OnCourse Software

martinlest wrote:

Dave - yes, that was my argument somewhere above and I currently have the CM set to 20, but that is too high I expect. OK, I'll try somewhere between 10 and 15. I usually taxi at around 17 knots (the FS9 default), so I thought 20 was 'safe', but it hasn't worked out so well. Once a/c stop in front of me they seem to take for ever to get moving again.. I'll set CM to 16 and keep my taxi speed at 15 or below.

One instance of how the CM is blocking AI traffic is when I push back from the gate. Other a/c are often doing the same thing, and so often they start taxiing and then stop, no doubt due to information from CM. In any event...

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It only becomes a problem if the user is charging about the airfield like there's no tomorrow

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... I don't go "charging about the airfield like there's no tomorrow", so clearly that is not the only time it becomes a problem. Not sure, as I say, why the esteemed Mr.V keeps assuming that any issues we are having are due to an 'idiot' user.

I also posted somewhere a while back (can't recall where exactly now - I have added so many posts!!! At least it shows I am getting my money's worth from PF3 and FDC!) that I had tweaked the default AI taxi speed to 25 knots. How is that likely to impact the functioning of CM? Had I better set the speed back to the 17 knot default?

You should set it back to 17 as that's the average between 15 and 20. Choosing to taxi at 25+kts as your "normal" taxi speed is a no no especially here. You would in fact get a reprimand for doing so during a check-ride. And that could lead to a suspension from your airline for re training!

It's not my taxi speed, it's AI traffic taxi speed, but OK, I'll set it back to 17!

martinlest wrote:

It's not my taxi speed, it's AI traffic taxi speed, but OK, I'll set it back to 17!

Martin, imagine you are at a real airport in real life. Everyone else is taxiing at lets say an average of 17kts (don't forget MS didn't pluck that number out of a hat). If you are averaging 25 or more then you will in real life find yourself stopping and starting as you catch other aircraft up. Itàs just the same as when you are driving along a road with a series of traffic lights. How they are always red if you drive to quickly! It's difficult for Dave to emulate real ATC asking you to hold your position as TGS doesn't comunicate with PF3 in a way that allows for that.

In the sim you can play around with the numbers to suit what you want to get from it. I personally am not bothered by AI around me except in front. So I set the speed low thus forcing me to slow down as I approach someone. So you need to find the sweet spot. The speed that lets you either have total priority and everyone stops for you or a speed at which you may have to stop for them from time to time. So somewhere between the two extremes of a. Setting it higher than yours and the AI's speed so no one stops, or setting it very low which in effect gives AI priority.

One of the benefits I have found of having a low setting is that it stops AI blocking your path on the apron. They wait for me to pass and so I am ahead of the queue at the hold.

Yes, quite. Not me by the way who was asking for PF3 to ask me to hold my position. Bear in mind,as I keep saying, that it is the AI traffic that has been tweaked to go a bit faster than the FS9 set 17 knots. Before PF3 it worked great (though I didn't change it more than a couple of months back). If it's causing problems then I have no worries at all about getting rid of the tweak and setting it back to 17.

I will continue experimenting with the CM setting and am trying to fly at busy airports only like EHAM and EGLL so that I get a chance to see how it's working. I have left my traffic at 50% in the sim.

All I am hoping to achieve is to be able to taxi at a reasonable speed - 15 knots is fine - and not to have AI traffic stop in front of me when they are on the same taxiway. I am of course quite prepared, as happens at a real airport, to slow down or stop to give way for traffic joining my taxiway from the side, as well as, on another occasion, having AI a/c stop for me, in the same way. Or everyone can always stop for me - not so real, but whatever. So long as they don't suddenly stop when we are following each other on the same taxiway; that makes no logical sense in FS9 or in real life. Paranoid pilots!

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One of the benefits I have found of having a low setting is that it stops AI blocking your path on the apron. They wait for me to pass and so I am ahead of the queue at the hold.

I found that they tend to stop at the apron only after they've pushed back, so sit there blocking the exit...

The point is though that this all seems so unnecessary. I still don't see what stopping aircraft which are on the same taxiway is for in PF3. Whether they are going in the same direction or oncoming, having them stop doesn't resolve anything, it just adds the problem of a blocked taxiway, so what is that aspect of CM supposed to be achieving? For me (i.e. IMHO) it's just an annoyance with no equivalent in the real world, whereas stopping traffic coming at an angle from another taxiway is a great feature to have. I wish (I say for the nth. time) I could turn that part of CM off, whilst retaining its ability to halt traffic cutting in from the sides. Would that be hard to implement? The decision must be Dave's - it's his programme (and I can't change anything myself, needless to say!), though I think he's very good at giving his customers what they ask for if it fits in with what he's trying to achieve here.

Just a note that if you are experiencing AI disappearing because they have not moved for an extended period of time, you should probably reduce your AI percentage.

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Just a note that if you are experiencing AI disappearing because they have not moved for an extended period of time, you should probably reduce your AI percentage.

I've had it at 25% for a while and set it back to 50% yesterday as many airports looked so bare. Also, some liveries will never appear unless you have the setting high, like >90%, which at smaller airports is a shame. Ideally one needs to twek the AI % according to where one's flying from/to, but personally I can't always be bothered to do that!

martinlest wrote:

Ideally one needs to twek the AI % according to where one's flying from/to, but personally I can't always be bothered to do that!

Very true and this is a function of your AI add-on's traffic files. A setting of 50% may work well at many airports but result in utter chaos at EGLL.

Yes, I may well try to add % traffic to my standard startup regime - which is so complex these days with so many addons to set up before I fly, that it can be 20 minutes before I even get to start an engine. I guess the flight prep time just adds to the realism! What jet pilot in the real world goes from entering the cockpit to pushback in five minutes, after all??

dmarch wrote:

I think my throw away suggestion of maybe having another hotkey to toggle CM off/on will probably be the best thing to keep everyone happy.... so if you use the hotkey to turn CM off when following along behind another aircraft it would not begin working again till you hit the hotkey a second time.

I would very much appreciate to have that hotkey. It would be a quite simple solution and would offer great flexibility.

Regards

Ralf

The only problem there is you'd be throwing the baby out with the bathwater... what a shame not to be able have the 'lateral' part of CM working.. presumably if you are following aircraft and turn CM off with a shortcut key, AI traffic will then be free to pull into or in front of the user a/c from the sides, as before CM was added. Having a/c stop in that situation is a real addition to the 'ATC experience' - and why would anyone want to turn that feature of CM off, it's great and causes no problem in the sim that I can see?! If it were possible to keep that part running, whilst only turning off the part which is stopping traffic already on the same taxiway, that would surely be ideal?