Ai Photos

[rassy7]

Hi, I was looking at the photos on the main page's slideshow and I couldn't help but wonder how a few of them were taken. It seems a few shots have ai aircraft flying in formation (echelon). It also shows a few jets in what appear to be relatively steep banks. I can't seem to achieve either out of the built-in ai programming in FS. How are you making these things happen?

Any help would be great. Thanks,

~Josh

[aerogator]

The way I do it for the formation shots is wait at the destination airport until a group that you have programed to leave another airport gets close enough to be picked up with Traffic View Board and then I pan around until I get a grouping I want. Sometimes, however, all the a/c will be overlapping so you have to wait until they split up. The pros, like Mike MacIntyre, have other more sofisticated ways to do it and can control what the formation looks like even. Get the MAIW airshow to see what I mean.

As for the steep banks, what I've done sometimes is to actually fly that particular a/c. You may need to change the parameters in the .air file to get it to show up in the Aircraft Selection Menu using something like AirEd. It may not behave like a flyable a/c but you can usually make it do most things pretty well. I'm sure someone will chime in with a way to this that I've never thought of.

[f4nutter]

hi josh, the way i get some great AI shots is to do this..................

1/ go to a busy location
2/ as soon as you appear at the chosen airfield/airport press P for pause.
3/ now useing the CTRL W keys together you can scroll through the local (i think its 126 miles) AI aircraft.
4/ because FS9 will start AI together sometimes you can get some good shots before or just as they split or move apart.

i hope this will help you out a little bit

[MIKE JG]

I create most of the shots on the front page, honestly there's no real secret to it. The easiest way to get a specific shot is to simply make the AI aircraft you want into a flyable or more appropriately, a selectable aircraft via the FS9 aircraft menu.

To do that, you have to edit the chosen aircraft's .AIR file by using a program called "AIREd". Search for it on AVSIM or Flightsim and you should find it there.

Once you have that program installed, you can then open any aircraft's (AI included) .AIR file to alter the parameters within. There are a ton of things in there to choose and if you don't know what you're messing with, it's best to leave 99.9% of the entries alone. The one you CAN change without much of a problem is the entry that is usually near the very top and is titled "Aircraft Type=X". The X will be a 0-3 (I think) depending on what the model is. For AI aircraft, that entry is usually set to "2" to indicate its use as an AI model. Setting that value to "2" hides the AI model from the FS9 selection menu. If we change that value to a "0" that now makes the AI aircraft selectable through the menu allowing you to "fly" the AI model just like any other model. Be forewarned however that AI models do not handle like a normal flyable model will. This is due to the fact that they are used as AI only. Most notably, the aircraft react very sluggishly to control inputs which makes "flying" them difficult.

So once you have them as a selectable/flyable model, you can then position the AI model in any setting, angle, bank, etc. that you want to get a nice shot. This includes flying in formation with another AI model. However to do that, it is far easier to use a regular flyable model first to get into the proper formation position, then pause the sim and change to the AI model.

So there you have it, I've given up the secret of the shots on the front page. Now admittedly, those shots are meant to showcase the models and packages, so they are not always representative of what you will actually get with the packages themselves. So yes, they are mostly "staged" shots. Using something like Traffic View Board and waiting for the AI to get into a good position for a shot can take forever.

[rassy7]

Ahhh ... thanks for lettin' the cat out of the bag. I figured they had to be staged of some sort but just in case I was missing something, I thought I'd check. Sure appreciate the fast replies by the way. This forum is fast becoming one of my new favorites.

~Josh

[MIKE JG]

Just don't make any requests for specific AI models or packages......

(It's an inside joke around here....)

[rassy7]

Ha ha ha... done! Let me take it one step further and give ya a little help:

I, Josh, would hereby like to specifically request you, Military AI Works (MAIW), conduct business as usual, as routinely and non-specifically as possible, in the fashion chosen to be superior by the powers that be, elected to, through the courteously-provided MAIW channels, guide the privileged internet passersby, who by their own accords, navigated to MAIW content, to the Flight Simulator AI destinies pre-ordained to them.



~Josh

[Greg]

Haha I like that!

Can we make that an official oath everyone has to take before subscribing to the forums?

The Belgian Herky formation on the front page is, by the way, an actual AI shot. As Mike said, it can take some time before you get the shot you want though.

Greg

[delbydoo]

Can we make that an official oath everyone has to take before subscribing to the forums?

I second that.....

[aerogator]

Remember: He's killed women and children...

[Garysb]

The Belgian Herky formation on the front page is, by the way, an actual AI shot.

Greg

Greg
Do the BAF have more than one Herky bird or is that just wishfull thinking and AI licence

Just kidding

Gary

[MIKE JG]

Remember: He's killed women and children...

He once had an awkward moment, just to see what it felt like........

[james84]

The Belgian Herky formation

Aren't they Spanish?!?
Anyway, the real challenge would be a formation takeoff or landing!

[Greg]

James.

1. Look at where I'm from, look at my job, and look at my function here at MAIW. Now combine the three elements. Are they still Spanish?

2. Formation take-off and landing is not that hard to do but involves overlay AFD's with "invisible" runways put on top of the normal runway but slightly offset the centreline. It screws up your airfield's traffic flow if you like flying and not just watching AI though...

Greg

[rassy7]

Ya, I tried the formation landings thing once and couldn't even come close to success, eeekkkk. If you actually managed to make that work, my hat's off to ya! So much harder than it looks, ha ha.

~Josh