AI Traffic is a fantastic innovation in FS2002. Aircraft take off from and land in the airports you are frequenting yourself and make flight simulation much more realistic. With ATC activated you suddenly have both visual and audible activity around you in a dynamic scenery far more elaborate than any programme you can buy.

Though FS2002 has 23115 default flight plans the traffic seems sparse any way in the part of the world where I live - in Denmark. When you are lucky enough to meet an airliner in a local airport it is called American Pacific, Landmark or Orbit.

So I decided to create my own domestic AI traffic and that is where the trouble started. I have one big problem - I am not overly skilled when it comes to breaking down computer programs, making changes and especially having it work afterwards.

I vacuumed the flightsim web sites to see if I could find an understanding tutor who did not presuppose too much knowledge and had the patience to take you by the hand and guide you through one step at a time.

I found and downloaded numerous guides to AI traffic - but most of their instructions were beyond me. But I refused to admit my shortcomings and surrender - so I picked what I was able to understand from each article and kept on experimenting. The stuff you have to comprehend is often very technical. Since English is not my first language - which I am sure you have already guessed - I have had some difficulty understanding the instructions.

It is easy to understand that the developer uses so much energy creating these new bright add-ons that he is a little exhausted when it comes to writing the "read me". Quite a few instructions could give you this impression.

Recently, however, I succeeded getting my own AI traffic into the air among local airports and with local airlines. Then I came to think of that there might be other simmers out there with the same lack of expertise (you never know) but who nevertheless would like to work with AI Traffic. So I have put my limited experience in writing in the hope that it might help e few beginners like myself to better understanding AI traffic.

I have used local airports and airlines to make my tutorial more specific. But of course you should adjust it to match your own environment.

My tutorial is not complete and most likely not flawless either. This is, however, one way it can be done. It won't cause any damage and first of all - it works.

If you have the patience to follow me step by step you will in less than two hours be sitting in the center of all the AI traffic you could wish for and you will have accumulated some basic knowledge enabling you to better understanding some of the very bright developer's add ons.

Traffic Tools

To create your own AI Traffic you will need a program to help you. I have downloaded Traffic Tools v1.2 by Lee Swordy. It has an excellent manual which I strongly recommend you read carefully.

I have made a simple filing system for all my downloads:

C:\FS2002downloads	\aircraft
	\sceneries
	\tools
	\panels
	\sounds
	\adventures

and

c:\AI TRAFFIC - you will be returning to this file in Windows Explorer so often that it must to be easy to get to.

I downloaded Traffic Tools v1.2 in c:\FS2002downloads\tools where it arrived zipped. Then I unzipped it to c:\AI TRAFFIC as "ttools 12".

Open "ttools 12". In the right side you will among others find two files:

TDecompiler fetches the information from FS2002 and shows you the data stored here so that you can make the additions and changes you want.

TCompiler returns the data you have been working with so that FS2002 will recognise your additions and changes.

Let's double click on Tdecompiler.

You now get a black window in which you can follow the decompilation. It takes quite a while but finally you will get the information: 23115 flight plans, 36 aircraft and 1842 airports. Press Enter.

You will now see three text files: "aircraft" - "airports" - "Flightplans"

It is the 23115 flight plans that makes it take so long - so I immediately decided to put the 23114 away - at least temporarily.

Made a new file: c:\FS2002 backup

Went to c:\AI TRAFFIC\ttools 12 and single clicked on "Flightplans" - marked it so it turned blue, pressed Ctrl c - now you have made a copy of the file. Back to c:\FS2002 backup, and press Ctrl v. Now all FS2002's 23115 flight plans are in safety. You can take them back again any time. It would be a good idea to do the same with the text file "aircraft".

Back to c:\AITRAFFIC\ttools 12, double click on "flightplans" to open it and delete the whole content except the first line. It's too confusing to work with such an abundance of information. The reason why I want to save one flight plan is that it is nice to have a model to look to when you start making new flight plans.

Let's see if it worked...

Double click on TCompile sending your changes back to FS2002.

