AI Aircraft Editor.NET Initial Release

[gsnde]

It is done!

After a much longer period of fine-tuning, changes and bug fixes than expected I now feel that AIAE.NET can be released.

To write this tool from scratch in another programming language was a great experience. I hope you are happy with the result.

I would especially like to thank Pete Bramley, Sean Galbraith, Steve Holland and Hartwig Ulrich for their thoroughness while testing and for the many great ideas they have brought into AIAE.NET. It was a pleasure to work with you!

AIAE.NET is available for download in the MAIW Download Center and at The Owl's Nest. It will be successively added to AVSim and FlightSim.com in the next weeks.

Feature list

• application is self-updating via web
• application sending crash reports back to developer (hopefully you never see this)
• detection and support for FS9/FSX/FSX-SE/P3Dv1/P3Dv2/P3Dv3
• all fields in [fltsim.x] sections editable
• for all fields where it makes sense changes can be applied to all sections
• aircraft type changeable (normal, helicopter, AI)
• error checking for selected aircraft for:
     o duplicate [fltsim.x] sections --> if duplicates found you can renumber sections
     o duplicate titles --> if duplicates found you are asked to correct this
     o [fltsim.x] sections numbered --> if sections like [fltsim.xxx] are found you can renumber sections
     o [fltsim.x] sections in sequence --> if not true you can renumber sections
     o defined models found
     o defined textures found
     o defined sim (*.air) files found
     o duplicate non-[fltsim.x] sections
     o duplicate [fltsim.x] keys
• renumbering of [fltsim.x] sections
• sorting keys in [fltsim.x] sections
• remove all comments from aircraft.cfg
• format aircraft.cfg and align all comments at the same column
• edit wing_span value (with parking spot size calculator)
• edit FS8/FS9 model size in model file
• edit keys of the [general] section
• edit the [exits] section (needed for finger operation)
• easy removal of non-AI relevant sections
• easy removal of non-essential unwanted [fltsim.x] keys
• model viewer integrated (thank you, Arno!)
• model viewer optionally in separate window (great if you have two screens)
• texture list for currently loaded aircraft with detailed per-texture analysis (resolution, bit depth, compression, mips)
• texture viewer in separate window
• option to define external texture editor
• backup aircraft.cfg before each change
• removal option for aircraft.cfg backups
• logging of all AIAE.NET operations
• optional tooltip help for every AIAE.NET element

Make sure you read the Manual (Help --> Open Manual). There are some know issues you should be aware of.
Please also make sure to check the acknowledgements so that you know which components from other authors I use in AIAE.NET.

And this is how it looks like:

[gsnde]

I hope it does not count as cheating when I post the last two screenshots here in a second post, otherwise please remove it if considered inappropriate.

[gsnde]

Today I have released Version 4 of my AI Aircraft Editor.NET.


After some intensive time of coding these are the major changes:


- Application Interface restructured
- Major code rewrite to increase performance and eliminate bugs
- New: Aircraft Effect management
- P3Dv6 Support
- P3D autodiscover path support
- Utilize current MCX viewer components

I would like to thank Arno for his great support in integrating the new MCX viewer components.


I would also like to thank the group of beta testers who have tested each new version over and over again to find the bugs: Firebird, shaggy22, geoffj, bvanhout, hgschnell, jetpilot1980, jimrodger.


Their help and support has been absolutely amazing and indispensable to the development.


If you are already using AIAE, the update will be offered to you automatically. If you want to try the application, you can find the download at The Owl's Nest, here at MAIW and at AVSim.

[gsnde]

Important Note to all users of a Windows Version below Windows 10.


I have been using a function call that is only supported as of Windows 10. In consequence AIAE is crashing before the interface is loaded on earlier versions.


Please update to Version 4.2.2 if this affects you. You must re-download the installer because for obvious reasons the internal update will not work.


The installer at The Owl's Nest and at MAIW have been updated.


I apologize for this inconvenience!

[gsnde]

@All


It has been a hard ride to fix the crash that happened for some people during the SimObject analysis and the other one I introduced for everyone when I switched to the current version of the Updater component.


I apologise for all the inconvenience this has caused and would like to thank all the people who helped me find the bugs that were never triggered on my development and flightsim computer.


To get to a safe installation please download the installer for Version 4.2.27 and update your AIAE installation. You can find the installers @ MAIW and @ The Owl's Nest.


Thank you for using AIAE!

[gsnde]

It is extremely unpleasant for me, but I must ask you to download the installer again, hopefully for the last time. I am very sorry about this!

The AIAE self-updater needs three more DLLs, but only if an update is actually available. I only noticed this today when I activated version 4.2.8. Unfortunately, the missing DLLs cause the program to crash.

Therefore, I will not push the update to the current version for the next few days. Please download the new installer from the two usual locations: here @ MAIW and here @ The Owl's Nest.

Besides fixing the self-update mechanism, the following changes have been made:

- the latest DLLs from MCX (fixes a bug with texture loading)
- Texture directories using the standard "texture. Something\texture" are now supported.
- The log file contains the information for which simulator all models in an aircraft folder have been compiled.

[gsnde]

It is extremely unpleasant for me, but I must ask you to download the installer again, hopefully for the last time. I am very sorry about this!

The AIAE self-updater needs three more DLLs, but only if an update is actually available. I only noticed this today when I activated version 4.2.8. Unfortunately, the missing DLLs cause the program to crash.

Therefore, I will not push the update to the current version for the next few days. Please download the new installer from the two usual locations: here @ MAIW and here @ The Owl's Nest.

Besides fixing the self-update mechanism, the following changes have been made:

- the latest DLLs from MCX (fixes a bug with texture loading)
- Texture directories using the standard "texture. Something\texture" are now supported.
- The log file contains the information for which simulator all models in an aircraft folder have been compiled.

(corrected link for MAIW download)