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SDK has holes

R

Rassy7

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unitedstates
Hi, in my last post I was referred to older posts so I went and looked at some archived posts. I found a lot of people, at least people at my level (beginner) saying the SDK didn't explain much. I also found many experts sayin just the opposite -- that the SDK was helpful and a great resource.

My take? I've read the SDK up, down and sideways and definitely side with the "Not helpful" group. I don't want to just sound like I'm frustrated and don't have patience to make the SDK useful so I'm going to give some examples. Hopefully someone can provide a little help for me after seeing it through my eyes here ...

This is the path I'm using to find the SDK manual/tutorial/glossary ... whatever you want to call it.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Mission Creation Kit

From here, I open the "Mission Creation" html document.

In the table of contents, I'm clicking on "TakeoffAI Object" under the group "AI Object".

Here is the entire listing:

TakeoffAI Object

Takeoff AI objects are referenced by AircraftAI objects.

Property Description
AITakeoffMode One of: None, Init, Start_Rolling, Rolling, or Airborne.

My argument is that while it acurately reflects the options one can expect to find, it doesn't explain the difference between None, Init, Start_Rolling, Rolling, or Airborne. Nor does it give an example of a situation when one might be better than the other. It doesn't tell us what the computer is interpreting when we select one of the options so we don't know what we are telling an aircraft to do by selecting it.

I agree, in terms of what options to expect and if you're looking for a very brief description of some section heads, the SDK is wonderful. If you're trying to "understand" a very complex mission-building process, it's mostly useless.

If anyone knows of a place where the SDK options and functions are explained, not just briefly defined, please let me know as I am having considerable trouble with what seems to be and endless game of trial and error combined with educated guessing.

Thanks again, :)

Josh
 
Josh, I understand your complaints, but as I wrote before, if the SDK says nothing about something it's most likely that this something does not exist or is useless. :D

That is (afaIk) the case with the AITakeOffMode.

Paul, myself and very few others were the first to work on missions, maybe even before fsx was released. So there was no help anywhere. We had to figure out things all by ourself. that was quite frustrating, because we saw lots of things and thought "cool" - but after trying to find out why it didn't work we figured it was some non-functional setting. There are quite a lot of settings in the OPT that cannot be used. There was just not enough time for ACES to build everything they wanted in the first place (that's the story how I know it).

Now, as there are some developers, who went through the do-it-yourself-procedure 2 years ago, we have created this forum and the wiki and tried to put as much information as we can give into it.
I agree that the SDK is not a very good step-by-step manual, but it helps a lot. (and as I said: it was the only source of help for some of us, so it must contain some useful stuff :D )
We try to assist developers in all of their problems, so fire away. But reading through the complete mission building SDK isn't such a bad idea too. :)
 
Ok, well, I'm both glad I read the SDK and happy about your post because I don't feel so stupid now, knowing other people experienced success without or with limited SDK use -- "do-it-yourself" method I mean. I'll keep pluggin away and finding out as much as I can myself then and post any additional questions I have on this forum.

In the interest of saving some time, you mentioned some things in OPT didn't work, or weren't really used (needed) much ... If there are any off the top of your head that you can think of, could you post them so I don't spend a ton of time trying to make them work. Also, by contrast, if there are functions you use a lot or modes or states etc. could you post them as well so I can experiment around with them. AI stuff is specifically what I'm having trouble with currently, if you have any thoughts.

Thanks for your post,
Josh
 
AI is very limited. The only important things are waypoints (with target speeds), "EngineStarted" and of course "activated".
Placing an AI aircraft needs the AI object to be set to "airplane" (actually only airplane and groundvehicle work afaIk) and mus at least have one waypoint or the mission will not load.
Expand the waypoint- and other entries with double clicking. It needs some time to learn how the OPT wants to be treated, but I guess that's the same for most tools.
Just ignore all other settings for the moment, assign some waypoints and test the mission. You'll see: it works fine. ;)
 
PERFECT!! That last post was exactly what I was looking for. I'm guessing that post alone saved me about 6 hours of confusing trial and error, ha ha.

Thanks,
Josh
 
Hi Folks

Rassy7 -
By themselves
the SDK documentation explanations may be of limited value,
but
when coupled with the sample mission code,
all items and methods are covered.



Have a look at the Caribbean Landing mission,
which includes 2 AI aircraft.
see -
SDK\Mission Creation Kit\Mission Samples\Airline Pilot\Caribbean\Caribbean.xml



Certainly recommend vieving it in Jim Keir's excellent FSX Mission Editor,
as you'll be able to get to grips with the node relationships,
far quicker than using the OPT.

FSXME is free, with restricted functionality.
Purchasing a key, unlocks the additional functionality.



HTH
ATB
Paul
 
Another tip I mentioned before, I use a simple test mission to experiment with. I learned much by just trying things without having to worry about messing up the mission I am working on.

I also use FSX Mission Editor. It's a great utility for mission making.

Gunner
 
I see. I'll look at that mission. It's becoming apparent that get a copy of FSXME would be GREAT for learning. Speed up the process at least. I'll see about that and check out the Carribean XML.

I did a little work the other night testing some AI stuff out and I gave the aircraft waypoints, actually got it to taxi to the runway and takeoff and follow a couple waypoints but then ran into a problem. The jet entered a turn and slowly dove into the ground. I'm thinking either my waypoints would have driven the jet to turn too tightly or a slow target speed might have cause it to slip down. I'm not familiar enough with the AI engine to know exactly but I'm slowly figuring it out. It's ironic because everytime it crashed, it looks just like the B-52 crash at Fairchild and I'm actually using Fairchild to test.
 
So it was perfectly normal behaviour. :D

AI aircraft will afaIk not get into trouble because of too much banking. Quite the opposite: their turns are so wide, it's a pita to make them do what you want if the terrain delivers limited options (for example in the Alps).
IT's more likely you forgot to set a target height (by default waypoints are +0ft AGL) or the target speed was indeed too low.
 
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