Animated airport vehicles and jetways for AI traffic - possible?

[b738pilot 0]

Hello All,

 

I was searching the forums (not only this one) but couldn't find an answer for my question..

 

Is there any add-on, or a program or anything that could animate the airport vehicles and jetways so that they service AI traffic? It would be great and highly more realistic if all aircraft (or most of them) at an airport standing at the gate were connected to an air bridge and serviced by fuel trucks, baggage loaders etc.

 

Is it possible at all?

[mcgoldri 0]

I've seen stuff for my aircraft, but not for AI. Some airports have there own AI service vehicles, commuter trains, etc. running all the time.

 

What you are suggesting would be like the POSKY 747s and later 737s, which have stairs, service vehicles, etc. as part of the package. I'm no designer but am thinking that these "accessories" would be additional bagage (if you'll pardon the pun) each AI plane would have to carry.

[b738pilot 0]

Yes I know that. I have a few payware add-ons and there are a lot of moving vehicles, trucks and so on.

 

But what I mean are the vehicles that 'connect' to AI aircraft. (Not my, user, aircraft) And also that jetways that connect to AI Aircraft. When an AI aircraft stops at a gate nothing more happens. I would like all the service vehicles and jetways or airstairs to move to the aircraft so that it looks realistic.

[kiwiflyer45 123]

It actually is possible. Cloud 9 KDCA does this, though they don't "move" exactly - they appear when the AI aircraft shuts down and disappear when they start up. But it does give you a ramp full of AI aircraft with service vehicles etc. and looks great. For some reason, though it seemed like a successful experiment, I'm not aware of anyone else ever doing it or developing the idea further. But it can be done...

 

The other option was provided by a New Zealand freeware developer who produced a number of AI aircraft that had what he called "inbuilt scenery." It was a long time ago but it was really good. It was part of the AI model, and gave you animated baggage unloading, cargo loading/unloading and a pushback vehicle. They were released by Aircraft Repaints of New Zealand I think. I still use their Concorde for retro traffic

 

So it's feasible. But sadly, the time is long gone I think where any new developer would be willing to put in the time to implement anything like that now. The only people I can imagine doing it might be MAIW who are still producing new models and who just seem to get better and better each time

[andrejurt 0]

B738pilot,

 

There is a tool called FSE which easily can create animated traffic around the airport. Unfortunately, the company that produced it (Lago) has gone out of business many years ago. As you slew around the airport with a vehicle, FSE records your position and and speed and then you can play it back. With the same method you could also record the service vehicles coming to your aircraft at your gate of choice. However, this is somewhat arduous, as you would need to record this for every airport / gate you fly to.

 

I do record a certain amount of general airport traffic (trucks, lifts, conveyers, baggage carts and other service vehicles) just to create the ambiance. Some people have succeeded in getting moving jetways and service vehicles to work independent of FSE, use Gmax. Their work can be found on fsdeveloper.com. I have downloaded all the tools and tutorials and am currently researching what needs to be done to easily create an animated jetway / service vehicles. My goal is to be able to add a animated jetway / service vehicles with no more than 30 minutes of work. It may take a while to get to this point, but once the objects are done it's only a matter of placing them at the right place.

 

Andre

[Appliance 51]

There is a tool called FSE which easily can create animated traffic around the airport. Unfortunately, the company that produced it (Lago) has gone out of business many years ago. As you slew around the airport with a vehicle, FSE records your position and and speed and then you can play it back. With the same method you could also record the service vehicles coming to your aircraft at your gate of choice

 

If memory isn't playing tricks the animations were the work of the famous Mauricio (?) of VistaMare software who left Lago (Emma Field) to work with Richard Goldstein at Georender and later Francois 'Navman' Dumas of FS-Addon If you check your Modules folder it's a fair bet at least one of the dll's is his creation.

[tgibson 11]

Hi,

 

What you are talking about comes with the default FSX...

[andrejurt 0]

Tom Gibson, wow, there is a name I haven't seen in a loong time. Hope you're doing well.

