FS98, FS2k aircraft as AI?

[xmit]

I know this was probably discussed way back when FS2002 came out with AI traffic. Can FS98 & FS2000 aircraft be used as AI? I have installed several into FS9, of course they lack details etc. that we have grown accustomed too from the leading modellers but you can't beat the polygon counts on some of them. There's a B-1B that really doesn't look that bad and it only has 935 polys (ACM). That's a lot of bombers you can have at one base. I've been adding FS9 type lines to the aircraft.cfg and just tried one AI flight for a F-14A, she took off like a rocket with the wings swept (not realistic), and rocked slightly while cruising (I did not continue until landing). I never heard much about using older MSFS aircraft as AI and figured I'm missing something. DougD

[ashaman]

I don't think the problem are the aircraft in themselves, but their dynamics and in some cases their functionalities (like the wings angle in your example).

To work as AI, they might even work, but never forget that even native FS9 planes with bad dynamics give problems if used as AI. How can't you expect problems from planes that were thought for another version of the sim to use?

[garymbuska]

It has never been a good idea to use any flyable aircraft for AI due to the frame rate hits some of them will take. I for one would try to find aircraft meant for AI and for FS2004 there are a bunch of AI aircraft out there.
I know that there are people out there using flyable aircraft as AI and are not having any problems doing so. But it just does not make any sense to me why waste a good aircraft as AI.
But the bottom line is that it is your sim and you can do what you want with it.
But like ashaman said expect problems from this if you do it. 8-)

[Hagar]

When FS2002 was first released & it became possible to edit the (then new) AI Traffic I often used FS98 aircraft as AI Only drones. These were much less graphics intensive than the complex models then being produced for FS2002 & much better regarding frame rates. Unfortunately some animations didn't display or work properly in AI & the flight dynamics usually needed tweaking to make them suitable. This didn't matter much as you don't usually get close to AI aircraft & you could always substitute the FD of a similar default type to make it fly properly. It's obviously much better to use AI models specifically designed for use in FS9 from the outset but if you can't find anything an FS98 model might not be such a bad idea.