AI traffic in a custom airport

[ashaman]

I have had this problem for a while now.

A little history preface:
The airport of Benevento was a military one in the mountains of south Italy. In the fifties was decommissioned, and fell in disuse, lately though it's being used by ultralights.

In my sim, I have, thanks AFCAD not only rebuilt, but given to my virtual Benevento airport the fictional ICAO code of LIRB.

Now, I've used it for a while with no problems, landing with my planes. The problems began when I decided that use a little AI traffic in it.

Little in the sense that I thought that of a pair of Cessna going between LIRN, LIRI and my LIRB would be nice.

No matter what I do, though, any time I check and re-check things to see WHY, there's never any traffic on my custom LIRB airport.

I have pretty much given up, but before covering this little project of mine with a tombstone I've decided to ask on the forum.

The airport has been defined perfectly and works correctly, with the right parking spots (I can use AFCAD well enough not to fall in this kind of trap) and the traffic I attempted to use on it was defined well too (and repeatedly changed and tweaked in the hope it would work).

Is there a reason because a custom airport cannot be used by AI?

If you know, please let me know as well. I'm about to go bonkers.

[wji]

Like yourself, I am an expert regarding these matters. From reading your post: "Nothing can go wrong. Nothing can go wrong. Nothing can go wrong . . . "
Ya,  binderdundat

If I could see a line of code from your flightplans.txt file and a screenshot of your AF2 file, it would be a simple matter (for an expert like myself) to find the problem.

Having said all this about all that . . . sitting at FS9 airports waiting for AI planes is an exercise in futility. Use MicroSoft's Traffic ToolBox and save yourself a lot of time and frustration. Yes, it's FREE

[ashaman]

Nothing can go wrong?  HA!!!  THE HELL!!! There's no worse way to jinx yourself than thinking along those lines.

Expert? Hardly. I'm quite good in manning AFCAD, as long nothing fancy is required. As for the traffic, I'm only beginning.
I have no patience to wait into an airport for the arrival of the traffic, so I simply keep moving the clock into the sim 20 minutes forward until I see parked the plane I inserted as AI. Might be crude, but it works. LIRB has always remained deserted though.

The flightplans are the following:

AC#3,N1382,80%,6Hr,IFR,12:00,,060,R,0000,LIRN,14:00,,070,R,0000,LIRB
AC#1,C1584,80%,6Hr,IFR,13:00,,060,R,0000,LIRI,15:00,,070,R,0000,LIRB
AC#2,B1172,80%,6Hr,IFR,12:30,,080,R,0000,LIRU,14:30,,090,R,0000,LIRB


And this is the airport AFCAD:




Let me know, if possible, where I went wrong.

[wji]

Thanks for posting additional information

Permit me to start with what is correct:
1.) The flightplans.txt work
2.) I created my own aircraft.txt using a default C172
3.) I do not have LIRB nor LIRI  in my FS9

With these changes, I made your AI  work in my sim:


You will recognize the registration in Toolbox is the same as your original

[ashaman]

You must have a LIRI, but maybe you can't use it because as default is a single runway with no parkings. mine is of course as real as it gets FOR REAL.

That the flightplans do work, well, I know already. The planes I inserted are on their parking spots at LIRN, LIRI and LIRU...

But LIRB remains always deserted.

This is the problem I can't get through. I've tried everything: changing planes, adding parking spots of any and every kind, cross verified the latitude and longitude of LIRB and ensured I wrote it correctly...

Nothing.

A thing I haven't tried is to make the plans VFR... though I really can't see any difference, even being my LIRB a non controlled airport, there should be no difference under that point of view, would it not?

Do you think it would be worth trying to make them VFR?

[wji]

"cross verified the latitude and longitude of LIRB and ensured I wrote it correctly..."
That might be your problem: always use Lee Swordy's Collect Airports Utility that is included in AFCAD2.

I built an LIRB airport of my own and it works fine:
     
Negative the VFR and affirmative re: LIRI
LIRB,N41* 10.75',E14* 44.51',709
LIRI,N40* 37.32',E14* 54.84',128

[ashaman]

"cross verified the latitude and longitude of LIRB and ensured I wrote it correctly..."

