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AIG plane behavior question

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10 hours ago, F737NG said:

In 'Enhanced Mode' (where the program has been given SID STAR data to work with) it takes control of taxiing AI to assist with landing AI throughput. It needs then to know where the taxiways are to push the AI models along at an expedited rate rather than rely on the core P3D AI engine.

Really? That's good. I thought from what others have said it only handled them once in the air.

Mind you, I'd really much prefer that it used the Taxi and Runway data already gathered for such programs by MakeRwys.  Scanning all the scenery (again) just takes too long, and it makes in difficult on Networks and with P3D's Addon.xml methods.

10 hours ago, F737NG said:

If you want more information, take a look at the ReadMe.pdf in the main AI Controller folder. The first page deals with running the program on a network using your utility programs.
Additionally, search on YouTube for 'AIController V2 Install and Basic Usage'. I believe that the basic elements are the same in v1.4b as shown in the v2 video.

I've now downloaded V2 -- following earlier links I was trying 1.4B, where the ReadMe wasn't really that helpful.

I'll take a look later. I got so fed up with trying to sort V1.4B out that eventually I just deleted whole whole thing.

Thanks,
Pete

 

 


Win10: 22H2 19045.2728
CPU: 9900KS at 5.5GHz
Memory: 32Gb at 3800 MHz.
GPU:  RTX 24Gb Titan
2 x 2160p projectors at 25Hz onto 200 FOV curved screen

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I'm still using v1.4 and have made some progress but then hit a brick wall. I used Lorby's Addon Organizer to generate a scenery.cfg and copied it to E:\AiController, edited all necessary paths to UNC and pointed Ai Monitor to that location. It has successfully read all the scenery so I thought it would now be working.

But sat at 27L at EGLL and watching Ai Monitor it's not showing any info in the Pattern column so AI Controller is not controlling anything. Everything shows FSX rather than the SID or STAR. I can't figure out why. I have all the entries listed in Arrival and SID paths and they're all selected.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
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What I do in any test situation with FSX or P3D is to install the addon into a stock simulator, with stock locations. Work out what is go or no-go and sort out the issues. User programs can't write to some folders so we must ensure privileges are correct. In some situations we might have to provide a folder with Users group Modify Allow permission so a user program can write there. Run as Admin should also work but since this can fail depending on what else has been done to the Operating System and File Allocation Settings, it is better to provide permission when it is simple permission that is needed. I find 99% of problems stem from issues surrounding the locations of programs. When that's all confidently understood, only then do I start to rearrange the setup onto the network, private folders, or whatever is desired.


Steve Waite: Engineer at codelegend.com

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22 minutes ago, SteveW said:

only then do I start to rearrange the setup onto the network, private folders, or whatever is desired.

Do you do a simple copy of the whole AIController folder with all the generated data?

Do you use a scenery.cfg file generated by the Lorby program, so that Addons.xml added sceneries are included in the scan?

I certainly can't get it all sorted from a networked PC no matter what I try!

Pete

 


Win10: 22H2 19045.2728
CPU: 9900KS at 5.5GHz
Memory: 32Gb at 3800 MHz.
GPU:  RTX 24Gb Titan
2 x 2160p projectors at 25Hz onto 200 FOV curved screen

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I've got it working again after an uninstall and reinstall. What was baffling at first was I missed the option on Ai Monitor to switch to P3D mode as it defaults to FSX.

Then after that I still had no controlling of Ai at EGLL even though I knew the entry for London airports was present in SIDs, STARs, Approaches and Finals under Settings. But those options were not selected. Selected them and restarted AiController and now Ai are being controlled.

My next task is to sort out Madrid as the Ai don't always take-off.

Pete, can't you just share all the folders on your PC that are outside of P3D? Even though I have far fewer airports the principle remains the same. Use Lorby's Addon program to generate a scenery.cfg and copy it to the main AiController folder and point to it instead of the usual location of ProgramData\LM\P3Dv4. Edit it to include the full UNC path and Bob's your uncle! :wink:


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I've got it working again after an uninstall and reinstall. What was baffling at first was I missed the option on Ai Monitor to switch to P3D mode as it defaults to FSX.

Well, I can't make much of the setting up work at all on the Networked PC, no matter what I do. So I tried installing it all and running the setting up and scanning on the P3D PC. (First temporarily replacing my SCENERY.CFG file by the one generated by the Lorby tool so that all the Addon.xml sceneries are included).

