Let's talk about the FSI dynamic...pic

[Guest tonyc]

Let's start a thread on this. How can we use the pop up FSI window to control traffic? I am still unsure.tony

[Guest]

Here are some of mines...Yves

[Guest Dean]

How do you set this up so your A/C does not always start at the active runway? Many times I like to start my flight at the terminal and taxi to the active but so far I've not been able to figure out how to do that with version 1.03

[Guest]

Well, do you mean that you want your aircraft to be at the terminal when you start up Fly! ? If so, I just use flystart and my plane is always parked on the apron. Yves

[Guest Dean]

Yves,Are you using FS Imports along with Flystart? Version 1.03 of FS Imports starts the A/C on the active runway instead of parked on the apron as happens with the default Fly II setup.

[Guest]

Thanks all for your comments about FSI v1.03,Sorry for the delay in responding - I am using a public library at the moment.Here are some points based on different issues1) Too much green ?FSI allows more flat gound textures through. Many FS sceneries use a large grey apron and then grass textures ON TOP. The P51 screenshot where the Falcon 50 is lined up shows this. In this shot the grey taxiways fight with the grass on top - maybe the ground is not absolutely flat here (check out flattenator de luxe, or post a request for someone to flatten your airport). Sometimes FS sceneries use multiple "layers" for the textures. FS permits 64 different layers - MESH,POLY,RUNWAY,.... FSI would have to merge these together to get it right. If you want to reduce this effect you can change a line in the active SCM2FLY.TXT 1 4000 4000 ; min max gndmax (in feet)The 3rd parameter (gndmax) specifies the maximum size (in feet) for flat textures on the ground. If you reduce this, then less of these textures are allowed. If it is too small then parking stands and direction signs on the ground will disappear. 2) Dynamic AIThe dynamic module attempts to animate aircraft models from the local tiles. It may incorrectly identify aircraft and blindly animate jetways or think that bizjets are heavy props!It uses only the current Fly! runway definitions and does not use taxiway BGR files.I am not sure why the flight plan startup position is a runway - converted BGR taxiway files tend to be very bad. This is since most FS sceneries use non standard taxiways drawing commands and so need AFCAD files for AI generation. AFTER starting a new plan you can check the Facilities dialog and see if there is a parking stand available at the airport. If so, then select it and "Teleport" there.I saw a mention of "twice the speed" of the Fly! default AI. I must check this out with a watch. A heavy jet should need a 40/50 second take off run. The internal programmed values for Vr, Vref, accelerations and climb are typical for each of 4 types - light prop, heavy prop, light jet, heavy jet. FSI assigns a type to a model based only on its length - thus bizjets look like heavy props.Arrivals and departures are generated on timeouts, based on the two parameters. Departures hold as long as necessary until a large enough time slot appears. If arrivals are assigned a separate runway then departures will be continuous, holding only for the runway to become clear of the previous departing aircraft.If you taxi up to the departing runway you may be "advised" to hold behind another aircraft or hold short due to arriving aircraft.Arriving AI traffic will start a missed approach procedure if the runway is not clear (you or AI departing). This does not normally happen as AI departures give enough priority to arrivals. If the distance is too short for a missed approach then you will get a "Danger" warning.When you approach the arrivals runway in the normal fashion (no very short finals), the runway will be assigned to you. AI arrivals will initiate a missed approach if you come too close, AI departures will hold, or "disappear" if necessary. This way, you are integrated into the traffic flow of any airport without any airport specific programming being necessary.3) Bad command or filename in a DOS box.WIN98 seems not to like something. After installation, use Explorer to rename or delete the file called FS_IMPBUILD.EXE. FSI nows runs in the older mode - multiple DOS windows.Note that the "Airport" "Generate" and "Delete" buttons all use the same DOS box method to do their thing. Thus the renaming should solve all three functions.4) Cannot save changes.Is this a once off or do others have this problem?I hope that this helps a little.Padraic (Podjoe) Morgan.

[Guest Dean]

>I am not sure why the flight plan startup position is a >runway - converted BGR taxiway files tend to be very bad. >This is since most FS sceneries use non standard taxiways >drawing commands and so need AFCAD files for AI generation. Padraic,I found the answer to this, at least on Simflyers airports. When you select "taxiways and yellow" in FS Imports, the taxiways appear to be properly converted and appear in the scenery but they do not appear in the vector map and the A/C is positioned on the active runway at startup. When you do not select "taxiways and yellow" the Fly II default taxiways appear in the scenery and also in the vector map and the A/C is positioned on the apron at startup. As nice as the converted taxiways look with 1.03, having the taxiway appear in the vector map is important so I have reverted back to default Fly II taxiways for my airports. Unfortunately this leads some to models being mis-aligned with aprons but it is the lesser of two problems, IMHO. If we could reposition those models in situations where we chose not to update the fly database then that would be a workable solution. Thank you for continuing to improve your utility.

[Guest]

Thanks Dean,That is what I kinda thought. For each airport with ICAO name, Fly! uses two files for taxiways.ICAO.TMS is used to actually display tiled concrete, yellow line markings and lights.ICAO.BGR is used to display the taxiway system in the vector map and is also used by the default Fly! AI aircraft to taxi about.Converted FSI sceneries have quite good TMS files (check out DFW) but very poor BGRs. Thus the vector map and default AI taxi suffer. In future I will try to improve BGR generation. As I said a few times, most FS sceneries tend to use non-standard taxiway generation as they want to get a non-standard feel. This results in bad BGRs. It will take a bit of work to distill/magic BGR info.I personally, tend to follow the generated runway and taxiway signs toget to the active runway.I do not permit editing of converted sceneries even though it would be simple for me to change a few lines of code. This is there to prevent copyright infringement - a potential danger for all of us. I would prefer if you can wait for new FSI versions which will address the issues that were mentioned here by you and other forum users. Thanks againPadraic (Podjoe) Morgan.

[Guest Dean]

"Converted FSI sceneries have quite good TMS files (check out DFW) but very poor BGRs."Padraic,I wish I could!:-lol DFW remains the only Simflyers airport I cannot convert, even with 1.03. This really confuses me as I have successfully converted 7 other Simflyers. Here is one line of a lengthy BGL list from DFW: Ignoring compressed BGL "D:Microsoft GamesFS2002SIMFLYERSKDFWSCENERYDfwFEstn.BGL" I'm clueless what else to try.Again, thanks for your efforts.

[Guest]

Maybe the decompression of BGLs failed.1) Maybe you have a BGLZIP that cant cope with these BGLs, I doubt it.2) Are these BGLs "read only" ("write protected") ? If so, the BGL unzip will fail. Look at the file attributes with Explorer, right click, Properties ...Check the FSI Verbose box and generate again. Are there any more relavent messages ?Padraic (Podjoe) Morgan.

[Guest Dean]

Padraic,I've been in Toronto since Sunday so I have not had internet access until tonight. I finally got an ethernet cable so I can connect from the hotel. Free broadband access from the room is definitely cool. The version of bglzip I have is from the MS SDK for FS2000. I had previously checked the attributes when I had this problem with 1.01 and they are set to archive and not read only. When I get home I'll try again with verbose checked and see what is reported.