Squawkbox Update packages

Alex Ramos · « **on:** February 22, 2010, 12:15:15 AM »

Found this on the VATSIM forums. A guy is updating models for Squawkbox, and has been releasing them as of these past couple weeks. He seems to be working like mad to get them out. More power to him.

http://www.colsquawk.webege.com/eng/descrip.html

The idea is fanastic, however the catch is the models only work if both parties (you and others around you) have the same pack installed. So naturally, word should get out fast to get this update.

Ramos

John Cierpial · « **Reply #1 on:** February 22, 2010, 05:16:18 AM »

Excellent find and idea! I'm downloading this now!

Luke Kolin · « **Reply #2 on:** February 22, 2010, 08:10:08 PM »

Quote from: Alex Ramos

The idea is fanastic, however the catch is the models only work if both parties (you and others around you) have the same pack installed. So naturally, word should get out fast to get this update.

The entire premise of SB3/SB4 model sets is that you don't both need to have them installed. Why do you feel that you do?

Cheers!

Luke

David Klain · « **Reply #3 on:** February 22, 2010, 09:33:38 PM »

Quote from: Luke Kolin

The entire premise of SB3/SB4 model sets is that you don't both need to have them installed. Why do you feel that you do?

Luke,

Looks like what he is doing is updating the library so the additional textures are included in the SB library (most of the airlines he has in his pack are not part of the SB library). For it to work the sender has to have the expanded library to be able send "avianca 747" for example and you need the expanded library to properly process "avianca 747"....

Dave

Luke Kolin · « **Reply #4 on:** February 22, 2010, 09:55:27 PM »

Quote from: Dave Klain

Looks like what he is doing is updating the library so the additional textures are included in the SB library (most of the airlines he has in his pack are not part of the SB library). For it to work the sender has to have the expanded library to be able send "avianca 747" for example and you need the expanded library to properly process "avianca 747"....

If he's just creating an SMS file, then he's not adding any new textures or liveries. The possible liveries are controlled within liveries.txt, and if your SMS file tries to add on not present in this master file, it won't get loaded or be available.

The entire point of the SB model matching code is to not require everyone to have the same model sets or liveries loaded; it should gracefully fall back to whatever the receive has installed on his or her system.

Cheers!

Luke

John Cierpial · « **Reply #5 on:** February 23, 2010, 05:03:00 AM »

When you install his base package, it makes changes to your airlines.txt liveries.txt and vip.sms files. Following that, when you download each airline pack, it consists of folders for each aircraft and livery that you put in your \Aircraft folder. Don't know if that sheds any light on the question.

Luke Kolin · « **Reply #6 on:** February 23, 2010, 10:30:07 AM »

Quote from: Joe Clark

When you install his base package, it makes changes to your airlines.txt liveries.txt and vip.sms files.

Oh dear. That's not good....

Cheers!

Luke

John Cierpial · « **Reply #7 on:** February 23, 2010, 11:40:20 AM »

Actually, Luke, it's a ZIP file with the files (no executable installers) and it simply is the original files plus the lines that refer to his model sets. So, there's nothing "not good" about it, in fact, it makes it easier for those who don't understand how to copy lines from one document and paste it in to another. Just a helpful and expedited service by the model set author.

Luke Kolin · « **Reply #8 on:** February 23, 2010, 12:03:19 PM »

Quote from: Joe Clark

Actually, Luke, it's a ZIP file with the files (no executable installers) and it simply is the original files plus the lines that refer to his model sets. So, there's nothing "not good" about it, in fact, it makes it easier for those who don't understand how to copy lines from one document and paste it in to another. Just a helpful and expedited service by the model set author.

It's not helpful at all. The proper way to do things would be to nag Joel to update the data files on squawkbox.ca, so that every SB user can automatically get the common livery and equipment codes. And then he makes an SMS file to create a new model set, instead of hacking the one that exists for SB.

SB has a reasonably extensible and flexible model set paradigm, designed primarily to get around the limitations of the old SB2 CSL model. The way this was implemented has returned us back to 2001. That's not an improvement, and it's not helpful.

Luke

Norman Blackburn · « **Reply #9 on:** February 23, 2010, 12:32:49 PM »

This guys method is wrong on so many levels. Without others doing the hack we will end up with more aircraft not recognised. In SB terms thats a lot of flying triangles.

Julian Hoffman · « **Reply #10 on:** February 23, 2010, 03:11:08 PM »

Quote from: Norman Blackburn

This guys method is wrong on so many levels. Without others doing the hack we will end up with more aircraft not recognised. In SB terms thats a lot of flying triangles.

God I miss those flying triangles

John Cierpial · « **Reply #11 on:** February 23, 2010, 03:55:53 PM »

So I guess in short, the question would be, besides not downloading and using these model sets, what can be done to better accomplish the goal of never seeing those dreaded big paper airplanes on the network?

Luke Kolin · « **Reply #12 on:** February 23, 2010, 04:04:51 PM »

Quote from: Joe Clark

So I guess in short, the question would be, besides not downloading and using these model sets, what can be done to better accomplish the goal of never seeing those dreaded big paper airplanes on the network?

Part of the problem with the paper airplanes, as I understand is an interoperability issue between FSINN and SB (please correct me if I'm wrong).

I don't have a problem with these model sets, assuming they were created according to the documentation on Joel's site. There is a well-defined procedure for doing this, located here: http://www.squawkbox.ca/doc/sdk/modelsets.php

Cheers!

Luke

John Cierpial · « **Reply #13 on:** February 24, 2010, 09:44:32 AM »

EDIT: Disregard, I did not read the other thread related to my post. Disregard the message below.

Everyone,

Here's the original thread on the VATSIM forums: http://forums.vatsim.net/viewtopic.php?f=3...30&start=15 Maybe someone should post there or send the guy a PM letting him know about the model sets procedure in place. That way, everyone downloading these aircraft sets won't run into any issues.

Julian Hoffman · « **Reply #14 on:** February 24, 2010, 10:08:42 AM »

IMO, these updates are rather useless if not part of an actual official update. The vast majority of VATSIM users do not check the forums, and thus will be completely unaware of the availability of the download at all.