Pro ATC/X or Radar Contact or ? Advice please?

[Dean33 29]

Hi

 

I've been considering Pro ATC/X which apparently has just been updated.  I use Prepar3d mainly General Aviation VFR and IMC but sometimes tubeliners.  Opus FSI Weather.

 

Most reviews seem outdated so I would be grateful for some guidance from current users.

 

I'm not interested in voice recognition or Vatsim or Pilotedge (yet) because most of my flying is tolerated in the living room!

 

Look forward to any comments.

 

Thanks.

 

Dean

 

 

 

 

 

[jaydor 345]

Hello Dean and welcome to our first contact in the forum..
 
Have a look at this linc:

You will find it very interesting, I did and I am thinking about it..  Cost is about £39.00
 
Also is a linc to our own Mutley's review of VOX ATC in the hangar reviews page:

http://www.mutleyshangar.com/reviews/jack/vatc/vatc.htm

[brett 2,284]

Where did you see it for that price James, seems a bit low from what I have seen.

[jaydor 345]

Where did you see it for that price James, seems a bit low from what I have seen.

From here Brett:

http://www.pointsoftware.de/proatcx_e/order.html

[brett 2,284]

Thanks James. Anyone using it and liking it? I like it's limited VFR coverage and the recordings sound pretty good for computer speak.

[Dean33 29]

Well - not many satisfied users here then!

I've just seen a long running thread on Avsim - that's not too complimentary.

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/422967-pro-atc-or-radar-contact/page-14#entry3112733

Cheers

[stu7708 244]

I was considering Pro ATC/X earlier in the year, but at that point their forum was down, they were in the process of re-developing the whole program and the info found on other sites were far from good. 

 

So I opted for VoxATC instead and found that rather good, once I got over the awkward feeling of speaking to my computer. The only downside is that it uses the awful Text-to-speech function in windows so the voices are far from natural.

 

Radar Contact does a fairly good job too if you fly IFR, but it doesn't support VFR at all. The upside of that program is that it uses actual recordings for Voice, like Pro ATC/X, so the controllers sounds human.. Well, all but one that sounds like Stephen Hawkins with a bad cold  

[Dean33 29]

Thanks for that.

I discovered Vox Atc has a 7 day trial and a copilot mode where you don't have to speak - but that's another voice!

Pretty impressed so far. Ground handling is great with illuminating green taxi lights to show your taxiways. Vectors to finals handled well so far.

I found you can buy professional voices elsewhere but not cheap.

Will report back after 7 day trial.

[patrico 8]

Hi Dean, would be very interested to know how you get on, as the default ATC on FSX is  driving me nuts and I do  need button operated ATC due to my speech impairment. Also can anyone give me the UK Distributor details for VOLTAIR sim rigs. Maybe Jessica B P would know as she is a big fan

[needles 1,010]

Hi Patrick,

The site you are looking for is actually Volair and you can find them at :

http://www.volairsim.com/Home.php

Jess has one and she loves it.

All the best.

[patrico 8]

Thank you Brian yes I do know Jess loves it and I do know that web site, which is  American based, what I am looking for is the UK Distributor  if their is one, I may just write to Jessica 

[brett 2,284]

It doesn't sound like they have overseas distributors. This from their FAQ page;

 

Q: Which locations do you ship to?
A: We currently ship to United States (including AK, and HI), Canada, Mexico, most of EU, Australia, Brazil, and UAE. For other international shipments, contact us and provide complete mailing address for a quote. Please note that the cost of the international shipment is driven by the size and weight of the box. We are happy to offer our reduced UPS shipping rates to the customers at check-out.

[stu7708 244]

Thanks for that.

I discovered Vox Atc has a 7 day trial and a copilot mode where you don't have to speak - but that's another voice!

Pretty impressed so far. Ground handling is great with illuminating green taxi lights to show your taxiways. Vectors to finals handled well so far.

I found you can buy professional voices elsewhere but not cheap.

Will report back after 7 day trial.

I suspect you will be stuck way before 7 days

Yeah, those pro voices are way to expensive.

Did you see the free VoxPop voices though? Not stellar quality, but they provide some variation..

