tower!3d pro Tower!3D new user observations and some stuff I 'fixed' :-)

[WildCard]

Thought I'd say hi and share a few changes I've made as a complete newbie to ATC. I've only owned the game for about 2 weeks and would have liked to have played it more than I have been able to find time for. :-)

My first impression, was very nice graphics... how come I can't look around (had to reconfigure my centre mouse button, Microsoft defaulted it to the equivalent of Alt-Tab), and... "This is pretty easy"...  Then I changed from TIST to KLAX. Not so easy. ;-)

Now I got to play around a bit, and discovered a few things... Like those jets pulled up quicker than i expected (exiting 25R@G at KLAX) and those turbo props really hit the brakes (exiting 25R@F at KLAX before the deferred threshold).

So, I came to the forum to see if anyone had noticed this sort of behaviour and lo and behold, there was a post saying deferred thresholds were being fixed in a soon to be released Service Pack. And there was much rejoicing. ;-)

And after waiting many moons (about 2 days), SP1a for Pro was released and... the planes still landed before the threshold at KLAX, but TIST was fixed (KPHL doesn't have any). So, after reading some posts that said schedules and planes and such could be modified, I thought I'd have a go fixing some things.

 

First off, I added a couple of new Speech recognition commands:

#airplane1; RUNWAY ;#runway1; VIA ;#taxiway1;#taxiway2;#taxiway3;#taxiway4;#taxiway5;#taxiway6

#airplane1; PUSHBACK APPROVED EXPECT RUNWAY ;#runway1; VIA ;#taxiway1;#taxiway2;#taxiway3;#taxiway4;#taxiway5;#taxiway6

#airplane1; PUSHBACK APPROVED EXPECT RUNWAY ;#runway1; AT ;#taxiway1

#airplane1; PUSHBACK APPROVED EXPECT RUNWAY ;#runway1; AT ;#taxiway1; VIA ;#taxiway2;#taxiway3;#taxiway4;#taxiway5;#taxiway6

 

After checking that these worked OK, I then looked at trying to fix that Turbo Prop from stopping on a dime (it’s performance was making Dash 7s look bad). Managed to fix that, now it performs more like a Dash 8.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<airplane type="Turboprop_default" code="DEFAULT" class="3" length="73" cruspeed="65" crurate="700" landingspeed="120" takeoffspeed="95" minspeedtower="90" maxspeedtower="250" landinglen="2500" takeofflen="3200" rateofdecent="1200" rateofclimb="1450" category="0" rateofclimb10k="1100" speed10k="270" minspeed10k="240" maxspeed10k="280" minspeedcruise="60" maxspeedcruise="67" optimalalt="25000" airline="2" nose="-200.00000" tail="196.000000" noselightx="0.000000" noselighty="-396.000000" beaconlightx="0.000000" beaconlighty="0.000000" navlightx="-240.000000" navlighty="-80.000000" navstrobelightx="-240.000000" navstrobelighty="-80.000000" winglightx="-3.809524" winglighty="-99.047623" runwaylightx="-4.137931" runwaylighty="-45.517239">

                <texture name="def_turb_prop.apt" icao="DEFAULT"/>

</airplane>

 

Next one was deferred thresholds… so…

KSAN     Runway 9                  0ft          -> 710ft

KJFK       Runway 13R width   150ft      -> 200ft

                Runway 31L width   150ft      -> 200ft

                Runway 22R             3425ft   -> 2700ft    (unless airport map has been updated for 2016 changes, in which case 3425ft would be correct)

                Runway 22R width    150ft      -> 200ft

                Runway 4L               460ft      -> 0ft          (Google Earth says there’s been no displaced threshold since at least 1994)

                Runway 4L width      150ft      -> 200ft

KLAX      Runway 6R                0ft          -> 537ft

                Runway 25R             0ft          -> 955ft

KATL      Runway 27R               0ft          -> 505ft

 

OK, not so bad… now about those planes landing on the threshold instead of up at the aiming mark… added 1000ft to displaced threshold value on every runway… much better.

But I would recommend adding the 1000ft in the software when the displaced threshold is read in from the file so that the resource file uses real displaced thresholds instead of tweaked ones. This still allows the ‘3 stop-and-go’ scheduled at TIST.

