AI Aircraft Editor for P3Dv3

[Firebird]

I was under the impression that force feedback was only useful for flyable aircraft as it feeds back info to a compatible joystick.
If I am missing something I am willing to learn.

[gsnde]

I believe the same, Steve. And I think there are some more comparable sections that are of nil use for an AI. Still these are part of the majority of AI configuration files.

If we can agree on a list of removables I build in a cleanup function.

From mobile hence short

[gsnde]

These are what I think might be removed:

Unsure about....

[hydraulic_system]
[vacuum_system]
[pneumatic_system]
[turboprop_engine]
[piston_engine]
[propeller]

Pretty confident....

[pitot_static]
[gear_warning_system]
[keyboard_response]
[direction_indicators]
[attitude_indicators]
[altimeters]
[turn_indicators]
[autopilot]
[forcefeedback]
[stall_warning]
[deice_system]
[magneticcompass]
[gpws]
[airspeed_indicators]
[pressurization]
[variometers]
[yaw_string]
[water ballast system]
[anemometers]
[realismconstants]
[antidetonation system.n]
[nitrous system.n]
[voicealerts]

I would like to hear your point of view and from the developers their experience. Is any of the above listed sections ever used by you for an AI aircraft by purpose?

The whole idea of this exercise is this: some of these sections are quiet long. If they don't make any use and if we can get rid of them without any negative impact, the aircraft.cfg file will be considerable smaller and at least much easier to read - in total even a light loading improvement might occur.

[Firebird]

You might have an idea there, Martin, but what happens for people that use the tool to check their flyable birds?
Although it was maybe designed for AI it is perfectly suitable for checking flyables. They could accidentally remove useful sections for those aircraft.

[gsnde]

It's already in and clearly states AI only, Steve. But I would very much appreciate some comments regarding my removal candidates.

From mobile hence short

[Firebird]

Of a quick check of the ones you are unsure about you need them all with the possible exception of [vacuum_system].

The easiest way for you to tell about the others might be to simply backup a folder of well-known and trusted AI aircraft and then trim the cfg file. Then see if it acts differently.

It may not be ideal but it does somehow seem to hark back to the test pilot days post-WWII.

What I would request is that all comments are left in, a real boon for us developers.

A lot of these sections have defaults so in many cases even though you remove them there is still a default and this is where you might get the weird things happening in tests.
An example of what I mean is that in the [pitot_static] section there is one parm, vertical_speed_time_constant, which if you remove the section will be set to 2. On this one not so bad but others might be more critical.

I have never spent time trying to work out what is required and what isn't but I can do some testing if you wish. My gut feeling has also been to leave things alone unless you need to alter it.

[gsnde]

What I would request is that all comments are left in, a real boon for us developers.

This is happening already, Steve
Although I took the liberty to align them at the same column....

I have a bit of testing to do right now as you can imagine and still some more parts are being done. So if you feel like helping me to find out if the above sections can be removed I would be more than happy.

I will release a beta here when I have completed everything open except of the "analyze all aircraft below" function.

That should not take so much longer now.

[Firebird]

When you need help testing I shall help.

[gsnde]

Hi Martin,

I'm using P3D v3.4.18.19475, and my airlines.cfg is located in c:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3

I haven't moved that file at all, this is where it installed by default for me.

Would be really grateful if you can fix this.

New version is looking very good!

Many thanks
Jack

Confirmed and considered now.....

[gsnde]

Just for me to make sure I understand it correctly. If an airline is provided in the aircraft.cfg as atc_airline and is also included in the airlines.cfg, then the simulator can and will use it - or not?

And where again comes EditVoicePack into the game?

[Firebird]

I am not too sure there on the exact nature of everything, Martin.

What I do know is that I have never updated airlines.cfg and my aircraft callsigns, atc_airline always shows up in game on labels. I also know that unless a word or phrase has been compiled into, in my case USEnglishBig.gvp, the callsign never gets heard.

This is why I have never used the airlines.cfg.

I tried to find the use of that file and it seems that it has none since FS9. One quote I found was :-

"Just for the sake of general information...The "airlines.cfg" file in both FS9 and FSX has one -and only one - purpose......it is the source file for the drop-down box in the aircraft selection user interface. Period.Of course, just because a particular name is in the list doesn't mean it will work! You have to have the exact same name in the sim's voicepack file"

This would seem to back up what I found. I am guessing that anybody can double-check this by either replacing there current file with the original or renaming their current one and see if a new one is generated and whether it has any effect on atc comms in game whatsoever.

Unless somebody has a reason to contradict what I believe, I would ignore airlines.cfg completely and keep your code smaller.

If anybody wants to check with a clean file I have attached my one here.

[Greg]

I can confirm that without testing, Steve. A similar explanation used to be in the EVP manual but I can no longer find it.

[gsnde]

I should have asked before coding.... I should have asked before coding... I should have asked......

Alright, the routines I have made I will need for the simobjects folders anyway.....

May I ask for a FSX.cfg file and if possible a Prepar3d.cfg file from version 1 and version 2.

Thanks a lot!

[Firebird]

It's OK Martin. it seems a lot of people were not aware that it's use had been deprecated in FS9.

[gsnde]

Don't make me beg.... Nobody has an FSX.cfg or Prepar3d.cfg from V1 and V2 for me?

[John Young]

Martin, just to be clear what you are asking for - is that the default FSX.cfg file?

John

[gsnde]

Yes, John. That would be what I need. I have only P3Dv3 installed which is a tad sub-optimal when coding for the other sims.
But I know what is where pretty good. Still when grabbing information from the files I like to test with the real thing.

From mobile hence short

[gsnde]

By the way... It must not be the unchanged default one. In fact I would prefer a used one.

From mobile hence short

[gsnde]

So that you see it is really moving along...

There is only one thing to be added before I give it to you for beta test: the shortcut to the aircraft folders via the simobjects paths (therefore I need above mentioned configuration files).

The model viewer component is still a bit flaky. I am working with Arno on this one. The coding is done, but while it keeps crashing from time to time I keep it disabled. But I expect it to be fixed anytime now.

Not available in the initial release is the analysis function (analyze aircraft & analyze all aircraft below). This will be in the first update, and beforehand I like to discuss with you what should be tested.

A cool new feature is 'Format aircraft.cfg'. Running this will delete all invalid lines (= everything which is neither section ([xxx]), key (xxx=yyy) or comment (//....). If the other rarely used comment separator ';' is used, it will be converted to "//". All comments are aligned at the same column. Each section is separated by the last section with exactly one empty line.

Who likes to participate in the beta test?

[Greg]

Count me in to test in P3D v3.4.