UltimateTraffic - Almost Too Good To Be True - Almost :)

[Guest AV8RFOOL]

Mike,We do have some RAFCADs included in the release. The problem is having correct gate data in order to complete more airports. If you know of a data source, instead of actually physically being at the airport, I am all ears. ;-) People will be able to add their own and share with others once it is released.Jeff SmithFlight One Software

[Guest AV8RFOOL]

Oyvind,The skies are more crowded then you might think. You'd be surprised with how many more flights there are in the skies with this addon. The one item that is key is the accuracy of our data, and the other airport support for the data. We have AFCADed ALL the airports to handle the data set. The data becomes useless if you don't have the aircraft spots to handle the data itself. As far as Heathrow and what airlines are supported, take a look at the data list below. There are 80+ additional airlines besides BA and BMI.AmericanAir CanadaAir FranceAir AlgerieAir IndiaRoyal Air MarocFinnairAlitaliaBritish AirwaysBMIFlyBeBirman BangladeshRoyal BruneiEvaBWIA West IndiesAir ChinaCathay PacificCyprusAir LingusEmiratesEtheopianIceland AirGulf AirGhana AirwaysGb AirwaysUzbekistan AirwaysIberiaIranYemen AirwaysJapanAir JamaicaJATBritish MediterraneanKLMAir MaltaKenyaKuwaitLuxairLufthansaLibyanLotEl AlMalevMiddle EastMalaysiaAir MaurietusEgyptairAll NipponAir New ZealandOlympicCzechAustrianCroatiaPakistanQantasQatarSyrianVarigRoyal JordanianTaromSouth AfricanSudanSASBrusselsSingaporeAeroflotSaudi ArabianAir NambiaAviaThaiTurkishVirgin ExpressUnitedSrilankenTransaeroVirgin AtlanticKLM CityhopperKLM ExcelKibris TurkishWhew! ;-)Also, you can replace, add, remove any aircraft you want with our intuitive interface.Jeff SmithFlight One Software

[Guest cloudtops]

>Another question rises:>with UT the air must (may) be crowded with planes: in the nine>sectors around you there may be a lot and I assume, you must>in that case carefully fly at destined levels to avoid>collisions?Willem,Unfortunately, there is nothing special about the airspace to which ATC clears you on departure, cruise climb, descent, approach, and landing, even flying an IFR flight plan in FS2002. AI aircraft feel more than welcome to barge right on into your ATC-cleared flight path, eat all the sausages, drink all the beer, and pass you on final approach with your sister tied up in the galley. Granted, ATC will throw you an obligatory bone when an aircraft is traveling within a four mile radius of you when flying VFR with flight following. Let's see, with oncoming traffic meeting you in 2 nm at 250 Kts ground speed each you have approximately 30 seconds before potentially colliding (by which time the FS2002 controller has barely spit out who's in danger from which direction, much less what to do). Flying is a dangerous business in the real world, but FS2002 would make a virtual aviation insurance business drop their policies and run screaming to deep caves with the way AI aircraft behave.Sorry about the rant, as you were probably talking about selecting the altitude at which you choose to cruise. The AI traffic all fly using great circle routes and cruise at the altitude specified in their respective flight plans, so with a few exceptions you'll find eastbound VFR AI planes flying at an odd-numbered thousands of feet plus 500 feet, like in RW aviation in the US. The same goes with the other altitude designations with a few exceptions (VFR flights above 18,000 feet in FS2002 but not RW). You'll want to follow the standard US altitude conventions modeled in FS when selecting an altitude at which to cruise (either with a flight plan or without) if you're really concerned about safety in busy skies.The answer to your question somewhat depends on the non-stock flight plans you've added pre-Ultimate Traffic. No doubt, UT will make almost any simmers skies a fair bit busier. I haven't seen their flight plans, but I'm guessing that most of this added traffic will be cruising above 18,000 feet, however. That means your GA hops and sight-seeing tours away from major airports won't see much or any difference in traffic volume with the exception of the radios on an IFR flight. Getting up into the flight levels, though, will mean a good deal more traffic, I would think.You have three aces in your hip pocket:1) AI planes fly great circle routes, meaning that if you stick to the low alt airways and high alt airways, you'll likely not be traveling neck in neck with or head on with other planes on the same heading as they'll usually be somewhat crossing your route. Flying direct GPS flight plans (great circle routes) could get a tad hairy when encountering planes with the same destination/departure airports as yours, but this is offset by ace #3.2) You have control over the AI slider. If you find you aren't comfortable with the amount of traffic in the skies or find it to be chaotic to the point that you're ducking every 45 seconds, click and drag your AI density slider to the left.3) Look, look, look. One of the first things you'll notice about a real world pilot from observing him (please infer him/her) in the air is how much his head moves. He scans your instruments strategically, he monitors his engine gauges with a raised eyebrow, and he looks out the window to save lives. You use your yoke/joystick's hat button to clear your turns. You scan the skies for traffic. You learn on which sides the green and red lights on other aircraft reside and what it means to your flight path. You learn to judge another aircraft's path and speed by its relative motion to your own. Look, look, look. This applies more to VFR low and slow flight than ATC-guided IFR flight, but I have a hard time relaxing at FL390 with a few seconds between me and potential death. Maybe the RW iron fliers can chime in here with their scan procedures at altitude. In fact, that might make a decent thread of its own.Long-winded regards,Kevin

