AI Traffic Reviews

[RFields5421 1]

I was looking over the review on the front page of Just Flight's Military and Jet update to their AI packages - and came across this incorrect myth:The planes in these packages were created using GMAX, which ultimately gives the end user a frame rate friendly ..... aircraft to view.Some of the most FPS hog AI aircraft around are GMAX, and some of the most FPS friendly AI aircraft around are FSDS.What makes an aircraft FPS friendly is polygon count. The lower, the better - but of course lower polygon counts do lessen the amount of detail possible.Equally important is Levels of Detail (LOD). Basically, each LOD should loser the polygon count about 10-20% from the next higher LOD.Just Flight and My Traffic have introduced several new models recently, and they usually have improved polygon counts and usage of LOD.However, using GMAX or FSDS to create the model is irrelevant as far as how much the aircraft impacts FPS.Current modeling technology also involves a heavy XML coding requirement - thinks like flaps lowering for takeoff, etc.Those cannot be done by GMAX alone.