American Airlines aircraft
Printed From: Just Flight Forum
Category: Just Flight Products
Forum Name: Traffic X / Traffic / Traffic 2005
Forum Description: Discussion area for Traffic titles
URL: http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=19300
Printed Date: 16 Apr 2024 at 5:20am
Topic: American Airlines aircraft
Posted By: toriu
Subject: American Airlines aircraft
Date Posted: 19 May 2012 at 8:34pm
| Is it just me or do others have this small issue? "Merican" instead of "American" on the fuselage of American Airlines aircraft. |
Replies:
Posted By: johnep
Date Posted: 20 May 2012 at 8:11am
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I'll have a look. Where is the home airport for AA?
johnep |
Posted By: toriu
Date Posted: 20 May 2012 at 5:15pm
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Haven`t checked other airports, its the AA aircraft at uk2000 Heathrow Xtreme V2 where I have noticed this. Will check other airports and report back. What is odd is that "Merican" is painted on with a capitol "M". |
Posted By: toriu
Date Posted: 20 May 2012 at 7:03pm
| Just checked at Dallas-Ft Worth Intl (KDFW) and all AA aircraft read "Merican". Very odd. |
Posted By: Chuck Morse
Date Posted: 24 May 2012 at 2:57am
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It's not you. It's everybody. All of the TrafficX American Airlines aircraft are painted with the name "Merican". If you search this forum you will see this has been discussed before. I believe that it is because JustFlight does not have permission to use the "American" name and trademark.
------------- Chuck Morse |
Posted By: toriu
Date Posted: 24 May 2012 at 9:18pm
| Thanks Chuck, that explains it. |
Posted By: Lawgiver
Date Posted: 06 Oct 2012 at 3:09am
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Does anyone out there have a repaint for the Traffic X "Merican" AI they feel like sharing to correct the issue?? Regards, Rob |
Posted By: Soaranden
Date Posted: 08 Oct 2012 at 3:24pm
Rob I haven't come across any "American" repaints of Traffic X's "Merican" liveries, but there is an alternative. You can replace Traffic X's Merican aircraft by going to a site such as FlightSim.com and downloading American AI aircraft and/or full-blown American user aircraft. Replace Merican aircraft with the downloaded aircraft. For an example of how to do the replacing without having to replace the aircraft in each flight plan one-at-a-time, see my example of using TextPad to do the replacing in http://forum.justflight.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=14064&PN=1 - THIS POSTING . Dan |
Lawgiver wrote:Posted By: Lawgiver
Date Posted: 12 Oct 2012 at 3:04am
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Hi Dan, Thanks for the response. I might give this a try due to the fact I have 0 experience repainting. I had thought you had to replace each flight plan but after reading your topic on text pad I might try that. By "full-blown" aircraft I am assuming you mean an AC not meant for AI use. I read somewhere that using non AI aircraft could cause some issues with traffic X?? Thanks for your time. Regards, Rob |
Posted By: Soaranden
Date Posted: 12 Oct 2012 at 2:33pm
Rob, Yes, by "full-blown," I meant non-AI aircraft models. They can present a problem, but only if you encounter one of the following conditions: 1. You are not running FSX in "Preview DirectX 10" mode, and you find your computer system is too slow to acceptably run non-AI aircraft models as AI aircraft. 2. Even though you are running FSX in "Preview DirectX 10" mode, your computer system is too slow to acceptably run non-AI aircraft models as AI aircraft. 3. Your computer system is too slow to acceptably handle the number of non-AI aircraft you are running as AI aircraft. 4. You are running FSX in "Preview DirectX 10" mode to enhance graphics performance, and some or all of the exterior textures on some of your aircraft are invisible or blank. This can happen with downloaded AI models and with downloaded or purchased non-AI models if the models are not DirectX 10 compliant. Unfortunately, some commercial aircraft developers don't specify whether their aircraft models are compatible with DirectX 10; so it's buyer beware. With downloaded AI freeware aircraft models and with downloaded non-AI freeware aircraft models, it's pretty easy to tell, before downloading, whether the aircraft models are DirectX 10 compliant if you use FlightSim.com. (You must be logged into FlightSim.com to do the following). When you find an aircraft that you might like to download from the FlightSim.com File Library, click on "View" above the aircraft's description. Scroll to near the bottom of the resulting list of files, and see if all of the textures for the aircraft's exterior surfaces (such as wings and fuselage) have .dds file extensions. Don't worry about textures for interior panels. They can have .bmp file extensions without creating problems in DirectX 10. However, if the aircraft's exterior textures have .bmp file extensions, most likely the aircraft is not compatible with DirectX 10. If clicking on "View" results in your seeing only an installer with an .exe or .msi file extension for the aircraft, most likely the aircraft is not DirectX 10 compliant. When you find an aircraft