Floating Default Auto Ferries?!?

[mthrift]

Hello all,

I've been experiencing an odd issue for some time now. I have no idea when it actually started, so tracking back to whatever install might have caused it would be impractical. I'm hoping someone else has either seen and fixed it, or has more experience with AI ships to suggest a fix.

The issue is floating default FSX ferry ships. See attached screenies. It seems that all the default ferries are affected, and though they are floating around 1,000 above the water, they continue to run their "normal" routes.



Any ideas? I have Orbx PFJ, PNW, SAK, NRM, and TF installed. I have the Orbx AI installed for the PNW area. I also have all (I think) of Henrik Nielsen's AI ships installed and they all work fine. I have no reason at allto think any of these are the cause, but mention them in case it spurs any ideas.


Thanks in advance!
Michael

[txnetcop]

Hover craft???? Nope that's a new one for me...I do have some floating houses though

[kl791]

Try to check the static CG height in the sim.cfg - it should be 10 for the wash ferry - if it is higher it could be the reason.

[heywooood]

Try to check the static CG height in the sim.cfg - it should be 10 for the wash ferry - if it is higher it could be the reason.

Dont start messing with your .cfg file - the floating autogen is always related to your settings being too high for your GPU / CPU

you should try reducing mesh complexity, mesh resolution, texture resolution, water detail, etc in the FSX scenery settings page -

I always set every slider to the halfway mark - then fly to see how smooth it is...
Then set the water to 2x high because thats where I like it...then fly to see if it is still smooth and there are no anomalies...

Then go to mesh complexity and bump it up one tick above halfway - and check it in FSX
Then go to mesh resolution and do the same...and so on, each slider one tick at a time to make sure they all play nice.

The only sliders I have on full right are level of detail radius and the scenery complexity and autogen density (because I have those reduced in the .cfg to 1200 and 1500 trees over buildings) if you know how to do that - if not look it up - its a common cfg tweak

[Bjoern]

Ferry1's CG height is 20ft for me while Ferry2's is 10.

I'm not sure how well or badly FSX' AI ships adhere to any "altitude" in their "flightplan", but it could be that something messed these values up.

Dont start messing with your .cfg file - the floating autogen is always related to your settings being too high for your GPU / CPU

Wrong track. The ferry is a regular object with its own sim.cfg (= aircraft.cfg).

[heywooood]

Ferry1's CG height is 20ft for me while Ferry2's is 10.

I'm not sure how well or badly FSX' AI ships adhere to any "altitude" in their "flightplan", but it could be that something messed these values up.





Wrong track. The ferry is a regular object with its own sim.cfg (= aircraft.cfg).

Ahhh- okay - carry on then - I hope the ferries will stop floating soon - or maybe contact the local LGBT contingent for a solution....

[mthrift]

Guys,

Thanks for your replies. I checked the info in the sim.cfg files, but nothing there seems amiss. The figures in mine match what you said was in yours.

I went back into the sim to check again and noticed another behavior that might provide a clue. The ferries seem to raise and lower elevations as they travel. See shots below:



Could anything in the traffic file that drives the ferries cause them to do this? Is it something I could tinker with using AIFP?

Lastly, there are the two default ferries, but only the one in the screenshots seems to have this issue.


Thanks again,
Michael

[Bjoern]

You could look at TrafficBoats.bgl with AIFP and take a look at the "flightplans" for the ferries.
The documentation for the AI system in FSX, however, does not specify any flightplan altitude for ships, only start/end terminals and waypoints.

Try to lower the static CG height in the sim.cfg to 0 or so and see if that improves matters.

[mthrift]

Thank you Bjoern.

I did enough fiddling around last evening to learn that I wasn't able to look into the boat traffic file using AIFP (unless I was doing something wrong). AIFP seems to open the file easily enough, but unlike aircraft traffic files, nothing shows up in the various cells/windows of the program.

So, since then, I researched around and learned about AI Boat Traffic Compiler (AIBT) by Lamont Clark (available at http://lc0277.gratisim.fr/software.html). Hopefully that will allow me to look into the boat traffic file.

Really appreciate the responses!


Regards,
Michael

[mthrift]

Well, I know this thread's topic makes it of interest to a very small slice of folks, but wanted to thank you all for taking a look and providing input.

I did manage to open the default traffic file for the ferries (using AIBTC), and as had been suggested, it seems there's really nothing there that could impact the elevation the ferry moves at. I've given it up. I determined that the ferry in question is the one called "wash_ferry_sm". So to deal with the issue, I've just removed that boat from the simobjects folder. Problem solved!


Thanks again!
Michael

[Terry]

Take a look at the AFCAD apron taxi links, taxi links and runway heights. The AI will follow these heights.

[fsafranek]

Default scenery/mesh?

[mthrift]

Hello Terry: "Take a look at the AFCAD apron taxi links, taxi links and runway heights. The AI will follow these heights." I'm not sure what to do with this information. To the best of my understanding, AI boat traffic doesn't follow a "standard" aircraft flightplan and so doesn't track taxiways, runways, etc. Please educate me if I'm missing your point.

Frank: All the screenshots above were taken in full Orbx regions - PNW and PFJ, I believe. I don't remember this issue starting after those were installed, but it's been a while, so I suppose that might have been the case.

Thank you both for your replies.


Thanks!
Michael

[DaveB]

Never seen anything like this before but.. I don't have any ORBX scenery installed. Can you not disable the ORBX areas in the ORBX control panel? If you can.. go back to the area concerned to see if your AI ferries are still floating. Nothing about this check will conclusive but it may give you a pointer as to how to proceed next.

ATB
DaveB