Is there a way to set the pilot spawn point in walkaround mode for MSFS2020 imported aircraft?

Version: 1.0.82.0

Frequency: Consistently

Severity: Low

Marketplace package name: indiafoxtecho F-35 as an example

Context: Air MSFS2020 aircraft imported in MSFS2024

Bug description: The spawn logic for the pilot figure in walkaround mode is unclear. For some aircraft the pilot spawns in positions which “look” wrong (e.g. in the F-35 it spawns inside the nose gear well, exposing parts of the aircraft with poor details).

In addition, if the aircraft has a collision mesh, the pilot may spawn in a position which “locks” him/her inside the collision mesh.

Repro steps: start a flight in an F-35 in walkaround moe.

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@Scimmia1974,

There is no way to specify this spawn point in MSFS 2020 packages.
I don’t think this should be possible anyway because this feature is 2024-only - however I believe the algorithm that calculates this spawn point should be reviewed & fixed.
I’ll talk to the appropriate team.

Best regards,

Eric / Asobo

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@EPellissier

That was my guess… but if you plan to revise the algorithm that calculate the spwan point, I have two suggestions:

  1. One potential solution is to make it so that, if a specific node is present in the model (e.g. WALKAROUND_SPAWN_POINT or something like that) it is used as spawn point location.
    Aircraft developer can then modify the models, and add the collision mesh and the spawn point directly in the MSFS2020 3D model.

  2. A little more complex solution would be to change the “build package” procedure in MSFS2020, to allow the inclusion of the navigation_graph.cfg in MSFS2020 packages. This will be obviously ignored in MSFS2020, but used in MSFS2020 (potentially solving the fact you cannot change station loads from the EFB on MSFS2020 planes in MSFS2024…)

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@EPellissier

I understand this is not a huge problem, but still I’d like to offer some suggestions for alternate solutions for this (small) problem.

At the moment, it is unclear where the “avatar” spawns for walkaround on MSFS2020 planes. In some of our planes it seems to spawn at 0,0,0 (which in our aircraft is set as the CoG, so it is not a convenient poistion) - in others it spawn slightly on the right.

Potential solutions, IMHO, are:

  • ask the developers to add a node in the MSFS2020 3D model and look for it, spawning the pilot on the ground at the X,Y positions for the node.

  • set the spawn point 3 meters or so forward and left from the pilot eyepoint (or right in case of helicopters)

  • allow developers to add the required config to MSFS2020 packages

Again this is not a big issue, but many of our customers get confused when the pilot spawns inside plane model.

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Agreed, and this is the only significant issue remaining on aircraft such as our 146 and RJ airliners.

At the very least, if there’s no method for specifying a suitable spawn location and the default algorithm isn’t getting it correct, it would be nice to have some method of disabling the pre-flight spawning (i.e. the flight starts in the cockpit) or a key event for triggering the ‘TAKE CONTROL OF CHARACTER’ assignment, as that’d allow us to handle that from within our code.

Regards,
Martyn - Just Flight

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Well, to be honest, i do think this is quite an issue for me. I also spawn inside the aircarft (737 MAX MSFS2024) and can’t move or click anything. FreeLook is my only option. While this certainly can be fun looking at all the insides of the aircraft, the reason for spawning was to fly the plane. Basicly free flight is not working for me this way.

Regards,
Arie

Apologies but, wherever you spawn, you can still “TAKE CONTROL OF CHARACTER” and jump in the pilot seat. Default controls, if I am not mistaken, are:
SHIFT + C
LB + B on Xbox joypad

As far as we know these work on every plane, including MSFS2020 imported content.

So i read this indeed. Although it’s not working on my end. MAybe the binding is missing. For now im still stuck in the cargo hole… ;(

SHIFT+C gives me character control, but afaict the character is just stuck inside the plan. Tried all the movement options but it won’t move. To bad i can’t post a screenshot to visualize my issue.

I’m actually looking at suitcaeses in the cargohole, the bottom side of the seats in the cabin and my rear landing gears…

I apologize again, but this seems a specific issue for that model. If you cannot move the character with the assigned movement controls, chance is there is a collision mesh in the model.

I am awfully sorry, but this seems a bit off-topic, as my original post, being a third party developer, was meant to have clarifications on the possibility of setting the spawn point for MSFS2020 planes imported in MSFS2024.

Let me file a bug report, and ill no longer misuse your topic!

Thanks

Not want to hijack the topic but you could use Bvars to control the Chocks,Engine cover etc. and spawn in your plane if you really need a fast solution until it gets fixed.

Don’t want to hijack this, but somewhat related.
Do you have an example of how to remove chocks.covers.pins by code?
I posted here How to remove Covers and Chocks programmatically? - #3 by Sonicviz but the A var solution doesn’t work from my testing, and I can’t find any docs references. Thanks!