Cylinder Path Area bug?

[jamcd787]

Hi,
I am developing training scenarios in P3D v3.3. I have created a "Cylinder Path Area" which is to be used in conjunction with "Proximity Trigger" to detect aircraft entry and exit from a cylindrical area (a vertical cylinder with a radius on the ground and in the air). The cylinder renders perfectly in the mission, but the proximity entries and exits happen in the wrong places... Rectangle Areas work great. Is this a known bug?

thanks,
jim

[Michael Semeniuk]

Hey Jim,
I have tested several scenarios using the "Cylinder Path Area" including vertical and horizontal cylinder paths. I mostly used attached world objects as the joints to get exact positioning. I have tested the enter and exit events and did not notice any unnatural behavior. The events only fire when the ORIGIN of the object passes the boundary and not when a part of the model passes which could explain why it seems like it's happening at the wrong time. You could place attached objects to the vehicle and detect if any of the points exit or enter if you need better accuracy. If this isn't your issue, then can you explain what aspects of the proximity are not working right as well as more details on how to set up the scenario?

Thanks,
Michael

[jamcd787]

Michael,

Thanks very much for your detailed reply. I am still learning SimDirector, so I need to think about your explanation carefully.

Here's what I did (I think) - I created a cylinder that stands vertically from the ground, exactly the dimensions of a class Delta airspace, so 2600' tall, and 4 miles in radius from the origin of an airport tower. Then I created a trigger for the aircraft (userownship) entering and exiting that cylinder - to create a training mission for learning about controlled airspace. With a visible wire frame, the cylinder appears in the correct place, but the trigger seems off by literally miles. I'm assuming the userownship is small and any point in or outside is close enough. Perhaps you could send me some XML code for a vertical cylinder you made (and trigger) and I can compare it? I am an experienced software developer and reading/writing XML is ok for me.
Thanks!!

[Raynald1]

I experienced the same challenge as Jim.
It triggers almost instantly if I create a very small scenario but when I put the same group in a larger scenario, the aircraft triggers the cylindrical area 10-12 seconds after going through the boundary.

I am using 3.4 pro.

Ray

[jamcd787]

Ray, (and Michael) thanks for your comments. I'm not sure we're seeing the same problem. I am not seeing a delay, but rather a major spatial error. The cylinder I created is a vertical cylinder, exactly like the bounds of a delta airspace, with a radius of 4nm and a height of 2000' (for example below). The radius is 7408 meters and 2000 ft long cylinder. It renders correctly in SimDirector and in P3D when flying. The trigger does trigger at exactly the 2000 ft altitude, but the radius seems to be more like 7400 FEET. I used the DME centered on the field to measure. I can fly all day in and out of the area and triggers work perfectly, but in the wrong radius. This has got to be a bug in P3D. I'm guessing that most developers use cylinders to be long and skinny and ft vs meters bug never showed up? Michael, please let me know. I can send you the .fxml and .xml if it helps. Thanks.

I am using Pro 3.4.9.18400

<SimMission.CylinderPathArea InstanceId="{40544D53-5738-4E14-A7CA-3B7DE2836578}">
<Descr>KOAK charlie surface</Descr>
<RenderInMission>True</RenderInMission>
<RGBColor>255.000000,0.000000,255.000000,255.000000</RGBColor>
<CylinderPosition>
<AreaRadius>7408.000000</AreaRadius>
<AttachedWorldPosition>
<WorldPosition>N37° 43' 35.602582",W122° 12' 52.026310",+000000.00</WorldPosition>
<AltitudeIsAGL>True</AltitudeIsAGL>
</AttachedWorldPosition>
</CylinderPosition>
<CylinderPosition>
<AreaRadius>7408.000000</AreaRadius>
<AttachedWorldPosition>
<WorldPosition>N37° 43' 35.616000",W122° 12' 52.020000",+002000.00</WorldPosition>
<AltitudeIsAGL>True</AltitudeIsAGL>
</AttachedWorldPosition>
</CylinderPosition>
</SimMission.CylinderPathArea>

[Darren Goldfarb]

Hey All,

We believe we have identified and fixed the issue that was causing certain Cylinder Path Areas to fail to trigger within the full boundary of the cylinder. This fix will be in the upcoming v3.4 hotfix 2. The Cylinder Path Area posted by Jim was specifically used in testing. Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.

Regards,

Darren

[jamcd787]

Confirmed! v3.4 hotfix 2 fixes this issue. Thanks for the continuing great work!