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arms twisted; SIMPLE AI Flight Planner -STEP by STEP

Step 6. Fast, furious MASS traffic

This step is like a holiday - you make it as deatailed as you like. EASILY!!!

We're going to use the hardwork you did with your first traffic file, and in a couple of minutes; fill an airport!...

View attachment 56002

1. Depending on your settings you may or may not see your aicraft.
If you dont, it doesn't matter!

2. Go to File, Open TTools File Set.

View attachment 56003

You'll get a pop-up dialogue box!
Find the first flightplan you successfully made in the previous tutorial.

Open!

View attachment 56004

1. There's your flightplan!

2. Still no aircraft? Yikes?

Nope! No problem!

View attachment 56005

1. Double-click your flightplan.

2. Bingo! There's your aircraft!

3. There's the flightplan details!

View attachment 56006

1. For the first time, you're going to click 'Insert FP in LIst'

Click it!

2. You just created a second Flightplan with the click of a button!

View attachment 56007

1. Like it? Okay, go on clicking till your hearts content!

Each click is a new plane in your traffic! Wow!

Stop! That's enough for now.

View attachment 56008

1. You now have access to each Flightplan, simply by clicking.

2. For each individual Flightplan you select, you have complete access to edit parameters without affecting the others.

As you're making your airport busy, you'd be well advised to start playing around with duration.

Go back to the first flightplan if you're lazy, then do that clicking stuff again.

or

individually select each Flightplan and vary the flight duration.

For this exercise, make them all 2hr flights.

Here comes the best bit...

View attachment 56009

You can now choose any aircraft in your aircraft list.

Click each Flight plan, change the aircraft and save each one at a time.

Now, as you did yesterday:

1. Save as the Flightplan (only once - they're all together here).

2. Compile the Flightplan to Bgl

3. Exit the program (we're done there). now copy/paste your new Bgl File to your scenery folder!

That's it!

It takes a couple of minutes to do,...
A couple of hours to explain/illustrate!

Now, we're firing up fs again. Ready?​
 
I hear you Duckie

Duckie said:
Hey Nigel, thank you so much for taking the time to put this down on "paper" for us AI challenged folks. I will certainly give it a try once my easel is sufficiently cleared to the point where I won’t feel guilty actually getting in a little stick time! :icon_lol:

:applause::applause:
Click to expand...

Thankyou Sir!

That easel of yours is churning out magic!

You really deserve a double helping of stick-time when you're done!!! :medals:
 
Good to see this as a sticky, and I would hope it migrates into the Tweaks and Tips Subforum when done here.
I would suggest that this programme is a fairly painless way to get into AI, especially if you previously glazed over at the thought of Traffic Tools.
But remember each item you put into a flightplan is required, be it in a text file or in "remote control" software like Nigel describes here.

And if you want to get a little further into AI, you will need to get into the text files to have an understanding of how the traffic will work.
"Remote control" will take you 90% of the way, which may or may not be enough for you...
I also have an aversion to "manually" editing stuff, and so I have generated a spreadsheet which takes all the pain out of the repetitive stuff.
It is still a "source" thing though, as I prefer to see the data. (There are spreadsheet solutions which are "remote control" too.)
I may post a 3-step of that in due course...

Nigel, please forgive me for chipping in to your thread above, I was playing with these new 787's and was delighted to see them show up as planned!

EDIT: Oh, and FS does do VFR!
It's fun to watch VFR planes gloomily sit on the apron, when it rains.
Also, you can get creative with touch and go circuits, depending on whether they are VFR or IFR.
 
Step 6 I did say fun didn't I?

Here we are back in the sim already.
Can't be bad!

View attachment 56012

Oops! All alone! Did I put that Bgl file in the scenery file?
What have I being doing with my 'traffic' settings today?

Ah! Yes, I put them at zero while working on some sounds this morning...still don't have a cockpit for that one..:wavey:

YET! :jump:

View attachment 56013

Traffic slider shoved up! That's more like it.

Put a Cat amongst the pigeons.

If you did the 2hr edit, you may have to bump up the time by an hour.

View attachment 56014

Variety really is the spice of life.

View attachment 56015

Still kept a healthy population of Avias...its like flying with SOH buddies.

View attachment 56016

I even did a variation of our little lesson with different paints of one basic aircraft.
The Grumman is me, wisecracks!

View attachment 56017

Here comes that traffic...looks like a little buddy we're all familiar with at SOH!

