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A few notes on AI traffic with AirHauler

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Slopey View Drop Down
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    Posted: 01 Sep 2009 at 4:22pm
Hi All,

I've not had time to write a chapter for the manual yet, so here's a few pointers on AI traffic with FSX and AH.

- The Reality Bubble

There's a "reality bubble" around your aircraft which FS uses to destroy objects outside your visual range. The size of the bubble varies. What this means is if you are in your aircraft at Aberdeen, and have an AI Pilot at London City, you won't see that AI aircraft in FSX.

AH continually prods FSX to generate traffic so that when the aircraft should be within your reality bubble, you'll then see it (so if the London City aircraft flies to Aberdeen, you'll see it appear and land once it gets closer to you).

- Parking Spot Competition!

FSX will only generate AI traffic if there are sufficient parking slots of a sufficient size at the appropriate airport. Military bases don't tend to have parking spots so you might find there'll be no AI traffic there. Same goes for Water Runways, FSX does not allow AI aircraft to be generated there.

If you have UT/TrafficX or the FSX Traffic set to high levels (i.e. over 50%), you may fill the parking slots with that traffic, so when AH tries to generate traffic there are no slots left. You'll need to play with it to see where the best value for traffic is - the more AH aircraft you have at an airport, the less traffic you'd want to generate round there.

Also note that AH traffic generation tends to fire *after* UT/TrafficX, so it'll always loose the "race for the parking spots" game.

There are ways round this which include editing the BGL for the airport to change the parking spot details/identifiers. But that's outwith the scope of this post.

- Timings

All timings for AI activity are based on the PC Clock - the time in FS is irrelevant. If the AI pilot is scheduled to depart at 1700, they'll do so based on the real time, even if the clock in FS is at 0340 for example.

Note that AI Aircraft are totally controlled by FSX - after AH tells FSX to create the aircraft, AH has NO further control. FSX likes to preflight aircraft (watch for the fuel truck), so AI aircraft might take up to 10 minutes to depart after their scheduled time.

Also the times in AH are used in AH - if the aircraft flies faster or slower in FSX, that's irrelevant, as far as AH is concerned the aircraft arrives when it should even if the "aircraft" has not landed in FSX. AH and FSX are totally separate for the purposes of arrival/departure times.

- AH has NO control over FSX AI objects

AH will continually request that FSX creates appropriate AI objects to show your fleet, and AH will push a flight plan to a parked aircraft to tell FSX that it should now be an en-route ATC aircraft.

That's all AH can do. If the cargo doors aren't open, the aircraft doesn't depart/arrive on time, the aircraft vanishes mysteriously, or waits forever at a holding point - that's NOTHING to do with AH.

Once AH has given the request to FSX to create the aircraft it's purely FSX's responsibility from that point onwards.

- Troubleshooting

If you're having problems getting AI to appear - and have read the above, try this:

- go into FSX, set traffic to zero (all types, sliders full left)
- turn off ALL 3rd party traffic add-ons
- create a new company in Easy mode, at a large airport
- lease a Cessna Caravan (don't hire any crew)
- go to Fleet, select the LearJet, click "Fly to Airport (Self)" and choose an airport
- follow through the cargo loading/fuel screen and click "Fly Now"
- once in the cockpit, in FSX, you should right click on the screen and you should see "AH1 Cessna Caravan 208B" in the menu (or under the Traffic> pop out menu).

If you DO see the Cessna, then AH and FSX are talking and everything is ok - if you're not seeing traffic for your company it'll be one of the reasons above (i.e. airport/parking/traffic add-on etc). There's nothing wrong with AH in that scenario.

If you don't see the Cessna, ensure you have FSX SP2 or Accel installed, try again, make sure your traffic add-ons are off, and then email support or post in the forums.


- Traffic Add-ons

There's been an issue raised that if you're using 3rd party traffic addons with FS2004 bgl's it may prevent FSX from generating any other traffic. If you're having problems try the test above with it switched off. As far as I'm aware this may be an issue with WOAI and UT (not UT2 however).



Hope that helps!

Cheers,
S.
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hermit825 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hermit825 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Oct 2009 at 3:48pm
I have noticed that If I sit at an airport for a bit, my AI AH traffic are parked all around me, then ill get the loading scenery bar, then my AH traffic is gone, then a few minutes later, the load scenery bar appears and the traffic is all in place again (in different positions)
 
interesting more than aggrevating as I am getting used to it still fascinated to watch my planes....its too awesome!
 
