Longer contrails, viewable from ground, possible now.

[Guest in_04]

Hi,after installing Acceleration, I found that it is now possible to few the contrails from the ground. So I adapted my AI-Contrails program for FSX. If there is interest in this small utility I will upload it to AVSIM.To show you the effect I added a screenshot.EDIT: Image removed because it exceeds our size restrictions. Please repost at the correct size (no more than 1024 pixels wide).

[Guest Nils79]

Markus,that looks great!I would be very interested in such a utility :)Thanks in advance!

[Jean-Paul 167]

Hi Markus,Yes, please upload it. You mention Acceleration but wouldn't SP2 be enough to use it ?Jean-PaulAsus P5W DH Deluxe - Core 2 Duo E6600@3.2Ghz - Leadtek 7950 GT TDH 512 - 4 x 1GB Kingmax DDR2 667 CL5 RAM - 2 x 250GB Hitachi T7K250 SATA2 AHCI - Creative Audigy 2 Value - Antec Sonata 2 Case - 450W Antec SmartPower 2.0 PSU - Samsung SyncMaster 204B 20" - Windows XP Pro SP2 - TrackIR 4 Pro - Saitek X52

[Guest in_04]

Hi,don't know, but guess yes.I only have installed Acceleration and know it work. I guess it will work with SP2 too, but don't know. Im also not sure if it will work with FSX RTM or SP1, but for me it worked only after I installed Acceleration.

[Guest in_04]

Hi,I uploaded it.If available I will add a link here.

[KnightFlyer 43]

wowww. looks great

[DMullert 215]

Hey Marcus!I am looking for your FSX contrail generator but cannot locate it. I definitely need such a utility. If you can make it available as a download that would be awesome.Thanks!Sincerely,Dennis D. Mullert

[badderjet 181]

>I am looking for your FSX contrail generator but cannot locate>it. I definitely need such a utility. If you can make it>available as a download that would be awesome.Guess it always takes some time until the file lib mods post the new files on the front page and make them available to everyone. I am sure the tool should be there by tomorrow the latest. Thanks for the great tool by the way. :)Cheers, :-beerchugEtienne :-wave

[Guest in_04]

Hi,Here is the direct link:http://library.avsim.net/zipdiver.php?DLID=114706I also updated my profile.

[chrisal 9]

Great news!Is it possible for the program to look for other SimObjects sub-folders apart from Airplanes?I keep my AI in several separate folders (WOAI, UT, PAI etc)CheersChris

[Barnes 192]

The program doesn't seem to find the AI files unless they are located in the simobjectsairplanes directory. I have the same sort of setup as you so I temporarily moved my AI aircraft into the simobjectsairplanes directory for modification and then moved them back when done.Dave

[Gypsy Baron 10]

>The program doesn't seem to find the AI files unless they are>located in the simobjectsairplanes directory. I have the same>sort of setup as you so I temporarily moved my AI aircraft>into the simobjectsairplanes directory for modification and>then moved them back when done.>>DaveI'm not sure if this is the same utility as the one I downloadedand used way back in January of 2007 but that one did look onlyin the "Airplanes" directory.Since, at the time, all my AI were in my "Aircraft" directory I useda hex editor to modify the path occurances of "Airplanes" to "Aircraft" ( a null byte at the end to keep the lenght the same )This worked just fine, for me...someone who is used to working atthe hex data level :)Also, long ago, I changed ALL my "aircraft.cfg" files to "sim.cfg".This is the name FSX searches for first. So to avoid all those unnecessary "File not found" errors in FileMon readouts, I madethe change. This neccesetated changing the occurances of "aircraft.cfg"in the contrail program I have to "sim.cfg" with the appropriatenumber of null bytes to account for the difference in length.I point this out for two reasons. First, creators of utilities such asthis might wish to allow a bit more flexibility in path and file nameselection, and second, for those that might wish to make this sortof mod themselves, it is possible but test any mod first on a dummy directory and file, and ONLY if you know your way around ahex editor, etc.BTW, I've had 50-mile plus contrails on my AI since adding Acceleration.In areas of dense traffic I often have 6 or more contrails stretching for miles around my aircraft in a given view.Note though that when viewing contrails from the VC, they willflash in and out of sight when the aircraft 'leaving them" is notin your view. Particularly noticable when using TrackIR. Paul

[Guest in_04]

Hi,the program is a modified version of the AI-Contrail Version I made for FS2004.It would be possible to change the search algorithm to search all FSX folder for the aircraft.cfg files, but currently the program only look in SimObjects and MyTraffic folders.Maybe I will install Windows 2000 and the C++ Kit again and try to change this.The utility was build simple to make the changes for more causal users.

[Gypsy Baron 10]

>Hi,>the program is a modified version of the AI-Contrail Version I>made for FS2004.>It would be possible to change the search algorithm to search>all FSX folder for the aircraft.cfg files, but currently the>program only look in SimObjects and MyTraffic folders.>>Maybe I will install Windows 2000 and the C++ Kit again and>try to change this.>>The utility was build simple to make the changes for more>causal users.>> Thanks for the feedback, Markus. As a retired engineer and someone who has much assembly language a ( and machine language ) experience, I can relate to the KISS principle in an environment such as MSFS. With FSX, since it does allow for "user-defined" SimObject paths in the fsx.CFG file it might be the place to look for additional search paths. I, as others, have added new paths to keep FS9 imports and AI aircraft out of the default "Airplanes" folder. Here are my additions:SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjectsAircraftSimObjectPaths.6=D:FSX AI AircraftSimObjectPaths.7=D:FSX Military AI As to the "sim.cfg" name change, that is probably not widespread but i prefer to try to minimize the tens of thousands of "wasted' file searchs that FSX seems determined to make. ( Again, my previous programming experience makes me shudder when looking at a FileMon display when running FSX....! ) Thanks for the original, and your revised, AI Contrail utility. Having those 50-mile contrails criss-crossing my virtual skies is one of the few reasons I keep AccelerationSP2 on my system. Paul