Help Getting Pilot Voice to say St. Barts: Part Deux

[evm]

OK, this works too, assuming the use of the FlyTampa scenery. But it was a tougher piece of cake than I thought.

 

Stock SABA lives inside APX31250.bgl in the FSX scenery folders. But it doesn't have a UNICOM or CTAF, only the nearby comms of Juliana. I suspect there is another copy in the stock Maarten scenery, but I didn't find it. The FlyTampa SABA has no comms and no runway, only buildings, parking spots, a tower and taxiways.

 

Here is what I did:

- opened 'AFX_SABA.bgl' in ADE, compiled it as is, so the XML is generated

- Changed the name of the XML and the airport identifier inside to 'TNCS'

- imported the now new airport from the XML back in ADE

- added the comm frequencies for CTAF and UNICOM (122,9)

- added a runway (luckily it is invisible), or else no comms

- compiled it

- deactivated 'AFX_SABA.bgl' in the FlyTampa folder

- put my own 'TNCS_ADEX_OBI.bgl' in

- deactivated the stock Maarten scenery.

 

Now there are two options: either leave 'APX31250.bgl' active, and you have both SABA and TNCS. Or deactivate it, risking some missing stock scenery elements somewhere in the vicinity. Maybe it is possible to decompile, alter and recompile 'APX31250.bgl' - but lacking the skill and time, I will try that some other day.

 

Result:

 

 

[HoggyDog]

Hi, is this SABA the default airport or an addon?

Oh, sorry, it's an addon, part of Fly Tampa Maarten (Complete) which includes 3 airports- Juliana, St. Barts and Saba. All 3 airports, including Saba, are definitely working, as you can see from the screenshots I took last night of my first landing there. It's really very pretty.

 

Strangely, there are 4 airport bgl's in the Fly Tampa addon:

• TNCM_ADEX_FLYTAMPA.BGL
  
• TFFJ_ADEX_FLYTAMPA.BGL
  
• SABA_ADEX_FLYTAMPA.BGL
  
• AFX_ZABA.bgl
  

 

Even more bizarre, the Saba airport appears TWICE in the airport selection window of FSX- once with an ID of SABA and right below that with an ID of ZABA. Here is my Airport Selection window filtered on Netherlands Antilles (which is why you don't see St. Barts, which is in nearby Guadaloupe):

 

This is just really beyond bizarre :confused: especially the note "(Ignore)" on the ZABA entry. I may have to futz around a bit and see what's inside of the ZABA thing...

[evm]

Hi, if you would like to have my replacement file, drop me a note. I'm not sure about posting it to the library, as it is basically copyrighted material.

[jvile]

 

snip--------------

 

This is just really beyond bizarre :confused: especially the note "(Ignore)" on the ZABA entry. I may have to futz around a bit and see what's inside of the ZABA thing...

 

There are 2 files for Saba. The one that says ignore helps to correct the elevation of the airport and starts with the letter Z.

 

If you want to GO TO SABA in FSX then select the one that actually says SABA.

[il88pp]

Sorry, it wasn't very nice of me to say "I don't much care". That came across harsher then intended.

What I meant was, my default airport works, so I'm not looking for this solution. Plus I wouldn't even know where to even begin helping.

But after simply running the main evp pack, the airport worked perfectly for me. No adjustment necessary. That tells me your issue was not with evp, but rather with the addon, or maybe something you did to the stock airport.

(I found your criticism of evp way to harsh, and responded in anger. It got a bit snippy, sorry.)

small plug, sorry, i just had to :). -- EVP is a great program. You can edit sounds together to form completely new sounds. Wheter or not you hear them is down to using the correct identifier when creating the evp-sound AND wheter or not the sounds are correctly assigned to the airports in fsx. If you don't hear a sound it is usually not editvoicepacks fault!

 

This thread was pretty hard to follow. Even harder because the issue was not present on my pc. Therefore also impossible to help of course. (except for pro's like nuitkati and jvile;) )

 

So apologies for my rude words.

 

Plus, a thank you for raising this thread as well. I just had an airport that "said only letters"

I used evp. First I created an Airports/ICAO -mod and cut some sounds together.

That worked, and tower now said the words.

But ASOS frequency still said letters. So I opened evp again and added another modification with the airport identifier, this time in Airports/Agent Names. But... still heard only letters on ASOS.

