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What's the advantage of traffic software...?

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- Will it give me more traffic at the cost of fps?- Will it give me more traffic without any loss of fps?- Will it give me the same amount of traffic but a gain in fps?- Will it give me more traffic AND a gain in fps?Right now I've got traffic (airliners and GA) at 25%. What will be the main difference when I install JustFlight's TrafficX and leave the AI-sliders at 25%?

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Hi Jeroen,one of the main advantages of add on traffic software is that the AI models are far more frame rate friendly then the default AI so you have the choice: 1) leave sliders as they are and have same amount of traffic but higher frame rates or,2) increase the sliders and have more AI traffic for the same frame rate.Also you get real world carriers, not Orbit, Pacifica etc., this makes the ATC more immersive.There are other advantages as well depending on which packages you install, for example some have military traffic, some have schedules based on real world flights, it really depends on what you want out of your AI traffic.For your info I have MytrafficX and think its excellent but there are a number of threads discussing the merits of the various traffic programs if you do a search on Avsim.Steve

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Right now I've got traffic (airliners and GA) at 25%. What will be the main difference when I install JustFlight's TrafficX and leave the AI-sliders at 25%?
You'd probably see a frame-rate improvement and you'd hear real airline names on the default FS ATC calling for clearances etc, as opposed to Soar, Landmark and the other default fictional FS airlines. Aircraft will be specific to the regions in most cases too, i.e. if you go to Paris Orly, there'll be mainly Air France aircraft on the best stands, go to Liverpool John Lennon airport and it will be mostly EasyJet that you will see and hear. The schedules and types will also be more akin to the real world too, so if you see a Czech air CSA Boeing 737, it will be the type of 737 that airline operates, and you'll probably hear him asking for clearance to somewhere like Ruzyne (Prague). Your AI traffic will be a lot more 'customisable' too, with some other utilities to help you get a more realistic feel to your virtual surroundings, i.e if you wanted to fly a BOAC Boeing 707 and imagine it was 1972, you could have types and airlines specific to that period flying around you in DC-8s, 727s, Convairs and Britannias etc.Al

Alan Bradbury

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Okay, so it will give a fps improvement or I will be able to use more traffic without at cost. Nice. Thanks for the information!

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Guest pete1_leeds

in like for like terms you would see a marginal increase in performance depending on your hardware, however most of the packages add a lot more aircraft to the ground and skys so your percentages are not like for like25% - default AI is a lot less aircraft than say 25% on Ultimate Traffic, Traffic X, WOAI etc, but the models are more frame rate friendly than the default, its about getting the balance correct.addon AI add alot more realism to FS than the default as the lines fly real routes at similar times using correct aircraft and correct liveries callsigns etcIMO they are an essential part of simmingIf you are solely looking for fps increase and performance boost you wont get it from addon packages, drop your slider, however accurate AI give you alot more in realism

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Guest ziporama

What I like about traffic add-ons (not all have all abilities):- Removes the "default" airlines in FSX and replaces with real world counterparts- Adds a plethora of non player flyable AI models, usually in different detail levels to help with frame rates, and there are also variations within models (LOD), so you can usually get a high detail variant for high performance computers with its own LOD set, then a lower poly count model for medium machines, and so on...- Adds many real world operators in geographically correct settings, and their various liveries and typical equipment flown on these routes.- Eras, so it's possible to go back in time with period aircraft so your Constellation isn't buzzed by an A320.- Adds unusual routes such as bush, cargo, military and helicopter flights- Has a control panel to configure new flights, control traffic densities, and add/remove types of flight, for example, to add flights to/from a new airport added to the default set.- Can attach to a live feed and duplicate real world flights from live feed (usually needs a subscription)- Adds significant realism and fills empty skies, and airport grounds - as important in my view, with realistic traffic- Can download updates / replace models via update utilityPossible gotchas to look for (experience may vary):- Can easily overwhelm FSX at high density settings because AI is one of the most FPS intensive operations in FSX- Animated jetways, when enabled, will kill the FPS on even the best equipment at large airports if most airport gates are populated with AI aircraft supporting this feature. The jetways all start moving at the same time when the sim loads, or much worse, when a large airport makes it into your detail bubble, causing your flight to become a powerpoint presentation on approach for several minutes. Looks quite nice but fast becomes unusable in many cases. Solution: remove the jetway connect location in aircraft.cfg of AI models so jetways stay put - some add-ons do this already.- Quality of models often vary, not just between add-ons but also within, depending on their age (some may be FS9 carry overs so don't display right, some are truly horrible, if rare).- Some products that have been around for some time have texture problems in FSX even in DX9 mode because they largely pulled FS9 models into the FSX version. Verify the models and textures have been updated, and not necessarily at the expense of removing the offending models from the product. This approach in effect reduces the number of models available, and doesn't fix the problem. Progress has been slow, but some products have done better than others fixing this. This is much less of a problem now because FSX has been around for quite some time, giving time for the fixes to be developed.- Having more AI flights outlines the limitations of the AI engine in FSX, especially separation, also AI cannot use sloped runways if you have such scenery add-ons. This is not the traffic add-on's issue, but it can be very frustrating at times. Solution, use a tool like AISmooth.- Will easily max out the "bubble" around the player aircraft, can slow down moving maps and TCAS ops. If the map runs in the same computer, that could be a significant load and may impact the FPS.- Increases sim load time- Delayed response in some cases for aircraft to populate the skies - that's because it takes a while for the AI to figure out what to do, thus there may be several minutes before you start seeing the traffic come alive on the ground. - In most cases, 25% traffic slider setting with an add-on easily equals 100% traffic setting without the add-on.- Depending on models and livery available, significant disk space can be utilized, between the model files, the textures and the flight plans. This may rival complex scenery add-ons in terms of gigabyte footprints. - Computation of flight plans, initially, can take a while, although it is usually a one time operation unless you make a major change in route options.Hope this helps,Etienne MartinAVSIM Staff Reviewer

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Which avaliable AI addons have already removed the jetway entries from their aircraft.cfg files?


Rick Ryan

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Which avaliable AI addons have already removed the jetway entries from their aircraft.cfg files?
I'm pretty sure World of AI has them gone, as their traffic was initially used in FS2002 and FS2004, so the jetway entries never existed in the first place.

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