Traffic addon preference (& their impact on performance)

[rufowler 2]

I'm thinking about getting a Traffic addon for FSX. I'm really new to Flight Sim in general, I'm am hardly a good flyer (yet) and I don't do any multi-player flying (yet). But in the meantime I'd like the skies to be a bit friendlier and more realistic.  It seems like there are two options that folks like a lot: Ultimate Traffic 2  and  Traffic 360.

 

1) They seem pretty darn similar to me.  Are there any major advantages/disadvantages to either? Anyone have a preference?

 

2) I'm worried about how this will impact the performance.  My machine is ok but not great, and I struggle to get a decent frame rate in densely populated areas or complex airports.  Will putting more traffic in the air make a significant difference to my FPS?  It seems that just turning up the default traffic settings slow things down, so I'm wondering if either of the two products above will do the same ... or be even worse.

 

Thanks for the input!

[tamsini 278]

I could tell you that I have UT2 and has little or no impact on P3D v2.2 with 100% traffic. On FSX, however, 100% traffic had a significant hit on FPS. Hope this helps.

[hawkeye52 8]

I could tell you that I have UT2 and has little or no impact on P3D v2.2 with 100% traffic. On FSX, however, 100% traffic had a significant hit on FPS. Hope this helps.

 

Wow, that's very good to know!  I have UT2 but uninstalled it due to the performance hit it had in FSX and got Traffic 360 instead which gave much better results in FSX but seems to absolutely kill P3D2...gonna have to flip back again!

[Dazkent 113]

I think it all really depends on the combination of which traffic levels you wish to run / what add ons you are using and your settings within FSX. On my old dual core set up with uk2000 airports I could run 80 percent traffic with no problems with UT2

 

[miami747 7]

Take traffic 360 off your list. Don't even think about buying it. There are two AI addons and then the rest. UT2 and MyTraffic. I actually have both as MYTraffic has a lot more airlines but the schedules are very unrealistic as UT2 has most of the major airlines with very realistic schedules and better models. If you just care about the major airlines, for example doing most of your flying out of big airports in U.S., Canada and Western Europe than UT2 is a good. If you want random charter airlines, airlines from Africa and just want your skies to be filled with not a huge amount of FPS impact with ok models then MyTraffic is good.

 

The both together using the MyTraffic UT2 schedule so I don't have interlacing airlines is very good.

[FloG 148]

I would recommend UT2 rather than Traffic 360, I guess. Back when I had my old computer, I didn't like UT2 at all, because it gave me a horrible performance, but that was on the lowest end of the system requirements of UT2. (Didn't test it on my new machine, since MTX has replaced UT2 very well from the time I have quite using that one). From what others say here, I'd really think that UT2 is very good, though.

Recently I bought Traffic 360 when it was on sale for something like 6EUR, but I wasn't that pleased with it. The models (which I don't pay too much attention to, though) are the same (low) quality as MTX's, but I had some serious issues with it placing itself on top of my scenery library and then of course bleeding through all addon sceneries, and for the normal price, I'd buy MTX again before I'd buy Trafic 360 - because MTX has a fwe quite nice features for only a little more.

[catchman 13]

Some sad news about UT2 was posted in a forum reply a few days ago. I'm posting a screengrab because it was in a members only forum. I hope the developer returns.

[rufowler 2]

I could tell you that I have UT2 and has little or no impact on P3D v2.2 with 100% traffic. On FSX, however, 100% traffic had a significant hit on FPS. Hope this helps.

 

Interesting.  Is it possible that Ultimate Traffic 2 actually has LESS of an impact than the default traffic?  ...because I gotta say, with my mid-level PC I see a lot of difference between having the the default setting turned way down vs way up.  Is it just me?

 

 

Wow, that's very good to know!  I have UT2 but uninstalled it due to the performance hit it had in FSX and got Traffic 360 instead which gave much better results in FSX but seems to absolutely kill P3D2...gonna have to flip back again!

 

Hmmm.  So this makes me wonder if it is, in fact, platform-related.   Fyi, I use FSX.