But it doesn't work there either.  Despite replacing all of the default (supplied) SID STAR data pointers in the AIController.INI file, as soon as I start the taxi route scan they are all replaced again by the default list. I don't want that!

I successfully use the SID STAR converter to generate all the SID STAR data for "greater" Europe (all I require) and replaced the list in both AIController.ini and AIControllerList.txt, but as soon as I start the scan the former list is replaced by the 'default' (even though those folders have been deleted!). I've no idea where it gets this list from, nor do I understand why it won't allow an alternative list!

I've not uninstalled it yet, but I'm not going to try again until someone can explain what I'm doing wrong. I'd like this to work as it sounds very good, it's just too frustrating trying to set it up 😞  I could have been flying instead!

Pete

 

Edited by Pete Dowson

Win10: 22H2 19045.2728
CPU: 9900KS at 5.5GHz
Memory: 32Gb at 3800 MHz.
GPU:  RTX 24Gb Titan
2 x 2160p projectors at 25Hz onto 200 FOV curved screen

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I'm positioned at Madrid LEMD monitoring Ai. Ai Monitor is showing all inbounds as Generic despite all the required files residing in Spanish Airports\LEMD and active.

The SIDs appear to be okay so this is baffling. The SID/STAR files were copied from the relevant folder created by the SID/STAR Converter program.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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1 minute ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I'm positioned at Madrid LEMD monitoring Ai. Ai Monitor is showing all inbounds as Generic despite all the required files residing in Spanish Airports\LEMD and active.

The SIDs appear to be okay so this is baffling. The SID/STAR files were copied from the relevant folder created by the SID/STAR Converter program.

Just copying the files doesn't appear to change anything! Check the AIController.log.  Here it shows that it is only scanning the supplied folders (which I've actually deleted).

It's a complete no-go for me. Giving up for now.

Pete

 


Win10: 22H2 19045.2728
CPU: 9900KS at 5.5GHz
Memory: 32Gb at 3800 MHz.
GPU:  RTX 24Gb Titan
2 x 2160p projectors at 25Hz onto 200 FOV curved screen

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4 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

Well, I can't make much of the setting up work at all on the Networked PC, no matter what I do. So I tried installing it all and running the setting up and scanning on the P3D PC. (First temporarily replacing my SCENERY.CFG file by the one generated by the Lorby tool so that all the Addon.xml sceneries are included).

But it doesn't work either.  Despite replacing all of the default (supplied) SID STAR data pointers in the AIController.INI file as soon as I start the taxi route scan they are all replaced again by the default list. I don't want that! I successfully use the SID STAR converter to generate all the SID STAR data for "greater" Europe (all I require) and replaced the list in both AIController.ini and AIControllerList.txt, but as soon as I start the scan the former list is replaced by the 'default' (even though those folders have been deleted!). I can't see where it gets them from nor why it won't allow an alternative list!

I've not uninstalled it yet, but I'm not going to try againb until someone can explain what I'm doing wrong. I'd like this to work as it sounds very good, it's just so frustrating setting it up 😞  I could have been flying instead!

Pete

 

Pete, you need to open Ai Monitor and choose Settings. The 4th entry down is SIDs, STARs Approaches....  Select that and highlight all and choose Remove all Paths. Then add your own or just leave London Metro EGCC in both SID and STAR boxes. See how that goes.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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17 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

Do you do a simple copy of the whole AIController folder with all the generated data?

Do you use a scenery.cfg file generated by the Lorby program, so that Addons.xml added sceneries are included in the scan?

I certainly can't get it all sorted from a networked PC no matter what I try!

Pete

 

Any readable data should work OK over on a network drive in that it can be mapped to what you need on the local system. The Users add-ons folder is a private folder, setting up networking with the popup for user credentials on the remote node, and agree to save that password that way, it may be lost on a Windows update and have to be reset.

The program looks at the scenery so it may be counter productive when networked given the Windows caching locally. Scenery usually only need be scanned once after any changes. Increases in time to start the sim are down to the structure of addon airports and the read through of the files ascertaining airports available in the scenery. What I'm saying is adding scenery might alter the behaviour to the stock sim in terms of taxiway effectiveness along with other possible conditions arising.


