AICarriers.NET Installation and Activation

[falcon409]

Having a problem getting the AICarriers program to show up in the Addon drop down in FSX. It loads at FSX startup, but once in the Sim the only functions that show are SODE, Instant Scenery and FSUIPC. Anyone else ever had this problem? Below is the full exe.xml file with the AICarriers information:

<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">
<Descr>Launch</Descr>
<Filename>exe.xml</Filename>
<Disabled>False</Disabled>
<Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>
<Launch.Addon>
<Name>Flight Recorder</Name>
<Disabled>False</Disabled>
<ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
<Path>E:\Program Files\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Aerosoft\Flight Recorder\AS-FlightRecorder.dll</Path>
</Launch.Addon>
<Launch.Addon>
<Name>AICarriers</Name>
<Disabled>False</Disabled>
<ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
<Path>D:\AICarriers\AICarriers.exe</Path>
</Launch.Addon>
<Launch.Addon>
<Name>Texture Max Load Editor</Name>
<Disabled>True</Disabled>
<ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
<Path>C:\Program Files\Frosty Software\Texture Max Load Editor\tml.exe</Path>
</Launch.Addon>
<Launch.Addon>
<Name>Texture Max Load Editor</Name>
<Disabled>True</Disabled>
<ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
<Path>C:\Program Files\Frosty Software\Texture Max Load Editor\tml.exe</Path>
</Launch.Addon>
<Launch.Addon>
<Name>SODE</Name>
<Disabled>False</Disabled>
<ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
<Path>C:\Program Files (x86)\12bPilot\SODE\SimObjectDisplayEngine.exe</Path>
<CommandLine>FSX</CommandLine>
</Launch.Addon>
</SimBase.Document>

[TARPSBird]

Ed, I had some problems with AICarriers in the past but now I put the AICarriers folder right in the FSX main folder and for some reason (don't ask me why) it works fine now. So in the exe.xml file my path is:

<Path>C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\AICarriers\AICarriers.exe</Path>

You may not get the same results but it's worth a try.

[Butcherbird17]

The only thing I see is that you have 2 "Texture Max Load Editor" entries, not sure if you need both.
The only other thing I would try is while in sim turn off AiCarriers and then restart it and see if it shows.
I had the same problem as TARPSBird only with P3Dv4, I had to put it into the root folder and then it worked.

Joe

[Daube]

Another surprising thing is the presence of an addon section for the AS-FlightRecorder.dll just above.
I thought the EXE.xml was only supposed to contain calls to executable files, while the load of DLLs was supposed to be triggered in the DLL.xml instead ?

Anyways, if your AICarriers DOES launch with your sim, it means it's declared correctly.
Then, I would investigate about the simconnect that might now be installed correctly, maybe ? Or some missing .NET Framework versions ?

[falcon409]

As several have noted, my exe.xml is a mess so I have removed the entry for the FSRecorder (must have been sleeping when I added that one and I never used it anyway) also removed the second entry for the TML. Despite that, the AICarriers program seems to load at startup since it asks if I want to run the program (Yes). However once in the sim it isn't listed. . .I also ran the program from it's folder with no change.

Daube I'll check on the Simconnect but I use it for my weather program as well and that has always function without any problems. I have every .NET program known to man but I'll look to see if everything is in order there as well.

[falcon409]

After checking, Simconnect is installed and functional as is .NET Framework4.0 (required by this version of AICarriers).

[tgycgijoes]

I have AICarriers in the Microsoft Games but not in FSX(A). When FSX starts, the AICarriers starts and is down in the startup bar but not in Addons. So...I exit it in the startup and start AICarriers.exe from a shortcut on the desktop. NOW its in the Addons and gives the selection menu BUT the first time you callup a carrier it does not appear. Delete the carrier in the menu select the same carrier again and it shows up and works just fine.

