AI Vessel Traffic?

[Guest]

Greetings,I'm just learning how to set up AI traffic and I specifically want to try to set up vessels moving around the water under AI control while I attempt to fly aircraft in formation. Basically, want to set up video captures for US Coast Guard training development.Granted, on other option would be to use multi-player and have one person drive the boat while someone else flys the aircraft. But, I'd rather set this all up on a standalone for individual use.I've downloaded TTools, but still not sure if what I'm trying to do is not outside the scope of FS2002 AI.Any suggestions...?Thanks, Dave

[Holger 0]

Hi Dave:funny you should ask; some people in the Bush Flying forum just considered the same issue (or have you seen that already?):http://forums.avsim.com/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=13911&page=Hugo, Edrick, and myself got floatplanes and cool splash effects working for AI aircraft. (I just uploaded a file for amphibian helicopters as AI that includes aircraft.cfg files you could use as a base - the file name is aiheli_7.zip; might be a few hours before it becomes available). The post for the floatplane topic is here:http://forums.avsim.com/dcboard.php?az=sho...id=13302&page=2It shouldn't be difficult to set up a craft with a weak engine that just moves around in the water. The problem might be that it won't be able to turn properly and thus never returns to the "airport" but I don't think anyone has tested this yet. Let us know...Cheers, Holger

[Guest]

Thanks Holger,No, I hadn't seen the Bush Flying forum post... but, I'll check it out. Yesterday, my team and I were able to work out an interesting solution; thanks to some suggestions by Lee Swordy. We basically used AFCAD and TTools to work out the vessel movements in Mobile Bay (Mobile Al). This included:1-Use AFCAD to place an "invisible" airport in the middle of the bay (using a single North/South runway with "0" elevation);2-add one gate near the shoreline (representing the boat startpoint);3-generate a very long taxi run up and down the bay (plus add the tower and comms to complete the pseudo-airport);4-finally, use TTools to set-up the AI boat traffic.It all worked the first time (to our surprise... we figured we'd goof something up...). The boat appeared at the scheduled time and it "water-taxied" around the bay as desired. When it arrived at the runway, it stopped and proceeded no farther (but stayed visible). Next week we're going to try to get multiple vessels operating at the same time (maybe try multiple gates or stagger departure times for different vessels...). We're still trying to get the vessel to "take off" from one aiport and "fly" (at "0" alt) to another nearby "invisible" airport so we can see if we get a faster boat speed (currently they will only go the limited taxi speed). But it's not a big issue, given the success of out first attempt.Thanks again for the reply and suggested links...Dave

[Holger 0]

Hi everyone:Dave's idea with the super-long taxiway is great!!! I ran a few test with a 41' cruiser by Dan Wambolt (bfu_vessels.zip) and it works without a hitch once the contact points are tweaked into permission. I have posted more infos and screen shots in the BFU forum:http://forums.avsim.com/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=14118&page=andhttp://forums.avsim.com/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=14122&page= The next step is to discover the limitations (if any) for taxiway length or taxiing time...Cheers, Holger