The airport I was adding was an addon I was creating. I used ADE again, created a new version of the airport, and tried changing the comms. I changed the "Name" of the ASOS frequency but that did no good.

Today I remembered this thread and decided to see if something could be gained. Somehow it must have given me a push in the right direction. Hard to say what exactly helped. At least I opened the airport as XML, and saw the identifier was defifnetly the ICAO code.

Then I decided to "force things". I opened the airport in ADE, and removed the ASOS frequency completely (it was listed at the top.). I then created a new frequency, but decided to choose ATIS instead.

That worked, deliciously!

"I'm hearing voices!!"

 

I then tried to really make it ASOS. I removed the ATIS, and put in a ASOS instead. But that didn't work. It was back to spelling letters on ASOS.

Well. not perfect yet, but workable. I'll just use ATIS here for now, and look into ASOS a bit more at leasure.

 

I couldn't follow half of what you guys were saying at first, but it turned out to be very usefull info.

Thanks guys.

 

il88pp

[jvile]

il88pp

 

ATIS, AWOS, ASOS are weather reporting codes and in the default FS voice they do not speak the airport name but only pronounce the ICAO alpha code.

[il88pp]

I was just concidering starting a thread with that exact question "Is it even possible?"!

Thanks for your 'preemptive strike' !!

(I did look for that info, but couldn't find anything about ASOS. most people seemed more concerned with airline names and towers.)

 

I read a suggestion (on fsdev.) about using the fs2004 sdk to create an identifier, and then importing it via both evp3 (fs2004 version) and evp4 (fsx version). I had tried editing bigenglish.evp by opening with the FS2004 voicepack SDK, but got nowhere. It could be read but not edited. And evp3 wouldn't install because no fs2004 present on my pc.

I couldn't find much more on the web. (But avsim was temporarily unavailable, there would probably be some more info there.) I would have waited for avsim, but if that turned up nothing either I would have started a thread here.

This saves me a lot of time chasing my tail, and possibly risking damage by editing files 'to see what happens if you do', thank you very much Jim.:)

 

I will just use ATIS then instead for this airport.

il88pp.

[il88pp]

I read your post a bit to quickly.

originally posted by jvile:

ATIS, AWOS, ASOS are weather reporting codes and in the default FS voice they do not speak the airport name but only pronounce the ICAO alpha code.

 

 

I think what you said about ATIS is not correct.

I have ATIS pronouncing the airport name. I added it, with both times as identifier the ICAO -code, to:

Airports - Agent Names.

Airports - ICAO

And in the Addon I deleted the Original ASOS, and then created a new ATIS frequency.

 

Actually, I decided to fire up fsx to check, and many other airports I did nothing to have the name sounding in the ATIS too.

 

thoughts?

Are you 100% sure ASOS and AWOS can not be changed?

 

il88pp

[jvile]

No I am not sure

 

I am refering to stock comm files. EVP may very well add the voice for ATIS but I could never get it to work. If you look at all the ATIS Comms in FSX they list the ICAO code and not the name of the airport.

 

If you place the name of the airport into the ATIS Comm you cannot select ATIS per the ATC window.

 

I am still using EVP 3.1 in FSX and Lars may have updated weather comms such as ATIS, ASOS and AWOS in EVP so they can say the name of the airport.

 

EDIT---------------------

 

Actually, I decided to fire up fsx to check, and many other airports I did nothing to have the name sounding in the ATIS too.

 

Interesting since I cannot get it to work.

 

What EVP version

Does the ATC window show a way to select the ATIS

Do you know what is listed in the Comms for ATIS (ICAO or name)

[il88pp]

Sorry, I don't follow.

 

I am refering to stock comm files.

What files do you mean here? the default voicepack, or the (default) airport files?

 

If you look at all the ATIS Comms in FSX they list the ICAO code and not the name of the airport.

Do you mean in the comms in the (stock) airport files, in the comms list?

 

If you place the name of the airport into the ATIS Comm you cannot select ATIS per the ATC window.

Do you mean using ADE to change the "NAME" of the frequency in the comms list in an airport would make the frequency "disappear" from the ATC window?

(Actually, I checked quickly, and that is the case. No more atc after changing the "Name" property of ATIS to the airport name. Was that indeed what you meant?)

 

 

An additional quesion. If I want to find a default airport file, how can I do that. Earlyer in the thread you identified default SABA. How did you know that file was the one. The filename didn't give it away.