with exterior textures that have .dds file extensions, you have a winner. In general, all liveries on FlightSim.com for default FSX aircraft models are DirectX 10 compliant. Additionally, Thomas Ruth's airbuses and their associated liveries are DirectX 10 compliant. I couldn't find all of the DirectX 10-compatible freeware American Airlines models needed to replace all of TrafficX's "Merican" liveries. I purchased one or two DirectX 10-compliant commercial models that had American Airlines liveries, but that still left me with some TrafficX "Merican" models. I ended up changing some of the remaining "Merican" flight plans to models for which I had downloaded or purchased a model with an American livery. What about the "Merican" flight plans that still remained? I deleted them. Dan |
Posted By: Lawgiver
Date Posted: 16 Oct 2012 at 6:36am
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Hi Dan, This is good info to have even though I rarely use DX10 mode in FSX. I spent a lot of time this weekend using the package. It seems there is a lot of tweaking/adjusting/modifying cfg files to get things working correctly. More so than I thought. I'm on the fence whether I am going to stick with it. So basically if I am understanding you, I can use a repaint as long as it's the same model, DX10 compliant, and for AI use only. If I use a non-AI AC, just use the exterior textures only to cut back the performance hit. I think I actually understand this....oh how I laughed Thanks for your time. Regards, Rob ------------- 
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Posted By: Soaranden
Date Posted: 16 Oct 2012 at 8:28am
Hi, Rob You should always use all textures with any repaint (unless the author of the repaint has provided the option to choose between two sets of textures). This holds true for AI repaints and for non-AI repaints. (I define non-AI repaints as repaints of user aircraft, even if those user aircraft are going to be used for AI flights). I mentioned, in my earlier thread, to look for exterior textures with .dds extensions if you want to be assured of DX10 compatibility. This is true for both AI repaints and non-AI repaints. If dds textures have been used for the aircraft's exterior surfaces, then the interior textures will be compatible with DX10 even if they are .bmp textures rather than .dds textures. This, too, is true for both AI repaints and for non-AI repaints. DDS exterior textures in a freeware repaint folder provide assurance that DX10-compliant textures are used for the entire aircraft. In other words (and I hope this doesn't confuse anyone), the fact that a texture is a bmp texture rather than a dds texture does not always mean that the bmp texture is not compatible with DX10. Many of the textures used for Traffic X AI aircraft are bmp textures that work fine when running FSX under DX10. Unfortunately, nearly all freeware repaints that consist entirely of bmp textures are incompatible with DX10. Looking for dds exterior textures in freeware repaints provides an indicator that the other textures (even if those other textures are bmp textures) are DX10 compatible. As far as performance hits, it's bmp aircraft textures that are a performance hit, but bmp textures have little negative affect on performance if they are used only for aircraft interiors. It's the exterior of an aircraft that takes up a lot of onscreen pixels when it is used for AI flights (and, of course, for user aircraft, as well, when the user aircraft is being viewed from the exterior). (The use of bmp texures for panels isn't a problem since aircraft panels pretty much stay in one place on your computer monitor and hide much of the outside scenery). DDS textures for exterior aircraft surfaces provide compression. Graphics cards decompress DDS files as they are needed, and decompressing has no noticeable impact on performance because all modern graphics cards do the decompressing of DDS files through the card's graphics hardware. The main reason for the continued use of bmp textures rather than dds textures is to provide textures for older computer systems that don't have graphics hardware that provides the needed hardware decompression of dds files. There aren't many such older systems that are still in use by FSX users. DDS textures provide a gain in performance over bmp textures...particularly with FSX aircraft. Direct X is all about directly drawing textures without the need for the use of uncompressed bmp files and without the need to do the decompression of dds files via software. Now that I've done all of this talking about the merits of dds textures and DX10, let me say that I'm aware that, most likely, you will decide to download mostly repaints that are not DX10 compatible. Most FSX and Traffic X users have many aircraft that are not DX10 compatible. Those users avoid running FSX in DX10 mode because they cannot make use (without switching out of DX10) of all the aircraft they possess that are not DX10 compliant. That doesn't mean there aren't a lot of DX10-compliant freeware aircraft and aircraft repaints available. I have over sixty DX10-compliant liveries that I use for the FSX default Boeing 737-800 alone, and I use all of those liveries for AI via Traffic X. I don't think my computer system could handle using so many non-AI aircraft as AI if I didn't use DX10. If you do not use DX10, you may have to stick mostly with downloading AI aircraft and AI aircraft repaints. Nevertheless, if you have a fast and over-clocked CPU, you might get away with using some non-AI aircraft as AI even though you are not running under DX10. You'll have to see what your computer system can handle, and you'll have to decide what frame rates are acceptable to you. Dan |
