Offline AI Traffic - Windows system time used to spawn AI Traffic - no effect changing sim time/date

Bug Reporting Hub ATC, Traffic & NAVAIDs
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Are you using Developer Mode or made changes in it?

No

Have you disabled/removed all your mods and addons?

N/A

Brief description of the issue:

I am an experienced custom developer of AI flightplans since FS2002. Whilst using offline AI traffic.bgl files I identified an issue whereby if I change the simulator date and time this has no effect on the AI traffic spawned. I would expect the offline AI spawned to be based upon the simulator UTC time rather than fixed to windows system time which then would enable flights at a user selected time with the offline traffic corresponding to the time of day. I have found a further problem spawning AI aircraft where there is a mismatch between days/dates and those in the Traffic AI Flightplan.bgl

Provide Screenshot(s)/video(s) of the issue encountered:

Detailed steps to reproduce the issue encountered:

I have found a workaround - (1) If I change the windows system clock to match the offline flightplan file the aircraft appears as per the traffic AI flightplan which works for plans for all “24HR” coded traffic AI flightplans. (2) Another issue is traffic AI flightplans coded to operate over a “WEEK” - the day of the week coded doesn’t correspond with the AI traffic for that day. A workaround is to change the system date minus 3 days i.e. if the system date is set to a Friday the day/date needs to be changed to a Tuesday to spawn the flights programmed for Fridays -full list below to help recreate.

AI Day Change System day to a
1/ Monday Thursday
2/ Tuesday Friday
3/ Wednesday Saturday
4/ Thursday Sunday
5/ Friday Monday
6/ Saturday Tuesday
0/ Sunday Wednesday

It is only after these workarounds that I can see the correct aircraft starting the correct flight as per the traffic AI flightplan. In search of a solution I have changed the traffic AI flightplan days in the hope of AI traffic to spawn on the correct days to check if this is a flightplan day i.e. 0/ coding issue, however this again didn’t match the AI day programmed as per the realigned days to system date. Changing all programmed 0/ flightplans to a 3/ didn’t work. Example Traffic AI Flightplan used to identify issue;

AC#738,G-TAWD,100%,WEEK,IFR,1/10:55,1/14:30,350,F,6180,GCLP,1/17:27,1/21:02,360,F,6181,EGHH,2/09:11,2/12:48,350,F,6268,GCTS,2/15:18,2/18:55,360,F,6269,EGHH,4/07:59,4/11:22,350,F,6426,GCRR,4/13:05,4/16:28,360,F,6427,EGHH,5/09:51,5/13:28,350,F,6596,GCTS,5/15:04,5/18:41,360,F,6597,EGHH,0/09:28,0/12:51,350,F,6744,GCRR,0/14:49,0/18:12,360,F,6745,EGHH

In the default Traffic.bgl file I noted that all flightplans are 24HR or less and therefore may not have been an obvious issue previously. Any help would be appreciated to correct the root cause of either offline AI traffic file coding or confirm if this is a simulator issue. I note many users adopt live traffic injection solutions although this doesn’t enable users like myself to pick a flight to fly offline when unable to fly “Live”.

PC specs and/or peripheral set up if relevant:

n/a

Build Version # when you first started experiencing this issue:

1.29.30.0

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Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:

5

This item has been tagged with feedback-logged, meaning our team will investigate and attempt to reproduce the issue. If more information is needed, we will let you know.

6

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?

Yes

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:

Im on beta AAU1 The same issue AI not departing on Sim time, but on System time

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:

7

Yes, this problem is happening since world update 11. In this world update MSFS supposingly would have improved AI traffic, but I find a minimum of work has been done.
I mean, come on, even for the pilot in the sim AI traffic is of great importance!
If you are on approach and you have to go arround 3 times because of AI traffic the is not working correctly, this seems something Asobo has to take care of soon.

8

This was fix on SU12B .18 and .19, Now .20 its broken again, same problem

9

….if the fix for this can be identified, it would be great if it could be included within the general release version of SU12.

10

Mod Edit: No tagging of Staff per Code of Conduct

please can you tell us if the team has been able to make any progress regarding this issue ?

Before SU11, offline traffic bgl. files ( Custom flight plans ) were being read correctly by the Sim, resulting in the AI traffic corresponding as per the flight plan for any of the specific Aircraft contained within.

Since SU11 and SU12 releases, the reading of the flight plans contained within the offline AI traffic bgl. files appears to be completely broken.

It is currently hit and miss as to whether there is any functionality of the traffic, although it has to be said that the Ai Aircraft do always spawn on the parking spots at the Airfields concerned.
When and if they do, the Aircraft are not following details contained within the flight plan.

