Hello Team!By now we've all figured out that with XP10 Austin revamped the AI traffic engine so that each AI plane runs on its own core, that the flight dynamics of each AI aircraft are managed on an as real as possible fashion, etc, etc. Good start, but:1. At some point in the future, would we be able to add other aircraft models to the AI world? (Commercial and GA aircraft).2. At some point in the future, would we be able to have the AI aircraft world follow real life flight plans a'la Project AI?Austin has given us airplanes that fly well ( as realistic as possible), a great looking plausible world, a magnificient weather engine, and many other great things but some of the real inmersion factors are still missing - AI world and airport environments!!!! I know the airport environments will be addressed eventually by third party builders and people sharing their scenery addons, but the AI situation remains an issue. There's no situation that "kills the moment" worst than flying into Seattle and seeing a bunch of European commuters parked where Horizon should be parked or simply fying into a ghost town airport without life. One of the things that I enjoyed the most back in the FS days was to sit and watch AI come in and come out and know that those AI airplanes were following a real-life flight plan. It was awesome coming into a TCA and join a STAR approach alogn with a bunch of other flights that were following real-life plans. With the far superior capabilities of X-Plane 10 having such a world would be the icing on the cake!!!!!So, the intention of my post is not to criticize Austin or XP at all - I know it is difficult to provide everything everyone would like to see included in the sim......my comments are more geared towards whether it is possible - whether the framework is there to create a plausible AI world eventually.Thanks for your comments!Sincerely,Dennis D. Mullert

Hi DennisThere is a lengthy article on the ATC and what they hope to achieve with it here.....http://www.x-plane.com/blog/I think this might answer some of your questions

Right now, any aircraft you can fly, the AI can select at random to generate any of the slots you have selected as an AI. If you have 20 flight models present, yours and 19 random aircraft will be chosen from your aircraft folder for the AI to fly.This isn't very realistic as you will end up finding 747s at GA airports and maybe even a KC10. For XPlane to shine AI-wise, they would have to ammend the current system to favor a system where more aircraft would be selectable and not randomly generated for no reason, but by using timetables with pre-set flight plans and specific models. This could go hand-in-hand with a new folder for AI only aircraft with low-poly models and no VCs. They would not be flyable by us, but AI could handle them fine.But alas, that is far in the future of dreams as they have much more needed work to attend to like fixing the bugs, optimizing processing of objects and scenery and fixing the auto-gen system and adding in the appropriate artwork necessary to accomodate the new features and upgrades on existing features.

There's a thread here, http://forums.x-pilot.com/index.php/topic/2715-need-v10-ai-aircraft-testers/ for those interested in testing new AI aircraft (older planes). I haven't given it a go, but it looks like the beginning of something interesting.

Try these;http://www.ixeg.net/files/XPFWAI.zipIt's 3 highly modified B747-400's. (only livery is different)Add a bunch, like 10-15 of them as AI aircraft.Then try with the same situation with the same amount of the default 747 United aircraft.Personally I get about DOUBLE the framrate sitting on the rwy at KSEA on my iMac (i5), but I guess that depends on alot of factors...Let me know how it goes..Cheers,M

Stripped down models for AI aircraft is such an obvious idea that I wonder why Laminar didn't do it themselves. I'll give this a try and let you know how it works.

Try these;http://www.ixeg.net/files/XPFWAI.zipIt's 3 highly modified B747-400's. (only livery is different)Add a bunch, like 10-15 of them as AI aircraft.Then try with the same situation with the same amount of the default 747 United aircraft.Personally I get about DOUBLE the framrate sitting on the rwy at KSEA on my iMac (i5),but I guess that depends on alot of factors...Let me know how it goes..Cheers,M

Morten,Can you put a batch of GA aircraft together? As I fly mostly GA aircraft into small airfields, this would make the most sense to me. I'm wondering if we can download freeware GA aircraft and strip them of all but their exterior model. Would that work? This could be the XPX World of AI in the making.

At the moment I'm doing the XPFW airliners which we at XPFW have made over the past 10 years.To make a library of GA's you would need to ask each designer for permission if you intend to make it public (I've only made one GA)For personal use you can offcourse "fix" any aircraft you want. However, to get them really optimized, ok looking and well performing you need toknow your way around planemaker and photoshop.M

Who really cares about the AI traffic having moveable surfaces, and appearing as if they are fighting a crosswind?? I would trade detail (aside from good txtures) for quantity anytime.. I want to be able to fly into one of the major hubs and be behind a couple of planes evenly spaced on the glideslope all lining up for approach on the same runway.. Or be able to park at the of a runway and look to the right and see three or four planes lined up.. Or be able to change to tower view simply watch ground operations.. Honestly how often do you look at AI traffic and are put in AWE when you see the elevator trim being adjusted??

I added a bunch of frame rate friendly Airliners to XP10 and selected the airlines for each one. When i flew into Laguardia, it was amazing! there were about 15 planes taxing around and waiting for me to land and a few behind me. It was incredible! It looked way better than anything i got in FSX with UT2.

 

Rob

How did you do it?? How does scheduling work?? Any screenshots by chance??

There is no way to do scheduling in XPX ( a least as far as I know), What I do is just go to Aircraft situations and change the number of ai aircraft to 20 ( I think thats the max) and then click on each aircraft listed and browse to your aircraft folder to pick the planes you want used as AI. I downloaded some frame rate friendly AI planes of of the.org site and point to those. I pick airlines that frequent the US (since thats where I live) and only those show up. No more Space shuttle appearing at Major airports (lol). You could do the same thing for GA aircraft or have a mix of both.

The more ai planes you add, it will effect your frame rate.

 

I live near KLGA, and its become my starting point in XP10. I know what airlines fly in and out, so I just use those. Obviously, there are limitations. If I jump to a european airport, I still have American airlines 737's taxing around, which would not be realistic. If I want, I can chamge them with a few mouse clicks, but I usaully dont bother. This is how Im using it until the ai gets worked on or an aftermarket tool does it better.

 

Ill post some shot tomorrow. I wont have time today.

 

Rob

I added a bunch of frame rate friendly Airliners to XP10 and selected the airlines for each one. When i flew into Laguardia, it was amazing! there were about 15 planes taxing around and waiting for me to land and a few behind me. It was incredible! It looked way better than anything i got in FSX with UT2.

 

Rob

 

You have got to be kidding! Your googling over seeing 15 randomly placed planes at an airport in XP and think it looks better then the dozens of real world scheduled aircraft in UT2?

Yes, because im getting 50 fps second doing it and the planes are landing and taking off realisticaly and not slamming into the ground like in FSX. With YT2, Id only get a handfull of planes at any airport anyhow. Any more than that and your below 20 fps. No thanks.

 

Im not googling over it. The AI in XP is far from ideal. Its not how id like it at all, The ai in FSX has many advantages, but I still enjoy seeing them in XP more than I do in FSX. and thats my opinion, sorry if it offends you.

 

Rob

 

 

I live near KLGA, and its become my starting point in XP10.

 

TOTALLY OFF TOPIC.. One time i was heading to LaGuardia to fly home (Okc) and i stopped by the Wendy's on Queens Blvd that was used in Coming To America.. Haha.. One of the best movies ever made..

 

Back on topic.. I am wondering if an addon will/can be made that will overcome the 20 ai plane barrier..