FSX-MS Ai Controller (Sid, Jet Route, Star And Final Approach) Beta

[RancidViper 37]

 

 

If you have autogen approach selected, then it means that recording was bad and should be remade

 

I'm sorry, but could you elaborate on that? Not really sure what that means! Sorry!  :blush:

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

Has Ai Controller compatible with FSX: Steam?

 

I think it should be, but I haven't personally tested it (busy with the latest version).

 

 

 

So just an update on the LOWI issue, in the new version the aircraft do end up landing, but they get vectored way off course first. To land on runway 08, they fly over the airport and upto around 30 nm away from it before turning back again and coming in for the visual approach. Strange!

 

Thanks for the feedback Viper...the new version is almost ready and will eliminate this issue (the behavior you mention has to do with ensuring the AI intercepts the FSX-generated IAF, which the AI won't have to anymore).

 

 

I'm about to go ahead and install AI Controller.  I have a couple of thoughts and questions after reading through what seems like 1001 posts .  And Roland I sure don't want to add to feature creep too much ;-)

 

Thanks for the tips and suggestions...I'll try to get back with you...I'm focused right now on getting ver. 1.4 out...getting close (I'm aiming for around the 15th of this month).

 

At this point, I wouldn't bother installing ver. 1.3B.  If you could wait and tackle ver. 1.4 fresh and give me bug reports that would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

Just a note, AI Controller works fine with FSX: Steam Edition.  It all hooks in fine, just need the updated FSUIPC client from Pete Dowson.  Spent a couple of hours following AI around YBBN.  Was an amazing experience.  Can't wait for the new Navigraph data to come out in 24-48 hours.

 

Thanks for reporting that...much appreciated.

[=Hollywood= 0]

Hi Roland,
 
I just tried upgrading all my SIDS/STARS for YBBN and now none of the SIDS appear to be working.  

On the Sample YBBN it works fine, and I just spent a few mins inputting the LAT/LON for the Sample Australia YBBN - "YBBN SID RNW 01 LAV9.txt" into GIS software to look more closely at where the waypoints are.
 
Sample YBBN:

 

 

<main>

     <patternname>

          RNW 01 LAV9

     </patternname>

     <patterntype>

          sid

     </patterntype>

     <icao>

          YBBN

     </icao>

     <runways>

          1

     </runways>

     <comments>

          This SID file was automatically generated by AIConv.exe

     </comments>

</main>

 

<dependency>

<waypoint>

     <waypointnumber>

          1

     </waypointnumber>

     <fixname>

          MELOW

     </fixname>

     <latitude>

          S27-19.70286

     </latitude>

     <longitude>

          E153-10.57416

     </longitude>

     <altitudefeet>

     </altitudefeet>

     <altitudemeters>

     </altitudemeters>

     <speedknots>

          220

     </speedknots>

     <comments>

     </comments>

</waypoint>

<waypoint>

     <waypointnumber>

          2

     </waypointnumber>

     <fixname>

          LOKYA

     </fixname>

     <latitude>

          S27-24.05832

     </latitude>

     <longitude>

          E153-13.53666

     </longitude>

     <altitudefeet>

     </altitudefeet>

     <altitudemeters>

     </altitudemeters>

     <speedknots>

          220

     </speedknots>

     <comments>

     </comments>

</waypoint>

<waypoint>

     <waypointnumber>

          3

     </waypointnumber>

     <fixname>

          MANLI

     </fixname>

     <latitude>

          S27-27.79998

     </latitude>

     <longitude>

          E153-11.91666

     </longitude>

     <altitudefeet>

     </altitudefeet>

     <altitudemeters>

     </altitudemeters>

     <speedknots>

     </speedknots>

     <comments>

     </comments>

</waypoint>

<waypoint>

     <waypointnumber>

          4

     </waypointnumber>

     <fixname>

          LAV

     </fixname>

     <latitude>

          S28-5.38902

     </latitude>

     <longitude>

          E152-55.48734

     </longitude>

     <altitudefeet>

     </altitudefeet>

     <altitudemeters>

     </altitudemeters>

     <speedknots>

     </speedknots>

     <comments>

     </comments>

</waypoint>

</dependency>

 

