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AI Boat Traffic As Ground Vehicle Traffic ?

dickb

dickb

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154
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unitedkingdom
I'm trying to add some custom AI road traffic (not service vehicles) to some of my FSX airfields. I read somewhere that it is possible to set up AI boat (ferry) traffic plans to move vehicles on land, but so far I have been unable to achieve this. I have tried using both TrafficDataBaseBuilder from the FSX Traffic Toolbox SDK and AIBCT02, but the result is the same - I can get the boat (or vehicle) to appear at the start point on my airfield, but it just vanishes after a minute or so. I can't get it to move.

Can someone confirm whether what am trying to do is (or isn't) possible ?

Thanks for your help.
 
dickb said:
I'm trying to add some custom AI road traffic (not service vehicles) to some of my FSX airfields. I read somewhere that it is possible to set up AI boat (ferry) traffic plans to move vehicles on land, but so far I have been unable to achieve this. I have tried using both TrafficDataBaseBuilder from the FSX Traffic Toolbox SDK and AIBCT02, but the result is the same - I can get the boat (or vehicle) to appear at the start point on my airfield, but it just vanishes after a minute or so. I can't get it to move.

Can someone confirm whether what am trying to do is (or isn't) possible ?

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

Hi - it is possible - I have done a small 4 km route for a service van using AIBTC and Google Earth, but it is not optimal if you have several vehicles, as they will avoid each other in a not very nice way... When doing the routes you need to make sure the cars are not waiting long before starting the route after completing a cycle - else they will just disappear. The best is to keep it to a minute or two... If you have a vehichle which is just doing a trip a day and which is parked most of the time it will most likely not work as you intend.
 
Too late because it already has been replied to, so I can only concur what has been said by KL791.
God nit.
 
KL791 said:
Hi - it is possible - I have done a small 4 km route for a service van using AIBTC and Google Earth, but it is not optimal if you have several vehicles, as they will avoid each other in a not very nice way... When doing the routes you need to make sure the cars are not waiting long before starting the route after completing a cycle - else they will just disappear. The best is to keep it to a minute or two... If you have a vehichle which is just doing a trip a day and which is parked most of the time it will most likely not work as you intend.
Click to expand...
Thanks - that's encouraging. I had set up my plan to move the vehicle every 30 mins. That said, when testing, I set the time to be one minute before its scheduled departure and it still disappeared. I will adjust the schedule to have it depart every couple minutes and see if that helps.

Also, my test route is less than 1km. Could that be a problem ?
 
Set your time just a couple of seconds after the scheduled departure time and then find the vehicle. If you cannot find it/ if it is not there, then you must have something wrong in your 'flightplan' or in your contact points.
 
Well, it's puzzling. The test plan that I have set up should make one of the default ferries travel from one end of the main runway to the other at one of my airfields. Outward journey starting daily at 09:00:00, return at 09:03:00, journey time (set by AIBTC) 00:02:31. So a 29 second turnaround.

If I start my flight at the subject airfield anytime between 09:00:00 - 09:05:31, the ferry shows up at the start point, but does not move. As far as I can tell, it will stay there forever.

However, if I start my flight anytime outside this 'operational' period, even by a few seconds, the ferry appears at the start point for a minute or so without moving, then disappears.

Attached are the three source files I am compiling with AIBT, plus the traffic bgl. I'd appreciate it if one of you knowledgeable chaps could cast an eye over them and see if you can spot anything.

I am guessing there is something wrong with my waypoints. You will see that I am using a csv file rather than a kml file for the waypoints. Reason for this is that my airfield (Ian P's RAF Downham Market) does not exist in the real world any more, so I can't use Google Earth to create a path. I did however use AIBT to turn it into a kml file, and the result seems to be the same. I have captured the waypoints from the airfield using ADE9X, and they seem to be correct in that the ferry shows up in the right place and pointing in the right general direction.

Any help appreciated !

PS If you're wondering why I'm sailing a ferry up and down my runways, it's so I have something big enough to see easily. I've already proven that I can display a vehicle instead if I want to.
 

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Now you are talking about boats. I thought you were talking about ground vehicles? But boats should even be easier though yours seems to be a speed boat:).
Take into account that you have to read the flightplan as follows: the 'normal' starts at 09:03 and the reverse at 09:00 (the next day?). Besides that, when you change that, the time in between should be at least 20 minutes.
In a nutshell: your flightplan looks wrong to me. Why 24 hours? And what do you mean by the 'main runway'? Boats need water! If it is on land it won't move.
And why is the 'routes' a csv? Shouldn't it be a kml if you want to compile it with AIBTC?
And even though it is not a real life airfield, that does not prevent you from using a kml file with GE although the coordinates in your csv point to a location close to Bexwell Kitchens Ltd :confused:.
Or have I missed something here so that I misunderstood?
 
I can understand anyone being confused ! The boat is just for test purposes. Once I have the plan working, I will swap it for a land vehicle model. I don't believe FSX can tell the difference, although I did read this only works with ferry type traffic. (I just changed the plan to use a land vehicle and it behaves exactly the same.)

As far as I can tell, my flightplan is in the correct format according to the AIBTC online manual. You seem to say it needs to be read backwards ? I don't see that stated in the documentation.

AC#1,F1234,10%,24Hr,09:00:00,09:02:31,1661,normal,ferry,09:03:00,09:05:31,1661,reverse,ferry

The way I read it, the outward leg starts at 09:00:00 and the return leg at 09:03:00. But to test your theory I swapped the two times round and started a flight at 08:59. The only difference was that the vehicle was now positioned at the other end of the runway, ready to do the return journey first (before it disappeared as usual). So I think my reading is correct.

I also extended the time between 'legs' to 30 minutes. No difference.

24hr is the frequency i.e. daily.

The reason I can't use GE to plot my route is that I can't see my airfield in GE - as you spotted, it ain't there no more ! The AIBTC online manual says you can use either CSV or KML, although they clearly prefer the latter.

But thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming !
 
Just to report I created a routes kml file from GE for a current airfield, but still no joy. Boat/Vehicle still refuses to move and then disappears. So it looks like it is indeed something in the plan
 
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