by RollerBall » Mon Jan 24, 2005 7:16 pm
Hi Zoso - I assume we're talking about FS2002 here.
You're not talking about a 'glitch' here that you just fix with a patch unfortunately. Yes, high terrain on the approach will prevent AI landing in FS2002, but bearing in mind what else you can do with the AI system, this is a small price to pay. Tough though if your 'favourite' airport is the one that's affected. They got round the problem in FS2004 - by just making the planes fly through the mountains and out the other side to land. Hardly perfect but one day they'll find out how to make it work properly.
In the meantime, first thing you need to understand - tweaking AI is more of an art than a science. You can't just make flightplans for any aircraft, especially third-party add-ons, and expect them to work. And there's also much more to it than just AFCADing an airport and adding a few parking spaces.
The first key element is the plane's FDE (flight model). Very few add-on planes have an FDE that's suitable for AI. You know this when - you've guessed it - they fly on by, weave so much on the approach they often miss the runway, crash on approach or even on the descent several miles from the airfield, and so on.
Even some of the default FDEs are a bit dodgy - you watch the 777 suddenly swoop up just before it's supposed to flare and then hit the runway with an almighty thud. Main reason - M$ made its approach too fast.
Look at the default 737 as well. I had to do a lot of work on it in 2002 to make it land at Aberdeen Dyce (UK) - reason again, approach programmed much too fast.
And take a look at many of the early PAI models (esp 757s, Airbuses) - Airbuses porpoise like crazy in flight, 757s are in a constant state of nose-up free-fall and so on.
The next one is the flight plans themselves. Remember one key thing - they bear hardly any relationship to real life. Altitude especially - if you use real life numbers more often than not you'll be too high and ..... the plane will fly right past its destination.
You get my drift. There ain't no formula that you just apply and sit back - which is why so many of us love it!
So the message is, if you want to do your own AI you have to have a modest knowledge of aerodynamic principles and the know-how to edit the cfg and air files.
A basic principle is that AI is all about appearances. Some of the geeks don't understand that and wonder why things don't work. You don't have to use a 777 FDE in an AI 777. If it works fine with the Learjet FDE then so be it, that's fine - you're only concerned that it shows up, flies, lands and parks as it should do. So you often have to experiment and swap stuff around.
And you invariably find that no matter how long Messrs POSKY, Meljet and the rest have spent on the FDEs in their flyable planes, the chance is they will be MUCH better as AI if you drop the FDEs from the respective default planes in instead.
Even so, some guys around here do it the easy way and just go get payware AI packages. Personally I don't. It's a hobby - I like to do it all myself. It's also a big part of the fun I get out of the sim - not just the flying bit, but that's me.
Sorry I can't be more helpful, but that's how it is and personally I wouldn't have it any other way. I've spent literally hundreds of hours solving AI problems - Concorde and a taildragger before anyone else did them, in FS2004 fixed wings and helis off carriers in my still as yet unreleased carrier package and so on.
Anyway, I'd suggest that it would be easier for us to help if you posted specific problems - which aircraft, which airport etc because you can probably see from what I've said, generalities aren't of much use when it comes to AI.
