FSX-MS Automatically generated GA flights in UT2 ?

[Kermit_70 7]

Based on a fixed database. UT will not say: "Oh look there is a new airport with parking spaces. Lets generate some AI Traffic for it." That is why the PowerPack needs to be used, to get the data into UT. Then it will be used

So with PowerPack do you just need to "add a whole new airport" to UT2, or do you have to add one parking slot at the time?

Either way, how do you do it, once ADE is used to add all desired parking slots?

 

Any hint and suggestion is very welcome!

Thanks

[Kermit_70 7]

Are you using the default scenery?

No I am using orbx FTX England with on top EGLM from Just Flight (on top of FTX in scenery library)...

How do I go about this?

[Lorby_SI 2,083]

No I am using orbx FTX England with on top EGLM from Just Flight (on top of FTX in scenery library)...

How do I go about this?

Hi, as it is payware, I suspect your EGLM will already have parking spots. As Jim wrote, the problem is not that your airport doesn't have parking spots now, but that the default airport in FSX didn't have them. So the devs of UT2 didn't compile flightplans for it, hence no traffic.

 

There are actually two solutions to this.

1. Use the UT2 PowerPack and build your own flightplans ( for example using first FSX-GA-Traffic, then extract with AIFlightplaner and then import in PowerPack)

2. When you want to fly these airfields, switch off UT2 and use the WOAI GA packages or even default GA AI instead.

[Mithras 87]

Powerpack isn't needed. But AI Flight Planner is. I use the GA slider in UT2 with great effect, but, like you, my home airfield rarely has traffic. So I did ccreate traffic for it, and the small airstrips in my area (including touch and goes). I did this with AIFP and placed the bgls in my main FSX/Scenery folder which is dependant on the native FSX traffic slider. Now I have busy traffic whenever I fly. You can't do it for everywhere, but it will certainly make your base airfields feel busier. 

[Kermit_70 7]

Use the UT2 PowerPack and build your own flightplans ( for example using first FSX-GA-Traffic, then extract with AIFlightplaner and then import in PowerPack)

 

This seems in the right direction... Not sure about the full meaning of it, though!

Do you mean that with PowerPack I can both create new flight plans for GA and then import them in UT2?

What do you mean with "for example using first FSX-GA-Traffic, then extract with AIFlightplaner and then import in PowerPack"?

Do I also need AIFP, then?

 

 

I did this with AIFP and placed the bgls in my main FSX/Scenery folder which is dependant on the native FSX traffic slider

 

Mithras seems to suggest to use only AIFP to generate the new flight plans, and to copy them in default FSX (essentially not bothering with PowerPack/UT2). Would this be sufficient to have UT2 "pick-them-up" and use them with its own GA traffic? Is that what you meant, Mithras?

But then does it mean I need to have FSX traffic slider on? I usually keep that at 0%, while using only UT2 traffic slider...

 

Could you guys please clarify a bit? You got me confused...

[Lorby_SI 2,083]

This seems in the right direction... Not sure about the full meaning of it, though!

Do you mean that with PowerPack I can both create new flight plans for GA and then import them in UT2?

What do you mean with "for example using first FSX-GA-Traffic, then extract with AIFlightplaner and then import in PowerPack"?

Do I also need AIFP, then?

 

 

 

Mithras seems to suggest to use only AIFP to generate the new flight plans, and to copy them in default FSX (essentially not bothering with PowerPack/UT2). Would this be sufficient to have UT2 "pick-them-up" and use them with its own GA traffic? Is that what you meant, Mithras?

But then does it mean I need to have FSX traffic slider on? I usually keep that at 0%, while using only UT2 traffic slider...

 

Could you guys please clarify a bit? You got me confused...

 

 

 Hi, I don't understand the part with compiled bgl's either I'm afraid. In my sim, UT2 constantly resets the traffic sliders in FSX back to 0. I hope Mithras can elaborate on that. Because just adding .bgl's to your scenery library has no effect without the traffic slider in FSX up, UT2 does not care about  those and ignores them.

 

Now for the hard part. Everything I mentioned are tools basically.

 

FSX-GA-Traffic is a tool to generate GA traffic flightplans (search for fsxgarc2.zip, you can get it on flightsim.com and other sites). Unfortunately these plans are generated directly in .bgl format, so no good for UT2. So you need AIFP to decompile them and transfer them into text format (TTool? don't really remember). Now these text files can be imported into PowerPack and compiled into a schedule database for UT2.

