My experience with AI and Laurent's AI traffic tool(pics)

[Guest tonyc]

From some of the threads, some of you can see that getting going with AI is a little daunting. Like some many new things, however, things appear more difficult than they are. My attmpts to getting comfortable with AI would have failed if it had not been for Laurent's prompt and patient hand holding. Now, however, I have mastered the tool and can say that having flight plans in which planes depart and land at the airport of choice is fantastic. Moreover, I've been using AI Manager, a fs2002 flight planning tool that makes creating flight plans for FLY2 simple. You simply pick your departure and arrival airport and it will calculate times, schedules, save and compile the flight plan automatically. the only thing to keep in mind is that it places the bgl file in the fs2002 folder , and all one has to do is move it into the FLY2 database folder. That's all. For taxi plans , the learning curve is a little steep mostly because the coordinates have to be acquired with FLY2 and the slew function. Unfortunately the coordinates do not show up in the program due to the fact that the debug shows them as lat and long while the coordinates are in another format. This makes the creation of an accurate taxi plan terribly slow and frustrating. What I would like to see is an add on to Terramodels2.2 which makes the creation of the taxi plan simple. One should simply call up the aiport of choice and then use the mouse cross hair to simply click those coordinates that trace taxiing for take off and taxiing for landing. I would also like to see better AI control with respect to airplanes landing and taking off. An airplane should have to wait for a landing plane rather than being totally oblivious. Laurent has made a great contribution to FLY2 and this first account from me is my way of thanking him in public and to upload in the next few days the first airport with real flight plans so that all of you can appreciate the fine work that Laurent has done for us.tony

[Guest chezz]

Tony,I admire your perseverance in learning the AI traffic. You know KLAX ia a busy airport maybe in your spare time you can plot an AI traffic for this airport. Congratulations for figuring things out i wish i have the patience to learn how to use this wonderful add on by Laurent. In the meantime I'm honing my skill in making 3d models of ATC towers that I can share with the Fly folks.cheerschris

[Guest]

Thanks Tony for your kind words.I'm working on the points you have mentioned. More accurate legs (real values instead of int), intelligent ai that holds and wait for other traffic. ATC is more hard to implement ...Hope to have some ai generic fleet to propose soon.Regards,Laurent

[Guest tonyc]

Laurent, is it possible to give the same "buddy" aircraft more "aircraft numbers", so that a AC#3,140,"Buddy_G737.boy can be AC#3,140,"Buddy_G737.boyAC#30,140,"Buddy_G737.boyAC#35,140,"Buddy_G737.boyAC#36,140,"Buddy_G737.boyAC#37,140,"Buddy_G737.boyThe reason is that as I try to import very long flight plans for large airports, FLY2 locks up. I suspect it's due to aircraftstimes conflicts? What do you think?tony

[Guest tonyc]

hI, Laurent. Which od the coordinates turns the plane while it's parked? The first or the second... I cannot seem to predictably point the planes in the correct direction. Thanks. tony

[Guest]

Yes Tony, this can be done. I attach here my aircraft.txt that I use generally with FS flighplans (I've both sims)...as you can see I overload many FS generic aircrafts with fly! ones...and it works great.I'm working on dll by now, and I made interesting improvements with ground legs path accuracy. I'm testing them at KSFO (!!!) with FS flightplans (89 landings here !).When all will be checked I'll upload new dll version.RegardsLaurent

[Guest]

Both last 2 points make a vector (or a line) that keeps the ai direction. If you want a special diraction for the ai just place the last point on the line between the point before last one and ai direction...maybe not very clear...Laurent

[Guest tonyc]

I finally got it, Laurent. From the pic, one can see that the AI planes can be lined up properly. It requires a total of one set of coordinates after the 01 flag. So, 01,00,xxxxxxx,yyyyyyyy,00,00,xxxxxxx,yyyyyyy. To line up the planes, one simply leaves the last coordinates alone and changes the digits of the ones before the last. So, let's say that your parking spot is 00,00,0125678,1834567. This would be your very last coordinates, the parking ones. To line up the plane, you simply double up on these coordinates and then change the last digits :01,00,0125678,1823567,00,00,0125678,1823567. You might change the digits to look like this: 01,00,0125677,0125678,00,00,0125678,1823567tony

[Guest]

Hi Tony,Your scenery looks really fine !You got it ! Sure : you describe exactly the right way to place parking ai. Now you should have found some difficulties with 'int' digits, right ? I'm changing dll to cope with decimal digits ... so it would be easier to place ai and get right on the taxiways.I need to fix a bug for KPVD (eh, eh !) and I'll send a new complete package of files...that works fine with old bgl too. Hope to end up this very next days.RegardsLaurent

[Guest]

Hi all,I updated v09d version yesterday : new version is now vO9(e) but by mistake I put it to Fly! (1) scenery library. It's obviously for Fly!II.Sorry for the confusion !RegardsLaurent

[Guest tonyc]

To make the task of creating taxiplans as easy as possible, I found the Win98 "imaging" application, which is found in the "startProgramsaccessory" menu, to be the perfect tool which helps remember coordinates for different parking spots as well as have a good picture of the airport( taken from FLY2) and its taxiwaysrunways. From the pic you can see the airport, and the coordinates of each parked plane and their respective flightnumber. From here a text editor will take care of the rest. The yellow "note" is a great feature of "imaging" because it lets you add text anyway you want. I will upload more pics and comments of how I address the task of creating taxiplans as quickly as possible. Stay tuned.tony

[Guest]

Well said Tony,Laurent and ROTW deserve a lot of praise.I was about to release a new version of FSI but I came across the dilema that all the components for AI dynamic traffic need to be matched up together. These include (1) available models (2) timetables (3) ATC voices (4) pilot voices (5) runway sequencing (6) dynamic movement of models (7) integrate the user aircraft.FSI will produce (1). Laurent has covered (2) and (6). The FSI DLL covers (5) and (6).I added (3) and (4) to the DLL.Point (7) is open.C4TO covers the user aircraft but not AI traffic. It provides the basis for (3) and (4).I do not know how to cover all these points. Should the DLLs communicate with each other or should some of the code for these projects be merged ?Padraic (Podjoe) Morgan.

[Guest]

Hi Padraic,Nice to ear good news about FSI.You resumed perfectly well the situation but I would add a 8) point : really intelligent AI around airports and taxiways (but maybe is kind of your 9

[Guest tonyc]

I have been thinking about a tool that would facilitate tracing the taxi path and creating a taxi plan. I've looked at VolNav and notice that it captures runways really well; it also provides coordinates for the airport; imagine if it could capture the taxiways and then simply move and click with the mouse's crossairs those points for the taxi path..... and taxi plan.tony

[Guest]

Yes,I'm thinking about it too ! ... and I left aside KFSO scenery trying to have a friendly tool to use.I try with MS Excel and it's useful. I'm working on a MFC tool too : you just drag and drop BGR file on it and you get the whole airport edges (and points !) ......but I found that the fly!1 taxiways editor in mode "point" was the best for the moment !!! You have the entiere airport; you can zoom on it, and you can get the mouse points coordinates in a relative (from center) way !!!!! I just have to do the same tool now, eh, eh !Laurent (rotw)