Is there anyway to slow down road traffic?

[Comanche 417]

I noticed in FSX, the cars and trucks running along the road are going almost 60-80 miles an hour on all types of roads. I love the effect of moving cars, but it would be so much more realistic if they obeyed the speed limit!Seems like it would be an easy tweak. Maybe we just need to add some highway police to slow them down. Anyone figured out how?Rob

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello Rob,As I remember, the speed of freeway traffic is indicated in the Living World configuration file (LWcfg.sbp). This file is in the Documents and Settings directory, along with the fsx.cfg file (there is also a copy in the root FSX folder, but that is probably just a template.)Unfortunately, the spb is a compressed binary file and cannot be modified. But, Lamont Clark has a little tool that will convert it to xml format, and that can be edited - http://lc0277.nerim.netSpeeds are in kilometers per hours, not miles. So, just find your region, for example: Btrue100.000and change the speed as desired. 80 km/h is a good highway speed and 35-40 is good for cities.You can compile the xml file back to spb using the S.D.K. tool, but the game should be able to read the xml file also, so you can just remove the original and use your modified file.I have never done this, so please let us know how it works.Best regards.Luis

[fulfern 0]

Hi Rob,I tried this quick & dirty method, and to me it is working quite well.Please, have a look at this post:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...ing_type=searchHope this helpsFulvio

[Guest Eek]

>but it would be so much more>realistic if they obeyed the speed limit!I take it you're not flying over Atlanta. :-hahEwingKATLAlcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be a store, not a government agency.MSI K8N Neo2 PlatinumAMD Opteron 185 2.6 Ghz Dual Core2GB Kingston HyperX (2X1GB) Dual Channel DDR 2-3-2-6 @ 1TXFX nVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB DDR3 AGPSound Blaster Audigy LSSilverStone Decathlon 750W +12v@60A +5v@30AFS9 on WinXPPro (SP1)

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello Fulvio,It is interesting that changing the sim.cfg parameter works. Here is what Brian Smith of ACES had to say on this:The 115 in the container files is a reference to maximum speed that vehicle can travel. Not the speed the vehicle will travel (fuel trucks actually run between 10 and 30 knots). Freeway traffic speed is specified in LWcfg.xml/.spb, and defaults to 100 kph.The freeway traffic is just a visualization and not actually modeled with sim objects. Their speeds are dictacted by lwcfg. The containers/sim objects are only used for airport vehicles and mission vehicles. The sim object max speeds affect how fast those vehicles can accelerate as well as top speed. AI parameters (hard coded for airport vehicles, specified in mission file for mission vehicles) affect how fast the sim object vehicles actually go.Best regards.Luis

[fulfern 0]

Hi Luis,really, when I modified sim.cfg, I wanted to modify only top speed of any vehicle/boat, regardless of what would dictate their travelling speed.To be honest, I thought the maximum speeds were in miles per hour (cars) and knots (boats) so I lowered by a great amount all the speeds in sim.cfgJust to give you an idea, I set some 50-55 for cars, 15-20 for trucks, 5 for sailboats, 10 for motorboats, etc.Probably, now all my wehicles and boats are always running "flat out", but who cares, visually, they appear more real.RegardsFulvio

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello Fulvio,From what I understand Brian to have said, the simobjects are not used for freeway traffic at all.Freeway traffic - uses models that are in the vehicles_land.bgl in the SceneryGlobal folder. There are about 160 road vehicles of all sorts. Their speed is set in the Living World configuration file (LWcfg.spb) and is a default of 100 km/h.AI Vehicles and Mission objects - are found in the SimObjects folder and use the model files that are in there. They are mostly vehicles found in airports (fuel trucks, fire trucks, tugs, bagage loaders, etc.) The sim.cfg (this is the new version of the old aircraft.cfg) has an entry for maximum speed and acceleration (in G). The real speed for these objects in game, however, is set in other places, not in the sim.cfg file.So, changing the sim.cfg value should not have any effect at all on freeway traffic. Those simobjects are not used for freeway traffic.Best regards.Luis

[Gypsy Baron 10]

>Hello Fulvio,>>From what I understand Brian to have said, the simobjects are>not used for freeway traffic at all.>>Freeway traffic - uses models that are in the>vehicles_land.bgl in the SceneryGlobal folder. There are>about 160 road vehicles of all sorts. Their speed is set in>the Living World configuration file (LWcfg.spb) and is a>default of 100 km/h.>-SNIP->>Best regards.>>Luis Hummm...kind of makes you wonder then why the "SimObjectsGroundVehicles"folder is cluttered with all those "Veh_car_minixxxx"and "Bluebus", "BrownBus" folders, etc.If they are only used in missions then I can safely drag themto the trash and possibly save a few more cpu cycles when FSXloads or at least looks at every folder and file in the installation!I long ago changed all "aircraft.cfg" files to "sim.cfg" andcut out hundreds of "file not found" errors since FSX looks forthe "sim.cfg" files before it falls back to the "aircraft.cfg" file name.... Paul

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Sorry, Paul, perhaps I was not completely clear since my response only concerned freeway traffic.The SimObjects folders contain many different types of objects, including UFO, Tesla Coil, road vehicles, boats, sling load, etc.Some of those objects are only for use in the default missions.Others are for use in AI traffic, whether boat traffic or airport ground vehicle traffic.The ground vehicles in SimObjects are used for different purposes: fuel trucks, baggage loaders and such are obvious. But, the cars are used as "Ambient Traffic" vehicles on the airport grounds, so that it all looks more life-like.So, if you remove them, you will certainly get a boost in performance, but you can probably accomplish this better by reducing the airport ground traffic slider.Best regards.Luis

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

No, sorry, my mistake, I take it back, please. Having checked the LWcfg.spb file, it seems that the following are the only Ambient Traffic vehicles:VEH_Air_BagLoaderBlueVEH_Air_BagLoaderGreyVEH_Air_FireTruck_Euro_smVEH_Air_TransBus_Euro_Silver_smVEH_Air_TransBus_Euro_White_smVEH_Air_CaterTruck_Euro_smVeh_Air_BagTractor_Euro_White_smVeh_Air_BagTractor_Euro_Gray_smVeh_Air_AirStartUnit_smVEH_Air_Forklift_blue_smVEH_Air_Forklift_white_smVeh_Air_GroundPowerUnit_smVEH_Air_PickupEuro_Grey_smVEH_Air_PickupEuro_White_smVeh_Air_SewageTruck_smSo, perhaps the mini cars and other automobiles are used in some missions.In which case, it is useless to remove them from the SimObjects folder, since these vehicles are only used when that particular mission is loaded.Best regards.Luis