Mixing P3D traffic with Voxatc traffic?

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Nope, that's still a FSUIPC5 logfile.

[mikelockwood 3]

Might have helped if I'd attached right file😑

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jc0vcxtjg354r8p/SimConnect0.Log?dl=0

[mikelockwood 3]

Any chance of an opinion.......??.?...

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Hold on. I should be able to look it in a bit.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Mike,

As you might imagine, it takes some time to look through such a large logfile. But anyway. VOXATC is initialized properly with SimConnect. The initial conditions for the user's aircraft and the generic AI aircraft variables are set up correctly. But the next thing that should happen is VOXATC should begin initialization of all the AI aircraft with a series of lines like:

Quote

299.66039 [ 9, 75]AICreateNonATCAircraft:szContainerTitle="JYAI_F-15B 7th TFS 165", szTailNumber="NTY112", InitPos=639886976, RequestID=9

In your case it would be [8,75] as each app utilizing SimConnect is assigned a unique integer ID. Unfortunately, there are no lines like that in your logfile, so the error is not related to SimConnect. There are also no warnings or errors listed in the logfile for VOXATC's calls to SimConnect. For some reason, VOXATC is reading the file bglflightplans.dat and has decided that KMIA has no AI traffic. VOXATC has no problem communicating with the user aircraft, so that's another sign that the error has nothing to do with SimConnect.

At one point I asked you to turn on  logging in the VOXATC Advanced Settings utility. I've kind of lost track as to whether you uploaded that logfile. Also, with that logging checkbox clicked, VOXATC in addition to the main logfile, also creates a large number of smaller .log files; one for each comm frequency in use and one for each AI aircraft that it is controlling. Those files are all located in the folder:

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Internal Workings\VoxATC P3D 4

Upload the main logfile and take a look at the individual files with Notepad when you run KMIA again.

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

On 7/10/2019 at 12:39 PM, mikelockwood said:

 <MaxParkedAircraft Value="50" />
 <MaxEnrouteAircraft Value="30" />
 <MaxActiveTerminalAircraft Value="20" />
 <TrafficGeneratedAtAllAirports Value="TRUE" />

Mike, This is another silly question on my part, but what happens if you go back to the original version of the file VASettings.xml without the extra settings? Also, make sure that that you didn't change the character encoding when you saved it. To test, open the file in Notepad, then do Save As. You'll see a list box on the lower right of the Save As dialog box that displays the character encoding. It should be UTF 8 with BOM (Byte Order Mark). I doubt this is the cause of your problem, but I've pretty much run out of ideas.

[mikelockwood 3]

Jay, thanks for your new suggestions.

I did upload a VOX KMIA log file, but here is one from yesterday https://www.dropbox.com/s/8192k4pocswsv0d/KMIA.log?dl=0. This post has dragged on for so long now that I'm as confused as you as to where we're at right now!  I can see the smaller log files that you are referring to i.e. approach/departure/ground/tower/frequencies etc. All these log files are empty.

Regarding the additional VOX settings, I removed them weeks ago before I sent you any log files etc. The Notepad VASettings.xml is saved in UTF 8 format.

I'm beginning to wonder if there's something bigger going on here with P3DV4. I tried KMIA again yesterday with the sim AI traffic slider at 100%. I got less than 15 aircraft at the gates, whatever time of the day it was. I checked back through our posts and I have written above that I had 50 aircraft at the gates and 17 in the air using sim AI. I'm also beginning to suspect that other airports are down on numbers too. 

What really concerns me with P3DV4 right now is that the last 3 sessions that I have had have resulted in a full coloured cockpit but with outside views being in black/white and grey textures. This has happened to me very rarely in the past, but after restarting the sim everything returned to normal. Now it's happening every time. I installed the latest graphics drivers yesterday although the installed ones were only a couple of weeks old. That made no difference. When version 4.5 became available, I only installed the client and not all the cabinet files. I downloaded the complete set of files at the weekend and have them ready to go depending on what you found in the simconnect log file. I think now that my P3D is broken and that it might be time to go nuclear. I have already re-installed VOX but I also think that I will uninstall that again and also wipe out any Internal Workings folders/files and then do a fresh install. I hasten to add that I have not added/removed/altered anything in the sim since the beginning of these posts that would affect graphics.

So... what do you think?? Perhaps the long road is best to get ensure that no bugs/corruptions are present in the program.

Regards, Mike

 

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

1 hour ago, mikelockwood said:

I'm beginning to wonder if there's something bigger going on here with P3DV4. I tried KMIA again yesterday with the sim AI traffic slider at 100%

It does seem like the problem is not related to VOXATC. That's why originally I said that some other add-on was interfering with the AI traffic at KMIA. The problem with any sim that allows a myriad of add-ons is that there is no guarantee that two or more of them won't conflict. I think that this is the main reason that the VOXATC developer gave up answering support questions. It's the same rationale that LM official support uses. They also ask people if P3d4 works okay without any 3rd party add-ons installed.