Posted By: Lawgiver
Date Posted: 17 Oct 2012 at 6:49am
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Hi Dan, This is outstanding info for someone like myself. I don't have a lot of experience on the inner workings of FSX or add-on files for that matter. To be honest, I have never given a thought about DX10 compatibility when I download an add-on or a repaint. I have seen both the .bmp and .dds extensions and never gave a thought to it before. If the add-on or repaint worked.....Great. I can see now why one would want to pay attention to the file types. You mention in the first paragraph the .bmp textures can be DX10 compliant. Is that the general rule of thumb that as long as .bmp are used with .dds they are DX10 compliant?? You cite the example of using .dds on the exterior and using bitmaps on the interior. Is there a sure fire way to tell if a repaint using all .bmps is DX10 compliant other than just trying the repaint out?? I know most painters out there usually include a read me but I have some that have nothing at all. As far as my system, it's a newer machine and does a decent job at taming FSX. I always try and minimize any performance hit. I can see why one would try and limit the use of the bitmap textures on the exterior. Everything you have said makes sense. I have copied your posts to notepad for future reference. Thanks for taking the time for the in depth explanations. Regards, Rob -------------
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Posted By: Soaranden
Date Posted: 17 Oct 2012 at 10:10pm
Yes, it's a good rule of thumb that, if you find an aircraft or aircraft repaint uses dds textures for the exterior, the whole aircraft or whole repaint will be DX10 compliant even though bmp textures have been used for the interior. The only exception that comes immediately to mind is if the textures with dds file extensions were not really dds textures but were simply bmp textures that had been renamed by changing the file extension to .dds. Of course, renaming a bmp file to a dds file does not make the bmp texture a dds texture. Fortunately, it is very rare to encounter such a problem.
Nearly all of the time, you would have to try out a repaint with all bmp textures to know with certainty whether it is DX10 compatible. Since it is extremely rare to find an all-bmp repaint that is DX10 compatible, and since I run FSX exclusively under DX10, I have learned to avoid disappointment by no longer downloading all-bmp repaints. Fortunately, if a repaint author has used all bmp textures on a repaint that is DX10 compatible, the author usually will have stated the repaint's DX10 compatibility.
We all know that a newer machine can make all the difference in the workd. Using some full-blown user aircraft for AI flights may be an option for you. Dan |
Posted By: Soaranden
Date Posted: 18 Oct 2012 at 2:51am
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Rob, Here's a tip that I forgot to mention in my preceding reply: When adding an aircraft livery to the aircraft.cfg file of a non-Traffic X aircraft, it's a good idea to make the name differ from the name that is used for Traffic X's version of the livery. This can be done easily by including the ICAO code for the airline in the aircraft.cfg file's "ui_variation=" line. Since Traffic X doesn't include ICAO codes in this line for its AI aircraft, you can be certain that you are giving your aircraft a unique name by including the ICAO code. For example: ui_variation="Swiss SWR" Using the ICAO code is just a suggestion. Instead, you could add your initials or something else. By adding something unique, your new livery for a non-Traffic X model will not have the same name as Traffic X's livery for Traffic X's model of the same aircraft. It makes it easy to distinguish the non-Traffic X livery from the Traffic X livery on the drop-down list under "Aircraft" when you are setting up a new flight plan. Incidentally, as long as you never sort the list that appears under "Aircraft," your newer liveries will always appear near the bottom of the list. I'm assuming, above, that you haven't deleted the Traffic X version of the non-Traffic X livery you have downloaded. Perhaps you want to keep both versions of the livery available. Even if you will never again use the Traffic X version of the livery, going to the effort of deleting the Traffic X livery version, is unnecessary. Dan |
Posted By: Lawgiver
Date Posted: 19 Oct 2012 at 2:24am
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Hi Dan, OK......If I am understanding correctly, you cannot add a repaint (livery) to a Traffic X AC from a different AI AC even though they are the same model?? You would have to use the AI model for that particular repaint hence the unique name for the model to tell the difference between the Traffic X version and the other AI models??
