road traffic

[robystar]

Hi all,

Been experimenting a bit.
Just found out that with a program called AIBTC you can solve some problems with AI ships (and provoking others, but so be it).
Then I thought of experimenting a bit further and try to apply this procedure to ground vehicles.
And yes, they do appear where they should.
Unfortunately they disappear again after a couple of minutes.
Of course I know it is not the standard procedure for creating freeway traffic plus their tracks but I just wanted to try it.
The fact that do do appear though, makes me wonder if it would be possible to create road traffic with custom vehicles using the kind of program AIBTC is and forego the complicated manner in which freeway traffic must be made.
Just a thought for someone with more programming experience than I have.

 

[FlyingMasterChef]

Hey Roby,

That is a tool I would LOVE to have. But not for highway traffic, though that would be very much useful in the future for me I think, but rather, for controlling airport vehicles that I want driving around.

I am amazed, actually, at the types and variety of vehicles that fsx has tooling around my airport. Pickup trucks, mini-vans, fuel looking trucks, fire engines, baggage carts, and I would swear I even saw a forklift cruising around once... I, however, would love to get my own vehicles running around. Maybe run my security vehicles around the roads of the airport and check out buildings on a schedule. Have my ambulance makes some runs now and then. Have my construction and cargo vehicles move occasionally, to give some life to that part of the airport.

So, if anyone makes a tool for just this purpose, or if the one you talk about can be used for this at all, I would love to know... The vehicles I want to move are NOT animated models, so they may actually look stupid cruising around...but then again, it would be something until I find animated (AI) models of that type.

- Greg

 

[GHD]

Just add your models to Simobjects\GroundVehicles (they do need a sim.cfg)

 

[robystar]

George,

It is a pity you are answering Greg's wish.
I already have dozens of vehicles driving around my airport.
But I wanted to have them drive overland from say London to Inverness in a way of speaking, same as a vessel would be doing by sea.
Using AIBTC does not seem to work for vehicles.
Greg, All library objects can be used as AI models. As George said, put the mdl in a model folder together with a model.cfg, a texture folder and add a sim.cfg.
But you can also add an aircraft.cfg and an .air file, draw a vehicle path you want the vehicle to use and make a flightplan for it.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Freeway traffic can be easily made with SBuilderX. Just draw adjacent lines... one for each direction of travel. Assign freewaytraffic as the type in the lines properties, one with the direction T and the other with the direction F, and assign the number of lanes to each.

B ( both ) does not work in FSX.

The roads themselves need yet another line, assigned as the type of road needed. But, traffic works independently of roads.

Dick

 

[robystar]

Thank you Dick,

I will definitely check it out. Just downloaded the program but I guess I will have to get acquainted with the workings first.

 

[FlyingMasterChef]

Greg, All library objects can be used as AI models. As George said, put the mdl in a model folder together with a model.cfg, a texture folder and add a sim.cfg.
But you can also add an aircraft.cfg and an .air file, draw a vehicle path you want the vehicle to use and make a flightplan for it.

Ok..that's simple enough.. except that I have no clue what you just said. LOL

As I have NO CLUE how to make those files, I wouldn't know what to use for what.

And how do you make a flightplan for using a vehicle path?? I kid you not, looking at this stuff has given me a nice headache.

heh, you know, I must say, ... I am NOT a stupid person. I have 2 degrees, one of which is in aeronautical engineering. But sometimes, when I do this stuff, I feel like a total idiot!!! LOL At least I can laugh about it...

So, if anyone wants to help me make or learn how to do this stuff...I would be very grateful.

Thanks!

- Greg

 

[robystar]

I am not good at teaching but here is how I would do it.
Suppose you want an ambulance to drive from its garage to the terminal and back every 2 hours.
Choose a model, be it an AI craft or a library object.
If it is a library object, decompile it with bgl2xml .
Make a new folder called ambulance with subfolders model and texture and add an .air file and an aircraft.cfg (use an existing one from a road vehicle).
(the mdl goes into the model folder, the textures of this ambulance should go to the texture folder or a texture.cfg should give the path to where the textures are to be found). You have now created a new simobject.
Now open your airport with ADE and make an overlay airport for your vehicle traffic, adding runway, invisible apron paths, tower and parking.
Next you use your AI traffic program to make a flightplan for your ambulance.
For instance
AC#6147,NLAPC,5%,2Hr,IFR,00:04:00,TNG00:35:59,000,F,0011,OAT2,00:50:49,TNG01:32:49,000,F,0011,OAT2
(I made it a tng because the vehicle does not have to go to another airport).
Other things:
Reduce the engine power in the aircraft.cfg to prevent the vehicle from ‘taking off’.
Build your (invisible)runway underneath the terminal for instance.
You can add some effects or lights to the aircraft.cfg.
The above is no airport vehicle traffic but AI traffic that can be scheduled to run whenever and wherever you want it to.
Attached is a screenshot of some AI vehicles driving around a military desert ‘airport’ to show you what can be done (actually, they are parked right now).

