Triggers

[Guest firehawk44]

I understand FSX uses "triggers" for certain events, especially in missions. Completely understand the concept with missions! However, one of my complaints with FSX (and FS9) is the use of triggers within ATC and controlling AI aircraft. Almost 90% of the time, during final approach to a major airport such as KSFO, an AI aircraft suddenly appears in front of me or ATC allows an aircraft on the runway to take off. It inevitably results in the controller telling me to go around (one time I was sure I saw the controller laughing as I flew by the control tower! lol). I know this puts a little more excitement in the game but it does get annoying at times. The last two times I tried to land at KSFO with real weather turned on, I was cleared for landing on Runway 28L but told to be on the lookout for a 737 landing on 19L. 'I' should be on the lookout? What are the controllers doing? Sure enough I'm cleared to land 200 feet off the ground but I look out to my right and see the 737 just about to land on 19L. I'm subsequently told to go around. The AI aircraft is not told to go around. I am! Even though it looks like I'm closer to landing on 28L than the 737. This makes the game a little unrealistic IMHO as I don't think most aircraft are constantly told to go around. Air controllers in real life do a better job than that and make sure there's plenty of distance between aircraft to avoid these problems. If I do see an aircraft in front of me I immediately lower the speed of my aircraft to the bare minimum to try to avoid a go around but it doesn't matter because the landing aircraft fails to clear the runway in time (again I think the trigger does this on purpose). In the examples I provided above, I simply continued to land because I knew I could stop the aircraft soon enough to avoid 19L or the aircraft still sitting on the runway (if FSX wants to be unrealistic, so can I!! Ha!) It seems to me that the triggers should be spaced further apart to avoid many of these go arounds. It would put some realism into the game and settle some of my nerves, especially when attempting to land in heavy soup. I was wondering if anyone else has suffered like I have with this issue and whether you know of any fix, possibly using the FSX SDK. FYI, I have MyTrafficX installed with AI set at 70% (I still get great FPS). Thanks for reading and your time.Best regards,Jim

[Guest RonB49]

"Almost 90% of the time, during final approach to a major airport such as KSFO, an AI aircraft suddenly appears in front of me or ATC allows an aircraft on the runway to take off."That is just weird, Jim. I can't say it never happens to me but you could count the times on one hand (well maybe both hands). Certainly not 90% or even 5%. Reading on, I noticed this:"I was cleared for landing on Runway 28L but told to be on the lookout for a 737 landing on 19L."This would never happen to me. I might be warned of traffic on 28R but not 19L. Are you using an AFCAD that enables crossing runways or some other unusual arrangement? If this is the case then I'd suspect the AFCAD is creating this situation and I'd disable the AFCAD and see what happens with the default airport. What you report isn't normal in my opinion.R-

[Guest jshyluk]

Jim:Please look up a little freeware gem in the AVSIM library called "AiSmooth". What it does is shuffle the AI aircraft around to give you a "bubble" zone of operations so that you won't see so many aircraft in the air near you on final. You can tweak the program to allow for some ground traffic, or you can have the program sweep away all obstacles like the Hand Of God. FSX causes traffic to form around you in a bubble anyways -- traffic in Mumbai is theoretical when you are flying into clouds of AI craft Boston Logan, for instance. It kind of gives the effect of a "trigger" as you mentioned. AI programs like Ultimate Traffic and My Traffic can boost AI way past what the default FSX would offer. For example, I would suggest that setting the aircraft density to 60% would give you realistic traffic levels with default FSX. Setting something like MyTrafficX to about 30% would equal default FSX at 60%, and so on. Having your density at 70% will definitely create "constellations" of aircraft near airports with some traffic add-ons even if you are using realistic schedules. You can make things easier by reducing your traffic levels. Of course, it's all personal and relative to what you like to see: if you want your sky to be crammed with traffic, that's still a-ok. I would reccommend AiSmooth in any case!Jeff ShylukAssistant Managing EditorSenior Staff ReviewerAVSIM

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Sorry, Jim, triggers are not used for AI aircraft at all.They depend exclusively on their traffic schedules and the relevant sliders.Triggers are only used in missions, and for fuel stations and weather elements such as turbulence or thermals.Best regards.Luis

[Guest firehawk44]

Thanks for your responses. I definitely learned something new and glad I made the post! "That is just weird, Jim. I can't say it never happens to me but you could count the times on one hand (well maybe both hands). Certainly not 90% or even 5%."Ron - That is really strange you don't see this happening more than 5% of the time. I suspect it's happening to me more because my AI slider is at 70% and your slider is at or near the default. I am using the default AFCAD's although MTX may have changed some for their AI program. Thanks for your comments anyway!Thanks to too Jeff for the excellent recommendation. I had heard of the AI Smooth program but never thought about trying it out. I will definitely give it a go. I suspect the author of the AI Smooth program saw this as a problem too. I have had this problem even with the sliders set at the default level so lowering the AI slider will probably not help. I raised the AI slider to 70% because I was having problems seeing a lot of AI aircraft sitting at airports. The airports all seemed empty. I'm not one to sit around an airport for 30 to 60 minutes to wait for AI to fill up an airport so I moved the slider up. It hasn't affected my frames so far so I'll keep it at 70."Sorry, Jim, triggers are not used for AI aircraft at all."Thanks Luis for setting me straight. I thought for sure AI aircraft were controlled by triggers. When you're coming in for a landing and can almost always expect an AI aircraft to move in front of you or suddenly appear on a runway, it makes you think something is triggering the action. The AI schedules and slider makes more sense.Hopefully AI Smooth will take away some of my frustrations. Thanks again for everyone's assistance.Best regards,Jim