Find out what AI Aardvark aircraft are currently available.
Also, see what repaints are
available for each aircraft.
Despite exhaustive
testing, occasionally an error slips through, but imagine how terrible
it would be if we did no testing at all. ..
Learn about low polygon modeling and why it so important to achieving
good frame rates.
Learn the reasons
behind Aardvark's AI flight characteristics, and why real world
scheduling just doesn't work in FS2002.
Learn how we paint our planes.
NOT YET OPEN
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Nov
12, 2003
Site
moving to new server...
We
are in the process of moving to a new server, so the site may
be experiencing difficulties over the next few days. Various
parts of the site may or may not be operational during the move.
<insert self serving rhetoric about how we are moving
to a new server in order to better serve our users and how we
will have lots of exciting new features here...> *
The
url will remain the same as it is now: www.ai-aardvark.com
* The
truth is, that in keeping with the selfish nature of the aardvark
web lackey, we are doing it to make life easier for ourselves,
not the users. Most visitors won't notice anything different.
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October
16, 2003
Welcome
Peter (Kefo) Pavlin
After
much arm twisting and evasion of the truth on the part of AI
Aardvark, Peter (Kefo) Pavlin has agreed to become an official
aardvark type person. Peter was hesitant at first because he
was afraid of the huge demands on his time that Aardvark would
impose on him. After finding out that on the "DiBacco Plan"
he could actually vanish for months on end and not lose his
aardvark standing, his mind was put at ease, and he signed on
the dotted line.
Peter is well known for his very detailed and very accurate
repaints. He added several layers of details to the just released
767-300's as well as producing several airline repaints for
it. We're so impressed with his work that we are now pressuring
Peter to develop the paintkit for the next aircraft that is
slowly lumbering its way down the Aardvark assembly line.
Welcome to AI Aardvark, Peter!
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October
11, 2003
Lots
more Boeing 767-300's
We
have finished the 767-300 release with a deluge of GE repaints.
We're not sure how many, new repaints kept slipping in at the
last minute, but trust us, it's a lot. We've tried to get an
accurate count several times, but lack of sleep has prevented
us from getting any sort of consistant count. We're pretty sure
there are more than 15 though. Maybe more than 20...
Enjoy the 767-300's.
Must
sleep now...
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October
07, 2003
Boeing
767-300 RR
Three
Rolls Royce engined 767-300's slipped out of the aardvark hanger
today and have arrived at AVSIM and flightsim.com. Apparently
the RR's didn't feel like waiting around for the Pratt &
Whitney and General Electric powered 767-300's, which are still
being worked on.
As
would be expected with an Aardvark model, the 767-300 has been
designed from the ground up to be used as AI traffic. It has
10 LOD models, plenty of moving parts (flaps, spoilers, slats,
engine fans, landing gear, tail skid, etc) and is very frame
rate friendly.
The 767-300 PW's and GE's should be released in the next few
days.
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August
11, 2003
Boeing
727-200
On
August 8, 2002, David Rawlins released his very first Flight
Simulator model, a 727-200 designed specifically for AI use.
Over the past year, that model has gotten uglier and uglier
to his eyes. Despite being a sub standard model, it still attracted
repainters who weren't afraid of it's very user unfriendly textures.
Today,
we hope to hear the flushing of a lot of virtual toilets and
to never hear mention of that old 727 model again. Because today,
AI Aardvark releases a BRAND NEW 727-200 model! More detailed
than last years model, but because of it's 9 LOD models, it's
actually more frame rate friendly than the old one.
This
727-200 has animated landing gear (including tail skid), 2 part
flaps, slats and spoilers.
The
2 part flaps are making their first appearance on an Aardvark
model, and they really give a more realistic appearance on a
plane making a final approach.
There
will be a few repaints to follow the Delta repaint out, including
FedEx, DHL, Iran Air and Pan Am. Within a couple of days a paintkit
will be made available, which will also include a model with
winglets. Please wait for the paintkit before doing any repaints!
A
727-200 in the Aardvark house scheme tests out winglets over
the Everglades.
David R. would like to especially thank Boback Shahsafdari for
recreating the original paint scheme used on last years model,
Delta Airlines N474DA, which was the 1000th 727 built by Boeing.
David also owes a special thanks to Craig Crawley who provided
invaluable help late Friday night helping to sort out the huge
number of LOD's (rumored to have been 16 at one point) and determine
the LOD appearance distances and what parts were or were not
needed.
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August
2 , 2003
Boeing
767-400ER
After
a long testing, and testing again period, the Boeing 767-400ER
has been released and should hopefully be appearing at avsim
& flightsim.com within the next 24 hours. This is the largest
AI plane we have built thus far, and we discovered that using
only 5 or 6 LOD models, which our most recent previous releases
have, just wasn't giving us the frame rates we wanted. So, we
added a few more... The 767-400 has 12
LOD MODELS!!!
In
our harsh frame rate tests (KORD, 100 gates, all filled), the
767-400ER has frame rates that are comparable to our much smaller
737-200.
The 767-400 has the usual details you've come to expect, plus
the usual animated parts. A new addition to this aircraft is
the hanging main landing gear bogies, as you can see in the
picture below.
The
767-400 is being released in 3 paint schemes: Continental Airlines
& Delta Airlines (2 versions). These are the only 2 airlines
currently flying the 767-400.
The
767-400 has been tested in both FS2002 and FS2004.
