FSX-MS AI Controller 2.0 (Gate-to-Gate https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/498931-ai-controller-20-gate-to-gate-control-open-beta/Control) Open Beta

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

New for Version 2

 

AI Controller now provides gate-to-gate control of FSX and P3D AI aircraft during all phases: push-back, taxi-out, takeoff, departures (e.g., SIDs), enroute (e.g., jet routes), arrivals (e.g., STARs), approach (e.g., procedures), final approach, landing, taxi-in and parking.

 

AIController “flies” the AI (instead of slewing), so AI movement looks realistic, such as during crosswind landings.

 

The user can select “on-the-fly” how particular runways are used at an airport for both landings and departures (e.g., 16L for landing, 16R for departure).  

 

Expanded AI traffic density tool that minimizes unnecessary AI based on different factors, such as what airports are being monitored by AIController, the distance of the AI from the user, and maximum number of AI, etc.

 

Improvements

 

Increased efficiency and use of multi-threading to reduce CPU loading even though version 2 does more than prior versions.  

 

Better enforcement of spacing minimums between arriving AI aircraft.

 

Many other improvements and fixes were made!

 

Link

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/gi5axjbq8447tjq/AIControllerV2.zip

 

Installation

 

Be sure to uninstall all prior version of AIController before installing this version (backup first).

 

Read the ReadMe1st.txt file.

 

Also, see the Installation and Basic Usage Video for Version 2:

 

 

Important NOTAMS!

 

FOR BEST RESULTS load AIMonitor/AIController BEFORE loading situation.

 

NEVER OVERLAY A SECOND WINDOW to look at AI instead use Views/Change Views/Air Traffic.

 

ENTERING FINAL APPROACH COORDINATES.  Do not use FSX when entering final approach coordinates for runway positions (e.g., touchdown, rollout) as the FSX in-game coordinate display (shift-Z) lacks the necessary precision (significant digits).  Use the freeware Airport Design Editor X (or similar) instead.

 

ENTERING RUNWAY DATA.   Ensure the runway number corresponds to the FSX runway description (for whatever airport scenery you are using).  Often, the latest FMS data will reference changed runway numbers that do not correspond to stock FSX runway descriptions.  For STAR files, if the runways do not match (STAR versus FSX), AIController will choose the STAR based on the waypoint having the 

 

closest entry point to the AI’s current position (i.e., not based on runway data), which often is satisfactory, but not always.  For Final Approach files, if the runways do not match, AIController might choose the final approach file having the incorrect runway data.

 

Link to Old Ver 1.4 Thread

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/462339-ai-controller-14-sid-jet-route-star-and-final-approach-new-beta/page-1

 

Bug Reports/Suggestions

 

This thread or AIController2@gmail.com

 

Thanks!

-Roland

[Hoang 108]

Thank you for your fantastic work. I will look into it when get back home later today.
 

[cubsatl69 0]

Roland,

 

First off Thank You for all your work. I have a couple of questions, I am using Ultimate Traffic 2 and tried the program at YSSY. I have tried stock FSX ATC, PROATC and Radar Contact and once AI Controller takes a plane over, I can not hear any ATC. I did hear Radar Contact give permission for a start up that was all.

 

Also, where is the Ultimate Traffic2 option? I think I went thru all screens and could not locate. The runway selection works fine, sending planes where I asked it to

 

Paul Goodman

[MaVe64 414]

Thanks, great job.

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

 

 

I have a couple of questions, I am using Ultimate Traffic 2 and tried the program at YSSY. I have tried stock FSX ATC, PROATC and Radar Contact and once AI Controller takes a plane over, I can not hear any ATC. I did hear Radar Contact give permission for a start up that was all.
 
Also, where is the Ultimate Traffic2 option? I think I went thru all screens and could not locate. The runway selection works fine, sending planes where I asked it to

 

You won't hear stock ATC from an AI after AI Controller takes it over.  That's one area I'm looking into...teaming up with an addon ATC program to make them "aware" of the AI (and to also issue commands to the AI, e.g., "descend and maintain....).  

[eddeul 0]

Hi, Roland. Thank you for your great program.

 

I have problem with AI using jet routes. Any AI craft after assigning jet route proceeds to active waypoint shown in AI Monitor in “Waypoint” column. After passing active waypoint there is no switching to next waypoint. AI plane flies along large circle and tries to pass same point again. And this continues until AI Controller stopped. I checked the AICONTROLLER.log file and found error messages regarding problem AI crafts. They look similar

AICONTROLLER has encountered an error, please note the following error information.