Kind regards,

11

Hi just wanted to check whether this issue was still on the radar, any updates would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

14

…sadly unless I am mistaken, it doesn’t look as if SU13 ( going by what I have seen in the Beta ) is going to address this issue or many other AI Offline Traffic issues that still remain with the AI Aircraft themselves.

15

Is there any further update to this?
Thanks

16

Still the same on SU 14 beta

17

Yet SU15 beta still the same

18

It still seems to be broken in whatever the latest version of MSFS as of today.

19

…just thought that I would refresh this issue right up to date using MSFS2024 SU3 beta3. I can report that custom ‘ Ai Offline Traffic ‘ is still broken due to this issue.

It’s so frustrating when you can see that the Ai Traffic Models have been injected by the default Traffic injector of MSFS2024. The Ai Aircraft movements however, don’t correspond with the timings of the Flight Plans contained within the Traffic.bgl file.
You used to be able to set a given date and time ( aligned with a departure or an arrival from the flight plan ) and watch it happen in the Sim. It is no longer possible to do that.

We at MAIW, have a host of Military Aircraft which we wanted to bring right up to date in MSFS2024, you can see some of the progression of our development using MSFS2020 on our website.

For us it is vital to have this functionality back.

20

The AI system in MSFS 2020 (haven’t used 24 but I assume is no different) is completely broken. I would very much like to have the ability like I did in the FSX days where I could create my own BGL and therefore my own AI traffic.

AI traffic is of great importance for realism. Yes I can and do use AIG or FSLTL or any other package, but I am a firm believer that it shouldn’t be needed in this day and age. If it was possible to use BGL for AI in FSX, why not now? I don’t see why I need to run a separate program just to get realistic AI. I want to be able to create my own BGL’s and AI just like the old ways.

Please can this be fixed, hopefully it isn’t something overly complicated? Just make sure the AI uses in game UTC instead of the system time. Then ensure the correct FLTSIM Title is used for that particular AI aircraft. In FSX this could be done in under an hour, but in this MSFS its like we’ve gone backwards.

That’s before you get into the abysmal AI behavior…

21

.bgl traffic works just fine. Gamod 2024 is based by .bgl traffic. And sure you still can do own .bgl flightplans with AIFP for msfs2024. But there is no stock trafficAircraft.bgl with msfs2024 but it is bug logged and was with status “planned su4”. Hope it will get fixed soon.

22

C0rsten, the problem is not that BGL files don’t work at all, the problem is that they don’t work correctly. Aircraft are not spawned according to the time that is specified inside the BGL file.

So, for 99.9% of users of Gamod this is fine, and they don’t even notice nor care (not even sure if you noticed that yourself). They just install the mod, see some GA aircraft around and are all happy. But the fact is that the aircraft are not spawned correctly and that’s a big issue for people that care about those kind of things.

As far as i know (i might be wrong) The GA mod is just a collection of thousands of flightplans probably gathered from the original BGL file and probably some other sources and no one really cares what is inside, they just want to see some GA aircraft around and, for that, it does the job. If, like some people above you want to create a custom BGL with accurate departure/arrivals, then the sim will not respect those times. So if you’re playing at midnight (real time) and your sim time is set at 6pm then the aircraft coming from the BGL file will not be spawned like if it was 6pm and you will not have correct traffic at all, your airport will be dead like if it was midnight.

as far as i know this was working ok in MSFS2020 until a specific SU (around 7 or 8), then it was broken and never fixed even in v2024 .. and with 20 votes it will probably never be fixed because i don’t think they care much about AI traffic seeing that, even if the sim is great, the AI traffic part of it is probably even worse than what it was in FS9 25 years ago :slight_smile:

23

I can do test .bgl with one flightplan. I will tell you the results. Modelmatching is here problem, it is bugged and wont obey title at all from aircraft.cfg

Btw. I did made overhaul .bgl from scratch. Every airport from littlenavmap database has 5 vfr flights from a to a. No one has done it but me. So dont blame me as a thief. Militarymod flightplans is also 100% custom made by me.

24

bah i’ll just stop commenting, people are just too weird and try to read behind the lines just to find problems and argue and feel attacked.

Not sure where i said you were a thief but if that’s the way you felt it sorry was not meant to be … i just said ‘as far is know i might be wrong’ because i thought maybe it was taking some of the flights from the original BGL which would not even be bad i guess imho since it’s already included in the sim by default.

The point was just to say that with a huge BGL containing 100000 of generated flights, not many people would care about the departure/arrival times and they would just be happy as it is even if the BGL data is not respected by the sim (not the addon fault). But ok .. it’s better to focus and try very hard to find some imaginary Thief insinuations that didn’t even cross my mind.

i better get off from this thread .. it’s just bad everywhere …. :beer_mug: