VoxATC 7 Beta bugs

[specialist 51]

I think it will be interesting to experiment the theory by trying to land at one of those high altitude airports surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. perhaps Aspen or Eagle County Regional Airport. Switch from True to False and see what happens. Charlotte wasn't really a good indicator whether or not it works or not, since it's pretty flat elevation and far enough from the Smoky Mountains.

[armchair_pilot 54]

I gave 7.3 a shot this weekend with the PMDG NGX on a route from ELLX to LOWW and noticed a few issues.

1. Somehow VOX assigned me a cruise altitude of FL130 instead of the calculated FL410 from PFPX. FL130 was another flightlevel that was calculated before T/C.

2. The controllers love their voice so much that they repeat themselves at least 2 times when giving climb/descend or taxi instructions after confirmation. This has never been an issue in 6.52.

3. On approach I was vectored off the STAR which is ok since I haven't disabled vectoring, but then ATC assigned me RWY 34 instead of 29 which was originally planned. I can't recall exactly from 6.52 that ATC would assign another runway for landings than what is in the flightplan. Bug or feature?

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

I would like to think that it's a feature that's related to wind direction, but it would take a lot of testing to figure out whether that is true. I guess we'll have to wait for a revised users manual for the release version of V7.

[armchair_pilot 54]

You may be right Jay, Vox does indeed take weather into account. It just surprises me because the weather source for the flight plan and the sim was the same.

[zmak 331]

Im having voice volume issues even when the voice configuator is maxed out I can barley here the controller and pilots and thats with the mixer volume as high as vox atc will go in win 7

Also the voice configurator keeps resetting and dropping the volume further

Never had this issue with previous version.

[jer029 3]

Is Vox7.4 the beta ?  

Regardless, I'm still a big fan of VoxATC.  I've downloaded the p3d v4 version and installed it along with the voxpop voices.  I've just noted some minor issues:

The Recent Comms window is blank  or empty (no recent comms text is being displayed there).

Some unusual altitude changes on one of the flights - KDLH to KMSP, Bainy3 Arrival I was on an IFR flight at cruise alt 14000.  I get to the Bainy3 arrival and ATC instructs me to climb to FL240.  Don't know why it did that (does Bainy 3 have such altitude restrictions?), then ATC eventually has me descend to 7500.  Why 7500 on an IFR approach?

Other than these minor things, VoxATC worked very well and I was vectored down to the ILS and taxied to and from takeoff to parking without problems.  

I did notice that the taxi instructions seem to be staggered, with the illuminated path also lighting up staggered rather than the entire path to parking or the runway hold line as it has done in past FSX versions.  This version seems to guide me to an intersecting taxiway before giving me further instruction and lighting the path.  This is not a particular problem - just different than previous versions - not sure if this is the intended behavior.

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

3 hours ago, jer029 said:

  I get to the Bainy3 arrival and ATC instructs me to climb to FL240

The transitions TTAIL, GGULL, COLDD and HHOGS expect FL240. 

https://flightaware.com/resources/airport/KMSP/STAR/all/pdf

[jer029 3]

Thanks jabloomf1230,  I posed that question in my post but should have looked it up myself.  I forgot to add the issue in my original post that I also get some clipping of the atc audio messages that I didn't notice in earlier versions.

John

 

[ricka47 611]

1 hour ago, jer029 said:

Thanks jabloomf1230,  I posed that question in my post but should have looked it up myself.  I forgot to add the issue in my original post that I also get some clipping of the atc audio messages that I didn't notice in earlier versions.

John

 

I also get the partial green lights but then get more as I progress.  So, maybe it's by design?  I am getting clipping of some responses as well.  I'm new to VoxATC (just bought it), so I can't compare it to earlier versions.  

Speaker of the green lights, I do like them much better than the yellow arrows of the default progressive taxi.  But, is there any way to dim them a bit?  They are OK up close but look like a bright green glow further down the taxiway.

 

[jer029 3]

I agree Rick, and I think it would involve changing the size of a bmp file somewhere like needs to be done in FSX with runway lighting when set to really wide screen (like 3 monitors).  I haven't played around with it or googled a fix for that recently, but might go back and look at those different bmp files in fsx to see if I can figure it out.

 

John

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

2 hours ago, jer029 said:

I agree Rick, and I think it would involve changing the size of a bmp file somewhere like needs to be done in FSX with runway lighting when set to really wide screen (like 3 monitors).  I haven't played around with it or googled a fix for that recently, but might go back and look at those different bmp files in fsx to see if I can figure it out.