 

 

 

 

 

Converted YBBN (from Navigraph 1501 revision yesterday):

 

 

 

 

<main>

     <patternname>

          RNW 01 LAV3

     </patternname>

     <patterntype>

          sid

     </patterntype>

     <icao>

          YBBN

     </icao>

     <runways>

          1

     </runways>

     <comments>

          This SID file was automatically generated by AIConv.exe

     </comments>

</main>

 

<dependency>

<waypoint>

     <waypointnumber>

          1

     </waypointnumber>

     <fixname>

          SADMI

     </fixname>

     <latitude>

          S27-18.18336

     </latitude>

     <longitude>

          E153-12.01668

     </longitude>

     <altitudefeet>

     </altitudefeet>

     <altitudemeters>

     </altitudemeters>

     <speedknots>

          220

     </speedknots>

     <comments>

     </comments>

</waypoint>

<waypoint>

     <waypointnumber>

          2

     </waypointnumber>

     <fixname>

          LUMDI

     </fixname>

     <latitude>

          S27-21.58332

     </latitude>

     <longitude>

          E153-18.31668

     </longitude>

     <altitudefeet>

     </altitudefeet>

     <altitudemeters>

     </altitudemeters>

     <speedknots>

          220

     </speedknots>

     <comments>

     </comments>

</waypoint>

<waypoint>

     <waypointnumber>

          3

     </waypointnumber>

     <fixname>

          MANLI

     </fixname>

     <latitude>

          S27-27.79998

     </latitude>

     <longitude>

          E153-11.91666

     </longitude>

     <altitudefeet>

     </altitudefeet>

     <altitudemeters>

     </altitudemeters>

     <speedknots>

     </speedknots>

     <comments>

     </comments>

</waypoint>

<waypoint>

     <waypointnumber>

          4

     </waypointnumber>

     <fixname>

          LAV

     </fixname>

     <latitude>

          S28-5.38902

     </latitude>

     <longitude>

          E152-55.48734

     </longitude>

     <altitudefeet>

     </altitudefeet>

     <altitudemeters>

     </altitudemeters>

     <speedknots>

     </speedknots>

     <comments>

     </comments>

</waypoint>

</dependency>

 

 

 

 

Any ideas what might be causing the SID's in the updated version not to work?

Regards,

Dean.

EDIT:  I'll definitely hold off on any more bug reports until 1.4 :-)

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

I noticed however that when using AI Controller (I read that you put AI in slew mode) the aircraft animations do not not work anymore, e.g. the tilting main gear on the heavies (A330/A340 for instance). It is especially noticeable when using the new FAIB 747-8 as the neither the gear suspentions nor wingflex works. When switch AI Controller off they do.

 

Is there any way to make animations work again when using AI Controller?

 

Yes, animations are a limitation.  I'm thinking about a fix for this down the road, but it won't be in the initial version 1.4  On the plus side the landing animations in 1.4 will be greatly improved.  The AI will now deploy spoilers on touchdown and for hard touchdowns you'll see tire smoke.  

 

 

Any ideas what might be causing the SID's in the updated version not to work?

 

 

You caught me at a good time with this question as I'm updating AIConv.exe right now to support approaches....I'll take a look and report back.

 

Edit:  I downloaded the 1501 and obtained the same results as you.  I checked it against the source data (ybbn.txt) and it seems to line up pretty well.  I see BN01R was deleted in the converted file, but that was because it was closer than 2 nm to YBBN....if you can adjust by answering the "Min SID distance to monitored airport" with a non-default value.  

[RancidViper 37]

 

 

Thanks for the feedback Viper...the new version is almost ready and will eliminate this issue (the behavior you mention has to do with ensuring the AI intercepts the IAF, which it won't have to anymore).

 

That's great to hear mate! Looking forward to it!  ^_^

 

Any idea what could be causing the other issue though? Where they would be descending normally, then all of a sudden start rising up like in slew mode or something for a few hundred feet, then start descending again, then up again, then down to land. Noticed this at EDDM, haven't had time to test at many more airports. Though at LOWI when they make the final turn, they do a few strange lateral maneuvers before lining up correctly.