 

Other random changes:

Three ‘gaandlocaltraffic’ schedules have a semicolon in the time field that needs to be changed to a colon for them to load.

LHBP, TIST, 11;01, RJ1, N001FT, 0, 0, 0, 001FT, ZERO ONE FOX TANGO        ->    LHBP, TIST, 11:01, RJ1, N001FT, 0, 0, 0, 001FT, ZERO ONE FOX TANGO

LHBP, TIST, 14;02, RJ1, N003FT, 0, 0, 0, 003FT, ZERO THREE FOX TANGO   ->    LHBP, TIST, 14:02, RJ1, N003FT, 0, 0, 0, 003FT, ZERO THREE FOX TANGO

TIST, LHBP, 15;24, RJ1, N003FT, 0, 0, 0, 003FT, ZERO THREE FOX TANGO   ->    TIST, LHBP, 15:24, RJ1, N003FT, 0, 0, 0, 003FT, ZERO THREE FOX TANGO

 

And one plane needs it’s callsign to change to match speech-to-text M1319U -> M1219U

TJIG, TIST, 16:10, PRP, M1319U, 0, 0, 0, 1219U, ONE TWO ONE NINE UNIFORM  ->    TJIG, TIST, 16:10, PRP, M1219U, 0, 0, 0, 1219U, ONE TWO ONE NINE UNIFORM

TIST, TJIG, 19:10, PRP, M1319U, 0, 0, 0, 1219U, ONE TWO ONE NINE UNIFORM  ->    TIST, TJIG, 19:10, PRP, M1219U, 0, 0, 0, 1219U, ONE TWO ONE NINE UNIFORM

 

And in the world schedule

JSJ, STT, JT1, FT, 1036, 16:07, 12:00, 1, FT  ->    SJU, STT, JT1, FT, 1036, 16:07, 12:00, 1, FT

 

Overall, a great program (I wouldn’t have bothered changing stuff if I thought it was bad). So, thank you very much Vic for this wonderful sim that I’m sure I’m going to be wasting enjoying many hours on in the future. :-)

And if Vic says it’s OK, I’ll attach the 2 files I’ve modified (not going to attach them straight away as they’re game files, not files added to the 'Extensions' folder).

 

Cheers

Daniel

 

 

tower3d.rec - modified speech recognition command file

Edited November 24, 2017 by WildCard
Updated tower3d.rec for SP3 speech recognition changes

[mikal]

Nice.... Upload those changes   :) 

[AirborneCDS]

wow.  Good job for the new guy.

 

[futureboy]

I am all for custom configurations.  That is until people using the customization's start complaining that the sim does not work anymore and the speech is not recognized and the planes aren't landing correctly and the sim is crashing and the planes are not colored correctly and the schedules are not correct and the service vehicles are driving backwards and now the new commands do not work after the new service pack is released.

It is not buyer beware, but customizer beware.  Like the instance of the person using Dick Parker's custom schedule and complaining that Real Color was not working.

RickyJ

[WildCard]

futureboy,

Perfectly understandable, one of the reasons I won't post the files without Vic's approval. Also, partly why I posted the changes in full. Even without me posting the files, the changes could be incorporated into the game by the devs or anyone else. And anyone who makes the changes now definitely knows enough about the game, to be able to re-add them after an update (especially the ones that require a hex editor). ;-)

I use the voice recognition all the time (hands free about 99% now) , so the 3 new commands have been worked over pretty hard. I would have added a couple of others as well, but I haven't had time to test them for reliability yet (or even if they work).

The Turbo Prop fix is just to make it perform more like a Dash 8 than a Cessna.

The airport deferred threshold fixes are pretty straight up.

The additional 1000ft to make the planes hit the aiming mark, not so much. And yes, I know some aiming points are at 900ft and even out to 1500ft at some airports, but not the ones available so far. Also, it's nice to look at a plane coming in to land and not immediately think "Oh crap, he's coming in too low." Of course, that could just be me :-)

The random changes at the bottom are straight bug fixes, the last bug even used to add a warning line to the game log.