 

[robystar]

Oh,
And to come back to the initial item:
I would like to have this kind of ground traffic drive along a long distance GE kml track from A to B whereby, just like with AIBTC boat traffic, the traffic remains visible all the way.

 

[robystar]

Update!
It works! (Well, more or less)
I used AIBTC to create (off) road traffic.
I did a couple of things (and I am not sure if all that I did was necessary or not).
I created the KML route following the normal procedure for AIBTC boat traffic, using ferry as terminal type.
I used a new vehicle model and an existing vehicle sim.cfg.
I went to the SDK/environment kit/ traffic toolbox and changed the fs10 boattypes ferry 1 and 2 entry for autoschedule to 'no'.
The only things that are still a mystery are that when you change the speed (e.g. from 20 to 15) the vehicle does not show up anymore. Also the vehicle appears but then disappears if time is set before the scheduled departure time. But if you set your time later (doesn't matter how much) you can find the vehicle somewhere along its track.
If somebody experimented with this as well, I'd appreciate his findings.

PS the SbuilderX freeway traffic method was not what I was after as (as far as I understand) it is not customizable and would generate all kinds of traffic for the whole region and not only my traffic along this particular track.

 

[GHD]

I went to the SDK/environment kit/ traffic toolbox and changed the fs10 boattypes ferry 1 and 2 entry for autoschedule to 'no'.

Why? Isn't fs10.BoatTypes.csv used only by TDB?

 

[robystar]

Hi George.
Apparently you are right, once again.
I reset the autoschedule to yes and indeed it does not make any difference. The reason I thought it would, was that after making this change the vehicle stayed visible but that was (in hindsight) probably because I set the time differently. Remains the fact that contrary to boat traffic, vehicle traffic apparently does not stay visble if you set time before departure.
But perhaps it is due to the plan?
AC#1,bradl,65%,WEEK,0/04:20:49,0/10:37:02,7200,normal,ferry,3/05:20:49,3/11:37:02,7200,reverse,ferry
(0=monday by the way though fsx time and season says it is sunday).

 

[GHD]

Hi Roby,

I am testing your theories now and will report back ASAP.

 

[GHD]

Roby,

You must have a very long road if it takes 6 hours to complete the trip

I created a short track akong the north perimeter track at EGNT. Using the default fire truck and speed at 50mph, it did disappear as soon as it departed. However, I noticed that the trip time was only 1min 28secs.

Reducing the speed to 10mph gave a trip time of 7mins 21secs and I was able to follow it from start to end.

 

[BASys]

Hi Folks

Just some additional notes you may find useful.

No need to decompile any library,
call the model by one of -
- library title
- guid
- alias

See the existing simple model sim.cfg files.

You can also alias objects, audio, textures, etc.



Don't use an aircraft.cfg
as doing so requires more resources for associated systems.

Just use a sim.cfg to control what are only simple behaviours.

You can still add paints & models, as per an aircraft.cfg.
See SDK - Simulation Object Configuration Files



For land vehicles, use category=GroundVehicle

For water, use category=Boat
Vessels only work on water, (may possibly on totally flat ground),
certainly they run aground with elevation changes at shorelines.
You might get round this by adding wheel_radius.



You're not limited to -
CARGO, OIL, CRUISE, FERRY

You can designate any class name you wish.
Try ambulance, georges_ferraris, etc.



IIRC correctly,
Lamont's compiler will -
- Only support out & return, e.g. A to B to A
- Not support multi-leg journeys, e.g. A to B to C to A.



