AI Manager and Traffic Controller Development Update

Nearly half a year after the release of the last major updates for AI Manager and Traffic Controller AIG is proud to give you some insight of the next big updates coming to both tools.

AI Manager

The biggest focus during this update-cycle has been the User-Experience for One-Click-Installer. We have collected the user-feedback on the usability since the release from previous P3D users and new MSFS users and have reworked the crucial UI parts and some internal processes to make the start for new users more easier.

OCI User-Experience

In the above preview you see that new UI for AIM that is mostly shared with Traffic Controller. The biggest change – and the most obvious eye-catcher – are now the “OCI Quick buttons” that we have added:
Model Update
When visible there is at least on update to a SimObject, the VisLib – or the new ModelBehaviour-Package, click it to get the updated content.
Flightplan Update
When visible there is at least on flightplan update available on our system, click it to update all your local install flightplans. This process will also remove any defunct airline you have in your system at the moment.
Install Flightplans
When visible there is at least one flightplan on the server that you have not installed. Click it to download and install all flightplans from the server.
Setup OCI (not visible)
Use the button to quickly setup OCI on your system, AIM will guide you on the way.

Quick-Config

We have created a new “Overview and Quick-Config” page that will be displayed on startup of AIM as soon as OCI is installed. It will provide the user with a graphical overview of the current OCI setup and the option to quickly change some settings. In the preview above you can see the default OCI settings and why we suggest to change them if you want to get the full AI-Experience.

New default Settings

Besides the UI changes we have updated the default settings for OCI. So far the default settings have focused to get a fullsetup – even when manual downloads or external Logins are required. With the new version the default settings will make a 180° turn. By default OCI will only install content from sites that do not require any form of user-interaction and in case of a faulty download OCI will skip it directly, without asking the user to download the file. We have made changes to the internal workflows at AIG to make sure that users with default settings will get as much content as possible, at the moment I would guess that around 5% of the content require a manual download.

Presets

Together with this update we provide a full set of presets for the world. Allowing users to quickly install the major airlines for each continent. No more need to select the airlines you want from the ever growing list of airlines.

Traffic Controller

The focus for the next version of TC has been on Stability, the Ground Services added so far and on the new MAIW Traffic Injector. In all three areas we have made hugh progress over the last weeks, but have still some more steps ahead of us.

Stability

One of the biggest issues we have with Traffic Controller in MSFS has been the CTDs and Disconnects that happen more or less random. We have tracked down nearly all cases and have currently a very stable version of AIGTC running internally – lets all hope this stable state remains.

Ground Services

With a now more and more stable SimConnect-Connection we are upgrading the Ground Service feature even more. We are not sure at the moment if we will add new services with the update or if we only upgrade the already existing once.

Parking Spots

One of the biggest changes is the new vehicle parking at gates and parking spots. Each airplane spot that is large enough will have up to four vehicle slots for ground services to park at, while they are idle. This brings more life to the airport, since not every vehicle is parked at the default vehicle-spots. Vehicles will also spawn at those new spots reducing the amount of “wild-traffic” shortly after startup.

Catering/Refueling

The Catering- as well as the Refueling-Service have been updates to make the service more dynamic and random. Serving-times are now calculated on airplane-size and travel-time during the day. For example a A320 on a midday short-haul flight back to its home-base is no longer served by the catering, since it would have still some stuff from the previous flight starting at its homebase. Same goes for refueling. This will also reduce the required service-vehicles at the airport to serve all airplanes – helping us to improve the FPS.