[Guest oyvindhansen]

Jeff, not to argue with you, but looking at your list I estimate I have about 75% of those airlines already, which should surely be a lot more than 75% of the flights as the ones I lack are smaller ones like Kibris Turkish which are exciting to spot, but really don't crowd the London sky. But hey, I'm not the average simmer when it comes to AI traffic.I'm not saying that I wont buy your product, it looks exciting and groundbreaking, but my reasons for buying it would be to experience unknown carriers in unknown parts of the world, not to crowd the skies, which I feel are already crowded enough.Oh, and will you adjust your traffic so that the stupid ATC doesn't have to handle 5 aircraft trying to land at the same time?- Oyvind

[Guest]

Thanks again Kevin for your extensive answer. Well: it makes flying much more interesting. I must confess that, when flying (pretty) long distances, I used to read a book or looked at the forums and occasionally also looked every 10 minutes or so if the plane was ok, which was allways the case. Those times will be over now (or I must play ace 2).Regards,Willem

[Guest hermes]

for most of AI plane you can use Airedit and set aircraft type=2 then showing no more in FS aircraft menu and probably fasten loading.

[Guest Pardue802]

Wow that is insane. I read on the Simforums that the installer for the program (not including the aircraft) was at 35MB. They didn't go into detail on how much the aircraft to add on were.Ken

[Guest Pardue802]

EDIT:Sorry, didn't mean to double post.Ken

[Guest H_Kev55]

I gotta speak out on this one...LOLUgly PAI models...well...when you buy UT, you will see that they have taken PAI models and installed their own textures.I actually get better frame rates using UT than with all my PAI files.The textures are really good. I know most of the people that worked on them and I will say they are some of the best talent this hobby has to offer.Plus, PAI has never said that PAI models are any better than anyone elses. PAI is simply what everyone is trying to copy.Unless your a beta tester of UT, which I am, how can you possibly state that anything detracts from a product that has yet to be released?Not to mention that UT has a lot more to it than just all the airlines.It has an automated updating system.I has visual and audio treats where you can see the flight path, take a look at the traffic board at any specific airport. You can hear boarding and arrival calls too.Due out May 9th, this program really is the Ultimate.KJhttp://ftp.avsim.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboa...8a521552cbb.jpg

[Guest H_Kev55]

As with ProjectAI, Ultimate Traffic will be fully FS9 compatible.KJ

[Guest]

Given it's size - wilit be available as a download or only in CDs?

[Guest Ian Ritchie]

Both.

[Guest jase439]

UT (at least in the beta) has the option to not display AI craft in the aircraft menu. This should help with this particular problem.

[Guest jase439]

Just to clarify, there are 927 unique timetables for all the airline operators. Alas, there are not textures for all 927 operators and all their aircraft (that would amount to literally thousands of unique liveries), but they exist for nearly all of the major (and even mid-sized) carriers. Those that do not have a unique livery, are textured using a generic blue/white paint scheme. Of course, with Text-O-Matic, it's easy enough to create your own. That said, I have yet to find any favorite airline of mine that is without a texture in UT.

[Guest Pardue802]

Both, and they'll both be released on the same day, as a result. So that those who order the CD won't lose too much over those that download the thing. I've heard it described that it won't be too bad if you're on DSL or Cable to download it, but if you're on 56k then it's "an overnight thing". Personally, even though I'm on cable, I think I'll purchase the thing. I feel much better knowing that software exists on a CD rom as opposed to sitting somewhere on my computer waiting to crash or on an unreliable CDR.Ken