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This is meant to be a step by step guide to make you understand how to bring/convert AI traffic - flightplans and aircraft - from FS2004/FS9 into FSX. |
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* Foreword
This is meant to be a step
by step guide
to make you understand
how to bring/convert
AI traffic - flightplans
and aircraft - from
FS2004/FS9 into FSX.
AI traffic files in TTools
(Traffic Tools
by Lee Swordy) format made
for FS2004/FS9
(Flight Simulator 2004)
- Aircraft.txt, Airports.txt,
Flightplans.txt - if compiled
with TTools
and then the output Traffic.bgl
placed in
FSX (Flight Simulator X)
it won't work correctly.
As a matter of fact, if
you then go spotting
your AI traffic planes
in FSX, you will notice
that there will be lots
of departures but
no arrivals/landings at
all or only very
few. Since it ain't available
a TTools version
for FSX offering backwards
compatibility
it means that all your
currently Flight Simulator
2004 AI traffic must be
converted into Flight
Simulator X's Traffic Database
Builder format
and then compiled with
FSX Traffic Database
Builder.
* Prior needed utilities
and things to successfully
convert your AI traffic
flightplans
Flight Simulator X Professional Edition,
FSX Decompiler v1.2 by Peter Van Der Veen, FSX Flightplan Converter by Jens Rabmund, a smart brain which I suppose
you have since you are a proffessional flight
simmer, lots of patience and few hours of
time.
* What you have and what
is needed by FSX
Traffic Database Builder
You have Traffic Tools
files Aircraft.txt,
Airports.txt, Flightplans.txt
and the compiled
file Traffic.bgl. What
is needed by FSX Traffic
Database Builder to make
a successful compilation
is Aircraft.csv, Airports.dat,
Flightplans.dat
and Countries_Regions.csv.
* How to convert Aircraft.txt
into Aircraft.csv
Compared to Aircraft.txt,
the new Aircraft.csv
contains more strings like
this, each of
them representing an airplane:
AC1,SampleAircraft1,415,70,380,15,5000,6000,HARD,14,GATE,100,no,yes
To fully understand the
meaning of these
strings and some other
functions, I invite
you to have a deep look
at "Traffic
Toolbox.html" which
you find in the
SDK I believe you already
intalled from one
of the two Flight Simulator
X Professional
Edition DVDs. I also invite
you to download
and install the SDK Service
Packs from FSInsider.
Actually, the old strings
in Aircraft.txt
must be changed in the
new format and the
file saved with *.csv extension.
By now you
may be thinking that you
will become insane
manually editing 1000 strings
or more that
you may have in Aircraft.txt.
Well, you are
right; that is why we won't
do it and have
an utility do it for us
with lots of less
effort. Here comes into
play FSX Decompiler.
Fire up FSX Decompiler,
input the location
of TTools compiled Traffic.bgl
and the output
path where the decompiled
files will be placed;
check "Create FSX
TDB files" and
click "Decompile".
The application
should provide you with
five files. Delete
all but "flightplans_Traffic.dat"
and "aircraft_Traffic.dat";
open
"aircraft_Traffic.dat"
with Wordpad.
Now we'll convert the strings
making them
compatible with FSX Traffic
Database Builder.
Note: In this file the
only parameter that
must be very accurate is
the aircraft's speed,
which is represented by
the first number
after the airplane's title.
My speeds were
already correct in aircraft.txt
used by TTools
so I do not need to change
those too, so
I'll suppose yours are
aswell. In case they're
not, you will have to change
them because
when compiling with TDB
(Traffic Database
Builder) speed will influence
the arrival
times and in Flight Simulator
you will see
the planes flying at unrealistic
too slow/fast
speeds.
Here's a list of aircraft
speeds you can
use for Airbus' and Boeing's
most common
aircraft types:
* Airbus
318, 319, 320, 321 series
- 455 kts;
330 - 465 kts;
340 - 480 kts;
380 - 495 kts.
* Boeing
737 classic - 415 kts;
737 next generation - 445
kts;
747 - 485 kts;
757 - 460 kts;
767 - 465 kts;
777 - 490 kts.
Press "Ctrl + H"
and you will see
a window pop up; in the
"Find"
text field put the string
",minAlt,maxAlt,minRange,maxRange,minRwyLen,runwayTypes,radius,parkingTypes,IFR%,no,no"
and in the "Replace"
text field
of the window put ",50,380,15,9000,2000,HARD,13,GATE,100,no,yes"
then click "Replace
All". When
it has finished processing
click "Ok"
then save the file. For
the cargo airlines
you may have to find them
manually and change
only the ",GATE,"
parameter into
",CARGO,". I
guess Traffic Database
Builder does not know the
symbol "#"
so we'll remove that too
doing the same steps
- press "Ctrl + H",
in the "Find"
text field put "#"
and leave blank
the "Replace"
text field then click
"Replace All".
When finished click
"Ok", save the
file then exit.
This file is ready so rename
it into Aircraft.csv.
* How to fix Airports file
For this file we will not
try to convert
the old Airports.txt at
all, because since
a new one is suplied with
FSX TDB - fs10.Airports.dat
- its not worth converting
the old one. Instead,
what we'll do is just to
fix it a bit. When
compiling, concerning fs10.Airports.dat,
it is convenient to have
more copies of it,
for example one for airlines,
one for general
aviation and one for military.
