Presently I am using PAI. I am satisfied with it, sufficiently for my usage.But the frame rate takes a hit. I know that all AI software hit the frame rate.I just want to know if somebody had the chance to compare different payware and freeware fo AI ? What would be the one having the least impact ? I am not searching which AI is the best in overall, just the frame rate.Roger

The golden rule used to be AI Aardvark for Boeings and FSP for airbus (airbii?). AIA are still superb for good framerates and should be used.A new group called EvolveAI is now releasing more framerate friendly airbuses using the same detail as Aardvark. IMO these are what you should go after. Up close at the gates they look great, and as you move away the detail drops to conserve frames.

Look here a great tip to gain some FPS and get rid of the AI pause loading hehehe works for me :-)http://www.flightsimmer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30225UT is out and USING custom AI Aardvark/FSP/EVOLVEAI/PAI far better looking :-)With MRAI flightplans :-) with different % :-) (via installer or AITM)Andr

Some of the latest payware (My Traffic 2006 / Traffic 2005) might be a little better than the PAI planes. Their newer models have more consistent LOD and polygon counts.Of course the basic issue is that the more aircraft you add to your Flightsim world - the more it takes.I would most strongly urge you to learn how to manually add aircraft to your world.The EvolveAI A321 is a great looking third generation AI aircraft. That aircraft alone will have a major impact on airports like EGLL and EGKK where the A321 is very common.Their DC-10 will also help.The AIA Boeing series - especially the B747's are wonderful. AI has also recently released the MD 80 and 90 aircraft.The FSP B777 series is another great up to date aircraft.Unfortunately some of the other Airbus aircraft have not been updated with newer models.A full / semi-realistic AI world will take aircraft from every modeler to cover all the desired repaints.Don't look at it as a huge task - but several small chunks of work you can do which will each yield measurable improvements in performance.One other recommendation - check any flight plans you down load from any source.Too many people write their flightplans with every flight at 1% - so they will not give you the ability to turn down the AI traffic at airports your system cannot handle.You will want to use AITM to randomize the AI percentages.

I second that - and I think you will find the Aardvark and Evolve aircraft better looking as well as easier on your frame rates.The links you want are:http://www.ai-aardvark.comhttp://www.evolveai.comThese are worth a llok too:http://www.htaimodels.com

Thank you to all.I already looked at AIA. I have difficulty to get the whole picture of how the stuff works. Is there a place where some explanation/manual/tutorial can be examined ?I did not yet really realized that EvolveAI existed. I must really check this one up.Roger

I think I found a site for learning about AI: http://www.wilsonsairspace.com/tlc.htmlRoger

Adding AI aircraft and repaint is no harder than addin a user aircraft and repaint.The Jet Doctor tutorials have helped many of us learn - Go to the Learning Center on Steve Wilson's site - he graciously devotes the space and bandwidth to keep them alive - http://www.wilsonsairspace.com/John Goodwin also has some great tutorials - he does focus on Ultimate Traffic - but the general advice is excellent - http://www.john-goodwin.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/index.htmlPerhaps the toughest issue serious AI fans face is file management.That's why I continue to use Ultimate Traffic as my shell to manage all my schedules, additional airlines, repaints, etc.Plus their schedules for the major airlines are as good, or better, than any other source. They might be up to this week for the very latest changes to airline ABC - but in the overall picture with their very reasonable priced semi-annual updates - no one else comes close.However, for airlines which have unique and special repaint configurations - especially for specific registration numbers - I will cut that airline out of the UT schedule and compile it in my supplementary traffic file.I use AITM's project feature to keep my traffic files down to about a half dozen - but can easily update / replace an individual airline at an time.I do import all my extra traffic files into Ultimate Traffic so that I have complete schedules available, route maps, etc. Though I keep a master list of which airlines I compile in UT and which are in my supplemental file.Which every method you use, you have to have some type of record keeping system or you will find yourself duplicating schedules and repaints.

Thank you for your long reply.I am still in the learning curve for Radar Contact 4 But very soon I will immerge myself in the AI litterature and tutorials now that I received the directions where to search them.Roger

While these addon AI packages are great, and perform better than their payware competitors', I just don't have the time to download and install several hundred packages to get a somewhat complete representation of global scheduled air traffic...Isn't there a one-stop shop for good, low-poly freeware AI?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. It takes a little reasearch and effort on the part of the user to get your models upgraded.The effort is well worth it, and can be pretty fun. It's a whole hobby in itself.I use UT for schedules and the interface. Overtime, I have replaced many of the models. You can do just a few at a time. You could just go in and update a particular airline, or do just 737-700's, or all planes you see at your favorite airport or whatever. A great place to start is with AI Aardvark. They have a great website that makes it very easy to find the appropriate models and repaints. Just try it a few planes at a time and you will be hooked before you know it.Tony=http://www.flightsim-bevs.com]

ahhh memories!First I bought UT and was amazed at the cool real world airplanes. Then I found projectai and aardvark, fspainter, and was in heaven. adding replacement models was addicting! And it was so easy in the UT interface.Then I found that user created schedules and mrai are for the most part, more complete than UT, and I enjoyed flying into smaller airports once in a while and finding, say, Southwest who just announced flights a few weeks ago to that location.I ditched UT and on my new computer have spent 70% of my time adding traffic and replacing and adding new flight plans, and only 30% flying! Now I have got myself in a corner though as I've added so much traffic (my main commercial traffic text file is 19 megs, pretty big for just text!) I have a bad texture somewhere causing a crash to desktop! Now if I could only find out what texture is casuing this problem... but in general, be careful with the AI, it gets extremely addicting

I remeber having this dicussion with you a while back, BigAl. I think that I'll have to have a look at replacing some of the UT models with some FPS friendly ones. I don't have any time to fly as it is, really don't want to spend it scheduling other planes...Did you find that one particular series gave you the best improvement, if you recall? I'm thinking that I'll do the boeings first - probably the 767, 757 and 737 to start - that'll represent a lot of the local US traffic anyhow...