I am going to move the AICarriers folder into FSX and see if I eleminate this. Something tells me it didn't work at all before and that is why I moved it but we'll see. I can always move it back where it was in Microsoft Games

[tgycgijoes]

In the FSX folder it doesn't start at all and I have to go to the desktop and start it from the shortcut. Open to explanations and suggestions

[Butcherbird17]

In the FSX folder it doesn't start at all and I have to go to the desktop and start it from the shortcut. Open to explanations and suggestions

Did you edit the address in the exe.xml to point to the new location? If you did not that will be why it didn't start.

Joe

[tgycgijoes]

Didn't do that but put it back in Microsoft Games and it does start in the startup menu but ni ai ships in the addon. will check the exe.xml pointer

[falcon409]

I've had it in 4 different places, different drives with the correct path for each, makes no difference, the only way to get it to run is by double clicking once the Sim starts.

[tgycgijoes]

I think that because we are using 64bit systems and this was written for 32bit that may be the problem but those with more knowledge than I could tell you. I also have to use AICarriers.Net because of the download problem with Google and Lemont Clark's version. The only way it works for me is as I said above but it DOES work perfectly that way so I'm happy just doing a little more than I used to do on XP or with FS9.

[falcon409]

I haven't messes with Carriers since FS9 and I want to test the corrections I made to A.F.'s P-12. I am guessing that information about the airplanes tailhook needs to be added to AICarriers.cfg? I have tried several traps and am on the wires but no catch.

[Daube]

No, AICarriers doesn't need to know anything about your airplanes. Its only tasks is to summon and guide aircraft carriers, that's all.
The hook information is only to be written in two alternative places:
- in the model itself, using FSX-Acceleration specific parts/tags/materials or something like that (I don't have any modeling knowledge, sorry)
- in the aircraft.cfg of the airplane (if specified in there, it will replace anything specified in the model)

So if you have FSX Acceleration, or FSX Steam, or P3D, then your hook should be recognized by the sim and your plane should be able to catch some wires on any aircraft carrier
If you have FSX without Acceleration, then it will not work.

Just one question just to confirm: when you double-click on AICarriers after your sim starts, do you finally see the AICarriers menu in your sim ?

[falcon409]

No, AICarriers doesn't need to know anything about your airplanes. Its only tasks is to summon and guide aircraft carriers, that's all.
The hook information is only to be written in two alternative places:
- in the model itself, using FSX-Acceleration specific parts/tags/materials or something like that (I don't have any modeling knowledge, sorry)
- in the aircraft.cfg of the airplane (if specified in there, it will replace anything specified in the model)

So if you have FSX Acceleration, or FSX Steam, or P3D, then your hook should be recognized by the sim and your plane should be able to catch some wires on any aircraft carrier
If you have FSX without Acceleration, then it will not work.

Just one question just to confirm: when you double-click on AICarriers after your sim starts, do you finally see the AICarriers menu in your sim ?

I'll answer your last question first: I use the JAVA version of AICarriers (Never could get the .NET to work). I have that as a shortcut on my desktop and when I double click I get a small pop up that says I'm connected. I minimize that window and after that the AICarriers menu displays in the Addons drop down.

As for the other info, I downloaded the RFN gauges setup to use which also has a lot of deck sounds and effects. Problem with that is that neither gauge (both dll's (32 and 64) are tagged as "Invalid Gauges" so none of the additional options are available. Beyond that though the airplane still doesn't trap and I don't know if the hook is up or down since there's no visible hook.

[tgycgijoes]

I'll answer your last question first: I use the JAVA version of AICarriers (Never could get the .NET to work). I have that as a shortcut on my desktop and when I double click I get a small pop up that says I'm connected. I minimize that window and after that the AICarriers menu displays in the Addons drop down.

As for the other info, I downloaded the RFN gauges setup to use which also has a lot of deck sounds and effects. Problem with that is that neither gauge (both dll's (32 and 64) are tagged as "Invalid Gauges" so none of the additional options are available. Beyond that though the airplane still doesn't trap and I don't know if the hook is up or down since there's no visible hook.

