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/images/notams/notams18/fsdt0611/gsx.jpgGSX Ground Services is a revolutionary product that simulatesseveral operations on ground, like marshalling, catering,boarding/deboarding of passengers and baggage, stairs, refuelingvehicles, pushback with realistic behavior, folllow me cars, dockingsystem and more, all featuring many native animations andbelivable human characters. GSX Level 2 ExpansionAn "expansion"? Yes, it means we are not releasing a entirely newversion of GSX, causing grief to anybody that bought it recently, andhaving to deal with several upgrade offers that won't surely satisfyeveryone so, instead, we are releasing it as an expansion, whichmeans: The core GSX product will continue as it is, constantly updatedfor free in all its main features, so you won't have to pay for a newversion, just to get rid of bugs of the old one...You are not being asked to pay for something you might not beinterested right now.It's easier for us supporting it, because the code to maintain isonly one, with just a different behavior depending if you bought theexpansion or not so, this will give you the guaranteed of continuedsupport for the whole GSX program.We believe the expansion approach is one that will allow us tosustain the continuing development of the product for the followingyears, without leaving anybody out. We'll surely improve all the corefeatures in GSX, like Pusback, which is the likely candidate for thenext rewamp (last year we remade the Refueling), and we'll still addnew services to the core product, like water/lavatory vehicles, andsuch core updates will continue to be free. GSX Level 2 focuses on two main features: SODE Jetways, EverywhereGSX has been one of the most popular products out there, because itwas always thought as a "global" add-on that would work everywhere,not tied to a specific airport or airplane add-on. The expansion willfollow on that concept, with jetways, which will be improved in thefollowing way: Upon installing it, ALL those outdated, ugly (by current standards)and bugged default jetways, will disappear, to be replaced by SODEjetways, way more reliable, and so much better looking, with the samelevel of quality you might have seen in our KORD V2 preview. This isnot very different that having the default Pushback truck disabledduring the GSX installation: the old default jetway model will bereplaced with one with compatible dimensions, just way better looking,and using SODE instead. So, without doing anything on your part, all default jetways in alldefault airport will immediately work/look much better. The followingscreen shot is an example of the default EDDM scenery, with standardjetways automatically replaced by GSX. What about 3rd party airports? Yes, we can replace them too but, it won't be made automatically, you'll have to go through the GSX parking customization page, and indicate the parking(s) you want the jetway replaced so, it will automatically create a very small .BGL EXCLUDE file, which will remove JUST the jetways from any 3rd party airport that used the default (CTRL+J) animation system, but its own custom models. We DO NOT touch any of the original scenery files, and if you justremove the GSX-created Exclusion .BGL, that scenery will go back tothe way it was. We'll have a single shared folder in the\Fsdreamteam\Addon Manager\Exclude, which will contain all theseautomatically created Exclude files, with a name that will clearlyrelate to the associated scenery. CustomizationThe jetway customization features are extensive, see the followingscreen shot, which shows the new jetway editing page: /images/notams/notams18/fsdt0611/fsdt-1.jpgHere, we customized the parking to replace the "defaultreplacement" ( a better looking version of the default jetway model ),with an actual Thyssen-Krupp Apron Drive Chrystal 3-tunnels 38/19,which is the real world designation for that specific jetwaymodel. GSX Level 2 will come with 80+ real world jetways, modeledafter their real life counterparts, from several manufacturers likeThyssen-Krupp or JBT. We'll surely plan to expand this library a lotduring the life of the product, with the goal of having everycommercially available jetway in. Jetway AccessoriesJetways can have several accessories, which can be turned on/off:the air conditioner unit, the power unit, the ground markings, and alogo. You might want to remove, for example, ground markings and theAir/Power units on the 2nd jetway in a dual-jetway parking spot. Or,you can select a logo from a list of commonly seen advertizers (HSBC,Swift, etc.) or use your own graphics. The power unit will actually power the airplane. Similar to thepopular option in FSUIPC which prevents battery discharge when parked,we'll keep the airplane powered when a jetway with a power unit isconnected. This will work with every airplane that use a standard electricalsystem but, same as the fuel system, if the airplane is flagged havinga custom electrical system, we won't touch it. However, we'll publishsome variables that airplane developers can read, so they will know ifGSX has connected a jetway with a power unit, and decide to dowhatever they need to do in their code, to supply the airplane withexternal power. Same for the Air conditioner unit, 3rd partydevelopers can read a variable too and do whatever they want to do,knowing there's external Air available. Jetway Numbers (Prepar3D 4 Only)Jetways by default will have their number automatically set to theactual number of the parking (taken from the AFCAD), and users cancustomize the Font size, style, background and foreground color. Thisfeature will not be available in FSX, since it uses the Render toTexture feature of the P3D4 PDK. This use DirectX11 to draw thenumbers and, since it's a static texture that never changes, it'srendered only once, so the fps impact is exactly zero. Animated Passengers, EverywhereThe second main feature of the GSX Level 2 expansion, are visibleanimated passengers, boarding the airplane either using our newjetways (of course, they must have glass windows to be visible), andwith boarding stairs, which is where they really shine. We modeled a much better looking passenger bus, and you'll be ableto see them coming out of it, and enter the airplane whenboarding. There are many different characters, each one independentlyanimated with its personal walking style and attitude so, the poshgirl will walk very differently from the old lady or the little child,or the business man. We also have characters for pilots and the crew. When boarding, aVan will come first, with the captain and the first officer coming outfirst, followed by the fight attendants, which will place themselvesat every exit, greeting the passengers as they board. Then a passenger bus will came, boarding exactly the number ofpassengers calculated by GSX, which is only simulated in the currentversion. Release Date And PriceIf everything goes right with Beta testing, which will probablystart in the last week of June (because me and the other main GSXdeveloper will be on vacation in the US until June 24th), we areaiming for a September release. Source Purchase GSX at the FS Pilot Shop