Jump to content
The simFlight Network Forums

Gas Stations in FS2004


Recommended Posts

Is there a way to prevent gas stations from filling up the tanks automatically? Some sort of key assignment that "locks" or "unlocks" the tanks? It happens way too often that taxiing by a gas station secretly refills the tanks, and then scrambles the entire flight planning...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is there a way to prevent gas stations from filling up the tanks automatically? Some sort of key assignment that "locks" or "unlocks" the tanks? It happens way too often that taxiing by a gas station secretly refills the tanks, and then scrambles the entire flight planning...

Sorry, I don't know. I must admit to not going anywhere near any of those since FS5 days. Maybe some other reader may have a clue -- or ask in the FS2004 Forum?

Regards,

Pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I already did, it looks like it's not possible by normal means. Especially on smaller airfields it is sometimes impossible to taxi far enough around them. So there is no way to disable the "add fuel" thingie via FSUIPC?

Not directly, that I know of, though I don't think it has ever been investigated. I assume it isn't related to any realism or other menu setting in FS?

You could write a program to keep writing 0 or whatever to the tank levels to keep them empty. Better, there are probably fuelling programs or gauges you could use to deal with both re-fuelling and jettisoning fuel -- try searching on one of the main file libraries such as AVSIM.

I must admit finding it odd that this is the first time I've ever heard of this being a problem in all these many years since FS first had the fuel boxes -- FS3 was it, or FS4? ;-)

Another alternative would be to try to find a scenery editor with which the fuel boxes could be removed or moved.

Regards,

Pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not directly, that I know of, though I don't think it has ever been investigated. I assume it isn't related to any realism or other menu setting in FS?

No, there has never been such an option

You could write a program to keep writing 0 or whatever to the tank levels to keep them empty.

Sure, but that would have a rather negative impact on flying...

Better, there are probably fuelling programs or gauges you could use to deal with both re-fuelling and jettisoning fuel -- try searching on one of the main file libraries such as AVSIM.

To change fuel levels one does not need any external programs. However, a lot of AddOn aircraft with complex FMC devices get completely lost calculation-wise when after all data has been calculated such an important value as the fuel ammount (and thus weight) changes.

Other AddOns as FSpassengers will simply not allow the user to change the fuel ammount. If they detect such a change, the mission gets cancelled and the user punished for a tampering attempt.

I must admit finding it odd that this is the first time I've ever heard of this being a problem in all these many years since FS first had the fuel boxes -- FS3 was it, or FS4? ;-)

I agree, but then again we did not have add on software that would mind

Another alternative would be to try to find a scenery editor with which the fuel boxes could be removed or moved.

Unfortunately, this too doesn't work as they appear to be hard-coded into the sim.

As you can see, I lay all hope into your skilled hands. How would it be to have the "add fuel" function disabled whenever the parking prakes are NOT set?

BTW, thank you for looking into this :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sure, but that would have a rather negative impact on flying...

... but surely you'd put some controls on it?

To change fuel levels one does not need any external programs.

Of course ot, You can use the FS menus. But I thought you were againsta that for some reason, sorry. more realistic would be the fuel control gauges.

Unfortunately, this too doesn't work as they appear to be hard-coded into the sim.

No, fuel boxes must certainly be part of the scenery.

As you can see, I lay all hope into your skilled hands. How would it be to have the "add fuel" function disabled whenever the parking prakes are NOT set?

What "add fuel" function? You've lost me now. I thought you were complaining about uncontrollable scenery fuel boxes?

Pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Disregard the "add fuel" thing, I got an email of the person who mentioned that to me earlier stating that he had mistaken.

Sorry for causing confusion, what I would want FSUIPC to do is to prevent any increase of the fuel ammount.

When passing by a fuel station there must be something that "tells" the aircraft "you now have full tanks". It would be great if FSUIPC could disable this option so that the menu would be the only place where fuel could be added to the a/c.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry for causing confusion, what I would want FSUIPC to do is to prevent any increase of the fuel ammount.

You could only do that by reading the value and if it increases, re-write it as the previous value. You'd also need to be able to switch that off if you ever wanted to put fuel in.

When passing by a fuel station there must be something that "tells" the aircraft "you now have full tanks".

I might be forgetting things, but I really didn't think the fuel boxes did anything unless you actually parked, engines off, in the fuel box. Surely no one in Microsoft would ever dream of re-fuelling aircraft with the engines running. Isn't that a bit of a fire risk?

Either way, I'm pretty certain it is some sort of scenery action. There is an offset accessible through FSUIPC, 032C, which when true indicates "plane is in fuel box", and, it says, that is the same indication as scenery BGL variable 0288. I assume if you can find references to that variable in the scenery BGLs and remove them, you won't have any fuel box action.

