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]

 

 

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.

 

Please try the update, there were some fixes to the jetroute coding.

 

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.

 

Thanks for bringing that to my attention...UT2 compatibility mode is no longer needed since AIController controls the AI during all phases of flight.  The interface for external programs is listed as output pipe and telemetry file in settings/options/general.  I'll revise the documentation.

 

 

Are there any options to control push back?

 

Not yet, but I've definitely considered it!

[eddeul 0]

Please try the update, there were some fixes to the jetroute coding.

Hi Roland.

Thank you very much for you fix. But problem remains the same except when AIJetRoutesOnly=1. In this case AI crafts fly jet routes correct. If AIJetRoutesOnly=0 AI make circling around jetroutes WP.

 

Thanks!          Edward.

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

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..

 

I think the defaults are okay, but if you come across settings that seem to work better, please let me know!  I really haven't had a lot of time to spend tweaking all the various settings...I'm putting them in there for the user and making sure they work, but finding the optimum settings is a whole other endeavor.

 

Regarding double popups....they represent two different parallel threads, so that's how that came about...no doubt I could just have one though.

 

Thanks for heads up regarding fsAeroData layers...yeah it probably is checking only the top most scenery layer for an airport.  It should scan the MyTraffic bgls though...I'm using MyTraffic for FSX.

 

I get a lot of broken runway links too.  It just is something that wasn't checked before because there was no need to.  Usually it is okay...I think AIC is probably generating too much information regarding this issue..I think I'll cut it back.   The one you really have to watch out for are when AIC states no landing or taxiing are possible at the airport.

 

Looking into startup time.  EDIT:  I would not recommend verbose mode unless you're trouble-shooting a problem.

 

Thanks for the report on AICull mode 4...I will look into this!

 

 

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

 

Nizar, are you using Mega Airport Frankfurt...also what approaches did you see this behavior.  I fixed the teardrop procedure, which was causing erratic turns and loss of altitude...might be what you were seeing.

 

As of now there is no anti-collision between arriving and departing ground traffic, however you should see the departing AI avoid each other and the arriving AI avoid each other.

 

Taxi smoothness will be an area of focus next.  Probably will never be as smooth as default AI because default AI gets "slewed" around on the ground while my program actually drives the AI (moves the tiller, hits the brakes, changes the throttle).  Still there is a lot of improvements that can be made.

 

Regarding taxi directions, the scenery has to be designed for it.  Since FSX/P3D never honored the direction of the AFCAD taxi links, I don't think there is any scenery designed that way (yet).

 

Oh man not gate assignments again!   :wink:  I didn't touch that from the version 1.4.  Is there a FSX/P3D AI config. path that needs to be specified in the Program Config Paths/Advance Path Options ?

[Racer X 1]

UT2 compatibility mode is no longer needed since AIController controls the AI during all phases of flight.

 

Perhaps this is not a very good idea. AI in UT2 has long and close to real world flight plans. I think it's better to let them follow it.

Also UT2 mode automatically disable "inject departing AI at monitored airports to maintain..."

[nthabti79 17]

Regarding taxi directions, the scenery has to be designed for it.  Since FSX/P3D never honored the direction of the AFCAD taxi links, I don't think there is any scenery designed that way (yet).

 

Oh man not gate assignments again!   :wink:  I didn't touch that from the version 1.4.  Is there a FSX/P3D AI config. path that needs to be specified in the Program Config Paths/Advance Path Options ?

 

The gate assignments seem to work now.

 

I changed the AFCAD and  reconfigured the paths to align the directions, but AI Controller is not honouring them. Or do you mean something else by "the scenery has to be designed for it"? 

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

 

 

using UT2 @ KSFOHD, I notice AI traffic taxy out to the holding point, then when lining up for take-off, they start going in circles about the runway "start".

 

I think I have that scenery...I'll check it out...assuming runways 28L and 28R.

 

 

AICONTROLLER has encountered an error, please note the following error information.
 
***** Exception = 9 SendID = 107 Index=1cbData = 24

 

That indicates invalid simconnect operation on an AI object, probably because it was just deleted by FSX/P3D (e.g., left the reality bubble).  Should be okay, but are you running in verbose or debug mode?  I would not recommend running in these modes unless you're troubleshooting something.

 

 

Have seen the same behavior and also at Flightbeam's KSFOhd. Most of the AI went their merry way to the runway but some indeed were going in small circles, sometimes even direct after pushback. But I do not use UT2.
 
Worse was that my Aivlasoft got currepted after install of AI-controller 2.0. Got advice on their forum and some files had to be removed in order to rebuild.

