Any AI Watchers and Followers Question

This has bothered me for ages and I keep meaning to ask so here goes.

 

When following an ai aircraft I always get on most of the aircraft I'm following they sway to the side then back again sometimes swaying to the other side every so often, it looks like they are doing a turn (dipping their wings) but they are not they go back on track again.

I'm wondering if there is anything in the cfg that will eliminate this, perhaps in the pitch and roll settings, any ideas?

You could try increasing the aileron effectiveness scalar in the Flight Tuning section (which you might have to add from another aircraft).

Not sure that will work Tom - I don't think one will EVER resolve this - I'm pretty sure that this is how the ai aircraft are hard-coded to follow their flight plans - constantly moving from side-to-side to make minor adjustments to their heading.......

Cheers

Jont

I surmise that a slower CPU will result in coarser adjustments.

How's your processor speed?

I did try those adjustments but to no avail, I also tried tweaking the pitch, roll and yaw but again no such luck.

I was beginning to think it was only me who had this bur it seems other have it too.

I also think there is something in the model perhaps because some but not many don't do it as much or at least I don't notice it.

This happens on ai and flyable models that I've used for ai.

I was beginning to think it was only me who had this bur it seems other have it too.

You aren't alone! I have the same issue with some AI too. And some are whipping forward and backward at landing approachs, especially high-winged AI like C-130. In such cases I replace the air file (for high-winged models with the CL_415.air file). Therefore I would suggest to replace the air file of one of your "bad" AI with the air file of the default Boeing 737-400 (Boeing737-400.air). Don't forget to modify the sim line in aircraft.cfg. Maybe that could help to get stable AI.

 

Bernard

Ha Ha yeah, I've done the replacing of air files, edited cfg's etc, I've spent hours upon hours in the past tweaking to get a certain aircraft to fly as a decent ai.

 

2 of my memorable ones were a German seaplane and the Fairy Rotordyne, I spent a few days on both of those, I did it in the end, what gets me down is going in and out of the sim for every tweak.

To let the Fairey Rotodyne taking off and landing as helicopter, you should replace the default air file by "stemme_as_helicopter_1.air" or "stemme_as_helicopter_TRG.air" (search for "AI Helos"). The Rotodyne will already take off after some hundred feets. I also would suggest to create separate AFD for helos (with lenght of 300 ft) to get a more accurate traffic as here:

 

 

Bernard

I have the Rotordyne flying OK thanks but I don't use the those stemme files, that's another story which I won't go in to.

Like I said guys - I think this ai 'movement' is hard-coded to enable them to follow their flight-plans - I don't think you will ever be able to resolve this :(

I have followed many, many different aircraft and every single one does this which leads me to believe that there will not be answers in the cfg or air files.

Cheers

Jont

I know the fiction haters will hate this but...

I did a bit of tinkering and found a way of sitting in the cockpit of an ai aircraft from take off to landing.

 

First I copied the default B737-400.

I renamed the default panel.

Then I added the panel from Traffic View board.

I also added the model TVB though I wasn't sure I needed this.

I named this new aircraft as B737-400 Test Follow Model (or whatever you choose).

I then stated FS and selected that model.

I was invisible, then I activated TVB and selected another B737-400 and I was then inside it's cockpit.

Then I selected the view as the virtual cockpit (VC) and that was it I was sat in the cockpit as it started, listening to the ATC talking to the aircraft I was sat in and let th ai do the rest.

I could use the hat switch to look around as well, I got all the engine sounds just like in a flyable model.

In the TVB I selected the aircraft to see the flight details like speed, height and heading etc.

 

 

Came back to add:

even doing this the aircraft still dips from side to side but it doesn't seem as bad sitting in the cockpit.

 

Here is an quick screenshot of the above method, I also selected a spot view as well to show you, notice I have the flight details in the TVB.

This was taxiing to the gate at LEPA from EGCC.

I used the default panel this time but you can also use the VC for a different view if you prefer.

Just a slight update if anyone is interested, in the end I gave up on this as it was a lot of fiddling about, but it is still on the back burner so to speak.

I did find though when I clicked on an aircraft in both Traffic Tool Box and Traffic View Board if I selected Cockpit instead of Spot Plane it did let me sit in the cockpit but some as most ai aircraft don't have a panel so all I got was the front wheel view, which really wasn't what I wanted and the spot view was better.