Steve Waite: Engineer at codelegend.com

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@F737NG, I've got things working fine now. Just one area I'm not sure about. When I add a new into the SID/STAR dialogue box I have to do it for SID and STAR. There is an Apply button. When it's pressed it scans the Ai files and the scenery.cfg. Does this need doing for both SID and STAR or will one action work?

For those running via a network I copied my scener.cfg to the AiController folder and pointed AiMonitor to it rather than the ProgramData\LM\P3Dv4 folder as that file does not contain add-on scenery.

In the supplied data English airports were contained in their own subfolders by ICAO. But if you stick to that method it means a new entry for each airport. Instead I'm going to have a folder for each country and put all the txt files into that. Would you expect it to impact on performance of AiController or AiMonitor?


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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16 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@F737NG, I've got things working fine now. Just one area I'm not sure about. When I add a new into the SID/STAR dialogue box I have to do it for SID and STAR. There is an Apply button. When it's pressed it scans the Ai files and the scenery.cfg. Does this need doing for both SID and STAR or will one action work?

Good to hear. Sometimes a little persistence is worth all of the effort.
Pressing just one of the apply buttons is sufficient to generate the SIDSTAR file address lookup in the file AIControllerList.txt. 

23 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

In the supplied data English airports were contained in their own subfolders by ICAO. But if you stick to that method it means a new entry for each airport. Instead I'm going to have a folder for each country and put all the txt files into that. Would you expect it to impact on performance of AiController or AiMonitor?

My generated data from the PMDG source nav data only separates down to country level.
I wouldn't worry about creating individual airport folders.

If it wasn't so time-consuming to retrieve the text files from each country folder, I'd have just two folders. One would consolidate all of the SIDS and the other all of the STARS and be done.
I see no reason why it couldn't be done like that. I just can't face copying files from one set of folders into another every time I update the Nav Cycle data.
 

2 hours ago, SteveW said:

Scenery usually only need be scanned once after any changes. Increases in time to start the sim are down to the structure of addon airports and the read through of the files ascertaining airports available in the scenery. What I'm saying is adding scenery might alter the behaviour to the stock sim in terms of taxiway effectiveness along with other possible conditions arising.

The program asks if you want to force an update of the taxi_graph.txt whenever it detects a change in the scenery.cfg to keep it up-to-date with whatever installed scenery is active. 
A necessary annoyance.

It's definitely a work around / hack to create new taxiway data rather than rely on the source AFCAD data. But then the developer probably needed one simple text file for the program to read rather than look at hundreds of various scenery AFCADs, scattered all over the place to extract the necessary data.
Tbf, I haven't (yet) seen AI get stuck head-on on a taxiway.


It's quite a faff to get up and running to it's maximum potential, but it's the best controller of AI separation I've come across to date.
 


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9 minutes ago, F737NG said:

Good to hear. Sometimes a little persistence is worth all of the effort.
Pressing just one of the apply buttons is sufficient to generate the SIDSTAR file address lookup in the file AIControllerList.txt. 

My generated data from the PMDG source nav data only separates down to country level.
I wouldn't worry about creating individual airport folders.

If it wasn't so time-consuming to retrieve the text files from each country folder, I'd have just two folders. One would consolidate all of the SIDS and the other all of the STARS and be done.
I see no reason why it couldn't be done like that. I just can't face copying files from one set of folders into another every time I update the Nav Cycle data.

I was speaking to Pete yesterday saying I’d invested so much time into trying to get it to work I’d be annoyed with myself if I gave up now. A little persistence paid dividends as the mistakes were right in front of me and were eventually spotted and corrected.

Thanks for confirming the Apply action only needs doing once. The interface could do with a tweak really.

I did try putting everything into one folder but AiController took an age to run as it’s scanning for loads of airports. I’m only going to have country folders for my 3rd party airports. I rarely fly into default ones anyway.

I haven’t thought about an AIRAC update and the work involved. SIDS and STARs don’t change that often. EGCC have been the same for a few years now. It’s usually when runway designators change so perhaps twice a year will suffice. A batch file should make the copying easier especially with just one folder per country.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
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@F737NG, actually it’s not the copying of files that’s the problem It’s running the SID/STAR converter program to generate the files that is a pain as it takes around 1.5hrs.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
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AFAIK the dev has abandoned his project, maybe someone can resume his work. I also have much hope in the project from @fs1


System: i9 9900k@4.9 - 32 GB RAM - Aorus 1080ti --- Sim/Addons: P3D v5 + ProSim737
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