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August
2, 2003
FS2004 FDE information.
FS2004
users may have noticed that some aardvark planes don't fly very
well in FS2004.
We will release a set of FS2004 fde's, once we have tested everything
thoroughly. For those of you who can't wait, we suggest replacing
the original .cfg and .air files with the same files from the
default 737-400. You will have to rename the .air file of course,
as well as transfer the original aardvark contact point and light
location parameters.
Aardvark
planes that seem to fly ok in FS2004:
757-200
757-300
(flies ok, but may not want to land)
EMB-120 (flies so well, it brought tears to the tester's eyes)
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Aardvark
planes that don't fly well, if at all in FS2004:
737 series (pretty bad)
dc-9 series (slightly better than 737's)
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July
16, 2003
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Recent
aardvark testing has concluded that the previous 757 releases,
although containing 5 LODs (Levels of Detail models),
did not have optimum LOD placement. So we just shifted
the LODs around a bit and the newly compiled model files
yield a nearly *6 frames per second increase in performance
from the previously released 757 models.
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At
least you can never say Aardvark doesn't look after you and
your frame rates.
* Read
More for clarification
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May
30, 2003
FINALLY,
the repaint sections have been brought up to date, using a
new "minimal effort" format for easy updating. "Minimal
effort" means "no pictures", sorry about that,
we know they were nice to look at, but it just took too long
to download, install, and make profiles of repaints.
We only frequent avsim and flightsim.com looking for new repaints,
so if yours aren't listed, send us an email.
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What makes a good AI aircraft?
Judging from the files we've downloaded from several sites,
it would appear that simply putting the words " good
for AI use " in the file description would do it. It
doesn't of course, but we have identified a few very common
misconceptions about what makes a good AI aircraft. |
If it's a Gmax aircraft, it'll provide good frame rates.
This is by far the most common misconception
about AI aircraft and you'll see it quite a lot. Gmax
is simply a tool to build models, there is nothing in Gmax
that inherently builds frame rate friendly aircraft.
It's up to the modeler to build a frame rate friendly aircraft
by keeping the total number of polygons used in the model
as low as possible, and using the LOD (Level of Detail) feature
in an efficient manner. Both of these have to be used
well to make a really good AI model. Keeping the polygon
count low, but only using 1 LOD model is about the same as
using a huge number of polygons and having several LOD models. |
If an aircraft has LOD modeling, it'll provide good
frame rates.
Finding an aircraft that even uses LOD modeling is a daunting
task, but if you can find one, that's a sign that the designer
was at least thinking about frame rates. To really take
advantage of LOD's the modeler will have to build several
models to represent the different levels of detail. Taking
the most detailed model and simply deleting parts to make
the next lower detail model is not the ideal way to do this.
The modeler also has control of the distance at which
the LOD models appear to the viewer. The modeler can
adjust the distance to achieve the best frame rates possible.
Making the least detailed model appear closer to the
viewer will improve frame rates, but at the expense of allowing
the user to actually see the lower detailed model which probably
bears only a vague resemblance to the aircraft being modeled.
However, regardless of whether the LOD modeling is being used
to it's best advantage, a model that uses LOD models will
always deliver better frame rates than a similar model that
only has a single LOD model.
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The only way to have good frame rates is to use a less detailed
looking model.
If you equate the number of polygons
used with the degree of detail this would be true. We've
discovered that through very concientious modeling we can
produce a fairly detailed model using far less polygons than
others that have built the very same aircraft types.
We feel that we have gotten the most
detail for a given number of polygons that is possible. You
could have better frame rates than our aircraft offer, but
since our aircraft have literally been stripped to the bone
of all unnecessary polygons, this would result in less
detailed models. |
How has AI Aardvark managed to build such detailed aircraft,
yet still keep the polygon count
low enough to insure non-crippling frame rates? |
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The deceptively simple answer to that is that we only use
polygons where we need to. It is a very common mistake
for beginning 3D modelers to use far more polygons than
are actually needed to have a model that reads well. Fortunately,
one of the Aardvark modelers has been building 3D models
for years, and has learned a few tricks along the way.
When we start off building a new aircraft model, we
already have a polygon-count target that we do not want
to exceed. For a 2-engine jet like the dc-9 or 737,
that target is 2000 polygons. Sometimes this requires
that we go back and rebuild sections of an aircraft in order
to stay on target. If we develop a basic model, and
have not reached the 2000 mark, that allows us the luxury
of adding lots of little details, such as antennas, strakes,
flap hinge canoes, etc. Many times, even after adding
these additional parts, the model is still under 2000 polygons.
We'll try harder next time...
VISIT THE AARDVARK MODELING SECTION FOR MORE DETAILS |
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AI Aardvarks Flight Dynamics |
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The AI flight dynamics are the result of months of tweaking
and testing, and are made to allow the maximum number of
aircraft movements per hour. That said, for the most
part, most of our FDE's are modified versions of the default
737-400. It doesn't matter to us if a 727 uses the
FDE of a 737, just as long as it appears to operate correctly
in FS.
In an effort to get arriving aircraft clear of the runway
as quickly as possible, in order to reduce go-arounds, AIA
aircraft will touch down pretty firmly very near the runway
thresh hold. This behavior can be easily adjusted
in the aircraft's .cfg file if you would rather have your
aircraft "float" down the runway a bit before touching down.
VISIT THE AARDVARK FDE SECTION FOR MORE DETAILS |
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