AI Manager (One-Click-Installer) for MSFS

[Kaiii3]

There has been no official statement regarding AIM/OCI for MSFS yet, time to change that

Yes there will be an Update for AI Manager and OCI to support MSFS in the future, BUT it is still a long way to go. We could provide a 50% solution within some weeks/months that might work (could cuase CTDs and missing stuff), but our goal is to bring you 100% on day one. This means a longer waiting time for you, more work for use but in the end we will have a fully working OCI Setup like we have now in P3D.

Features that will be included (OCI only):

• Fully automatic installation/update of models, repaints, flightplans
• Use of new Models and Repaints when possible
• Use of FSX Models and Repaints when no MSFS native paints are online
• Support for offline and online AI with the same setup

Features that might be included (OCI only and depending on MSFS updates):

• AIGFP support
• AI Helicopter

We have not yet any timeframe for the development, at the moment we still collecting basic information on what is possible in the new Sim and what files we can use. What is sure: We are not talking about weeks or a few months, more like  year or so. As soon as we have more news I will update the post, for now please be patient and give us the time we need.

[Kaiii3]

One month later and I can actual provide you guys with an update:

ASOBO has fixed a bug within MSFS that caused CTDs when using FSX-MDL files. Thanks to this fix AIG is now able to start the developing and testing process of AIM/OCI for MSFS.

Over the last days I deployed multiple testversions of AIM to our internal testers to check the baseline configuration of AIM. Over the weekend we were able for the first time to install a modified flightplan inside an independent OCI setup within the Community directory of MSFS - IMPORTANT: This does not mean it will work with every flightplan but it has shown us that our understanding of the new filestructure and directorystructure was corect and we implement it now fully into AIM.
This test also provided us with many information regarding FSX MDLs and repaints - how are they looking within the new Sim, are they fully compatible or are there changes we need to do. All this inforamtion will be updated from time to time during the development process and will affect possible external packages we might need to provide to get to the 100% solution we are aiming. To be fully honest: With the dataset we have at the moment, the models already developed for FSX we are NOT able to reach the 100% solution we plan without any extra work!

AIG has made the first steps in MSFS but there are still many to go before we can go public with AIM/OCI. We are on the right track, but since the SDK is still not finished and stuff might be changed (and our Addon is no longer working) there are still far to many uncertanties to specualte about a release data/or even timeframe.

I will keep you updated on the process

[Kaiii3]

Hey Guys,

time for a new dev-update regarding AIGAIM-OCI for MSFS:

I will start with the good news first:

Models:
Our team has made some huge progress regarding the model conversion, the models tested so far fulfill the high-quality standards we have for our users and it looks good that we can perform the changes on the other models as well. The main goal is to provide the same amount of features (animations, etc.) as in the FSX/P3D models.

Repaints:
Repaints from FSX/P3D will work in MSFS without major problems, for repaints that need some changes we will provide a technical solution that will ensure the "old" repaints are working in MSFS in the same quality as new once.

Airports:
Over the last days our internal testers and some external users reported some findings regarding airport parking-spot usage. Based on this feedback we have now the option to plan for possible airport updates as well.

Now to the not so good news (you can call them bad news – but that is up to you):

FDE:
The SDK incl. Documentation is still far from completed and our internal members are still struggling to find the perfect settings for AI aircraft, like we have in the older simulators. Currently it is more like try and error, and often it is a failure.

Contact to ASOBO/MS:
Many of you have asked if we have tried to get in contact with MS/ASOBO. We have tried our best and never got any response... The first contact was during the ALPHA/BETA phase of MSFS and the second mail was sent three weeks ago. We never received any response, not even a mail "thanks for your mail, we will get in touch."
We know that MS/ASOBO is working on their own liveries and models for AI – and they might do not want to work with us (and see us as a competitor...), but some kind of answer would have been nice. Since their models/repaints would need the same improvements/changes in the SDK we are asking for.
We can and will work on a release of AIGAIM-OCI for MSFS, but as long as the internal AI-System is not improved I am sure the result will be far from what we would like to see in a new Simulator like MSFS.

[Kaiii3]

AIG AI Manager OCI for MSFS – Development Announcement

Airbus A350 Singapore Airlines (Developed by UTT)



As promised is here now the latest Dev-Update from AIGTech regarding AIG AI Manager, this time I will try to show you the current state and what we are planning to do in the near future:

AIG AI Manager
The code for this tool was rewritten with the announcement of MSFS to be "cross platform" ready, luckily, MSFS is using more or less the same AI setup as ESP based Simulators, besides the FDE and the models the files are the same.
This proactive move is paying now off, no changes are needed in the backend of the Software. All changes required to load all Sim-Data on startup have been added and seems to be working as they should.
We will use the time till release for MSFS to do some bug-hunting and improvements.

One Click Installer
I was able to confirm that 90% of the current code are working for P3D and MSFS, the rest 10% are unique stuff for each simulator that I had to split in the process. This process is already done for P3D and mostly done for MSFS. Still missing are the code for the model update process and the repaint modification needed in MSFS.
This bring me directly to the next new information I can share today with you. Not all paints from the FSX/P3D models can be directly used on the new models for MSFS, they require an updated lightmap as well as and updated ALPHA-Channel for the main texture to show correct in the Sim. We know that it is very unlikely that each paint will get updated to this new standard, so we will provide OCI with a feature to make these changes during the installation process – no need for the User to edit all these paints.

