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Traffic 360 hints and tips

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Neil330 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 22 Aug 2017 at 7:35pm
Thanks for the info on parking guys, I've noticed one or two of the flights I scheduled didn't appear so it may be something to do with this. I'll have to do some more investigating - as ever, the rabbit hole runs deep. Very deep! 

It was very satisfying though watching my flights at the end of a long weekend spent working on them. It's just a shame my crappy laptop can't always keep up!
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RayM View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Aug 2017 at 10:32am
Freddy,

now you've made me blush!

Ray
A long time FSXA and Traffic X user
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freddy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote freddy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Aug 2017 at 10:42pm
Originally posted by Soaranden Soaranden wrote:

Oh, Freddy, you posted while I was writing my post. Your advice is good, too!

Well, Ray, you and I do seem to work well as a team.  Smile
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Soaranden Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Aug 2017 at 4:23am
Hi, Neil,

First of all, I think that everyone should read your "hints and tips." Thanks for posting them.

Secondly, as usual, Ray adds good advice. (As is the case with Ray, I am a long-time Traffic X user). I agree that assigning parking types and parking codes to individual parking spots at an airport is important. The radius of a parking spot is important, too. Thus, in addition to assigning a parking type to an individual aircraft, assign a parking type, a parking code, and a parking radius to each parking spot at an airport. This can be done with the freeware Airport Design Editor. To determine the parking spot radius that is required for a particular aircraft, use the freeware AI-Aircraft Editor, which provides detailed information about any and all AI aircraft that you have installed.

To read more about how FSX assigns parking, read Parking assignment in the FSDeveloper Wiki.

Oh, Freddy, you posted while I was writing my post. Your advice is good, too!

Dan
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote freddy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Aug 2017 at 3:31am
Neil,

Well done on your findings.  Like Ray, I too am a user of Traffic X.  And, also like Ray, I am still learning some of the "tricks and tips" for that - even despite literally hundreds of hours of work in it.  TIP 1: I use Traffic X to manipulate the database (the files) that it uses; but I use Excel and Notepad to manually edit and fine tune those files to suit my exact AI requirements - one would assume the same can be done with Traffic 360?

Ray is correct about the parking types. You should set the parking types (RAMP, GATE, etc.) to what you would prefer the aircraft to go to and FSX will firstly attempt to find parking spots with these attributes.  The parking types are coded in to the airport file (AFCAD).  If the parking types do not exist at this airport, or they are already full, the aircraft will thus go to any other suitably sized spot (it's based on wingspan size).  This is not a Traffic 360 (or Traffic X) limitation, it is how FSX has been coded to work.

The random traffic percentage is a good one.  Hehe, the same "randomness" exists in Traffic X.  And, unknowingly, you've provided essentially the exact same tips here in your post, as we did in the Traffic X forums.

The crashing to desktop of the simulator is a known FSX issue. It's not related to Traffic 360 or Flight 1's Audio Environment Airliner Edition.  Yes, the Vista version of "UIAutomationCore.dll" is the one you need.  I will assume you copied that file in to the simulator's home folder so the sim can load and use that one directly, as opposed to replacing the actual one installed and used by Windows.

You talked about a repository of tips ...  Well, speaking of Traffic X, a search of the Traffic X forums will yield lots of tips, many of which apply either directly, or at least in a similar way, to Traffic 360.  Without trying to sound my own trumpet, a good lot of those tips were posted by myself as, like you, I spent a good deal of time researching and experimenting with schedules and aircraft etc.  Other excellent sources and posters of tips are Ray (who first replied to your post), and a user by the name of Soaranden.  Use ADVANCED SEACH, and try keywords like ...

parking
ATC
aircraft.cfg
wingspan
Murchison (as in Jon Murchison)
codes
registration
callsign
turning circle

... and other words along those sorts of lines.  TIP 2: Change the "Find Posts" dropdown to the "Any date" setting because Traffic X is pretty old now and the default "Last 6 months" isn't going to help you much.  Using those suggested keywords on their own will get lots of results, or you can be a bit more specific and enter the user names I've mentioned in the "Search by Member Name (Optional)" field.

In short, have fun!  There's a wealth of information in the Traffic X forums.  It may be Traffic X stuff, but, like I have already mentioned, much of it will apply to Traffic 360 as well.  In short, all of it will help you get a better understanding of AI, and, in turn, get the most out it. 
 