[chumley 0]

 

 

What I thought would be useful would be the ability to filter airports from the AI Monitor screen e.g. to identify say Hong Kong as the only field represented and to be able to swap the displayed data using the filter to include others after say take off. This would keep data displayed relevant to the area in which I am operating. If this is already possible and I know it can be through the .INI file in a loose sort of way but not without shutting down and reloading AI Monitor after amending the replacing the .INI file.

 

Just raising this issue from an earlier post in case it slipped through the cracks.

[=Hollywood= 0]

 

 

 
=Hollywood=, on 09 Jan 2015 - 5:50 PM, said:

Any ideas what might be causing the SID's in the updated version not to work?
 
 
You caught me at a good time with this question as I'm updating AIConv.exe right now to support approaches....I'll take a look and report back.
 
Edit:  I downloaded the 1501 and obtained the same results as you.  I checked it against the source data (ybbn.txt) and it seems to line up pretty well.  I see BN01R was deleted in the converted file, but that was because it was closer than 2 nm to YBBN....if you can adjust by answering the "Min SID distance to monitored airport" with a non-default value.  

I think I figured out what was the issue.  It appears the SIDs section didn't like the relative path to the SIDS directory, even though when it loaded in it parsed ok it wasn't assigning the SIDs on departure but was assigning STARs on arrival.  It could have been user error though, I deleted the .ini file before I could check for my error or if it was a path thing.

now I've just moved AI Controller into a master folder where I have everying and have STAR=.\path  SID.\path and all is good

[ysfsim 22]

Roland, here is an idea...

Since you are now having the ai controlled right to the gate, could it be possible to create an "airport" text file that aicontroller reads for specific airports. It would detail runway usage for landings. maybe in the future, if you are able to control takeoffs, this file could then reflect take off runways. With this, airports with special landing rules/ noise abatement at certain times of the day (Heathrow) could be realized.  Also it would be nice if this file contained ground parking instructions. If you list in the file what gates/parking spots are Domestic, ai that are flying domestic would only park in those spots etc. This would also work for those large gates that can be arranged to have two smaller planes parked in them if a larger aircraft is not present at that gate.

What are your thoughts?

[toelg 1]

Hi,

 

first of course thanks a lot for developing such useful addon !

 

Just a beginner-question :

 

I noticed that there only a few airports serviced by AIController.ini (German Airports Sample, London Metro Area Airports etc.). How can I get it work to longer distances ?

Let's say, I want to fly from EDDL to EGLL.: If I choose the "German Airports Sample".ini, I have the service for departing (EDDL), but not at arrivel (EGLL).

If I choose the "London Metro Area Airports".ini, I have the service for arrivel (EGLL), but not at departing (EDDL).

 

How can I add both together ? Can I copy the airport-data into one file and the .ini, or is there a max. number of airports, which can be used by AIController ?

 

Thanks

Dietmar

[jambo50 15]

Hi,

 

first of course thanks a lot for developing such useful addon !

 

Just a beginner-question :

 

I noticed that there only a few airports serviced by AIController.ini (German Airports Sample, London Metro Area Airports etc.). How can I get it work to longer distances ?

Let's say, I want to fly from EDDL to EGLL.: If I choose the "German Airports Sample".ini, I have the service for departing (EDDL), but not at arrivel (EGLL).

If I choose the "London Metro Area Airports".ini, I have the service for arrivel (EGLL), but not at departing (EDDL).

 

How can I add both together ? Can I copy the airport-data into one file and the .ini, or is there a max. number of airports, which can be used by AIController ?

 

Thanks

Dietmar

If you have the latest build installed, 1.3B, it comes bundled with a converter utility built by Mathias Sorcinelli that will convert your entire PMDG SIDSTAR data and categorise them according to Country. It's a great utility that I and many others find very useful! All you have to do is point the utility to the PMDG SIDSTAR folder, and then point the output to your AIController directory and the program will do the rest in the background. There is also a ReadMe that details other options that you can configure for the program.

