VoxATC 7 Beta bugs

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

7 hours ago, Heathrow to Dublin said:

It didn't seem to solve the problem.  The planes still turns off into the grass (runway 1) and disappears.  An aircraft landing on the other runway taxied off the runway OK but took 3 tries to park at the gate.  That runway is not used much. 

You've got something  else wrong with your VOXATC  installation. The AI aircraft are following some taxi paths from a file in scenery.cfg. Also, every time that you add or delete airport files when testing make sure that you rerun the VOXATC Indexer. Could you upload your scenery.cfg to Dropbox etc. so we could take a look at it?

Another tack might be to download  and install the utility FSX Simple Airport Scanner :

http://www.scruffyduck.org/simple-airport-scanner/4584282795

[Heathrow to Dublin 1]

13 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

You've got something  else wrong with your VOXATC  installation. The AI aircraft are following some taxi paths from a file in scenery.cfg. Also, every time that you add or delete airport files when testing make sure that you rerun the VOXATC Indexer. Could you upload your scenery.cfg to Dropbox etc. so we could take a look at it?

Another tack might be to download  and install the utility FSX Simple Airport Scanner :

http://www.scruffyduck.org/simple-airport-scanner/4584282795

Thanks.  Scanner showed the Washington X file and the Mytraffic file.  I deleted Mytraffic file again.  The planes now exit at the turnoff but then go astray into another grassy area and get deleted.

It also found an ORBX Ireland Dublin duplicate file, so I disabled all eidw orbx files.  Planes get stuck on certain taxiways there and then get deleted.  They don't use high speed exits.  They take multiple attempts to park sometimes.

Nothing much in the scenery.cfg that would be unusual I think.  But i'll look into getting a file share account.

 

[kevinfirth 1,393]

4 hours ago, Heathrow to Dublin said:

Thanks.  Scanner showed the Washington X file and the Mytraffic file.  I deleted Mytraffic file again.  The planes now exit at the turnoff but then go astray into another grassy area and get deleted.

It also found an ORBX Ireland Dublin duplicate file, so I disabled all eidw orbx files.  Planes get stuck on certain taxiways there and then get deleted.  They don't use high speed exits.  They take multiple attempts to park sometimes.

Nothing much in the scenery.cfg that would be unusual I think.  But i'll look into getting a file share account.

 

ai behaviour on the ground will always be controlled by the ai system and afcad thats active.

you can use ADE to open and  check any scenery's afcad and make sure it aligns with rw facilities.  

you may want to research ai behaviour under different conditions as the sim itself will do some non standard things depending on the traffic load and afcad in use. (ie almost never use high spd exits for one)

i dont have the sceneries you refer to so cant try to duplicate, but it sounds like a combination of afcad and ai rules....

[Heathrow to Dublin 1]

I did not see any obvious issues with taxiways with ADE with Washington or Dublin.  I don't know how to use that program though and I really don't have time to learn it just for vox.  However, all looked like it was normal from the diagram layout.

Also, I can't get planes to land at LOWI or LSZH.  Seems that at Orbx LOWI, the planes just overfly the airport for runway 08, and at LSZH I don't see any arrivals.  I deleted duplicate AFCADs -- they were all mytraffic files.

Another issue, is that the VoxPop voices I downloaded all sound like the female 1 voice.  I.e, when I test the male voices in the configurator, the female voice sounds. I followed instructions and installed the base first.  I must point out that the female voice is not very good quality -- it can't pronounce some words well at all.  The configurator also crashes if I test the windows voices, but they work in the sim.

I've un/installed this program multiple times but that didn't solve the issues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

The voice configurator bug in the beta was reported to developer early on. It doesn't  impact VOXATC in any way other than one can't test the voices for quality and speed. The Windows  voices can be checked via the OS voice applet. 

I'm at a loss as to why your AI aircraft  aren't flying and taxiing correctly. Does this happen also at stock airports (not those with My Traffic  6 versions)? In the sim, temporarily uncheck the MyTraffic  scenery entry and start a flight at a stock airport.

[specialist 51]

I removed VoxATC from my computer a long time ago because of the issue of traffic taxing all over the place except on the right taxiway and runway, and seen traffic parked in the grass along the side of the runway instead where they were suppose to be. I see nothing has changed after almost a year away from VoxATC. Are they ever going to find the developer who is MIA, to fix these issues, or come up with a solution?

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

3 hours ago, specialist said:

I removed VoxATC from my computer a long time ago because of the issue of traffic taxing all over the place except on the right taxiway and runway, and seen traffic parked in the grass along the side of the runway instead where they were suppose to be. I see nothing has changed after almost a year away from VoxATC. Are they ever going to find the developer who is MIA, to fix these issues, or come up with a solution?

Johnny,

I generally avoid the back and forth banter, because it usually doesn't result in anything being resolved. But you raise a couple of points which with I take issue. First of all,  if AI aircraft wandering around was a generic bug, then why do most people not experience this problem with VOXATC?  No other ATC addon  both controls AI aircraft and displays realistic communication with them also. But VOXATC is dependent on the user maintaining a "clean" scenery.cfg configuration. Scenery.cfg cannot reference multiple 3rd party copies of an addon airport. Many users do not even realize that My Traffic 6 contains thousands of revised copies of airports. To me this was a "gift" from the developer Burkhard Renk who painstakingly modified FSX stock airports by adding more  (and larger) true to life gates, ramps and parking. Without these modifications, the user would have to buy many payware airports. Unfortunately, to maintain a clean scenery.cfg, one has to disable individual My T 6 airports where they overlap with another version of an addon airport. This problem is not specific to VOXATC. People have also complained that the ORBX freeware airport packages and My T 6 airports conflict. This is just the nature of how scenery works (or more correctly put, doesn't work) in FSX and P3d. FSX and P3d use the concept of exclusions to block out items from stock airports. But if two or more versions of an addon airport are doing that simultaneously, the results are unpredictable. 