Regards, Rob -------------
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Posted By: freddy
Date Posted: 19 Oct 2012 at 5:39am
 I wrote a lengthy post here in an effort to try and help ... but I got the details of my post wrong ... considerably wrong actually ... (I was at work and couldn't check everything I was saying). What Dan has written below is indeed correct. In the interest of avoiding confusion, I have deleted my post and replaced it with this message. How embarrasing ... I've been editing aircraft.cfg files for YEARS ... you'd think I'd be able to write about how they work and what each line represents and does. |
Posted By: Soaranden
Date Posted: 19 Oct 2012 at 9:22am
That's not true of the drop-down "Aircraft" menu where an aircraft is being selected for a new flight plan. Different parts of the Traffic X interface acquire information from different sources. The "Aircraft" drop-down menu ignores the "title =" line in the aircraft.cfg file. Below is an excerpt from a Traffic X aircraft.cfg file: [fltsim.6] title=JFAI_TX_B737_ALA1 sim=JFAIB737 model= panel=x sound= texture=ALA1 atc_id=N609AS atc_flight_number=741 atc_airline=ALASKA atc_parking_codes=ASA atc_parking_types=GATE ui_manufacturer=Boeing ui_type=737-700 ui_variation=Alaska Airlines description=AI ui_typerole=Commercial Airliner ui_createdby=Just Flight The drop-down "Aircraft" menu shows the following: Boeing 737-700 Alaska Airlines Here's where "Boeing 737-700 Alaska Airlines" came from: ui_manufacturer=Boeing---------Provides "Boeing" ui_type=737-700------------------Provides "737-700" ui_variation=Alaska Airlines-----Provides "Alaska Airlines" To test and confirm the above, I changed the following lines in the below aircraft.cfg excerpt: title= ui_manufacturer= ui_type= ui_variation= This shows the changes I made: [fltsim.62] title=SURPRISE sim=Boeing737-800 model= panel= sound= texture=SKY13 kb_checklists=Boeing737-800_check kb_reference=Boeing737-800_ref atc_id=YR-LGR atc_airline=TAROM SkyTeam atc_flight_number=1482 atc_parking_codes=ROT ui_manufacturer="Bow and Arrow" ui_type="737-555" ui_variation="TAROM SkyTeam Rotten" Note: I originally ended this line with the real airline ICAO code of "ROT" ui_typerole="Commercial Airliner" ui_createdby="Microsoft Corporation" After letting the Fleet Database know about the new aircraft, I took a look at the Flight Plan drop-down "Aircraft" menu where an aircraft is selected for a new flight plan. At the bottom of the list on the drop-down menu, I found the following: Bow and Arrow 737-555 TAROM SkyTeam Rotten That was sufficient confirmation for me of the sources used for the aircraft description in the "Aircraft" drop-down menu. However, the Aircraft.tcc file, which is used elsewhere by Traffic X, showed the following: Bow and Arrow 737-555 TAROM SkyTeam Rotten Bow and Arrow 737-555 Commercial Airliner SURPRISE SKY13 ROT YR-LGR 0 So the "Aircraft.tcc" file shows a nice "SURPRISE" for my good friend freddy, and as you can see from the above Aircraft.tcc file excerpt, the airline's "ROT" ICAO code was retained **...even though I did a little mischief with it in the aircraft.cfg file. I conclude that my aircraft.cfg entries provided an update to the Aircraft.tcc file when I updated the Fleet Database, and the Flight Plan drop-down "Aircraft" menu obtained its information directly from the Aircraft.tcc file. Data in the Aircraft.tcc file that wasn't pulled into the "Aircraft" drop-down menu, is used elsewhere within Traffic X ** In actuality, the "ROT" ICAO code in the Aircraft.tcc file never came from the "ROT" entry that I made in the original aircraft.cfg file. Apparently, the Aircraft.tcc file obtained "ROT" from a file named "AirlineCodes.tcc." Just as each line in the "Aircraft" drop-down list comes from multiple lines in the aircraft.cfg file, the Aircraft.tcc file obtains its data from multiple sources, as well. As a final note, I should point out that since the Aircraft.tcc file obtains part of its data from the AirlineCodes.tcc file, and since I didn't change the "atc_airline=TAROM SkyTeam" entry in the aircraft.cfg file and didn't change the ICAO code for TAROM SkyTeam to "Rotten" on Traffic X's "Airline/Carrier Codes" screen, the AirlineCodes.tcc file never knew about my new "Rotten" ICAO code, and, therefore, the Aircraft.tcc file retained the "ROT" ICAO code. If I had made the changes (which would have worked), it would have been a "Rotten" "SURPRISE." Dan |
Posted By: Soaranden
Date Posted: 20 Oct 2012 at 12:24am
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Hey, freddy, Oh, no! After doing the aircraft.cfg experiment that I mentioned in my previous thread, it occurred to me that maybe I should search Traffic X folders for any other files that still contained a reference to my fictitious "737-555" aircraft. I used "737-555" as my search criterion. Sure enough, I found a line containing a Bow and Arrow 737-555 in Traffic X's AircraftTypes.tcc file. I quickly deleted the line from the file. So help me, freddy, if you thought about this happening and said nothing, I'll...I'll...well, okay, I'll accept your withholding the information from me as a well-done prank by a good friend, but do you have to do everything so well!?  Dan |
