ORBX AI question

[kenthom]

Does ORBX AI work independently of FSX AI?   Should the FSX AI slider be shut off while flying GA regions?

[FalconAF]

I'm not sure what you mean by "the FSX AI slider".  If you are talking about the "percentage of traffic" sliders in the FSX AI control section, you use those same sliders to control the amount of FTX AI traffic.  If you "shut off" those sliders (set them to "zero" in FSX) you won't see any FTX AI traffic even if you have it installed.

 

Just in case you aren't familiar with how and where AI "traffic files" are stored and used in FSX, open up your FSX folder in something like Windows Explorer.  Scroll down to the "scenery/word/scenery" folder and open it.  Scroll down that LONG list of files until you start seeing file names starting with "traffic" as the first word in the file name. The default FSX AI aircraft file will be "trafficAircraft.bgl".  It contains all the default traffic that comes with FSX.  It MIGHT be disabled if you installed a third-party AI traffic addon, like My Traffic or similar (the file name would be changed, like it could be "trafficAircraft.bgl.OFF" or "trafficAircraft.bgl.DISABLED" or similar), but installing any FTX AI traffic DOESN'T do that (I think).  

 

There will be other AI traffic BGL files there also if you have any FTX AI traffic installed.  Their names will all start with "traffic" too, but could be something like "traffic_ ORBX_SCA....." or "traffic_FTX_NA...." or (for a specific airport) "traffic_KMRY.....", etc.  All of these file names should end with a ".BGL" as the file name IF you chose to have them active when you installed them. If not, they will end with ".BGL.OFF".  NOTE:  For any included FTX AI traffic that comes with a purchased ORBX product, you normally turn the traffic on or off using the product's Configuration Utility included in FTX Central to turn the AI traffic on or off.  Other AI traffic you may download as "freeware" from the ORBX site *might* require you to manually turn it on or off if you want too by changing the file name for it yourself.  But THESE ways TOTALLY either make the AI traffic "available" or UN-available for FSX to use.  You STILL use the "AI sliders" in FSX itself to determine the PERCENTAGE of AI traffic you will see if the AI traffic is "enabled").

 

Note:  FTX AI traffic you have installed will work fine with the default FSX AI traffic.  But you could also MANUALLY disable your default FSX AI traffic (if you would like to just see FTX AI traffic you have installed for a particular airport or scenery area) by adding an ".OFF" extension to the FSX default AI traffic file name.  For instance, change the default FSX AI traffic file name from "trafficAircraft.bgl" to "trafficAircraft.bgl.OFF".  You can add whatever you want after the ".bgl"...it doesn't matter...as long as the LAST thing in the file name is NOT ".bgl".  You could rename it to "trafficAircraft.bgl.disabled" or "trafficAircraft.bgl.OFF" or even "trafficAircraft.bgl.dontshowmeanymore" if you wanted to.  But if you then fly anywhere where you don't have any FTX AI traffic installed (or another product like My Traffic, etc), you won't see any AI traffic ANYWHERE else in the simulator unless you rename the default FSX traffic file back to what it originally was (delete the ".OFF" extension you added to it).

 

But you STILL use the sliders in FSX to set the percentage level of FTX AI traffic you have installed, whether it be the GA slider for General Aviation traffic, or the Airliner slider for commercial traffic (like the Australia commercial airlines AI traffic for Australia if you have that installed).  If you set the FSX sliders to "zero", you won't see any FTX AI traffic in the sim (or any OTHER AI traffic you have installed either). 

 

Hope that helped. 

 

 

[kenthom]

Thanks for the great explanation.     My issue was I had flown around some ORBX airports and had ORBX ai traffic.  However, it seemed that in other ORBX airports I had none.  So then I started adjusting the FTX ai slider thinking that possibly I had to turn it "off" to have the ORBX ai traffic work. 

 

I have MY Traffic Professional installed.  I am constantly switching between GA and Commercial flight so I adjust the sliders a lot since I fly the PMDG NG and I need all the power I can get.    I typically turn off the ai traffic while in flight to save memory even though I have P3D v3.  I fly into all the FSDT and other 3rd party airports.  Shortly before landing I will turn it back on to about 18% so there will be traffic on the ground.

 

Flying GA I turn the percentage of Commercial way down and the GA traffic up.

 

Thanks again for your help and great explanation.

 

[FalconAF]

You're welcome.  You may not see ORBX specific AI aircraft traffic at all ORBX airports.  It depends on whether the developer included an AI traffic file with the airport product.  Basically, if you look in the scenery\world\scenery folder and find a "traffic" file named something like "traffic_KMRY..." or any "traffic..." file name that also contains "ORBX", "FTX", etc, then you have ORBX-specific AI traffic installed for that area.  As long as the last part of the file name is ".bgl" it is "available" for FSX to use.  If your AI Traffic sliders are set above anything except "zero" you will see it on the percentage basis of your slider setting.

 

Other products, like your My Traffic, may not include AI Traffic for some of the smaller "bush flying" airports ORBX sells.  So if the ORBX airport doesn't come with it's own AI traffic file, you may never see any AI traffic at those airports (the default FSX AI traffic file most likely doesn't include any AI for those small airports either).

 

There is a freeware AI traffic package on the ORBX site you can download for large(r) geographical areas covered by the ORBX Global products.  It used to be just the Australia AI, but now the download also includes AI traffic for NA PNW and the rest of the ORBX freeware and payware airports in North America.  I recommend you download it if you haven't already, as it might provide some AI traffic for ORBX airports that your My Traffic or the default FSX doesn't have.  

[kenthom]

I have the ORBX AI traffic for NA installed.  That is why I have been confused when I never saw AI traffic while I was at or near many of the ORBX airports.  I have gone through each of my ORBX airports and learned that not all do have the ORBX AI traffic.  It also appeared to me that, of the regions I have installed, only Southern CA had the ORBX AI Traffic.  I do not have the PNW although I am seriously considering getting it.  With OpenLC coming soon I am not certain I want to spend the money on PNW even though they have some awesome airports in that region.

[Stewart Hobson]

Odd.  I seem to remember a post awhile back from Ed or somebody that the NA AI traffic pack was for PNW and NCA only.