A second problem is the ordering of scenery entries in scenery.cfg.  Put just one entry out of order and mysterious results occur in the sim. Again, just look at all the time ORBX support staff have spent online with users trying to explain the order of ORBX scenery entries. For 3rd party airports to work correctly, they should be the highest priority in scenery.cfg. I am as guilty as the next person in not maintaining scenery.cfg properly. I recently realized that I had 3 different versions of several Caribbean island airports all active at once and then sat there dumbfounded as to why the runways were wrong and there were palm trees on the taxiways.

A third problem is that there are often addon airports of various vintages all mashed together in the user's scenery library. Some are designed for FS9 and have no business being used in either FSX or P3d, but people insist on using them anyway. Certain aspects of FSX airports don't work correctly in P3d V3, although those problems are fairly minor.

A fourth problem is that 3rd party airports do sometimes have errors in taxiway links, taxiway names, gates, runways and navaids. VOXATC has no way of compensating for all that.

Lastly, I want to say something about your comment regarding Tegwyn West, the developer of VOXATC. The developers of flight sim addons are generally not a bunch of young kids. Many have been around since the early days of the MS Flight Simulator series. Recently, the developers of the beautiful and realistic RealAir aircraft announced that due to a family illness (and other issues) that they were closing up shop. And since I mentioned Burk Renk, I should add that he too recently apologized on his support forum for not being able to provide online support for an extended period of time, due to an illness. And Mr. West? No one here at AVSim knows what happened. Maybe he's in perfect health. Maybe he just decided to give up developing VOXATC. Or maybe he's still working on an RTM version of VOXATC 7. But in any case, all the complaining here will not change the situation. You can either remove it from your computer or not. That is your decision. Keep in mind that the beta was full-featured and provided free of charge. 

Jay

[specialist 51]

Well, first of all, I don't use MyTraffic6 or UT2, so I have no clue what those programs would or would not do to VoxATC.

Second, I do keep my scenery cfg clean and in order. Even when I install a new scenery, I always double check to make sure there are no duplicates, or compatibility issues, and that it installed properly using a scenery configuration editor tools. I also never use scenery that are not fully supported or meant for FSX or P3D.

Lastly, I did remove VoxATC from my computer, and just like many developers or old time simmers out there, I'm not a young pup either. I've been around since MSFS inception, and have great respect for developers who have done wonders to improve our hobby. Case and point, RealAir, which I happen to have two of their great aircraft, and was also sad to hear about the illness issue that caused them to close shop. At least they let their customer know what happen and why they had to close. Even then, they didn't leave us in the dark, giving us continue access to the website to download our purchases and installation support. Maybe VoxATC developer is around, maybe not, but if you have other plans, have the courtesy to let your clients know, and at least we don't have to have these conversations. Don't give me this free of charge nonsense, the idea behind it all was that in beta development, we were suppose to keep them in the loop to what was going wrong, in order for them to make improvements to a product that eventually we were going to pay for it if we wanted the final release version. Nothing wrong with being a beta tester, you expect for things not to work or go wrong, but seems that the information we kept sending up fell in deaf ears.

[Heathrow to Dublin 1]

On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 8:48 AM, jabloomf1230 said:

The voice configurator bug in the beta was reported to developer early on. It doesn't  impact VOXATC in any way other than one can't test the voices for quality and speed. The Windows  voices can be checked via the OS voice applet. 

I'm at a loss as to why your AI aircraft  aren't flying and taxiing correctly. Does this happen also at stock airports (not those with My Traffic  6 versions)? In the sim, temporarily uncheck the MyTraffic  scenery entry and start a flight at a stock airport.

 

I'll try that mytraffic test sometime soon..  For now, i'm just ignoring the AI issues and trying not to look.

 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

Trying not to look is always the best solution. Seriously  though, maybe you are better off trying another  ATC addon, rather than spending time trying to figure out what's wrong with VOXATC. Pilot2ATC  is a pretty good alternative.

[Heathrow to Dublin 1]

17 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

Trying not to look is always the best solution. Seriously  though, maybe you are better off trying another  ATC addon, rather than spending time trying to figure out what's wrong with VOXATC. Pilot2ATC  is a pretty good alternative.

Ok, but P2ATC doesn't talk to planes which is something I need. I need to hear the AI being controlled to give me a sense of realism.  I am also trying PF3 but i'm not happy with the voices and getting voice control requires another program. 

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

True. VOXATC is unique  in that regards. All the rest of the ATC  apps have fake chatter with AI aircraft that detracts from the experience. I suppose you could also try VATSIM.

[specialist 51]

PilotEdge is the ultimate ATC for simmers, but it only covers from Colorado to the west coast of the US. That's the only way you are going to get any real world ATC communication in your sim. Draw backs are cost and region limitations, but great if you are a pilot in training.

[nam1394 10]

4 hours ago, specialist said:

PilotEdge is the ultimate ATC for simmers, but it only covers from Colorado to the west coast of the US. That's the only way you are going to get any real world ATC communication in your sim. Draw backs are cost and region limitations, but great if you are a pilot in training.

Johnny,

how does PE deal with addon airports? What if I have an addon airport that is defferent from the controller and other pilots?

 

regards

[Heathrow to Dublin 1]

Take off from LHR with FSLABS.  119.725 tuned in for departure after hand off from tower.  No contact after speaking the text from Heathrow Director.  FSLABS A/P then disconnects on climb out and reselecting it does not work. No further contact from ATC.

 

 I've had successful flights with Vox and FSlabs a320 before, so this is weird. I've tried 3 times now, only once did I get to contact director.