Multiple issues with traffic density/control

[airbadger]

I have updated to the latest version of FSUIPC. I'm having a few issues with traffic:

• Do I have Traffic Density Toggle set correctly? I want it to function as traffic all ON and all OFF. As it's set up below, it is not doing anything, and is just having P3D reload all traffic.

• Why does my traffic tab differ from what's in the manual? There's no lower limit box. I would post a screenshot, but it appears I'm limited to a tiny number of uploads that makes it really hard for users to show you what issues they're having. So just go to page 15 in the manual and imagine "AI Traffic *LOWER* Limit..." is missing from my version of FSUIPC, 6.0
• Target FPS doesn't work. I went to LHR with traffic set at 25%, target FPS at 30, and ground removal preference at 100%, just to force it to do something. I'm getting 20 FPS and expecting it to delete AI, but I don't see any AI being removed.

[Pete Dowson]

4 minutes ago, airbadger said:

I have updated to the latest version of FSUIPC. I'm having a few issues with traffic:

Which version is that? 5.155 or 6.000? You need to be specific.

Were you using the Traffic facilities before? Do you think things have changed? That probably depends on which version you updated from.

9 minutes ago, airbadger said:

Do I have Traffic Density Toggle set correctly? I want it to function as traffic all ON and all OFF. As it's set up below, it is not doing anything, and is just having P3D reload all traffic.

You probably need the parameter set to 100 then. It always toggles between 0 and whatever you set there.  I *think* it should assume 100 if you default to 0, but I've always been explicit. I'll try 0 here.

 

12 minutes ago, airbadger said:

Why does my traffic tab differ from what's in the manual? There's no lower limit box.

The top left selection is a LOWER limit only if you use the second part to set a non-zero frame rate target.  In the default case you would have no frame rate target and the first option becomes an UPPER limit, and the text changes to show you, being helpful!

22 minutes ago, airbadger said:

Target FPS doesn't work.

Really? I'm using it all the time. It was my favourite addition.

23 minutes ago, airbadger said:

I went to LHR with traffic set at 25%, target FPS at 30, and ground removal preference at 100%, just to force it to do something. I'm getting 20 FPS and expecting it to delete AI, but I don't see any AI being removed.

Traffic set at 25% in P3D?  How much traffic did that give you, and what was your lower limit?

You don't need to change the assorted preferences at all until you see how it performs for you. Leave that till last. Best leave them all equal at 50% initially.

The reduction to your lower limit will occur over time -- it doesn't delete big batches all at once to avoid stutters and annoying noticeable disappearances. So it will try to gradually approach your chosen frame rate but won't go further than the LOWER limit set.

Pete

 

[airbadger]

15 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

Which version is that? 5.155 or 6.000? You need to be specific.

Were you using the Traffic facilities before? Do you think things have changed? That probably depends on which version you updated from.

It just says 6.0 in About. Yes, things have changed significantly. I must've been on quite an older version, because the traffic tab looked nothing like what it is now (I do appreciate the Traffic Zapper settings now being in the UI). 

19 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

You probably need the parameter set to 100 then. It always toggles between 0 and whatever you set there.  I *think* it should assume 100 if you default to 0, but I've always been explicit. I'll try 0 here.

Just tried that. It's still just reloading traffic.

19 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

The top left selection is a LOWER limit only if you use the second part to set a non-zero frame rate target.  In the default case you would have no frame rate target and the first option becomes an UPPER limit, and the text changes to show you, being helpful!

Sorry, I'm still confused. I'm just not seeing that. 

 

[John Dowson]

6 minutes ago, airbadger said:

Sorry, I'm still confused. I'm just not seeing that. 

I think you are looking in the wrong place. Try the Traffic tab (and take a look at the User Guide!).

[airbadger]

Just now, John Dowson said:

I think you are looking in the wrong place. Try the Traffic tab.

This seems to be the Traffic tab...

