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AI aircraft carrier landings

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greece
Gents, this is a prototype development we believe is worth sharing early: an AI aircraft landing on a moving carrier! This first small step is the result of a gradual buildup of our Carriers Extended! SDK and the skill and perseverence of Farley's relentless effort.

The AI Carrier ops are being developed as a future add-on for FSX/P3D and will require a CEX-enhanced carrier to work

 
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The mathematical background was built when we were doing our carrier tech. Carrier-related information is received from the carrier configuration files per CEX SDK. Then it was Farley's careful balance of effort over sleep (90/10) that brought the end result.
 
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denmark
Gents, this is a prototype development we believe is worth sharing early: an AI aircraft landing on a moving carrier! This first small step is the result of a gradual buildup of our Carriers Extended! SDK and the skill and perseverence of Farley's relentless effort.

The AI Carrier ops are being developed as a future add-on for FSX/P3D and will require a CEX-enhanced carrier to work


Absolutely awsome!
 
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Are we (and the AI engine) being fooled here or is it real???
I could show you the same with a carrier wake that would give you the impression the carrier is moving. Only I did not do it for the water around it. And that water looks a bit 'foamy' in the video!?!
But I have to have a fixed addon airport underneath (even two of them) to make it work.
Is it the carrier moving or the water around it to give us the impression that it is moving?
You'd better provide us here with some proof that it is not a scam!

Sincerely,

Your stubborn, doubting Thomas that is only convinced when he is proved wrong:) (and will only then reluctantly present his humble apologies)
 

JB3DG

Resource contributor
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southafrica
If you look at the water out to the sides of the ship when the camera is pointing that way, you will see there is motion. I think I read on SimOuthouse that they aren't using the normal AI system. They have their own control over the AI.
 
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Well, that would be a major feat and more than worth our praise. But they still would have to prove it to me :)!
Moreover, this site is about us sharing what we found out and not so much about what we are not supposed to (only because they are doing it payware).
Yes, I am also doing one scenery payware as well but only because we had to pay a lot for the photo real that is outdated and hardly visible any longer and because we have to let Simmarket earn some money.
But all of my findings to make our scenery, are to be found back in many threads in FSDeveloper.

PS: Suppose for one minute if Arno's MCX, Jon's ADE, Don's AIFP and some more freeware programs would not be there for us! How far would you get with your scenery???
PS2: sharing is all FSDeveloper is about!
 
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Heretic

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Geez Roby, chill.

a) Alexis is with SimWorks. http://simworksstudios.com/

b) I suspect the method used by AI plugin works similar to the LivingWorld and SimVar extensions. The first can create animated ground objects, including ships (same functionality as AICarriers), the latter supports dynamic waypoints for AI aircraft (for formation flying). Mix the functionality of the two together, add conditions that will trigger AI animations under certain conditions and you have a module that can make AI aircraft land on moving carriers.
 

JB3DG

Resource contributor
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Actually it is possible to design a custom autopilot which controls the control surfaces and throttle on an AI aircraft. Then they can make the aircraft do whatever they like. It is really a programming challenge, rather than a scenery challenge. With SimConnect the only limits are skill and imagination.
 
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Sharing is all FSDeveloper is about!

@robystar I can't share everything but half the answer is public. After all, this is the showroom!

Still, here's what I can share. To land on the carrier (moving or static) you need three things:
  • To know the carrier's geometry and approach information. That is all detailed in our Carriers Extended SDK which can be found here. With CEX we have created a standard classification of ships for our purposes, which contains geometric information (i.e. angle of deck), communications frequencies, eye candy (deck tractors) and simobjects that belong to this class (title strings).
  • The trigonometry to create "positional awareness". Distance & angle from the carrier, lineup, altitude, attitude, speed. You also need a waypoint that is constantly moving so you have to expect and adjust for that. The awareness and adjustment parts are what constitutes the AI and can't be given out.
  • To have a custom autopilot/flight control input/flight model/call-it-whatever-you-want. Jon proposed one of the possible methods and it is indeed a programming challenge. A tutorial created for RWY AHEAD, showing how to set waypoints dynamically is attached.
This would work with any carrier that is CEX-enhanced, regardless if it was spawned with AI Carriers or our own ship placement tool. It won't work with non-CEX carriers (see point #1 for reason).
 

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  • SimConnect Tutorial 0-800.pdf
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Hi and thanks, I am afraid I dug it.
Guess I have to start preparing myself to present my humble apologies then?
OK, I will, but will wait until I see it with my own eyes:stirthepo.
Consider me your first customer when it is ready:).
 
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Hi and thanks, I am afraid I dug it.
Guess I have to start preparing myself to present my humble apologies then?
OK, I will, but will wait until I see it with my own eyes:stirthepo.
Consider me your first customer when it is ready:).

Trust me, I want to show it to you more than you do! An AI trap was considered a very hard feat but never impossible -we just happened to be the first to do it on a moving carrier.
Don't even mention the apology part, I am cautious like that too sometimes! ;)
 
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Need to try this with other ships, maybe see if we can a helicopter to land on a helopad on deck.
 
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