I'm starting to scare myself.

[Sbob]

I've spent the last week working on AI and traffic for all of my air craft carrier scenery.
Mostly tweaking the traffic BGLs and updating the AI aircraft then stitching it all together.

The results so far are amazing after I figured out the frustrating stuff.

If anyone wants some Traffic BGLs for the Carriers 2006 scenery, Alphasim Kuznetsov scenery, or pretty much any of the modern carrier stuff, sing out.
One of the biggest hassles was finding the right aircraft for the AI (MAIW, SBAI, even IRIS).
The Kuznetsov scenery off the coast of Taiwan came out the best so far.
I hunted down SBAI's Su-27 AI package and found a nice set of conversion textures to add some J-15's (basically a Su-33) to the deck.
All of the traffic BGLs only feature 3 or 4 AI aircraft to keep things tidy. This gives you some AI action in the pattern without the AI getting in the way.
The US carriers get three planes and a helo, each. East coast planes (VFA-106) for the Atlantic, west coast squadrons for the Pacific, etc.
I even used T-45 Goshawks for the carrier just south of Pensacola.

 

[fsafranek]

I'm interested.

 

[jackryan172]

I would like to see that too

 

[Sbob]

Let me brainstorm this a bit.
For the US carriers I use MAIW F/A-18s from their Key West (Oceana) and LeMoore AI/Scenery packages except for the carrier just south of Pensacola which uses T-45s from NAS Meridian and the carrier just off the coast of Jacksonville that uses F-35's. I also use the Abacus (AI) Seahawk from Flightdeck 5 and 6, the MDL looks pretty old but the FD looks/acts really convincing.

Posting just the Traffic BGL's would be easy BUT nothing would show up unless you loaded your Aircraft folder with the right AI files.

The big hassle is that I customized the aircraft while keeping the Traffic BGLs fairly stock.

Which carriers do you guys have installed? I also re-purposed the basic traffic BGLs from the Carriers2006 scenery package for the old Alphasim Kuznetsov scenery as well as the carrier scenery from the Abacus Flight Deck 3 to 6 packages.

Would it be better if I just upload the Traffic BGLs and list where to find the aircraft or just do a write-up on how to create your own traffic using Traffic Tools?

I guess what I'm saying is that this gets complicated pretty quick depending on what you want.

 

[fsafranek]

"Would it be better if I just upload the Traffic BGLs and list where to find the aircraft or just do a write-up on how to create your own traffic using Traffic Tools?"

Yes, please. Perfect.

 

[Sbob]

OK, let me start with a very basic Traffic Tools 101.

If you've ever played with TT and Traffic BGLs, its usually very easy to get lost in terms of what's going on.
A TT Traffic BGL is built from three text files: Aircraft, Airports, and Flight Plans.
Its easy to get lost in these three text files because most Traffic BGLs tend to be very detailed. There are AI flying off to exotic destinations and you may only see them once a week. THESE carrier Traffic BGLs are much simpler.

The typical Aircraft text file will look like this:

AC#1,200,"MAIW_NBAI_EA18G_USN_DD_VX-31_166642"
AC#2,200,"MAIW_NBAI_F18C_VFA-86_165198_NH-404"
AC#3,200,"MAIW_NBAI_EA-18G_VAQ-141_166932_AJ-504"
AC#4,150,"Abacus Seahawk LANT AI"

The AC# part identifies a UNIQUE AI aircraft that's located in the main Aircraft folder.
The number next to it can best be thought of as the air speed in the pattern.
The stuff between the quote marks is the most important. It HAS to be an exact copy of the AI aircraft's TITLE line in the Aircraft.cfg file, like this:

[fltsim.0]
title=MAIW_NBAI_EA18G_USN_DD_VX-31_166642
sim=NBAI_FA18E-F_Super_Hornet_Dry_AI_ONLY
model=G_Centre_Tank
texture=USN_DD_VX-31_166642
atc_airline=DEVIL
atc_parking_types=MIL_COMBAT
atc_parking_codes=VX31
ui_manufacturer=MAIW Nick Black AI
ui_type=Boeing EA-18G Growler
ui_variation=USN - VX-31, Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 31, NAWS China Lake, California. 166642
description=Repaint by Mark H

If the red lines do not match, exactly, nothing will show up.

Moving on to the Airports file in a Traffic BGL, this is super easy for carrier traffic.
Traffic Tools contains a VERY handy sub-program called CollectAirports.exe.
This will produce a list of ALL the Afcads installed in your sim as a text file.
I would suggest that you save this list in your Traffic Tools folder.
You only need to run this once if you have all of your carriers installed.
Before you add your carrier, you'll need to know its ICAO identifier (eg, KLAX, AC01, etc.) from the sim's Go To menu.
Open that airports list you created using CollectAirports then right-click the text and use the FIND command and specify the ICAO code.
Find the carriers ICAO entry and copy the entire line, it should look like this:

AC01,N30* 10.03',W80* 40.00',62

This is the ICAO identifier, Lat, Lon, and the true altitude of the flight deck. This location is UNIQUE in FS's main airport list.
To speed things up, I'll show the typical Airports list used in the Carriers2006 scenery package:

AC01,N30* 9.98',W80* 40.00',66
AC02,N29* 9.96',E48* 34.98',66
AC03,S31* 16.96',E153* 21.94',66
AC04,N38* 39.97',E128* 46.96',66
AC05,N37* 1.97',W75* 0.99',66
AC06,N31* 7.97',E18* 8.97',66
AC07,N2* 59.97',E46* 59.95',66
AC08,N21* 59.98',E118* 59.97',66
AC09,N20* 29.98',E91* 59.99',66
AC10,N24* 59.98',E66* 18.97',66
AC11,N33* 14.99',W117* 44.99',66
AC12,N41* 36.97',E19* 2.93',66
AC13,N33* 4.96',E34* 42.97',66
AC14,N48* 18.96',W123* 58.95',66
AC15,N12* 9.96',W87* 23.99',66
AC16,N56* 29.97',E0* 29.95',66
AC17,S24* 59.95',W45* 59.99',66
AC18,S4* 59.97',W4* 59.98',66

Note that you ONLY need the ICAO ident for the carrier you are working on, but a list like this makes it handy to crank out 10-12 traffic BGLs in one night.

Saving the best for last, its time to tackle the Flight Plans.

The Carriers2006 scenery package makes it as easy and as basic as it can get, which I really like.

Sticking with AC01, what you get is this:

AC#3,F18,10%,2Hr,VFR,00:00:00,00:15:00,020,F,0003,AC01,01:00:00,01:15:00,020,F,0003,AC01
AC#1,EA18,20%,2Hr,VFR,00:15:00,00:30:00,020,F,0006,AC01,01:15:00,01:30:00,020,F,0006,AC01
AC#2,F18,30%,2Hr,VFR,00:30:00,00:45:00,020,F,0014,AC01,01:30:00,01:45:00,020,F,0014,AC01
AC#4,SH60,40%,2Hr,VFR,00:45:00,01:00:00,020,F,0124,AC01,01:45:00,02:00:00,020,F,0124,AC01


What you see are four separate flight plans for four AI aircraft. Each aircraft will start up and request taxi to take off.
Then each of them will line up and take off then fly a left-side pattern and request to land.
Once they land (it usually takes a couple of tries) they will then taxi to the closest available parking spot and then shut down.
In case that didn't look obvious in the Flight Plan lines, let me break it down.


AC#1,EA18,20%,2Hr,VFR,00:15:00,00:30:00,020,F,0006,AC01,01:15:00,01:30:00,020,F,0006,AC01

AC#1 is an EA-18G Growler that will fly a VFR pattern of take offs and landings for two hours at the AC01 carrier.
It takes off from AC01 and lands at AC01, only. Note the mysterious F code in blue. All that means is that the aircraft will use use its CALLSIGN that is specified in the Aircraft.cfg file along with an arbitrary flight number. This and the EA18 identifier makes it easier to understand who (and what they're flying) is in the pattern when you fly back to the carrier. The rest of the numbers are for timing and position (??). Just trust me, they work just fine.
NOTE ALSO THAT THIS FLIGHT PLAN WILL WORK THE SAME AT ANY CARRIER OR AIRPORT IN FS. The ONLY thing that changes are the two AC01 identifiers in each AC# line. Change them to AC05 and that aircraft will show up at the AC05 carrier. Actually, DON'T do that. When AI aircraft start wandering around in your FS world, odd things will start to happen.

So, this was a long post to show you how EASY it is to modify traffic. I wanted to explain the stuff you really need to know. Making the Flight Plans (especially) complex will usually result in something going wrong. Yeah, you could launch a full Alpha Strike that holds at the Marshal Stack ten miles behind the carrier, but do you REALLY want that?

 

[Sbob]

One quick(er) post on WHEN THINGS GO WRONG.

It happens, you start FS to test your handy work, go to the carrier, and either two of the AI are missing or all of them just fidget around at their parking spot and do nothing.

Missing AI- In my experience, the AI plane you THOUIGHT would show up doesn't exist. Double check that Aircraft text file and BE SURE the title matches EXACTLY with the entry from the Aircraft.cfg file. Same deal with the ICAO identifiers in the Flight Plan file. One that bit me was finding out that AC01 is NOT the same as ACO1 or AC0!, they just look the same in a text file.

The AI show up but don't do anything- I had this happen to both of the carriers I placed off the coast of Japan. The culprit was ONE line (literally) in each carrier's AFCAD file. You MUST make sure to include a RUNWAY taxi line (black line) down the center of the landing deck. Also make sure the START LOCATION lines up with the same landing deck. While on that subject, take some time to load one of the Carriers2006 AFCADS and REALLY look at how its laid out. Note the apron, it should match the outline of the carrier main deck only its SLIGHTLY smaller (be sure to include cut-outs for lowered elevators) and SLIGHTLY lower (one tenth of a foot lower will do nicely) than the 3DO of the BGL. Same deal with the phantom runway, it can only be one foot wide and slightly shorter and lower than the landing deck, but it HAS to be there. Also, try to copy the blue and red TAXI NODES and taxi lines from the Carriers2006 package. They work. Don't try to re-invent the wheel.

