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Traffic X and 3rd party Airports

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bristow View Drop Down
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Joined: 16 Apr 2009
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    Posted: 24 Jul 2010 at 3:03pm
Have Traffic X SP1 installed in FSX on Windows 7 64 bits.
 
If I install other 3rd party add on Airports\Scenery do I need to do anything to the Traffic X files regards Airports?
 
For example I have the Gran Canaria Freeware Airport and the runway alignment is out and I've heard this might be related to AFCAD, which I know nothing about or how to fix it but it's also a more general question about all 3rd party Airports as I will be buying Balearic Islands X in the near future and would like to know if I need to do anything in Traffic X.
 
Thanks,
 
bristow
 
 
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freddy View Drop Down
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Joined: 29 Nov 2008
Location: Melbourne, Aust
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote freddy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jul 2010 at 12:15am
The FSX Scenery Library works using a "layered" process with things that are higher in the list taking precedence over things which are lower in the list.
 
The Just Flight Traffic X FAQ (found here: Traffic X FAQ) explains that you should go to the SCENERY LIBRARY in FSX and move the scenery entries for your third-party airports (Gran Canaria, etc) above the Traffic X entries.  That will ensure that FSX uses the parking positions (and I imagine, runways?) from your third-party scenery.
 
That will most likely be what you want and need to do.  Things will work as you want, and you're done.
 
However, it may not always work in all cases.  Therefore, you might want to understand better how the Scenery Library works in FSX so you can make more informed decisions about what needs to go above (and below) what.
 
If you want to try to understand the Scenery Library in a more detail then copied below is a link to an AVSIM forum thread with several "tutorials" that an AVSIM forum contributor, FalconAF, wrote about scenery library management.  Phil Taylor from Aces Studios added the forum post to a blog of his a while back. It has also been added to the AVSIM forum Tutorial section.  Falcon AF recommends you read the entire forum post from the start (top) to get the most info from it.  There is also a link in one of the posts that will take you to another forum where Landclass and Terrain Mesh are discussed in more detail, with a couple of tutorials FalconAF wrote in that thread.

http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=67367&hl=

FalconAF said ... "Once you understand the layering process for the Scenery Library, it becomes a matter of looking at your own addons and determining how to layer them. No individual scenery addon developer can say for sure "put our's here" and guarantee you it won't interfere with something you may already have, or even their own product. That is why any "new" addon you install in FSX always goes to the TOP of the list. It's really the only way a developer can guarantee THEIR addon won't get hosed by something else you already have. You have to move the stuff around yourself after determining what else you have. It's an excercise in logic in most cases. Sometimes, trial and error also."

FalconAF continued ... "Note when I wrote the tutorials, I was using WinXP as my OS. Since then, I have switched to Vista-64. The reason I mention this is the difference in the folder structures between the two Operating Systems. Vista-64 will have TWO 'Programs Files' folders...one for 64-bit applications, and one for 32-bit ones. (Windows7-64 will be the same.)  Proceed accodingly depending on which OS you have installed. As stated in the tutorials however, I still don't install any 'programs' in my default 'Programs Files' folders in Vista-64. I make my own 'sub-category' folders for things like Games, Utilities, etc."
 
-----------------------------------------
I hope FalconAF won't mind that I have copied and paraphrased this information here.  All credit for the "tutorials" etc in that AVSIM thread goes to FalconAF.
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Chuck Morse View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chuck Morse Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jul 2010 at 3:26am
I think the only person who can answer the question of "will I need to do anything else" is you.   The best thing to do is do what Freddy said above:  insure that the addon airport is at a higher priority in the scenery library than the TrafficX airport definitions and then spend some time watching your AI traffic.  If it looks ok to you, then you don't need to do anything else.  If it doesn't, then you have a choice to make.  You can either live with it the way it is or invest some time and effort to improve it. 

TrafficX is intended to provide a large volume of AI traffic.  In order for that to function properly, the airport definition files (AFCAD files) must define a sufficient number of parking spots of the correct sizes for the aircraft that TrafficX tries to put at each airport.  TrafficX provides it own set of AFCAD files because the default airport definitions typically do not provide enough.  But if you install an addon airport (at a higher priority that the TrafficX files) then you are using the AFCAD file provided by the addon airport, not the one provided by TrafficX.  So if that AFCAD file has sufficient parking, then you will be OK.  If it does not, you will need to decide if you want to spend the time enhancing it. If you have no other tools, the traffic toolbox provided by the SDK can give you some insight into the characteristics of the aircraft at a given airport and the parking spaces they are using.  But if you are going to make any changes, you will need an AFCAD editor such as AFX or ADE.  Both of these programs will allow you to see the airport definitions and to make changes to them.

Just to give you an example, I recently installed a third party version of Shannon (EINN).  After installation I observed that the terminal has two sets of gates, one set has jetways and the other does not.  All of the airlines were parking at the gates without jetways.  So I brought up AFX and took a look at the parking spots defined in the AFCAD supplied with the airport.  All of the gates with jetways had a radius of 34m and the others all had a radius of 25m.  None of the spots had parking codes assigned.  Almost all of the aircraft that visit EINN (in my system) will fit in 25m parking spaces.  So FSX was placing aircraft in those spots first, since they were the closest in size.   So, using AFX, I added the parking codes for the airlines that visit EINN to the large parking spots.  FSX will place aircraft in parking spots with matching codes before placing them in spots with no parking codes.  So now the large gate parking spots are populated before the smaller ones.  I also needed to add several GA spots since I have quite a bit of GA traffic in my system and the AFCAD file did not provide very many GA spots. 
Chuck Morse
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