 

[John Dowson]

Difficult to see whats in your image as its cropped. This is the default traffic tab (as shown in the User Guide):

Do you not see this?

[airbadger]

Just now, John Dowson said:

Difficult to see whats in your image as its cropped. This is the default traffic tab (as shown in the User Guide):

Do you not see this?

The forum has a crazy low image size limit so I'll switch to Imgur. No, that's not what my screen looks like:

 

To add another layer to this, none of the functions related to traffic control appear to be functioning. E.g., Traffic Zapper plays the fireworks sound but doesn't delete any AI.

 

[John Dowson]

So the LOWER limit is missing....very strange...I have no idea what could be causing this....

Try downloading the latest installer and re-installing first (as there was also a minor update this morning, a correction to lua config paths).

Other than that, I have no idea what could be causing that UI config item to be missing...

6 minutes ago, airbadger said:

Traffic Zapper plays the fireworks sound but doesn't delete any AI.

How do you know this? Are you monitoring the traffic count offsets or using the Traffic Toolbox? If so, please post more information. There may be no AI traffic within your parameter range (not sure if it still makes a sound if no AI traffic deleted, I'll check....)

[airbadger]

Just now, John Dowson said:

So the LOWER limit is missing....very strange...I have no idea what could be causing this....

Try downloading the latest installer and re-installing first (as there was also a minor update this morning, a correction to lua config paths).

Other than that, I have no idea what could be causing that UI config item to be missing...

How do you know this? Are you monitoring the traffic count offsets or using the Traffic Toolbox? If so, please post more information. There may be no AI traffic within your parameter range (not sure if it still makes a sound if no AI traffic deleted, I'll check....)

Will try a reinstall. I know the traffic zapper isn't working because I slewed by plane in front of an AI, pressed my hot key, heard the fireworks sound, but the AI didn't disappear. This was all on the ground, not in the air.

[Pete Dowson]

28 minutes ago, airbadger said:

Just tried that. It's still just reloading traffic.

Is this with P3Dv5 or P3Dv4? It certainly works fine in 4. maybe they've messed something up in 5. I can try that, but not till tomorrow I think. Same with the Zapper. Maybe the interface into P3Dv5 for traffic control has been messed up by L-M. 

Hopefully, by tomorrow, I'll be able to run P3Dv5 with traffic. It's been taking me ages to get it downloaded, installed, and just about running!

I don't understand how part of the Traffic tab dialogue can vanish. That's just got to either be some sort of corruption or a video driver problem.

Pete

 

[airbadger]

1 minute ago, Pete Dowson said:

Is this with P3Dv5 or P3Dv4? It certainly works fine in 4. maybe they've messed something up in 5. I can try that, but not till tomorrow I think. Same with the Zapper.

I don't understand how part of the Traffic tab dialogue can vanish. That's just got to either be some sort of corruption or a video driver problem.

Pete

 

V4

[Pete Dowson]

2 minutes ago, airbadger said:

V4

Ah, P3Dv4!? In that case something is most definitely amiss with your installation. As well as an FSUIPC6 re-install  please try to uninstall your P3Dv4 Client (only -- don't deactivate) and re-install that, in case it's corrupt. That should only take a few minutes. It does here.

The other thing to consider is a possible memory corruption occurring through corrupt weather files. You can try adding this to the [General] section of the FSUIPC6.INI file:

NoWeatherAtAll=Yes.

If that fixes it then you have some weather files corrupted, possibly caused by some P3d4 crash.

Pete

 

[airbadger]

43 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

Ah, P3Dv4!? In that case something is most definitely amiss with your installation. As well as an FSUIPC6 re-install  please try to uninstall your P3Dv4 Client (only -- don't deactivate) and re-install that, in case it's corrupt. That should only take a few minutes. It does here.

The other thing to consider is a possible memory corruption occurring through corrupt weather files. You can try adding this to the [General] section of the FSUIPC6.INI file:

NoWeatherAtAll=Yes.

