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FS2004 tool testers needed

Messages
1,043
Country
us-northcarolina
Hello folks,

I have just finished coding/debuging my new AI FS2004 tool and I am looking for good souls to test it.
The newborn's name is FPG (Flight Plan Generator).

Purpose:
You might be interested in this application if you are like me and don't care about having your AI running on real life schedules.
FPG automatically and randomly generates AI flight plans faster than you can think them.
Do not be misguided by the term 'randomly', in fact you have great control of what flies, where and when. The tool takes the bother of having to create
all those flight plans manually out of the way. That can take a very long time even with a flight plan editor.

FPG is not a flight plan editor. Once a plan is created you can either keep it or discard it. After you save it you can edit it with your favorite flight plan editor.
Though if you are satisfied with it you can simply compile it from inside FPG and off your AI goes, ready to fly.

It is not necessary to know how AI works or what a flight plan file is made of to create flight plans in FPG. However it helps understanding the process going on behind the interface and analyse the results.

Features:
  • Aircrafts selection per parking type
  • Exclusion of non-AI aircrafts
  • Selection of AI plan duration (i.e. 24 hours, a week, etc.)
  • Calculation/display of distance between 2 airports
  • Selection of AI percentage
  • Control of ground time duration (range) and choice of more short, long or even layover
  • Control of flight numbers (range)
  • Aircraft range validation
  • Random tail number
  • Elaborate altitude selection, 3 choices:
    1. Random altitude in the 'slice' of aircraft operating ceiling (according to F.A.A. separation guidelines/rules)
    2. You chose a flight altitude
    3. Altitude = 5,000 ft. per linear nm (can be cutstomized)
    4. In all cases the altitude is corrected according to F.A.A. altitude and separation guidelines/rules
  • Selection of percentage of day/night flights (convenient to program cargo such as FedEx that mostly fly at night or GA mostly day time)
  • Selection of day/night time (you set when day starts and ends)
  • Ability to program Touch & Go between 2 or more airports or even from and to the same airport
  • Ability to generate flights that come back to departure airport on each leg
  • Ability to generate 1 to 5 plans of the same category automatically
  • Visual clue given by a graph that reports legs, take-off and landing times
  • Random airports option: generates a list of airport in function of criteria you set, such as distance, surface, runway length
  • Ability to save a list of selected airports (i.e.: GA NC or Cargo Night NY)
  • Ability to compile the flight plans
  • Flight plans automatically saved to recovery files as they are generated
  • Display picture of the selected aircraft (if you have thumbnails) in jpg or bmp format. I created another tool to create those thumbnails automatically but I'm not so sure it's ready for distribution yet though it was tested thoroughtly (thanks to guenther)
  • Visual clue of missing data from aircraft.cfg files (i.e.: range, ceiling, parking type)
  • Ability to update some of those values to aircraft.cfg files
  • On first use creates the necessary base data files from FS installation
  • Automatically detects addition/modification of airports and aircrafts then on
  • Creation of an Excel spreadsheet including all airports available, with data such as number of parking spaces, max runway length, runway surface, etc.
  • There is no help file at the moment but the interface speaks for itself and I am available for explanations

System:
There is no particular system requirements
FPG does not create entries in the registry
Installation is simply done by unzipping the files to a folder of your choice
Removal is done by deleting that folder
The VB5 runtime files are needed and can be downloaded from Microsoft web site. Easy one click installation.
Backup your FS files before any testing

Fine prints:
This program is not to be redistributed or shared with anyone.

Reports:
I would appreciate if you would report any bug or error by email in the form:
I did this or that
I was expecting this or that
I Got this error message or result
Here is the screenshot
Here is the log file

Please let me know if you are interested and I will make the necessary steps for you to get the application up and running.

REMINDER: this application is for FS2004 only. I doubt it will work for FSX since the files and directory structure are very much different.

Thank you.
 
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Messages
1,043
Country
us-northcarolina
Hello Tom, you certainly are welcome to try it out. Thus far it has been debugged by a friend in Germany and another is still testing it in the U.S. I believe at this point we are around %99 bug free. I know of one that is on a satellite program but doesn't stop the main app. from running properly.
As per the description there is not help file written so we'll have to keep in close email contact if you need directions.

Please send me a private message with an email address where I can send you the installation files.

Thanks,
 
Messages
123
Country
ireland
Hi frenchie,

Im simmer but would like to try out your program as im working on three irish airport and i would like to try out your program on one of them if i may.

cheer.
keith
 
Messages
42
Country
australia
Patrick,

Maybe you can use your FPG to create the flightplans and then convert them to FSX plans with other proggy's out there........
 
Messages
1,043
Country
us-northcarolina
I'm shooting in the dark here since I don't know the folder/file structure used by FSX. FPG parses FS data files to retrieve aircraft, airports, etc. So if the files I am looking for in the program are not there then I have a compatibility issue.

Namely it is looking for aircraft.cfg (as in FS2004 aircraft structure), .bgl files from Scenery/Generic/Namw...etc. and scenery.cfg. I'm not sure those exist under FSX.
 
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