Updating the default FSX GPS database?

[kilo delta]

Is there any way of updating the default FSX GPS database? Most of my smaller airfields don't show up. :)

[wiltzei]

As far as I know, it is not possible, but you can download updated fixes here (http://www.btinternet.com/~gb.mitch/index.html). Maybe you could use the fixes nearby your destination as a direct-to target.

[Snave]

Is there any way of updating the default FSX GPS database? Most of my smaller airfields don't show up. :)

No...

[IanP]

The answer is actually "Yes".

Any airfield added using standard SDK airport techniques and architecture will be recognised by the default GPS, map and flight planner. I do it all the time. What do you mean by "smaller airfields"? Ones you have made, ones added by third parties, or...?

Ian P.

[Reddog]

You need to zoom the gps in to 10 miles or under for them to show up I think.

[kilo delta]

The answer is actually "Yes".

Any airfield added using standard SDK airport techniques and architecture will be recognised by the default GPS, map and flight planner. I do it all the time. What do you mean by "smaller airfields"? Ones you have made, ones added by third parties, or...?

Ian P.
Firstly...thanks for all the replies,guys.:salute:
There's a bunch of Irish airfields available at Flightsim.com as irltex21.zip and I can't seem to find them with the default GPS. Not sure about having to be zoomed in to 10m or less though...but being a VFR virtual pilot I'll probably spot them from that distance anyhow. :)

[IanP]

Thanks KD - have downloaded and will poke at them in a short while to see how they're made.

Airports should show up on the map, regardless. If the map can see them, the GPS can see them, although as Reddog says, I believe the size of aerodrome shown varies, depending on the zoom factor of your GPS.

Ian P.

[kilo delta]

Cheers Ian :ernae:

As I said...I'm a pure VFR flyer these days. I don't use maps,atc,airways or beacons anymore...dead reckoning,try to pick out landmarks (easier said than done in the bleak FSX Irish wilderness) and call up the GPS when I invariably get lost. :d

[Snave]

The answer is actually "Yes".

Any airfield added using standard SDK airport techniques and architecture will be recognised by the default GPS, map and flight planner. I do it all the time. What do you mean by "smaller airfields"? Ones you have made, ones added by third parties, or...?

Ian P.

Ok, so the answer is yes, if you want to manually amend each of the 20,000+ airports and airfields depicted in the sim. There is NO automated process that will do that for you so if you use replacement airfields they will show up, overwriting the defaults, but there are several things hard-coded and unchangeable in FSX, which conspire to render changes less accurate, not more, as you now have some updated airports, and the rest aren't..

..which makes the actual answer `No`.

And amending 20,000 airports would take long enough that before you finished you would have to start the changes all over, like painting the Forth Bridge used to be until someone changed the paint...

So the `yes` is really `no`. Technically feasible, but utterly impractical.

[NoNewMessages]

blah, blah, blah

Don't like being shown wrong, do you Simon?

No one mentioned doing (in excess of ) 20,000 airports. The question was could it be done? You answered "No...", which was the incorrect answer.

Now you return and bluster your way through some incoherent chatter which does not address anything. Care to pontificate about the "but there are several things hard-coded and unchangeable in FSX"? Are you talking about completely removing an airport? How about totally removing a default ILS?

The answer to the question is still yes, many of the parameters of airports, navaids, approaches and more can be changed. Where you decide to veer off to an all or nothing concept seems odd, in my opinion.

[IanP]

Indeed, Simon, please expand on your statement as to what cannot be changed and updated? I ask because I haven't hit any limitations yet, so I'm actually interested to know, rather than just taking the %£$$.

Kilo Delta: I've installed them and checked - the airports included in that pack are done using SDK techniques and do show up to all the default tools (i.e. map, GPS and flightplanner), but having just tried it for myself, the smaller ones do not appear until 10NM range on the GPS, exactly as Reddog said.