The most "dangerous" add-ons are shader apps. The next worst is ORBX Vector and any other add-on that silently adds lots of airports. Before you nuke everything, try disabling as many add-ons as possible. I can tell from the SimConnect log that you have a lot of them active. I'll take a look at the VOXATC main log file but since all the smaller log files are empty, it probably won't show me anything new.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

There's nothing exciting in the VOXATC main log file. But you do have a bunch of UTX airports loading.

[mikelockwood 3]

By shader apps I assume you mean Tomatoshade/ENVshade etc? I don't use any of them. I do use mesh/scenery. I run FS Global Mesh Ultimate, Ground Environment P3D and Ultimate Terrain (UTX). Those UTX bgl's that you can see are land class files. I set up this PC in January this year solely for the purpose of running P3DV4. As far as I can reasonably remember, I never had any problems with VOX ATC back then. I have however installed some airport/scenery freeware from the AVSIM library over a period of time. If had to guess, I'd say there's more chance of something in there that might cause a problem. I don't know if you remember, but I did try removing the addon scenery folder that contained all those files to see if it made any difference. At the time it didn't. I think I'll start there though. Do you think that the UTX files may be a problem?

I understand what you mean about the VOX product. People do sometimes blame the product when in fact they get fatal errors for many other reasons. I used to have a regular dialogue with Tegwyn about 5 to 6 years ago and he was always very helpful. I do have some sympathy for him. Hopefully, if he hasn't given up, perhaps a future version could be made that is more "tolerant" when interacting with other add ons. But I digress.

Just to give you the bigger picture, I also run REX Sky Force, Environment Force and HD Airports. I also use FSDT GSX, Chase Plane, PrecipitFX, A2A and PMDG aircraft. If there's anything there that you consider to be "dangerous" then please let me know.

Thanks again,

Mike

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Environment Force is a "shader" add-on. I don't remember much about UTX, so I saw the ICAO codes on the UTX BGL files and assumed that those were airport files. I wouldn't think that landclass files would interfere with much except other landclass files.

Anyway,  the early versions of REX EF have been known to cause the kind of visual corruption that you have observed. I don't see how that would impact VOXATC, but one never knows. REX has a open beta program for EF. You might want to either not use REX EF or update it to the latest beta, which is pretty solid. My version is 5.0.2019.0801. You can see the version number in EF under Manual Mode/Settings/Update.

You can also experiment with disabling one add-on at a time to see what's causing the issue.

[mikelockwood 3]

Yes you're absolutely right, of course EF is a shader add on of sorts. I'll look into using the beta version, although at the moment I think I'll concentrate on the AI problem. Incidentally, I haven't been using EF or SF during any recent testing. As far as I'm aware EF is only manually operated but my knowledge is limited, unless you know otherwise.

Sooo… I think I'll put down the nuclear football for now and start disabling some add ons and see where that leads me. As Arnie would say...….. I'll be back!😛

Thanks again for all your help and patience.

Mike

[mikelockwood 3]

Well I'm back! but without any good news. I've completely re-installed P3DV4 and removed any airport addon scenery bgl's so that I'm back to a basic install.

I have every AIG OCI model/flight plans installed to date. Using 100% sliders with VOX and P3DV4 here are 3 samples of my AI taken at 9 AM local time each airport:-

KMIA - VOX AI traffic on ground - 0           P3D traffic on ground - 9

EGKK - VOX AI traffic on ground - 19       P3D traffic on ground - 16

EGSS - VOX Ai traffic on ground - 0         P3D traffic on ground - 2

So now this seems to have become a wider issue than just VOX, I seem to have problems with numbers in P3D as well. You could argue that the EGKK numbers aren't too bad, but the traffic that I'm getting there doesn't represent the major players at that airport i.e. Easy Jet, TUI, Virgin etc.. EGSS is a major hub for Ryan Air, but none of their aircraft are showing.

I am at a loss to even see a pattern to this, you could argue that both AI programs are working, but the coverage is so erratic that it makes the whole experience disappointing at departure/arrival and in the air .

I know that when I used FSX Steam I always had plenty of AI using VOX and it was well balanced too. As an experiment, I downloaded VOX version 7.41 and in installed it. It gave me ample quantities of AI but the balance was completely wrong. For example at EGKK I had over 40 Air Baltic AI planes at the expense of the big players that normally use the airport.

I cannot help thinking that AI in P3DV4 is just not as good as FSX. I have no proof of this and know that there will be plenty out there that will disagree with me, but sadly, is my experience.

For now I'm going back to Ultimate Traffic Live. At least I have each airport filled with a balanced amount of AI, but I shall miss the AIG models and liveries.

Mike