Posted By: freddy
Date Posted: 20 Oct 2012 at 3:57am
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No, there was no intention to prank you at all good friend. I really made a mess of my post regarding the aircraft.cfg file ... and in the process of editing my post to correct it, I noticed that you had already quoted me and corrected me. It made sense to me to delete my post rather than try to edit it and possibly cause confusion. I am always careful when manually editing aircraft.cfg files and importing them in to Traffic X. I know that there is more than one Traffic X file which will be updated, and I know that each Traffic X file will extract different details from the aircraft.cfg depending on what role the respective Traffic X file performs in the Traffic X AI creation process. I have, on occasion, made a silly error and ended up with duplicated entries in my "aircraft.tcc", "AircraftTypes.tcc", or "AircraftTypes.csv" files. Thankfully, you can manually delete these duplicates, just as you have done, using an ASCII text editor such as Notepad. (However, I do warn anyone reading this post to be CAREFUL IF USING NOTEPAD TO MANUALLY EDIT TRAFFIC X FILES ... IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE THEN YOU CAN "BREAK" TRAFFIC X ... SO IT'S BEST *NOT* TO DO THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF THE TRAFFIC X FILE STRUCTURES AND HOW TRAFFIC X AND ITS FILES ALL INTEGRATE WITH FSX AND AI. If you are not sure about that stuff then it is better to simply let Traffic X do the work for you.) You might also consider doing a search for the word "Surprise" and for the words "Bow and Arrow" and "TAROM SkyTeam Rotten". However, if you do locate these in your Traffic X files, be VERY SURE of whether they should stay or whether they should be removed BEFORE you delete them. (Obviously, take backups before doing any potentially damaging stuff.) If you find those words in your searches and you're not sure, post again with the example of where your found it (which file it was in) and I'll be glad to help with the decision making process based on my knowledge of what goes where. |
Posted By: Soaranden
Date Posted: 20 Oct 2012 at 10:24pm
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Just for the record: I found nothing else that I needed to delete. Dan |
Posted By: freddy
Date Posted: 20 Oct 2012 at 11:16pm
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Posted By: Lawgiver
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2012 at 4:33am
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Dan/Freddy, Just wanted to thank you both for taking the time to help a newbie out and get a little understanding of how things work. I appreciate it. Regards, Rob -------------
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Posted By: freddy
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2012 at 5:38am
So, back at you, thanks for the thanks.
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Posted By: Soaranden
Date Posted: 23 Oct 2012 at 5:45pm
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You're welcome, Rob. One thing that I didn't take the time to point out that I should have pointed out is that, when two or more files contain some of the same data, one has to be careful before assuming one file was the source of the identical data and the other file was the recipient. Data entered via a user interface can be written to two or more files, concurrently. In such cases, all files to which the data was written, were recipients of the identical data. When one or more files receives its identical data from another file rather than directly from user input, one way to distinguish source files from recipient files is to compare the date modified time stamp of the files. On more than one occasion, I've been surprised to find that the file I assumed was the data source, was actually the data recipient (as disclosed by its more-recent time stamp}. When file time stamps (as shown in Windows Explorer) are identical, it may mean that user input was written to the files concurrently, or it may mean that one file was the recipient of the data from another file during the same minute. If the latter is the case, determination of source and recipient will require further testing. Dan |
Posted By: Lawgiver
Date Posted: 25 Oct 2012 at 3:42am
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Hi Dan, Believe it or not, that actually makes sense to me.... Thanks again....Regards, Rob -------------
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Posted By: Rich
Date Posted: 25 Oct 2012 at 11:34am
A quick pic of American Airlines in Traffic 360 for you.  ------------- http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Just-Flight/15266573498" rel="nofollow">  |
Posted By: Lawgiver
Date Posted: 26 Oct 2012 at 3:21am
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Hey there they are.......Has American had a change of heart about allowing their name and logos to appear?? Just curious.... Regards, Rob -------------
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