 

Well, I never bought FSX. Until about a year ago I could have never run FSX on my old crusty computer. Heck, I was struggling with FS2004 in some areas. I would have to buy all the add-on planes again for FSX and as far as I know, some never made it into FSX. I don't think there is any debate that FS2004 performs better.

 

As for me, I can do without most of the eye candy that FSX comes with. However, I do like the animated ground service vehicles and if I can have a moving jetway, I will take that too. I know there is a lot of payware sceneries that comes with that (Aerosoft etc). but I'm not willing to spend all that money on intricate details that I get to look at for 10 minutes while taxiing to the runway. Besides, I get as much pleasure from a few hours upgrading an airport as I get from flying.

 

I guess that's why there is still a bunch of us sticking with FS2004 (last time I looked it was around 20-25%).

 

Andre

[kiwiflyer45 123]

Oliver Probst's AES light clearly shows that FS9 can run detailed, animated ground traffic and do so with no FPS impact. Aerosoft's latest release, Fairbanks shows what can be achieved. So it's definitely "doable" and if someone came up with a utility to allow users to add it to their own airports, it would be fantastic. If you had a WYSIWYG interface like AFX so you could get it to conform with the AFCAD and see it in the sim in real time, it would be fantastic!

 

Given the shrinking market for FS9, it might not be as lucrative as it would once have been, but I think if someone did it they would make some money from it and give us all another boost of what FS9 can be. I'm not going to hold my breath but who knows???

[andrejurt 0]

Appliance,

 

Yes, that was Maurizio Gavioli and the DLL in my modules folder is called vimacore2004.dll. He was one of the "genius" developers back then.

 

Andre

[andrejurt 0]

Kiwiflyer45,

 

Yes, Oliver Pabst is one of the guys who figured out how to do this. I tested this program and it is quite impressive. The program as free and there are a few airports that are free and fully working. I set it up on a virtual machine and tested EDDN (comes free with it), which has a moveable gate and service vehicles. I used the default 737 for the test, parked it short and to the right of the proper parking spot and yet the jetway still hooked up with the front exit door. Also the service vehicles on request lined up at the proper places.

 

Another program is "Animated Gates 2010" by 'delivery guy'. He has animated gates and services vehicles as well. However, both systems don't work unless you buy compatible airports, which makes sense as somebody needs to put an animated jetway there. For me it doesn't make sense to buy these sceneries, as it usually takes at least a year (usually 2-3 years) before I'm back at a major hub I've used before.

 

As said earlier I will research this and see what it takes to get this done. But if it really is a lot of work, I won't sacrifice my flying just to have animated gates and service vehicles. I will let you guys know when I have more information.

 

Andre

[tgibson 11]

I've been here all along.

 

I just don't post as much as I once did, due to some nasty replies.

[andrejurt 0]

Tom,

 

Ah, I see. I understand where you're coming from.

 

Andre

[Appliance 51]

Yes, that was Maurizio Gavioli and the DLL in my modules folder is called vimacore2004.dll. He was one of the "genius" developers back then.

 

Andre thanks for filling in the gaps in my memory, I'm getting on a bit these days.

 

Wishing you all the best for a successful conclusion to your quest.

[andrejurt 0]

Tom,

 

>>What you are talking about comes with the default FSX...

 

This statement made me curious and maybe you check something for me in FSX. I've looked over the log file for my virtual world travels for the last 6 month and here are the airports I've flown to:

 

SPIM, SCEL, SCCI, SAWH, SAEZ, SBGR, SBEG, KMIA, EGLL, LOWW, LGRP and LFPO.

 

All these airports except LGRP have jetways in the real world and so I've added static jetways (if missing) into FS2004. Could you (or anybody who has FSX) check to see if these airports come with jetways in default FSX. Also, do all default FSX jetways move and do you always have service vehicles at any airport if you so desire? That is something I've wondered about for a long time.

 

Andre