Replace many lingering calls to exit() from the code,
replacing most with exception throws, which can be
caught by the existing mechanisms.
Update the option-parsing code to return an explicit
value indicating what to do (e.g., exit status to return
to the shell).
FGAISchedule::update can be time consuming. Preempt when necessary to
avoid simulation lags, and call it every sim iteration, until the flight
plan is complete.
AIManager had unfortunate code to pass some state to the traffic-manager; this is no longer required since traffic schedules hold onto their AI-Aircraft directly as needed.
Make landings and takeoffs look more correct; tweak climb-out and touchdown phases in particular, so the turn to destination heading occurs earlier on climb out, and touchdown occurs close the GS transmitter / some distance down the runway from the beginning.
Expand the performance DB logic to support aliases, and select based on aircraft type as well as class. This allows to introduce some variation into AI traffic performance. Change the initial climb-out waypoints to use pitch-hold until passing 3000', which looks much more convincing
Make traffic manager startup asynchronous, but also avoid frame-stutter due to file parsing on the main thread. Note only XML parsing happens on a thread - once that's complete, everything happens as normal on the main thread, as before.
Also adapt MP and traffic module to enable the AI module when required.
This makes /sim/ai/enabled an internal property: it can default to false
(in future), and can be enabled as soon as any user-level feature (traffic,
MP, local weather, ...) requires it.
* Pregenerating taxiroutes could interfere with runway assignments by ATC, when conditions changed, resulting in a taxi to one runway and a takeoff from another
* A simpler solution for the "Error in Traffic record bug". This still needs some more testing, but I haven't seen any error message anymore, since changing to the current code.
* Initialize AI traffic at speed zero, this should prevent some weirdness observed under boundary conditions.
* Don't activate groundnetwork proximity detection for pushback traffic until the "ready for startup message is transmitted. this should allow sufficient time for them to reserve a route, but a little more testing still needs to be done.
* Improved groundnetwork routing algorithm. Don't uncesscarily block taxiways. Instead, use a "just-in-time" blocking system. The unblocking algorithm still needs some work, but the current version is already a major improvement over the previous version.
* Some tweaks to the handover from ground to tower controller. Aircraft could refuse to take-off of even refuse to taxi onto the runway. This now seems to be solved.
/sim/ATC/radius should be a nummeric estimate of the size of your aircraft. A small aircraft fits into a large parking, but a large aircraft does not fit into a small parking space. Because the AI part of radius is also used for slightly different purposes (prioritizing gate assignmments, the given valuem may deviate slightly from the real aircraft size. See http:/wiki.flightgear.org/Aircraft.radii for an overview of currently used values for the redius property.
/sim/ATC/flight-type can be any one of "ga", "cargo", "gate", "mil-fighter", "mil-cargo", or "vtol". See http://wiki.flightgear.org/Interactive_traffic#A_technical_perspective for more information.
optionally, the property /sim/ATC/airline can be set set to a three letter icao airline code. By way of illustration, I will commit a number of startup preset files setting these properties shortly.
Also did some more finetuning to the traffic mananger routing algorithm can be any one of "ga", "cargo", "gate", "mil-fighter", "mil-cargo", or "vtol". See http://wiki.flightgear.org/Interactive_traffic#A_technical_perspective for more information.
optionally, the property /sim/ATC/airline can be set set to a three letter icao airline code. By way of illustration, I will commit a number of startup preset files setting these properties shortly.
Also did some more finetuning to the traffic mananger routing algorithm.
Traffic Manager:
* Just continue routing until we run out of flights. This change removes one of the major requirements for setting the "Home port" field.
* Add a time restriction requirement for the aircraft scheduler; this became necessary after removing the limited-to-home-port routing restriction.
* Added a new field to the heuristics calculation: take into account whether an aircraft has already been used in a previous session. Rotate aircraft assignments for greater variability across sessions.
* Added a revision number to the cache files, so that old cache results, which are no longer compatible with the new file format, are discarded.
Groundnetwork and traffic control:
* Added a revision number to the cache files, so that old and incompatible results are discarded.
* The caching algorithm probably didn't store the correct data for airports that were processed while the user was quite far away. This is now corrected by checking whether the cached elevation data are equal to the generic airport elevation.
AIAircraft:
* I've been searching for the infamous aircraft bend-over-backward bug, that can occur during initialization, but to no avail yet. The only variable potentially responsible (tgt_vs) wich can explain the irregular jumping behavior, as well as the weird pitch results is initialized in AIAircraft's only constructor (through AIBase), and I can't find any situation in the ground handling code where this variable could get bizarre values. But,
* a couple of tgt_vs. calculations appear to be completely redundant. This value was calculated twice inside the ProcessFlightplan function, and subsequently again in the updateSecondaryTargetValues function. I have removed the calculations in the process flightplan function, without any apparent side effect.
- Fixed a bug in AI aircraft ground steering code: When aircraft were not moving, the value of headingchangeRate kept increasing to insane levels. Although this was clamped to a maximum of 30 degrees per second, the initial rate could still push the aircraft in the wrong direction. In practice, this bug would be visible when an AI aicraft would be pushed back, when it tended to veer to the right.
- Make sure that the aircraft slows down well ahead of the pushback point. This change ensures that the AC will actually reach the pushback point. It also ensures a slightly tighter steering range.
- AI ground steering rate is tuned to 30 degrees per second at a nominal taxispeed of 15. I now modulate the heading adjustment rate by manipulating the adjustment using a non-linear function (the sqrt). This allows for a slightly tighter turn radius at speeds < 15 and slightly looser turns at speeds > 15.
- The AI Flightplan generation code can return false. This can be used to determine whether any additional AI aircraft may be created. Currently, the function returns false when no more parkings are available. This should limit the build-up of huge AIAircraft tower stacks.
- The ground network can now graphically display all aircraft actitivy on the ground network by using a virtual marker system.
- #248: new enable/disable-ai-traffic command-line option
- AI traffic: don't wait for METAR when real-wx-fetch disabled, to
enable AI traffic when running offline
