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
--prop:/sim/traffic-manager/dumpdata=true: dumps the currently loaded datafile to the console for inspection.
--prop:/sim/traffic-manager/datafile=/path/to/somefile.xml: Skips autoscanning and reads traffic only from the specified xml file.
--prop:/sim/traffic-manager/datafile=/path/to/somefile.conf: Slips autoscanning and reads traffic from a plain text file, as described on the forum/wiki
* Removed the use of pointers for heuristics calculations, as urged by Frederic Bouvier
* Fixed domain error in proportion calculation during loading, resulting in random skipping of aircraft, as reported by Jorg van der Venne.
* New features
- More realistic descent paths
- Separation during descent and approach
- ATC approach controller (still silent)
- inbound traffic flow will start immediately
* Bug fixes
- Properly handle vertical speed when on ground
- Departing aircraft now wait for taxiclerance before moving
- Traffic manager waits for proper weather initialization
- Fixed instabilities in the preferential runway usage code
- Fine tuning of waypoint following code.
issue is numerical problems in _wgs84_inverse, triggered by the traffic-manager
testing enormous distances geodetically.
Changes
- refactor AISchedule::update, so the aircraft approximate position
calculation is simpler.
- refactor AIAircraft to no longer use exceptions as a return value mechanism
- change AISchedule::update to use cartesian math for in-visible-range check
* Changed the runway XX. ATC message to actually report the real
designated departure runway
* In case of multiple active runways, select the one with a heading that is
closest to the direction of the ultimate departure destination / lines up
with the arrival path.
* Some support for geometry information provided by the custom scenery
project. Current support is for AI groundnets and runway use files only
since this is a switch that involves a lot of data verification and
updating, during the transistion the actual path where the data can be
read from is user configurable. setting the property
/sim/traffic-manager/use-custom-scenery-data to true
will cause flightgear to read the ground networks from the scenery
directory (--{fg-scenery}/Airports/[I]/[C]/[A]/[ICAO].groundnet.xml to be
precise). Setting this property to false will retain the original
behvior.
* For departing aircraft, runway takeoff calculations will be done on the
basis of the performance database. For testing purposes, a performance
estimate for a heavy jet has been added.