If that fixes it then you have some weather files corrupted, possibly caused by some P3d4 crash.

Pete

 

Neither of those solutions worked. There's something specifically wrong with the way FSUIPC6 is interacting with V4, because in V5 I can see the AI Traffic limiter in the UI. I'm just going to roll back to FSUIPC5 for V4 and keep an eye out for updates to FSUIPC6 until the issue gets resolved. 

Thanks for trying to find a solution.

[John Dowson]

Ok, I've just checked in v4 and yes, there seems to be a problem with the UI. Very strange.....I'll look into it...

I don't think this should affect the functionality though, apart from the UPPER limit. You could try setting this directly in the ini file instead for the time being.

 

[airbadger]

1 minute ago, John Dowson said:

Ok, I've just checked in v4 and yes, there seems to be a problem with the UI. Very strange.....I'll look into it...

I don't think this should affect the functionality though, apart from the UPPER limit. You could try setting this directly in the ini file instead for the time being.

 

I think something deeper is happening, as referenced in my previous replies about the traffic zapper not working. Maybe that's a totally separate issue.

[Pete Dowson]

6 minutes ago, John Dowson said:

Ok, I've just checked in v4 and yes, there seems to be a problem with the UI.

Strange. No problem here with V4. 

Pete

 

[John Dowson]

Can you download and try the latest version (6.0.3) as this seems to have fixed the UI issue.

As for your zapper issue, I'm not sure but it may have to do with your Cylinder Alt Difference setting. I'll check this in the coming days but there are currently quite a few things at a higher priority, so this may take a while.

Let me know if the latest version fixes your UI issue please.

John

[Pete Dowson]

1 hour ago, John Dowson said:

As for your zapper issue, I'm not sure but it may have to do with your Cylinder Alt Difference setting.

More likely the fact that with a Cylinder setting the aircraft actually deleted might not be the one in front of you. With 5000 feet altitude it could be above, below, to the side or behind you. It should be the nearest, but that might not be the one you can see!

Really the cylinder option is rather, er, esoteric. It was added by request, but personally I don't see much use for it. Without that set the Zapper operates on the nearest aircraft in front of you within range (and within quite a narrow angle).

The other thing really odd with the user settings is that range of 25 nm. AI aircraft aren't even visible (not visualised) at that range, so why would you want to ZAP an aircraft so far away?

The default values were arived at through a lot of experience with trying to acoid problems with things like landing and taxiing blockages. Best to start with those defaults, and certainly to test with those values if you are in doubt that it works.

BTW the "firework" sound (or whatever is assigned) means success in detecting and deleting a suitable aircraft. It isn't sounded if there's no such aircraft to be deleted.

Pete

 

[airbadger]

6 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

More likely the fact that with a Cylinder setting the aircraft actually deleted might not be the one in front of you. With 5000 feet altitude it could be above, below, to the side or behind you. It should be the nearest, but that might not be the one you can see!

Really the cylinder option is rather, er, esoteric. It was added by request, but personally I don't see much use for it. Without that set the Zapper operates on the nearest aircraft in front of you within range (and within quite a narrow angle).

The other thing really odd with the user settings is that range of 25 nm. AI aircraft aren't even visible (not visualised) at that range, so why would you want to ZAP an aircraft so far away?

The default values were arived at through a lot of experience with trying to acoid problems with things like landing and taxiing blockages. Best to start with those defaults, and certainly to test with those values if you are in doubt that it works.

BTW the "firework" sound (or whatever is assigned) means success in detecting and deleting a suitable aircraft. It isn't sounded if there's no such aircraft to be deleted.

Pete

 

I thought the cylinder was only relevant when in the air? The issue I'm speaking of is happening on the ground. I'll try the default settings, but the reason I had it set like that was I wanted to make sure I could nuke any and all AI clogging up the approach path. 

I'll try installing .3 and see what happens.