If it'll help your VFR-ness, by the way, I'm slowly wandering across the island adding in the larger areas of water that didn't make ACES' cut? After doing Lower Lough Erne in Co. Fermanagh (NI), I've now started in Co. Cavan, because I wanted to add in the lough near my mother-in-law's family farm (normally referred to as "Knockers" :d ) but am widening the spread. If you want the WiP pack, let me know and I'll zip it up, because default Ireland is seriously way, way, too dry. The seaplane dock I've added to Lough Ramor is fictitious - I just put it there to give me somewhere to start from when nosing around the other places I've added, but it works (and also shows up on the GPS, map, etcetera - as do all the new loughs... ;) )

Cheers,

Ian P.

[kilo delta]

Fantastic news,Ian. :jump: I'd love to have the WIP scenery and look forward to any future releases for this wet and windy isle! :d I'll set you my email address by pm. I will make certain to reduce the GPS range to 10M in future flights. :)

[SkippyBing]

Ok, so the answer is yes, if you want to manually amend each of the 20,000+ airports and airfields depicted in the sim. There is NO automated process that will do that for you so if you use replacement airfields they will show up, overwriting the defaults, but there are several things hard-coded and unchangeable in FSX, which conspire to render changes less accurate, not more, as you now have some updated airports, and the rest aren't..

I rather thought the point of the GPS was to reflect the situation in the sim, so any changes you make to the airfields in the sim will be shown. I can't really see how that's a problem...

[n4gix]

Now you return and bluster your way through some incoherent chatter which does not address anything. Care to pontificate about the "but there are several things hard-coded and unchangeable in FSX"?

What Simon is on about is that there is not one, singular database with all of the sim's nav data. In fact nearly all of the VORs, NDBs, and all of the waypoints, high altitude (jet) airways and low-altitude airways are not updatable in any reasonable way, since they are scattered among several thousand regionalized .bgl scenery files...

...and even modifying those won't update the cross-indexed linking of all these datapoints...

[IanP]

That's true Bill, but we're talking about localised changes in this case.

The statements that it is not practical or reasonable to update the entire FSX world are, I agree, entirely correct for the reasons stated. What you can do though is make changes to the database where you find specific problems, if you want. For instance I have moved (by excluding and replacing) a number of inaccurately located navigational aids at airports I have recreated.

Basically, the FS map and GPS display exactly what the sim itself does. If you add/remove/move something regarding what you see in the sim, you will add/remove/move it in the GPS and map views as well. This is different from earlier versions of the sim where, for example, if you added a body of water to the sim, you had to add a (usually simplified) additional polygon of type "GPS water", for the GPS to display it.

Anyway. I've just sent this file to Kilo Delta, but if anyone else doesn't have UTX Europe and would like Loughs Allen, Derravaragh, Ennell, Gowna, Lene, Owel, Ramor, Ree and Sheelin (plus a bunch of other smaller ones that I haven't found names for), I've put the tiny zipfile for them up here: http://www.ianpsdarkcorner.co.uk/modern/egab/Irish_Loughs.zip

That also includes my little fictional "EILR" floatplane base at the southern end of Lough Ramor (next to where the real world "Giraffe House" factory would be, if anyone knows the area...) if you want to explore from it. The number of loughs included will also increase as and when I have nothing better to do. I'll try and remember to update the file on my site when I add more water as well.

Have fun or ignore. I don't mind either way. :)

Cheers,

Ian P.

[kilo delta]

Thanks again,Ian.:salute: I have UTX-Europe,btw, but I'll look forward to utilising your EILR. :)

[IanP]

UTX EU seems pretty good for lakes, although I much prefer my Lower Lough Erne to theirs, which seems too low compared to the surrounding land.

EILR will probably be in the wrong place as well, depending on how closely the shorelines match or otherwise. If it doesn't work, give me a shout and I'll create a UTX EU version. :)

Ian P.

[kilo delta]

UTX EU seems pretty good for lakes, although I much prefer my Lower Lough Erne to theirs, which seems too low compared to the surrounding land.

EILR will probably be in the wrong place as well, depending on how closely the shorelines match or otherwise. If it doesn't work, give me a shout and I'll create a UTX EU version. :)

Ian P.

Look forward to testing it out tonight....after I've all my chores completed according to SWMBO. :d