In my thread about the F3B I actually found out that it never did exist and expanded that to the F8C which I did 18 repaints for. Now for the F8C. It does not have a visible hook though it should but it was never modeled. FSDevelopers told me that as long as the tailhook information is in the aircraft.cfg that FSX(A) recognizes that there is a hook. That being said I still could not trap as you without adding the rcbco-30 gauge. Add rcbco-30 by Rob Barendregt and you get two things, if you are in the zone you will hook a wire and stop and it gives you a gauge even in the VC that shows that the hook is down with a green light. Give that a try. I had to swap out the aircraft.cfg with a working one because this is one of the aircraft that noses over after catching the wire. It now works perfectly for me with no nose over and it uses the Acceleration wires doesn't need rcbco-30. Helpers here told me to swap out because at the least the contact points were not right. The air file is ok though that was another suggestion but swapping that out didn't make any difference. Anxious to see if you nose over with the "stock" aircraft.cfg on your computer.

[falcon409]

In my thread about the F3B I actually found out that it never did exist and expanded that to the F8C which I did 18 repaints for. Now for the F8C. It does not have a visible hook though it should but it was never modeled. FSDevelopers told me that as long as the tailhook information is in the aircraft.cfg that FSX(A) recognizes that there is a hook. That being said I still could not trap as you without adding the rcbco-30 gauge. Add rcbco-30 by Rob Barendregt and you get two things, if you are in the zone you will hook a wire and stop and it gives you a gauge even in the VC that shows that the hook is down with a green light. Give that a try. I had to swap out the aircraft.cfg with a working one because this is one of the aircraft that noses over after catching the wire. It now works perfectly for me with no nose over and it uses the Acceleration wires doesn't need rcbco-30. Helpers here told me to swap out because at the least the contact points were not right. The air file is ok though that was another suggestion but swapping that out didn't make any difference. Anxious to see if you nose over with the "stock" aircraft.cfg on your computer.

Well, as much as I absolutely hate the thought of this, I think after all these years I may have to do a totally clean reinstall of FSX/Accel. There are too many things that have surfaced lately (runtime errors (which close the Sim), all dll and most gau gauges labeled as "Invalid"), and now I installed RCBO-30. . .made all the necessary changes to the panel.cfg, gave a yes answer to every gauge the Sim wanted to install after that and yet I get in the Sim and the only one of 4 gauges that works is the control panel with the 4 lights on it, if I use the dropdown for "View" and select "Instruments" none of the ones that were added to the panel.cfg folder are even listed.

[jymp]

I'm having the same problem, cannot get it to work, I'm using FSX Steam, couldn't there just be a simple step by step instruct. on how to get it running ?, tried the read me instructions, no joy.

[PhantomTweak]

all dll and most gau gauges labeled as "Invalid"

They're probably for FS2004, or earlier. Many of the .dll and .gau file are written in a different "language" than FSX can deal with. Thus, failures.

and now I installed RCBO-30. . .made all the necessary changes to the panel.cfg, gave a yes answer to every gauge the Sim wanted to install after that and yet I get in the Sim and the only one of 4 gauges that works is the control panel with the 4 lights on it, if I use the dropdown for "View" and select "Instruments" none of the ones that were added to the panel.cfg folder are even listed.

See above.

I'm having the same problem, cannot get it to work, I'm using FSX Steam, couldn't there just be a simple step by step instruct. on how to get it running ?, tried the read me instructions, no joy

...of?
In other words, of RCBO-3, AICarriers.NET, Aicarriers.exe (the original, Lamont Clark, JAVA based version), Nimitz v2.0,...what?
You won't get ANY of them running if you installed them to C:\Program Files, or C:\Program Files(X86), and even more especially if you have Win-10. It doesn't permit you to do much in those two folders. You install into them, it won't permit them to talk back and forth with your FSX, which they must do to function.

I've written a few step-by-step's for AICarriers.NET, including a link to it's download. Just do a search for them. It'll pop up. They're a bit long, and verbose, but that's me.