 

John

Actually, it's not that hard to alter the green progressive taxi lights.  First the disclaimer. The following instructions are for personal use only. You should make backup copies of any altered files. Lastly, Changing any built-in behavior of VOXATC could lead to unexpected results.

The lights are generated by a SimObject located in this folder:

<drive>:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\SimObjects\Misc\VXTaxiLightGreen

Edit the sim.cfg file with any text editor and you will see these lines:

[Lights]
light.0=  1,   0.0, 0.0, 0.2, fx_navgrec

The last item fx_navgrec is the effect file that is used to create the light. For example, to change it to a blinking green light, change the line to:

light.0=  1,   0.0, 0.0, 0.2, fx_navgre_blink

Any simple light effect in the P3d folder:

G:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\Effects

can be substituted. Or you can create your own effect with the freeware fxEditor. It is also possible to change the entire look of the SimObject by creating a replacement version with Model  Converter X.

 

[john1383 3]

Continuing general comments on voxatc v7 for p3dv4, I have bought it as I enjoyed v6 and hope v7 will eventually as usable as v6 was but unfortunately it is not there yet.

I have spent the last week or so trying it out, I am retired so have plenty of time for diagnostic assessments, as we used to say!

I have reported some things to Tegwyn, which he has acknowledged.

I never had any issues with v6, at all, but v7 is a bit frustrating.

For example using the FO feature which should automatically tune the comm radio, this no longer works after intercepting the GS. It stays on the approach frequency and ATC endlessly asks for it to be changed to that of the tower, but it never does change.

Using voice control, again once on the GS, ATC gives instructions but the facility to respond is not possible as the text becomes "blue" and unreadable immediately as if I had already done the readback.

Although one can still make up a response, this should not happen. I expect to have to acknowledge all ATC instructions while they are still "green" text.

Obviously it is still possible to land safely etc but there is something not quite right.

Could be my computer of course but I regularly test and use P2atc and PF3 and I have no trouble at all with them.

The Vox "help" guide or manual is also out of date for v7 and needs revised, and also the "procedure Pronunciation Editor" causes a Windows "this program has stopped working" message if I try to open it.

I may be the only one having these issues in which case it must be something in my PC not doing its stuff (win 10 64, latest updates) but as I say I have bought v7 and expect it to be a world beater soon, but for me not quite yet.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

John,

I agree with your assessment, but when one looks at the Aerosoft CRJ 700/900 (which was 7 years in development), one sees that no matter how much beta testing is done internally on a new product, the real test occurs when the product is released. VOXATC 7.4 is is designed to work with FSX, FSX-SE, P3d V3 and P3d V4. The chances of  its initial release being bug-free was next to zero. Then  consider that the V4 version had to be converted to 64 bit and that it not only handles the user's ATC (like all the other 3rd party ATC add-ons do), but it also controls and communicates with the AI. No other ATC add-on does all this. Basically, VOXATC has replaced both the default P3d ATC and the default AI. When combined with fsaerodata, Active Sky and a Navigraph subscription, this is as close as one can come to real life IFR when using a flight sim.

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

7 hours ago, jer029 said:

Thanks jabloomf1230,  I posed that question in my post but should have looked it up myself.  I forgot to add the issue in my original post that I also get some clipping of the atc audio messages that I didn't notice in earlier versions.

John

 

I used to end up with that kind of  "go a lot higher on approach" response from VOXATC also. It forced me to become a bit more formal with my IFR flight sim flight planning. In the past, I would use Little NavMap to create the flight plan. I would consult the FlightAware IFR Route Analyzer that see what the most commonly used routes and adjust the flight plan as needed. That still works in most case, but now I'm a bit more careful about consulting the weather and IFR approach plates for the arrival airport. And if I'm really feeling motivated, I use SimBrief and create a complete briefing package that covers pretty much everything.

[jer029 3]

jabloomf1230 - re: my assessment, I wasn't complaining (I think it's a remarkable addon) - I thought the developer wanted such things brought forward.  As I said in my original post, I'm still a fan - and immediately bought the registration number before I even installed it in my new p3d v4 setup.  

As for flight planning - I think the only reason I ended up with the 'high-flying' arrival route to KMSP was because I was using FSBuild for flight planning and had it set for the CRJ700/900 rather than the B1900D, which I was flying.  I adjusted the cruise altitude but it kept the arrival.  I should have checked that before posting, as I regularly use Foreflight on my ipad for planning and flying, but hadn't studied the arrival chart before posting.  My flight in the CRJ was interrupted with a CTD and I've grounded that aircraft until Aerosoft releases the fix for it.

Thanks,

John