converting aircraft into ai [Archive]

HouseHobbit

December 31st, 2012, 10:43

Nigel placed this in His Aircraft skins uploads.
I learned how to make a AI using this tutorial By Nigel many years ago..
I hope it helps..

How to make an AI aircraft for CFS3 - or how to prevent your nationalities from becoming unmanageable!

In the folder of the aircraft you've chosen, make a copy of the .air file, the .xdp file and the .m3d file. It is not
necessary to copy the cockpit .m3ds, as these are not used.

Re-name the copied .air file from XXXX.air to XXXX_ai.air. Do the same for the two other files, so you have XXXX_ai.m3d
and XXXX._ai.xdp.

Open the new XXXX_ai.xdp file with notepad:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<UnitData>
<General Allegience="0" LongName="XXXX" ShortName="XXXX" ModelName="XXXX.m3d" BlastDamageScale="1.0" ImpactDamageScale="1.0" FireDamageScale="1.0" Priority="1" Type="moving" EnteredService="4/01/1943" LeftService="12/1/1957" BlastDamageMod="1" ImpactDamageMod="1" FireDamageMod="1" Category="fighter_bomber" Country="canada" AllowSpawn="y" InfoURL="help\topics\infospit.htm" ChecklistURL="help\topics\infospit.htm"/>
<GunStations>

Rename the name strings:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<UnitData>
<General Allegience="0" LongName="XXXX ai" ShortName="XXXX ai" ModelName="XXXX_ai.m3d" BlastDamageScale="1.0" ImpactDamageScale="1.0" FireDamageScale="1.0" Priority="1" Type="moving" EnteredService="4/01/1943" LeftService="12/1/1957" BlastDamageMod="1" ImpactDamageMod="1" FireDamageMod="1" Category="fighter_bomber" Country="usa" AllowSpawn="y" InfoURL="help\topics\infospit.htm" ChecklistURL="help\topics\infospit.htm"/>
<GunStations>

The model name must correspond to the new ai name. Then change the nationality to usa or germany, according to the side
you wish it to spawn on. These are the only two nationalities which spawn in the game, hence the interest. The flyable
version can be British, for example, so you can fly it in campaign mode, and the AI will spawn too. This also prevents
the limited space available for flyable aircraft from becoming too cluttered. Keep you favourites flyable for campaign
mode, and AI the rest!

Then open the aircraft.cfg file with notepad. What you will find looks like this:

[fltsim.0]
title=Spitfire MkIXc
sim=Spitfire_IXc
model=Spitfire_IXc

What follows these three lines may vary, but it is unimportant.

Copy these three lines to the next blank line in the text, and then make the following changes:

[fltsim.0] Change the number to 1
title=Spitfire MkIXc Ignore this line
sim=Spitfire_IXc Change this to Spitfire_IXc_ai (XXXX_ai)
model=Spitfire_IXc Change this to Spitfire_IXc_ai (XXXX_ai)

The result is:

[fltsim.1]
title=Spitfire MkIXc
sim=Spitfire_IXc_ai (must correspond to the new name, XXXX_ai)
model=Spitfire_IXc_ai (must correspond to the new name, XXXX_ai)

Save and close.

Nearly done. Now you need to open the .air file. Don't panic, Mr Mainwaring! My favourite is AirEd by William Roth, which
you can find at Simviation, Flightsim and goodness knows where else. It has been around for a while, and does a good job.

Close to the top of the file, you will find line 105, aircraft type. This will equal 0, in other words, a CFS flyable
aircraft. Change it to 2, which means AI only. (Use the enter key to enter the info)

Save and close.

And that should be that. Hope it doesn't shoot you down! I accept no responsibility if you get yourself killed, etc...

Nigel 'ndicki' Dickinson

nigel.dickinson@(NO_SPAM)gmail.com

ndicki

December 31st, 2012, 23:00

With nearly 10 years more experience of CFS3 than when I wrote that, forget the messing about with the .air file. If you do that, you won't be able to find it in the menu for Quick Combat.

The trick is to change the ShortName="XXXX" entry in the xdp file, but to ShortName="~XXXX" so it appears in the QC menu after the flyable aircraft. This is currently 'industry-standard' practice, so to speak. A number of us do this, as we started it in beta testing for MAW.

The other thing is that the AI gunners are too good. You can change this by reducing the speed at which the guns move in their positions.

In the xdp file, you'll see this near the top:

<GunStations>
<GunStation UpLimit="20" DownLimit="20" LeftLimit="20" RightLimit="20" RateLimit="60" SystemID=

You need to change the rate limit to '05' for each entry:

<GunStations>
<GunStation UpLimit="20" DownLimit="20" LeftLimit="20" RightLimit="20" RateLimit="05" SystemID=

That will made it more difficult for the gunners to hit you, especially if you jink around correctly, but when they do hit you, the damage will be realistic.

Hope this helps, but I don't see quite what AI-ing the thing will change...