Double click on TDecompile. The decompilation is fast now and in the black window you will see the new information: 1 flight plan, 36 aircraft and 1842 airports. Press Enter.

Available Airports

We now need to know which airports we can use for future flight plans. FS2002 only recognises 1842 - so open the c:\AI TRAFFIC\ttools\airports

Here all available airports are listed alphabetically after their 4-letter ICAO code. All airports in Denmark start with EK** - so I scrolled down and found seven airports starting with EK and made a list of the seven ICAO codes.

If you open FS2002 and select "Create a Flight" and go to "Current location" and click on "Changes" and find you own country in "Region/country" you will get a list of the ICAO codes and the names of the airports belonging to them.

I haven't found anything about the possibility of adding new airports so I believe you have to stick to these.

Aircraft

Back to c:\AI TRAFFIC\ttools12 and open the "aircraft" file - the one with the blue note pad.

It lists 36 default FS2002 aircraft you can use at the moment. But we will soon change that. Make a print out of the list.

As far as I have been able to figure out there are 2 ways of getting new aircraft - by theft and by honest labor.

First we have to find and download some aircraft we can use. May I assume that you master the art of downloading and unpacking new aircraft from the Internet. Andrew Herd published a how to on "How To Build Your Own Aircraft - A Step By Step Guide For Beginners, Part 1: Finding and installing FS2002 aircraft" I am sure you will find it useful.

It is now time to get the aircraft we need for the further process.

I have selected six aircraft, five from FlightSim.Com and one from the Scandinavian counterpart flightsim.no.

Please observe that not all downloaded aircraft are suited for AI Traffic. Some of them are missing the nose wheel and some the whole landing gear. Of course it is interesting to see a Boeing 747 fly 10 feet over the taxiway at a speed of 15 knots but it certainly does not add to the feeling of realism.

GMAX

Somewhere in all the literature I have downloaded I have read that you should use only aircraft created with a system called GMAX. So I went to "FlightSim.Com" , "Main menu", "Search File Libraries" and in "Search for text" I typed "aircraft gmax" - search. The system found only five airplanes created with GMAX. But in case this GMAX is necessary for the development of aircraft suited for AI Traffic I am sure there will be more coming.

It is my experience that non-GMAX planes kill frame rates whereas GMAX planes don't seem to have no noticeable influence.

The three non-GMAX aircraft:

dhcwid22.zip            DeHavilland 6 Twin Otter from Widerøe
sk734v3.zip             Boeing 737-400 from SAS
b737lh-c.zip            Boeing 737-400 from Lufthansa

The three GMAX aircraft:

Ba2k2 08.zip            British Airways Avro RJ100
146crsab.zip            Sabena Crossair Bae 146-200
02 86v15.zip            Ilyushin IL-86

Downloaded them to my c:\FS2002 downloads\aircraft folder, unpacked them to the same folder, opened the "readme" files and made a print of them.

I then installed the six aircraft to "c:\programs\microsoft games\FS2002\aircraft" in compliance with the installation instructions in "readme". To check I went to FS2002 "Create a flight" "Select aircraft". They were there all right. If you do not find them listed under the manufacturers name they might be stored under "unspecified"; fixing that problem is the topic of another recent how to.

,p> 

Now you have a number of airports and six third -party aircraft to work with. The serious business can start.

Adding New Aircraft By Theft

We will now work with aircraft.cfg (configuration) files. It is not so scary.

Open c:\programs\Microsoft Games\FS2002 in Windows Explorer and click on the little + to the left of the file called "aircraft". You should still be in the left half of the window. You now see all available aircraft listed below.

Find "b737_400" and double click on the file. In the right half you will now see a selection of files. We are interested in the icon with a blue note pad on called "aircraft" - this is the "aircraft.cfg" file. Double click on it and the following picture occurs of which I only show the upper part we are interested in:

[fltsim.0]
title=Boeing 737-400
sim=Boeing737-400
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=
kb_checklists=Boeing737-400_check
kb_reference=Boeing737-400_ref
atc_id=N900MS
atc_airline=
atc_flight_number=1123
ui_manufacturer=Boeing
ui_type=737-400
ui_variation=American Pacific Airways
description=One

etc...

