3 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

Back on the topic of AIG, I've loaded about a dozen major airlines from AIG into the sim, including all the major carriers flying to Vancouver (like China Eastern and Air Canada) and I'm using the default AI real live traffic. Interestingly, I get lots of plane models with liveries but sometimes the livery doesn't match the flight.  For example a China Eastern flight was wearing an Air Canada livery.  The sim must be assigning the wrong model/livery to flights. It's strange, but I'm not going to worry about it. There's enough variety for me and I don't need plane spotting accuracy.

Perhaps using the AI Controller would solve this? Don't really know because I only used AIG once up to now (lack of time yesterday) with FSHud (which did work like a charm). But I also am quite happy already with seeing various real world liveries and real world models around the airport. Sure beats those default models with the default AI liveries! And all this for free!

8 minutes ago, tup61 said:

Perhaps using the AI Controller would solve this? Don't really know because I only used AIG once up to now (lack of time yesterday) with FSHud (which did work like a charm). But I also am quite happy already with seeing various real world liveries and real world models around the airport. Sure beats those default models with the default AI liveries! And all this for free!

Agreed. BTW, what do you use for ground traffic setting?  I'm at 25%. I tried 50% and nearly every gate was occupied. 25% seems realistic. Oh, and I notice that the ground traffic is random and mostly not part of the live traffic.

Edited August 23, 20223 yr by Virtual-Chris

4 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

Agreed. BTW, what do you use for ground traffic setting?  I'm at 25%. I tried 50% and nearly every gate was occupied. 25% seems realistic. Oh, and I notice that the ground traffic is random and mostly not part of the live traffic.

With FSHud I needed to set ground traffic at zero. But afaik you also need to set ground traffic to zero with AIG... at least when you are using the AI Controller. Not sure what setting is needed for use with MSFS live traffic. Maybe you also need to set it to zero with default traffic in order to prevent that random traffic: afaik live traffic should also show up at the gates. And afaik you should also disable all default AI models.

Edited August 23, 20223 yr by tup61

7 minutes ago, tup61 said:

With FSHud I needed to set ground traffic at zero. But afaik you also need to set ground traffic to zero with AIG... at least when you are using the AI Controller. Not sure what setting is needed for use with MSFS live traffic. Maybe you also need to set it to zero with default traffic in order to prevent that random traffic: afaik live traffic should also show up at the gates. And afaik you should also disable all default AI models.

Yeah, I think if you want only live real-time and accurate traffic, you’re right, but the issue with that is, the airport will be virtually empty when you load in, as only planes departing shortly will spawn at gates. I’m not there long enough to see it fill up from incoming flights, so I turn on ground traffic which appears to fill random gates with random models. This can add a plane or two that doesn’t belong at that airport at all, and can have planes at the wrong terminal, but I guess that’s a reasonable trade off to having virtually none at all. 

12 hours ago, aktorsyl said:

Mine is just over 30GB (that's with all the airlines downloaded).

I put it on a separate drive and symlinked it to where it wanted to be.

 

Thank you, and what about performance hit?

32 minutes ago, Noooch said:

Thank you, and what about performance hit?

Well if you go to JFK and turn traffic all the way up, you feel it. Then again, if you go to JFK and don't turn traffic all the way up, you feel it too 😛

I don't really see more of an impact vs live traffic, but keep in mind that AIG injects a lot more traffic than MSFS does (depending on the slider). However if I match the numbers I see for non-AIG aircraft, the fps is about the same. Maybe 1-2 fps down? Depends on a lot of things I suppose, like overhead available to load those textures on your main thread / GPU / etc.

37 minutes ago, aktorsyl said:

Well if you go to JFK and turn traffic all the way up, you feel it. Then again, if you go to JFK and don't turn traffic all the way up, you feel it too 😛

I don't really see more of an impact vs live traffic, but keep in mind that AIG injects a lot more traffic than MSFS does (depending on the slider). However if I match the numbers I see for non-AIG aircraft, the fps is about the same. Maybe 1-2 fps down? Depends on a lot of things I suppose, like overhead available to load those textures on your main thread / GPU / etc.

Thank you!

