I am impressed. I might want to give it a try, but there are few steps I still don't get (please pardon my ignorance, I am trying to catch up...):

 

- In point (2), where do you get the full list of ICAO in FSX?

- IN points (4) and (6), where do you get "bfl2xml" and "bglcomp" ? Are these part of ADE or line commands? If so, are they default in Win 8.1 or should I get them somewhere?

- in point (5), did you use ADE to add parking slots to newly created APX47130.xml ?

- Point (12) is completely obscure to me. How do you "revert FSX scenery back to its default state"? Also, please keep in mind that my scenery list in FSX is quite complex because I have add-ons (mainly ORBX)... How do I go about this?

 

You have been incredibly helpful so far, many thanks!

 

 

2: The FSX-GA-Traffic tool has a file in its directoy called "Airports.dat". I just assumed, that this would be the list of airports it knows about. So I ran it through a little program of my own creation to get rid of everything except the ICAO strings. One could do this by hand, but it would take ages. I can send you the exclusion file if you want.

 

4/6: bgl2xml you download from Scruffyduck, who also makes ADE. The bglcomp is the bgl compiler in the FSX SDK (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Environment Kit\BGL Compiler SDK)

 

5. In a way yes, but actually I altered the addon airfield I downloaded. Doesn't really matter though, you only want the XML code. You could decompile your addon too, and take the code from there. Or you open the stock airport in ADE, then add whatever you want (not too much work, just a few parking spaces anywhere). Then compile it and make sure the .XML is saved as well. ADE will compile it to a new name into your project output folder. Then you can merge the two XML files (copy an paste the parking tags). You probably could just add a generic set of parking spaces every time that you keep in a separate file. I don't think the FSX-GA thing cares about geography, it just wants to see the right tags in the right palce inside the airport definition. Will have to try that to make sure though.

 

12. I meant that I removed my APX47130 and put the default one back in, nothing more to it.

 

I never started FSX in the whole process until this was done - just in case. And this really is important, make sure that you don't mix things up in your FSX just for sake of tricking another program. If you want, I can send you the Traffic-GA file too, so you can try it out. Just drop me a note.

 

Another thing worth noting: it is probably not possible to alter the stock BGL files without losing stuff. So always put the default back in. As a consequence, the airport you just altered will not have parking spaces in the default scenery (again). The whole procedure can only work, if you have an addon scenery or any kind of replacement for the default airport with parking spaces included. Or you save your ADE altered airfield as your own addon scenery. If you don't FSX either has no parking sport to place departing traffic, or planes will get stuck on the runway because the destination doesn't have them.

 

Seems quite a lot of work to me. I would only do this, if I had an extenisve set of reworked airfileds and would just want to have FSX-GA-Traffic tricked into working. There probably is a way to do all this with a single self-made program in one go, but that is a project for a few weekends I think.

I think I am just understanding now what you did.

Please tell me if this is correct:

1) FSX-GA-Traffic only generate flight-plans between airports contained in default FSX scenery (not add-ons) and containing parking slots

2) once generated, the flight-plan is actually only airport-to-airport, not parking slot to slot. So if you run FSX with only one instance of origin airport without parking slots (like default EGLM), no aircraft will actually depart; if you run FSX with onone instance of final airport without parking slots, aircrafts will accumulate at end of runway without point to go.

3) you temporary inserted an instance of EGLM with parking slots (in this cases added by you by hand) in default FSX scenery, had FSX-GA- Traffic generate random flights from/to EGLM, put these new plans into UT2, discarded modified EGLM and put back its default. All this without running FSX

 

But in this way you are exactly in the situation where now your working EGLM does not really have parking slots??

 

Anyway, since I have ORBX FTX England terrain with a number of custom airports, could I just temporarily put all of them in default FSX scenery and trick FSX-GA-Traffic to generate plans for all of them, and then replace them again with default, except that I still have the addons with parking slots on top?

 

One big question, now: I thought we established that UT2 itself generate GA traffic of the airports with parking slots found in FSX default scenery (a bit like FSX-GA-traffic, after all...?), so why can't we just leave the addons airports with parking slots (or their copies) in default FSX scenery Nd let UT2 do its usual job?

 

Thanks

I think I am just understanding now what you did.

Please tell me if this is correct:

1) FSX-GA-Traffic only generate flight-plans between airports contained in default FSX scenery (not add-ons) and containing parking slots

2) once generated, the flight-plan is actually only airport-to-airport, not parking slot to slot. So if you run FSX with only one instance of origin airport without parking slots (like default EGLM), no aircraft will actually depart; if you run FSX with onone instance of final airport without parking slots, aircrafts will accumulate at end of runway without point to go.

3) you temporary inserted an instance of EGLM with parking slots (in this cases added by you by hand) in default FSX scenery, had FSX-GA- Traffic generate random flights from/to EGLM, put these new plans into UT2, discarded modified EGLM and put back its default. All this without running FSX

 

But in this way you are exactly in the situation where now your working EGLM does not really have parking slots??