***** EXCEPTION = 19 SendID = 92884 Index = 5cbData = 24

Pacifica Flight 1166 (UR50685) CIRCLED the waypoint 6 with no commanded holds, advancing to next waypoint to avoid indefinite circling.

 

There are no problems regarding SID/STAR routes.

My system Windows 10 x64, FSX Acceleration Expansion Eng. Both simulator and AI Controller  run in administrator mode with default setting (only “Enable Jet Routes” option changed to ON). I encountered this problem using  various traffic such as My Traffic, SKYAITraffic and default traffic.

Thanks!                               Edward.

[cubsatl69 0]

Roland,

 

Thank You for your reply. There are two options listed in the AICONTROLLER text document that I am unable to find a menu option for:

 

Compatibility mode for UT2 aircraft and provide interface for external programs. Am I just missing them or hoe do they get set.

 

Thank You,

Paul

[ComSimPilot 623]

Hello!

 

You are brilliant! Thank you very much for this software, amazing idea, congratulations.

 

However, when I follow your steps in the video I get an error saying that scenery.cfg cannot be opened. Any idea?

 

 

EDIT: OK, found it! Had to select P3D mode from the main window

[d.tsakiris 418]

That's one area I'm looking into...teaming up with an addon ATC program to make them "aware" of the AI (and to also issue commands to the AI, e.g., "descend and maintain....).  

Ah, that would be a dream come true. Please consider PF3 for this!

[nthabti79 17]

This look great, thank you so much Roland, you're a star!

 

I am downloading right now and will start testing. Are there any options to control push back?

 

Cheers

[vololiberista 205]

As PF3 "reacts" To AI in order to create chatter it is quite likely that AI Controller could/would work pretty much out of the box with PF3. Other ATC programmes have fake chatter. For example listening to Manchester Approach whilst you are landing In Singapore. Which is quite unrealistic not withstanding "protests" from users of other ATC programmes!! Chatter from PF3 is only in response to the AI around you. So you would hear Asian accents in the example I quoted. The only conflict would be PF3's AI traffic monitor (which is a user optional choice anyway) which freezes AI on the ground when too close to the user.

[ieydis 51]

For the users with UT2 compatibility questions - it does seem to be missing in the GUI however you can still set it manually in the ini file as:  UT2Compatibility=1 

 

Not sure if this actually does anything and also needs to be set before every launch of the program.  Hopefully Roland will provide further guidance.

 

Ilya

[spesimen 135]

seems pretty cool. i did three flights, one of them crashed my fsx on approach, the other two worked pretty well..

a few comments and questions..

 

1. minor ui bug on the SID/STAR/approaches menu...selecting paths checkboxes require 2 clicks instead of a single click as is normal for this type of interface

 

2. in the same menu..it would be nice if it could recurse through directorys. adding an entry for every country will take a lot of clicking, even more if you add the states/provinces. or is it unusual to just convert the whole navdata folder? so far i have just been doing the airports i am flying between but that is a hassle, eventually i'll want to just do it once a month when i update navdata..

 

3.question...what are the optimal settings to use for sid/star converter? is the defaults correct? if pattern altitude is 0000 what does that mean? shouldn't it be 1000?  i changed the speed to 280 since that seems a common speed limit in usa stars anyway. should the minimum waypoint size be lower than 5nm if the stars and approaches have a lot of closely spaced points?

 

4.minor ui bug..the double popup boxes during taxi-graph update are confusing and pop up on top of eachother. not sure it's necessary to require a separate 'ok' click just to do the 2nd half of the process...

 

5. so this is definitely a finicky part of the process... taxi_graph update generated a 0kb file for me the first time. it seems that fsAeroData layers confusing things, i'm guessing because it only checks the topmost bgl for that airport and they contain only updated data not the actual taxiways and layout. it also gets confused by default airports that have mytraffic bgl files.  so anytime i import taxi data i have to go into fsx, disable mytraffic and aerodata layers, exit out, run the taxi graph builder, then reload fsx and reenable them, and ignore the complaint it makes for having changed the scenery when you re-enable those layers. wouldn't it be easier to have it skip a bgl file if it doesn't contain taxiway data? i don't know if there is a way to step down them in order of priority but that's how the sim does it..

 

6. seems like it detects broken runway links at a huge amount of airports. is this normal or suposed to be a rare case? i discovered some of that was related possibly to re-enabling mytraffic, it may be trying to extract those links from the wrong bgl also, i'm not sure exactly if this runway link thing is happening only at runtime or as part of the taxi graph building process.

 

6a....startup is really slow when there are broken links, it pauses for several seconds on each one..this takes 3-4 minutes to start with only a handful of airports.  maybe this is because i put it in verbose mode?

