aircraft.cfg question

[MeneMene 1]

Is there a parameter in the aircraft.cfg that defines "where" an ai aircraft is? I ask because I've applied several FDE replacements to my ai traffic, and I'm having a problem with aircraft bunching up and overlapping when stopped on the taxiways- as if the aircraft "think" that the plane in front of them is smaller than it really is and proceed to move too far forward before stopping.thanks

[Superpilotv2 2]

Hi,where does this occure? On special airports or everywhere?

[MeneMene 1]

It is not limited to a specific place- i.e. nothing wrong with the AFCAD, and I only noticed it when I started applying the Jan Martin FDE replacements. It doesn't happen every time- i think there's a problem with a few planes, not all of them.

[Mike... 7]

With those FDE's, revert back to default taxi speeds. They do not work well with increased taxi speeds, because they lack braking power (or have more realistic braking power, whichever may be the case). They need more room to stop at higher than default speeds, so they bunch up as you describe it.If you say it isn't Afcad related, that's cool, but I thought I'd say that it could be if this were to happen at a specific airport. The AI system uses the width of the various links to determine where individual AI aircraft are. If certain links (especially everything but straight lines) are set to small numbers, then the system may not be aware where everything is and as a result, aircraft may bunch up.

[Opa 6]

Is there a parameter in the aircraft.cfg that defines "where" an ai aircraft is? I ask because I've applied several FDE replacements to my ai traffic, and I'm having a problem with aircraft bunching up and overlapping when stopped on the taxiways- as if the aircraft "think" that the plane in front of them is smaller than it really is and proceed to move too far forward before stopping.thanks

I could certainly be wrong but it is my understanding that the "radius" of each aircraft is one of the major factors in AI traffic not running into each other.I have seen a few aircraft where the radius was far too small or was missing entirely when checked with the aircraft editor in Afcad. When missing, other AI craft simply ran right through it.Might be worth checking a few which are problematic for you.

[Captain_Barfbag 31]

The radius of an aircraft is defined in the .air file. Sometimes, people use the radius as part of the "where does this airplane park" decision. This value is used both in the parking process and in maintaining aircraft separation on taxiways. So, when it gets adjusted to specify a particular parking space, sometimes it has unintended consequences.If these are old FS2002 models, be aware that one AI technique (RAFCAD) used a combination of gate size and aircraft radius to do what is now done using gate assignments in FS2004. So, there may be some unnaturally small radii out there.You can use either Air Ed or AFCAD to examine and change the radius in the .air file. It's a binary file, so you can't do it with a text editor. Under AFCAD, select Tools - Aircraft Editor and you'll see it. Rememember, for each aircraft folder in your Aircraft directory, there is usually only one .air file, so changing it for one aircraft will change it for all paintjobs ("textures") in the folder.

[Mike... 7]

Model radius as in parking spot size as in PAI recommended radius and later AIG recommended radius is a .mdl thing, not an .air thing...That's why I didn't mention radius as there's nothing in the opening post to suggest this is a radius problem.The recent move to Jan Martin's FDE's is the key and non default taxi and land-taxi speeds will cause the described problem. I know that from personal experience. It can either be fixed by reverting to default speeds or by increasing the "toe_brakes_scale" value, which can be found under the Brakes section of an aircraft.cfg file. I suggest the former as the latter will negatively affect the overall effectiveness of the Jan Martin FDE's.