Does any of this help at all?
Pat☺

[fsafranek]

Well, as much as I absolutely hate the thought of this, I think after all these years I may have to do a totally clean reinstall of FSX/Accel. There are too many things that have surfaced lately (runtime errors (which close the Sim), all dll and most gau gauges labeled as "Invalid"), and now I installed RCBO-30. . .made all the necessary changes to the panel.cfg, gave a yes answer to every gauge the Sim wanted to install after that and yet I get in the Sim and the only one of 4 gauges that works is the control panel with the 4 lights on it, if I use the dropdown for "View" and select "Instruments" none of the ones that were added to the panel.cfg folder are even listed.

I just checked in both boxed FSX and FSX-SE versions on my system and it is working fine. This is with the .Net version version of AI Carriers. A couple weeks ago in the middle of a graphics card upgrade I lost my boot and main data drives for some reason and have had to rebuild the drive content from the ground up. So these are all fresh installs and just the basic sims now. Also had to do P3Dv4.5 and v5 and AI Carriers works in there also.

Granted it always sucks to have a sim working the way you want it (after years of tweaking) and then lose it or have to remove it.
But can't tell you how much better the experience is to have the games launch so much quicker now -- without years of stuff installed and seldom, if ever used, still in there.

It didn't take all that long so I do recommend it. Be sure to take screen shots of your current settings and do a proper uninstall/scrape of the old one. Best of luck.

[jymp]

[QUOTE=PhantomTweak;1229928]They're probably for FS2004, or earlier. Many of the .dll and .gau file are written in a different "language" than FSX can deal with. Thus, failures.


See above.


...of?
In other words, of RCBO-3, AICarriers.NET, Aicarriers.exe (the original, Lamont Clark, JAVA based version), Nimitz v2.0,...what?
You won't get ANY of them running if you installed them to C:\Program Files, or C:\Program Files(X86), and even more especially if you have Win-10. It doesn't permit you to do much in those two folders. You install into them, it won't permit them to talk back and forth with your FSX, which they must do to function.

I've written a few step-by-step's for AICarriers.NET, including a link to it's download. Just do a search for them. It'll pop up. They're a bit long, and verbose, but that's me.

Does any of this help at all?
Pat☺

[jymp]

Got it AICarriers working fine now, however isn't it supposed to start automatically with FSX ?, I have to start FSX then start AICarriers for it to work, my exe.xml is : <Path>E:\Steam\steamapps\common\FSX\AICarriers\AIC arriers.exe</Path>

[fsafranek]

Got it AICarriers working fine now, however isn't it supposed to start automatically with FSX ?, I have to start FSX then start AICarriers for it to work, my exe.xml is : <Path>E:\Steam\steamapps\common\FSX\AICarriers\AIC arriers.exe</Path>

It will start automatically in the background if the AIcarriers.exe file is called by the exe.xml file when FSX starts.
Example code of exe.xml using your path is below and my exe.xml file is found here:

C:\Users\%yourname%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\ exe.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="Launch" version="1,0">
  <Descr>Launch</Descr>
  <Filename>exe.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>
  <Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>
  <Launch.Addon>
    <Name>AICarriers</Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <ManualLoad>False</ManualLoad>
    <Path>F:\Program Files (x86)\AICarriers\AICarriers.exe</Path>
  </Launch.Addon>
</SimBase.Document>

Usually folks say to not put it in the same folder as FSX but since it is running for you once manually started it appears to work.

[jymp]

Ok, taking the AICarriers folder I created for AICarriers.exe out of FSX, see if that starts it automatically with FSX, will edit the exe.xml. EDIT: put the AICarriers folder in path E:\AICarriers\AICarriers.exe, then edited the exe.xml to read <Path>E:\AICarriers\AICarriers.exe</Path> but nope, still have to start FSX first, then double click AICarriers.exe to start it.

[RS]

Hi all together,

I am running FSX on Windwows10 with a lot of addons including air carriers as JAVA version. It´s a long time ago I´ve tried to install the .NET version just one single time - without success. So I used the JAVA version again - stable / without problems. I am also running the SWS fleet placer simultaneous without any problems. Using ai carriers as a second instance to control another convoy works just as well. That is why I am asking here wether there are compelling reasons to switch to the .NET version? What is the real advantage to install the .NET version?

Thank you for a answer in advance...

RS