 

thanks, il88pp

[il88pp]

I am still using EVP 3.1 in FSX and Lars may have updated weather comms such as ATIS, ASOS and AWOS in EVP so they can say the name of the airport.

 

EDIT---------------------

 

 

 

Interesting since I cannot get it to work.

 

What EVP version

Does the ATC window show a way to select the ATIS

Do you know what is listed in the Comms for ATIS (ICAO or name)

 

***EVP version 4.0.7.0 (free)

**Yes, it shows it in the atc menu, see image below. The name is said correctly. The Atis works 100% ok.

*In the comms for ATIS, in the Addon I'm creating from stock, in the "Name"-field it says the ICAO (In ADE).

If I change it to the airport name, the atis does not work anymore. It then no longer shows up in the ATC window. I tuned the frequency after the name change just to be extra sure, and there is no sound either.

****Using ADE 1.66.5555

 

Using FSX-Accelleration. (Gold package 3 DVD set Box.)

 

 

I thought you might be interested in my evp settings as well:

All community modifications are checked, only made a few new modifications.

 

----------------------------

 

 

[jvile]

il88pp

 

Very good

 

That answered my questions.

 

I downloaded Lars 4.0.7 version and will work with it.

 

Thanks for checking and doing the leg work for the ATIS. Finally I can get rid of those alpha speaking letters.

 

jim

[il88pp]

Just one note her, but an important one.

I don't get the atis everywhere.

 

Notice PAKT, Ketchikan - Alaska, in "my modifications".

There ATIS and tower did not work. I heard only alpha speaking letters.

 

I went to add the identifier in 'ICAO' and 'Agent Names'.

I was going to create a sound from existing sounds, cutting and pasting them together, using EVP.

I looked for sounds in the list, under 'K', hoping for something like 'kettering' or similar.

But to my surprise I found 'AGENT_NAME KETCHIKAN' already present !!

 

When I looked in 'Community Modifications'--'AIRPORTS'-'ICAO' , the airport PAKT was not there.

 

Not a problem, with the sound present it was a doddle to add to identifier PAKT.

 

 

This issue may well just be an error on my end. something gone wrong when updating the voicepack perhaps, or an issue with a .gvp file or something. I checked the ../Sound/ATC folder, and all looks well there, no duplicates.

I may look into it later, but I don't want to risk uninstalling and possibly loosing the working sounds I have now. It was a steep learning curve the last few days in this thread, and I am still discovering EVP. I don't feel to sure on my feet just yet.

 

 

I have come across more airports that still said alpha speaking letters. Can't give a percentage of correct-incorrect with certainty. I have a feeling it's mostly the large airports that were fixed, and not the smaller ones.

 

glad I could be of help to you. I read quite a few of your posts with interest, both here and on fsdev, and learned a lot.

 

il88pp

 

EDIT

I'm thinking suddenly there is probably nothing wrong with my evp files/install.

PAKT may be a similar situation to hoggydogs SABA.

 

The sound may be present so voice does work when clearence delivery clears you for a flight to PAKT.

But not when contacting tower.

I will do some testing later, deselecting PAKT from EVP, update the voicepack, and doing an IFR to pakt from somewhere.

[jvile]

I copied this into notepad so I can reference back to it when working with the newer version

[il88pp]

Tested that.

I removed my PAKT modifications, and did an IFR from CYVR to PAKT. IFR clearance delivery cleared me to P-A-K-T

No Idea why the sound for AGENT_NAME KETCHIKAN is present but not assigned.

Makes it easy to create a personal modification for it, but would be even better if you didn't have to....

 

There is definitly not an AGENT_NAME for every 'missing' ICAO in EVP. The one for PANT I made by clipping sounds together.

 

-----

For now I will accept ASOS can't be changed. I'll look out on other airports to see if I hear ASOS saying an airport name anywhere. If so I'll be in touch.

 

Well, the ATIS can be fixed, and I'm well happy with that.

 

I hope EVP4 works out for you. I did read that there is an issue when importing EVP mods that were made with EVP3, into EVP4.

(It wasn't what I was searching for at the time, so I don't remember the specifics. But be aware there are incompatabilities.)

il88pp.

[HoggyDog]

If I want to find a default airport file, how can I do that. Earlyer in the thread you identified default SABA. How did you do that?

