Live ATC Auto Play

[IZ0JUB 162]

Hi everyone,

This is a very interesting find of a little known ATC add-on, the author is Frederic and a sim enthusiast. 

The software is called Live ATC Auto PLay, L.A.A.P. and the English part of the web site can be found at this link,http://laap.atc.free.fr/accueil-en.html it is DonateWare licensed.

You will need a registered working FSUIPC installed and VLC this is freeware before you download and operate L.A.A.P. 

Once installed it is very simple to use, you just dial up the correct frequency on your radio in COM1 and the live ATC feed starts. If you do not want to connect to the internet you can download files and save these into the software too. The feeds are courtesy of http://www.liveatc.net/

Frederic has been extremely helpful and has answered my emails within a few hours.

So please take a look at his web site he deserves our support.

Good flying.

Cheers, Michael.

[jaydor 345]

Thank you for the linc Michael.. 

[allardjd 1,853]

That sounds very similar to Live ATC Chatter by Cielosim, which is payware. I snagged a copy of that at a deep discount when PC Aviator was running their FS Deal of the Day sales. What you've linked looks very similar and, being freeware, is a better deal.

 

John

[brett 2,282]

Live chatter would be nice, my biggest question is can the normal FSX ATC be heard through it. Wouldn't want a Boeing to be bearing down on me without knowing it.   

[allardjd 1,853]

If it's like the Ceilosim one, yes, both stock FSX ATC and Radar Contact ATC come through just fine. It's been a long time since I used it but I don't remember any problems.

 

John

[Frederic 0]

Hi,

 

I'm Frederic, the author of this little soft presented by Michael.

 

First thanks to Michael for his post and for his patience to make Laap working as he expected.

Second, sorry for my English, it's not my native language and I do my best to be understood ...

 

Some information about your questions :

 

- Laap doesn't modify FsX / P3D traffic or ATC. So you'll continue to hear the FsX controller and can fly a flightplan with the standard ATC without any change. It's not related with AI traffic or FsX ATC.

 

- Laap just plays a streaming or MP3 file with some conditions :

  * If the frequency set on Com1 is recognized by FsX as a known ATC frequency (TWR, APP, CLR ...)

  * If you are in range of the corresponding station

  * If your avionics are powered

 

- So, my soft just plays a sound in VLC regarding the frequency you set in FsX.

 

It's very similar with what Cielosim does (I based my code on these functionality) with some differences. My problem with Live Atc Chatter was the configuration to complete in order to associate a frequency and a sound file. Laap is only based on the sound file name and all associations with frequencies are automated. You just have to put a file called for example KJFK_APP.MP3 and this file will be automatically associated with all FsX approach frequencies of JFK. That's all. No configuration to make, very easy.

 

Please keep in mind I'm not (really not !) a professional developer, just an enthusiast who has first coded this software for its own use. So, despite my work, it's possible it won't work as well as a commercial software ... But I'll do my best to improve it.

 

I'm actually working on the next version of Laap. My biggest problem is that very often, the stream played in VLC and the ATC plays together. If you ask for clearance in JFK, it's possible you hear FsX controller and the real one speaking at the same time. It can make transmissions very confused in big airports, or if your traffic is set to dense in FsX. I don't know at this time if I'll be able to stop VLC sound when FsX controller is speaking, I'm working on it.

 

If you have any question, please don't hesitate to contact me or post them.

 

Thanks to Michael one more time,

 

Best regards,

 

Frederic

[britfrog 180]

Welcome to the madhouse Frederic,

I have already copied loads of files from liveatc.net  and put them in my Aerosoft airbus files, the Bordeaux atc and the Irish atc is very good however I can only hear them when I am flying the airbus.

the problem with live atc is that they are not allowed to use any UK english transmissions as this is illegal, i mentioned this in a posting that i made some months ago, something to do with the 1492 post office act so that we could not hear that colombus had found the americas

So it will be interesting to see how Frederic gets on I will certainly give it a try if it works with other a/c I understand his problem of conflict with the FSX ATC for me this is not a problem as I do not use the fsx atc so keep that turned off.

