P3Dv4 AI upgrade

[Christopher Low 5,353]

I am using P3D v3.4 at the moment, but I will eventually have to upgrade to the 64bit version of P3D. However, I have a huge Airplanes_AI folder with (obviously) FSX/P3Dv3 compatible models and textures installed, so I have been checking out what I need to do to upgrade these models for a 64bit P3Dv4 environment.

In short......it looks like a nightmare job

[WillsB3 1]

Why? Models and textures don’t need changing because of a change from 32 to 64 bit.

 

What am I missing..?

 

[out 769]

1 hour ago, Christopher Low said:

it looks like a nightmare job

Not really, Chris. All FSX models will work in P3Dv4 without a problem.
There are native P3Dv4 modifications available for some models (e.g. in the AIG forums) which will add some extra features (mainly lighting).
But, again, all the native FSX AI models work 100% in my sim without any modifications.

Edited September 29, 2018 by Rafal

[Christopher Low 5,353]

That's interesting, Rafal. Does the FSX/P3Dv3 lighting on those models work properly in P3Dv4? I assume that an update would be required to enable dynamic lighting to work on them? If not, then maybe the situation is not as bad as I had thought...

Edited September 29, 2018 by Christopher Low

[out 769]

Chris, I'm honestly no expert on modelling, so please forgive me if I get something wrong here.

When I say FSX models work 100% in P3Dv4, I mean there are no visible glitches, they look, taxi and fly fine and fill my airports with life.
And for that you don't need to apply any P4Dv4 modifications. Your AI aircraft will look as good as it did in FSX or P3Dv3.

Now, some gifted modellers make use of extra features to be applied in P3Dv4, like better lighting (including dynamic lighting), usage of LUA scripts and more animations, e.g. wheels, flaps or reversers.
I guess the question is do you really sit in the sim and spot the AI aircraft looking for these particular enhancements? I don't. That's great they are there, and I do install P3Dv4 updates where applicable, but that's it.

So, if you want to have a properly looking and working AI aircraft in P3Dv4, just move your FSX AI stuff into P3Dv4 and you're done (of course remember about necessary textures and effects too).
Here you can get the available P3Dv4 enhancements you can apply them in the sim and see the differences yourself: http://www.alpha-india.net/forums/index.php?board=220.0

[simbol 5,819]

1 hour ago, Christopher Low said:

That's interesting, Rafal. Does the FSX/P3Dv3 lighting on those models work properly in P3Dv4? I assume that an update would be required to enable dynamic lighting to work on them? If not, then maybe the situation is not as bad as I had thought...

What models are these? Anything that is FSX compatible will work on P3DV4.

Take FLAI as an example, it works on FSX and P3D.

The only thing you need to be aware of is the [RADIOS] section inside the aircraft.cfg, if this doesn't exist under PD3V4 your AI models will stay always at the Gate and never land.

I can help you to setup one and after that it is just copy and paste.

Regards,

Simbol 

Edited September 29, 2018 by simbol

[Christopher Low 5,353]

That sounds promising, Simbol. I will have a chat with you about it at Cosford

[regis9 4,014]

If all of your AI aircraft are FSX models then no issue.  However, FS9 ai models, while they won’t give you trouble in P3Dv3, will risk crashing P3Dv4 (and likely won’t look right).

Lorby’s Thumbnail Report Generator can be used to scan your AI and report what aircraft uses what model type.

Once you know what you have for FS9 models, you can look for replacement v4 compatible model files over at Alpha India Group.  They have v4 model files for many (but not all) AI aircraft.

Thanks to the work by many people at AIG this is much less a nightmare job than it was when v4 first came out! 😀

Hope that helps.

[fluffyflops 1,858]

One day the mods will make a sticky about ai models in v4 and we wont get daily posts on it...