Well I use UT2 (Ultimate Traffic 2) for the whole world and FTX AI Traffic for Australia and New Zealand. It's sweet!

Hiya mate.. Have you ever flown online with it?

I'm more interested in a traffic package that can recreate other AI when flying online...

 

What WOULD be good is if a traffic package could be run on a separate PC to ease the load on FSX..

 

ANY AI traffic addon will only be seen by you in MP, not by anyone else in the session. Unfortunate but true. I guess the fix to this is to fly in a VATSIM area that is very busy, because then the "AI" would actually be other people

I like My Traffic Pro and I have used other traffic products in the past. It is very realistic and flexible. But the best part is personalized and expeditious support by the author via his online forum.

 

As to the "delay" in seeing traffic activity, some of that can be chalked up to realism. If you watch closely, commercial flights are loaded up with baggage before the begin to taxi.

Well I use UT2 (Ultimate Traffic 2) for the whole world

Hiya Zeddy

 

Do you fly online with UT2? Do you ever use the season updates for it?

I'm very tempted to go with UT2, as it looks like one that has regular updates for seasons, and I've seen a fair bit said about it among VATSim users....

 

ANY AI traffic addon will only be seen by you in MP, not by anyone else in the session.

Oh I know that, all traffic software we install is only viewable by the person using that PC, but I was aiming more at getting some feedback on how well these traffic packages replicate/represent other AI when flying online.

I bought MTX 5.4b a few months ago.

 

It's uninstalled now. It just wasn't worth the performance loss, the random airlines that would show up at airports (I fly in the US and hear that UT2 is much much better and making proper airlines arrive than MTX). And for my style of flying, general aviation, I just wasn't flying to the big airports with big airliners...

I bought MTX 5.4b a few months ago as well. I was using WOAI without any complaints in DX9 but switched to DX10 and most of their aircraft were not showing up correctly.

 

I did my homework and MTX 5.4b appeared to have the most going for it, so I made the purchase. I like the program, for the most part. Plenty of commercial, GA and military aircraft flying around, even at conservative traffic settings. (Perhaps a bit too much military aircraft depicted...) No significant frame rate hits for me. A very good amount of commercial aircraft depicted at airports and quite accurately placed.

 

But my only real complaint is that the graphics are simply too low res. They are nowhere near WOAI quality and the LODs are constantly switching out, especially at close distances. Closer to FS2000 levels than even FS9 levels. It's quite a letdown to taxi by airliners at the gate and see them missing their landing gear and/or popping in and out of different LOD settings, all of which are quite low res. The GA & military aircraft are even worse. The polygon count on those appear to be in the single digits.

 

I don't have any problems with framerate and I'm assuming it's because of the low resolution of the aircraft. And yes, I made sure to set it the higher setting. Unfortunately, for me it just kills the immersion factor.

 

My understanding is that the aircraft are slowly being updated with future versions, so I'm looking forward to receiving those updates soon.

I use IF's Ai which schedules in flights around your flight time for a few (or many) planes (special Ai models from my favourite traffic addon, or stock planes, or any addon) at the departure and destination and at airports visible along your route. That's the smallest CPU hit for the most amount of traffic interaction you can get. You can hear the planes talking to ATC. I can also use a traffic addon (I've got them all, they all have merit) to place aircraft with real schedules around the world which show up if I'm there at the right time.

But my only real complaint is that the graphics are simply too low res.

...

I don't have any problems with framerate and I'm assuming it's because of the low resolution of the aircraft.

 

I agree with you on that. Unfortunately, if you selectively replace some of the MyT Pro supplied aircraft with higher resolution versions (it is possible to do if you have versions with multiple paints), you really tax your computer, if you are running P3D or FSX at high graphics settings. I tried doing this for 737s at Chicago Midway and I experienced a major frame rate hit (and that's with dual Xeons and two GTX 580s in SLI).

 

The variety of hardware that people are using is becoming a major issue for people developing add-ons for FSX and P3D. As a developer if you target high-end hardware, you cut down on your potential market. If you create an add-on that works on a variety of systems, you are going to lose some visual realism.

I am so close to getting a traffic addon, but i really cant decide what to get.

 

I dont like the performance hit, and i dont like "ugly" AI.

 

What to do, what to do...

If you want convenience and you fly in the US get UT2. This will also give good looking models.

 

If you want convenience and fly outside of US get MTX. Those models are alright.

 

Or just do it yourself with WOAI.

 

Oh, UT2 uses Flight1 wrapper so returns are possible.

Or if you are willing to spend a lot of time to get the best AI possible you could get Ultimate Traffic 2 and then download & install all the liveries it's missing...

That would of course require you to download many AI models & all those liveries and install them manually before adding to Ultimate Traffic 2.

 

I've already added paints for most airlines of UT2, still about 160 left... Though what made it much faster for me was my old AI collection that I created for myself some years ago, it includes most liveries for almost all airlines from 2009, but of course in these years new airlines have started and old ones have gotten new aircraft types.

If you want convenience and you fly in the US get UT2. This will also give good looking models.

 

If you want convenience and fly outside of US get MTX. Those models are alright.

 

 

 

Why do you say MTX is better outside the US?

I actually fly in Europe, so is MTX better for me?

Basically MTX includes paints for all airlines it includes, while UT2 includes paints mainly for some biggest airlines, many of them in the US, and misses a lot elsewhere. (those that it misses have only default generic paint unless you change it)

 

It's easy to manually install new paints and add them to UT2 though, but it's time consuming.

 

UT2 however has better models than MTX & flightplants and such are more up to date.

 

Personally I see UT2 more as a tool that allows you to build and manage the best possible AI traffic, while Mytraffic is more like actual AI traffic program that includes it all by default without further work needed.

 

So yeah if you just want AI traffic that doesn't require much setting up get  Mytraffic, if you are willing to spend hours installing paints manually to get the best worldwide AI traffic possible then get UT2.

Ah OK, I've never noticed missing UT2 paints and mainly fly in EU and Asia.