 

thanks, il88pp

 

Someone pointed me to ScruffyDuck's Simple Airport Scanner which will ferret out any/all occurrences of any valid ICAO code. The trouble with Saba is that even though its ICAO code is TNCS, FSX imagines that it is "SABA." :eek:

[il88pp]

Jvile,

what I meant to say was: the atis and tower names do not get added everywhere automatically by evp. But you can add them manually.

 

Hoggy,

i can't look it up now, but I think the filename I mean was APX12345.bgl or something. How did he know that was default SABA/TNCM?

Simple airport scanner? Maybe ADE's "load default airport" function?

[HoggyDog]

Hoggy,

i can't look it up now, but I think the filename I mean was APX12345.bgl or something. How did he know that was default SABA/TNCM?

Simple airport scanner? Maybe ADE's "load default airport" function?

 

So sorry, my bad, missed the word "default" in your original question. Simple Airport Scanner only finds addon airports, such as my Fly Tampa Princess Juliana, St. Barts and Saba, the ones I started this thread about.

 

The default file you're referring to is ...\FSX\Scenery\0303\scenery\APX31250.bgl, I believe, but I have no idea how he found that out.

 

Again, apologies for misreading your question.

[il88pp]

Ne'er mind hoggydog:), and thanks for chiming in. (hope you caught my post no.55 to you.)

 

I just figured out how to find the default file. ADE indeed.

0 - Start ADE

1 - click: file,

2 - click: open stock airport.

3 - enter the icao and click find now

(3 - or select the airport in the list on the left. Click on the airport in the list.)

 

4 In the larger square box on the right you will see the ICAO appear.

5 You must then click on the ICAO in the larger square box.

6 Below it you will see the Folder the file is in, plus the filename.

 

((You MUST click on the ICAO in the larger square box.))

((If you don't, and you go to select a second airport in the list, it will keep giving the filename and folder of the first airport you clicked on in the list. ))

 

The default airport files are named something like: APX12345.bgl

And reside in folders: ..\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\scenery\-A NUMBER-\scenery

 

easy-peasy.

il88pp.

[jvile]

and........................

 

if the stock file is already loaded into ADE the location of the airport file is at the bottom of the ADE window

 

Dir:0101/file: 12120 (meaning APX12120)

 

 

[il88pp]

Ah, I see it now, thanks.

 

Jim,

You said something about not able to add an ATIS in FS2004.

I found this thread on FS Developer.

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/atis.395804/

 

It says ATIS that an airport name can be added to ATIS anywhere but on class E airports.

Class E = No tower. (technically impossible in fsx.)

I decided to test.

 

I looked up a class E airport on the web, and found KUNV.

I went there in fsx, it has "KUNV traffic" and "Automated Weather Observation". Both spell K-U-N-V.

 

I used EVP, and added the sounds in airports--ICAO & Agent Names. (just a random sound, "Lisbon", to test)

I could then hear "Lisbon Traffic, cessna is clear of the runway.". But Automated Weather still sounded K-U-N-V.

 

Before, when creating the ATIS on PANT (ADE), I had delete the ASOS, and put in a ATIS instead.

 

Now I used ADE to create a version of KUNV. But this time I did not delete anything.

There were 5 frequencies there already.

I added an ATIS, and made sure it was not a duplicate frequency. I used 127.950

 

The atis works. But now the "Atomated Weather Observation option is gone from the ATC-menu.

choices are now:

"Lisbon ATIS" 127.95 ---(the 'name' of the atis is KUNV in ADE)

"KUNV traffic" 122.8 ---(122.8 is both CTAF aand UNICOM, the name of those both is "University Park" in ADE.

On both the Traffic/ATIS identifies itself as spoken "Lisbon" ok.

 

(I checked, and the same thing is happening on PANT)

 

I had a brainwave and created another version, KUNV_test_ATIS_v2.bgl.

This time I changed in ADE the comms Names. I changed both CTAF and UNICOM from "University Park" to "KUNV".

 

Success!

 

I was looking to test small class E airports were possible.

KUNV was larger then I had expected. Later I will test if it's possible to create ATIS at a much smaller airport.

I'll probably test at one of the dirt strips near KFHR.

 

EDIT:

I just notice the frequencies have changed. I tried to create the airport again, this time the Original frequency.

But it was not possible.

I discovered that when renaming UNICOM and CTAF, the frequency ADE offers is different. You can choose a different frequency if you don't like the on that's offered. But 122.800 was not in the list. It went from 121.775 to 122.225.