You may call
them Airports_A.dat, Airports_GA.dat,
Airports_Mil.dat.
Open Airports_A.dat, the
one which will be
used for airlines. What
we need to change
here is the number that
stands after "PARKING",
which is the radius, to
make it match the
parking radius we have
in Aircraft.csv, and
change RAMPs into GATEs.
I noticed that Flight Simulator
X has a different
system on allocating gates
to AI aircraft;
basicly, an AI aircraft
can occupy a gate
or ramp only if its radius
is not more than
10 meters less then the
parking radius. For
example, if an aircraft
has a radius of 24
meters and in fs10.Airports.dat
there are
available only parkings
of 36 meters than
all flightplans of that
aircraft will not
be taken into consideration
by TDB when compiling
because the parking spaces
available are
more than 10 meters bigger
than the aircraft's
parking radius - 12 meters
bigger.
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So fire up Wordpad and open the file, press
"Ctrl + H", type ",10.0,RAMP"
into the Find text field and ",18.0,GATE"
in the Replace text field then click Replace
All. Do this process for all the numbers
after PARKING to have them changed into 18.0,
and for all RAMPs to have them changed into
GATEs. In the end, in the Airports_A.dat
you should have only parkings of radius 18.0
and no RAMPs - only GATEs & CARGOs. When
you done, the file is ready so save it.
Concerning the Airports_GA.dat,
since it
is a pure copy of the original
fs10.Airports.dat,
you only have to remove
some RAMPs from the
airports you want less
general aviation.
For the Airports_Mil.dat,
just create a new
file with that name and
copy and paste from
fs10.Airports.dat the airports
that are air
force bases.
* How to fix AI traffic
flightplans
Basicly, the file decompiled
with FSX Decompiler,
flightplans_Traffic.dat,
it is ready for
FSX TDB, but since we removed
the "#"
symbol from Aircraft.csv
we must also remove
it from this file. So just
as before, open
the file with Wordpad and
press "Ctrl
+ H"; put "#"
in the Find
text field and leave blank
the Replace text
field then click Replace
All. When it is
done, save the file.
* Having the conversion
done
Now you should have all you need to import
your AI traffic from FS2004/FS9 into FSX.
Put the files Aircraft.csv, Airports_A.dat,
flightplans_Traffic.dat and countries_regions.csv
in the folder of FSX SDK Traffic Database
Builder and run TrafficDatabaseBuilder.exe
with the following parameters "/Airports=Airports_A.dat /Countries=countries_regions.csv
/AircraftTypes=Aircraft.csv /Schedules=flightplans_Traffic.dat
/Autoschedule=no /Output=Traffic_Airlines.bgl
/log=stats.txt".
* Solving the problems
It is likely that you will
get some errors
- all errors are logged
in stats.txt, so
to find them you should
check this file.
I encountered three types
of errors:
1. there are not enough
parking spaces for
the required airports -
in this case all
you have to do is to open
Airports_A.dat
and copy and paste parking
spaces at the
required aerodromes;
2. an aircraft requires
more time for a flight
than it is written in its
flightplans - in
stats.txt you will be informed
about the
specific text line that
must be edited, being
indicated with a number
between () after
flightplans_Traffic.dat
- example "flightplans_Traffic.dat
(123456)"; copy that
number from stats.txt,
open flightplans_Traffic.dat
with Notepad,
press "Ctrl + G"
and in the text
field paste the number
copied. You will be
taken to the specific line
which you will
have to edit accordingly;
3. an airport does not
exist - this is because
some ICAO codes have changed.
You have to
edit flightplans_Traffic.dat
replacing the
old codes with the new
ones.
Once you solve one or more
problems, you
have to run again the converter
with the
same parameters written
in the section above
and check again the stats.txt
for more problems
to solve. You will have
to repeat this "solving
problems" process
until in stats.txt
there will be no more problems
logged. To
me it took about a week,
so be patient.
* The AI traffic is ready
When you will have no more
errors logged
in stats.txt it means that
all your old FS9
flightplans have been successfully
converted
and compiled. Now you can
put the compiled
Traffic_Airlines.bgl file
into Scenery\World\Scenery
of FSX and remove the default
air traffic
file. Move all your aircraft
folders from
FS2004\Aircraft into FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes
and enjoy.
* How to add new flightplans or replace outdated ones
Lets say you want to replace
the flightplans
of an airline because they
are outdated.
I'll presume you have downloaded
the new
flight plans of the airline
in TTools format.
I suggest the following
steps:
1st: find and remove the
old flightplans
from flightplans_Traffic.dat;
2nd: compare Aircraft.csv
with Aircraft.txt
and edit/add/remove AI
traffic aircraft;
3rd: edit Flightplans.txt
to match the aircraft
from Aircraft.csv and remove
the "@"
symbol;
4th: rename Flightplans.txt
into fp_fs9.txt,
put it in the same folder
with FSX Flightplan
Converter and have the
program convert the
flightplans into FSX format;
5th: copy and paste the
flightplans from
the converted file fp_fsx.txt
into flightplans_Traffic.dat;
6th: have the file compiled
with the parameters
written in the section
above and solve eventual
problems that may be logged
into stats.txt;
7th: move and overwrite
the new compiled
Traffic_Airlines.bgl into
FSX\Scenery\World\Scenery.
Written by Claudio Adriano Dobre, © 2008
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