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Peter McLelland, the gentleman that has so kindly provided us with additional traffic flying around our beloved Orcas Island, has been looking into the problem of ‘burried’ aircraft for you. This problem occurred at (for instance) Richard Goldstein’s Diamond Point airstrip, not too far south of Orcas. It would and will also occur at any other add-on airfield where one might put additional aircraft via the AFCAD program of Lee Swordy. In the text below, Peter kindly explains to us WHY this is happening, and more importantly, provides us with a solution for this problem. From now on the aircraft at Diamond Point will remain firmly on the ground and not sink into the ground anymore! With our gratitude, here is Peter’s explanation: The Traffic Elevation Problem
The solution Half of this problem has easily been solved by the use of an AFCAD file placed in "Addon Scenery" or in the actual added scenery folder. The various altitudes are adjusted in the AFCAD file (Datum Point, Start Points and Runway Altitudes) and this results in the aircraft landing and taxiing very nicely with their wheels on the perceived visual surface. However, this solution only solves the landing and taxiing half of the problem. If you go to the aforementioned airport by using "Goto airport" then you arrive at an exact time and if there is traffic there on the ground at that time...it will be buried by that same 3.7 feet. Of course, any other traffic that arrives subsequently will land and taxi very nicely on its wheels but that traffic that was there already will remain and even taxi out to the runway, buried by 3.7 feet. I have discovered that the remaining problem can be completely solved by placing and EXTRA copy of the AFCAD file at this location: X:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Scenery\World\scenery Where X = the drive or partition where you have installed FS2004 FS9's Traffic algorithm will look at this copy of the AFCAD to establish the altitude of stationary traffic on the ground and they will appear sitting nicely on their wheels. FS9's Traffic algorithm will still look at the first copy of the AFCAD file here: X:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Addon Scenery\scenery To determine the altitude at which your traffic will land...So BOTH copies of the AFCAD file are necessary for the correct operation of Traffic on an airfield that is built above the default scenery level. This EXTRA copy of the AFCAD file is only needed for this type of scenery and for all other scenery, only the one AFCAD file is required. For this reason I have adopted a naming convention...I have added the word "Corrected" into the title of the file. This means that you can easily spot such a file and will know that another copy of the file exists in your Flight Simulator file structure and that for this particular airport a matched pair of AFCAD files is required. My AFCAD file for "Diamond Point" is called "PMc_Corrected_AF2_2WA1.bgl" I attach a zip file containing the new file and full instructions on placing it. Also in the zip is the Updated Traffic file which will keep the six Cessna’s in the air for most of their lives...They will visit both airfields briefly every two hours...and of course there will be no more half buried airplanes at Diamond Point. Regards. |
Last updated April 5th, 2004, 07:00 ZULU |
The problem...When FS9, during the start up, tells
you that it is "Loading
Traffic", it uses a complex algorithm to determine the exact position
of all the Traffic in the "Active Zone" around your aircraft.
It then positions all these aircraft at an altitude and speed sensible
to the Flight Plan being used by each aircraft. The stationary aircraft
(the ones on the ground) are placed in position at an altitude calculated
by examining the default scenery at the aircraft's position to determine
the ground altitude AT that position. The scenery is only examined in
the layers from the very bottom up to Africa to determine this stationary
aircraft altitude...and the aircraft are placed there. The flying traffic
proceeds to it's destination and if still within the "Active Zone" when
it gets there, the Traffic algorithm determines the altitude at which
it is going to land by looking further in the scenery at "Addon
Scenery" and upwards to find the altitude at its destination. The
traffic then touches down at this altitude and, if all is well, the wheels
will be rolling along the perceived visual ground. However, if the add-on
scenery is built up from the default scenery by shall we say 3.7 feet
then what will happen is that stationary traffic will appear buried 3.7
feet into the ground, because it is sitting at default scenery level
and furthermore the landing traffic will land 3.7 feet below the surface
and taxi in this half buried condition all the way to its stand.