AI Traffic Problem re: MAIW, WOAI and GA-Traffic

OK Ive been at this reading and testing for about 14 hours straight today alone, and still no luck.

 

Trying to combine GA Traffic, WOAI and MAIW for FSX.

 

I have AI Flight Planner. I have a traffic file in the World scenery folder that is Traffic-GA.BGL in addition to the WOAI files and MAIW files. They have both been complied in fsx format already. AI flight planner won't recognize Traffic-GA.BGL when I want to convert it to a fsx traffic file. I have to select it under manual.

 

I get "activity level is missing or invalid" on my airport report.

 

Why won't FSX read this file Traffic-GA.bgl file?

 

Other files in the folder are: trafficAircraft.bglx (inactive), and some UTX files (such as UTX_2D7_USA.BGL) which came from where, I'm not sure.

 

Help please.

 

Andrew

How did you create traffic-ga.bgl?

Or otherwise, where did you get it from?

 

Also, what is the issue? Are you trying to have only the default ga traffic, but while not having the default airl traffic?

I am using a freeware AI program called GA-Traffic. GA traffic generates a .BGL file in capital letters and puts it into the World Scenery folder. I want to run GA-Traffic in addition to WOAI and MAIW. I have already converted the WOAI and MAIW files to FSX format using AIFP2. AIFP2 will not recognize the .BGL file generated from GA-Traffic. When I remove the .BGL file, WOAI and MAIW shows, when I put it into the World Scenery folder, MAIW and WOAI vanishes and only general aviation traffic shows.

What is the precise file name of the file from GA-Traffic?

 

Jorgen

looked some hings up.

 

GA-traffic.exe uses TTools to generate the trafficplan .bgl file.

 

It creates the required three .txt files for TTools, and has TTools on board to compile them.

 

I would expect you should be able to decompile the .bgl file using TTools.

TTools only can generate FS9 flightplans.

 

 

I'm not sure, but I think AIFP has TTools capabilities also. So I would fully expect it to be able to read the file.

(But, maybe not so much. So I would try using TTools manually.)

 

 

You say traffic-GA.bgl knocks out the _FSX traffic files.

That would make one think traffic-GA.bgl is a FS2004 -type trafficfile.

 

Or maybe could it be a FS2002 traffic file as well????

 

I googled: TTools FS2002

and found there is an FS2002 version of the TTools program as well. Google gave a link to Simviation for that.

 

 

GA-traffic says it uses TTools, so that should be able to decompile it again.

If I wanted to explore traffic-GA.bgl file, I would try decompiling with TTools FS2004 version.

 

(Put a copy of the traffic-GA.bgl file in a folder on the desktop, and do the exploring there.)

Decompile GA-traffic.bgl and the result should be three .txt files.

I wouldn't make any edits to the files at first. I would I would copy the three textfiles to a new folder, and then just compile them again with TTools (2004).

Just to see if that worked.

If it works I would try to convert the resulting .bgl file to _FSX afterwards, using AIFP.

 

If that works, great.

If you still can't convert it with AIFP, then I'd have a close look at the three .txt files later. You would be interested in the flightplans.txt file of those three.

 

 

And if decompiling didn't work I'd try the FS2002 version of TTools to decompile traffic-GA.bgl instead.

If TTools for FS2004 can not decompile the .bgl file, and TTools for FS2002 can, then you ma have an FS2002 traffic.bgl file. I don't know if it is possible to convert those "upwards".

 

---------------------------------------------

 

This does remind me a bit of an earlier thread.

 

Someone had a .bgl file that was supposedly FSX native.

But it resulted in the same issue you have. With that file in, no fsx traffic was visible any more.

I downloaded that .bgl file to take a look, and found AIFP couldn't convert it.

I don't think that thread found a solution.

 

-=---------

Question. You said:

"With the file in, I see only GA traffic.

I don't follow.... what GA traffic do you see? Is that traffic coming from the GA-traffic.bgl file?

Or in other words, Is the file traffic-GA.bgl definitely producing airplanes in the sky?

Sorry, I posted an error.

I thought I had found a version of tTTools for FS2002 on Simviation.

That was wrong.

Turns out it was the same version is for both FS2002 and FS2004.

I should have clicked the link to take a look, and not simply go by the brief preview on the Google search page.

 

Forget what I said bout TTools for FS2002

 

But do install TTools, and try to decompile your fie with that, as explained.

Found this thread, in it people say that GA Traffic creates FSX-type trafficplans!

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?204119-FSX-GA-Traffic

 

That made me google "fsx ga traffic"

(including the quotes)

and I found this.

