Add Apron TaxiwayTextures for realism

First of all I love the attention to detail and realism, while still considering excellent game play.

Larger airports do not have aircraft stands directly off taxiways, but instead have a apron with taxi lines on them, and gate stand connected. My suggestion is simply an additional taxiway texture, that has the centre line, but not side lines or taxiway edge lights, intended to be used as apron taxiway. It would add to realism for larger airports. Maybe along with some none-functional apron tiles to fill in the spaces.

2 Likes

After your post I looked on Google maps at several large airports in the US and each one had the service road for baggage trucks and other vehicles on the opposite side of the stand than what is in ACEO, between stand and taxiways . Perhaps making that fix would solve this issue as well as not having vehicles go under the wings or have the fuel trucks pointed at the plane.

That is true for most US cities, though in Canada they follow the European model of having the roadway along the terminal building (see YVR). Maybe this is an future feature to allow both.

I also just realised that it is possible to make an apron anyway with the taxiways and stands - so it’s likely how we design the airport that will count.

I’m thinking through this and it would be possible to add a small fix to not generate taxiway edges and only to keep the center line if that was what you meant.

I’m thinking through this and it would be possible to add a small fix to not generate taxiway edges and only to keep the center line if that was what you meant.

If you combine your idea and a small feature such as flooring option with apron concrete texture that would accomplish it. Think as these grass areas are filled with concrete and without taxiway edges

Hang on let me try: Similar like this.

1 Like

That is possible today by placing down tarmac for visual purpose but it does not create any taxiway routes, meaning aircraft will not be able to taxi on top of it. Right now taxiway nodes are automatically generated as you drag taxiway in the world. Maybe what you are really interested in is a separate taxiway route planner in order to drag taxiway line manually.

3 Likes

A taxi route planner would be excellent! Especially when you consider real life and how the large terminals are almost never located on a taxiway itself, but rather in the apron area because this setup eases congestion in large airports:

Those red lines are the various apron ‘alleys’ at JFK. The blue lines are individual gates and if this were the game, the yellow dots could be where the ‘invisible’ taxiways may form nodes on top of regular apron texture. This would also be useful for deicing areas…

2 Likes

A separate taxiway route planner would be awesome :smiley:

3 Likes

Yes, we are doing a lot of thinking here. This includes some changes and definitively some work but it could be worth to spend time on this already now. It will solve some known issues such as holding points being too close to runway and make taxiway width more dynamic. Also it would give the player more control and the freedom to build more realistic aprons like you already mentioned.

7 Likes

In continuation of above,
Any chance to choose which runway planes land on and which gate they taxi to?

For example, the airport may run more smootly when big planes land on runway 09 and taxi to Gate A06, while smaller planes land on runway 18 ant taxi to gates A01 to A05 (Arbitrary numbers for this example, but you get the idea. Depends a lot on queue size, distance for baggage travel, etc)

1 Like

For now, no, and most likely not in the near future either. It’s always difficult to draw the line somewhere but I think it’s important to remember that the game is called Airport CEO and not ATCT Simulator 2017.

1 Like

Just built this with the new taxiway system! :slight_smile:

22 Likes

This looks great!

Looks awesome! I am always thankful how well you guys respond to the community. No doubt this game will be a lot of fun when it is released.

2 Likes

Improved AI routing? :slightly_smiling_face:

Sweet! That looks very realistic. Just hope the airplanes not are too wide, feels like the wingtips might collide if there is one airplane on each taxiway :wink:

2 Likes

Looks great Fredrik - to be hyper critical should the “T-Junctions” also have lines to continue straight ahead as well as for turning into the stands? But it honestly looks fantastic.

2 Likes

You guys are awesome. That is exactly what I was looking for.

2 Likes

WOW

heavly breathing

2 Likes

Wow! Looks great!

1 Like