FSX-MS Ai Controller (Sid, Jet Route, Star And Final Approach) Beta

[netshadoe 144]

Very nice piece of software...been playing around with it.

 

I have a few suggestions if you're up to any...I don't want to impose or seem ungrateful.  Your work is amazing!!

 

If it has been suggested, I apologize...the old thread is huge!! 

 

First, I was wondering if you would be able to implement Flight Level rules to the JetRoute mode.  What I mean is applying flight level restrictions to flights depending on direction.  ie: westbound flights at even altitudes (FL300, FL320, etc) and eastbound flights at odd levels (FL290, FL310, FL330, etc)

 

Second, if the AI are in jetroute mode, could a separation be enforced.  Either a lateral separation (5 miles) or a vertical separation (if AI are within 5 miles of each other, one will be ordered to descend or climb to avoid conflict).

 

Anyway, that is my 2 pennies on my limited use of the program thus far.  Congrats on achieving what you have done!!!

[Andydigital 93]

I tried this and I sat plane spotting but didn't see a single arrival at EGCC for a whole day (12hours) of testing, SID's work perfectly but STAR's just never seem to happen. I see the arriving traffic being sent to the beginning of the STARs, but every one of them disappears from FSX before it manages to get to the STAR start point. They all seem to climb from their initial spawn points of between 7,000 and 15,000 feet and then climb to somewhere in the upper 20,000 to 30,000 feet or more and sometime after that they just disappear completely.

 

I've tried this with both MTX and UT2 and various spawn distances and had no joy. I also noticed that while on route to LSGG from EGCC, that I didn't see more than 5 or 10 aircraft all the way in the cruise. I heard them talking to Pro Flight Emulator, but I very rarely saw anything near me in the cruise. Without this app running I would have seen probably 50 or 60 aircraft fly into my 10 mile AI Tag visible range during the flight, I do this flight fairly regularly so know what to expect normally.

 

At the moment I am using the default versions of EGCC that comes with FTX England and I extracted the PMDG data with the converter tool, I even tried using the example data for EGCC that came with AI Controller, but it made no difference.

 

I am using AI Controller over a network.

[Guest JustanotherPilot]

Thanks for your efforts in making FSX more realistic, I just followed three aircraft to the Cairns(YBCS) BIB star arrival from the west, turned south onto the localizer and could see a nice neat row of aircraft flying down the glideslope to Rwy15 - never experienced this before installing the program.

[wanabflyer 53]

I don't know if this has been asked already, but how does this software work with VOX ATC or does it?

 

Thanks,

[masneoquil 66]

I don't know if this has been asked already, but how does this software work with VOX ATC or does it?

 

Thanks,

 

Yeah, there is a discussion about ir in the old thread.

Basically it wont. You can have both software running but VoxATC will inject some VFR flights without ant departure/arrival info to make you believe there is some traffic and AIController can't know what to do whit it. SO you might end with an unwanted and uncontrolled AI landing.

[wanabflyer 53]

Yeah, there is a discussion about ir in the old thread.

Basically it wont. You can have both software running but VoxATC will inject some VFR flights without ant departure/arrival info to make you believe there is some traffic and AIController can't know what to do whit it. SO you might end with an unwanted and uncontrolled AI landing.

Thanks Matias, I guess I will have to wait and see if this get covered at a later date.

 

Thanks again,

[masneoquil 66]

Thanks Matias, I guess I will have to wait and see if this get covered at a later date.

 

Thanks again,

mmm I don't think it will, as long as VoxATC inject traffic in the way it is doing it now.

 

 

I think that the problem is more from VoxATC side than AIController.

 

I might be mistaken though

[Mooze 10]

First, I was wondering if you would be able to implement Flight Level rules to the JetRoute mode.  What I mean is applying flight level restrictions to flights depending on direction.  ie: westbound flights at even altitudes (FL300, FL320, etc) and eastbound flights at odd levels (FL290, FL310, FL330, etc)

 

The semi circular rule already implemented in FS.

[Andydigital 93]

The semi circular rule already implemented in FS.

It doesn't work though, most AI in FSX never fly by RVSM rules, its pure luck whether they do or not and that's it.

[Mooze 10]

At least for me, excluding Spain and France and similar Airspace where the semi circ rule is different from standard I never met an AI traffic flying at my altitude in the opposite direction.

[netshadoe 144]

The semi circular rule already implemented in FS.

 

Not quite...The semi circular rule is not implemented in FS. 

 

It is controlled by the traffic BGLs that you use.  The Flight Levels are programmed into the BGL for each flight leg.  If the BGL says a flight flying from EGLL to KJFK is to fly at FL370, it will fly westbound at FL370 without taking into account the semi circular rule.

 

What the guys who compile the traffic BGLs (I've done many myself) try to do is set westbound flights at even levels and eastbound flights at odd levels.  Yes, Europe is different in many areas regarding this rule, but most of the planet uses east/west semi circ rules and thus the guys who compile these BGLs follow the greater concensus for simplicity.

 

That's how traffic BGLs work...

 

Now, what AI Controller does when using the "JetRoute" mode is assign the spawned AI an altitude to cruise at.  Unfortunately, it does not take into account the semi-circ rule for flight levels.  I had west-bound traffic at FL290 and FL330 and east-bound traffic at FL300 and FL360...

 

So, my sugguestion still stands as AI Controller disregards what altitude the BGL sets for that flight that was spawned. ^_^

[Mooze 10]

Make more sens now, this is why am not bothered by that!  :rolleyes:

[hero93 12]

Quick Question: Can you anyhow control the Landing Runway Selection or force an early  go around, when a special runway was selected?