 

On one or two flyable aircraft that I converted to ai I selected the cockpit view and I was able to sit in during taxi then as it took off the cockpit vanished and I was left with just the open sky view, not sure why this happened.

 

Still it kept me busy for the best part of the day lol, some times I thought I had cracked it then it was back to the drawing board, haven't we all been there.

I may have found something but not 100& sure yet but...

 

I downloaded the CS300 from the library (cs300v4dk4.zip) I tried it as an ai, in flight it wobbled a bit so I changed the air file for the default 737-400 and that cured it.

So now it flew Ok then I watched it as an ai then I realised I hadn't seen the wing dip, so I watched more closely, I recogised the dips from experience and it did TRY to dip but ever so slightly and hardly noticeable at all in fact, it was only because I was looking for it.

So I looked in the Aircraft CFG and went through the entries and I notice these lines in the (Autopilot) section and looked in other aircraft cfg's and these lines seemed to be missing in the ones I looked in so are the magic entries to eliminate the wing dip?

 

use_no_default_bank=1

use_no_default_pitch=1

default_pitch_mode=0

default_bank_mode=0

 

Now I may be way off track but if you download this aircraft and make it an ai like I did you will notice the difference ie hardly any wing dip, at least on my PC it didn't lol.

Resurrecting this thread with a theory I have, now I'm not in to this side of it but regarding ai aircraft rolling swaying from side to side, I was watching an ai helicopter the other day and that never did it, it stayed straight and level.

So my thought was, is it because it has no wings? I looked in the aircraft geometry section in the cfg I thought of reducing the the wing span on a ai aircraft to test it out.

So I used the wing section from the heli as a test, the aircraft did sway but not much, so am I getting close or am I way off track?

Might be. Shorter wings mean lower inertia when rolling.

OK don't laugh if this is a load of rubbish but I tried something out after reading another thread it gave me an idea.

 

I inserted a line in the 'Flight Tuning' section of the aircraft cfg. I tried it on 6 different ai aircraft and not one of them rolled and swayed, I followed them the full flight to make sure, if this is a coincidence then it is a rare one.

 

This is the line I entered: wing_lvl=1

 

I'm not sure if it is actual code or not but it seems funny because it worked, at first I thought it was my imagination but after trying it on more aircraft it wasn't.

Just a little update on the AI rolling from left to right in flight.

 

I have done all kinds of tweaks trying to eliminate this but last night I downloaded a Boeing 767-200 that I wanted to paint in fictional RAF coulours.

Any way I tried it out and it flew straight and narrow and never once rolled in flight, so there must be something in the model or in the cfg but it shows it can be done.

 

The aircraft is AI MALCONTENT Boeing 767-200 by Charles Dayuff

The FDE by David Rawlins

 

Don't forget this is an AI only aircraft.

Been an avid AI watcher and AI 'pax' in FS9

 

My observation: AI planes 'sway' only when "winds aloft" is activated and when I use real weather. AI planes don't sway without that activated. Anyone may try to confirm.

Hmm thanks, I take it you de-activate it with FSUIPC, shame really I like using real weather as well.

Well I only discovered it on one test AI flight as passenger using TVB. I did not load the weather and I got the AI flying straight. Did you test it with yours now?

I'm not on the PC with FS at the moment but I did a tick in the box in settings something like no turbulence near aircraft or something like that lol.

Also I read FSUIPC does not change the wind which I thought it did, Peter Dewson said if you have another weather program running then that over rides FSUIPC.

I'm having my lunch right now so going to try it soon, I will use a different aircraft to see if it works, I will post back later.

I'm following a DC10 as I type and it is rolling, I have Plan-G also running and that says there is a 25kt side wind and I don't know how to disable that.

My understanding is the AI "autopilot" isn't allowed the same precision as the same aircraft flown by the player. For example (and just pulling figures "out of the air" for sake of argument), you fly a 737 and the AP may check course and make corrections every ten seconds, the AI fly the same 737 and the "AP" does a "check and correct" every sixty seconds; so while your aircraft's deviation from course is imperceptible, the AI aircraft noticeably meanders a bit. But to give all the AI the same precision as the player aircraft would be too resource intensive (it is all too easy for AI to cause a frame rate hit as it is).

The winds aloft and AI autopilot suggestions above are both good answers, however you have a 757 which doesn't roll - I checked the aircraft.cfg [Autopilot] section of that plane and noticed Yaw Damper=1 at the bottom of that list. You might check that all your other AI planes have Yaw Damper=1 as well, it will help in crosswinds.