Global AI Ship Traffic FSX and P3D News and Support

[abranpuko 369]

Hi! First of all thanks for the great "global ai ship" you have designed. Its amazing.

I had a question, its about lights. I have seen that in prepar3d, the ship lights can be seen mofre far than even 30 nautical miles, This thing is not the same with ai planes, wich are only perceived from 20 nautical miles. Is there a way to make the second ones like ships? are they using a kind of ligth that can be seen more far than ai planes?

thanks and sorry because maybe my question is not well done.

 

thanks from spain!

abraham. 

[KL791 2,272]

Hi! First of all thanks for the great "global ai ship" you have designed. Its amazing.

I had a question, its about lights. I have seen that in prepar3d, the ship lights can be seen mofre far than even 30 nautical miles, This thing is not the same with ai planes, wich are only perceived from 20 nautical miles. Is there a way to make the second ones like ships? are they using a kind of ligth that can be seen more far than ai planes?

thanks and sorry because maybe my question is not well done.

 

thanks from spain!

abraham.

Hi

In principle you can use the same lights for planes; you just need to adjust the parameters in the corresponding effect files. However, I am not sure it will look very realistic. The navigation lights used on the ships are actually too bright during the day, and I should adjust them down a bit.

 

Henrik

[abranpuko 369]

thanks henry! do you have idea what are the name of those navigation ship lights?????

[kenz 33]

hello, now that there is only one file to download and install, i think this package could be interesting for me, but is it compatible with 3.4, you're saying 3.2 in your post.

[simmerhead 885]

Works OK in P3D V3.X.

[kenz 33]

cool, thanks for the job !

[abranpuko 369]

Hi

In principle you can use the same lights for planes; you just need to adjust the parameters in the corresponding effect files. However, I am not sure it will look very realistic. The navigation lights used on the ships are actually too bright during the day, and I should adjust them down a bit.

 

Henrik

 

thanks Henrik! do you have idea what are the name of those navigation ship lights?????

[KL791 2,272]

thanks Henrik! do you have idea what are the name of those navigation ship lights?????

Hi

The navigation lights are nested within the the Wake effects - they are not separate effects like on AI planes. All my Wake effects are called fx_wake_haa_****.fx.

 

Inside some of the Wake effects I have written //white or //red or //green before the parameter settings for the lights - e.g. you can find this in the Wake effect fx_wake_haa_arubaborg.fx. A section for a light can look like this:

 

//White

 

[Emitter.5]

Lifetime=2.00, 2.00

Delay=0.00, 0.00

Bounce=0.00

No Interpolate=1

Rate=1.00, 1.00

X Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00

Y Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00

Z Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00

Drag=0.00, 0.00

X Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00

Y Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00

Z Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00

X Rotation=0.00, 0.00

Y Rotation=0.00, 0.00

Z Rotation=0.00, 0.00

X Offset=0.00, 0.00

Y Offset=32.30, 32.30

Z Offset=12.80, 12.80

Pitch=0.00, 0.00

Bank=0.00, 0.00

Heading=0.00, 0.00

 

[Particle.5]

Lifetime=0.00, 0.00

Type=19

X Scale=3, 3

Y Scale=3, 3

Z Scale=0.00, 0.00

X Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00

Y Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00

Z Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00

Drag=0.00, 0.00

Color Rate=0.00, 0.00

X Offset=0.00, 0.00

Y Offset=0.00, 0.00

Z Offset=0.00, 0.00

Fade In=0.00, 0.00

Fade Out=0.00, 0.00

Rotation=0.00, 0.00

Static=1

Face=1, 1, 1

 

[ParticleAttributes.5]

Blend Mode=2

Texture=fx_2.bmp

Bounce=0.00

Color Start=255, 255, 255, 255

Color End=255, 255, 255, 255

Jitter Distance=0.00

Jitter Time=0.00

uv1=0.00, 0.00

uv2=0.50, 0.50

X Scale Goal=0.00

Y Scale Goal=0.00

Z Scale Goal=0.00

Extrude Length=0.00

Extrude Pitch Max=0.00

Extrude Heading Max=0.00

 

Each color will be different.

[abranpuko 369]

Hi

The navigation lights are nested within the the Wake effects - they are not separate effects like on AI planes. All my Wake effects are called fx_wake_haa_****.fx.