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

 

 

Roland, I'm sorry, I'm trying your new version but I can't understand the meaning of "geographical" folders from Australian Airport Sample to US Metro Airpots Sample, in total 15 folders. Or better I think to understand its meaning but not sure if I can delete them.

 

Riccardo, the "metro" samples are just groups of airports in a metro area, such as New York (e.g., KJFK, KLGA, KEWR).  The country folders are a sampling of airports in a particular country.

 

 

 

Do these folders contains already all converted sid/stars for geographical areas which refer to? Suppose if I want start from scratch can I delete all there "geographical" folders and the reference into AIController.ini lines?

 

Yes, they contain converted (and in some cases custom) sid/stars (e.g., KJFK has some custom departures and approaches).  If you don't want to use them, just delete the sid/star references to the folders (or "comment" the references out) in the AIController.ini.  Each stock geographic folder also has a backup .ini in its own folder, so it is very easy to retrieve any "stock" settings you delete.

 

 

First, I was wondering if you would be able to implement Flight Level rules to the JetRoute mode.  What I mean is applying flight level restrictions to flights depending on direction.  ie: westbound flights at even altitudes (FL300, FL320, etc) and eastbound flights at odd levels (FL290, FL310, FL330, etc)

 

Devin, got it...I see the error in the code..will fix.  Thanks for the feedback.

 

 

 

Second, if the AI are in jetroute mode, could a separation be enforced.  Either a lateral separation (5 miles) or a vertical separation (if AI are within 5 miles of each other, one will be ordered to descend or climb to avoid conflict).

 

Good idea, I'll look into it.  Separation should already be enforced between the user's aircraft and the AI during jet routes (as well as SIDs and STARs), but it might be straight-forward to extend this to AI-AI separation during jet routes as well.

[Clipper Ocean Spray 189]

I tried this and I sat plane spotting but didn't see a single arrival at EGCC for a whole day (12hours) of testing, SID's work perfectly but STAR's just never seem to happen. I see the arriving traffic being sent to the beginning of the STARs, but every one of them disappears from FSX before it manages to get to the STAR start point. They all seem to climb from their initial spawn points of between 7,000 and 15,000 feet and then climb to somewhere in the upper 20,000 to 30,000 feet or more and sometime after that they just disappear completely.

 

 

Andy, I checked and noticed the same thing at EGCC, thanks for bringing this to my attention.  The AI get spawned very close to their destination airport.  It looked to me like the program didn't want to select the entry waypoints of the "close in" STAR(s) because the AI are being spawned in a location where they would have to make a sharp turn of almost 180 degrees.  The rationale was it would be very odd if AI at flight levels cruising at high speed made a 180 degree turn to intercept an entry waypoint.  Thus, a "turn" penalty is imposed and waypoints approximately straight-ahead (or even 90 degrees to the left and right) are favored over waypoints closer to, but behind, the AI.

 

However, this doesn't make as much sense at those airports (e.g., EGCC) where the arriving AI tend to get spawned close to the airport and at low altitude.  I revised the code to avoid a turn penalty if the AI is below 18000 ft, in which case it won't be as odd if the AI to turnaround and intercept the entry point.  

 

 

I also noticed that while on route to LSGG from EGCC, that I didn't see more than 5 or 10 aircraft all the way in the cruise. I heard them talking to Pro Flight Emulator, but I very rarely saw anything near me in the cruise. Without this app running I would have seen probably 50 or 60 aircraft fly into my 10 mile AI Tag visible range during the flight, I do this flight fairly regularly so know what to expect normally.

 

 

This could be because of user aircraft /AI separation is being enforced during jet routes, which slows AI approximately behind and on the same general bearing and altitude as the user and speeds up AI approximately ahead on the same general bearing and altitude. 

 

You might also try adding AIJetRoutesOrigin = 0 to your .ini, which causes the shortest path solution to the destination to be calculated from the AI's initial position rather than from the departure airport.  The jet routes will not be as realistic, but it might tend to keep AI more grouped together in the user's reality bubble.

 

Another potential cause might be the "spreading" issue that sometimes affects AI when dozens of STARs are active for the same airport.  If the user converts their nav data to generate dozens of STARs at busier airports, sometimes the AI spread out because there's a different "best" STAR for almost every AI spawn point and landing runway.  Similarly, with so many jet routes available, there's a different "shortest path solution" for each departure-destination pair.  The solution for SID/STARs is to simply deactivate some of them by moving them into an "inactive" sub-folder thus concentrating the AI into the remaining STARs.  With an inter-connected jet route "network", that solution won't work.

 

Thus, I revised the code to make it easier to enter favored and disfavored jet routes.  I already had this feature in order to, e.g., disfavor low-altitude airways for jets, but I'll make it available to the user.   For example, of the many closely spaced routes across the English channel, if the user wants to favor UL613 and UL980 (because, e.g., they see in real life commercial traffic tends to favor this jet route), then they would add AIPreferredJetRoutes = UL613,UL980 to their .ini file.  The user can also add a preferred/disfavored scalar (e.g.,  AIPreferredJetRoutesScalar = 100).  The user will also be able to add disfavored jet routes.

Thanks for your efforts in making FSX more realistic, I just followed three aircraft to the Cairns(YBCS) BIB star arrival from the west, turned south onto the localizer and could see a nice neat row of aircraft flying down the glideslope to Rwy15 - never experienced this before installing the program.

 

 

Steve, that does sound nice, thanks for sharing!  Hold on to that thought if you encounter a beta problem and the program lets you down! :smile:

 

 

Quick Question: Can you anyhow control the Landing Runway Selection or force an early  go around, when a special runway was selected?

 

Daniel, my apologies, but I don't understand.  Could you add some details?

 

-Roland