The Most Important Add-On - November 2008

[allardjd 1,853]

This isn’t a product review, and though I do have a favorite in this genre, it’s from lack of having tried the others, so this isn’t really a testimonial either. I believe all the various offerings of this type do pretty much the same thing, differing only in the minutia. At any rate, in casting about for a topic for this kick-off column I hit upon the idea of writing about the one add-on product that has done more to improve my flight simulation experience than any other.

 

For me, it’s traffic. There are other things too that I wouldn’t want to give up without a fight – they’re also important to me. None the less, this one is right at the top of the list.

 

In FS9 I soon chafed at the deplorable state of the default sim traffic. There was really only one problem with it – everything about it. The few airline names provided, all fictional of course, soon wore thin. The aircraft types too were very limited and seemed to be biased toward certain AC types. There just can’t possibly be as many Caravan amphibs in the entire world as I would encounter during a typical flight. I won’t even mention the helicopters – don’t get me started on that. I don’t want to seem ungrateful. Microsoft has done amazing things with FS since the day they bought it from Sublogic. They’ve spoiled me perhaps, and made me intolerant of that which falls short of excellent.

 

I somehow stumbled on Just Flight’s Traffic 2005 several years ago and bought it. I still use it and have added three of the four “Plus Pak” add-ons to the original add-on. All of that still amounted to only a modest investment and it is not an understatement to say it has transformed my flight sim world.

 

There are literally hundreds of AC types and thousands of liveries included. They are encountered in the air and at the airports and are more or less regionally accurate. You don’t see many Air Bahamas commuters when flying in Idaho. Two of the Plus Paks are military and now military fields are no longer bleak and empty – they have become, in fact, some of the most interesting places to visit. With the slider full up, the amount of traffic approaches or even exceeds real world density.

 

Several hundred flight plan files are in the mix, with each line in each file representing a flight from-to a pair of airports – and they repeat at scheduled intervals. The flight plan files are pure text and are easily edited to add, change or delete AI (artificial intelligence) flights to your heart’s content, and it’s dead-easy.

 

Tools are included too that permit adding other AC to the AI roster so that you may see your favorite types flying wherever you choose to put them, be they freeware or payware. I’ve created a flight plan file for myself that adds traffic at Ocala, including various versions of well over a dozen types, some of which are my re-painted AC in Boxwings Air Freight livery. Some discretion is needed in this, however, as AC models not specifically designed as AI are typically more detailed and can cause a big frame rate hit if your cockpit view is down a line of parked airliners at a terminal. Sometimes the graphics card has to work pretty hard to display all of that.

 

If you’d just like to watch, you can place yourself in one of several sizes of control towers. To Flight Sim, they are actually just non-flying aircraft but to you they become a vantage point for watching airport traffic. They can be positioned anywhere you like in Slew mode and have some nice tools for watching all that virtual traffic come and go. Another non-flying entity is a Follow-Me van, just the thing for exploring airports and seeing what’s parked here and there.

 

In flight there’s a traffic map pop-up that let’s you see what is nearby and a Traffic Explorer, a pull-down tabular list of all the AI aircraft that the traffic program is monitoring at the moment, typically any within several hundred miles of your current location. I’ve seen as many as 650 entries on the list, though many are “sleeping”, just providing eye candy on a ramp somewhere if you choose to go there, but patiently waiting for the scheduled time of their next flight. At that point, they will turn on their lights, push back, start up and fly to wherever they should.

 

Obviously nothing is perfect. In the provided flight plans are many Touch & Go flights. If you want the traffic at a busy FS airport to be tied in knots, add a few T&Gs there to a flight plan and let them have at it. In no time at all the place will be gridlocked. The take-off queue will be a half-mile long and three of every four landing aircraft will have to go around. That’s easily fixed, however. As I discover them, I edit the flight plan files to have them fly to another destination rather than landing again where they departed from – problem solved, at least for that airport.

 

I’ve discovered a great way to use Flight Sim when I’m just not in the mood to fly myself, too. I start the sim just about anywhere and pull down the Traffic Explorer. By selecting something interesting from the list and double clicking it, I’m immediately put in spot plane view behind him and can watch him as the flight progresses, moving around with the hat switch and watching him and the scenery right through landing, taxiing and parking. It is, I guess, the Flight Sim equivalent of playing solitaire. It’s a great way to enjoy the sim when you just aren’t up to planning a flight and really getting into it.

 

For the FSX users, Just Flight has recently released the download version of Traffic X, the much anticipated FSX version of their earlier traffic programs, but with many enhancements. I was fortunate to have been chosen as a beta tester for that product and though I’m not a frequent FSX user, I was very impressed with it. The boxed version should be out by the time this piece is published.

 

So, for me, AI traffic is the add-on that really floats my boat. I can’t imagine FS without it. If you haven’t gotten your feet wet with a traffic program yet, consider giving it a whirl. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

 

JDA

[hurricanemk1c 195]

Great post there John, and am looking forward to the March issue

[mutley 4,498]

Great article John :dance2:

I used to have the same gripes about traffic.

Traffic explorer is one of my favourite pastimes too, it certainly helped when I made the traffic X video for JF!

Link viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2459

Cheers

[ddavid 149]

Ah - so that's what traffic is!

Thanks for an excellent overview - and your personal slant. :dance2:

Cheers - Dai.

[rob16584 42]

Excellent topic, but for Traffic X (as I said n my article) I think that at some airports it is too[/] realistic. The queues are massive and this wouldn't happen in the real world on a regular basis, but this all boils down to the inept ATC that MS employs. It would be great to have a default ATC that was able to keep the traffic flowing smoothly into and out of airports and to direct aircraft into holds. AI Smooth helps when in the air, but on the ground it can be a nightmare

[allardjd 1,853]

Rob,

Thanks for the comment. I've found four things help (but are not silver bullets) with long take-off queues.

1) If there are touch and goes at the airport, I delete them immediately with the traffic browser, but I also make a note of it and later go into the flight plan files and put a different ICAO in the "To" field. That makes conventional traffic of them. They take off as scheduled, but don't stay in the pattern to foul things up.

2) Radar Contact seems to handle the takeoff queue (but not the ground traffic getting to and from the runway) better than the native MS ATC. I think primarily this is because it makes a little better and more agressive use of "Position and Hold" for the next AC in line to take off.

3) AISmooth does help, though it's not always easily seen. It gives some of the approaching AI a 360 degree delaying turn if it detects that two AC are heading for the same runway. I've found from following inbound AI traffic in spot view mode that this sometimes happens surprisingly far from the airport, so I'm sure it must be helping, even though you may not see it happening from the airport.

4) If you're stuck in the takeoff queue and can ID any of the AC that are ahead of you in line, pull down the traffic browser and find him. Right click and Delete - he's a puff of smoke and everyone behind can move up one position. It only affects that session and he is not permanently deleted from the flight plan files, so there's no lasting harm done. If nothing else, it gives you something to occupy yourself with while you're waiting.

John

[rob16584 42]

Thanks John, i'll try those out