Dinomite Bill
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote allardjd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Oct 2009 at 4:20pm

Quote If I sit at an airport for a bit, my AI AH traffic are parked all around me, then ill get the loading scenery bar, then my AH traffic is gone, then a few minutes later, the load scenery bar appears and the traffic is all in place again (in different positions)

Are you using Active Sky?  AS does that - after it initially refreshes and loads the weather it resets the AI (I think by moving the sim clock a few minutes) and FS regenerates the AI. 

John Allard
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote hermit825 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Oct 2009 at 4:23pm
I have been using Real Environment Extreme.
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Slopey View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Slopey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Oct 2009 at 4:31pm
That's something or FSX (i.e. not AH) clearing the traffic for some reason. AH then tells FSX to recreate all the traffic so it pops up again (which AH does about every 2 minutes).

AirHauler can't remove an AI aircraft from FSX, only request that one be created.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wedge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Nov 2009 at 6:48pm
I have UT2 installed and set to 100% on both Commercial AI and GA AI.  What would you reccommend I set these totals to when using AH?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote allardjd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Nov 2009 at 7:36pm
AH will only add as many flights as you have jobs (or flight legs) assigned to AI.  It's a drop of water in the ocean.  If your FS and traffic runs OK now at 100% I don't think whatever AH adds will make things any worse.  The only problem might be with all the AH/AI concentrated at a specific location and time, there could be a bit of an overload, but FSX should bump through that and sort itself out, even if there are a few hiccups.
 
John Allard
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Wedge Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Nov 2009 at 7:43pm
Thanks for the explanation allardjd.
 
I am currently based out of Auburn, AL and I am making constant trips over into Georgia near Atlanta.  I noticed last night when I flew within 18 miles or so near the ATL airport I started to get a few "hiccups."   I guess I will drop the AI in UT2 down a couple of notches both for commercial and GA.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote allardjd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Nov 2009 at 8:35pm

Traffic is my greatest pleasure in FS (aside from AH) and I don't willingly give up on any of it.  You can reset the traffic slider "on the fly", either just before taking off on an AH flight that will take you into a heavily congested area, or even in flight as you approach one.  You may hear the AH claxons signifying loss of connection when the traffic program re-loads, but just don't touch anything until it finishes, then pop out to the AH Flight Monitor screen to be sure AH re-connected.  It should, and then you can continue your flight.  If your FS installation performs acceptably in most cases with the slider at 100%, there's no reason you should have to reduce it on a wholesale basis.

John Allard
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BCAman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Mar 2011 at 9:13am
Gents,

Although I have FSX, I prefer to use FS9 as I have far more scenery add ons. Can I ask, does everything written here about AI apply equally to FS9?

Mal
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Slopey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Mar 2011 at 12:38pm
No. AH cannot show your fleet as AI aircraft in FS9. That functionality uses SimConnect which is only available in FSX.

Note that AI pilots work exactly the same in AH regardless of which version of FS you use, but you can't ask AH to (try to) show them in FS unless it's FSX.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ridinroun Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 May 2012 at 4:58am
Sometimes I see my aircraft parked and sometimes I don't. One of my AI pilots was coming in a few minutes behind me. I have DBS walkaround so I got out of the plane to watch him land. He never appeared in FSX.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Slopey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 May 2012 at 10:06am
If you do a search on this forum AI traffic in FSX has been discussed many times. Suffice to say, AH can only ask for it to be created - if FSX doesn't do it (and there are many reasons why it wont, including no allocated parking spaces/full patterns etc), AH can't do anything about it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TeamMM3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 2015 at 4:19pm
I just recently purchased AirHauler and I was wondering if the AirHauler AI care about the weather? If I send my pilot on a flight today in upstate NY (where the VV is 600ft) will he have any problems flying this or will he be just fine? My aircraft is a C208 Caravan.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote BobKay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 Feb 2015 at 7:02pm
The AI pilots do not care about the weather.  Nor do they care about runway surfaces (ie water vs paved vs grass).  Nor do they care about a lot of other things.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TeamMM3 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Feb 2015 at 6:11am
Do AI care about duty day rules or anything or can I just have them fly as many trips as I want everyday?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote 2wheelsup Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Feb 2015 at 11:13pm
Fly as many trips as you want.  If they damage their aircraft time will be needed to repair them so don't load them (AI) to the max. Leave a little wiggle room, timewise...

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Alan

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