P3D v4 bouncy bouncy

[jyarddog]

What causes a AI to bounce lik it is on a dusty trampoline at 2x or 4x sim? some ai canpt handle that/? I've seen other do fine.

 

[gsnde]

Most of all times the contact points in the aircraft.cfg are not correct.

From mobile hence short

 

[jyarddog]

I see. So some do ok - other are crap! hahaha! Also is there a trck to keep having to wait on the fuel truck to arrive? I wait till Labor Day for that thing! haha I do have push back turned off at the parking. Guess that's not enough. I wait forever for it to come by. It does, Plane takes off for a T & G half way around its pattern the plane disappears according to tools traffic exporter.

 

[jyarddog]

It hops along only at certain places. Especially at taxi turns. You's think it's piloted by Olga Corbet, or Nadia!
And happy new year to ya.

 

[Tim Collins]

It's worth checking the wingspan that's set for the aircraft. I've seen a few instances lately where errors have crept in causing strange AI behaviour. I don't know the cause of the errors, but I'm beginning to suspect that later versions of AIFP may have something to do with it (AIFP can edit AI characteristics).

 

[=rk=]

I have used AIFP extensively and even if I suspect the deep state is trying to get me to stop burning fossil fuel to control me, I can tell it's probably not a good idea to say so out loud until I actually have more evidence than, I mean hunches are great to tell us where to "investigate," but if you are "asking" then no, AIFP does not change airplane flight dynamics during any of my testing, personal use, or developments of scenery addons for FSX, P3D and MSFS over a period of approximately ten years. Never once did I find an edited airplane, helicopter or ground vehicle and I have used the software to populate phony, mirror airports designed to mimic coordinated AI vehicle movement with ground vehicles as airplanes that can't take off but eternally taxi around the perimeter. AIFP will edit the aircraft.cfg, but "wingspan," in that file is not a flight dynamic, it refers to parking allocations only.

I may or may not purchase a Ford Lightning, but if nothing else I can at least pass along my vote of confidence in Dons software, Happy New Year everyone.

 

[Tim Collins]

Of course you’re right, Rick, and correlation is not causation. However, it doesn’t alter the fact that we’ve seen a number of reports of strange AI behaviour recently (in sims from FSX to P3Dv5) and strange wingspan settings have been a running theme. Resetting them has often resulted in the behaviour returning to normal.

 

[=rk=]

A lot of people come here for clarity in the darkness. I myself read along in silence for the better part of that decade with little to add to the conversation. I feel that it is important for them that we establish what is known and understood. You and I know that the aircraft.cfg lists "wingspan" in several places, but do these people making reports of "often" know the same?

[General]
atc_type=
atc_model=
performance=
Wing span=
Length=
Height=
level speed=
Max. rate of climb=
Load factor=
ramp weight=
Service ceiling=
Total fuel=
Max. range=
Category=airplane

The above entries are arbitrary. The categories and their indicated values appear in the aircraft description only. They do not affect aircraft performance, but they do affect allocated parking for ATC.

[airplane_geometry]
wing_area= 184.000
wing_span= 31.500
wing_root_chord= 8.250
wing_dihedral= 1.000
wing_incidence= 0.000
wing_twist= 0.000
oswald_efficiency_factor= 0.700
wing_winglets_flag= 0
wing_sweep= 0.000
wing_pos_apex_lon= 1.500
wing_pos_apex_vert= -1.500
htail_area= 57.500
htail_span= 15.000
htail_pos_lon= -14.500
htail_pos_vert= 2.310
htail_incidence= -0.500
htail_sweep= 0.000
vtail_area= 47.000
vtail_span= 9.000
vtail_sweep= 30.000
vtail_pos_lon= -13.500
vtail_pos_vert= 2.800
elevator_area= 28.000
aileron_area= 26.000
rudder_area= 12.960
elevator_up_limit= 18.000
elevator_down_limit= 12.000
aileron_up_limit= 25.000
aileron_down_limit= 25.000
rudder_limit= 25.000
elevator_trim_limit= 10.000
spoiler_limit= 45.000
spoilerons_available = 0
aileron_to_spoileron_gain = 3.000
min_ailerons_for_spoilerons = 10.000
min_flaps_for_spoilerons = 0.000
auto_spoiler_available=0
spoiler_extension_time=2.000000
positive_g_limit_flaps_up=10.000000
positive_g_limit_flaps_down=8.000000
negative_g_limit_flaps_up=-8.000000
negative_g_limit_flaps_down=-6.000000

These values do affect airplane performance and I would draw particular attention to the span value descriptor, "wing_span." It seems like the underscore might look incredibly arbitrarily in the mystery of the whole flight sim darkness and why doesn't my plane do what I want it to do. That is why it is up to us, those who know better to ask the important questions, or make those important distinctions. "You say your airplane flight characteristics changed after you changed the wingspan? Ok, did you change 'wing span,' in [general] or did you change 'wing_span' in [airplane_geometry]?"

It my belief that if we are unable to verify this important distinction, then it is incumbent for us to assume the person making the report would have made the distinction if they had been aware of it.

 

[Tim Collins]

If you're saying I'm not an expert in this, you're right! I certainly don't mean to mislead; I'm reporting what has been discussed over at MAIW when similar behaviour to the OP's report has been observed. The answers have come from those far better qualified than me to diagnose AI behaviours, and wingspan (or wing_span) has been a recurring issue when AI that previously behaved correctly starts misbehaving. That doesn't negate Martin's suggestion that contact points may be the cause - indeed, he's probably been part of those discussions at MAIW so is more likely to be on the right track. However, in the investigation of cause 'wing[_]span' is perhaps a factor that should be included for thoroughness.

 

[=rk=]

To be clear, AIFP does not change the airplane geometry section which controls AI behavior related to wingspan. If there are AI aircraft handling issues, AIFP is not party to them. AIFP only affects AI aircraft routing on the ground as related to the stated wingspan in the general category, but in actual fact, this amounts to only a preference. By the time an AI has made it into the parking circuit, the sim is going to park it regardless and if the preferred parking radius is unavailable, the sim will park it on top of another plane if it has to.

 

[tgibson]

I have found that sometimes the cause for bouncing is that the MOI values are set too low. They are in the Weight and Balance section of the aircraft.cfg file. Start by increasing them by a factor of 10 and see if it changes it. The reduce them until the bouncing starts again, and finally raise them just over that. If it makes no difference leave them at their current values.

 

[jyarddog]

Wonderful- What about its timing out half way back on the first leg of T & G ?

 

[tgibson]

I've never coded T&G so someone else will need to chime in.

 

[jyarddog]

Thanx Gib. It's working fairly well right now. IF MY computer doesn't blow up, the ai don't explode, if my grandmother doesn't die again. hahaha

 

[raymk]

I see. So some do ok - other are crap! hahaha! Also is there a trck to keep having to wait on the fuel truck to arrive? I wait till Labor Day for that thing! haha I do have push back turned off at the parking. Guess that's not enough. I wait forever for it to come by. It does, Plane takes off for a T & G half way around its pattern the plane disappears according to tools traffic exporter.

Still waiting for a fuel truck? Is there a lot of traffic about to depart airport?

You could try adding more "Fuel" parking spots around your aprons.

 

[jyarddog]

ray-could do that. For now I just ran my slider for airport vehicles to 0 for the time being. Remembered I could. Funny how we forget things now and then! hahaha thax