 

Anyway, since I have ORBX FTX England terrain with a number of custom airports, could I just temporarily put all of them in default FSX scenery and trick FSX-GA-Traffic to generate plans for all of them, and then replace them again with default, except that I still have the addons with parking slots on top?

 

One big question, now: I thought we established that UT2 itself generate GA traffic of the airports with parking slots found in FSX default scenery (a bit like FSX-GA-traffic, after all...?), so why can't we just leave the addons airports with parking slots (or their copies) in default FSX scenery Nd let UT2 do its usual job?

 

Thanks

 

1. Yes

2. Yes. Stuck airplanes are removed after 5 minutes.

3. Yes. Except I didn't put it in UT2, I just left the traffic-GA.bgl where all traffic files are (Scenery/world/scenery). FSX-GA Traffic encodes this file with traffic level 0%, so they will always fly, even when UT2 sets the internal sliders to 0.

 

But in this way you are exactly in the situation where now your working EGLM does not really have parking slots??

 

No, because I have an addon scenery of EGLM with parking spots! And FSX of course knows this and it generates AI aircraft. Wish I could post screenshots here. I just have the problem, that AI planes arrive and do constant go arounds or do not depart. But this could also be due to my scenery. You have to try it out for yourself to see what happens to EGLM-EGUY with your addon.

 

Anyway, since I have ORBX FTX England terrain with a number of custom airports, could I just temporarily put all of them in default FSX scenery and trick FSX-GA-Traffic to generate plans for all of them, and then replace them again with default, except that I still have the addons with parking slots on top?

 

That is the idea. But not just "put all of them in there" - you have to manually disassemble and recompile the necessary files from the default library. Just copying .bgl files in the default scenery folder will not work.

The default scenery manipulation is only for the sake of FSX-GA traffic. You need your addons for the plans to acutally work. And they will, because FSX obviously needs your addon scenery. It does not even matter if these are the correct parking slots, FSX-GA Traffic doesn't care, as long as there are some. You can even insert generic XML where the parking spots are in Timbuktu, and FSX-GA Traffic would still work. Airport-to-airport is the idea in FSX (anything else would be way too complicated). Take a look at (any) flightplans in AIFP, and you will see for yourself.

 

One big question, now: I thought we established that UT2 itself generate GA traffic of the airports with parking slots found in FSX default scenery (a bit like FSX-GA-traffic, after all...?),

 

It was JSkorna who burst that bubble. UT2 uses fixed flightplans for GA traffic too. No matter how many parking spots you put in an airfield.

The databases can be found here: "C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Flight One Software\Ultimate Traffic 2\Databases"

 

so why can't we just leave the addons airports with parking slots (or their copies) in default FSX scenery Nd let UT2 do its usual job?

 

No can do. UT2 won't care, and FSX GA Traffic reads only the default files, nothing else. This certainly is a bug, but I found no way around it.

Then there are two technical reasons: First, the default airfields are not encoded like the addons. For example, the file that stock EGLM is in, has numerous other airports too! But it seemingly is not possible to re-compile this file with added parking spots just the way it was. The result is a lot smaller than the original, so I suspect something is lost on the way.

Second, addon airports are constructed with a lot more files and dependencies than stock. You would have to move all this over by hand - and it still wouldn't work, because of "First".

3. Yes. Except I didn't put it in UT2, I just left the traffic-GA.bgl where all traffic files are (Scenery/world/scenery). FSX-GA Traffic encodes this file with traffic level 0%, so they will always fly, even when UT2 sets the internal sliders to 0.

So that means they are "injected" by default FSX AI Traffic and not by UT2? Does that matter?

 

 

OK, now everything is reasonably clear to me. Certainly enough to give it a try: first just in EGLM, then in all England+Wales+Scotland+Ireland+Norway (all ORBX regions I have)...

I just want to make sure when I fly VFR I am always in good company!

I will send you an email to ask you for the ICAO list that you got out of FSX....

 

 

many thanks!

3. Yes. Except I didn't put it in UT2, I just left the traffic-GA.bgl where all traffic files are (Scenery/world/scenery). FSX-GA Traffic encodes this file with traffic level 0%, so they will always fly, even when UT2 sets the internal sliders to 0.

So that means they are "injected" by default FSX AI Traffic and not by UT2? Does that matter?

 

 

 

I does matter, as you can't control the amount of traffic generated anymore. The flights will happen as per plan, but any slider settings will be ignored. Could be quite a lot of planes.

And you might want to decide if you leave the UT2 GA traffic even active. If you generate enough plans, you wont be alone GA wise...

Kermit, can you list some of the airport codes your interested in getting more G/A at? I'm curious to see what flights are currently scheduled for AI at those airports.