Duplicates in AircraftAircraft.txt

[larshgf]

Can somebody tell me why there is duplicates of aircraft in the AircraftAircraft.txt file.

 

[gadgets]

lars, you'll have to ask the creator of the list to know for sure. However, this practice does allow the aircraft for flight plans that reference one of the duplicated entries to be changed without altering the flight plan file anw without affecting other flight plans that refer to other of the duplicated entries.

Don

 

[larshgf]

The creator of the list is Microsoft. It is the default FSX trafficAircraft.bgl I have decompiled with AI Flight Planner.
And besides these duplicate aircraft errors there is hundres og errors like this one:
Leg 02: Departure scheduled before or very close to arrival time of previous leg

It seems rather odd that the AI Flightplans etc created by the ACES studio (Microsoft) is filled with errors!

BR
Lars

 

[bobbyjack]

Odd, but true. I've seen duplicate FPs, set to different %s. I once saw to C172s flying side by side because of that.

Bob

 

[Geezer]

Several months ago I started the process of eliminating the duplicates. I've been distracted by other things for awhile, but it looks like there's between 500 and 1,000. It looks to me like Microsoft just used the traffic generator tool to automatically do flight plans without doing any checking or editing.

 

[rfields]

The creator of the list is Microsoft. It is the default FSX trafficAircraft.bgl I have decompiled with AI Flight Planner.

The duplicates exist in the original flight plans files because of the way the Microsoft Traffic Database Builder program works. Each has a unique AC# equilavent. Microsoft used the multiples to provide a proportional number of different aircraft types when the FP were created.

Flight Simulator has no problem with duplicate aircraft titles in the traffic.bgl as long as the AC# equalivant is different.

You can see the original source files in the SDK folder for the Traffic Toolbox.

The default AI is setup for:
8 - A321
12 - B738
5 - B744 - 2 of which are Cargo
8 - CRJ-700
8 - Dash 8 - 100
6 - MD-83

GA
9 - Baron
8 - King Air
6 - C208 - 4 of which are Airline traffic - the two white aircraft are GA
10 - C172
7 - Lear 45
4 - Maule M7
6 - Mooney Bravo
10 - PA-28

It looks to me like Microsoft just used the traffic generator tool to automatically do flight plans without doing any checking or editing.

There does not exist ANY authorized traffic file decompiler. So the automated traffic creation program depends upon the source files only. The only checking which can be done is in the game. According to Microsoft any decompile will create errors. The Microsoft tool works differently than our programs like TTools and AI Flight Planner. But the creation of proper source files is critical, just like TTools or AI Flight Planner.

By the time FSX came out the Aces team assumed that people who cared about AI traffic would replace the MS traffic quickly. So the default AI would be only for people who did not care much about AI.

Most of us refuse to comply with the Microsoft standards for AI. Things like minimum 45 min turnaround time, requiring that an airport have available parking before a flight plan will compile, minimum runway length requirements for each aircraft, runway surface type requirements (hard or soft), minimum and maximum altitudes for each aircraft, minimum and maximum ranges for aircraft. TDBB has a neat feature, it will not create an AI flight plan which requires flying a route at an altitude higher then the aircraft can reach. No C-172 or Beech Baron trying to cross the Alps at 17,000 ft. Because the C-172 (and Maule and PA-28) max altitude is 10,000 feet, the Baron 12K.

The Aces team did not put much time or money into creating and validating the default traffic file.

They had better things to do with their time/ money.

And besides these duplicate aircraft errors there is hundres og errors like this one:
Leg 02: Departure scheduled before or very close to arrival time of previous leg

It seems rather odd that the AI Flightplans etc created by the ACES studio (Microsoft) is filled with errors!

These errors are because of the way we decompile traffic files and the rules we set for flight plans, not they will not work in FS.

There is always a discrepancy when trying to convert TDBB flight plan structure into TTools format. The numerous short repeat periods in the default GA traffic don't translate well.