If they want to sell more planes etc, this needs to be figured out. Nothing sells more than seeing what your friends are flying. Cool factor is big deal.
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I’m one of the devs for M3, which is a model matching mod only available for PC users and is really only a stopgap for model matching in MSFS.
The following recommendation has been provided to Microsoft as an easy to implement, if not ideal, solution for model matching. It would be a solid first step towards improving model matching for PC and Xbox users alike:
To address incorrect model matching in MSFS, here’s a simple recommendation that, if implemented, would greatly improve the multiplayer experience within the sim:
One reason why model matching fails within MSFS is because the ICAO designator is checked against the official aircraft ICAO registry (found in the file PlaneTypeICAO.spb). Less than 50% of the aircraft models in MSFS (including ones released by MSFS or Asobo) use an official ICAO designator, so a failed check here means a generic model is shown if you own an aircraft but someone else is flying a livery that you don’t have. Eliminating this check against the official registry will greatly reduce generic aircraft from appearing. This solution should be easy to implement.
Additional Generic fall-back aircraft should be added. This includes helicopter, GA taildragger, and fighter jet aircraft models. New attributes would likely have to be included in the aircraft.cfg file to properly designate these, and this solution would require support from aircraft developers to utilize these new attributes.
Therefore, by adjusting the model matching process to eliminate the strict check against the official ICAO registry and by introducing additional generic fallback aircraft models like helicopters, GA taildraggers, and fighter jets, MSFS can significantly enhance the multiplayer experience. This approach not only simplifies implementation but also encourages broader developer support and improves overall immersion within the simulation environment.
10 Likes
These are good suggestions, but I’d very much like to see a system like M3, where you can directly map a source aircraft to a target aircraft, built in to the sim. We cannot rely on developers to correctly classify their aircraft or use the right ICAO codes, so there needs to be a way to override the default behaviour. M3 does a good job of this now but I’d like to be able to do this from in the sim and have it persisted to my cloud profile.
Also, I’d like multiplayer to be able to use the AI aircraft models that you have installed. Occasionally I see someone in an aircraft I don’t have as a model which I know is not one of my flyable aircraft: a recent example, I saw someone in an MD-11, which I do not own, as a visually-correct MD-11 (or possibly DC-10) and the only explanation there is that the sim used a model from my AI collection (FSLTL/AIG etc), so it seems to be possible, but almost never happens.
1 Like
Should be easy enough to write a simple ICAO Designator check program, to identify which aircraft a user owns that has an Invalid Designator.
Like SIMSTALLER, the great program that checks for Addons, overwriting MSFS system file overwrites,
But as you point out, there needs to be much more to Model matching than just matching the ICAO Designator.
ie a Cessna C172 with wheels, skis or floats all have the same ICAO designator, but LOOK and BEHAVE very differently on ground, snow or water !!!
I think they have some extra models because I’ve seen the same from early on in the sim before any traffic add-ons were out. Always used to see something that looked like a PC-12 way before any PC-12 was out. Some others as well.
Interesting to see the question raised in the last MSFS dev stream regarding model matching and how they don’t plan on implementing for 2020, but are investigating for 2024. I reached out to MSFS to consider the method we developed for M3 as a possible solution how this could be accomplished.
Thanks for doing that. The M3 solution is certainly a lot better than what we get default which is a real mess. I got my question answered which was useful but didn’t like the reasons. A memory limitation smacks of the Xbox hardware limitations holding back PC users. If that’s the case do what was said in previous dev streams and implement different code for the different platforms rather than limit every users experience.
Really great to hear you as a developer weigh in on this. I agree with all your suggestions.
I agree with this as well. My question though, is whether 3rd Party devs who selflessly create free mods should be paid for the extra work involved in making their software accessible to both platforms, and by corollary, will people pay for that extra work. I guess that would be up to the individual devs, as well as us consumers.
Not sure I follow about the involvement of freeware devs in this. The solution for 2024 seems to be a better range of default models. Not perfect but better. To not also do this for 2020 due to memory limitations on Xbox is the issue.
I failed to consider that freeware is not available on the Marketplace. 
When I fly with multiplayer, sometimes I see some nameplates with a Cessna 172 aircraft with only the green and red navigation lights, but there is no C172 aircraft visible. What is the problem here? This is not an exotic airplane, so why is it not possible, to show me a standard C172?
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Bit late responding here, but if you still have the problem, it’s a known issue with the C172 specifically in multiplayer. Wombii created a fix which works around the issue and should restore the C172 model for you.
Extract the folder from the zip and drop it into your Community folder.
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I’m on Xbox Series S, and I have been playing with my friend on Xbox Series X. Sometimes I fly planes he doesn’t have, so he sees other default planes, but sometimes I fly a plane that he has too, and it still shows as an airbus - or sometimes another plane - even when I am flying helicopters rather than planes! I agree that the simulator should send the servers the plane so other players can see other players actual planes all the time. Also not sure if any of these suggestions will work on Xbox?
This is in my opinoin the worst thing about MSFS2020 the model -not- matching. Hopefuly it’s not a real problem in MSFS2024
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Celarly microsoft doesnt care about immersion, they rather add foot prints in an update, than have model matching. This is an outrage
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Aren’t you more immersed when you hear footsteps while walking?
< / sarcasm >
But honestly it should not be too hard to make this happen properly. New Bug here, please help by voting for it, adding comments and photos.
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Personaly if i see a plane that i don’t have in the taxi way i will just by curiosity check it on the marketplace… then check some reviews… and who knows maybe i will buy it.
I am tired of seeing A320 doing vertical landing/take-off LOL probably because it’s a F35 i guess.
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I saw that exact thing at the end of my first group flight.
At first I was 
Over a year later I’m 
All we need is an exterior skin that lets us identify the aircraft, maybe with some spinny things. Sure, matching liveries, working lights, avatars, control surfaces, etc. would be cool to see, but I understand that in an online multi-player game like this, bandwidth is key. Generic models are not the way. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
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FS24 is in that way, it shows aircraft that I don´t have like A350s, A380s, even a Turbine Real Duke the other day and UH1 Hueys, others are generic planes, but I hope they solve that, and add liveries also to those “generic” planes, not only the house liveries like now, the Duke was white.