I was searching this morning for some X-P information and came across this page which I am posting here really just as an interesting diversion for you all (hey it's Monday morning):

 

http://wiki.x-plane.com/What%27s_New_in_X-Plane_10

 

Here's the relevant text for your delectation:-

Creating an Active Environment: The new ATC and AI Aircraft

The new ATC will control ALL of the planes in the sky, including yours, to deliver incredible ATC realism.
Using pre-recorded audio files, you will HEAR the controller giving instructions to the OTHER planes, and see them following those instructions on
your TCAS and out the window. The other planes will all take-off, land, taxi, stop on the ramp, miss approaches and do touch-n-goes, all while
taking commands from ATC, all of which are audible on your radio.

Of course, all of the other planes will use the same accuracy flight model as your plane, so you will see them move perfectly realistically
across all phases of flight, from flying right down to taxiing. Put in a strong wind or turbulence and see how they handle it. It might not be
pretty, but it WILL be realistic. Set enough wind and an icy runway, and they will all blow right across the ramp. Watch out.

The ATC system, like most systems in X-Plane, will be highly customizable.

 

 

 

Will Philippe's alleged upcoming ATC improvements indeed "deliver incredible realism" as LR says?

Let's hope so!

They said the ATC will be fixed in the 10.X run for sure. I think that is only that, fix the worst bugs, to make it usable.

I don't see a solution for AI, mainly because I never heard from them that having only 20 AI aircrafts is a problem.

(It is for me)

I just hope ATC will be open enough to developers to interact with other AI solutions like World Traffic.

 

EDIT: Forgot that problem with AI is not only the max number of AI aircrafts, but the fps they eat, even with optimized acfs like Morten's.

They said the ATC will be fixed in the 10.X run for sure. I think that is only that, fix the worst bugs, to make it usable.

I don't see a solution for AI, mainly because I never heard from them that having only 20 AI aircrafts is a problem.

(It is for me)

I just hope ATC will be open enough to developers to interact with other AI solutions like World Traffic.

 

As I understand it (someone correct me if I'm wrong), the limit of 20 AI aircraft is related to the way X-Plane uses full flight models for each AI aircraft, distributed across the number of CPU cores you have available.

 

This way, all aircraft -- including the one you're flying -- are affected the same way by local weather, runway conditions, etc. It takes a lot of CPU horsepower to run all those flight models. Aside from being more realistic, it's probably easier to program this way too, with no need for stripped-down flight models for a lighter load on the CPU. So I doubt we'll see any 3rd party solutions for higher numbers, unless they can bypass the internal AI traffic completely. 

 

Like many features in X-Plane it's a "forward looking" design, basically a bet on continuing improvement in end-user computer power over the years. I'm guessing that at some point they'll raise the 20 plane limit when the average user's computer can handle it. 

 

 

 

 

Helicharly's ATC free plugin was made available for XP10 64 bit recently, i find it much better then default. Currently the plugin uses the "text to speech voice" but the ATC developer said is working on a version 2.0, this is the changelog:

- OpenAL support for multi voice male/female wav files (multiplatform) support. (Engine and functions implementend, still working on waves database generation and phraseology remapping)
- climb and descend procedure and phraseology completely re-written
- added ICAO aircraft callsing support
- added "heavy" mark to callsign for hevay aircrafts (>136000kg)
- added frequency switcher window dialog
- improved descend and ILS interception procedure
- new minimal ATC interface for better look (ATC prints only last two messages in a dark box. Still working on log window)
- improved dialogs stability and fixed bug preventing close itself
- added timestamp to ATC messages
- many minor bugs fixes

 

 

This is the thread discussing the ATC plugin:

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/462796-new-actually-old-atc-plugin-for-x-plane-10-64-bit/

Helicharly's ATC free plugin was made available for XP10 64 bit recently, i find it much better then default.

Does it handle AI aircraft too ? I've tried it and default ATC started to control AI aicrafts.

 

 

As I understand it (someone correct me if I'm wrong), the limit of 20 AI aircraft is related to the way X-Plane uses full flight models for each AI aircraft, distributed across the number of CPU cores you have available.

Yes, I know that was the idea...AI aircraft to fly as realistic as possible. But at least for me , I like AI to

replicate traffic around user aircraft like real airports. Its not about how they fly. There is no way to feel like being in big-busy airport simply because its not scalable enough.I have a i5 4 cores at 4.7ghz and I have to pull down cpu-intensive sliders (like cars) if I want to use 20 AI. (talking about using Mortens optimized ACFs). Perhaps on a 16 core machine... <_<

Does it handle AI aircraft too ? I've tried it and default ATC started to control AI aicrafts.

 

 

Yes, I know that was the idea...AI aircraft to fly as realitic as possible. But at least for me , I like AI to

replicate traffic around user aircraft like real airports. Its not about how they fly. There is no way to feel like being in big-busy airport simply because its not scabale enough.I have a i5 4 cores at 4.7ghz and I have to pull down cpu-intensive sliders (like cars) if I want to use 20 AI. (talking about using Mortens optimized ACFs). Perhaps on a 16 core machine... <_<

World of traffic add on is FPS friendly  

 

Also this plugin allows you to add serviced aircrafts on gates by using Overlay editor

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=22705

World of traffic add on is FPS friendly  

 

Also this plugin allows you to add serviced aircrafts on gates by using Overlay editor

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=22705

Yes, I bought it as soon as it was out. The only problem is that after almost two years, 64bit version still has a weird bug that causes x-plane to crash for some of us. Developer couldn't solve it yet. I hope someday it get fixed. It has really a lot of potential.