The AI act funky the first time you test them- This just seems to happen. Restart FS a couple of times before you panic and start trouble shooting. The AI should behave better after those first-load jitters.

Location, location, location- This is mostly limited to the US west coast between San Francisco and San Diego. There is ALREADY a ton of stock AI traffic over Cali. If you don't believe me, load up a plane with a working Radar gauge and turn it on, even if you've already turned down your AI settings in FS. Adding MAIW scenery and traffic only makes it worse. I had to delete most of my AI carrier traffic in the So Cal just because FS would shut down or throw an error message.

 

[Sbob]

As far as where to get my favorite air craft carrier traffic, that's easy. Download and install the Carriers2006 scenery package. Search here, FS.com, or AVSIM to find it.
You'll wind up with a main Carriers2006 folder. Look inside the Scenery folder and you'll find the Traffic BGLs near the bottom of the pile.
Note their location, they work just fine where they are (as opposed to sitting in the main FS scenery folder in the World folder).
This also makes it easier to find them and, if necessary, turn them off if you want to switch over to Golden Wings or what-ever.
Note that the stock Carriers2006 AI won't work UNLESS you already have the old Alphasim AI planes, that's why I posted the long reply above.

To modify the traffic files, you'll need Traffic Tools and having AFCAD installed also won't hurt.
I would highly recommend working on traffic files by copying ONE BGL at a time to your TT folder instead of doing the mods directly to a traffic file in FS. Set up TT's preferences to only work on BGLs in its own folder. Once you edit the text and re-compile the traffic BGL, install it over its older version.

Wet and Dry AI. This refers to the AI flight dynamics. Most MAIW AI are set up for land-locked airports. They look great but tend to do some small but odd things on air craft carrier scenery. AI from Abacus and SBAI have some nice carrier flight dynamics but this is really a small issue.
I'm used to seeing my MAIW AI land on the carrier and finish rolling about one mile in front of the flight deck, then taxi back while floating over the water. Its a compromise I don't mind. Converting MAIW "dry AI" to "wet AI" is a bigger hassle than watching them float above the ocean.

If you can find them, I recommend the Abacus FLIGHT DECK series of scenery and aircraft. The aircraft just look and fly old and the scenery textures are nothing to write home about, but the installs work the first time and I like where they placed their carriers (carriers are designed to work in deep water and not within a stone's throw from the shore, a pet peeve of mine). Flight Deck 3 to Flight Deck 6 are standards along with Vietnam Carrier Ops (an old school 1960's USS Constitution on an accurate Yankee Station) and Carrier Strike Force features Harrier's, F-35's, and Rafales (oh my!).
Finding these titles is getting tough. Your best bet is to hound EBay and Amazon, they bubble up from time-to-time.

For wires and catapults, I use ARRCAB. You can find ARRCAB 5 and 6 as a freeware download. Five works with FS2002, six works with FS9, and both of them do what I want without having to molest my registry. I also have more challenging "trap zones" for a LOT of the carrier scenery. Just ask and I'll post a copy of them.

 

[Sbob]

Meanwhile....

Fraaaank? I'm good but I'm not Kreskin. I still can't read minds.
I posted how to edit those traffic files, it takes about as long to do this on your own as it does to download the stuff.
What are you looking for? Traffic files? They depend a little on what AI aircraft you want and which scenery you have.
Everything on my SSD? That might take a while.
AI aircraft? What kind, what Squadron, etc., etc.

Throw me a bone, guys.

 

[fsafranek]

Sorry, I'm at work a lot these days.
I'm enjoying reading all of your how-to and tips and appreciate your taking the time to write it all down.
The MAIW Rafale was originally intended to have both a dry (land based) and a wet (carrier based) version. I'm hoping to glean some insight from your writing to make that happen with using the dry version. Another that interests me are F-18s to be launched from the SDB Enterprise. Of course these are FSX and P3D releases so things might not be applicable.

 

[Sbob]

Ah, OK. Traffic is my last "undiscovered country" in FS9 so I'm still figuring out some stuff.

I know what you mean about the MAIW Rafales but I didn't notice they tried to combine "wet" and "dry" landing in one FDE.
I don't think you can do that. I'm pretty sure they are using the old trick from FSfW95 and FS98 where you make the SPOILER overpowered in either the .air file or in the Aircraft.cfg. That way, you could add some XML code that says something like "If gear contact on runway is TRUE, SPOILER=100" and "If TAXI, SPOILER=0". It works for carrier landings but it will look goofy at an airport, and MAIW concentrates almost exclusively on land-locked air bases. Either that, or they set up the landing gear as SKIDS in the [contact points] section but that wouldn't allow them to taxi.

The Abacus AI Rafales seem to do alright with carrier landings, let me take a better look at them and I'll get back to you.