[allardjd 1,853]

Reading the above, this new freeware offering sounds like an improvement over the Cielosim Live ATC Chatter in at least two respects...

 

1) As he infers, the setup for the Cielosim version takes some doing. If his is simpler, it's better. You have to associate various ATC streams with a locked-in set of frequencies, I think on COM2. It doesn't use the RW frequencies, but a set the program has set aside.

 

2) He says that the new one autodetects frequency setting and understands the range from the station, so it you're in range and have the correct ACT frequency set you'll get the Live ATC stream, i.e. the audio that SHOULD BE on that frequency. That's huge.

 

I may have to give this a try.

 

John

[brett 2,282]

Hi Frederic, thanks for clearing that up and good luck with improving your addon.

 

And thanks for helping the community with your time.

[Frederic 0]

Hello again,

 

Another short information about what I think to have understood above ... I doesn't provide any ATC sound or stream with my software (just some french streams to test at Bordeaux airport for example), its purpose is just to play a pls or mp3 file of your choice according to FS com frequency. So you'll have to manually add your own sounds, which can be found on liveatc.net or anywhere else or other files recorded by yourself. Laap doesn't find automatically worldwide streams on the net ... unfortunately !

 

The automatic part is only the association of frequencies and files (association made on the syntax of the filename only), I'm using a file called f5.csv created with the freeware MakeRunways from Peter Dawson. This file contains a list of all frequencies used by FsX, their type and the oaci they are from. So, when you place a file called LFBD_APP.MP3 in Laap folder, the software will search in f5.csv for LFBD frequencies and will find 118.6 is the approach freq. So your file will be played when 118.6 will be set on FS COM1 (in a 80NM radius of LFBD).

 

Laap is not aircraft dependent, it will work on any aircraft which uses standard fsuipc offsets for Com1 and Com2 frequencies. The offset used to check if radios are powered or not is configurable for some cockpit builders as me who doesn't use standard offsets for avionics bus. So it's possible to tell laap if radios are powered in a sioc code for example. Transmission range and some other things can be changed inside an ini file.

 

I think the problem of two controllers speaking at the same time won't be solved as FsX and P3D doesn't have any offset yet assigned to ATC transmission. So it's not possible at this time to know when the FsX ATC is speaking. The best I can do to limit these simultaneous transmissions is to let user choose if Laap have to monitor Com1 or Com2. This has been just implemented and ready for next version 1.2. So you can have a quiet clearance delivery, taxiing and takeoff clearance with FsX ATC on Com1 (while com2 is quiet) and then after takeoff set your com2 to play an approach stream for example.

 

Hope this will help to have a better comprehension of what laap is and how it works. If you want to see a little video presenting Laap, it's here :

http://laap.atc.free.fr/video-en.html ... Sorry, comments are in French but subtitles available in English ...

 

Thanks for your posts, this forum really looks very friendly 

 

Best regards,

 

Frederic

[britfrog 180]

I have been watching freds video on his site , luckily I speak french,  this program he has created fills a hole , because the stock fsx atc is pretty grim. You can of course go onto live atc look for the airport or region where you are flying from or in and let the ATC play in the background as you fly around, which works well.

I in my aerosoft airbus have taken it a step further in as much I have used some recordings  (including Bordeaux) and then clipped them, the problem with some atc iis the huge gaps odf silence between transmissions, I have edited them out so that the controller is quite busy all the time. with LAAP it is much easier and frequency selective so that when you first fly in a region you have to download and setup the various frequencies but you only have to do it once, then whenever you are there again you set the frequency and you hear the atc. the only downside is the huge gaps of silence , but that is how it is in reality.

the downside of LAAP as I see it, is not a fault of LAAP but the site where he gets his atc  Not every airport or region  in the world  is covered , eg the UK because it is illegal to monitor and record radio transmissions, I have overcome this by using the Dublin  transmissions, well they nearly speak english,  but as most of my flying is done in France and Spain I get great coverage. The US is also well covered luckily for them they can set up a whole host of atc's and pretend they are their destination just by setting them to the radio frequency required.

I will give this a go and report back to you, it seems quite good.