HTH
ATB
Paul

 

[robystar]

George,

Indeed I noticed that depending on the speed, the vehicle vanishes or not. Using a speed of 20 there was no problem at least not for the first half hour I followed the vehicle over hilly terrain. I have a long road for sure because the one I made runs from Camp Hollland in Tarin Kowt(OATN) to Kandahar (OAKN).

Paul,

I am not sure what you mean by not having to decompile a library.
In order to make a simobject you need a model (cfg and mdl), texture and a sim.cfg , (no airfile or aircraft.cfg because that does not seem to work)) but where do you get the mdl from if you do not decompile a library object?
Indeed you have to use a Groundvehicle sim.cfg because without the wheel radius it does not work either.
The ground vehicle does not seem to have big problems with uneven terrain.
The one I used for testing is a Bradley APC library object from an MCDC library (perhaps you know it) that I first ran through Arno's modelconverter.
I then added the firetruck sim.cfg and adapted the wheel radius.
For the AIBTC plan I used the type as ferry but maybe other types can be used as well.
As said before, two things still strike me as rather strange, namely the influence of the speed (as George experienced also) and the fact that the vehicle shows up but disappears again after a while when you start FS before the scheduled departure time of the vehicle, something which is not the case for boats.

 

[FlyingMasterChef]

Ok... Can I make a request. I have read this info several times, and maybe because I don't have some of these things right in front of me...I don't get it..

Could I beg you that do know to possible write a step by step tutorial. Above is pretty close, but it's lacking info about the required files. You say, use this file, not this kind. Ok.. why? What exactly is the file. Where do you find this file? What edits do you make? Why?

Something like that would be a dream for people like me...

Also, where to get the software, etc... Basically, (if you have some free time of course...) if you do something, write it down and if you add why you do it, that makes it even more useful info...

Thanks if you can...and if not, at least I asked...

- Greg

 

[GHD]

Could I beg you that do know to possible write a step by step tutorial.

All of the information is in the AIBTC help file. All you do is reference an entry from Simobjects\GroundVehicles rather than Simobjects\Boats.

Roby,

Once I reduced the speed to achieve a reasonable trip time, the object remained visible all of the time, ie. it never disappeared.

 

[robystar]

Did it also remain visible before departure time? Or did it disappear after some 30 seconds?
In the meantime (but today and yesterday are for once very nice summer days, so my time spent on FS was minimal) I found out that contrary to what is said in AIBTC, vehicles do keep their distance one from the other, be it somewhat big (and I do not know by what it is influenced, certainly not by the waypoints) and the interval between departures I set to 20 seconds only but it seems they increase their distance to one another after a while to some 300ft;
They are somewhat bumpy on uneven terrain but changing the wheel radius does not seem to have any effect at all (what is the wheel radius doing anyway?);
The problem is that you still have to set time to after departure for all vehicles to NOT disappear. The ones that have passed their departure time are visible and on schedule, but the others vanish and do not reappear;
Changing the category in the sim.cfg('s) from GroundVehicles to Boats makes all vehicles appear all the time but static (they do not want to move anymore);
As it would be nice to have those vehicles use some roads, be it only tracks, I tried to create some gravel roads for them underneath their tracks, but...
SbuilderX is no help in redrawing the roads to coincide with GE as (as far as am I am aware of) it only uses the background image and you would have to REdraw the whole track you already made in GE. At least, I have found no means to draw a line, make it a road and then use the GE waypoints to continue the road;
FSX KML does not let me tag the KML route to have an FSX road drawn underneath the KML path (for one reason or another);
In other words, for the time being, I am a bit LOST in the jungle of tools that have to be used and have not yet found a solution to the disappearing act of the vehicles before their departure time.
Trying to figure out what can be done to remedy those problems you inevitably find yourself wondering if some other things can be changed.
For example, I am a couple of miles way of the starting point of the vehicles, while following their tracks and behaviour and I see some AI heli's (TNG flightplans from the nearby airport I created) passing overhead but I would like them to do their circuit some 20 miles further out and not so close to the airport. And you start wondering how you change that. And so on and so on
Although frustrating at some times, that is what is so exciting about FS, at least if you can find an answer.

 

[GHD]

Did it also remain visible before departure time? Or did it disappear after some 30 seconds?

I have a 24hr repeat the first leg starts at 09:00:00 and the return leg at 13:00:00.

No matter what time I set in FSX, it is visible and never disappears.