Specially for everyone who still thinks using AIG is scary, dangerous and extremely difficult, here is a quick (well...) tutorial on how to get going with AIG, largely based on OverKill Simulations video (with a few changes though!). Some people like to read stuff like this instead of having to filter the information out of a +23 minute video. 😉 Yes, it still looks like a lot of text but the initial setup is done within a few minutes and after that using AIG is a breeze. Really. Loading the Airlines will take time for sure but it is easy to do and the results are awesome.

Download AI Manager Public Beta 1.1 (incl. MSFS support)
Download Traffic Controller

Both programs don’t need to be installed: simply unzip them to your desired location.

AI Manager

Part one: the setup. This part only has to be done once!

Go to the AI Manager folder, right-click on AIGTech - AI Manager. exe, choose Properties > Compatibility and enable Run this program as an administrator. Click on OK.

Run the program and accept any messages apart from the one about slow-mode: only select Yes here if you have an old and slow computer. Most people will choose No here. It may take quite a few minutes before the program has started.

Once started click on Settings, then the tab Flightplans and enable Use AIGFP-Files when possible.
Click on Select (to the right of AIGTC directory), browse to the Traffic Controller folder you created previously and select AIGTech - Traffic Controller.exe.

Go to the tab Cookies, click on Login underneath AVSIM-Library and a browser will open to let you login. (You can very easily create a new account on the same page if you don’t have one yet.) Ignore any script errors. Close the browser once you are logged in. Take note that AI Manager shows Status: LOGGED IN.

Go to the tab AIGAIM - OCI, click on Setup, Next and check that OCI-Directory is pointing to your MSFS Community folder and AIGTC directory is pointing to the Traffic Controller folder you created previously.
Click Next and check if you are still LOGGED IN to AVSIM-Library.
Click on Setup. AI Manager will close so you need to restart it.

Part two: installing Airlines.

An Airline in AIG contains 3D-models, liveries and flightplans.

Click on Flightplans and then the tab Online. Select the Airlines you want to install by ticking the box before it. To tick multiple Airlines use Control-Click. Once selected click on OCI-Bulk. (Yes, you can Bulk-install a single Airline: this saves a few clicks and waiting.)

Tip from @Cpt_Piett: It's also possible to select all airlines by clicking Control-A. Then just let it work in the background or overnight. Total download is 44GB. 

Concerning Skip manual download: if AI Manager is not able to download a file automatically it will show a message that will lead you to the site where you can manually download the file. Simply follow all prompts and when you get back to AI Manager point it towards the file you just downloaded (no need to unzip it!) and it will proceed the install. You can delete that file afterwards.

Tip from @Cpt_Piett: In some cases the website AI Manager points you to a website that doesn't have the file, for a number of reasons. I've managed to get around this by going to https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?do=displaysearch then search for the .zip file. Usually I can find the correct one, which I download then point AI Manager to the location.

If you enable Skip manual download AI Manager won’t stop bulk-installing once it misses a file: it will simply skip it. This can be convenient if you want to download a lot of Airlines at once and let the computer run for a few hours (or days...) unattended. Everything will still work without those files, you just might miss a few models or liveries.

When installing is done the popup windows will close and you will be back on the Online screen. All installed Airlines will be gone from the list. Click on Installed to show all Airlines currently installed and ready for use.

That’s it.

From now on you only have to run AI Manager again if you want to update files or add other Airliners. It is not necessary to run AI Manager in order to use the models, liveries and flightplans.

Now you can start MSFS, set Aircraft Traffic Type to AI Online, AI Aircraft Traffic Density to whatever you like, Ground Aircraft Density to 0 (to avoid random traffic!), Use generic aircraft models (AI traffic) to Off and you will see MSFS using the AIG models and textures.
You can also go a step further and make good use of all the flightplans that AIG has installed with...:

Traffic Controller

Part one: the setup. This part only has to be done once!

Go to the Traffic Controller folder, right-click on AIGTech - Traffic Controller.exe and then on Create shortcut.
Right-click on the shortcut you just created and choose Properties. Click in the field behind Target and move the cursor all the way to the right so it ends up behind Controller.exe” Type a space and then -MSFS2020 so the end of the line looks like this:
Traffic Controller.exe” -MSFS2020
Click on Apply.
Go to the tab Compatibility and enable Run this program as an administrator. Click on OK.

Run the program. When you get the message about slow-mode, only select Yes here if you have an old and slow computer. Most people will choose No here.

