10 hours ago, anilcougar said:

Hi Caps,

First of all, sorry for being a little late with the video, because a nasty migraine really knocked me out for a while :|

I also understand that some of you looked at our website and wondered why there are no elements, software or information about Flight Simulator. The reason for that is simple. ACE Solutions also works on AI-Based software for Aviation companies so the current website reflects that side of the company more than the simulator side. But I get it, this is a fair question so that's why we've purchased a new domain (ace-sim.com) and currently we're developing the website for our simulation related apps. It will be ready shortly.

Anyways... But instead of spending too much talking about the website, starting today I will show the product to you step-by-step.

A few of you also made some very interesting guesses about the special voices part but to be honest I really enjoyed reading them (: I cannot reveal anything on that side yet because it's totally legal related issues. Everything must be agreed before I reveal the names. Because we're talking about using people voices and those require some strict legal contract which we're about to complete.

For now today in the first video, I wanted to show you something much more basic, but IMHO super important. Which is Aircraft Movement.

In the simulator there are two ways to handle the AI Aircraft movement. You can use the default MSFS2024 Aircraft movement behavior, which is faster to implement but gives you an unrealistic effect and the other way of doing this is. Sit down, design and code your own aircraft movement engine. The second option I know is harder but we felt it was necessary for what we are trying to build.

To be more specific. We have all seen AI aircraft behave strangely in the sim: sudden jumps, robotic turns, awkward stop/start behavior, aircraft cutting across taxiways, or looking like they hit an invisible bump near the runway or taxiway. That is exactly the kind of feeling we wanted to avoid.

So in this short WIP video, you will see our custom movement engine in action.

This is not a hand-animated cinematic path. The aircraft is routed using the simulator’s own airport taxi graph. In this test, the airport graph contains more than 3500 nodes, and the route is calculated through that real taxiway network. The aircraft then follows that route using our own movement layer.

In the video, you will see a Pegasus A320 landing at LTFJ on 06R and then vacating the runway and taxiing over a longer route to Gate 301. This is all generated by our traffic controlment brain, executor and decision making engine. The brain calculates all the required nodes ) graphs the path by reading the charts and then executes it. This can't be vibe-coded (:

The important part for us is not only that the movement looks smooth, but that it is smooth while following a correct route from the airport’s own ground network.

I do not want to over-explain it. I would rather let the video speak for itself.

And ohhh! not to forget. Maybe you don't like the teaser post, or creating some kind of a negativity would be better for you but, no worries. Even my company's name "ACE Solutions" is coming from the legendary aviation game "Ace of Aces". So we love aviation and I'm a simmer myself for a very very long time.

I will do my best to share a video everyday, but as you know, I have a company to run and sometimes I'm pretty sure, life will not behave me good. If that happens, sorry for that already.

Ok let's start shall we?

WP-001: Aircraft Movement

https://youtu.be/_rmUFC5EmxA

Ok, my comments and notes (respecting that this video is intended to only show one aspect of the product)

1. No other AI aircraft - routing the user aircraft is ok, but how will the product handle taxi conflicts with 50+ AI aircraft?

2. User aircraft will need to respect hold shorts, not shown here.

3. On sharp corners the aircraft cuts the corner and doesn't follow the taxi path properly.

As others have said, if it's subscription I'm out.

Yes, I noticed it cutting the corners, and also "jerking" around those corners. I appreciate that this may be very difficult to eliminate, but wouldn't it be nice if the animation was smooth and precise? That would certainly raise my eyebrows.

43 minutes ago, kevinfirth said:

Ok, my comments and notes (respecting that this video is intended to only show one aspect of the product)

1. No other AI aircraft - routing the user aircraft is ok, but how will the product handle taxi conflicts with 50+ AI aircraft?

2. User aircraft will need to respect hold shorts, not shown here.

3. On sharp corners the aircraft cuts the corner and doesn't follow the taxi path properly.

As others have said, if it's subscription I'm out.

On a side note but related topic, any updates from VoxATC?

Another subscription, no thanks... I have two yearly subs already, Navigraph and Say AI. I like the smoother taxi shown in the video during turns and constant speed, I've been using Justflight so I can see this has improved. I would imagine they could work on the taxing aircraft and fix those few issues without a subscription.

With Say AI working on traffic injection, I can't see me purchasing another yearly sub.

Edited Wednesday at 04:57 PM2 days by Mike_CFII_MEL

31 minutes ago, Lucky38i said:

On a side note but related topic, any updates from VoxATC?

Just installed a new version update to test, yes.

7 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Is this the middle ages or TikTok or something?

You've missed the point. The "TikTok" element of this, is the devs format and manner of communication about this.

You must be blissfully naive to not be seeing what some of us having been saying since Page 1 😄

The video is incredibly underwhelming when measured against the claims, promises and hyperbole delivered in the opening [Teaser] post.

Is that really all you have to demonstrate at this point?