I meant I crosschecked if it was correct. I know it must not be precise to the pixel, but the suspect of having sent my planes somewhere in Africa or half way toward USA did strike me on first.

Anyway, thank you for having helped me understand that my flightplans work... on another FS at least. I must only decide if the rope or the sword now.

As in, should I hang myself or commit seppuku?

I'll take the middle way and go to bed. Tomorrow I'll look into it again.

[wji]

O.K., sleep tight . . .

I flew to Benevento Restricted Airspace in FSX and the coodinates are:
N41*08.45 E14*47.95



For anyone who plans on spending some time creating new airports with attendant AI flights it is a big plus to have -- and use -- ALL the available tools.

[ashaman]

I really don't know nothing anymore now. :-/

I admit, in the past the flightplans to animate a little my LIRB airport were integrated inside another traffic file (that one made so to add some traffic into some italian military bases in my sim).

As long those lines were inside THAT traffic file... they didn't want to work.

This morning I decide to give it a last try and, for once, compile a little traffic file ONLY for LIRB.

Success at last. A C182, a baron and a grand caravan, all accounted for on the apron.

Be it as it may, I'm going to streamline the traffic BGL for it, and maybe add a ATR42 too (the parking gates for it do not lack), still...

This success cannot but raises a valid question. Is there a difference between compiling a file traffic alone or adding lines to another traffic file?

I mean, until those three lines were part of the military traffic file, they did not want to work even if begged on the knees, and compiled on their own they begin to work correctly.

Can someone explain this?


PS
BY THE WAY, is there a way to make TTools with FSX (there was a long discussion on the fact that V2.02 didn't work on X, some time ago)? Or is there a new version out? What about AFCAD (Lee Swordy said he didn't plan to update it anymore )

I mean, is there a way to make the actual tools work under FSX? And if not, where can I find the tools for this new version?

I do not plan to use FSX myself preferring to wait for 11 (so to renew what I did back in the days, from FS98 to FS2002, snubbing the at the time unreasonably heavy 2000 like I'm going to snub the unreasonably heavy X this time too), but may be asked to work on it, so I need to know. You used FSX, please tell.

[wji]

" . . . integrated inside another traffic file"
This is the ONLY way to go when creating traffic_new.bgl files.

Never edit the existing traffic_zero-this-zero-that.bgl file . . . this name can be anything depending upon addons installed. Ultimate Traffic uses its own naming conventions, etc.,

Here's the BEST way to do traffic_new.bgl
1.) Create a New folder within TTools folder and name it for the current project; e.g., ashaman
2.) Within this folder create the obligatory, three (3). txt files
3.) Once the 3-files look complete, copy them to the Main TTools folder
4.) Open TTools.exe and find the three (3) *.ashaman files in the lefthand window
5.) Compile using TTools to automatically create traffic_ashaman.bgl in the default folder (its name does not matter; TTools puts it in the correct FS9 folder)

Caveat: TTools will NOT Compile files containing errors

That's it Restart FS9 and open in Windowed Mode
Open Microsoft Traffic_Tools_SDK and find the new flight(s)

One can have as many of these new traffic.bgl files as there is discspace for  Cool.

P.S. Negative Ttools in FSX (as far as I know -- never tried it)

[ashaman]

I never tried to edit the default FS9 traffic file.

Even were I willing to, I could not edit it, because on my FS9 the default traffic file was eradicated completely some time ago in favor of a complete and total installation of PAI commercial and freighter traffic and special packages for GA and historical flights.

I compiled a personal traffic file (named, by the way, Personal.bgl ) making some AI F16 and C130 move between some of the military bases in the virtual Italy inside my FS9 (military bases that I had to edit or find the AFCAD for, as by default they are simple runways with nothing attached).

And INSIDE this personal file I put the three lines regarding LIRB.

THERE, they didn't want to work. While ALONE they do.

Mysteries of the AI traffic...