Being to do with scenery, it is all really an area unfamiliar to me. It is far to late in the life of FS2004 for me to consider disassembling parts I've not ventured into before, so possibly this is one for FSX.

In any case, I am on holiday from Monday for a couple of weeks and I'm trying to get the latest version of FSUIPC on full release before I go, so I don't see how I can even start. Maybe your best bet is to ask around in a scenery design forum? I'm sure it's all to do with those BGLs.

As I say, I still thought you had to do specific things to get refuelled anyway, not just drive through a fuel box. at least this was so in older versions of FS and I really can't imagine why they'd change that.

It would be great if FSUIPC could disable this option so that the menu would be the only place where fuel could be added to the a/c.

How?

Pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi again,

I've just done some tests on the fuel box at Meigs.

It seems that FS re-fuels if you stop in the fuel box and apply brakes, even with the engine running. Seems rather daft to me -- I would have thought that you'd at least have to have parking brake engaged, and preferably engines and, most especially, battery off.

Anyway, I tried the simple thing -- continually setting offset 032C to zero (that offset happens to be one of the few "original" GLOBALS.DLL locations which still appears to be used, dating back that way right to FS98 or even before).

Unfortunately this had no effect. Maybe it needs to be done in some chain or other, or otherwise possibly it's an effect rather than a cause. Either way I'm afraid a solution would represent many many hours of work hacking into areas of FS I currently know little or nothing about.

The only other way I can think of trying here would be to check the 032C flag and if set, to try to stop the values in all 11 possible fuel tanks from changing. I would expect to see them fluttering up and down all the time that you are in the fuel box. Even if that were satisfactory, you'd have to leave the fuel box in order to add fuel at all, even via the menu, unless the code could also detect that.

A scenery solution, disabling the actual fuel boxes in the BGLs themselves, may be far nicer, but you'll need to ask scenery designers about that.

Regards,

Pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many thanks Pete for your time :)

I will try the slightly messy solution of resetting the fuel levels constantly whilst offset 032C is non-zero (but only when the levels are higher, not lower, else you'd get everlasting fuel by parking at a fuel box!).

If it works reasonably well -- i.e. without too much noticeable jitter or other side effects, I will leave the facility in, but only enabled by an FSUIPC.INI parameter (too late for me to change the User Interface for this version). Probably something like "StopFuelBox=Yes".

I'll let you know later. If it seems more or less okay it will be in 3.60, released this weekend I hope.

Pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

icon_pray.gificon_pray.gificon_pray.gif

Great! Thanks!

Okay. I got something working okay. It wasn't what I planned, but it should be okay.

I cannot depend upon the "in fuel box" flag. Whilst parked in the fuel box, that flag seems to come on and off with the brakes -- if I use that then, by timing mischance, the tanks could fill before I can stop them.

So, I've renamed the option "StopAutoFuel", and instead I prevent the fuel increasing in any tank UNLESS it is either done via FSUIPC offsets (for gauges and external programs), or via a Menu or Flight re-load.

I've tested it in FS2004 and it seems to work well. It should work in FS2002 as well, but not in any earlier version.

Sorry, I can't offer a pre-release as I'm in the middle of the final builds for release 3.60, but you should be able to get that over the weekend or so.

I'm afraid if it isn't satisfactory then any fixes or changes will have to then wait till later in May.

Regards

Pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

041.gif Sounds exactly right - I'm sure more users will apprechiate this than you think

Outstanding! I use an application (FS Flight Keeper), that logs a whole bunch of stats on the flight I'd just performed. On more than one occasion, I've had the displeasure of being directed to a parking spot very near a fuel stop. Once parking, and shutting down the engines, I'd get refueled. Sadly, I can't keep track that way of how much fuel I'd used on the flight.

Great addition, and thank you very much.

Chip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another alternative would be to try to find a scenery editor with which the fuel boxes could be removed or moved.

Unfortunately, this too doesn't work as they appear to be hard-coded into the sim.

Actually, the "fueling stations" at various airports are defined individually for each airport that has one in the AFxxxxxx.BGL files. They are editable; I've added and removed fueling stations from various airports for my own personal collection of customizations. I use newbglanalyze (available from Avsim) to disassemble the AF bgl files into an XML format which makes it easy to edit and recompile using the BGL tools SDK from Microsoft.

Regards,

Joshua Robertson (creator of FS Real Time)

3D Softworks Design Studios

http://www.3dsoftworks.net

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use. Guidelines Privacy Policy We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.