Hi,

I've been exploring a game based on German WW2 night fighters and was wondering if I could emulate some of the bombing runs between England and Germany (to then try and intercept the planes with a night fighter). I have the wings of power add on, of WW2 aircraft including Avro Lancaster bombers which are user planes. So what I would need to do to "renact" these flights is incorporate them into the AI system and setup the runs. Although you can't shoot them down in FS2004 you could ram them if you can track them down.

Any one have a sense of if this is feasible and the steps involved. Currently I can't see how the program differentiates between user and AI aircraft or if you can use user aircraft in the AI system. All large AI aircraft in FS2004 are jets and no way you can chase them down.

thanks 

 

In general it is not advisable to use flyable aircraft as AI because of possible frame rate and/or stuttering issues whenever they come into view, even in total darkness. The external textures of flyable aircraft are just too complex, too many and too large. However, if you only have a very limited quantity of these flying around and your rig can handle it, then it may work for you without the said issues.

Good luck.

Hans

 

 

thanks Hans,

maybe I can make a copy of the aircraft and dumb it down to sort frame rates out. Its not clear to me how FS9 differentiates which is which. In other words how to make a user plane show up in the AI list, where to alter what to have FS9 pickup that its available.

regards

Colin

 

Colin, I would suggest looking into a program called GA Traffic by Markus Bruner, available here and at Flight Sim. It will find  your aircraft folder and you can choose  which ones to use for AI use. There is also an option to "make as an AI Plane" that  will reduce textures, and finally it can make random flight plans to all airports worldwide. 

Flight Simulator 2004 has huge abilities these days with modern computers which are far more pwerful than what existed in the days when it was first released.

You can use most non-AI aircraft for AI if you don't overdo it.

Be aware, though, that advanced models may have performance features that are incompatible. I have seen the odd aircraft that won't take off but continues in a straight line across the ground at the end of the runway, and indeed ones in the air that just won't turn in accordance with the controller's instructions and keep getting repeated instructions to change course.

Both can probably be fixed by exchanging the air files, or certain content of the aircraft.cfg with an aircraft that flies properly.

The answer on behaviour is to try it and see for yourself.

John

great source of information, thanks guys. Have downloaded GA Traffic but in the meantime I stumbled on https://militaryaiworks.com which have AI Avro Lancasters and B-17s AI aircraft already built.

So that should sort out that phase of the implementation. Then its a matter of setting up flight plans and maybe if you can even group a few of them. Its an interesting thing to look under the hood at how the aircraft are put together in the SDK.

once again thanks.

by the way I'm running FS9 because I've got an underpowered laptop hooked up to my HDTV.  A system put together out of left over parts, so I probably will have to scrimp on CPU grunt in the process but its more fun that my PS4 where everything on its pre-assembled.

 

On November-09-19 at 1:24 PM, hjwalter said:

In general it is not advisable to use flyable aircraft as AI because of possible frame rate and/or stuttering issues whenever they come into view, even in total darkness. The external textures of flyable aircraft are just too complex, too many and too large. However, if you only have a very limited quantity of these flying around and your rig can handle it, then it may work for you without the said issues.

Good luck.

Hans

 

 

theres no way thats true, ive been using flyable aircraft for nearly 18 years and rarly do i see a frame rate drop at all! i would vouch for its ok to do that!!

theres never been anyone putting out  info about any risks at all...

On 11/25/2019 at 3:12 PM, darrenvox said:

theres no way thats true, ive been using flyable aircraft for nearly 18 years and rarly do i see a frame rate drop at all! i would vouch for its ok to do that!!

theres never been anyone putting out  info about any risks at all...

If what you are saying would in any way be true, then why do far more simplified AI aircraft, mostly incorporating single, simplified and mipped external textures, even exist ?

I think that the best thing to do now is to agree that we definitely do not agree.

Cheers

Hans

On 11/7/2019 at 10:32 PM, Colcam said:

Hi,

I've been exploring a game based on German WW2 night fighters and was wondering if I could emulate some of the bombing runs between England and Germany (to then try and intercept the planes with a night fighter). I have the wings of power add on, of WW2 aircraft including Avro Lancaster bombers which are user planes. So what I would need to do to "renact" these flights is incorporate them into the AI system and setup the runs. Although you can't shoot them down in FS2004 you could ram them if you can track them down.

Any one have a sense of if this is feasible and the steps involved. Currently I can't see how the program differentiates between user and AI aircraft or if you can use user aircraft in the AI system. All large AI aircraft in FS2004 are jets and no way you can chase them down.

thanks 

 

 

Hi.

No reason why your planes can't fly from say Earl's Colne to Berlin but I think AI fly great circle routes so you probably can't add waypoints. That means they won't fly Earl's Colne - Groningen - Szczecin - half way to Dresden - turn west for Berlin to confuse the enemy. You might also consider sending them a little further -- say to Poznan -- to keep them at the right altitude over target.

I guess you could make a big gaggle if you made flight plans for a few dozen bombers taking off within minutes of each other for the same destination.

I have, on an underendowed XP machine, had severe framerate hits with some high poly count AI and with some user aircraft but I think any modern machine should be able to handle them perfectly well. User planes as AI sometimes suffer from weight & balance making them act oddly when landing but that's not really significant in your case.

As far as intercepting goes, I spend a good deal of time off one wing or other of AI planes just following them around so provided you can actually find the enemy on a foggy moonless night interception could be great fun. You could use a TCAS gauge as an airborne interception radar...

If you do manage to set everything up, let us know how it all went; it's a fascinating idea.

D

edit: there are fireworks effects available. Some years ago I added lots to some favourite locations for New Year and as I recall, it's possible to tweak them to explode at different altitudes so bombs and flak are a possibility.

Edited December 6, 20196 yr by Dave Morgan
adding colour