[fltsim.1]
title=Boeing 737-400 Paint1
sim=Boeing737-400
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=1
kb_checklists=Boeing737-400_check
kb_reference=Boeing737-400_ref
atc_id=N100MS
atc_airline=
atc_flight_number=1123
ui_manufacturer=Boeing
ui_type=737-400
ui_variation=Landmark Airlines
description=One

etc...

[fltsim.2]
title=Boeing 737-400 Paint2
sim=Boeing737-400
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=2
kb_checklists=Boeing737-400_check
kb_reference=Boeing737-400_ref
atc_id=N200MS
atc_airline=
atc_flight_number=1123
ui_manufacturer=Boeing
ui_type=737-400
ui_variation=Orbit Airlines
description=One 

etc...

These are the three default Boeing 737-400 aircraft in FS2002, American Pacific, Landmark and Orbit. We will change the Landmark and the Orbit planes to Scandinavian (SAS) and Lufthansa planes.

Probably you can also use the first one. However, I am not quite sure how - so I'll let that rest until someone tells me some day.

All three aircraft are technically identical.

[fltsim.0] is the mother and [fltsim.1] and [fltsim.2] are different liveries which FS2002 consequently calls: title=Boeing 737-400 Paint1 and: title=Boeing 737-400 Paint2 in the second line of each block.

FS2002 only recognises a certain number of liveries - I am not sure how many. But if you change Paint1 to Paint11 and Paint2 to Paint12 FS2002 will no longer recognise them.

You now have the top part of the three variations looking like this:

[fltsim.0]
title=Boeing 737-400		Untouched, still American Pacific
etc...

[fltsim.1]
title=Boeing 737-400 Paint11	Out of order
etc...

[fltsim.2]
title=Boeing 737-400 Paint12	Out of order
etc...

Now you have two vacant titles you can allocate to aircraft of your own choice. Close the aircraft.cfg file and say yes to saving the changes.

Open c:\programs\Microsoft Games\FS2002 in Windows Explorer and click on the little + to the left of the file called "aircraft". You should still be in the left half of the window.

Find "Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) B734 LN-RPW" and double click on the file. In the right half you will now se a selection of files. We are interested in the icon with a blue note pad on called "aircraft" - this is the "aircraft.cfg" file. Double click on it and the following picture occurs of which I only show the upper part we are interested in.

You have probably already noticed that this is an exact repetition of what you did a moment ago to find the "aircraft.cfg" file of the default FS2002 Boeing 737's and you get this picture:

[fltsim.0]
title=Boeing 737-400
sim=Boeing737-400
model=
panel=
sound=
texture=
kb_checklists=Boeing737-400_check
kb_reference=Boeing737-400_ref
atc_id=
atc_airline=Scandinavian
atc_flight_number=SK01
ui_manufacturer=Boeing
ui_type=737-400
ui_variation=Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) B734 LN-RPW
description=SAS was formed in 1946 and is a consortium consisting of the three national 
etc...
atc_heavy=1

In FS2002 you have stolen "title=Boeing 737-400 Paint1" from the Landmark plane. Give this title to the SAS plane (just add: Paint1 in the second line) so it reads:

"title=Boeing 737-400 Paint1"

Did you remember to take a print out of the 36 default aircraft in FS2002? Make a note at AC#4,430, "Boeing 737-400 Paint1" that it is now a SAS plane.

Do the same with the Lufthansa (c:\Programs\Microsoft Games\FS2002\aircraft\B737LH-C) plane which will now be AC#5,430,"Boeing 737-400 Paint2"

Adding New Aircraft By Honest Work

We still have 36 aircraft - we have only changed two of them. But now we shall start adding four aircraft, AC#37, AC#38, AC#39 and AC#40.

Back to c:\AT TRAFFIC\ttools 12 and open "aircraft". Scroll to the bottom and write:

AC#37,200,"

We shall now find the "aircraft.cfg" file of the plane we want as AC#37. Are you familiar with the procedure now?

Open c:\programs\Microsoft Games\FS2002 in Windows Explorer and click on the little + to the left of the file called "aircraft". You should still be in the left half of the window.