Go to Settings. Make sure Use AIGFP is active. Turn Autoinjection on Startup off by unchecking it. Click on Select to the right of OCI-Directory and browse to the AIG folder in your MSFS Community folder. Finally click on Save Settings.

Launch MSFS and set Aircraft Traffic Type to Off (so NOT to AI Online or Offline!), AI Aircraft Traffic Density to 50 (or whatever you like), Ground Aircraft Density to 0 (to avoid random traffic!) and Use generic aircraft models (AI traffic) to Off.

Part two: how to use it.

Start a flight and once it has loaded go to Traffic Controller > Settings, click on Inject traffic and AIG should do its magic! Take note that in order to use Traffic Controller you need to run it alongside MSFS!

Tip from @Cpt_Piett: To avoid any issues it's probably a good idea to wait until your flight has finished loading then start Traffic Controller and then inject traffic manually. 

That's it once more! If you spot an error please let me know within 2 hours or I won't be able to correct it anymore. 😉

Edited August 23, 20223 yr by tup61

Just one comment on the post above. If you want AIG to inject the traffic, turn all traffic OFF in MSFS (including static aircraft). Then go to Traffic Controller - > Settings -> Inject traffic. (Or use auto-injection like @tup61 said)

 

Edited August 23, 20223 yr by aktorsyl

@tup61 Great guide, I'm sure this will help a lot of people get started with AIG! You should consider posting this in the tips and tricks subforum. 

35 minutes ago, tup61 said:

To tick multiple Airlines use Control-Click

It's also possible to select all airlines by clicking Control-A. Then just let it work in the background or overnight. Total download is 44GB. 

35 minutes ago, tup61 said:

if AI Manager is not able to download a file automatically it will show a message that will lead you to the site where you can manually download the file. Simply follow all prompts and when you get back to AI Manager point it towards the file you just downloaded (no need to unzip it!) and it will proceed the install. You can delete that file afterwards.

In some cases the website AI Manager points you to doesn't have the file. I've managed to get around this by going to https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?do=displaysearch then search for the .zip file. Usually I can find the correct one, which I download then point AI Manager to the location. You need to make an account to download from their file library. 

35 minutes ago, tup61 said:

Ground Aircraft Density to 0

This is important, otherwise there will be completely random traffic parked at the gates/ramps. 

35 minutes ago, tup61 said:

disable default AI models

I.e. set "use generic aircraft models (AI traffic)" to off. And at the bottom of the menu set traffic variety to ultra. 

35 minutes ago, tup61 said:

Start a flight and AIG should do its magic! Take note that in order to use Traffic Controller you need to run it alongside MSFS.

To avoid any issues it's probably a good idea to wait until your flight has finished loading then start Traffic Controller and then inject traffic manually. 

Edited August 23, 20223 yr by Cpt_Piett

8 minutes ago, aktorsyl said:

Just one comment on the post above. If you want AIG to inject the traffic, turn all traffic OFF in MSFS (including static aircraft). Then go to Traffic Controller - > Settings -> Inject traffic. (Or use auto-injection like @tup61 said)

 

Okay, thanks! OverKill has AI set to Offline, not Off... I now changed the post so it says Off but if someone could confirm that... I am not behind my MSFS PC at the moment.

You can set AI to offline if you have Traffic BGL files of your own that you want to appear alongside the AIG stuff. For example AIG only has corporate jet type GA, so you could have your own GA traffic in a BGL as well. Creating your own BGL file is another task completely - and one I'm not proposing to document myself 🙂

24 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Great guide

Thanks! 😉 I've added a few tips of yours to the post and also changed the part on how to use the Controller (disable the Autoinjection option and inject it manually).

Edited August 23, 20223 yr by tup61

20 minutes ago, tup61 said:

Okay, thanks! OverKill has AI set to Offline, not Off... I now changed the post so it says Off but if someone could confirm that... I am not behind my MSFS PC at the moment.

Yes, set AI traffic to off when using AIG Traffic Controller. 

22 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

You should consider posting this in the tips and tricks subforum. 

Will do once this one is 'complete' and can't be edited anymore. Post in the tips and tricks subforum can't be edited at all afaik so I'd rather have it right. Maybe I will even wait for some more comments the coming day or so and then post the definitive version in the subforum. 😉