I know that this will sound like a stupid question -- but just when does AI traffic fly? For example, let us say that I am flying in a certain area - I know that AI traffic is flying in my area because I can see and hear them. But is it also flying in other areas at the same time. Are there 'thousands" of little AI a/c flying all around the world where I am not flying and won't be flying. If so, is the computer doing lots of computations that aren't needed -- what effect does this have on FPS performance. Is it in any way possible to "turn off" AI traffic in other parts of the world where I am not flying.Hope you get my drift.Thanks Barry

The way that I understand it, AI flights are not a global event. The AI is sectorized and based on your current location any AI that would be in the sectors nearest you are generated (not sure how big these are or how far out). So, if you are flying around Sydney and the Qantas flight from LA is there, it didn't start in LA and fly all the way to Sydney, the sim just calculated based on the departure time/arrival time for the flight that it should be in the airspace at the current time and generates the aircraft and it will be around until it moves into a sector that is not needed for your current location. I am not sure if the sim only renders a visual model when the aircraft can be seen or if it renders it all the time when it is available? I would think that it would only render a visual model when it would be visible; the rest of the time it only needs to calculate the movement and comms.This was explained in great detail when AI was first introduced in the FS, not sure who did it, but it may be in the archives if they go back that far.Oh, yeah; if I got any of this wrong - someone please correct it.Jim

Does a tree that falls in the forest make a sound if no one is there to hear it? Does your toe still hurt if you stub it in the dark and cannot see the chair leg against which you stubbed it? Does a sim plane fly in the sim sky even if no one sees it? I love these deep philosophical discussions..:-)Sherm

Jim,You're right on. It's written in detail in Lee Swordy's Traffic Tools manual (see heading #17). To quote the relevant portion:*******"You may wonder how your computer could cope with managing several thousand flights in operation around the world at one time. Your computer is only actually