AIGFP fileformat (used in combination with AIG Traffic Controller)
Users of P3D already know that AIG has published a new fileformat for flightplans that is used by AIG traffic Controller to inject the traffic via SimConnect to the Sim.
TBH we have not done any major test with this yet but implementing of the current SDK showed just a few error.... We will keep you updated on this one incl. a separate topic when the time has come.

Copyright protection
We are still thinking about adding some kind of copyright protection, but so far no progress has been made here. Maybe MS/ASOBO will open their protection at some point to 3rd party developers.

And now some updates on stuff that AIGTech is not working directly on.

Model-Conversion
The process of converting models has been started and most of the problems seems to be resolved by the guys – great work by them.
Around 6 different aircraft types are already ready for internal testing and it seems they are working fine (in the limits of the simulator). They use the new glTF format as well as the new FDE format.

Dash 8-400 Air Canada Express (Developed by TFS)


Boeing 757 Delta Airlines (Developed by AIG)


Boeing 787 ANA (Developed by UTT)


Airbus A350 Cathay Pacific (Developed by UTT)


Boeing 777 KLM (Developed by UTT) - All domes/antennas enabled for testing


I hope this has given you some insight on what is going on at the moment. In case you still have some open questions, here a short FAQ:

When will it be released?
When it is done.

Will there a beta phase?
Yes, there will be a private and a public beta phase at some point. Users for the private phase will be picked by myself (DO NOT ASK!!!!!). For the public beta we will use the same approach as we did with the initial OCI public beta back in 2019 (use at your own risk).

Is there anything I can do to help?
Well, development of the Tool is done by our small AIGtech team, and the rest is done by the community. Join the AIG Forum, to start your journey in this big AI community take a look on what others a doing and if you find something that has not been done so far and you would like to share with the rest – just do it and present it there.

Is help required from ASOBO/MS?
Not directly to finish the OCI process, but there are currently some limitations within the Simulator/SDK regarding AI improvements that could use a rework. This can not be done without the work of MS/ASOBO.

Will this be freeware?
Yes, it would not be fair to let users pay for a software that is just collecting freeware files from the web.

[Kaiii3]

time for an development update :slight_smile:

Over the last days I have worked on the backend for the MSFS part of AIM and it looks like for now all needed features are added. This marks the next milestone on our roadmap for a public release.
Our Conversion-Team is working on updating/upgrading the models, so far we have around 6 or 7 aircraft types already converted and were able to keep backwards compability with the paints.

AIG OCI for MSFS will support glTF format Models as well as MDLX. A feature to upgrade from MDLX to glTF is panned, so in case an upgraded version is released later the tool will perform an inplace upgrade on the users system automatically (incl. all needed changes to the repaints).

As you kmight have heard there is currently a major bug within MSFS that prevents correct model matching even for offline AI. We at AIG have already a workaroudn for that under develolment that we might release as default installation method for offline AI in AIM. In case MS/ASOBO is not able to fix this, I will disable the BGL installation support in AIM to reduce possible support request on our end :wink:

Support for offline and online AI is still on the feature list and based on the talk with Jörg I had some weeks ago it looks like we will keep both features supported - more on that at a later date (when I had time to discuss some other stuff with Jörg).

Next milestones:

    Start private alpha testing (DO NOT SEND ME ANY REQUEST!!! - I will pick the team, because this is not like early access, this is far more technical) - there will be a public beta before release :wink:
    Finishing the Database to incl. all published (glTF/MDLX) models and the needed information
    Create the conversion-data sets for lagacy MDLX textures (mostly FAIB Models)

Since we can fallback on our workaround for offline AI, we are still on track for a potential full release in Q4 this year.

[Kaiii3]

Hey Guys,

tomorrow marks the release of the next Sim Update and based on the outcome of it I will revise the current roadmap. As you know we are currently in the first small private alpha test of AIM and OCI for MSFS as well as some other tools. The first weeks provided as a good feedback on the current progress of our development and some converted models.

The next step will be to add more alpha testers to our team to test AIM on different systems and slowly start stress-testing the internal AI system of MSFS with different User-Settings in different locations as well. There will be no specific date on when I will add the new testers, it might happen from time to time over the next weeks, so the rush of initial support requests is still manageable.
From now on MSFS Testers can submit an application to join AIGTech MSFS-Testteam, just follow the steps here: https://www.alpha-india.net/forums/index.php?topic=36489.0

[Kaiii3]

MS/ASOBO have announced a new hotfix for MSFS SU5 coming alter this week or early next week. There are currently no information regarding fixes for the issues reported by AIG, so it is not possilbe for us to make any plans on how to continue with testing in the next days.
As said our tools do have the workarounds added and I have no problem using them for the next alpha test series, but it would be nicer/better to actual use the full potential of our tools and MSFS

[kanoasurf]

Has the last Asobo update been of any help?

Cheers

[Kaiii3]

News on the AIG website: https://www.alpha-india.net/