707FAN Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 How does tower 3D pro handle the new style flight numbers rapidly appearing around Europe. An example is OE322 /LDM77ULaudamotion ATC uses the new format for communications with the aircraft.i.e this aircraft is LDM77U as far as ATC is concerned. I have tried to find more info on this without much success. Can someone please enlighten us simmers on what the story is on these number formats. Kev M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexzed Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 It just ignores them, as far as i remember Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
707FAN Posted January 10, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 Yeh at present it doesn't see these flight numbers because they are not in the schedule BUT in the future if they become the norm and the old type flight numbers are dropped, then how will the program handle a flight number of RYR96EK. instead of FR 9741. It might be something for the next program release. Also I can"t find out why these numbers were initiated. I can only think it was to stop confusion over similar flight numbers. c'mon who can answer this.😊 Kev M 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winsaudi Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 Kev, Tower3D! reads the xxxx.schedule.txt file and, using your example above, it would be something akin to: VIE, BCN, 320, OE, 322, 12:00, 08:45, 1, OE (The schedule must be written using 2-letter IATA airline codes.) Then Tower3D! reads the xxxx_airlines.txt file which converts the 2-letter IATA code into the 3-letter ICAO airline code: LDM, OE, LAUDA MOTION, Laudamotion, Austria So OE 322 from the schedule becomes LDM 322 which is then seen on the flight strips and command window. The single flight number is the one from the schedule file so, in your example, either 322 or 77. You can add a letter (in this case U) in the schedule file and it will appear on the flight strips and in the command window but TTS and voice recognition ignores it. In a similar manner the 3-letter IATA airport codes used in the schedule are converted into 4-letter ICAO aiport codes, to be displayed within the game, by the xxxx_airports.txt file, for example: BCN BARCELONA_SPAIN 41.18 N 2.05 E LEBL Why this mix and necessary conversion from IATA to ICAO codes? Only the developers can answer. Why each airport folder needs its own airlines & airports file instead of single lookup files for all airports defeats me. More items for the next version? Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexzed Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 Yes i can confirm what Wayne says is correct as well 😄 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winsaudi Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 On this matter, this article is worth reading: https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/clearing-up-call-sign-confusion/#more-5710 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexzed Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 At least the game will accept this change, even if the implementation of it isn't 100% correct 😊 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crbascott Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 54 minutes ago, hexzed said: At least the game will accept this change, even if the implementation of it isn't 100% correct 😊 Not true. In the example above, if 77U is being referencd by ATC as part of the call sign - the sim does not handle the U in the flight number. It is currently being ignored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexzed Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 That's what i meant. The sim wont implement correctly ie it will ignore the U, but it will accept the flight (the flight will appear) Unlike when the sim doesn't recognise an airport ICAO, the flight will not appear at all 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelThere_Vic Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 Why this mix and necessary conversion from IATA to ICAO codes? Only the developers can answer. When we developed Tower!2011 (and T!3D's scheduling is based on it) we had different databases and worked with them this way. We never thought (hoped) one day the community will pick it up and create it's own schedules. Please remind us to change it for the next tower version. I agree, this is confusing. Why each airport folder needs its own airlines & airports file instead of single lookup files for all airports defeats me. It's for the add-on airports compatibility. Just easier to edit one airport of a time instead a global schedule. Thank you Vic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winsaudi Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 Vic, Thanks for your comments on my observations. For the first point, I see that you agree that a mix of IATA and ICAO is cumbersome and should be streamlined. For the second, sorry but I disagree with you. Surely it would be easier to have a master reference file for airlines and airports rather than the current plethora? The current 16 airlines files within the game do not list just those airlines specific to that airport as there are dozens and dozens of irrelevant listings in each file, same for the 16 airports files. What about changes? I have to edit the RT airline data because it contains errors. Here is a somewhat tongue in cheek example, if American Airlines was taken over by Walmart, (e.g. WMT, WM, WALMART, Walmart Airways, USA) using your system we would have to amend 16 different airlines.txt files whereas using my method would require one line of text amended in a central airlines.txt file. Because the TTS system results in some weird pronunciations I change the airlines.txt files to get the call sign pronounced correctly, but I have to do so up to 16 times when I really only want to do it once. Then every time RT is updated I have to go back and edit/replace 16 files instead of one. When EGKK is released make that 17, etc, etc. Wayne 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
707FAN Posted January 11, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2019 21 hours ago, winsaudi said: On this matter, this article is worth reading: https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/clearing-up-call-sign-confusion/#more-5710 @winsaudiThanks Wayne, I was looking for this. This is what I was trying to explain in my opening post. On the subject of the common txt files I agree that there should be one common file for all airports. I have made two "Master" files i.e. airlines and airports where I put all the changes in one file. As you say, it does mean copying them to all the airport files which of course I tend to forget to do when I change airport out of the blue. Also like you I spend many hours "fixing" the RT schedules for each airport. Not complaining, just commenting. For the Dev's. With the next version, it would make it much easier if there was a series of 'master' files that read across to all airports and were the common source for all add on airports. That way one amendment would be reflected across all DLC's. We live in hope.😉 Kev M ' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelThere_Vic Posted January 11, 2019 Report Share Posted January 11, 2019 I see both of your points. So maybe we should have an airline, airport masterlist and only the schedule should be done for each airport, right? Vic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winsaudi Posted January 11, 2019 Report Share Posted January 11, 2019 Vic, Exactly! I hope you can see how easy it would be for those of us that edit for reality/correct pronunciation. Thanks for listening. Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pedantic G Posted January 11, 2019 Report Share Posted January 11, 2019 4 hours ago, winsaudi said: Vic, Exactly! I hope you can see how easy it would be for those of us that edit for reality/correct pronunciation. Thanks for listening. Wayne Completely agree Wayne/Vic/Kev Would make life a lot easier. Would just need to remember to add any "custom" schedule additions each time a FT updated version came out as it would not necessarily include these? Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pdubya Posted January 11, 2019 Report Share Posted January 11, 2019 Yeah, less files overall too Vic as you have no doubt already noticed. It does get a bit confusing in the current setup, and I don't even mod stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pdubya Posted January 11, 2019 Report Share Posted January 11, 2019 While on the subject, it is my hope that the Old Guard here (they know who they are) will submit a thread for us other folks to look through, perhaps with a poll? - though maybe not crucial, that would list ITEMS just like the one 707Fan posted here. I would like to see those items that are outside of the Laundry List (aka, stuff we already know needs R&R or redesign) handled in a proper manner so that we get the best brainstorming out of our little niche community and help make the next version all that much better. Observing here on and off leads me to believe we have more than just a couple gents who definitely have the passion and know-how to make it work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
battlehawk77 Posted January 31, 2019 Report Share Posted January 31, 2019 I can confirm that translating the assigned symbol to the appropriate flight number can sometimes be a chore, as I'm in the process of making up a week of LEBL schedules. It is a pain in the you-know-what sometimes to track down a flight number based on the route. It sometimes takes referencing four or five sites to determine it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexzed Posted January 31, 2019 Report Share Posted January 31, 2019 Using the data from Flightradar/flightaware i only add the letters that appear, if it's a number then i just leave it as that. Manually tracking them down sounds like a lot of work, especially for a weeks worth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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