Finally, in regard to Just Flight giving this product a spruce up, the question about a possible update or new version was asked in another post last month.  Just Flight replied, "We should have a further update about this coming sometime next month. Keep an eye out."
 

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RayM View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RayM Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 9:57pm
Neil,
it is good to hear from someone who, by doing some investigation work, has something good to say about T360.
I suspect that the more delving you do into the data files used by T360, the more 'little things' you will find that need tinkering with - this is based on my experience with Traffic X only - I am finding things that need changing after many years of usage.
Re aircraft parking types - it is my belief that you should set the parking types (RAMP, GATE, etc.) to what you would prefer the aircraft to go to and FSX will firstly attempt to find parking spots with these attributes but if none exist, or are already full, the aircraft will go to any other suitably sized spot. There are also the parking codes to take into consideration.
I, and I hope others, will welcome your input into any discussions re Traffic 360.
A long time FSXA and Traffic X user
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Neil330 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Neil330 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Aug 2017 at 4:39pm
Hi All

I purchased Traffic 360 a few weeks ago and, like many other people it seems, I've been struggling with some aspects of the program. In particular the completely bobbins TCC. After a lot of fiddling and playing about I've discovered a few things that might be of assistance to others so I thought I'd create a post here for reference. Maybe other users could also add their own tips and tricks and that way we can build up a useful repository over time.

1) Compiling the Military Flights 2012 schedule made the TCC fall over when compiling the GBR file. I tracked this down to two lines in the file ..FSX\JustFlight\Traffic360\TrafficControlCentre\Presets\Data\Schedules\Flight Plans\Military Flights 2012\jf_m_GBR.tcc that begin 'NDH Aerospatiale Dauphin'. Remove these two lines and the schedule now compiles. Same for the USA file. There's probably something wrong with this aircraft's settings, but I can live without it.

2) There is a random percentage assigned to each flight schedule and if the AI slider in FSX is below this percentage then the flight won't show. The percentage can be edited within AIFP. Alternatively, to test your flights are working, compile to a new bgl file, disable the default T360 AI file (..FSX\scenery\World\scenery\ai-traffic.bgl) and set the slider to maximum in FSX. 

3) I wrestled for ages to try to get flights from and to Fairford (EGVA). I eventually tracked this down to a missing IATA code for the airport (FFD). Once I entered this in AIFP my flights involving Fairford now work.

4) I couldn't get flight schedules that involved military jets (F16s) to show and found that you need to set an airline for the aircraft. Again, you can do this in AIFP. I set mine to AIR FORCE, but by all means try other things such as USAF.

5) In spite of what it says in the TCC manual, it doesn't seem to matter what parking types an aircraft has. I've had F16s (MIL_COMBAT parking type only) fly from Fairford (RAMP parking only) to Gatwick (RAMP & GATE parking). Similarly, I've had KC135s with MIL_CARGO parking fly the same route. To be safe you could just assign all parking types to all planes.

6) To get the flight number to "stick" in the Flight Plan screen within the TCC, within the Leg Data screen you need to enter the Flight Nr, then enter the Departure Time (HHMM), then press enter, then click Apply and Exit.

7) To have all schedules un-ticked in the Flight Movements screen by default, navigate to ..FSX\JustFlight\Traffic360\TrafficControlCentre\Presets\Data\Schedules\Flight Plans\ and for the folders that have a _settings.dat file, set selected=0.

8) Finally, I was getting a lot of CTDs after installing T360 and Flight 1's Audio Environment Airliner Edition (I'm not saying it was caused by either of these two products since I have other stuff installed as well). The sim would run for about 15 mins and then crash. There's a lot of info out there about UIAutomationCore.dll but I found I needed v6.0.5840.16386, which is the version for Vista apparently. I have Windows 10, FSX:SE, I don't run the FSX exe in any compatibility mode, but it does run as administrator. My sim is now stable once again.

Hopefully this little lot will save someone else the hours of head scratching I've had to endure. As a software developer myself, I'd have to say that I'd be ashamed to have my name associated with the TCC interface. Hopefully Just Flight will get in a dedicated UI expert for any future updates. But that said there is something about T360 that I really like. It's dead simple to get a lot of AI aircraft into FSX, and most of the models are pretty good, I mean just check out the KC135! And there are lots of nice touches like speed brakes, drag chutes and the sight of a VC10 refuelling a Tornado. So come on Just Flight, give this product the much-needed spruce up that it deserves.

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