Hey guys!

 

I do all my flying online on VATSIM using the FSInn pilot client and up until now I've been using the IVAO_MTL models as AI.

 

Most of the time I do my flying in daylight but a couple of days ago I did a flight during night and noticed something I didn't see before, the parts of the AI models lit up by lights such as the tail and parts of the fuselage were all grey as seen in this screenshot. I highlighted the bad looking areas in red but also a good area showing the logo (although hard to see due to the dark screenshot) in green.

 

 

First I thought it was a DX10 issue since I switched from DX9 to DX10 not long ago but then someone suggested it's more likely a FS9/FSX issue with the IVAO MTL AI models being old FS9 models.

 

I've found a way to fix this manually by converting the textures but I soon realized converting all the models manually like this would take forever.

 

So now I'm looking for a good AI package that is fully FSX SP2/DX10 compatible and after the reading I did so far it seems the best option probably is to go with some of the payware AI programs such as Traffic 360, MyTraffic X or UT2. Looking at other freeware AI packages with WoAI probably being the most well known I think those models also are FS9 models suffering from the same issue as the IVAO MTL models?

 

As I do all my flying online on VATSIM using FSInn I'm not really that interested in the AI program itself and any extra features it might have but more interested in the quality and performance of the AI models and that they look good both during day and night and especially how the AI models lighting is modelled and controlled during night...if you need to manually control this or if it's handled automatically depending on the time of day in FSX.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions what is the best AI package for online flying on VATSIM and with AI models that look good regardless of time of day.

Web, did you end up finding anything to suit your needs? I am curious what came of your search since I am in a similar situation and found this thread doing some googling. 

 

Cheers,

Matt

Hey Matt,

 

Sorry for my late reply, looks like I no longer get notifications for new posts on this thread for some reason so didn't see your question until now.

 

Since I never could decide what AI payware package to go for I ended up using the IVAO MTL models and converting the models manually one by one to make the lights work during night.

 

Doing all models would take forever and I also learned that the jet models are more easy to fix vs prop a/c but I'm not too bothered about that since most people fly jets at the airports I normally fly to.

 

Also I took the approach to only convert models I encountered during my online sessions. Doing it that way the burden converting the textures wasn't that bad.

 

So far I think I have approx 230 models meaning I have most of the normally used models in Europe which is where I do most of my flying. This of course can't be compared to the thousands of models you get buying one of the AI commercial products but in a way it does feel quite good whenever you meet one of the models you fixed knowing you did it yourself :smile:

 

So...I keep one folder only holding the models I fixed and this is the folder I pointed out in fsx.cfg and the models that will be used by vPilot (replaced FSInn some time ago) and then I also keep the complete IVAO MTL folder as my "source" where I pick new models to convert and put into my fixed folder whenever I meet models online I didn't already convert.