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TCAS

Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 1:38 pm
by djrisc
Hello,
So I noticed when installing the update for X-Plane and re-installing PilotEdge that it states:

"If you want TCAS to work, on the Aircraft menu, select Aircraft and Situations, and set “number of aircraft” to the number of planes you’d like to be able to see on TCAS at a time, plus 1."

I want TCAS to work when I use PilotEdge, but if I bump this number up won't this put AI traffic that's not part of PilotEdge in the sim? Am I misunderstanding this feature in X-Plane?

What do most people have this set to?

Thanks!

Brett

Re: TCAS

Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 7:49 pm
by Steven Winslow
I'm curious if this is a Mac or PC or both platforms question?

Re: TCAS

Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 8:50 pm
by Keith Smith
That's a great question. The short answer is to do what it says :)

The longer answer is that X-Plane's TCAS model is based on drawing multiplayer aircraft. PilotEdge takes control of the multiplayer system in X-Plane upon startup. You don't have to worry about seeing AI traffic out the window at all. What it does when it comes time to drawing the PANEL (including TCAS) is temporarily take the available AI aircraft (based on the number you have set) and position them in the same spot as the PE aircraft (based on the closest ones first). This fools the TCAS into drawing planes on the TCAS display based on PE aircraft positions, even though the planes you see out the window aren't "planes" at all, they're just objects that are being drawn by the PE plugin.

Ready to drive a through the base of your skull? I know I was when I had to work all this out while building the plugin.

Re: TCAS

Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 11:29 am
by djrisc
Thanks for the explanation Keith! It didn't even hurt my brain that bad. ;)

Tonight I'll go home and crank the number up on that feature.

Steven, I'm currently using X-Plane on Windows, although I would bet that same feature exists on the Mac version as well.

Brett