XPlane and ATC / World Traffic ETC

[Skyseek 18]

This is just my opinion, I have been away for a few months. I am really frustrated with the lack of ATC support with World Traffic in X-Plane 11.  X-Plane 11 has had a long development cycle and the basic core 101 flight sim requirement is not met.  I am now considering switching back to P3D or even FSX.  Although the ATC in FSX is not perfect, it does a reasonable job with controlling traffic and setting you up on approaches, etc.  People are buying World Traffic and the A/C are not under ATC control. What is the point? 

I do like the realism and the fact X-Plane 11 supports multi-monitor configurations a lot better (FSX is too stretchy and it doesn't do a good job). Also there are quite a few airports in X-Plane 11 that are incomplete.  You can find add-ons, that correct some of the issues, FSX is much more complete. See PADQ as an example, out of the box it is terrible. Even with the corrections I have applied from the xplane.org libraries, to me it still doesn't come close.

Just some thoughts..

 

Thanks!

 

 

[tonywob 4,768]

I understand where you're coming from and agree, there are many areas lacking in this sim that FSX/P3D has had for years, but FSX/P3D has been mainstream for much longer and has more 3rd party developers, so generally it's a far more mature platform (Even though X-Plane has actually been in development for a long time).

However, there has definitely been a recent growth in X-Plane and third parties, and LR have also increased the size of their team, so things are moving forward. I just wish though that they'd stop adding more shine and new features to the sim, and go back and fix the ever growing list of items unfixed since XP11 was released. The sim is good, but it could do with a bit of polish at the moment

 

[dmarques69 316]

Again? why do you keep opening topics to say the same...

If you are not happy with XP go back to FSX, is like having a smartphone and going back to a rotary dial phone! Out of the box XP gives 10-0 to any other simulator period, the advantage of the others is the immense addons market around, but as Tony said, this is changing, anyway you cant put XP with all the good stuff nowadays  with no sweat...and with one advantage, most of the things are FREE!

[Glenn_C 135]

I think you are preaching to the choir :) You should complain to Laminar.

I use pilot2atc now and it's fantastic. ATC from start to finish with more or less the correct ATC jargon being used. ATC in FSX and P3D is completely useless as far as I'm concerned. There is no correct spacing , correct sids and stars are not adhered to, you get planes landing just ahead of you and end up in countless go-arounds.

My advice, go online if you want proper ATC badly enough or try pilot2atc, there's a 10 day trial period before you need to buy. I also heard that there maybe some WT3 / pilot2atc integration coming eventually 😉 

 

 

[ricka47 611]

1 hour ago, Glenn_C said:

I think you are preaching to the choir :) You should complain to Laminar.

I use pilot2atc now and it's fantastic. ATC from start to finish with more or less the correct ATC jargon being used. ATC in FSX and P3D is completely useless as far as I'm concerned. There is no correct spacing , correct sids and stars are not adhered to, you get planes landing just ahead of you and end up in countless go-arounds.

My advice, go online if you want proper ATC badly enough or try pilot2atc, there's a 10 day trial period before you need to buy. I also heard that there maybe some WT3 / pilot2atc integration coming eventually 😉 

 

 

I'm on the fence about getting Pilot2ATC until the WT3 integration is for sure.  I read that the learning curve is high on the program.  I had VOXATC running on P3D.  So, I'm guessing it can't be more challenging than that?

PS - Is it the case that you cannot use the program with the sim in full screen but must be in a window?

 

Edited September 2, 2018 by ricka47

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

It's about the same. Remember that XP11 users aren't used to having realistic ATC. I use P2ATC with WT3 and even without the integration, it's as good as any ATC-AI combination is in P3d4, except for VOXATC, but that's because of the integration.

To be honest, I would be surprised if any other 3rd party add-on for either sim develops integrated ATC-AI. That's why the AFS2 statement about ATC is so interesting. It remains to be seen if the AI are integrated, though.

[Glenn_C 135]

37 minutes ago, ricka47 said:

I'm on the fence about getting Pilot2ATC until the WT3 integration is for sure.  I read that the learning curve is high on the program.  I had VOXATC running on P3D.  So, I'm guessing it can't be more challenging than that?

PS - Is it the case that you cannot use the program with the sim in full screen but must be in a window?

 

I run my sim on a 50" 4k TV and other stuff on a 32" monitor above it so put pilot2atc on that. The learning curve is not that steep and captain-K-man has done a nice tutorial for it recently. For me in any case it add's much more immersion I was missing with the current offering within x-plane which we can all agree is meh.  It id $60 but includes flight planning. Give it a whirl, it's free to use for 10 days, nothing to lose.

 

[Bjoern 1,153]

2 hours ago, Glenn_C said:

😉I use pilot2atc now and it's fantastic. ATC from start to finish with more or less the correct ATC jargon being used. ATC in FSX and P3D is completely useless as far as I'm concerned. There is no correct spacing , correct sids and stars are not adhered to, you get planes landing just ahead of you and end up in countless go-arounds.

That's why you cancel IFR while aloft, revert to advisory calls and do the talking to the approach controller yourself when flying STARs. And use AISmooth to get some spacing into the AI.

The FSX/P3D is the best AI-ATC implementation I've seen in any sim other than Falcon 4.

[mjrhealth 820]

XPLANE is a "flight simulator" , it was created and used for to teach pilots how to fly. It never promised to be an ATC or Airport simulator. Yes it is nice to have ATC and AI and they are working on it, but in the end it is used by commercial airlines for flight training and in that it blows the rest out of the water. I gave up FSX and the over $3000 i spent on it so I could fly with a little realism, so in the end one has to decide how much they are willing to throw away when XPLAne reaches the goals they want, or will they find they spent to much money on patching the holes and cant afford to leave what they have.

[mwilk 1,104]

Oh boy. Popcorn time!🍿

[Bjoern 1,153]

7 hours ago, mjrhealth said:

XPLANE is a "flight simulator" , it was created and used for to teach pilots how to fly. It never promised to be an ATC or Airport simulator.

Flying an aircraft is one thing, flying in traffic is another. Learning to fly in traffic is an integral part of the learning syllabus and therefor, you'll have to have some traffic and something to manage it.

Edited September 3, 2018 by Bjoern