Some thoughts on IF & payload

[molleh]

Hi Steve,

I hope you don't mind, but I thought of some ways I think IF could be both streamlined and improved, when it comes to flight generation and payload management.

First, considering the wide range of add-ons that we flight simmers have available to us, I think there should be an option in the Flight Settings page to completely disable custom payload for the flight. Some airplanes use custom payload configurations, but they can't be reset once FSX is started. A couple of examples:

A2A P-51: It has its own payload manager, but it doesn't reset the payload settings once the flight starts, it only adds/removes weight. I ran into problems where IF wanted to add like 1200lbs worth of payload. Inside FSX, the payload window for the P-51 shows the added weight but you can't change it. The end result is that the CG shifts and changes the way the plane flies drastically.

Leonardo MD-80: This plan has a load manager but it only works before FSX is loaded. You have to choose your passengers/cargo/fuel in its load manager, and then start FSX. It doesn't send the updated payload to FSX on the fly like the PMDG MD-11 for example.

I'm sure there are other add-ons that could have issues as well. So this is why I think it would be nice to have a "tick box" to tell IF to leave payload alone, if we want to.

Now of course sometimes we want to use the payload manager from IF. But it would be nice to have a way to specify what type of cargo/crew/passengers the plane carries. I know there is the payload screen where you can change 1/2/3 but that seems wonky, some planes it still shows "crew and cargo" instead of just "pilot and luggage", for single seat planes. I know IF attempts to figure all this stuff out from the aircraft.cfg, but for those times when it just doesn't work right, it would be good to be able to just tell IF "this plane is a passenger jet / single to four seat general aviation, cargo plane, single seat military, etc."

Anyway, I also noticed some things with changing the payload quantity on the flight settings page. When I change the payload setting so I can enter LBs, it still adds a random amount of luggage. If we are specifying what we want then the random element should be gone completely, i.e. we should be able to select "my pilot weighs XXXlbs" "my luggage weighs xx lbs." Also there seems to be a bug with settings the LBs weight of the payload manually, it changes from what I entered and is just erratic. Sometimes I plug in 150lbs, generate a flight, and come back to the flight settings page and it shows 123lbs or some random number, then when I click to change it, it reverts to 150 automatically.

For the most part though I think the payload tick box would be the most useful thing, since almost every serious add on for FSX uses totally different payload set ups than the default aircraft.

Let me know what you think about all this Steve, I would love to have a good discussion about this!

Molly

[molleh]

Steve, I was bored so I decided to whip up what I think the payload related interface might look like (of course I don't expect you to use this in any way, I just thought it might help explain my thinking a bit more) This screen would appear after clicking a "Payload" button on the flight generation page.

Note: By default, IF would attempt to determine aircraft category based on aircraft.cfg information, and default settings would be let IF handle payloads. That would "gray out" everything below that radio button so the user wouldn't feel overwhelmed when visiting that options screen.

Then if the user chose one of the other options, it would enable/de-gray the appropriate section for more intuitiveness.

[Steve Waite]

Hi Molly,
Thanks for that. I'll have a proper look at your posts later (busy right now) but there is quite a lot of what you are saying already in IF [sf]! I'll be back later with more.

[Steve Waite]

Still not read your pst properly yet but in the meantime this is what we've got in [sf] right now:

The load won't exceed the max weight including the required fuel.
The load value can be generated random, or entered in Lbs or Kg. (which does work)
Loads can be organised as you like; single seat, seats, or cargo, per plane.
The per passenger weight can be set, per plane.
The load can be generated for the briefing but not added to the plane at all, for the load manager to enter.
The load can be added automatically before the flight is started up or once the sim has completed starting.

AT the moment defining the exact number of seats is not in it, I'm not exactly sure it need it?

busy today but around
Steve

[Steve Waite]

I think the payloads looking random, like when you set 150 coming out at 123 is probably due to the load being decreased in line with fuel and max weight. I'm probably going to be allowing overloading with a warning, and adding other warnings to the briefing other than distance and altitude.

From the outset the idea of adding seats and seat count and compartments has been considered, just always been pushed back for more important stuff.

The compartments specified in 1/2/3 are the .cfg compartments, 1/2/3 now has working and per person weight. 1/2/3 was left in because there was no time for the German translation, they are now descriptions.

The option to load zero in the flight is new, and allows your payload manager to take over. This only came in since a very few payload managers don't like having a weight configured first. So you create a flight look at the briefing load, and load up the plane with the manager, the briefing seat count may not be exact but the per-person-weight setting will enable a better estimate. To include setting up seating requires all the compartments and seats to be definable, which would not be so much work but other things are getting more time for now.

Your post is a great one, thanks.

Steve

[molleh]

Sounds great Steve, thanks I understand you're busy, so I may just randomly add some thoughts here throughout the day. It's freezing cold and rainy here today and I have nothing better to do...

I still think it would be nice to have a check box (probably right next to wherever the "don't send payload to FSX" check box is in [sf]) to also have IF ignore payload totally so that it's not in the briefing and not being monitored by IF. A2A aircraft are a good example of why this might be useful, because even if you have not altered the payload in the .FLT, the A2A payload manager only gives you equipment to add/remove, not exact weights. For example, IF may have calculated the total payload to be 1300lbs, but using A2A's manager the closest you might be able to get would be, say, 1150 lbs with drop tanks or 1420lbs with no drop tanks but with HVAR rockets. Do you see what I mean?

The payload system is great and a nice way to add a challenge and/or variety to one's flights, but in the odd chance it causes issues it would be nice to not have to "worry" about it at all, including seeing the payload info in the briefing when you know it wasn't added to the plane anyway, and you can't get it to match with add-on's manager.

Just more thinking from little old me

Molly

[Steve Waite]

...good stuff. I'll be working some of that into [sf]...