I’m a little confused about how VDGS works. Is it part of the FS platform that all airports can use OR do you need to install each developers specific VDGS module? I had previously installed VDGS with one of my Aerosoft airports but see PACSIM also has a separate VDGS module they use with KLSC.
How is VDGS supposed to work?
Thanks,
Mark
It would be great if we knew what VDGS was?
VDGS is Visual Docking Guidance System.
It’s one of those systems that are installed on the airport gates/parking stand to replace human marshalls to guide aircraft to their proper parking position. They’re installed and facing the pilot so that all the pilot needs to do is to look at the screen and make adjustments to their aircraft position according to its guidance.
It tells them if they’re too right/too left and when they’re at the right position it will also tell them how far they are from their stopping point and also tells them when to stop. It also detects which aircraft type it is and apply the appropriate stopping position for each of those aircraft types.
It’s a pretty nice system to have and very high-tech compared to human marshalls.
As for @mjchernis question. The answer is “it depends”. VDGS is NOT part of the default MSFS features. By default, MSFS only has human marshalls for your parking guidance. So the VDGS features that your airport developer has is also depends on which system they use.
For example, Aerosoft airports have their own proprietary VDGS software. So that means you have to run the app in the background and select your parking via the app in order for the VDGS inside the sim to work properly. From my experience Aerosoft VDGS always require manual input via the app, otherwise the VDGS at the parking spot will not turn on and it doesn’t automatically take the default MSFS ATC parking assignment.
There’s also other airport developers utilising the VDGS developed by Nool Aerosystems. These are much easier to use and doesn’t require manual input from us to select which parking space to turn on. It also doesn’t require any software running separately in the background. As long as you are close to the parking spot, it will activate on its own. But you do need to install some kind of a runtime plugin for the Nool’s VDGS to work. But once it’s installed, you can just park yourself and it’ll automatically activate and guide you to the parking space. The drawback here is, you can’t modify anything. So it’s entirely up to the airport developer on which parking spot to place them and you’re at the mercy of it. It also charges developer some licensing fee to use it, but it’s free for us to install the runtime to use it.
The Last VDGS system that’s available is the FSDreamTeam GSX Pro plugin. This one is a full-on suite of ground services. It covers ground handling like baggage, catering, fueling, as well as boarding, and it also includes the option to have human marshalls or VDGS on each parking space. This one is somewhere in between Aerosoft’s and Nool’s VDGS system. Where you sometimes still need to select the parking space (but you don’t need separate app to run, you can just select the parking inside the game toolbar menu) in order for the parking spot to activate the VDGS. But at the same time, it allows you to customise and create custom profiles for each airport and their parking spots. You can adjust the stopping position the parking specs, which VDGS type to use, etc. The possibilities are endless, and the community is actively work on creating new and updated profiles for each of the popular airports. This one is just drag and drop the profile and the airport will automatically utilise the profile to give you the best VDGS experience. So GSX can be applied globally and anyone can create and modify profiles without the need of the actual airport developer to make it for you. It’s free to install the GSX profile, but you do need to buy/purchase a GSX Pro license and plug-in to use the VDGS from there. But you just need to buy it once, and you can use the GSX Profile for any airport that you want/have.
I hope this explains it.
Thanks for the very thoughtful and thorough response. Helpful.
If I use GSX Pro (which I already own but rarely use) for global VDGS, should I avoid/uninstall the airport specific drivers/modules from Aerosoft and Nool?
Very well explained. Well done. Also note in some cases the VDGS may cause a small shutter.
I have both GSX Pro and Nool, it is unlikely they would interfere unless you attempted to create an instance of a GSX VDGS device at a parking spot already defined by the scenery designer to use Nool. The VDGS instance defintion by GSX Pro is kept in an .ini file in the virtuali appdata folder whereas the definition for Nool instances are in the scenery itself. Nool has a scan utility that is ran by user to find the airports that have Nool VDGS definitions.
As @Downscc said, you should be fine to have both installed. Although, there’s a potential that when you are in an airport that has Nool VDGS, having GSX Profile with VDGS in there could trigger both VDGS systems at the same time. They don’t interfere, but they might activate at the same time and the VDGS texts and symbols overlaps each other making it difficult to read them.
But the good thing is, GSX Profiles are open for everyone, so it’s highly likely that whoever made the GSX profile for that airport with Nool VDGS built-in, would set the parking system to “None”, that way no marshall or VDGS systems are to be active from those parking spots making it use the Nool VDGS systems all the way.
GSX profile is really useful for airports that actually has VDGS in real life, but the scenery developer didn’t include them in the airport, so we can place them ourselves. I even sometimes add GSX Pro VDGS on small airports that doesn’t have them in real life. I justified it by having “Airside Facility Upgrade”, just because it’s so fun to have them.
One drawback that I’m seeing so far is, if you are parking in an parking stand assigned by the default MSFS ATC, the MSFS would still render ground marshalls even on stands with VDGS. If the stand doesn’t have VDGS, GSX Pro will render marshalls as well on top of the MSFS marshalls making you see two marshalls guiding you to park.
Thanks for the additonal help. Was playing with all of this today…using GSX Pro, Aerosoft VDGS, and the separate Nool VDGS install. Love the idea of trying to standardize on GSX Pro across all airports but can’t see myself adapting Nool/Aerosoft airports that are already configured for their respective native VDGS.
Further, the more time I spend with GSX Pro, the more I recognize the quirks and the level of configuration/customization required to get it working properly.
Yes, it does require a lot of configuration and customisation to get it working just right, while GSX does have auto-detection of taxiway and parking boundaries, etc. They’re basically default, so need a bit more customisation to get them to work beautifully.
This is where the whole community can chip in and improve airport profiles. This is the place I go to first to see if there’s already a customised GSX profile for the airport that I want to use. And likewise, when I create one, I also upload them here so everyone can benefit.
Maybe you can check it out first before trying to customise the GSX Profile yourself, it might save you the trouble of reinventing the wheel over something that already existed.
Hello!
Since SU13 VGDS does not work at all in 3rd part aiports such (ESSA, EHAM, LEMD and all others addons aiport). I have done:
but still nothing happen… any suggestion or solution?
Does not work for me either… 
Hi pilots, I do have the same issue. I have installed the VGDS of Aerosoft, ORBX and the NOOL one and nothing works.
I get this too and really don’t understand what’s going wrong. Some store sites (Contrail, Orbx) give the option to install Aerosoft’s VDGS module but I already had it installed via Aerosoft One, so declined. I have Nool installed, too, which I don’t think is downloadable from the main stores. But at the majority of airports, I see no working VDGS.
Every so often, while the sim is loading, I get a window notification that the Aerosoft VDGS module is already running. I just click ‘okay’ and proceed…