Find:

"Bae 146-200 BA 2K2"

double click on it and in the right side you will find the "aircraft.cfg" file (the one with the blue note pad on) - double click on it to open it.

The 2. line reads:

title=BAEX1462UN

Mark "BAEX1462UN" with your cursor so it turns blue and press ctrl-c. Now you have copied the title for your aircraft AC#37

If you scroll down a little you will see that there is also a

[fltsim.1]
tittle=BA RJ100 ANTR
etc...

and a

[fltsim.1]
tittle=BA RJ100 HOL
etc...

They represent different liveries of the same aircraft just in the same way we saw with the Landmark and the Orbit planes. You can come back and pick them as your AC#41 and AC#42 or any unused number if you want to add them to your collection of AI Traffic aircraft. They are both GMAX planes and should not hurt your frame rate.

Cruise Speed

While you have this "aircraft.cfg" file opened scroll down till you find this section:

[Reference Speeds]
flaps_up_stall_speed=130.000
full_flaps_stall_speed=100.000
cruise_speed=350.000

and make a note of the cruise speed which for this aircraft is 350 knots.

Back To Aircraft

You are holding the title of the aircraft in your clip board - so return to the "aircraft.txt" file in ttools12, place your cursor where you wrote

AC#37,200,"

And press ctrl v and finish with another quotation mark. The line should now read:

AC#37,200,"BAEX1462UN"

Replace the 200 with 350, as we learned from the our recent visit to the Bae 146's aircraft.cfg file that the cruising speed actually is 350 knots. When AI Traffic calculates the time it takes to fly from one airport to another it will use this speed. Can I assume that you are able to repeat the procedure with the Crossair and the Aeroflot planes - the two other GMAX planes downloaded and the Wideroe Twin Otter. In this case you now have four added, workable aircraft. AC#37, AC#38, AC#39 and AC#40.

In FS2002\ \aircraft they are listed as: "Bae 146-200 SabCross 2k2", "il-86" and "dhc6widerøe"

When that is done close the "aircraft.txt" file and say yes to saving the changes.

Qf_dh8 - a Qantas Dash 8-100 and atr2k2v6 from Alitalia for instance work OK - but as I said previously, I have the feeling that non-GMAX planes have a tendency to kill frame rates - so my advice is to hold back and wait for more GMAX aircraft to be released.

You now have six workable aircraft for AI Traffic and hopefully a home made list of the airports you want to use.

The Flight Plan

We will now create four flight plans for four of the six aircraft we have added to the "aircraft.txt" file in ttools 12. The bravest of you might add a couple of flight plans for the remaining two (Crossair and Lufthansa) or for some of the smaller default aircraft from FS2002's collection - like a Beech Baron 58 (AC#1) and a Cessna 172SP (AC#18). You may also use the same aircraft you have already used, as they may be used more than once.

Go to c:\AI TRAFFIC\ttools12 and open the "flightplan.txt" file. There should be only the one default flight plan we left there earlier.

AC#27,N41672,90%,6Hr,VFR,00:50:59,02:43:34,195,F,0338,EDNY,03:50:56,05:43:32,185,F,0339,LFTW.

If the flight plan you left is another one it doesn't matter. It is only a model and we will not be using its data, only the design.

I find it a good idea to make four copies of the existing flight plan instead of starting from scratch. Leave the original flight plan untouched and work with the four copies. In this way you are sure that you keep all the commas and colons and the proper succession of information. The system is so unbearably unforgiving.