View attachment 56018

I just jumped into my Hawk 'chase-plane'

Yeah, that's our Smoothie out there in front...not the grey one, I think that's AndyG43; always the polite Gent!
They're all here, though, somewhere.

Time for a little pay-back, for knocking the tops off my olive trees!
Go on then little buddy, leave the Smooth talk with the ATC girl and get on with the clearance!

(He doesn't know I'm here yet...my Hawk's got cammo)

View attachment 56019

Oh, hello Matt! Going somewhere perhaps...or is this your flying lesson?​
 
Okay, I am getting the hang of this my friend. Thank you a bunch for introducing me to this. I have avoided it for years.
 
Wing_Z said:
Good to see this as a sticky, and I would hope it migrates into the Tweaks and Tips Subforum when done here.
I would suggest that this programme is a fairly painless way to get into AI, especially if you previously glazed over at the thought of Traffic Tools.
But remember each item you put into a flightplan is required, be it in a text file or in "remote control" software like Nigel describes here.

And if you want to get a little further into AI, you will need to get into the text files to have an understanding of how the traffic will work.
"Remote control" will take you 90% of the way, which may or may not be enough for you...
I also have an aversion to "manually" editing stuff, and so I have generated a spreadsheet which takes all the pain out of the repetitive stuff.
It is still a "source" thing though, as I prefer to see the data. (There are spreadsheet solutions which are "remote control" too.)
I may post a 3-step of that in due course...

Nigel, please forgive me for chipping in to your thread above, I was playing with these new 787's and was delighted to see them show up as planned!

EDIT: Oh, and FS does do VFR!
It's fun to watch VFR planes gloomily sit on the apron, when it rains.
Also, you can get creative with touch and go circuits, depending on whether they are VFR or IFR.
Click to expand...

Thanks Wing Zulu, beautiful pics my friend.

Now you've got me learning too! I read that bit about IFR/VFR traffic a few years back in a zillion-page-long 'expert' guide to TTools or something.

Glad to hear its not true...took the guide for face value, and never bothered to try.

I admire and respect hand-editing WZ, its the only way I would ever work on sounds. A case of what works best and familiarity I suppose.

I don't have that ease with traffic, and don't have the time to attain it.

So I need a versatile tool, that will allow me to do everything in traffic, and tell me when I'm messing up!
AI Flight Planner does that!

And I remember in my bad old days of TTools, when, through my editing mistakes, I was sitting around on airports, ranting and raving like a mad dog...or Englishman, furious because the bally 08:45 bus to Biggin was late...or didn't show up at all! :icon_eek:




Flyboy208 said:
Wow! I had never heard of this software before .... Gonna give it a go tonight. Cheers Nigel ! Mike ;)
Click to expand...

Go for it Flyboy!

And make me proud as punch of yer, with some nice progress pics when you have time. :jump:

Ps: You'll be able to use those awesome MAIW planes for some smooth traffic of your own now!
 
Don Grovestine - Thankyou Sir!

This should have been the first sentence in the whole tutorial!

So I sincerely hope the author of this wonderful program will forgive me for this major oversight.

And thankyou Don Grovestine, for that other amazing piece of magic;

Static Aircraft .mdl Maker...or SAMM as we have all come to know it! :applause:
 
Now that I am getting over the newness, I shall try to get more realistic. But I can't help posting two more as the Dash 7 looks great in FedEx clothes, and Oleboy's photo real scheme on the 156 is awesome!. :)
 
Milton Shupe said:
Now that I am getting over the newness, I shall try to get more realistic. But I can't help posting two more as the Dash 7 looks great in FedEx clothes, and Oleboy's photo real scheme on the 156 is awesome!. :)
Click to expand...

Yep! You done hooked now Milton...:icon_lol: I can just see the skies filled with your great creations. I'm not sure which key it is on the keyboard but, you can mash it and just take a look at all the AI traffic in your vicinty. I am confident that somebody reading this post will tell both of us what that key is.

Romeo-Delta
 
rdaniell said:
...I'm not sure which key it is on the keyboard but, you can mash it and just take a look at all the AI traffic in your vicinty. I am confident that somebody reading this post will tell both of us what that key is.
Click to expand...
RD, Ctrl-W in spot view will cycle the views... but if you have 100+ of the beasties in the air, it's worth installing Traffic Toolbox from the FS2004 SDK.
This allows realtime viewing and tinkering with AI in the sim.


nigel richards said:
...I remember in my bad old days of TTools, when, through my editing mistakes, I was sitting around on airports, ranting and raving like a mad dog...or Englishman, furious because the bally 08:45 bus to Biggin was late...or didn't show up at all!
Click to expand...
AI is absorbing, frustrating, and ultimately rewarding... one mark to you, Nigel, for engendering some interest in this stuff.