If not you can find the here..

http://voxatc.com/Voice.aspx/VoxPop

[Frog on Toast 6]

Little bit of Threadomancy here, but I have the latest version of Pro ATCX, Version 1.4.4.2, bought just a couple of weeks ago,and frankly, I wish I hadn't! The flight planning system is great, but after that is where the problems start. It seems to me that ATC is "Throw a 6 to start" I have to stop and restart ProATCX multiple times before I can actually even contact clearance. Once I do manage to get clearance everything seems to work fine, handoffs to different controllers, right up until I contact approach. Get vectored for final, told to contact tower and.... nothing. I've checked and rechecked that the frequencies I'm using are correct but nothing seems to wake that damn tower controller up. 

 

Voices are limited and often don't seem to change with controller so you feel as if you're talking to the same person who just handed you off. 

The chatter is good, but repetitive However it is possible to add more chatter and even select which chatter files play in which regions, so US for the US, Australian voices for Australia (And new zealand cos the rest of us cant tell the difference anyway!) 

 

Of course, all this could be because I've done something wrong, but it seems that no matter which aircraft I fly, and which airport I'm sitting at, I can't get the program to run reliably, which is a shame, because it has the potential to be a GREAT ATC program. For now though, i'll be going back to RCv4 and Plan G if I can remember how to use em! 

[allardjd 1,853]

If you haven't already, you might try a different arrival airport to see if the tower problem is airport-specific and not a problem with your ATC software. I'd also suggest trying a default FSX airport to be sure add-on scenery is not a contributing factor.

 

I've never used anything else but am partial to Radar Contact. It's old but works pretty well and is reliable. It has good features and is reasonably realistic - not perfect but pretty good. It's certainly much, much better than stock MS ATC.

 

John

[Dean33 29]

I asked the original question back on this thread several months ago. I purchased Rader Contact I can honestly say I think it's great and totally suitable for my purposes.

It's not perfect and sometimes needs a little bit of working around but it really does work and do the job properly.

Dean

[Frog on Toast 6]

Comparing the two programs, right now, I prefer RC4, BUT I do think pro ATCX has the potential to be a great program, It's just not there yet.

 

 

John, Good point, I can;t be sure whether I have actually tried it with all stock FSX airports and aircraft! I am however, sure that the arrival airport doesn't seem to matter whether it's stock or not. I'll give that a proper try this weekend. I think I may have to bite the bullet and register at the ProATCX forums to ask some questions, because if I can get the program running reliably then I think it may even edge out RC4.  

[Frog on Toast 6]

As John suggested I've done a couple of test flights using default aircraft and airfields, and I've found that I fired up the outrage bus too soon! ProATCX works perfectly with those so I will have to rescind my earlier comments. I think personally though I'll be sticking to RC4 for a while. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT

 

 

 

I've done a few more tests, and I think I've done a huge disservice to Pro ATC X. All I needed to do was change a simple setting in windows and it seems to be working perfectly with any combination of stock/addon aircraft and airfields. Like RC4 it DOES require you to have power to your radios, so if you're flying something like the JF BAe 146 then you'll have to have your engines running to get clearance. 

Also it DOES talk to AI and control them, as well as playing the chatter files (some of them are the same as in RC4 too) 

You will get some strange instructions but then, you do with RC4 too so that isn't a gamebreaker. 

I'm not a review writer, I wouldn't know how to go about it however, for the next few weeks at least, ProATC X is going to be my ATC of choice. Overall I'd say it's a good product, and still being developed. If someoen asked me now which to choose I'd say Pro ATC.

 

RC does have more voices, however there is a way to record your own voices for Pro, I might even do it myself, does anything think ATC might get upset if I acknowledge them by saying "oooarrrr roger " haha.

 

For anyone that wants the setting to change, for Win7 it's  Control Panel>Hardware and sound>sound>[select your sound device]>properties>Advanced Tab and UNCHECK the box that allows programs to tsake exclusive control of the device. 

[hlminx 301]

Hello Dean and welcome to our first contact in the forum..

Have a look at this linc:

You will find it very interesting, I did and I am thinking about it.. Cost is about £39.00

Im not convinced by Pro ATC yet, but that did make me want to get the PMDG777... wow, that is a seriously nice piece of kit beautifully recorded. I can just imagine those engines spooling up through the surround sound as I type...