AI traffic in P3D v4

[por930 51]

2 hours ago, por930 said:

Thanks for the info Christoph, I will have a quick look now. When checking my P3Dv4 win10 docs, I see that OneDrive seems to have taken over the whole document process...I wondered the other day why flight plans and other docs were not showing up in 'usual' document paths. It seems I have to add OneDrive in the process, unless I can get rid of it.

And yes, I could see all the xml files to use as a template

 

From seeing a post by another forum member about this very issue, I managed to KILL of the OneDrive system and revert back to the old fashioned C:\User\name\documents\... 

[por930 51]

Hi Christoph, Pelle

Sorry if this is like pulling teeth..
To set the scene:
Win10 machine. 3 drives:
C:\ the system Drive (250GB SSD)
E:\ where P3Dv4 lives (1TB SSD)
F:\ where I want to store and use my AI Files (2 TB HDD)

C:\users\geoff\documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons\AI Traffic Aircraft\AI Traffic Aircraft.xml

-<SimBase.Document id="add-on" version="4,0" Type="AddOnXml">
<AddOn.Name>AI Traffic-Aircraft</AddOn.Name>
<AddOn.Description>AI Traffic-Aircraft</AddOn.Description>
-<AddOn.Component>
<Category>SimObjects</Category>
<Path>F:\P3D Add-on\AI Traffic-Aircraft</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
-<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Effects</Category>
<Path>F:\P3D Add-on\AI Traffic-Aircraft\effects</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
-<AddOn.Component>
<Name>AI Traffic-Aircraft</Name>
<Category>Scenery</Category>
<Path>F:\P3D Add-on\AI Traffic-Aircraft\scenery</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
-<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Texture</Category>
<Path>F:\P3D Add-on\AI Traffic-Aircraft\texture global</Path>
<Type>GLOBAL</Type>
</AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

F:\P3D Add-on\AI Traffic-Aircraft
Effects
Scenery
texture global

And then I download aircraft model zip files to F:\P3D Add-on\AI Traffic-Aircraft

Will AIFP then be smart enough to see the path to the aircraft categories, and the model building commences?

[Wolkenschreck 269]

Hi Geoff!
No teeth pulling here after all. Actually I'm glad if I can help a bit. Working with the xml-stuff was also new for me. 
Looking on you setup and folder structure everything looks fine to me. 
Remember the xml must be named "add-on.xml", not "AI Traffic Aircraft.xml"

So just put all aircraft in your F:\P3D Add-on\AI Traffic-Aircraft folder, and the effects in the Effects folder, traffic.bgl's in the scenery folder and textures which are calling for the FS Main texture folder (like the FAIB lightmaps)  go in the texture global folder.

AIFP (newest version) is already looking for add-on.xml's so this will work straight out of the box.

One last word of caution: Even though you can use the default Editor to make the xml-file (simply renaming it from .txt to .xml) Loockheed Martin recommends to use UTF-8 as coding. So if you want to go the last step better use the great freeware Notepad++ and use it to make any xml-file.

Getting started is the hardest part. But after a bit of playing with it you can soon add all your aircraft, AI, sceneries etc. via the xml-approach. This will make it a lot easier in the future to apply Hotfixes and Updates from LM as the sim itself stays tidy and clean. 

[por930 51]

Thanks Christoph, Superb help. Downloaded the Notebook ++ and remade the xml file. Saw your comment about "add-on", and changed name of xml file. And yes, I have the new P3Dv4 AIFP installer. Last week, when I used AIFP, and downloaded a flight plan, everything loaded, but no aircraft....of course, because I had NO aircraft models at all loaded anywhere.

Sort of looking forward to the learning curve and get the AI working. 

OK my friend, looks like my download manager will be my best friend for the next few weeks, though, I will download a few flight plans to see what a/craft they need, load them, and then get some AI working to prove concept works. While I could have dropped them straight into my P3D aircraft folder, this method, while a tad tedious to set up, will be far better in the long run when LM or others need changes done.

Geoff