by MSFS to that (or by AM either). Unless PMDG is doing it.

Metadata for all content is a bit of mess from what I’ve seen, no standards are enforced so you can’t rely on it for much atm. It varies from well done to blank, literally, or even plain out incorrect sometimes.
It’s not the devs fault really, as there’s no checks on it.
Hopefully MSFS 2024 will include more stringent processes which could automate some quality checks on metadata to ensure developers have it filled in correctly, or usefully.