Make changes in the four last lines to make them look like this:

AC#27,N41672,90%,6Hr,VFR,00:50:59,02:43:34,195,F,0338,EDNY,06:50:56,05:43:32,185,F,0339,LFTW
AC#4,LN-RPW,10%,4Hr,IFR,00:00:00,00:00:00,310,F,0100,ESSA,02:50:00,00:00:00,320,F,0101,EKBI
AC#37,G-MABR,10%,4Hr,IFR,00:02:00,00:00:00,240,F,0200,ENBR,02:02:00,00:00:00,230,F,0201,EKBI
AC#39,RA-861,10%,6Hr,IFR,00:04:00,00:00:00,195,F,0300,ULLI,03:03:04,00:00:00,320,F,0301,EKBI
AC#40,LN-AGN,10%,6Hr,IFR,00:06:00,00:00:00,170,R,0400,ENZV,02:06:00,00:00:00,180,R,0401,ENCN, 03:45:00,00:00:00,180,F,0402,EKBI

Lee Swordy's manual in "ttools12" gives a very good explanation about each component of the flight plan. I could understand almost all of it - so I guess you would be able to understand it too.

AC#4 with the registration number LN-RPW (the SAS Boeing 737-400) will be active if you set the traffic-percent in "Options" - "Settings" - "ATC" inside FS2002 higher than the 10% in this flight plan.

4Hr means that a round trip will be made every 4 hours. You may use 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, or 24 hours and your flight plan will run 7 days a week. Set the value so that you are sure that the circuit can be completed with the necessary extra time for taxiing and ground handling at the destination. With this single flight plan you have actually made 6 identical flight plans. With 6 hours you will of course only have 4 flight plans in a 24 hour period.

If you select VFR make sure "Options" - "Settings" - "ATC" inside FS2002 does not have a marking in "IFR Trafic Only". Do not let heavies fly VFR - it can cause trouble, especially during landings.

,00:00:00, is the starting time for your flight plan from the airport you have selected. It is always in GMT time. With a repeat period of 4 hours the next flights will of course follow at 4:00 and 8:00 am, at noon and at 4:00 pm - etc.

If you set your flight plan to start at 12:45 noon for instance you will find that FS2002 after TCompiling - TDecompiling has changed it to 00:45:00 - but of course there will still be a departure at 12:45 with a 1, 2, 4, 6 or 12 hours repeat period.

The next ,00:00:00, is the estimated time of arrival in the first airport of your flight plan. AI Traffic calculates the time automatically, so just leave it as ,00:00:00,

Then follows cruising altitude expressed as flight level. By adding 00 you will know the altitude in feet over main sea level - but don't do it here. To maintain realism set the flight level - where a straight line from departure airport to the destination will be 180 - 360 degrees to an even number like 180, 220 or 320. Course 0 - 180 should be given uneven number, like flight level 190, 210 or 330.

Set the flight level in accordance with the elevation of the ground you will be overflying.

F means that ATC will call flight (carrier) and flight number - for example "Scandinavian 100" for the flight from Billund to Arlanda.

If you write R ATC will call make of aircraft and tail number, for example DeHavilland LN-AGN. If your aircraft is of a make of aircraft FS2002 does not recognise ATC will call it Experimental LN-AGN.

I have put an R in the Wideroe flight though Wideroe is a carrier. But FS2002 does not know this.

If you want to know which carriers and which manufacturers FS2002 recognises you could download a little program called dig2tips.zip to c:\FS2002downloads and unzip it to c:AI TRAFFIC. It contains lists with this information.

If you want to add or change names of carriers go to the "aircraft.cfg" file and find this line:

Atc_airline= where you may add an "authorised" carrier. But a SAS plane will still look like a SAS plane on your screen even if you change its name to Qantas. It will only be addressed as Qantas.

I have chosen 100 as the flight number for the outgoing leg and 101 for the return flight from Arlanda in Sweden.

Then follows the ICAO code for the first destination.

After that the values for the next leg are repeated in the same order.

I have made my three first flight plans two-legged (To ESSA - Arlanda/Sweden, ENBR - Bergen/Norway and ULLI - St.Petersburg/Russia. The planes return directly to the airport from where the trip started, EKBI, always the last ICAO code in the flight plan.

The 4. flight, however, has three legs. You can make as many as you like as long as you allow enough time to complete the circuit. Wideroe's Twin Otter takes off from Billund at 00:06 to ENZV - Stavanger/Norway. At 02:06 it proceeds to ENCN - Kristianssand/Norway and finally returns at 03:45 to EKBI - Billund/Denmark where it has to be ready for a new round-trip at 06:06.

