Traffic 360, AI cruising at wrong altitude

I'm not sure if this has been addressed before, but I have Traffic 360 and it seems like every flight I do I have a near mid air collision because the AI is cruising at the wrong altitude. For example, I'm cruising at FL360 going west. An AI flight is cruising at same altitude going east. Am I missing something? Is there a way to fix this? I've contacted the Just Flight support, and they are just blaming FSX, but I don't recall having this problem before the issue.

 

Thanks for the help!

Rule of thumb = NEodd, SWeven! ie: For a Magnetic Course of 0 degrees thru 179 degrees fly at odd altitudes, and for a Magnetic Course of 180 degrees thru 359 degrees at even altitudes. If VFR add 500ft. So the AI flightplans are either written with the wrong altitude(s), or, their altimeter is out of cal. :p ...Don

AI cruises at the altitude set when the route was created. They no nothing about direction of flight or traffic avoidance. All they do is observe the limits in the aircraft.cfg file for speeds and stalls, perform a parabolic take off to programmed cruise (whatever single altitude that is) GPS direct with no SIDS or STARS cruise speed, and a parabolic landing with limited ATC approach guidance so all the aircraft at an airport are taking off and landing same runway.

 

You are expecting too much from the FSX AI.

 

-Pv-

Install the radar gauge, that way you see them coming! gauge.zip - in the file library. Says fs2004 I think, but works fine in fsx.

There are several radars available if that's the solution you prefer. Myself, the times when AI cross my path within hitting distance at my altitude is about 1 in 30,000.

 

-Pv-

I realize that the AI from FSX isn't great. I mean the ATC is junk as well. My question was since I installed Traffic 360, I have been having this issue a lot. Is it because the routes that were compiled were given incorrect altitudes? This is straight from the box, meaning I have made no attempts to alter or build any AI routes.

I find it comical when I hear ATC telling an ultralight to climb and maintain FL 20,000....Lol....that pilot would black out!

http://i789.photobucket.com/albums/yy176/buffalo2602/FSX/ScreenHunter_01Nov221950_zps13de862e.jpg

 

Wim

Wow FL 720? there are some very exotic aircraft in your AI plans!

 

-Pv-

Sorry, but a traffic tool including an Airbus 380 Air Force One can't be considered as serious. So what?

 

Bernard

" My question was since I installed Traffic 360, I have been having this issue a lot. Is it because the routes that were compiled were given incorrect altitudes?"

 

Yes, probably. Due to the large number of AI plans being created, the originator of the plan collection likely used a randomizer to generate the largest number of plans in the shortest time regardless of the direction of flight and type of aircraft.

 

I realize for a lot of people that the AI in this sim makes or breaks it for them.

I get around all this by flying online on Vatsim where the ATC and the pilots are human and they apply the real world rules and solve problems using human intuition and logic.

 

The more important a particular feature in FS is to you, the more you have to consider replacing portions of the sim with add-ons which vary GREATLY in quality and usefulness.

 

-Pv-

Okay, I think I understand the problem. When you create flight plans, they do not include altitudes with these plans, so FSX decides which altitude the flight will be flown based solely on the CFG for that AI aircraft. Example, the cruising min and max altitudes set for a particular aircraft is 20,000 and 40,000. So FSX will randomly tell this flight to fly a flight plan with in that envelope. Is this correct?

No, the plans DO include an altitude, but only ONE altitude regardless of direction of flight. The AI ATC assigns the AI aircraft the CRUISE altitude in the plan regardless of if it's "legal" or not. You can create your own flight plan and use illegal altitudes and the AI ATC wouldn't care. They may give you step climbs, but you'll get your filed in the end. The aircraft AI are treated no different in this respect.

 

Alternatively, on the "Vat", if you file an improper altitude, you may get away with it the whole flight until your plane appears in an ATC coverage area which will cause someone to take a look at it eventually and point out any wrong altitudes for you to change. On the Vat, planes which cross each other at wrong altitudes are pretty rare and due to pilots not being able to fly their planes at altitudes the planes were not designed for, you won't find any 192s at 31K feet unless the pilot slewed there.

 

Added:

"Example, the cruising min and max altitudes set for a particular aircraft is 20,000 and 40,000. So FSX will randomly tell this flight to fly a flight plan with in that envelope"

 

It's the flight level altitudes programmed into the AI file which were likely largely randomly generated which are the problem here, not that the ATC are randomly assigning altitudes. The ATC is just giving the AI plane their FILED altitude in the plan however realistic or whacky it is.

 

-Pv-

Ahhh, okay. So that's why I'm getting 737s on my nose. The altitude in the AI flight plan altitude is for the flight going in the opposite direction. In other words, this is probably not fixable. Weird that MS didn't put just one extra line of code to make this a non- issue. Something like X flight flies at 36,000 thus return flight Y will fly at 37,000 (or 39,000, whatever)?

"Weird that MS didn't put just one extra line of code to make this a non- issue. Something like X flight flies at 36,000 thus return flight Y will fly at 37,000"

 

If the AI plan had the wrong altitude, the return flight would also be wrong.

Flight level rules change once in a while. This way, it's up to the flight plan(s) designer to get it right and modify it as necessary instead of MS providing unlimited support.

 

What if the flight plan had a plane which has a ceiling of 38K ft was given a 41K foot cruise? The return would still be wrong even with the enhanced logic. The computer cannot win against human error.

 

-Pv-

Hmm, okay so it does sound like there is an error then with the flight plans for Traffic 360. Either Just Flight didn't take the time to input correct altitudes or there is a problem elsewhere because I sure didn't make these flight plans.