VATSIM traffic, lights don't sync when connecting

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Brief description of the issue:
For simconnect injected traffic aircraft lights don’t sync when connecting to network (VATSIM/IVAO) (edited: IVAO doesn’t have same issue)
Provide Screenshot(s)/video(s) of the issue encountered:

Detail steps to reproduce the issue encountered:

  1. User1 connects to VATSIM/IVAO and turns all aircraft lights ON
  2. User2 connects to VATSIM/IVAO and check that User1’s aircraft is all dark (no lights on)
  3. User1 turns all lights OFF, then back ON
  4. User2 sees User1’s lights as they should be

Build Version # when you first started experiencing this issue:
After SU5 I believe
Zendesk ticket #130775 created

Since the other thread was for Live/AI traffic I thought own bug thread for VATSIM/IVAO traffic is needed.

Issue currently is:
If another aircraft is already connected to VATSIM/IVAO network, light states doesn’t sync to other users when they are connecting.
I tested this with friend who had all lights turned ON when I connected, and in my screen his aircraft was all dark. After he turned lights OFF and then back ON I saw the lights.

This is a huge problem in VATSIM/IVAO and should be high priority case.

I found a post from vatsim forums from April which says

@BTVPilot is it possible that the issue is with vPilot instead of the sim for not initially syncing light states when connecting to vatsim?

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I would suppose anything is possible, however, the lights did work in VATSIM previously, and to the best of my knowledge, vPilot wasn’t updated. so something changed on the MSFS side.

Maybe vPilot does need to be updatd to allow whatever change occurred, but it was more likely introduced by MSFS with the previous update.

3 Likes

I can confirm this behavior.

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It seems unlikely that this is a vPilot issue, given that it works fine in other sims, and vPilot uses the same code for all sims. There is nothing special about how vPilot handles setting the light states (or any other simvars) for MSFS vs FSX or P3D.

I would have to spend some time troubleshooting it, but my best guess is that with MSFS, when a new aircraft is injected into the sim by vPilot, that new model isn’t fully “ready” to receive simconnect events (such as the ones vPilot uses to turn lights on/off) by the time the light state information is received from the server. Again, that’s just a guess, and I will need to confirm it with actual testing.

3 Likes

I confirm. Randomly, I can see some strobes, landing or nav lights but it’s barely 5% of the time

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Lights still not working for IVAO aircraft models in Vatsim. The code changed in FS for the electrical system and the legacy models are not compatible. Waiting for someone to make an updated package to fix the lights.

IVAO models has modern systems already, not using the legacy lines.

if thats the case the issue is within the VASTIM Client. Nothing MS can fix

This is the one thing I wanted fixing, gutted!

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That thread is from before SU6 when it was needed to use legacy electrical systems instead modern to even see some lights. As ivao x-csl use modern/modern by default I don’t think there is way to modify systems.cfg post SU6 to get them work like they should.

All I know is the IVAO models worked perfectly before SU5. Whatever electrical code that was changed in FS caused them to stop working. Until this is figured out I will remove IVAO models and build a local livery collection using Model Matching Magic. I may not have all the matching liveries but hopefully I can see lights from other players at night.

Yep same issues. My IVAO network was working with lights, but VATSIM wasnt. Now both arent working. I have reinstalled both, tried different VMR files, tried the lights fix for SU5 but no luck. Theres no point in flying online when you cant see any lights, esp at night. Asobo is dropping the ball on multiplayer.

I use IVAO models and have some lights…

From tonights testing it looks like IVAO has bit different issue which might be because their models/model matching.

When connecting to IVAO, lights does show correctly even if they are already turned ON. Only taxi/landing lights doesn’t show up but that problem is most likely not related to that VATSIM issue since they don’t show up even if turned OFF/ON, so something is wrong with x-csl.

So for me it’s starting to look like vPilot problem after all since IVAO doesn’t have same sync issue when connecting with already connected aircrafts.

@BTVPilot when you have time it would be great if you could do some troubleshooting

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I have some with some light and some with none. I think it has to do with model matching and vatsim since V6.

i can confirm that lights are not snychronized and sometimes they dont turn on completely

that has to be some go around thing how to fix that

After some time spent on an airport with a lot of traffic, I observed the following behaviour:
as pilots trigger lights on and off, they are synchronized. This can cause, for example, an aircraft on final approach to only show landing lights, as all other lights would have been turned on waaaay sooner. “new” aircraft that log in and trigger lights after you logged in, will show all of them correctly.

6 Likes