Living Scenery Technology V1.12 - Out Now!

---

I'm thrilled to announce that Living Scenery Technology - our highly popular free ground traffic plugin, has been updated to version 1.12! This update includes various fixes as well as some exciting new features for developers! New products, including our upcoming KEVV update, will require the newest version of LST, so be sure to head over to X-Plane.org and pick up the newest copy!

---

There are a few big improvements in this version of LST, including a MINSPACING command for developers, better support for dataref operations used to drive animations, and smoother acceleration/deceleration.

The MINSPACING is exactly what it sounds like; this allows developers to specify a minimum spacing between objects on a route. As an object approaches another object in front of it, it will begin to slow down to match its speed, increasing the rate of deceleration as it approaches. If it gets within the minimum spacing value, it will stop entirely. This allows for nice (or not so nice depending on how you look at it!) traffic jams, and realistic stoplights/signs. The system is very rudimentary; it just looks for other objects on the same route (i.e., if objects from another route are crossing its path, it doesn't care). As such, the system performs reasonably well.

The lack of checking for cross traffic leads into the next point - improved dataref operations. Dataref operations set a dataref to a given value over a given time; that dataref can then be used by animations. LST has long had this capability; however, when multiple dataref operations were triggered for the same dataref, they would fight for priority.

To resolve this, I've added an additional, optional parameter to DREFSET commands, a priority. This behaves like you'd expect - operations with a higher priority replace operations with a lower priority. Lower priority operations do nothing when a higher priority is running. Operations with the same priority replace the current operation.

In practice, this allows for operations such as opening a door at one waypoint and shut it only if another object hasn't triggered it to open. Or, you could use it to set a "flag" that a crosswalk is occupied, to prevent cars from driving through the crosswalk until it is clear.

And that leads us into the final point, acceleration/deceleration. LST has long had conditional stops, but they were sudden. The object hits the waypoint, it freezes until the condition is met, it resumes full speed. Going from 60 mph to 0 instantly doesn't quite look right, does it? So, now objects query whether their next waypoint is a stop. If it is, they start slowing down. Otherwise, they accelerate to/maintain the desired speed. Similarly, objects store their current speed, so when it's time to accelerate to a new speed, or from a stop, they accelerate at a reasonable rate.

To be clear - LST is not and will never be a traffic sim. It is meant to be fast which means shortcuts. If you look closely in the video you'll see some of these (in fact a friend told me he "died laughing when the pickup cut off the white sedan"). But in practice, what this means is traffic flows can be made to look a lot more realistic, and additional animations such as opening doors, opening gates, etc., can be implemented much more easily and reliably. And all of this comes at a very, very minimal fps cost (around 200 microseconds at KEVV). My upcoming KEVV update will make use of many of these features heavily (as shown in the video), so stay tuned for it's release!

Changelog:

---

Fixed:

• Stutter when loading new package

• Object speed is inconsistent for a frame between route legs

• Overlapping objects. When objects overlap exactly, all but one of the overlapping objects will be deleted.

---

Added:

• Optional priority argument for DREFSET commands, for better operation of animated doors and gates

• DREFCYCLE command which cycles a dataref from it’s current value, to the target, back to 0 in the given time. Intended for gates and similar systems

• MINSPACING command for routes that sets a minimum distance

---

Improved:

• Object acceleration and deceleration is now smooth, including for stops