 

I'll take a loot at KSFOhd.  What files had to be removed?  My program is external and only interfaces to FSX/P3D as a client via the simconnect interface.

 

 

You could set the AIController.ini file to read only in Windows. AiMonitor will throw a .net error when exiting, saying it can´t write to AIController.ini . Not a fix, but a workaround. Hopefully the great Roland will look into this  

 

I'll probably add it back...where enabling UT2 compatibility will prevent AIC from controlling any AI at flight levels (to preserve UT2 flight plans that some users seem to really like).  If you have a chance though take a look at the AIC jetroute feature...to can enter parameters like average wind data for your planned flight and AIC will take that into account when generating jet routes for the AI.

[Racer X 1]

Did some tests of the new version.

 

1. ​Engines oscillations still here. It causes speed floats up to +/- 20 kts during approaches. Speed can fall down to 115-120 kts. 737 and much bigger 747 cant fly this speeds.

On taxi oscillations also remain, but have a higher frequency than before.

​2. AI often reaches IAF and FAF on much lower or higher (1000ft and more) altitudes. Last thing leading to go around.

​3. AI performs takeoffs or landings while other AI still on the runway.

 

 

 

They all nosedive at approx 3 miles from runway to around 400ft above ground. they then do 1 of 2 things.
a. they land 3 miles short and taxi down the motorway or side roads and crash through the fence to get to the gate.
b. they climb to 15000ft and go around never to be seen again, just heading out to sea......

 

This also happens time to time. I can trigger this by closing AI Controller during AI flight. Looks like AI Controller sometimes loosing control over AI.

 

P3D v3.4, UT2, SID-STARS-approaches converted from PMDG data 1610. All setting default except for the necessary.

[Racer X 1]

And I think it would be useful to add the option "affinity mask" in the future.

[Dick 47]

 

Have seen the same behavior and also at Flightbeam's KSFOhd. Most of the AI went their merry way to the runway but some indeed were going in small circles, sometimes even direct after pushback. But I do not use UT2.

 

Worse was that my Aivlasoft got corrupted after install of AI-controller 2.0. Got advice on their forum and some files had to be removed in order to rebuild.

 

I'll take a loot at KSFOhd.  What files had to be removed?  My program is external and only interfaces to FSX/P3D as a client via the simconnect interface.

 

 

Hi Clipper.

This forum entry from aivla explains the error I had and the solution. My setup is also external/ client like yours.

http://aivlasoft.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/1906-read-user-settings-unknown-type-found/

 

Thank you for your great support

b rdgs / Dick

=

 

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

 

 

Not one aircraft has landed at the airports....They all nosedive at approx 3 miles from runway to around 400ft above ground. they then do 1 of 2 things.
a. they land 3 miles short and taxi down the motorway or side roads and crash through the fence to get to the gate.
b. they climb to 15000ft and go around never to be seen again, just heading out to sea......
 
2. When there is a conflict in air the aircraft instructed to slow by ai controller reduces to 0 kts and doesnt move any further. I investigated this by changing camera to one of the aircraft in question only to find it was attempting to leave the earth completely. Nose up, tail down and throttling to the max......I kid you not.......

 

Sounds like a parallel thread problem (e.g., data race)...when this happens does the AIController command window pause and stop updating?   That this seems to happen when aircraft is instructed to slow (which happens in a parallel thread) is a good clue for me.  Do you same things happen with the update?

 

 

Hi,
finally , I found a solution. I had again a few place on my disk C:  . I desinstalled from disk D: and re-installed on disk C:
It seem it's ok.... I hope tomorrow it will again ok

 

Good, also check out the NOTAM section in readme.pdf about what to do when the program gets stuck in a minimized state.

 

I finally found a solution to my problems posted above.
 
The version of SID/STAR converter included in the download is version 1.1.
 
for some reason this version did not convert the approaches....only the SID and STAR data was converted.
 
I found after some searching a version 1.3 which converted everything including the approaches and have not had any issues since.

 

Wow, good to hear (I included 1.3 in the update), but it sure sounded from your description that AIController stalled out on you without actually crashing (that's a typical symptom of a parallel thread problem).  Let me know if it happens again...I'm still going to look into the issue you reported.

[vadriver 247]

I think I have that scenery...I'll check it out...assuming runways 28L and 28R.

the procedures of my post #31 continue to work (on the 28L)!