 

To enable an airport, you have to go into the AIController.ini file and enable the country by deleting the double slash 'comments' at the beginning of the line

 

e.g. to enable the UK

//STAR=C:\Users\Jaime_2\Documents\AIController13B\United_Kingdom\*.*

would become

STAR=C:\Users\Jaime_2\Documents\AIController13B\United_Kingdom\*.*

 

This has to be done for both the SID and STAR files.

 

All the infromation can be found in the ReadMe guide located in the directory. Having a read through that would give you further instructions on how to tune AIController you your needs.

 

ASFAIK there is no limit on how many airports you can use at the one time, although the more airports you instruct AIController to monitor, the longer it will take the program to initialise. My method is to instruct AIController to monitor all the airports of all the countries that my flightplan will take me over. For example, I monitored all the countries for a flight from OTHH (Doha) to KIAD (Washington Dulles) and the program handled the amount of data absolutely fine! Took a while to initialise but I used that time to actually set up the Simulator, weather and ATC add on etc.

 

Hope this is kind of answer you are looking for Dietmar.

[kmagelie 6]

Excellent program, Roland!

 

This just struck me:

 

Since you're controlling the AI directly, do you think it is possible to make AI land on sloped runways?

 

This is a limitation in FSX and P3D that I really wish we could find a solution/workaround for.

 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next version. Keep up the great work.  :smile:

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

Roland, here is an idea...

Since you are now having the ai controlled right to the gate, could it be possible to create an "airport" text file that aicontroller reads for specific airports. It would detail runway usage for landings. maybe in the future, if you are able to control takeoffs, this file could then reflect take off runways. With this, airports with special landing rules/ noise abatement at certain times of the day (Heathrow) could be realized.  Also it would be nice if this file contained ground parking instructions. If you list in the file what gates/parking spots are Domestic, ai that are flying domestic would only park in those spots etc. This would also work for those large gates that can be arranged to have two smaller planes parked in them if a larger aircraft is not present at that gate.

What are your thoughts?

 

Yes, there will be a text file with roughly this data that can be edited.  The only problem is it will tend to get overwritten (made obsolete) by the GUI front-end  whenever the user makes a change to the monitored airports list.  

 

 

 

Since you're controlling the AI directly, do you think it is possible to make AI land on sloped runways?

 

Yes, v1.3 can do that now.  Someone posted a great video in this (or the earlier AISIDSTAR thread) of an AI performing a landing at an addon airport with sloped runways in Canada or Alaska.  I searched for it, but couldn't find it.   I'll keep on looking for it

 

 

Any idea what could be causing the other issue though? Where they would be descending normally, then all of a sudden start rising up like in slew mode or something for a few hundred feet, then start descending again, then up again, then down to land. Noticed this at EDDM, haven't had time to test at many more airports. Though at LOWI when they make the final turn, they do a few strange lateral maneuvers before lining up correctly.

. 

 

Yes, too much gain in the vertical speed algorithm (oscillation).  You can scale it back with AIAscentDescentScalar and AIFinalAscentDescentScalar.  I'm investigating lower default values in v1.4. 

 

 

Just raising this issue from an earlier post in case it slipped through the cracks.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Andy, does sorting on the destination and departure columns help any?  All of the AI (as presented in the monitor screen) is limited to the geographical area represented by a reality bubble of about 100 nm around your current location in the sim.

 

-Roland

[kmagelie 6]

 

 

Yes, v1.3 can do that now.  Someone posted a great video in this (or the earlier AISIDSTAR thread) of an AI performing a landing at an addon airport with sloped runways in Canada or Alaska.  I searched for it, but couldn't find it.   I'll keep on looking for it

 

 

Wow, that's excellent! Thanks.

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

Wow, that's excellent! Thanks.

 

You're welcome...found the video by Enzzo (Orbx PAKT):  http://forum.avsim.net/topic/447974-ai-controller-sid-jet-route-star-and-final-approach-beta/?p=3062847

 

-Roland

[FlyTweety 2]

By the way, it is save to release the 1.4 NOW.

 

The weather forcast says, it´s raining cats´n dogs this weekend :rolleyes: