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Best AI traffic addon for FSX?

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Looking for some opinions on what the best product is - I finally have a machine that's powerful enough where I can start thinking about adding some traffic to it.Is it basically between Ultimate Traffic 2 and My Traffic 2010? I fly primarily in the US so whatever I get needs to have good coverage there. I read that UT2 doesn't come with AFCADs the way that the original FS9 one did - is this an issue at all?Thanks, appreciate any info!


Ryan Maziarz
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Hey Ryan! The better comparison is UT2 vs MyTrafficX v5.2b, as 5.2b from SimMarket at ~$54, is strongly supported by the author Bernhard Renk. It has a few components over the 2010 version.I've had both UT2 and MTX52b.



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MyTraffic X is your other option. That's what I use, and it's terrifically good - search here for other comments, I think you'll find there are people in most camps, so in the end you need to jump in... But I think MytrafficX is a) FSX-specific, model-wise and :( frame-rate friendly and c) well supported - I don't think anyone has disagreed with those comments, in other threads; not sure the same can be said about the other products - but like I said, it's what I use, and I can't criticize what I haven't tried.Edit: PJ got in there 1st! And a "b" and a bracket ought not to be a smiley, but there ya go!


Paul Skol

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A bit confused with the My Traffic stuff - there's THREE versions of it? 2010, X, and 5.2b? What is the difference?
Here ya go:-http://secure.simmarket.com/b.-renk-mytraffic-x-pro.phtml Go to the bottom - there's a chart which shows the difference.


i7 4790K@4.8GHz | 32GB RAM | EVGA RTX 3080Ti | Maximus Hero VII | 512GB 860 Pro | 512GB 850 Pro | 256GB 840 Pro | 2TB 860 QVO | 1TB 870 EVO | Seagate 3TB Cloud | EVGA 1000 GQ | Win10 Pro | EK Custom water cooling.

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Paul, How complicated is My Traffic? I'm reading through their forum and it seems pretty technical with a lot of setup required... I'm not sure that's what I want honestly. I realize that adds a lot of customization, but I honestly know next to nothing about traffic bgls and building schedules and all of that.


Ryan Maziarz
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Ryan,I just recently went throug this delema and tried what I believe to be the three real options for FSX. I was using WOAI and pretty satisfied, but with my recent computer upgrade thought I'd look and see if I could get more traffic for an equal or better performance using payware.1. Ultimate Traffic 2 with SP1: This was my first try. I had read good reviews and gave it a shot. As a quick note, non-SP1 vs. SP1 is a large difference (primarily in traffic levels) based on reviews. Many users have reported good effect, but I experienced very empty airports. I could be at ORD at midday during the week with 15 to maybe 20 aircraft on the ground when set at 100%. It's a bit odd and sporadic, as there are other users who report this as well as users who fill every gate. I tried this at several airports ranging from default to add-on ala FSDT ORD and default with new AFCAD files. This led me to believe that it was not related to AFCAD problems. The performance was reasonable. I had been playing around with WOAI traffic previously and the performance hit at 100% traffic was similar (perhaps a slightly bigger hit) to when I was using WOAI around 25% (note that I had more aircraft with WOAI at 25%). The aircraft models look good, but do not stand out when compared to WOAI. Where that would seperate is that UT2 is DX10 compatable while WOAI is hit or miss. I ended up returning this to Flight1 for a refund since it didn't really give me anything above WOAI (which is free) and I tried everything I could in settings to get more traffic and better performance.2. My Traffic X 5.2b: This was my next step. The reviews I had read indicated that it was very easy on performance and provided high levels of AI traffic. My experience mirrored this. On approximately 60% traffic I could fill the gates at a major hub (>85-90% filled) like BOS or JFK. The performance hit was minimal for this type of traffic--perhaps a little less hit than WOAI filling 1/3-1/2 the number of gates. However, this performance was with the lower resolution textures and models with fewer animations installed. Even with the high resoltuion textures, My Traffic X has very poor looking visual models by FSX standards. They have low polygon counts and the colors on the textures are very washed out (for example, the AirTran turqoise tails look almost like a baby blue--also noticeable on FedEx purple and UAL blue). Anything with bare metal looked terrible...American Airlines aircraft were simply put hideous. The nice thing though is that this also includes military traffic, which populates some of the mixed fields nicely and gives you some company if your going to play jet jockey for a day. Ultimately, I'm happy with My Traffic X. It did what it advertised (lots of traffic at minimal performance hit). However, the traffic for everyday use is just a bit too ugly for me and I've turned off the commercial and GA traffic (left military since there isn't a lot out from anyone for that other than My Traffic X and MAIW--who is the military equivelant of WOAI). The setup is reasonably easy (no need to mess with the actual BGL files), but is all done through a somewhat archeic and not clearly intuitive GUI.3. World of AI (freeware): I've moved on to this as what I feel is my final solution. The good news is that it's free, is reasonable performance wise (I say between My Traffic X and UT2) and as a whole the models look excellent. The downside is that you have to download the each airlines as an invidividual package (also a plus though since you can install just what you want). I've installed UAL, AAL, COA, Delta, AirTran, US Airways, JBU, SWA, BAW, DLH, FedEx, UPS and AirTran (if you can't guess, I fly mainly in the United States) and this gets me a good variety of traffic. I haven't installed American Eagle just yet since my experience in FS9 was that this adds a huge amount of traffic. Installing the packages are actually quite easy, you just need to acquire each of the packages. The other difficulty is that I'm just starting to work out the details of working in FSX. The installer will easily install to FSX, but it was initially designed for FS9 and I think some of the parking codes may need to be adjusted. For instance, I get no AirTran aircraft whatsoever at BOS with WOAI, but would get them with UT2 and MTX. I literally mean I just started looking at this (like 20 minutes ago) and am not sure yet what's going on. I've worked up through 35% traffic with WOAI so far and am still getting no appreciable impact on FPS beyond using minimal commercial traffic (5% or so). The aircraft on the ground can occasionally be patchy around the gates. I get 25-30 aircraft on the ground with this, but it's odd. At BOS for instance, the AAL gates are packed, but UAL are minimally occupied. At ORD, it's the opposite (this is what I'm starting to look in to now--I'm hoping for a simple solution since I'm not a traffic genious either).For reference, since I just went through the system upgrade, here's my system and a brief performance synopsis:Intel i7-920 OC to 3.5 GHz (may go higher if I upgrade to a higher speed RAM that can take it)Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R motherboardCorsair XMS3 1300 MHz RAM 3x2GBMSI GTX 285 with 1 GB RAM (factory overclocked)Soundblaster X-Fi PlatinumCorsair 750 W PSU3xWD SATA 7200 RPM HDD2xSATA Optical drivesI have REX, GEX, FSGenesis mesh, SceneryTech landclass installed. My graphics sliders are to the right except for autogen which is 1 notch down. I do not use DX10 preview or light bloom. I have low airport vehicle traffic, 5% cars and 15% boats as well as WOAI as described above. Sitting on the ground at a complex airport (FSDT ORD or JKF, FT BOS) in a complex aircraft (PMDG MD-11, JS41 or Leonardo's MD-80) in the VC while running ASA and FS2Crew in the background I can get 20 fps. It goes up to 30 fps in the air. Also as an FYI, I do have problems with black screens with complex aircraft add-ons if I am not using Vista SP2 compatability mode. I hope my experience helps you some. I know the pain of this all since I just went through it myself.Eric SzczesniakEDIT: I just gave 100% traffic with WOAI a try for the heck of it (why continue up this slow path). My FPS dropped to 18-18.5ish fps from 20 fps and approximately 75% of the gates were filled. I have to say I really am feeling like WOAI is the way to go. Starting to wish that I had just left it this way to begin with.


Eric Szczesniak

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Eric's review above is very good, and I agree with his last two sections. I'm running MyTraffic 5.2b and I like it very much. I formerly did my own AI but it got so outdated I gave up trying to keep up. So this purchase was on a whim and I am not at all sorry. Installation was a snap (took a while though because there are lot of planes) and I just left everything default. The plane models are not that beautiful up close, but they work for me. Each user has his/her reasons for wanting AI. My reason is to not be alone in the sky. There is nothing to worry about there with MTX, let me tell you. There are times I can't find a parking spot on the tarmac and end up in the grass. And it's really cool to go to hubs and see the various planes lined up there, especially Memphis (I think) where there are dozens of FedEx planes lined up. It is amazing, really. There is little impact of FPS and that was why I chose this program over the others, after reading input from others. I'm sorry, I did not keep my list of links for customer feedback, but you can search here and the other FS sites. I run AI at 50% for both commercial and GA.My criteria for choosing was:1. FPS impact2. # aircraft addedIn that order. I got what I paid for and they gave me MyTraffic for FS9 for free (was discontinued) so that was sweet. I don't know if they still offer that though. Hope this helps.

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Guest killerwatt

I like Ultimate traffic2 with the service pack. It doesn't use a traffic BGL so what you can do is turn default traffic sliders to zero and have UT2 run at 100%. Another advantage of UT2 is that it uses real schedules and much more realistic routes. But yet another benefit is that as long as you have a suitable plane to use, You can elect to fly any of the scheduled flights instead of the AI. Although some of the Cargo carriers schedules such as FED-EX and UPS are not included. They can be created and added with the upcoming powerpack which is currently in beta and available for download to existing licensed users.

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I think I'm gonna give UT II a shot first since it's refundable... if it doesn't do what I want, then I'll try My Traffic.What are you guys using UT II doing for AFCADs since it doesn't have them?


Ryan Maziarz
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I like Ultimate traffic2 with the service pack. It doesn't use a traffic BGL so what you can do is turn default traffic sliders to zero and have UT2 run at 100%. Another advantage of UT2 is that it uses real schedules and much more realistic routes. But yet another benefit is that as long as you have a suitable plane to use, You can elect to fly any of the scheduled flights instead of the AI. Although some of the Cargo carriers schedules such as FED-EX and UPS are not included. They can be created and added with the upcoming powerpack which is currently in beta and available for download to existing licensed users.
Agree with all the above.I admit that I don't use FSX yet and have no experience on the mentioned AI addons except for feature lists, reviews and forum opinions. But, simply checking the feature lists and noting UT2 SP1 has- a unique method of injecting traffic- AI planes flying real world routes instead of random direct routes- ability to choose a flight from real schedules- real time dynamic control according to your FPS- out of the box support for TSS Audio Environment
- etc etc..compared to what's basically FS9-era traffic addons, the choice for me will be a true no-brainer.

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Ok, bought UT 2, got it installed.I see a ton of US Airways planes at KPHX but almost no Southwest. Any idea why? KPHX is a major SWA hub, there should be a ton of them at Terminal 4. I'm using Ray Smith's AFCAD from the library.


Ryan Maziarz
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I strongly advise you to check on My Traffic 5.2B...Great support, crowded airports, and the best: the easiest thing on FPS I've ever seen.

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Ok, bought UT 2, got it installed.I see a ton of US Airways planes at KPHX but almost no Southwest. Any idea why? KPHX is a major SWA hub, there should be a ton of them at Terminal 4. I'm using Ray Smith's AFCAD from the library.
I think the problem when it comes to Southwest with AI packages that are based on real schedules, is the rapid turn around times they have. FS has never handled this situation well. That is why you'll see SW is usually the first planes out after you load FS.

Thanks

Tom

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Ok, bought UT 2, got it installed.I see a ton of US Airways planes at KPHX but almost no Southwest. Any idea why? KPHX is a major SWA hub, there should be a ton of them at Terminal 4. I'm using Ray Smith's AFCAD from the library.
Im at the exact same point as u were when u made this post. I was seconds from getting UT2 but heard a few knocks on it here. Whats your result? Did it hurt performance, or suck in any other way? Did u return it? Would u mind updating this thread with your experience when u get a minute? Thanks

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