 

I think it all really depends on the combination of which traffic levels you wish to run / what add ons you are using and your settings within FSX. On my old dual core set up with uk2000 airports I could run 80 percent traffic with no problems with UT2

 

To be honest, since I'm new to flight simming, I haven't tweaked my config files much.  I'm still learning how to be a half way decent pilot so the nuances of performance tweaking is new territory to me.  I purchased "FSX Booster 2013" which helped things a little, but it only does a pretty generic fixes from what I can tell.  Do you do any specific tweaking to accommodate for traffic (as opposed to, say, scenery) density?

 

Take traffic 360 off your list. Don't even think about buying it. There are two AI addons and then the rest. UT2 and MyTraffic. I actually have both as MYTraffic has a lot more airlines but the schedules are very unrealistic as UT2 has most of the major airlines with very realistic schedules and better models. If you just care about the major airlines, for example doing most of your flying out of big airports in U.S., Canada and Western Europe than UT2 is a good. If you want random charter airlines, airlines from Africa and just want your skies to be filled with not a huge amount of FPS impact with ok models then MyTraffic is good.

 

Good to know.  Ok, MyTraffic is (back) on my list again.  I'm still not sure which of these two would be a good fit.  Fyi, I do mostly GA aircraft flying, and almost entirely in North America.  I'd say I mix it up in terms of the kinds of airports I fly into/out of because my smaller prop planes don't need the enormously long runways to land on that can only be found in major hubs airports.  Given that preference, what do you recommend?

 

Thanks, everyone, for you input!  This is really helpful.  Keep it comin'.  Cheers!

[KSATRoadWarrior 91]

I fly GA and mostly N. America, lots of smaller airports and I use MyTraffic.

[tamsini 278]

Actually, for me, the only impact I have regarding FPS inside P3D v.2.2 is if I tun on shadows and/or volumetric fog. All other slider to the extreme right don't seem to have that much of an FPS hit - (with UT2, FTX Global and Majestic Q400) and I only have a 1GB card. Even though I only get mid teens in 3D cockpit (28-35 external view), it still runs quite smooth.

 

I'm anxious to see what more a GTX 780 (which I just ordered) can get me. 

[Sportsfan23 2]

There is probably a fix for this I just didn't come across it but My traffic 5.4C continually made my sim CTD. So I went back to UT2 and updated the planes/liveries and I am ecstatic with how UT2 preforms. 

[rufowler 2]

There is probably a fix for this I just didn't come across it but My traffic 5.4C continually made my sim CTD. So I went back to UT2 and updated the planes/liveries and I am ecstatic with how UT2 preforms. 

 

Sorry if I'm being a little dense here, but could you elaborate more?  Is there a simple update or something that lets was behind the performance boost?  (At the moment, I have NO AI traffic program so I'm eager to hear what works best and why.)  Thanks!

I fly GA and mostly N. America, lots of smaller airports and I use MyTraffic.

 

KSATRoadWarrior:  And how do you fine My Traffic?  Does it impact your frames much?  Looks like we have somewhat similar systems, thou you probabily have some more muscle/  You think it will impact mine much? 

[KSATRoadWarrior 91]

KSATRoadWarrior: And how do you fine My Traffic? Does it impact your frames much? Looks like we have somewhat similar systems, thou you probabily have some more muscle/ You think it will impact mine much?

 

There does seem to be a problem with My Traffic 5.4C, I reverted back to 5.4B and have no problems. AI traffice impact is minimal even near a large airport where there may be 300 aircraft within a 150 miles radius. In spite of the problem with 5.4C (I do believe Manfred is trying to determine exact problem and he is responsive to questions) I am very happy with My Traffice 5.4B.

[TrafficPilot 121]

I use MyTraffic 2013. Excellent coverage with GA and military aircraft as well as cargo included. I prefer low and slow to the airliners so like to have a good spread of different traffic especially at smaller airfields.

 

I tried UT2 but there just wasn't enough of a variety of different aircraft for me. I like their "real routes" feature though.

[JasonW 32]

Im happy with UT2. I run it on 80% and only see a small frame hit at major add on airports. Only downfall is posted a few posts up, the developer has gone awol so schedule updates probably wont happen but you can add in schedules from avsim library.