I was wondering if it was possible to limit the number of AI aircrafts by number and not by percent (%)

 

my PC is not super new but runs everything ok as long as there isnt much traffic, i would say it's ok until around 80 AI aircrafts, but sometimes on big airports it can be a lot more than that and fps drop big time

 

for me limiting by number would be so much better than the traditional limit by % because when the max isn't reached you would still have full traffic

 

for example if i put a limit at 80 aircrafts by number on a small airport who has 60 aircrafts

- with my limit i would still see the full 60 aircrafts

- with the traditional % limit set at 50% i would see only 30 and that's a bit annoying

 

well not sure if my explanation is clear hehe

 

don't know if such a tool exists (i saw supertrafficboard has some ai optimizing, but i think it's also by percent, and i don't think a demo is available to test), but it would be so good for a lot of people struggling with too much AI but still liking to have some and not being limited by a percentage when the traffic is low

 

thank you

Having your AI slider set to 50% is more than twice what is really required. Here's a quote from the MyTrafficX manual:

 

"Settings have the following meaning:

 

100% means that all airports operate to their technical limit which FSX provides, most of the parkings will get used, the taxiway and runway system will start to show congestions and be as busy as possible. For most airports (but those that have no free slots left in real life like Heathrow, Frankfurt, Kennedy) this is several times the real world activity.

 

MyTraffic 5.4 uses a mixture of schedules based on real world data from summer 2011 and additional autogenerated filler flight to fill up to the maximum. For airlines, all autogenerated flights are above a density of 30%, for cargo aircraft above 25%. This means, that with a setting of 25-30% you get real life schedules only, and a realistic AI density for those areas of the world that have good coverage of flight tracking public online data – mainly Northern America, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and Eastern Australia. If you fly in other areas, just increase the AI traffic density.

 

Most users who use AI traffic as background action for their own flying are recommended to use setting between 20 and 40%, all settings above are intended for virtual spotting.

 

Performance or Quality, configuration of the aircraft details

 

MyTraffic replaces the stock AI traffic. At most locations, it displays about 5 to 6 times more flights than a standard FSX. It does so by filling the airports to their (extended) operational limit and adding traffic to many airfields which don't have it by default. Whilst MyTraffic aircraft have been designed to have as little impact as possible, this may overstress the capability of your hardware, depending on other addons and settings you have chosen.

 

The obvious way to reduce this load is to put the traffic density slider a bit to the left - keep in mind that in average MyTraffic at 16% density setting has at much life around you as stock FSX has with 100%. For most airports, a setting of 25% will give traffic densities similar to real life. "

 

So, based on this, I would look at having a setting no higher than 25% if you system is having issues. My Traffic X also has a Traffic Editor and a manual on how to edit traffic. Since I don't have any idea what AI program you are using, I am only bringing this to your attention as perhaps other AI programs have the same functions.

 

Best regards,

Jim

thanks for your reply

 

i don't use traffic addons, but 'world of ai stuff' + hand-made AI. So I can only limit it using the built in slider %

 

mytraffic X seems to add aircrafts not really caring about schedules, so setting a % will get you more or less planes, so yeah maybe that would be a solution. But a percent being a percent, the percent i would use for KJFK would be a lot different than the one on a small airport, and that's that's the issue a fixed number would fix.

 

 

so my main idea would be to have a settings that would be ok worldwide, putting a max at 80 aircrafts 'by number' would work great, on a busy area i would get only 80 aircrafts, on a sparse area i would get 40 if that's the max number of aircrafts available in the region. Setting a percent (50% for example), no matter the program, it will get me only 20 aircrafts on the non busy area even though 40 wouldnt cause any problem to fps (and so a 100% setting would have been ok)

 

oh well it's a bit complicated for me to explain :lol:

What you are asking really can not be done. I asked about this when UT2 was being developed and the reason it cant be done is that the number of AI also represents the AI that are in the 50 or 60 mile AI bubble that FSX has. I use UT2 which uses real world schedules and I have it set to 55% for airline and 0% GA. THis setting for me gives me the best compromise as far as performance versus traffic amount.

the percent i would use for KJFK would be a lot different than the one on a small airport,

 

According to quote I provided above from the developer of AI Traffic, this statement is incorrect. Traffic is based on flight plans. There are a lot more aircraft going into JFK than a little airport. Set it at 25% and you should be okay.

 

Best regards,

Jim

thanks Jim and .. Jim :rolleyes:

 

i'll investigate some of those traffic addons, if my original idea is not possible then that's probably why it hasn't been done yet hehe :lol:

The biggest impact on performance is those AI which require a physical model to be rendered, because you can see them out of the window. Next is those out of view, typically at other airports or enroute etc. While they don't require as much effort to maintain, FSX has to keep driving them in terms of workflow and their situation in the world.

 

SuperTrafficBoard does have some tools to help maintain your performance if the number of AI is a challenge. We can:

• Delete AI on the ground at airports other than the one you are at (i.e. other than the one you have selected on STB). The impact of this can be significant, for instance I've experienced FPS gains of 10-15% by doing so (your mileage may vary of course).
  
• Reduce all AI by a certain percentage. That may be an interesting alternative to reducing the slider as the choice of AI to eliminate is random so you will see a different set of AI each time you use it.
  
• One thing we can't do is to eliminate AI that are enroute, and in some cases UT2 traffic. The scheduling engine (either FSX or the UT2 runtime) tends to recreate them after a while, which does not always happen for AI on the ground.
  

Some excellent suggestions are made in previous appends. If you find they don't lead you to a solution I think the idea of reducing your AI traffic at a specific airport to a specific number is an excellent idea, and I'd like to investigating including that in STB.

 

Simon

thanks for the useful info Simon

 

I downloaded the STB manual and will check it out, it looks like a very nice little tool for those like me who like to manage their AI aircrafts.

STB is really nice for controlling traffic in crowded areas (Like NY). I'm waiting anxiously the Prepar3D version, which is hopefully out soon.