Another bit of software you cannot do without: Peter van der Veen's ACA2005v1.6
Once you have gotten over the initial amazement of actually getting the bus to depart, this programme will tell you every single thing you need to know about the fleet, including the conductor's name!
I claim 149 ways to screw up AI traffic, and this will find all of them.
You can even go to a specific airport, and get arrivals and departure information, so you know when to go to the bus stop :running:.
 
Wing_Z said:
RD, Ctrl-W in spot view will cycle the views... but if you have 100+ of the beasties in the air, it's worth installing Traffic Toolbox from the FS2004 SDK.
This allows realtime viewing and tinkering with AI in the sim.


AI is absorbing, frustrating, and ultimately rewarding... one mark to you, Nigel, for engendering some interest in this stuff.

Another bit of software you cannot do without: Peter van der Veen's ACA2005v1.6
Once you have gotten over the initial amazement of actually getting the bus to depart, this programme will tell you every single thing you need to know about the fleet, including the conductor's name!
I claim 149 ways to screw up AI traffic, and this will find all of them.
You can even go to a specific airport, and get arrivals and departure information, so you know when to go to the bus stop :running:.
Click to expand...

Handy sounding bus there Wing, thanks!


Uum...Wing...you're preaching to the converted: Romeo-Delta's a hand editor as yourself, the rest of us?....

We're using TTools too! It's placed ready installed inside ai Flight Planner :icon_lol:...jump right in, the water's fine buddy! :wavey:
 
Hang on... I was talking about Traffic Toolbox, not Traffic Tools!
It's in the SDK, and you run it while the sim is live...
 
THANKS!!

Nigel,
I would like to say THANK YOU for this tutorial. :ernae::applause::ernae:
It taught me two things:
1-it is actually possible for me to get AI in my virtual skies-you have no idea how often I tried and failed at this before.
2-I need more memory for my laptop--a lot more (frames drop to about 5fps when in sight of the Airhead Super Deke I set up as AI). I currently have only two gigs RAM-Theoretically it can go to four. Definitely looking into that.
 
Nigel,

Great tutorial. :applause:

Strangely, I just found it, because I've been spending the last few days just finally loading some of the GiGs of AI stuff I've downloaded. I've been using AIFP for a while now, and it is an absolutely great tool. OBIO needs to find this thread, if he hasn't yet.

One thing, if, like me, you have a lot of add-on scenery installed, (or even a small amount,) be sure and do the Airport search/update, in order to get ALL your airports into the list. If, like me, you have a lot, it WILL take some time, and is a TWO-step step.

And, for those who don't like aircraft without VC's, but like AI, go ahead and download those non VC aircraft, and use them as AI. If you don't have to many at a time, they work great. Not as well as true AI aircraft, but they look better!

Keep going Nigel, this is great. :guinness:
 
Drzook said:
Nigel,
I would like to say THANK YOU for this tutorial. :ernae::applause::ernae:
It taught me two things:
1-it is actually possible for me to get AI in my virtual skies-you have no idea how often I tried and failed at this before.
2-I need more memory for my laptop--a lot more (frames drop to about 5fps when in sight of the Airhead Super Deke I set up as AI). I currently have only two gigs RAM-Theoretically it can go to four. Definitely looking into that.
Click to expand...

DZ, when loading those beautiful full up aircraft as AI, make separate folder for the one you want to use, and in the texture folder, remove all the textures for the VC. This will greatly decrease the texture load. Also, if you know how, reduce those 32 bit textures to DXT3. Helps greatly on low memory units. Also, don't forget to rename the TITLE of that aircraft to include "AI" in the aircraft.cfg, so you don't have duplicate titles. (I make totally separate aircraft folders for the ones I want to use as AI, also resetting the aircraft type to type"2" in the airfile, so they don't show up in my flyable list.)

!Just sending a little help your way, Nigel.) :kilroy:
 
Yes you can lose the panel and sound folders too, anything that doesn't contribute to the external model.
 
Is there a way to assign aircraft to a specific parking spot in fsx or do I need another program for that?

Thank you for this tutorial Nigel.
 
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