[Kermit_70 7]

 

 

FSX-GA-Traffic is a tool to generate GA traffic flightplans (search for fsxgarc2.zip, you can get it on flightsim.com and other sites). Unfortunately these plans are generated directly in .bgl format, so no good for UT2. So you need AIFP to decompile them and transfer them into text format (TTool? don't really remember). Now these text files can be imported into PowerPack and compiled into a schedule database for UT2.

 

Oh boy... that sounds complicated. Still, I will give it a try and come back crying if I get stuck.

Have you personally done anything like that? Does this "FSX-GA-Traffic" actually work?

 

Thanks!

[Lorby_SI 2,083]

Oh boy... that sounds complicated. Still, I will give it a try and come back crying if I get stuck.

Have you personally done anything like that? Does this "FSX-GA-Traffic" actually work?

 

Thanks!

 

Hi, never had the need to do this, I just added some databases to UT2 (military stuff and an airline I really liked).So it is all 2nd hand info.

 

I will jump to it, and try it out too, albeit with the freeware EGLM scenery. I just installed the tool and am checking out what it does. The developer claims that the .bgl generated will work even with FSX traffic sliders at zero, so maybe there is no need for the decompile - recompile thing involving AIFP and PowerPack

 

I will report back.

[Kermit_70 7]

OK thanks!

I will wait for your report, then. I look forward to it!!

[Lorby_SI 2,083]

OK then. If this FSX-GA-Traffic thing would work, it should do pretty much what you ask for. It generates .bgl traffic files that would always run (traffic level = 0%). It does this by using a set of self defined rules and a little random number generation.At first I had to write a little app to get all the ICAOs I didn't want traffic for out of the process (there is a special file for ICAOs you don't want - but it is initially empty, so you need a list of 24000 odd ICAOs to exclude and only leave EGLM and its surroundings -  I wasn't about to hand-type this...).

 

But.

 

The developer obviously abandoned the project before it was completed. The way it works now, it simply scans the scenery folder of FSX, and additionally searches for AFCAD files in a directory of your choosing. This is very much FS9, as FSX uses the scenery.cfg - which this tool doesn't even care about. And to my best knowledge FSX doesn't care about AFCADs much. That is, because an "AFCAD" file is actually a misnomer, these were simply .bgl files that described the airport. When FSX came first out, AFAIK the developers of the tool called "AFCAD" redeveloped it for FSX and called it ADE...

 

As a consequence it is impossible to get any FSX addon airport in there, and you are stuck with EGLM without parking spaces. How do I know this? I took away all the default folders one by one, including the scenery.cfg,  until I was sure which files are actually read by the tool and which are not. Then I tried to put my EGLM into any folder I knew the tool would read - to no avail. If you can find an (possibly FS9) BGL/"AFCAD" for this airport, please tell me where to get it, then I will give it one last try.

 

But I think you are stuck with either PowerPack or AIFP. Sorry.

[Mithras 87]

Hi nuitkati, I essentially run two traffic systems. UT2 which runs all my airlines and all its random GA flight plans (with all the new GA planes I have downloaded). To add more flights to my local airfields, I do use AIFlight Planner. This creates BGLs which I place in my FSX Scenery folder. These BGLs aren't affected by the sliders in UT2, so I set my GA FSX sliders to 30%, since I also have WOAI cargo flight plans installed there too, I also have my airliner FSX sliders set to 30%.

[Kermit_70 7]

But I think you are stuck with either PowerPack or AIFP. Sorry.

 

First of all, thank you so much for all this work and for the very detailed insights you are giving me. All very, very helpful.

Let's just go back to square one, for second.

Assuming my payware airports do have enough parking slots, UT2 needs to "contain" AI GA flight-plans from&to those airports in order to show traffic. I also understand that default UT2 does not have (and will not generate) any flight-plan from&to those airfields without parking slots. So that means I have to generate these GA flight-plans, even if my add-on version of the same airport does contain parking slots, and get UT2 to use them.

 

Now, it is my understanding that (1) it is pretty much impossible (or way too convoluted) to automatically generate GA flight-plans, and (2) I can manually generate them.

The question is: can I do it all (manually generate GA flight-plans AND make them available to UT2) within PowerPack? If so, can I at least have each flight (say from EGLM to EGKK at 12:00) happening everyday, without having to repeat it manually?

 

What a pain, anyway...and what a pity.

