Automatically provide DGS service (Marshaller or VDGS) for X Plane's Global Scenery airports.
Well, not every airport. As you don't want to have Marshallers and Safedock VDGS' at your rural landing strip the airport must have at least have a tower and some stands resulting in 5000+ airports. It works for XP11 and XP12.
Download link: https://github.com/hotbso/AutoDGS/releases
Just drop the plugin in the plugins folder and you are in automatic set-and-forget mode.
Support Discord: https://discord.gg/7GNmbFkyXt
After you LAND (= some air time!) on an airport the plugin activates and populates all stands with jetways with a VDGS.
It then searches actively for suitable stands in the direction that you are taxiing.
Note that you MUST have your beacon on (a no-brainer with engine on, right?).
When close enough to a stand the selected DGS activates and gives appropriate guidance information.
The distance to a Marshaller is automatically adjusted according to the pilot's eye height AGL.
With the command "Cycle DGS" bound to a key or button or through the menu you can cycle between Marshaller or VDGS as you like.
Should the DGS be hidden by wall or run over by ground traffic you can pull it forward in 2m increments
with the command or menu entry "Move DGS closer by 2m".
Once parked and the beacon is off the plugin docks a jetway (XP12 only!) if there is one and deactivates.
See the plugin in action in a short video (of a prerelease version) -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzujmsCWF6w .
If you don't like automatic activation or automatic docking of the jetway see the FAQ.
When on ground you can preselect a stand in the GUI (e.g. after you get a stand assigned on VATSIM).
Depending on the selected stand a Marshaller appears or the VDGS lights up in "lead in" mode.
For helicopters the plugin activates when you are below 10m AGL for at least 10 seconds. Note that guidance signals are the same as for fixed wing aircrafts.
Per default all stands with jetways get a VDGS and all others get a Marshaller. This can easily be changed with the UI.
First ensure that the plugin is activated then select the stand and change the setting accordingly.
See a video here -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAuWxt0DB-8
The configuration is saved in "<xp_dir>/Output/AutoDGS/<airport_icao>.cfg" and loaded automatically on your next visit of the airport.
Possible reasons are:
Your beacon is off. So the plugin deactivates immediately. You did not arrive with a flight. In this case you must activate the plugin with command/menu "Manually activate". You are on a Custom Scenery. See "How do I enable a Custom Scenery?".
Absolutely, but not on the same scenery.
All custom sceneries that are not SAM-enabled (= have a sam.xml file) are automatically activated for AutoDGS. If you don't want such activation for a specific scenery (e.g. a scenery using AutoGate) you must place a file named "no_autodgs" in the scenery's top directory. If want to force activation even for a SAM-enabled scenery place a file "use_autodgs" in the scenery's top directory.
If you have problems with creating a file without extension you can create .txt files as well, e.g. "no_autodgs.txt".
In this case you can control activation with a lua script. See the sample file "AutoDGS/lua_sample/autodgs_activate_on_taxi_light_off.lua". As the name suggests it activates the plugin on "taxi light off". You can use any switch or state your favorite plane provides.
I don't like automatic docking of the jetway as it conflicts e.g. with Zibo's ground handling, what can I do?
Add the ICAO code of your plane to file "acf_dont_connect_jetway.txt" and jetways will no longer be connected by AutoDGS.
It's likely that this plane does not use the "beacon" datarefs in a standard way. Enter the ICAO code of the plane into "acf_use_engine_running.txt" and the plugin will "engine running" instead of "beacon".
Jonathan Harris (aka Marginal) (https://github.com/Marginal) for creating Autogate
@cxn0026 for explaining how Marshallers and VDGS really use guidance signals
@Papickx + @cxn0026 for providing better textures and day + night lighting
Please observe that this project is covered by various licenses.
-- copy of license remark from https://github.com/Marginal/AutoGate ---
The plugin code in the src directory is licensed under the GNU LGPL v2.1 license.
The rest of the kit is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution license. In short, you can use any part of this kit (including the 3D objects and their textures) in original or modified form in a free or commerical scenery package, but you must give the author credit.
This is in parts a derived work from libacfutils and Autogate so the above mentioned licenses apply accordingly to the components of this project.