Military AI Works

Just out of interest I was tweaking an aircraft and these entries caught my eye in the autopilot section:

nav_proportional_control=9.00
nav_integrator_control=0.25
nav_derivative_control=0.00
nav_integrator_boundary=2.50
nav_derivative_boundary=0.00
gs_proportional_control=9.52
gs_integrator_control=0.26
gs_derivative_control=0.00
gs_integrator_boundary=0.70
gs_derivative_boundary=0.00

Does anybody know what they are for and what they do?

I read on another search that the AI aircraft doesn't use the autopilot section in the cfg, so I edited it out and did a test flight and it seemed to fly OK, that is something else I didn't know.

Its bit the the fuel section. AI aircraft don't burn fuel but the fuel weight does count. So people who dabble in fde work use the distribution of the fuel and weight use it to help balance the aircraft.

Hi Steve, Re the weight and balance of the aircraft was the part I was tweaking funny enough.
I had an aircraft that was taking off like like a helicopter almost hardly a run and it was up, so I was changing the weight till i got it to take a more realistic run, I was reading that the AI aircraft only use the EMPTY weight not the MAX.

Another interesting thing about the 'autopilot section' after I edited it out the aircraft seemed to fly OK but I looked at the cfg again this morning and it was re-written back in, but some of the details were different, so does the sim automatically find the best parameters to suit the aircraft or what?

Just to add: I only edited it out using the forward slashes // by the way, I didn't delete anything.

Sorry I have only just seen this post.
There are certain sections that will be automatically generated if they do not exist plus some that are created from the .air file.

If you want the entire list you could try a test. Copy the aircraft.cfg to a safe place and then delete everything but fltsim entries from the live aircraft.cfg file.

Once you load up FS9 to a base where you have that aircraft the sections will have been generated in the aircraft.cfg

I tried what you said Steve and this is what happened, this is all that was re-written:

[General]
atc_type=Airbus
atc_model=A321
performance=„q‘¬“x\t\tƒ}ƒbƒn .74\nÅ‘åq‘±‹——£\t2,059 ŠC—¢\nŽÀ—pã¸ŒÀ“x\t36,089 ƒtƒB[ƒg\nÅ‘å—£—¤d—Ê\t138,500 ƒ|ƒ“ƒh\nÀÈ”\t\t147 ` 168\n‰Ý•¨—e—Ê\t\t1,373 —§•ûƒtƒB[ƒg\n

Well mine was a lot different.
When FS9 loaded it only wrote the general section but when I went into the game at an airfield a whole bunch of sections get written. That does not look kosher at all.
If you like choose an AI aircraft and I will send you the entries created.

Yes you were right Steve, I even saw the A/C flying but very jerky lol, this is what was re-written:

General, Weight & Balance, Fuel, A/C Geometry, Contact Points (but not complete), Brakes, Flaps0, General Eng Data, Keyboard Response, Views, Autopilot, Hydraulic Sys, Stall Warning, Turn Indicators.

Intersting test.

This has now got me puzzled, So did the FS get the information from the Air File? If so what about aircraft that are using other air files from different aircraft and they fly perfect, or am I on the wrong track?

The cfg file overrides some but not all of the air file parms.
Most fde writers start with an AI fde that is close to the performance that they want. Originally these were the MS AI fdes, typically the 737, lear and King Air.
Then they mod the cfg file to fit their needs and only mod the air file when they have to.

Some parms have defaults, which you will find in the Aircraft Container sdk. So you may find, as I have not gone in and studied this, that it will add the default parms in various sections. It may also take into consideration what is in the air file.

I've noticed the description part is rewritten on some AI aircraft I remove these to cut the crap out of cfg files.