 

 

I essentially run two traffic systems

 

 

I still don't understand the advantage of going through AIFP and the pain of running two traffic systems, if anyway this doesn't allow you automatic generation...

 

Thank you both, anyway!

[Mithras 87]

Two systems - UT2 runs all my airline traffic automatically, and it creates a random set of GA traffic plans, but not enough for me! With AIFP, I can add extra detail, and tailor flight plans to my local area. I might be able to put them into UT2 but I don't know how to do that... So I just stick my own flight plans into FSX. They just run automatically, no problems, no work.

[Lorby_SI 2,083]

First of all, thank you so much for all this work and for the very detailed insights you are giving me. All very, very helpful.

Let's just go back to square one, for second.

Assuming my payware airports do have enough parking slots, UT2 needs to "contain" AI GA flight-plans from&to those airports in order to show traffic. I also understand that default UT2 does not have (and will not generate) any flight-plan from&to those airfields without parking slots. So that means I have to generate these GA flight-plans, even if my add-on version of the same airport does contain parking slots, and get UT2 to use them.

 

Now, it is my understanding that (1) it is pretty much impossible (or way too convoluted) to automatically generate GA flight-plans, and (2) I can manually generate them.

The question is: can I do it all (manually generate GA flight-plans AND make them available to UT2) within PowerPack? If so, can I at least have each flight (say from EGLM to EGKK at 12:00) happening everyday, without having to repeat it manually?

 

What a pain, anyway...and what a pity.

 

 

 

I still don't understand the advantage of going through AIFP and the pain of running two traffic systems, if anyway this doesn't allow you automatic generation...

 

Thank you both, anyway!

 

By 'automatic' you mean 'random'? Easier said than done with FSX. For example there is a mechanism at work in FSX itself, that AI planes won't depart (as in "take off"! - they just sit on the runway), if the destination airport doesn't have parking spaces either. The real-time-random-flight builder would have to take that into account (FSX-GA-Traffic doesn't, unfortunately).

 

I got "it" working now, using the tools I described. But it takes a bit of an effort. "It" being the more or less automated generation of (then fixed) flightplans.

 

Here is what I did.

 

1. Installed FSX-GA-Traffic again and left it in this state - I did not start it.

2. I added my own "NotUseAirports.txt" to the tools folder, which contains basically all ICAOs that are in FSX. I removed all starting with "EG" from the file, so the tool will only generate plans for everything "EG" (don't know why the dev did this backwards - would have been easier to just supply a list of the airports that I want plans for, not the other way round...).

3. Then I opened ADE and looked for EGLM in the stock airports, to find out in which default .bgl it resides: APX47130.bgl

4. I used bgl2xml to decompile this file

5. Opened the generated .xml and added about 20 parling spots to EGLM, saved it

6. Compiled that file back into a BGL with bglcomp -> now the stock airport has parking spots...

7. Renamed the original APX47130.bgl to '.off' and dropped my own in (scenery/0501)

8. Now I ran FSX-GA-Traffic and let it build its database file

9. Voilá, I have EGLM showing my added parking spots inside FSX-GA-Traffic

10. Now I let it generate flightplans for the acutal month, result was a Traffic-GA.bgl

11. Closed the tool

12. Reverted my FSX scenery back to its default state, removed my .bgl and renamed the original one back.

13. Had a look at the Traffic-GA.bgl with AIFP, and I can see flights to and from EGLM... and they are there in the sim too.

14. FSX-GA Traffic does not rebuild the database every time, so with every subsequent start I still had EGLM with parking spots.

 

So I just tricked the FSX-GA-Traffic tool into loading the state of the airfield that I wanted, then reverted my FSX back.

 

Not too hard, and not to much work, if you want this bad enough.

[Kermit_70 7]

I am impressed. I might want to give it a try, but there are few steps I still don't get (please pardon my ignorance, I am trying to catch up...):

 

- In point (2), where do you get the full list of ICAO in FSX?

- IN points (4) and (6), where do you get "bfl2xml" and "bglcomp" ? Are these part of ADE or line commands? If so, are they default in Win 8.1 or should I get them somewhere?

- in point (5), did you use ADE to add parking slots to newly created APX47130.xml ?

- Point (12) is completely obscure to me. How do you "revert FSX scenery back to its default state"? Also, please keep in mind that my scenery list in FSX is quite complex because I have add-ons (mainly ORBX)... How do I go about this?

 

You have been incredibly helpful so far, many thanks!