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

 

 

1. ​Engines oscillations still here. It causes speed floats up to +/- 20 kts during approaches. Speed can fall down to 115-120 kts. 737 and much bigger 747 cant fly this speeds.
On taxi oscillations also remain, but have a higher frequency than before.
​2. AI often reaches IAF and FAF on much lower or higher (1000ft and more) altitudes. Last thing leading to go around.
​3. AI performs takeoffs or landings while other AI still on the runway.

 

1.  Okay, I'll look into engine oscillations some more.  Any luck experimenting with the Throttle Gain, Lag, and Max options?

2.  This will tend to happen more at the beginning, when the situation is first loaded and arriving AI are spawned very close to the airport.  Also, if this seems to be happening for a particular nav-data based approach, it could be the approach itself wasn't a good conversion.  You could try to manually tweak it or delete it relying on another nav-data based approach for the same runway.  Also, there was a bug in the original version when AI perform a tear-drop to join final when approaching the fix at an obtuse angle...part of the bug involved the AI losing alt.

3.  Yes, I've seen this and will get it fixed.

 

 

And I think it would be useful to add the option "affinity mask" in the future.

 

Good idea...AIC is heavily multi-threaded, so could be very useful to users who want to make sure these threads stay on certain non-sim processors.

[Charlie Kilo 0]

Hi Roland,

 

A quick question for Matias Sorcinelli unless you know the answer yourself.

 

SidStar Converter contains a tool that either adds or removes the '//' prefix ahead of each line in the text box by clicking the Disable All and Enable All buttons respectively. Is it possible to add a feature that adds a 'O,' prefix ahead of each line when the Enable All button is pressed, instead of just removing the '//' and adding no prefix at all? At the moment, the Enable All button is fairly useless if you are using this software for AIController. Better still, do you need the 'O,' prefix in your software at all? Why not '//' for disabled and nothing for enabled? This would make the two pieces of software run flawlessly together.

 

I'm having too many issues with running AIController over a network with regards to file locations. It's quite a lot of work to make sure all the entries in the scenery.cfg file comply with the correct syntax, particularly as scenery.cfg is regularly updated. I'm running into so many errors, I haven't even managed to get the main part of the software running yet! Is it not possible, in your Program Config Paths menu, to have an checkbox to select whether you are running over a network or not and if so, type the P3D computer's name, in my case '//SIM2'? From that point on, any path, however it is constructed, is deemed to be on the computer specified. If you select that you aren't running on a network, then any path, once again, however it is constructed, is deemed to be on the local machine. I'm not an expert on UNC and networks so this might not be possible!

 

Thanks,

 

Charlie K

 

 

[Silky1 0]

Hi ,

  Been testing the HF1 for a few days now and still had very erratic behaviour, (aircraft crashing to ground, no landing, climbing out never to be seen again).

My solution was to reinstall on a networked PC, this smoothed it out a little bit (AIController seemed to have more control).

Then I locked my FPS in FSX to 30 and since then it has just been as smooth as silk.(Previously set to unlimited and locked to 31 via NVidia inspector)

 

I have one issue remaining........

 

I have written my own "Final" approach for EGPF rwy23. The aircraft fly the approach perfectly maintaining altitude and direction until they get to approx 2 miles from touchdown and then they go into "GO-AROUND ENHANCED Autogen Approach Rwy23 left Base Pattern".

This happens for every aircraft on final using this custom final. once in enhanced mode they come back in and land.

 

I've been tweaking the settings a bit but can't find a solution.

Any ideas?

[Silky1 0]

Hi ,

  Been testing the HF1 for a few days now and still had very erratic behaviour, (aircraft crashing to ground, no landing, climbing out never to be seen again).

My solution was to reinstall on a networked PC, this smoothed it out a little bit (AIController seemed to have more control).

Then I locked my FPS in FSX to 30 and since then it has just been as smooth as silk.(Previously set to unlimited and locked to 31 via NVidia inspector)

 

I have one issue remaining........

 

I have written my own "Final" approach for EGPF rwy23. The aircraft fly the approach perfectly maintaining altitude and direction until they get to approx 2 miles from touchdown and then they go into "GO-AROUND ENHANCED Autogen Approach Rwy23 left Base Pattern".

This happens for every aircraft on final using this custom final. once in enhanced mode they come back in and land.

 

I've been tweaking the settings a bit but can't find a solution.

Any ideas?

Solved by adding 1700, 1000, 500 ft waypoints.

 

As a side note I've found a little bug. The reset options to default doesn't reset all options, specifically short final high and low altitudes.

Also there are 2 more options in the ini file regarding altitudes that don't appear to be configurable in the main program.

 

Now working perfectly, thanks Roland.