Military AI Works

Hi,

though I seldom fly in the area, I decided to install Dmytro Ryaboshapka aka Maxim Galkov's Ukranian flightplans from the Downloads Section.

I am working my way through it - a lot of hard work for me - but undoubtedly a rather huge amount of hard work for the author!

Checking out the installed flightplans later I discover that quite a few of the airports are grown over with trees, even after installing the new versions from the package, as per images of the new UKBC





What actually causes trees to appear at random spots in airports?

Is it some other scenery that I have installed on my version of FS2004 that makes them turn up?

If I had a brand new installation of FS2004 would they still be there?

From what I can see, AI will not be upset by these trees - they appear to ignore them completely.

It doesn't look well though, and if there was an easy 'global' fix, ie not a flatten for each airport (I have never managed to do that either!!), I would definitely try it.

Thanks

Walter

I am going to guess that airport is non stock. The trees are autogen objects, that is, the game fills them in automatically depending on the landclass unless there is something telling them to not be there. Most airports have a texture polygon underneath them (grass, sand etc.) that prevents autogen. I can see in the bottom photo that there is no background polygon for that airport, so there will be autogen there. The easiest solution would be to make a quick background polygon in Sbuilder.

If these are default airports doing that, that's a problem.

*Edit*

Having looked at the download file, there are a lot of VTPP files in the folder MG_Afcads/Andrei Anta Scenerys. Those VTPP files are what would contain the background polys. Make sure you have those installed.

Thanks, Clickclickdoh.

I found that UKBC had no VTPP file so I went for an airport that had such a file - UKBA -but the airfield maintenance personnel must be on strike there too because trees were all over the place...

As regards me getting into SBuilder to create VTPP files - I doubt it. I have tried Flattex unsuccessfully. I have used ObjectPlacer but at times yachts ended up on hills instead of in lakes - another unsuccessful venture overall. I have also used Lee Swordy's AFCAD to add parking spaces and taxiways at some airports, so as to see AI working, but that seems to be the limit of my expertise (despite 35 years in commercial computing!).

I guess I will finish off the flight plans for Ukraine but avoid landing at any of their smaller airports...

Thanks

Walter

If you want to get rid of the trees over the entire airfield then you can use ADE or AFX to create an exclude that covers the area and exclude autogen.
That is very quick and simple to do. If you want trees in some areas but not others then that is trickier but you just have to make smaller excludes.

Hi Walter

I have just had a look at my system and found the same point of space you showed in your second picture. On my system
there were no trees in the way. Can you confirm that the scenery you are using is "ukraine-1.zip" as this does have the
required "UKBC_VTPL.BGL" & "UKBC_VTPP.BGL" files in the .zip.

There are also follow-on files to add the rest of the Ukraine airports:
ukraine03.zip
ukraine04.zip
ukraine05.zip
ukraine06.zip

Regards

Hi Pete, thanks for doing that. It shows me where I might well have a problem, especially with UKBC.

I thought I had followed the instructions to the letter as detailed below:

Download and install from flightsim.com files: ukraine-1.zip , ukraine01.zip ,
ukraine02.zip , ukraine03.zip , ukraine04.zip , ukraine05.zip , ukraine06.zip

Then remove files:

AF2_UKBA.bgl, AF2_UKBC.bgl, AF2_UKBD.bgl, AF2_UKBG.bgl, AF2_UKBM.bgl, AF2_UKBN.bgl,
AF2_UKBP.bgl, AF2_UKCK.bgl, AF2_UKDA.bgl, AF2_UKDC.bgl, AF2_UKDO.bgl, AF2_UKHJ.bgl,
AF2_UKHK.bgl, AF2_UKHT.bgl, AF2_UKKB.bgl, AF2_UKKQ.bgl, AF2_UKKU.bgl, AF2_UKKW.bgl,
AF2_UKLA.bgl, AF2_UKLB.bgl, AF2_UKLC.bgl, AF2_UKLD.bgl, AF2_UKLE.bgl, AF2_UKLG.bgl,
AF2_UKLO.bgl, AF2_UKLS.bgl, AF2_UKLV.bgl, AF2_UKLW.bgl, AF2_UKOA.bgl, AF2_UKOD.bgl,
AF2_UKOE.bgl, AF2_UKOG.bgl, AF2_UKOK.bgl, AF2_UKOL.bgl, AF2_UKOQ.bgl, AF2_UKOS.bgl,
AF2_UKOU.bgl, AF2_UKOW.bgl, AF2_UKRO.bgl, AF2_UKWS.bgl, AF2_XKKY.bgl, AF2_XKLS.bgl

and all UKBA, UKBA_xxx, UKBD, UKBD_xxx, UKBG, UKBG_xxx, UKBM, UKBM_xxx, UKBN, UKBN_xxx,
UKBP, UKBP_xxx, UKDA, UKDA_xxx, UKDO, UKDO_xxx, UKHK, UKHJ_xxx, UKHT, UKHT_xxx,
UKKQ, UKKQ_xxx, UKKU, UKKU_xxx, UKLV, UKLV_xxx, UKLW, UKLW_xxx, UKOA, UKOA_xxx,
UKOD, UKOD_xxx, UKOE, UKOE_xxx, UKOG, UKOG_xxx, UKOL, UKOL_xxx, UKOU, UKOU_xxx,
UKRO, UKRO_xxx, UKWS, UKWS_xxx, XKKY, XKKY_xxx, XKLS, XKLS_xxx

*** under _xxx means files like _Kaponer, LWM2, _VTPL, _VTPP etc

I took all of the zips and put the contents into the Ukraine folder in ADDON Scenery.