 

Inside some of the Wake effects I have written //white or //red or //green before the parameter settings for the lights - e.g. you can find this in the Wake effect fx_wake_haa_arubaborg.fx. A section for a light can look like this:

 

//White

 

[Emitter.5]

Lifetime=2.00, 2.00

Delay=0.00, 0.00

Bounce=0.00

No Interpolate=1

Rate=1.00, 1.00

X Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00

Y Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00

Z Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00

Drag=0.00, 0.00

X Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00

Y Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00

Z Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00

X Rotation=0.00, 0.00

Y Rotation=0.00, 0.00

Z Rotation=0.00, 0.00

X Offset=0.00, 0.00

Y Offset=32.30, 32.30

Z Offset=12.80, 12.80

Pitch=0.00, 0.00

Bank=0.00, 0.00

Heading=0.00, 0.00

 

[Particle.5]

Lifetime=0.00, 0.00

Type=19

X Scale=3, 3

Y Scale=3, 3

Z Scale=0.00, 0.00

X Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00

Y Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00

Z Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00

Drag=0.00, 0.00

Color Rate=0.00, 0.00

X Offset=0.00, 0.00

Y Offset=0.00, 0.00

Z Offset=0.00, 0.00

Fade In=0.00, 0.00

Fade Out=0.00, 0.00

Rotation=0.00, 0.00

Static=1

Face=1, 1, 1

 

[ParticleAttributes.5]

Blend Mode=2

Texture=fx_2.bmp

Bounce=0.00

Color Start=255, 255, 255, 255

Color End=255, 255, 255, 255

Jitter Distance=0.00

Jitter Time=0.00

uv1=0.00, 0.00

uv2=0.50, 0.50

X Scale Goal=0.00

Y Scale Goal=0.00

Z Scale Goal=0.00

Extrude Length=0.00

Extrude Pitch Max=0.00

Extrude Heading Max=0.00

 

Each color will be different.

 

Hi. I have put what you indicated in fx_strobe and these lights have appeared. The problem is that, when the plane has taken off and gone 20 nautical miles, those lights also disappear. That is, apparently it is not the emmitter and particle but what renders it at such a distance. In the case of ships, I can check on night flights that their lights are seen from farther away. So what would have to change to happen with the planes? There must be something that causes air traffic to be treated like ships.

Thanks for your help, but it's as if prepar3d does not want the planes to be seen from that distance.

One important thing that can serve as a clue !: when I turn the camera and the plane is left on the screen, the light reappears. That is, I can see the planes when they are almost exiting by the edge of the screen. Maybe this clue can help.

[jlund 380]

About leisure ships showing, I know that there are certain addon scenries like FlyTampas St.Maarten where you can turn off/on staic ships. Maybe it's a scenery you have that has it's own ships that you see, and they can't be turned off by lowering the settings to 0 in the sim.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Hi. I have put what you indicated in fx_strobe and these lights have appeared. The problem is that, when the plane has taken off and gone 20 nautical miles, those lights also disappear. That is, apparently it is not the emmitter and particle but what renders it at such a distance. In the case of ships, I can check on night flights that their lights are seen from farther away. So what would have to change to happen with the planes..

.

An object's MDL file in FSX/P3d usually contains multiple levels of detail (LOD) models. The lower LOD versions have fewer polygons and drawcalls. The simpler models are used sequentially at increasing distances from the user's viewpoint. The LOD simplification at distance may also extend to eliminating special effects like lights. Another factor is that at distance the model may be as small as a pixel or two, precluding any fx from displaying.

 

Open an AI aircraft MDL file with Model Converter X and examine each LOD version at various zoom levels, with fx display enabled.

[abranpuko 369]

An object's MDL file in FSX/P3d usually contains multiple levels of detail (LOD) models. The lower LOD versions have fewer polygons and drawcalls. The simpler models are used sequentially at increasing distances from the user's viewpoint. The LOD simplification at distance may also extend to eliminating special effects like lights. Another factor is that at distance the model may be as small as a pixel or two, precluding any fx from displaying.

 

Open an AI aircraft MDL file with Model Converter X and examine each LOD version at various zoom levels, with fx display enabled.

 

Thank you...so that is a good new. Its supossed i can change the LOD!?

[FlyH300 0]

I finally got the Traffic toolbx to work, but Im unsure how to use it ? and is there a posibility of placing any of the vessels at a desired location ?

 

thanks in advance

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Thank you...so that is a good new. Its supossed i can change the LOD!?

You could use MCX to delete all the low LOD versions and just leave the highest one, usually either LOD 400 or 100. This will degrade performance substantially if you change a large number of models. Further, that may not be the reason for the AI aircraft lights not being visible at distance. It could be that there aren't enough pixels to display the detail. Or more likely, LM had capped the distance at which AI aircraft are visible altogether.

[abranpuko 369]

You could use MCX to delete all the low LOD versions and just leave the highest one, usually either LOD 400 or 100. This will degrade performance substantially if you change a large number of models. Further, that may not be the reason for the AI aircraft lights not being visible at distance. It could be that there aren't enough pixels to display the detail. Or more likely, LM had capped the distance at which AI aircraft are visible altogether.

 

im guessin it is the last thing. Thats why i wanted to find a way to make ai planes being treated as ships. Anyway mi problem is that im not a developer...so i just can wait until someone says: NO!!! hahaha thanks for your help. Make bigger the ai bisibility is not an on/off button as i see.