Feature Request or Bug Fix

[Airbumps 0]

Hi All,

I love this program and can't beleive I waited so long to buy it. That said I'm having issues with the "Optimise Traffic Volumes". I love the idea of this feature because if I'm flying into a place like LHR then I don't need to or want to see all the traffic at Gatwick, Stansted or London City. Its a drain on my FPS and I never see it anyway. So, upon starting my flight at LHR I use Optimize Traffic Volumes to kill off all the AI at these other airports....only it doesn't actually remove the AI aircraft. 

Pressing the OK from within the AI Locations box tells me it's going to kill 0 aircraft at LHR and 120 at other airports, but they don't actually get removed from the Sim. They're still displayed in STB and I can see them from P3D's Traffic Explorer app. (Can also physically seen them in the sim ...)

So,

1. Is there a problem with this feature?

2. Is there a way that you could replicate a feature that UT2 used to have, that allowed the user to identify "excluded" airports. Any traffic operating to or from those airports was deleted. It's a massive FPS saver at places like London.  I guess a second option would be if there was the ability to automate the AI Killer to run every 60 seconds or so to remove aircraft within certain paramaters.

Anyway, thanks for the time - love the program!

 

Cheers,

 

[flying-w 69]

2 hours ago, Airbumps said:

 

1. Is there a problem with this feature?

 

First of all, thank you very much for the very kind words about my product.  In Prepar3D and FSX before it, there isn't an external SimConnect API for delete AI created by the simulator, so instead STB uses an internal interface to do the same thing.  However this has to be installed, and is know as the STB Simulator Plugin.  Can you check it's running in your simulator please, like this:

If we don't find the plugin, we try to move the AI aircraft to a distant place, well beyond the reality bubble.  Sometimes P3D then deletes them automatically, and sometimes it does not for reasons unknown.

 

2 hours ago, Airbumps said:

2. Is there a way that you could replicate a feature that UT2 used to have, that allowed the user to identify "excluded" airports. Any traffic operating to or from those airports was deleted. It's a massive FPS saver at places like London.  I guess a second option would be if there was the ability to automate the AI Killer to run every 60 seconds or so to remove aircraft within certain paramaters.

2) I'll consider it.  The tricky thing is the actual work of deleting the AI is fairly straight forward, it's providing the UI experiences so it can be configured by the user is what takes the time.  The other problem is AI does not always stay deleted.  Particularly for airbourne AI more than about 10NM away from their destination, the simulator tends to recreate it a little after deletion.  So I'm not really sure an repeated deletion is going to improve matters.

 

Thanks

Simon

[Airbumps 0]

On 5/1/2020 at 12:13 AM, flying-w said:

First of all, thank you very much for the very kind words about my product.  In Prepar3D and FSX before it, there isn't an external SimConnect API for delete AI created by the simulator, so instead STB uses an internal interface to do the same thing.  However this has to be installed, and is know as the STB Simulator Plugin.  Can you check it's running in your simulator please, like this:

If we don't find the plugin, we try to move the AI aircraft to a distant place, well beyond the reality bubble.  Sometimes P3D then deletes them automatically, and sometimes it does not for reasons unknown.

 

2) I'll consider it.  The tricky thing is the actual work of deleting the AI is fairly straight forward, it's providing the UI experiences so it can be configured by the user is what takes the time.  The other problem is AI does not always stay deleted.  Particularly for airbourne AI more than about 10NM away from their destination, the simulator tends to recreate it a little after deletion.  So I'm not really sure an repeated deletion is going to improve matters.

 

Thanks

Simon

Hi Simon,

I can't test at the moment as I wiped the PC in preperation for a fresh V5 (HF2) install in the next couple of weeks (fingers crossed).

In response to point 2 above, would it be possible then to simply limit AI to those aircraft that are either departing or arriving at airports listed in my flight plan (presuming my flight plan is loaded and read by STB). I notice that the creator of freeware programs AIFLOW , AIGROUND and now AICULL has done similar. I'd like to keep my AI utilities to just the one so if STB was able to do this that would be brilliant.

Cheers,

 

[flying-w 69]

13 hours ago, Airbumps said:

In response to point 2 above, would it be possible then to simply limit AI to those aircraft that are either departing or arriving at airports listed in my flight plan (presuming my flight plan is loaded and read by STB). I notice that the creator of freeware programs AIFLOW , AIGROUND and now AICULL has done similar. I'd like to keep my AI utilities to just the one so if STB was able to do this that would be brilliant.

If there's other utilities out there that already do it, please consider using those.  I don't really want to take the best ideas in freeware and add them to a payware product. 

[Airbumps 0]

Hi Simon,

Fair enough - although I would have thought that logic counter intuitive - Surely a paid product ought strive to do more (or at least the equivalent of) free ones. The suite of freeware software mentioned above do seem to be performing a number of the same AI manipulation functions as STB, albeit it without the same GUI. 

Just for your awareness. 

Cheers,