Daniel

[crbascott]

3 hours ago, futureboy said:

I am all for custom configurations.  That is until people using the customization's start complaining that the sim does not work anymore and the speech is not recognized and the planes aren't landing correctly and the sim is crashing and the planes are not colored correctly and the schedules are not correct and the service vehicles are driving backwards and now the new commands do not work after the new service pack is released.

It is not buyer beware, but customizer beware.  Like the instance of the person using Dick Parker's custom schedule and complaining that Real Color was not working.

RickyJ

Or you can wait for Nyerges to post an update ... and wait ... and wait ... and wait!

[Avwriter]

4 hours ago, futureboy said:

I am all for custom configurations.  That is until people using the customization's start complaining that the sim does not work anymore and the speech is not recognized and the planes aren't landing correctly and the sim is crashing and the planes are not colored correctly and the schedules are not correct and the service vehicles are driving backwards and now the new commands do not work after the new service pack is released.

It is not buyer beware, but customizer beware.  Like the instance of the person using Dick Parker's custom schedule and complaining that Real Color was not working.

RickyJ

Not even so much to be ware of really.  If you really get it messed up, and are unable to retrace your steps, then just reinstall the game.

[winsaudi]

There is a fundamental difference in the work ethics of FeelThere and Nyerges Design. FT strive tirelessly to provide the best product possible so I am sure they will review WildCard's suggestions and will consider which ones they will include in a future SP. On the other hand ND do not seem to be as keen to make their products to the same levels of realism. Take the latest Real Traffic version issued to dovetail into FT's new terminal listing at KSAN; it took me 5 minutes on the internet (flight aware & san.org) to see that it was wrong. So I ended up editing the terminal file again, the schedule file will take me longer to correct. The title of the product is misleading, if it was called "Real Traffic Mainly Around 2005" I wouldn't grumble so much.

Anyway, back to WildCard's edits; I hope they are included in the next SP for T3D Pro. They all seem very good ideas to me. Good job WildCard.

[FeelThere_Vic]

Hi Daniel,

Thank you so much for these edits/suggestions. Could you please list the files (their names) that needs to be modified so I can approve them to by shared until we possibly incorporate them into the next SP?

Best

Vic

 

 

[WildCard]

Hi Vic,

The two files are:

FeelThere\Tower!3D Pro\tower3d.rec    - for the speech recognition commands

FeelThere\Tower!3D Pro\tower3d_Data\resources.assets    - for everything else (specifically the embedded copies of airplane & airfield xml files, and the gaandlocaltraffic & schedule files)

Cheers

Daniel

[winsaudi]

Inspired by WildCard I downloaded a hex editor, opened the files he listed, looked at making the same editorial changes to improve Pro accuracy, and immediately gave up. Now waiting for an SP from FeelThere. That all looked so complicated and fraught with dangers!

[Kl408]

Not really winsaudi, just try and see what happens when you change things.. Could only cost you a little bit of time, that's all.. But if you want to stay on the safe side then only edit tower3d.rec if you want the new clearance commands since that is just a text file, even notepad will do ;).

Oh, and you ofcourse keep a copy of any and all file you open in a safe place first!!!!

 

Grtz

Willem

[FeelThere_Vic]

We are OK with the rec file but not OK with the assets file.
Other than that; I wonder if you edited the prop's performance for the default or for Real Traffic?

[AirborneCDS]

 

1 hour ago, Kl408 said:

 

On ‎3‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 9:35 AM, FeelThere said:

 

 

On ‎4‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 10:27 AM, ttjager said:

 

 

[AirborneCDS]

1 hour ago, Kl408 said:

Not really winsaudi, just try and see what happens when you change things.. Could only cost you a little bit of time, that's all.. But if you want to stay on the safe side then only edit tower3d.rec if you want the new clearance commands since that is just a text file, even notepad will do ;).

Oh, and you ofcourse keep a copy of any and all file you open in a safe place first!!!!

 

Grtz

Willem

I made some additions to the REC file which was very easy, but it changes to a TXT file.  I then have no speech.  Any way to keep an REC? 

[Kl408]

@AirborneCDS If you used notepad select : File - Save As and at the bottom you can select both File name and Save as type

File name would obviously be: tower3d.rec

Save as type: All files *.*

 

To make this a little easier you could setup windows so it doesn't hide extensions that it knows but that would give you .??? after every file you look at in the explorer so that's a personal choice I guess

Grtz

Willem

 

[crbascott]

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the Pro folder (and subfolder) properties may need to be updated to allow the current user Full control, Modify and Write permissions. 

