Tom @UT wrote

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Hi Guys,Well we finally got the final word from Microsoft about being out from under the Non-Disclosure Agreement for FS2004. We can speak about anything we see in the Gold version (ie the version you will see in a few weeks) but not about the beta process So here is the real inside scoop..Does Ultimate Traffic work with FS2004?Yes, currently about 85% fully functional. What is the missing 15%? Read on and I will tell you Okay here is completely where we stand. The traffic.bgl file is working beautifully in FS2004. For our testing we have been building the bgl in 2002 and moving it over (we have been waiting to get the final registry entries so we can get this automated) into 2004 and we are experiencing no problems with that.The entire program has been installed directly into 2004 without a problem (you must force the install into 2004, though by changing the default installation path in the installer). Once there, the interface has run fine as well as the updater and the like.Nice new feature we begged for during beta has been added with the Gold. The ability to direct aircraft to specific parking spots via the aircraft.cfg file. What does this mean? Simple you can tell a given aircraft in the .cfg file (take the Delta 767 for instance) that it is supposed to park at DAL (Deltas ICAO Code) gates. If the AFCAD for the airport has DAL gates the plane will go there. It can even be a bit more interesting as you can setup multiple preferences. Take Air France flying into Cincinatti. You can tell the Air France planes to go to Air France gates first, then Delta Gates, then just generic gates. That way in Paris it will park at an Air France gate, it will attempt to park in Air France in Cinci, but if the gate is not there, it will then go to Delta (their partner carrier), then just generic airline gates if no Delta found or open. Final example UPS. Assign it to UPS, then Cargo. That way if no UPS gates are found it will force it to a cargo gate and NOT BE AT THE TERMINAL No more RAFCAD! Very easy to implement forcing aircraft to park at specific gates Lets see, what else...Better spacing of aircraft on final. Not perfect, you will still get a jumble initially, but it smooths out much more quickly. We are looking at some ways to solve this in update as well.Airports now use multiple runways automatically without overlays. This will be a big change in the interface with 2004, the overlays will be gone as FS will use a bunch of runways on its own and there is no need to overlay to get the extra runways open Cool new lighting during taxi and flight. All the AI aircraft show their nav lights even during the day now, when they are flying. Much easier to spot traffic during the day. When the AI taxi at night, they do not turn on the landing lights until cleared onto the runway. They also turn them off as soon as they exit after landing. Very nice! Now aircraft turn on their nav lights 15 minutes prior to contacting clearance. Looks very nice. Kinda feels like a pilot is in there doing the preflight Other stuff as well is nice, but I cant remember everything Okay, whats the bad news Well there is always some bad with the good. As it stands right now, AFCAD files do not work in 2004. We are back to default parking at the airports. Not alot. MS is working very quickly though to get the SDK for parking out as soon as possible. Once we have ouur hands on it, we will be updating the AFCADs to the new 2004 format right away.Thats it on the bad side, though. Thats why I think we are at 85%. From the pace things are moving with the Gold, I think we will be 100% before you get your copies of FS2004. Things are moving that fast!I will try to answer questions about 2004 if you have something specific, but please limit questions about 2004 to this thread only. I will post this thread in both the General Discussion and Tech Support forums.I tried logging on to this site but there forum is not as easy as it is here so I am posting a reply to this here in hopes that he reads this forum as well.Tom,That is some great news! I personally stay away from overlaying and only did it for your program. The great news is that MS worked with you on the aircraft config file which is something that I had emailed them on a request for improvement so that GA will no longer be at the gate and cargo will go to cargo. The fact that you can even be more suspific (never could say or spell that word) is even better news for making it as real as it can get. I find it kind of crazy that the FS team would go thru all the time in creating those a/c lighting effects like how you mentioned but didn

[Howiefly13 30]

Tom,Would you suggest I try to install UT now into the Gold of FS2004, and if so, should I download a newer version of UT?Thanks,Howard