I have been playing around with AI for quite while now, switching between Ultimate Traffic 2, WOAI and Traffic X.  I have even adjusted my aircaft AI spawn amounts, but I still seem to have trouble getting decent traffic.  I like to be parked at an airport with plan in hand and want to have the feel of being at a busy airport.  Yes, I know to some that may be torture, but for me, it adds to the realism of taxiing and holding for other aircraft, waiting in line to take off and of course, landing at an airport and again waiting to taxi to gates, etc.

 

When I set up a flight, I typically set a day during the week and have also experimented with various times of the day as well but I cannot seem to get a decent amount of traffic to show up even with my traffic percentage being rather high, but not too high to throttle the game.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

I am currently away from FSX, but UT2 (and most likely other traffic add-ons) include graphs and time tables, from which one can determine the busiest day of week and time of day.

Use one of those programs, put your AI Traffic slider at 100%, and see what you get.

From my experience with Ultimate Traffic 2, around 6 AM seems to be good if you want to see very busy airports....

Haha, well wouldn't that be dangerous?  I guess I can progressively raise the bar and see the results, but then again, if their appearance is based on any type of time table (not sure about sticking with default fsx AI), then it may not matter how much I specify...not to say you are wrong JSkorna.

This might give you some idea  --

 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/yx7_yzypm5w

I believe UT2 at 100% shows 100% of flights from the schedule. I have in my mind 100% UT2 is less traffic than 100% on the other add ons, not sure where I got this from or if true, so take with a grain of salt.

 

I have a pretty bad system that I push hard, and 100% UT2 is normally pretty manageable for me. I lower it in locations with lots of big airports close by and such though. 

I think you are correct, Tim. I run UT2 @ 100% on my PC, and the amount of traffic seems to be realistic.

I think you are correct, Tim. I run UT2 @ 100% on my PC, and the amount of traffic seems to be realistic.

But does it also relate to time of day and the day?  I followed their recommendations when they said to keep the fsx slider low and bump theirs to 100%, but the date and time seemed to be a factor.  The version I have comes with schedules up to 2010, so should I run my sim from 2010?  I knos they release new schedules but I can't bring myself to pay $$ for these.

The sim year doesn't matter.

 

The date and times do make a difference.

 

Go to KATL at noon on a week day and with traffic 100% about how many planes are there?

Jim,

 

Do you have the Daedalus colour scheme enabled when using UT2? The reason I ask is because I don't have the Daedalus planes activated, and this left airports looking a bit empty when I first installed the software. I had to add lots of extra airlines and schedules (particularly charter and cargo airlines), and this made a BIG difference to the density of traffic. I only fly in the UK, so this wasn't quite as monumental a task as you might think, but it still took some time to accomplish. Basically, I integrated these extra airlines into UT2, and then disabled the UT2 versions. It was rather obvious that UT2 did not have paint schemes for quite a few of the UK charter airlines, because they suddenly appeared in significant numbers after I had added them.

 

I am quite happy with the situation now, but every now and again I add something else. For example, I am currently looking for flight times from the UK for the Thomson 787. I know the dates and destinations, but I need the departure and arrival times for each of them. If anyone knows where I can get these, then please let me know!

Hi,

 

Hi have gone both ways with that option. I didn't notice much difference either way.

 

Also note that traffic is also going to be limited on parking spaces, just like in FS9.

A tip I picked up from 'JimmyG' many years ago, really enhances shadows on the ground. Fly about 1/2 hour to 1 hour after sunrise, or fly 1/2 hour to 1 hour before sunset. I really like the effect it gives.

With any AI traffic program, even at 100%, it will be limited by available parking spaces.  Because of the the way MS FlightSims handle parking there is almost always fewer gates and parking spots at a given airport than there are in real life.  This will diminish the number of AI flights.  Programs such as UT2 use published flight schedules, so if an airport is serviced by a small airline or cargo only airlines for which UT2 does not have a schedule, then you will not see any AI traffic.  As for times when traffic will be highest, weekends, holidays and daytime.  Traffic is minimal at night as it is in real life.

What I have also noticed is that this may also be caused by the AFCAD of an airport. For some add-on airports, I have adjusted to AFCAD files so that the gates have the correct aircraft radius. For instance, the radius was set just a few meters too small so that a 737 would not park there, while in real life they do. Also, I am not sure that if the gates are defined as 'ramp' could have an impact if your AI are configured for parking type gate only and not ramp.