15 hours ago, anilcougar said:

This is not a hand-animated cinematic path. The aircraft is routed using the simulator’s own airport taxi graph. In this test, the airport graph contains more than 3500 nodes, and the route is calculated through that real taxiway network. The aircraft then follows that route using our own movement layer.

Can you elaborate on the statement "The aircraft is routed using the simulator’s own airport taxi graph. In this test, the airport graph contains more than 3500 nodes, and the route is calculated through that real taxiway network". Does this mean the airport AFCAD but that extra nodes are somehow added or did it already have 3500 nodes? One of the problems of past and current AI solutions, is that there is a large degree of difference in the quality of AFCADs. Some are dreadful. I noticed that at times the aircraft was quite a way off the taxiway lines. This may be a difference between the positioning of the marking textures and the taxiway AFCAD nodes so, I'm curious to know how you might deal with these vexing issues.

11 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

I really feel ashamed being a member of this community these days. Whats wrong with people?

The protection afforded by a computer keyboard brings out the worst in people.

Best Wishes Anil, ATC if that's what you're working on proves to be exceedingly difficult to get right. Each of the current offerings have substantial weaknesses and they've been at it for a long time. I'm thinking to really make a dent in this genre it will need to be truly complete, versus just another offering with its own set of serious shortcomings.

So an MSFS simmer is desperately in need of good AI/ATC app but nothing suitable was to be found. Suddenly he sees an app being produced that seems to hold great promise. But he's seen apps sold before that were either never completed or never met their promises so, he starts to think negatively about this new app. So much so, he can only say negative things to the developer, things like, "your AI generated", "You can stick your subscription" and, "I'm out of here"!.

He then goes back to the flight simulator, frustrated at the lack of good AI/ATC.

LOL! I never thought I'd see the well known classic human behaviour story (below) emulated so well as I have seen in this thread.

"A traveling salesman is driving down a deserted country road late at night when his car sputters to a halt. He looks at his dashboard and groans—he is completely out of gas. He steps out of the car, looks around, and spots a faint light from a farmhouse about a mile away across a dark field. With no other choice, he decides to walk over and ask the farmer if he can buy a gallon of gasoline. As he begins walking through the dark, chilly night, his mind starts to wander. "I hope that farmer is awake," he thinks to himself. After walking a quarter of a mile, a new thought creeps in: "Well, it’s pretty late. If I wake him up, he’s probably going to be a bit grumpy. "By the half-mile mark, his anxiety builds: "Actually, a farmer's gas is precious to him for his tractors. He’ll probably think I’m some careless city slicker who doesn't know how to manage a fuel tank. He might even judge me. "By the time he is three-quarters of the way there, he is completely working himself up: "He’s definitely going to be an old miser. He’s going to see how desperate I am and overcharge me. He’ll probably try to make me pay fifty dollars for a single, lousy gallon of gas! What a greedy jerk. "As he finally reaches the front porch, the salesman is absolutely furious, having fully convinced himself of the farmer's hostility. He storms up the steps and slams his fist against the front door. A few moments later, the porch light turns on. A kind, sleepy-eyed old farmer opens the door, smiles warmly, and says, "Hello there, son. It’s awfully late, can I help you with something? "The salesman, trembling with manufactured rage, glares at him and yells: "You know what? You can keep your rotten gallon of gas! "He turns on his heel, stomps off the porch, and begins the long walk back to his empty car, leaving the completely bewildered farmer standing in the doorway".

Edited Thursday at 10:46 AM2 days by Lord Farringdon

And yet there is still nothing of any substance here. The video of a single aircraft taxiing like any other aircraft would is absolutely worthless and I am wondering why the OP doesn't understand this. Can anyone tell me what use the video is or what it demonstrates? I actually thought it might be a joke.

I hope the OP can cease all this and come back when he has something worth looking at, but by the previous taste of his marketing technique based around teasers and easter eggs, he probably thinks 'look! I am creating a stir!'. 🙄

Currently, this is just a big waste of time and energy all round, whichever side of the argument you are on. The people who are ranting and virtue posturing in defence of the 'product' and/or developer are doing it over vapourware at the moment. Comical in itself!

Duplicate.

Edited Thursday at 12:51 PM2 days by bobcat999

3 hours ago, Lord Farringdon said:

So an MSFS simmer is desperately in need of good AI/ATC app but nothing suitable was to be found. Suddenly he sees an app being produced that seems to hold great promise.

Tell me, where do you see any promise in what was posted here?

It's crazy how many AI-developed tools for flight sim are coming out right now. It's like anyone with a (hopefully) creative idea absolutely has to put it into reality these days. I feel most developers that do this have no development background and consequently no idea how hard it is to actually maintain an app after AI created a prototype. This severely limits the potential of these apps.

Don't get me wrong, I've happily used AI to generate my own RealisticPayloadGenerator app (with the free monthly AI token I get via PyCharm), but it's just for my private use and I can actually develop myself, so I can fix and refine stuff. Selling it would be a whole different level of commitment and would need a lot more effort.