 

7. not really having good luck with the cull mode ..nukes all the aircraft at my airport right away. starting at KSJC there is 1 plane but like 15 at KSFO and 10 at KOAK. it seems like it does not delete farther aircraft prioritized over closer ones. it worked pretty well for me in an area where the only airport being monitored was the one i was at, but in the bay area using the included files it was difficult to cap the aircraft total while still having any near my starting position.. here's the settings i was using..

 

cull method:4

200 nm

45 total

cull mode:3

hieght:0

 

 

anyway thanks!! cool program seems like it has a lot of potential

cheers

-andy crosby

[nthabti79 17]

I tested AI Controller 2 for an hour and then I left alone at EDDF and I was very happy to see that for the first time in FS History AI taxied and took off from runway 18 (when assigned)!

 

Here are the things I noticed (P3D v3.3):

• The aircraft don't always push back "in an orderly fashion", sometimes the don't turn onto the taxiway and do the FSX pushback, sometimes they push back further away from the taxiway centreline, which can look odd when it happens in a narrow space.
• When taxiing the AI accelerates, then it slows down harshly, stops, and then accelerates again. When there is a turn, it slows down and takes it with 2 kts and then accelerates again. I tried to reduce the acceleration scalar, which helped a bit, but the turns are extremely slow and the complete stops are frequent.
• Anti collision between AI does not seem to work. They taxi into each other all the time. Ideal would be if they gave way to other AI by stopping before intersections (but I don't know if that is implemented).
• I changed the AFCAD to honour taxiway directions and tested the function in AI Controller 2, but it did not seem to work (maybe that has to do with the taxi_graph file not being populated, I will check that today).
• On their way to the runway 2 out of 5 aircraft end up taxiing on the grass, i.e. not following the taxiway centreline, taking short cuts and then make lots of turns to come back.
• Take off and SID seems to be fine.
• Approaches and Landings: 2 out of 5 approaches are erratic and end up somewhere in the vicinity of the airport. After landing the aircraft slow down almost to a complete stop and then seem to look for the exit. Maybe I will have to fiddle with the according parameter.
• Gate assignments doe not seem to work properly, almost all landing AI aircraft are sent to the same (remote) area, regardless of airline and gate assignments.

Apart from that, I see this version as a big improvement and as I said before, for me, it's a milestone in FS to be able to use runway 18 in Frankfurt.

 

Cheers

[Kermit27 1]

I tested AI Controller 2 for an hour and then I left alone at EDDF and I was very happy to see that for the first time in FS History AI taxied and took off from runway 18 (when assigned)!

 

Here are the things I noticed (P3D v3.3):

• The aircraft don't always push back "in an orderly fashion", sometimes the don't turn onto the taxiway and do the FSX pushback, sometimes they push back further away from the taxiway centreline, which can look odd when it happens in a narrow space.
• When taxiing the AI accelerates, then it slows down harshly, stops, and then accelerates again. When there is a turn, it slows down and takes it with 2 kts and then accelerates again. I tried to reduce the acceleration scalar, which helped a bit, but the turns are extremely slow and the complete stops are frequent.
• Anti collision between AI does not seem to work. They taxi into each other all the time. Ideal would be if they gave way to other AI by stopping before intersections (but I don't know if that is implemented).
• I changed the AFCAD to honour taxiway directions and tested the function in AI Controller 2, but it did not seem to work (maybe that has to do with the taxi_graph file not being populated, I will check that today).
• On their way to the runway 2 out of 5 aircraft end up taxiing on the grass, i.e. not following the taxiway centreline, taking short cuts and then make lots of turns to come back.
• Take off and SID seems to be fine.
• Approaches and Landings: 2 out of 5 approaches are erratic and end up somewhere in the vicinity of the airport. After landing the aircraft slow down almost to a complete stop and then seem to look for the exit. Maybe I will have to fiddle with the according parameter.
• Gate assignments doe not seem to work properly, almost all landing AI aircraft are sent to the same (remote) area, regardless of airline and gate assignments.

Apart from that, I see this version as a big improvement and as I said before, for me, it's a milestone in FS to be able to use runway 18 in Frankfurt.

 

Cheers

Hi Nizar,

 

I hope that Roland can address your points

 

Nice to see a great improvement and that RWY18 being used properly!

 

What AI traffic do you use? Is it customized by various of these top freeware models and paints?

It is interesting for me to know since I would like to build up my traffic collection with AI Controller.

 

 

Btw the link to your AI paints does not work

 

 

Brgds,

 

Axel