[AirborneCDS]

Thank you Willem and Daniel.  Works Great!!  Saves a command or two.

 

[AirborneCDS]

Ok, now where exactly is the displaced threshold info located?  I'm getting bolder.

[WildCard]

On 4/11/2017 at 1:11 AM, FeelThere said:

We are OK with the rec file but not OK with the assets file.
Other than that; I wonder if you edited the prop's performance for the default or for Real Traffic?

Added tower3d.rec to my first post.

I modified Turboprop_default, so that's the normal Turboprop (TRP) in the game. I'm still running Tower!3D Pro "vanilla" at the moment, as I haven't bought any of the addons yet. The reason I compared the performance to "Dash 7 vs Dash 8", was because Dash 7s are STOL rated.

BTW, the default Prop (PRP) performs pretty well, it's sort of a mash up of 2 different versions of a Cessna 170 ;-)

On 4/11/2017 at 5:52 AM, AirborneCDS said:

Ok, now where exactly is the displaced threshold info located?  I'm getting bolder.

I'd advise making a backup copy of your new tower!3d.rec file before having a go at the deferred thresholds. One small slip-up with that file will stop airports from being able to load properly (i.e. loading will get stuck at a random percentage), which will then require reinstalling (or restoring the original file from a backup). :-)

[futureboy]

6 hours ago, winsaudi said:

Inspired by WildCard I downloaded a hex editor, opened the files he listed, looked at making the same editorial changes to improve Pro accuracy, and immediately gave up. Now waiting for an SP from FeelThere. That all looked so complicated and fraught with dangers!

Perfectly safe, easier than editing the gaandlocaltraffic.txt file. DOH :)

RoickyJ

[crbascott]

A key point that Daniel brings up is that the resources.assets edits were on a Pro version with no add-ons.

I dabbled in editing this file myself, but I have Pro with all the all-ons. So, what I am finding is that my modifications to KSAN (an add-on) were basically ignored where my modifications to KLAX were recognized. In both cases, I took a gate and changed the terminal assignment to something new and added it to the appropriate terminal.txt file. My assumption is that something in the Extensions folder overrides what is in the resources.assets file. Also, none of the "real" airplanes are in resources.assets file. I assume all the data for them is in the Extensions folder. 

At this point, I haven't found a file in the Extensions folder that is customizable (without diving into Unity development). So, although the file editing by Daniel is a great find I think the application is limited to the base version of  Pro (no add-ons).

Craig

PS - Just for grins I changed the displaced threshold of KSAN runway 27 from 1810 to 5810 and 1000. Same result, changes were ignored and the planes arrived at the same location on the runway. I then changed 25L at KLAX from 0 to 5000 and it made a big difference! So, I'm back to the original resources.assets and terminal.txt files. Although, B738s exiting at taxiway G at KLAX doesn't seem right so a displaced threshold edit may be necessary (unless a landing distance change is more appropriate but that is dependent on Nyerges). Hmmm, looks like I'll be changing the displaced threshold. ;) 

 

[WildCard]

Having now bought all the addons for Tower!3d Pro, I can confirm that Craig is correct that the airport addons have their own copy of the airport.xml files that are loaded instead of the ones in the default install. These are packed in a Unity asset database, so modifying them would be against the EULA  as some reverse engineering would be required to do so.

I did notice a couple of errors though, so when I get some time time to test them and make sure they haven't already been posted I'll create a new thread for each one.

Daniel

PS - I'm surprised that Avwriter didn't point out that one of the deferred thresholds I modified was for Atlanta, and it's a bit hard to get that addon just yet ;-)

[AirborneCDS]

I still want to thank you for the new voice commands.  They work great.

[WildCard]

The addon for KJFK is based on the how the airport looked before the 2016 upgrades, so the adjustment for RWY 22R is still correct.

Although, having the deferred threshold larger than the in-game graphics, does make the aircraft landing on the runway look more realistic as they are landing closer to the aiming mark instead of hitting the first brick ;-)