P3D mixed ON and OFF line flying

[Kyprianos Biris]

With the advent of Prepar3D to which I recently upgraded by putting FSX in the history closet I found out - apart from all the other good things it has - that changing graphics settings profile is two clicks away even while flying en route.

This change was(is) not so easy/quick in FSX.

 

These pre-saved profiles could be your basic profile with 0% AI Ttraffic and an identical graphics settings with just the extra AI traffic you want enabled (I use 50% Airlines & 50% General Aviation).

 

So by finding out this is a two clicks away change in P3D I decided to try a scenario I always wondered about when flying on line. How about if I use my AI Traffic and ATC for areas where ON LINE traffic is not congested ?

 

So this is what I did:

 

I have purchased MyTRAFFIC add on anyway so that I use it with vPilot and the excellent VMRGenerator that tunes its model matching so that I have good quality visuals on my fellow on line pilots. I did not like freeware AI packages of old FS2004 technology visuals.

One other reason is that I want to see properly aircraft animations enabled by ACCONFIG used by vPilot.

 

I have NOT installed MyTRAFFIC in a way that it changes my AI traffic schedules/aircraft.

I only use its aircraft repository by [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igning it to be used by vPilot for model matching of REAL on line live pilots (flights) on VATSIM.

For off line traffic I have left the default P3D traffic by Lockheed Martin. It is not as good as a payware add on with real airlines and real schedules BUT it is good enough for traffic fill up of areas I fly.

 

So when I fly on line now, I use AI ATC in COM1 VHF for the fun of it and fly like all off line pilots who do not dare to face the beauty of live ATC & Traffic

AI ATC sucks, its too predictable, but at least gives some extra interactive life in the cockpit.

At the same time I have 122.80 set in COM2 VHF and enable BOTH COM1/COM2 receivers from vPilot so I can also monitor VATSIM's UNICOM 122.80 in vPilot text message area.

When interacting with AI ATC I prefer "Flight Following" over full IFR flight the main purpose of which being to keep final approach and runway clear of my path.

If the departure airport is IMC (IFR only) then I go the IFR clearance way with entering the Flight Plan in the planner etc.

Just a few more clicks.

 

By segregating ONLINE LIVE traffic to my AI package and VIRTUAL AI traffic to the default P3D ΑΙ package I can differentiate easily any of the both when in the air nearby or at the apron. P3D's call signs and colors after all are so dead obvious of not being real (live) traffic ! (Pacifica, Soar, Orbit etc.)

 

So then the following happens:

 

Scenario A

I fly without live ATC following AI ATC and watching AI traffic mixed with Live VATSIM traffic at airports and en route.

AI ATC is on COM1, VATSIM Unicom 122.80 on COM2 with both VHF monitor enabled ( .com both vPilot command)

My VATSIM reports in airport area go as usual on 122.80 on text via vPilot.

I fly in an area where traffic builds up due to a big hub and/or live ATC comes on line.

With two clicks (Options menu, Settings -> Display) I select the PROFILE I have for 0% AI traffic.

In an instant AI traffic goes away and I contact VATSIM ATC from COM1 as usual and continue as normal On Line flying op's

 

Scenario B

I fly without live ATC following AI ATC and watching AI traffic mixed with sporadic Live VATSIM traffic at airports and en route.

I never encounter VATSIM ATC and just follow AI ATC.

My VATSIM reports in airport area go as usual on 122.80 on text via vPilot.

If I encounter VATSIM traffic on approach, as usual I separate myself and disregard AI ATC by changing COM1 frequency

Encountering AI traffic on approach is theoretically taken care of by AI ATC, that's part of the fun of this mix.

 

Scenario C

Flight is about to start and there is live VATSIM ATC.

If departure airport has VATSIM traffic (say more than 3 about to start flight) I disable AI via Settings until later off airport environment area.

If airport has VATSIM ATC but no live traffic, I enable just AI traffic but disregard AI ATC comm's.

 

Later in flight away from VATSIM ATC controlled airspace & away from airport environment, I go again with AI traffic and AI ATC Flight Following for the rest of the flight while monitoring 122.80 on COM2.

 

All of the above scenarios do not affect VATSIM operations/regulations and are a fun to experience

 

They key to their implementation is:

1. the ability to quickly change the pre-saved graphics profile to disable/enable AI traffic

2. the ability to monitor Unicom TEXT on COM2 by both receivers enabled

Edited April 1, 2016 at 06:32 AM by Guest

[Ned Hamilton 1215492]

Interesting approach. Answer this for me:

 

I have FSX and a few dozen World of AI models. But there are a lot of aircraft missing. I only want to use AI when flying on VATSIM and only for online VATSIM aircraft. Would MyTraffic6 be a good solution? How is the frame rate?

 

Thanks for any advice.

[Kyprianos Biris]

Yes.

MyTRAFFIC (and I believe ULTIMATE TRAFFIC) add on's have fantastic collection of thousands very well crafted quality AI aircraft that match all real airlines' models.

 

All you have to do is

- INSTALL it without activating any traffic files/schedules (i.e. leave simulator's default as is)

- COPY its (thousand of) aircraft master folder somewhere temporary

- UNINSTALL it

- then place the aircrafts folder somewhere permanent and [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ign it in Simobjects.CFG so that FS reads it.

For FSX if I recall corectly the path was set inside FSX.CFG (search for 'simobjects')

 

Once detected as an active SimObjects folder VMRGenerator creates instantly the rules for model matching for it which you activate and [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ign in vPilot to use.

 

VMRGenerator in MyTRAFFIC found only some 500~700 of aicraft missing/bad code ones out of 5~7,000 (don't remember) and just did not [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ign them in the matching rule. Great tool.

 

In FSX's case the only major difference in what I wrote above is the ability to "instantly" deactivate AI.

There it takes a bit more time to select the sliders and refresh FSX on the fly. Still doable but takes longer.

If you want it permanently like this then you have no issue, just select a relatively medium to low traffic volume for FpS and for conflict with live (VATSIM) traffic reasons.

 

All instructions are included in VMRGenerator docomeentation.

 

This way I have left default AI for AI traffic and add on AI (in my case MyTRAFFIC) for VATSIM traffic.

It works great.

[Kyprianos Biris]

Just an update on this older post.

 

With the arrival of vPpilot v2 VMRGenerator is not needed any more for the model matching rules so it makes the process even simpler.