MSFS20 ProjectAI Toolkit & PAI General News

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So I started work today on both a PC and Mac program to process data that I will be using to build a new ProjectAI back end for aircraft scheduling for AI systems.

I need to work on game design documents behind the scenes to map out functionality, but the back end will be able to feed an entire ecosystem across numerous sim platforms.

I won't go into too many specifics as I need to keep some secret sauce secret, but basically it's a database builder to build worldwide AI traffic as real to life as possible.

Setting this up will allow for standardized datasets for all forms of moving traffic across the board and conceivably across various simulation platforms.

So many have developed tools in the past where new simulators come out and the old development tools are abandoned, people leave the community or sadly pass away.

The goal of PAI Toolkit is to be a bridge between commercial and freeware development in a way that is intuitive, follows a set of standardized rules and procedures and can be import once, export to many formats.

I personally find it much easier developing in Swift on the Mac as it's so much more intuitive than C# .Net Windows Forms, but tonight I've actually been learning how to build my first windows app from scratch, took me 2 seconds on the Mac, took 2 hours on the PC lol.

 

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Day 2 - Building the back end...

Import Standards = to import all the ISO and ICAO standards for ISO Country Codes, ICAO Aircraft Designators, ICAO Airport Codes and ICAO Airline Codes
Import Civilian Fleets = to import databases of civil aircraft datasets from various countries such as types, names, registrations, serial numbers and more
Import Military Fleets = to import databases of military aircraft datasets from various countries such as types, names, aircraft numbers, serial numbers and more
Export Data = Exporting data in various formats, building streamlined datasets to be able to quickly build AI traffic databases for both offline and live traffic

I've placed the windows version on hold temporarily whilst I sort out program functionality, then I can port over to Win Forms C# .Net, it's just so much quicker to develop in Swift.

The goal is to be able to provide Standardized Traffic Databases for use with various simulators. Say you want AI Offline traffic for FS98, FS2000, FS2002, FS2004, FSX, P3D, MSFS users will be able to access this tool to build their datasets and also contribute to the database. Say you know an aircraft type and registration in a certain region operates out of a home airport of KEDW and it's used as a training aircraft, you can flag it and upload the info to update the database. I may lock down the back end so no-one who wants to do harm can mess up the database and all PAI user contributions will need to be approved by admins.

I need to get in and do the game design documents but I want to get basic functionality down first to test out my theory.

Stage 1 - gather mini aircraft fleet database
Stage 2 - set home airport
Stage 3 - find city pairs within range
Stage 4 - programatically design aircraft flight schedule
Stage 5 - build customname_aitraffic.bgl offline file

Beyond that there's also other methods and toolkits I want to add to the PAIToolkit so it's a one stop easy shop for all aspects of moving SimObjects in sim, whether it's vehicles, boats, animals etc.

Current Issues:

• Button codes not working on Import Fleets page
• Country database library needs to be separated from both civilian and military functions and optimize page loading
• Add intermediate step of build sim master SDK code
• Add Export Data to target sim

 

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As of today I have 6000 aircraft types catalogued with key metrics, including aircraft model, wingspan, length, height and cruise speeds, some data for rare aircraft are unknown, but basically every aircraft type most people know have the data.

Over time it will need to go through quality control to sign off on the accuracy of the data, but most aircraft type data comes from the world's most reliable source.

I was thinking tonight about the issue of parking. Back in FS2002 the radius was key to AI departing and parking and from memory turning around to get to the taxiway line. After pushback was introduced in FS2004 for AI one drawback was no drive through parking (if memory serves me correctly) and is still problematic to this day.

The old world radius settings for parking was originally based on aircraft wingspan, but now in MSFS there's a buffer around the parking radius for services such as pushback etc and aircraft can't park as close together as they can in real life now. I don't recall if I put it in to game design documents for Flight Simulator World, but I really believe that parking for aircraft would be better served now with wingspan and aircraft length. This would allow services in front of the aircraft as well as allowing aircraft to park wingtip to wingtip as close as they do in real life.

What would also be useful is an overhaul of the parking code system. Up until now it has been limited to 4 characters for airline code, what would work more effectively is a combination of Aircraft ICAO code, ICAO Airline Code (and another value that slips my mind right now at 1am).

Also I did write in the game design documents for FSW that it will be helpful to be able to have taxiways marked as high speed taxiways as per real life to help AI traffic at major airports exit the runways as fast as possible. Thankfully they did include taxiway weight limits into the sim, but I'm not 100% sure if that happened on Dovetail's end or if Asobo implemented it.

Anyway enough vision building for tonight, I need to get another 1000 aircraft encoded to the database of PAI Toolkit.