The new features for UT2 just listed :-)

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Thought that those of you who use UT2 might be interested to see the new feature list that will be for the upcoming SP1 update, if you haven't seen it already. After reading this I am really excited that UT2 will finally be the best AI package ever.Here's the list of improvements and fixes as listed by the fellows at UT2.Fixes to the Ultimate Traffic 2 interface implemented in the service pack...1. Repaint page to update when a new repaint is added/removed/changed.2. Timetable shows flights by airport not by city (London - Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted for BA)3. Current contrail length read and displayed on the start of the interface instead of default values.4. Update page tracks current version and date of version to properly notify for updates.5. Traffic density settings changes to reflect new paradigm of Weekly vs daily traffic.6. Statistics page updated to reflect the new weekly vs daily traffic.7. Various other minor fixes and corrections...Additions to Ultimate Traffic 21. Traffic types now defined in two categories, daily or weekly. The generic concept of GA vs commercial traffic no longer applies. All traffic is defnied as being scheduled weekly or daily. This includes addon traffic databases. This change in concept removes the need for multiple types of traffic database handling. All traffic is now handled the same way within the UT2 system.2. Addition of flight plans on longer GA type flights. GA flights under 250nm do not receive plans and are considered direct, but longer routes now include proper routing.3. User created addon schedules will now be in their own database to facilitate sharing them. Easier creation of the database since it shares the same format and does not have to be integrated into and existing database.4. Changes to traffic assignments in the interface... a. Specific equipment codes can be changed and assigned to any given flight. b. Specific traffic density values can be assigned to any given flight. c. Specific repaints can be assigned to equipment on any given flight. d. Flights can be 'turned off' that you may elect to fly the route in place of ai traffic. e. Flights selected to be flown will have their flight plan exported to FSX so it can be loaded into all navigation devices compatible with the default FSX plan format. f. Flight plans are easier to change on specific flights and allow for more global changes to flight plans.5. Additions to the timetables section of the interface... a. Addon schedules can be displayed in the flight view map b. Addon schedules can be displayed in timetables as well as general aviation aircraft c. Addon schedules and GA aircraft can be displayed in the status board.6. Additions to the statistics page of the interface.. a. Stats can now be broken down by specific airlines or general aviation. b. All traffic options taken into account when displaying statistics, not just traffic density.7. The ability to create a list of current repaint assignments has been added.Additions specific to Ultimate Traffic 2 inside of FSX1. Traffic density settings can now be based on a frame rate threshold. The density values will be dynamically adjusted during flight to provide the smoothest experience possible.2. Aircraft injection into the sim can be limited via the interface to keep UT2 from spawning too many AI aircraft for a users system.3. More control given to the user in how UT2 spawns AI traffic, to include... a. Seconds between spawn times for aircraft b. Max altitude user aircraft is at to display aircraft parked on ground. c. Distance used to spawn aircraft on the ground. This will be very helpful for those getting a pause going into large airports. The spawn distance can be set farther away so that FSX will not slow down right when you are getting to final approach.4. Traffic density values can be manually adjusted at any time in FSX in 10% increments.5. All UT2 in game commands can be activated by keyboard shortcuts assigned in the UT2 interface.Changes to the Ultimate Traffic 2 Aircraft Models.The majority of UT2 aircraft models have been updated to increase the frame rate performance of the models. Initial testing has shown increases in frame rates by up to 150% at some airports with a typical increase of 35-40% at the major airports.More information about the user schedules and their creation will be released in the coming days.More info on their forum for registered users.

[chapstick 2,757]

Wow, that's a lot... I may have to get this after all.-Alex

[Tomaz Drnovsek 440]

The majority of UT2 aircraft models have been updated to increase the frame rate performance of the models. Initial testing has shown increases in frame rates by up to 150% at some airports with a typical increase of 35-40% at the major airports.

I hope this is true. Great addon, but hard on frames... so far.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

I hope this is true. Great addon, but hard on frames... so far.

I hope it's true also, although I have found that it is easier on FPS than any other AI package I have used, it was the injection pauses that were killing me.

[duckbilled 310]

The one biggie that I didn't see is the ability to move traffic from one airport to another - VHHH to VHHX...

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

The one biggie that I didn't see is the ability to move traffic from one airport to another - VHHH to VHHX...

In another post, Tom Main the project manager said that the service pack will make it easier to move traffic assignments from one airport to another. Maybe it will be as easy as reassigning all flights from VHHH to VHHX. That would be pretty cool if there was a simple way to do it that didn't take hours to do.

[duckbilled 310]

In another post, Tom Main the project manager said that the service pack will make it easier to move traffic assignments from one airport to another. Maybe it will be as easy as reassigning all flights from VHHH to VHHX. That would be pretty cool if there was a simple way to do it that didn't take hours to do.

You can do it in UT Classic with a couple clicks. I imagine it may be more difficult in UT2 because the flightplans include waypoints.

[McCrash 3]

Seems like they are dedicated in making this package better.

[Guest j0nx]

Hopefully they will mipmap the planes so I don't have to figure out how to redo it again if the service pack overwrites what I have already.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Hopefully they will mipmap the planes so I don't have to figure out how to redo it again if the service pack overwrites what I have already.

LOL. Yeah me too. It's easy to do, but a little time consuming, even with a batch it still takes some time to do all the models.What I am not looking forward to, is reassigning all the paints that were missing. That took me way longer than mipping them. Hopefully though, the updates will make it all worth while. I am really interested to see about this 35-40% performance increase at major hubs with the new models.

[jwenham 1]

I hope this is true. Great addon, but hard on frames... so far.

If you turn off you GA traffic you will see a BIG improvement or at least I did.

[duckbilled 310]

As for the GA, I removed all of the default fs stuff and assigned generic repaints from UGA and a HT Cessna package that I bought a few years ago. I have it at 100% along with commercial. There are a few airports that are a little rough right now - LFPG during morning rush is a killer.What should make assigning those aircraft a lot easier is the ability to generate an Excel repaint list. What we will need next is Aircraft Analyzer 2009. I remember reading that it is supposed to be out by Christmas.ACA2005 was my main program for working with ai in FS9. The biggest advantage it displayed every repaint installed in FS on one screen and you could sort it by any parameter - call sign, variation, atc model...What I am missing by not having ACA for FSX is the ability to sort by ui variation. When I am trying to fill in the repaints for a certain airline, I want to know every ai aircraft I have installed for that airline. In many cases I might be willing to accept a slightly different model (733 vs 734...) and as you know, not all airlines specify the specific model. Sometimes it just lists ALL 737 PAX. With that you have to search through every 737 model in your hangar to find an appropriate repaint. Furthermore, repaints must have a unique variation name as well as a unique title to display properly in the UT2 ui. If you have two aircraft with identical ui model/variation names, only one of them will display in the UT2 UI and neither of them will show up in the sim. I ran in to this a bunch of times with WofAI packages where they will have several repaints of one model for the same airline but they just use the same name for the variation. With an Excel based repaint list and ACA2009 will know exactly what need, exactly what we have and be able to sort them so we are comparing apples to apples. Without these tools, it can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Ai Aircraft editor and Aircrafter are nice but they don't give you the complete picture that you need to fill in all of the repaints in UT2.

[Cessnaflyer 56]

I'll be following this because of the lack of time I have trying to install all these packages!

[Drumcode 1,892]

Any idea what is the ETA on this update? I'd like to purchase UT2 but only after Service Pack is released.

[duckbilled 310]

I believe they are releasing it as a beta to current customers in the next few days. I have no idea how long it will take for it to become official - probably will depend on how successful the beta is.