:think: Am a slightly stuck as im trying to add helicopters to some of the raf bases in yorkshire (Dishforth in particular) so any hints on how best to do this or links to tutorials will be helpful!
All the best
Debug
Prgramming Ai helicopters
Moderators: Guru's, The Ministry
Hi Debug... I've been doing lots of AI Helo lately. Firstly the most important thing... FS doesn't know how to deal with copters, so they need to be treated like aircraft. The best source of information is http://www.hovercontrol.com however finding the info can be tricky.
For the sake of an example, we'll use the simshed puma.
Before we begin you will need to download the file... More_AI_Helos.zip
http://64.34.169.161/ifolio_files/file_ ... _helos.zip
Firstly, find the puma folder in your ..\FS9\aicraft\ folder. Make a copy of it in the same location, but rename the folder to AI Puma. You should now have one AI Puma folder and one Puma folder. (plus all your other aircraft)
The puma is a good one to use as it has wheels rather than skids.
The two guys who have done all the work on this are Rob Nieuwenhoven and Holger Sandmann.
They have created two air files. One for use with smaller helo's, the other for larger ones. As the Puma is a larger chopper, we will use "stemme_as_helicopter_2.air" file.
Open up the "more_ai_helos.zip" file, and look for a helo thats similar to the puma. I used the SeaKing.
Copy the stemme_as_helicopter_2.air from the Sea King folder into the AI puma folder.
Next, go into the folder and open the aircraft.cfg file. You will see the title= line for each repaint (there are three in the default Puma pckage.) Change each Title line buy prefixing it with AI.
e.g.
Before... title=Puma 33 Sqn
After... title=AI Puma 33 Sqn
You now also need to tell the aircraft.cfg file that you wish to use the new air file, so for each "sim" line in the file, replace the default...
sim=puma
with...
sim=stemme_as_helicopter_2.
Next is the more complex bit. within the aircraft.cfg file find the section [Lights] and move it (by cuting and pasting the entire section) immediately below the [general] section.
Now find the section entitled [contact Points] and again cut the entire section and paste it immediately below the lights section which you have just moved.
Now with the file rearranged, select everything AFTER the [cotact points] section ends. i.e. from the begining of whatever section is next after [contact points] and delete it!
Don't worry if you make a mess of this. So long as you use the file from your AI Puma folder, the original files are all still in the main Puma folder.
Now..
Open up the more_ai_helos zip file again, and go into the sea king folder. Now we want to open the aircraft.cfg and copy large pieces of it into our AI Puma's aircraft.cfg
Basically we want to take everything apart from the [flightsim.x], [general], [lights] and [contact points] and paste this into the ai puma's cfg file at the bottom of the file.
When this is done, save the AI Puma file.
You're now good to go. Remember that (assuming your using traffic Tools) the aircraft.txt file will need the name of the aircraft to be "AI Puma 33 Sqn" otherwise it will try and use your normal Puma.
The same goes for othe Helo's that you wish to use as AI. The Gazelle for example is the same, but as its a smaller helo, you use one of the small AI copters in the zip file as the template. ( The Gazelle looks silly taxiing on skids, but its fine in the air)
Hope thats of some help. If your stuck, I have zipped up my AI Puma aircraft.cfg file here..... http://www.cbfsim.org/~benw/aihelo/ai_helicopter_1.zip
Good Luck
For the sake of an example, we'll use the simshed puma.
Before we begin you will need to download the file... More_AI_Helos.zip
http://64.34.169.161/ifolio_files/file_ ... _helos.zip
Firstly, find the puma folder in your ..\FS9\aicraft\ folder. Make a copy of it in the same location, but rename the folder to AI Puma. You should now have one AI Puma folder and one Puma folder. (plus all your other aircraft)
The puma is a good one to use as it has wheels rather than skids.
The two guys who have done all the work on this are Rob Nieuwenhoven and Holger Sandmann.
They have created two air files. One for use with smaller helo's, the other for larger ones. As the Puma is a larger chopper, we will use "stemme_as_helicopter_2.air" file.
Open up the "more_ai_helos.zip" file, and look for a helo thats similar to the puma. I used the SeaKing.
Copy the stemme_as_helicopter_2.air from the Sea King folder into the AI puma folder.
Next, go into the folder and open the aircraft.cfg file. You will see the title= line for each repaint (there are three in the default Puma pckage.) Change each Title line buy prefixing it with AI.
e.g.
Before... title=Puma 33 Sqn
After... title=AI Puma 33 Sqn
You now also need to tell the aircraft.cfg file that you wish to use the new air file, so for each "sim" line in the file, replace the default...
sim=puma
with...
sim=stemme_as_helicopter_2.
Next is the more complex bit. within the aircraft.cfg file find the section [Lights] and move it (by cuting and pasting the entire section) immediately below the [general] section.
Now find the section entitled [contact Points] and again cut the entire section and paste it immediately below the lights section which you have just moved.
Now with the file rearranged, select everything AFTER the [cotact points] section ends. i.e. from the begining of whatever section is next after [contact points] and delete it!
Don't worry if you make a mess of this. So long as you use the file from your AI Puma folder, the original files are all still in the main Puma folder.
Now..
Open up the more_ai_helos zip file again, and go into the sea king folder. Now we want to open the aircraft.cfg and copy large pieces of it into our AI Puma's aircraft.cfg
Basically we want to take everything apart from the [flightsim.x], [general], [lights] and [contact points] and paste this into the ai puma's cfg file at the bottom of the file.
When this is done, save the AI Puma file.
You're now good to go. Remember that (assuming your using traffic Tools) the aircraft.txt file will need the name of the aircraft to be "AI Puma 33 Sqn" otherwise it will try and use your normal Puma.
The same goes for othe Helo's that you wish to use as AI. The Gazelle for example is the same, but as its a smaller helo, you use one of the small AI copters in the zip file as the template. ( The Gazelle looks silly taxiing on skids, but its fine in the air)
Hope thats of some help. If your stuck, I have zipped up my AI Puma aircraft.cfg file here..... http://www.cbfsim.org/~benw/aihelo/ai_helicopter_1.zip
Good Luck
Ben.