Then I removed all the files listed in the green section, but I also deleted all the -xxx files for the same airports. Now that you mention it, I notice that the list of airports in the blue section is not the same as the list in the green section

So tomorrow I shall repeat the installation but read the instructions more carefully

I will then test it all and let the world know what an idiot I can be at times (most of the time, actually).

Thanks again

Walter

Hope you find the problem. Bringing this up has made me realize that I was missing one of the downloads (ukraine01.zip)
so have now added that to the Ukraine folder. Be aware that there are a couple of AF2 files that have badly placed
Hold-short markers. Easy enough to amend in your preferred AFD program.

Now checking all the other AF2 files in that folder (OCD hits again)

Hi Pete,

how quickly and easily our hopes can be risen and then dashed...

I removed my current slightly dysfunctional ukraine scenery from ADDON and then followed the instructions (this time to the very letter!) to install from the downloaded files.

I then loaded up FS2004.

I then created a flight from UKBC which launched, leaving me sitting on the runway facing a massive forest of trees, and then crashed the flight, I think an angry tree jumped on me (not even a chance to take an image of the greenery!).

Maybe I will cross the Ukraine off my bucket list...

Thanks

Walter

This has now got me intrigued !!

I have not yet installed the Ukraine Flightplans/scenery, but I will now to see what happens.

As far as the original Andrey Anta scenery is concerned I have had a look through and have the following AF2 files with
"Hold Short" errors:

UKDK UKDN UKDW UKDZ UKFL UKFX UKFZ UKHE UKHG UKHJ
UKHK UKHP UKKB UKKD UKKH UKKL UKKW UKKY UKLD UKLG
UKLK UKLS UKLV UKOC UKOI UKOJ UKOL UKOM UKOS UKOY
UKRO UKRS UKRW UKWH UKWP UKWS UKWV XKFB XKFP XKLS

When I started amending the above AF2 files in AFCAD I came across various other problems (Mainly isolated parking)
so have decided to check all of the other AF2 files again.

The following AF2 files were not Checked (Newer scenery installed)
UKBM
UKCS

I will probably try and install the new Plans/Scenery on Sunday/Monday as I have a previous engagement at Welford road
tomorrow afternoon.

Regards

Ok

Installed the scenery files and started a flight from UKBC and several other locations both new and original airfields and
no trees impeding my view. have attached a list of the files in my Ukraine/Scenery folder to show how yours should look.
There are a couple of anomalies as I have installed some updated scenery for Ukraine. If you have the same files then
there is probably another scenery which is causing the problem. Is this happening at other airfields or just UKBC ??

Pete, thanks for going to all this effort...

Without examining the list in great detail as yet, it looks quite similar to my own folder. I will check it thoroughly tomorrow.

I did go down through the first (18) airports in the list and created a flight to each one.

Only three of them (UKCQ, UKCW and UKCY) would be anywhere near what I would expect an airport to be.

All others had trees on runways and/or aprons, sunken portions of runways and some had start points apparently way outside of the airport boundaries... one (UKCV) had the parked aircraft floating a couple of feet above the apron.

I wish you all the best at Welford Road, I presume you are watching Liverpool playing your favourite team on a big screen.

Thanks

Walter

Walter, If you are still seeing autogen trees then it can only be another scenery that is interfering with Your Ukraine folder.
It becomes a process of elimination to find which one it is. Copy your "scenery.cfg" file to somewhere safe and then remove
entries until you find the culprit. A very good tool to help this process is Scenery Align which organizes your scenery.cfg file
entries into numerical order. Filename: scnaln.zip found on Avsim.

This should at least let you find the offending files and then you can make a decision on what you wish to keep.

Welford road is the home of Leicester Tigers, the finest Rugby Union team in the land (only slight bias) and its the first home
game of the season. I hope to be enjoying my team swat the Wasps who are our visitors this afternoon. I have little time
or patience with the round-ball game due to the histrionics and lack of respect shown by both players and managers. Although
I was happy to applaud the efforts of LCFC last season.

You really should consider doing an exclusion with ADE. It's pretty good at removing autogen trees.

Just in case anyone thinks I have gone away...

I 'looked at' SBuilder and ADE - decided they were way beyond my capabilities.

I was researching autogen trees and airports when someone mentioned ExcBuilder.

So I looked at that and all seemed rather easy.

Tried it and ran into immediate troubles - all caused by having to run it as administrator.

Finally got it to work and have tried it on UKBA and UKBC so far - with great success - no more wayward tree planting!

2 down only about 170 more to go

Maybe now that I have proved to myself that I can do it if I really want to, perhaps Ukraine airports and their autogen trees can be put on the back-burner...

Thanks to all who helped.

And I sincerely hope that the Tigers get their revenge on the Wasps at some stage, very soon.

Thanks

Walter