Here's some additions to AI that allow refueling from an AI tanker (the actual
onload of fuel must be handled by the user's FDM of course, this just lets
the FDM know that the user is in position to refuel).
I've added a new class of AIAircraft called "tanker". It uses the same
performance struct as a jet transport. An AI tanker is just like an AI jet
transport, except it uses the already-existing radar data to control the
boolean property systems/refuel/contact. The code change was minimal.
An AI tanker can be created like this:
<entry>
<callsign>Esso 1</callsign>
<type>aircraft</type>
<class>tanker</class>
<model>Aircraft/737/Models/boeing733.xml</model>
<latitude>37.61633</latitude>
<longitude>-122.38334</longitude>
<altitude>3000</altitude>
<heading>020</heading>
<speed>280</speed>
<roll>-15</roll>
</entry>
This puts a tanker over KSFO at 3000 feet, in a left-hand orbit. When the
user gets within refueling range (contact position) then the property
systems/refuel/contact will be true. Otherwise it is false.
The dimensions of the refueling envelope are pretty rough right now, but still
usable. The user must be behind the tanker (ie. radar y_offset > 0). The
user must be at or below the tanker's altitude (ie. radar elevation > 0).
The user's lat/lon must be within 250 feet of the tanker's lat/lon (ie. radar
range_ft < 250). This last requirement is loose because the radar data is
only updated every 100 ms, which is accurate enough for radar use, but
which is sloppy for air refueling. This could be tightened up by increasing
the radar update rate to once every sim cycle.
I'm going to add a light to the T-38 instrument panel that will monitor the
property systems/refuel/contact. This will make it easier to explore the
boundaries of the refueling envelope.
Here's some new AI stuff.
1) AI objects must now be defined in a scenario file, not in preferences.xml
or a *-set file. (Of course this doesn't prevent objects from being created
dynamically, as with Durk's traffic manager).
2) A new demo_scenario file is attached. It creates 3 aircraft, a sailboat,
and a thunderstorm.
3) Objects without flightplans live forever.
4) FGAIShip::ProcessFlightplan() is not yet implemented.
5) preferences.xml should now define only <enabled> and <scenario>
These change add some code that at initialization time will snap all
localizers into perfect alignment with their runways. It's my experience
that the DAFIF/FAA data reports runway and localizer headings to a level
of precision that is great for making charts, or adjusting your OBS, etc.
But the level of precision of this data can be far enough off to make you
visibly *un*aligned with the runway when the CDI needle is centered.
There are probably cases where the localizer isn't really perfectly
aligned with the runway, or intentionally misaligned to avoid obstacles
or terrain. So I have made this configurable for those that trust the
data more than I do. Just set "/sim/navdb/auto-align-localizers" to
true/false in the preferences file to turn this feature on or off in the
code.
- FG now directly supports Robin's native nav database file format.
- His latest data now separates out dme, gs, loc, and marker beacon
transmitters rather than lumping them all into a single "ILS" record.
- These new data structure changes prompted me to do some code restructuring
so that internally these different types of navaids are all kept as
separate lists and searched and handled separately.
- This structural change had a cascading affect on any code that
references or uses the nav databases. I've gone and "touched" a lot of
nav related code in a lot of places.
- As an added bonus, the new data (and code) adds DME bias so these will
all now read as they do in real life.
- Added Navaids/navdb.cxx and Navaids/navdb.hxx which provide a front
end loaders for the nav data.
- Added Navaids/navrecord.hxx which is a new "generic" nav data record.
- Removed Navaids/ils.hxx, Navaids/ilslist.cxx, Navaids/ilslist.hxx,
Navaids/mkrbeacons.cxx, and Navaids/mkrbeacons.hxx which are all now
depricated.
1. Removed aircraft roll on ground.
2. Decreased descent pitch angle.
3. Updated flightplans to include <on-ground>
4. Fixed property indexing, so all AI aircraft have their own property branch
The default value of <on-ground> is false, so you only need to specify it when
on the ground. For takeoff you need to specify <on-ground>true</on-ground>
for the first waypoint, and for the acceleration waypoint. For landing you
need to specify it for the touchdown point and any taxi points.
One problem. WARNING **** There is a bug in the way the property system
works, which causes a segfault, but I don't know if the problem is in the
property code, or in how I'm using it. After an AI object terminates, if you
access the property tree through the property browser the sim will segfault.
First, preferences.xml will define the scenario filename.
For now, the other way of defining ai objects still works, so the sailboat
stays in preferences.xml. Later, I'll move the sailboat into the demo
scenario. If no scenario filename is given, then no scenario will be
processed.
I changed the demo scenario to create two 737's, one takes off on runway 01L,
and the other takes off on runway 01R. This will make a good demo for the ai
system. One problem, if you takeoff on 28L/R right away, you might run into
the taking-off 737's, or be scared.
Here's the newest AI stuff.
The AIManager at init() creates a new scenario. Right now the
default_scenario is hard coded in, but eventually the AIManager should get
the scenario filename from preferences.xml.
The scenario defines which AI objects will be created. Right now it only
creates AIAircraft, but this is easily extended. The scenario also defines
which flightplan will be assigned to the airplane. Scenario config files go
in data/Data/AI.
The Airplane gets a pointer to a FlightPlan object. Each airplane should get
its own flightplan object, even if two airplanes have the same flight plan.
This is because the flightplan maintains the iterator pointing to the
current waypoint, and two airplanes might be at different locations (for
instance if they were created at different times). The flight plan files go
in data/Data/AI/FlightPlans.
When the airplane gets to the waypoint named "END" it vanishes. The
AIAircraft destructor deletes its flight plan (if it has one).
The last waypoint is a place holder only. I called mine
<WPT><NAME>"EOF"</NAME></WPT>.
little larger.
The text widget can now be meaningfully associated with a property; in
PUI, it's "value" isn't the same thing as its label, but we can hack
things to treat them symmetrically.
Commit an experimental "live" property that can be set on widgets to
cause them to update their values every frame. This works great for
text widgets, as above. Note that this synchronization is input-only:
no support is provided (or needed -- the GUI only changes when the
user does something) for writing those properties out every frame.