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/1671/fsx-ga-traffic/

 

Was that what you used?

Thank you very much. That was well-explained. I will try all of the above and let ya know how it works out.

 

Yes, the simviation link you posted above is exactly what I am trying to use.

Which brings me to the next question. If GA-Traffic makes fsx files, why will nothing work together?

You can take a FS9 traffic .bgl file and decompile it with AIFP, that will also generate the 3 .txt files that TTools and AIFP both use for compiling flight plans.

 

AIFP will also convert FS9 traffic files to FSX format without decompiling them first.

 

Hope this helps -

 

Jorgen

Oh, in case you didn't know, activity level.

 

Activity level is a value that each trafficplan has. One .bgl file contains many plans. basically a plaan is a trip from airport A to B to C to D and back to A.

Each of these gets assigned a value. Between 0 and 100.

Let's say a trip hav a value of 30 assigned.

That means the plane will only be shown if you set the traffic slider to 30% or more.

If you set the slider in fsx to 10%, the plane will not be shown.

People use these values in their trafficplans to make it easier to adjust the levels of trffic in the sim.

 

If you decompile a trafficplan you get three .txt files. Called aircraft.txt, airports.txt, and flightplans.txt.

Airports.txt is a list of all the airports used in all the plans, and their coordinates.

Aircraft.txt is a list of all the planes used in the plans. Listed by the plane's title= lines.

(you can see these title= lines in the aircraft.cfg files.)

 

The Flightplans.txt files contains all the flightplans.

 

Here's a flightplan I wrote a while back. Just as an example of what one looks like.

I wrote this Flightplans.txt file by hand.

This flight goes from EDDM to EINN and back to EDDM.

you will see the value in there of 1%

meaning this plan will show up as soon as my trafficslider is above 1%

 

AC#1,AN3,1%,6Hr,IFR,00:00,02:34,300,R,2253,EINN,03:00,05:13,290,R,2253,EDDM

 

----------------------------

The error you are getting in AIFP seems to indicate that the value in (one or more of ) the flights in your Traffic-GA.bgl file has an invalid or corrupt value.

 

For example, 150% may be a problem.

Or something like: *** would probably cause an issue as well.

 

-----------------------------------------

I read someplace that when creating the trafficplan with GA-Traffic program: "The GA Traffic slider ranges from 0% to 150%".

Maybe it's the % above 100 that causes an issue.

 

I hope you manage to decompile it, so you can have a look.

To decompile a traffic file using AIFP, grab the traffic file and put it into the AIFP subfolder called TrafficFiles. Then launch AIFP, go under Files on the menu bar and select Open Traffic File (.bgl). You'll now see something in the 3 AIFP windows, but hit the button labeled Compile, then go under Files and select Save File Set. Now, in the subfolder TrafficFiles, you'll have a .bgl file and the 3 .txt files.

 

This has worked just fine for me. BTW, remember to get the most recent AIFP from here: http://stuff4fs.com/open.asp?Folder=AIFP&JS=TRUE under Latest General Release.

 

Jorgen

Where does it put these files after they are decompiled. I see no de-compile button, either.

Disregard my last comment. I did not see you had posted above.

Thanks. I got it working. I now see MAIW, WOAI and non-fsx default GA aircraft, but GA aircraft generated by GA-Traffic .bgl file.

 

Awesome. Finally. Thanks for the help you guys.

Good, well done!

I'm curious if you used TTools, decompiled, re-compiled, and then converted with AIFP,

 

or if instead, you did it just using AIFP alone?

 

Also, did you have to manually edit the Flightplans.txt file?

No, I think it was simply a matter of turning up the sliders on the sim. I recall something in the GA-Traffic instructions that said the sliders do not matter, only the slider on the GA-Traffic. So I had them turned down. (duh)

 

Or perhaps I am confused entirely and something else I did caused it to work. I don't know. I wish I did, to help others here.

 

I do know that your mention of the "save file set' seemed to make a difference.

 

I need a degree in flight simulation programming lol. Perhaps a school specifically for this is needed. Might be lucrative, idk. I sure would like to master the inner workings of these kinds of things.

 

But overall, I believe that using AIFP alone did it, as I decompiled nothing.

 

Thanks a lot for your help, il88pp, and others.

 

Andrew

 

Now, to figure out EditvoicepackXL, which is totally different from the last version I previously used. I will start a new thread on that.

The "Save File Set" in AIFP allows you to not save unused aircraft to the flight plan files.

 

And you actually decompile the traffic .bgl file when you open it in AIFP.

 

Jorgen

I see. Thanks, Jorgen.