Of course you should put in ICAO codes for airports near you instead of the ones I have used, but remember that it is the last code that determines from where the flights radiate no matter how many legs your flight plan consist of.

Before you load your c:\AI TRAFFIC\ttools 12\"flightplans.txt" with a lot of flight plans that start in short sequence you should look in FS2002 at "Create a flight" - "Current location" - or if FS2002 is already open - "Go to airport". In the lower left corner you will find: "Runway/starting position". If you scroll in this window you can see how many gates and parking areas there are in a certain airport. If you overload it you will not see all of your aircraft. But if you spread your choice of planes on different sizes you will get the best capacity as they will be parked on different locations after their size.

Now close the "flightplan.txt" file and say yes to saving the changes.

Tcompiling

Time has come to tell FS2002 that you have made changes in "aircraft.txt" and "flightplans.txt".

Double click on TCompile and in the black window that occurs you should be able to read the following information after a few seconds:

There are 1842 airports - 5 flight plans and 40 aircraft. It is not unlikely that you get an error message - but the system is kind enough to tell you where the error is. So go back and make corrections. When you get an OK message press enter.

In case FS2002 was open when you made changes it is necessary to close the program and start it again. A few seconds after you have launched FS2002 you will notice that it processes your changes before it resumes its normal loading of the program.

Harvesting The Fruits Of Your Labor

Open FS2002 and choose "Create a flight"

Select a small aircraft - a Cessna 172 for instance. - which is easy to drive around in the airport and find your four AI traffic aircraft. They might be spread over a big area depending on where the gates and parking areas are located.

Select the airport from where your four flight plans start - the last ICAO code in the flight plans, in my example EKBI which is Billund Airport in Denmark

We have started the 4 flight plans at 00:00:00, 00:02:00, 00:04:00 and 00:06:00 am. Which also means 12:00:00, 12:02:00, 12:04:00 and 12:06:00 pm.

Go to "Current date and time" and choose 11:58:00 am GMT time. When you click on "Fly now" you have exactly two minutes from when the program has finished loading and until the activity starts.

Press the tab that activates ATC radio traffic (the tab varies with the kind of keyboard you have depending on where you live) and then press 1 to tune to ground control.

Now you can start driving in your Cessna 172 from the runway where FS2002 has put you towards the terminals where your four aircraft are parked.

At 12 noon you should be hearing the Scandinavian 100 call control and ask for clearance to Arlanda and after about one minute of radio traffic you will see it start taxiing out to the runway.

At 12:02 pm the Speedbird (British airways) becomes active and ask for clearance to Bergen.

At 12:04 pm Aeroflot becomes alive - and finally at 12:06 pm Wideroes Twin Otter wants to go to Stavanger.

You may check on the clock on your panel.

If you are in a big airport the beginning of the active runway may be so far away from where the aircraft were parked, that you have time to pass the caravan of taxiing planes and park at the entrance to the runway waiting for them. Don't get in their way. They will stop and wait for you to clear their path. Turn off your engine and turn to "spot plane view" and enjoy one of the great moments in your carrier as a flight simmer. This is truly "dynamic scenery".

You will even be able to meet them in the air or see them landing in airports if you time it right.

Post Scriptum

Maybe I should mention that I am using the Pro version. I don't know if it means anything to the procedure I have suggested if you use the standard version.

Please do not hold me responsible for any damage in your FS2002, FS2002 AI flight tracks and other parts of your software or computer parts.

I believe that I - by and large - have stayed away from areas beyond my knowledge - which automatically has made this guide rather simple. And since none of my recommendations interfere with FS2002 or any other vital parts of your computer programs I don't think it can cause any harm. I haven't had any myself.

The article is solely meant as a rather inexperienced simmers attempt to help other inexperienced simmers with their first steps into AI traffic.

I am afraid I will not be able to answer any sophisticated questions you may have as I have been operating close to the limit of my knowledge. All I can say is: This is one way it can be done - it's simple and first of all: it works. I would, however, be glad to hear from someone who has found my article useful.

Hans Fog
hans.fog@get2net.dk

Links

TrafficTools

AFCAD