Lorby Live Traffic not discontinued

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

Hello @ll,

unfortunately the free datasources that LLTX was using are no longer free. The RealTraffic subscription is currently the only datasource left for LLTX.

Therefore I have decided to remove the app from the downloads options on the Lorby Site.   to limit LLTX cost free operations to what is currently possible.

In my latest devel version of LLTX I have implemented a new route planner for the planes in "Simulator AI" mode that doesn't require accessing the RouteFinder website. If LLTX users who also have RealTraffic wish to try it, please feel free to contact me.

Best regards

Edited May 8, 2019 by Lorby_SI

[roland_lfor 245]

Damned, really bad news indeed!

I was wondering why my sky was empty.

Something strange however, the Lorby Live traffic windows is still showing for example: "Flight displayed: 0/293" so I thought that live feed was still available (293) and was looking for a software issue.

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

20 minutes ago, roland_lfor said:

Something strange however, the Lorby Live traffic windows is still showing for example: "Flight displayed: 0/293" so I thought that live feed was still available (293) and was looking for a software issue.

Hi,

no, that is normal. The aircraft themselves and their positions are read from the OpenSkyNetwork, which is still available, hence the total number. But OSN only have the position data, they don't have neither the aircraft type nor the origin or destination info. That has been read from ADSB-Ex, which has now closed the free access. (well, you can have free access, but you must register and contribute to the network by feeding in your own ADSB receiver. )

As an alternative it would be possible to let all planes be created with the default liveries, and then map every transponder ID to a real aircraft manually. But there are just so many of them, we would never see the end of it. Maybe one day OSN will have at least the aircraft type, that would already help a lot. 

Anyway, I was never really happy with the free datasource, because especially the data from ADSB-Ex was very unreliable. More often than not the data for a flight was that of a historic one with the same flight number, with incorrect aircraft type and airports. I had to write a lot of logic to create routes from this that made any sense when in "Simulator AI" mode. The RealTraffic option has always been the superior one in that regard. My favorite setup is LLTX with RT in Simulator AI mode, since the aircraft then interact properly with ATC, they taxi in and out etc. Just like any AI product would, but with the icing on the cake that these flights are actually happening right now in the real world.

Best regards

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

I have been thinking, and what I could do with little effort is, to assign a random aircraft of the same airline to a dataset from OpenSkyNetwork. That will be wrong 98% of the time, but there would be aircraft in the sky that are more or less plausible. Manual corrections of the aircraft type are saved linked to the transponder ID - so when the same ID pops up again, LLTX will choose the correct plane automatically. If you invest an hour of plane spotting every now and then, over time your local database should grow to be pretty good.

Not sure if anyone would want that though - ?

Best regards

Edited April 30, 2019 by Lorby_SI

[roland_lfor 245]

Great idea, I prefer to see wrong aircraft model but real route and time in the sky than nothing of course :)

And spend some time for spotting and enhance the local traffic quality is nice.

Thanks for sharing.

Edited May 1, 2019 by roland_lfor

[roland_lfor 245]

16 hours ago, Lorby_SI said:

no, that is normal. The aircraft themselves and their positions are read from the OpenSkyNetwork, which is still available, hence the total number. But OSN only have the position data, they don't have neither the aircraft type nor the origin or destination info.

On their website aircraft types and routes are available. Does it mean that observing the traffic is free but "retrieving" from the protocol is not free? Quite strange.

Edited May 1, 2019 by roland_lfor

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

Just now, roland_lfor said:

On their website aircraft types and routes are available. Does it mean that observing the traffic is free but "retrieving" from the protocol is not free? Quite strange.

Everything on OpenSky Network is free. But the API is limited in many ways. The live data simply doesn't contain the aircraft ICAO type nor the departure/arrival airports. That data must come from elsewhere, and in the past was queried from "ADS-B Exchange", another website. Now OpenSky has an aircraft database too, with the flights of some aircraft. I query that one too, and when there is data, I am using it. But that data is often only of historic relevance - the aircraft type is of course correct, identified by the transponder ID, but departure and arrival aren't, because they are from the last flight that the aircraft made. This is not really an issue in "Live" mode, since the airports don't matter, but it certainly is a problem in "Simulator AI" mode. Also that aircraft database is very limited, and for a lot of flights there just isn't anything there - not even the aircraft type.

Best regards

[roland_lfor 245]

Good news, I prefer using the "Live mode"

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

Hi,

sorry, I was wrong about the OpenSky aircraft database part, I confused it with another datasource (that I can't use either). It is there, but it is not accessible from the API. So the aircraft type is completely randomized I'm afraid - unless corrected manually.

Best regards

Edited May 1, 2019 by Lorby_SI

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

Hello Roland,

I sent you a PM here on AVSIM with a download link to that new version.

Best regards

[roland_lfor 245]

Oliver thanks, it's working fine.

Maybe I'm lucky but I checked several flights info on Flight Radar 24 and all checked aircraft real models were all correct in sim.

Perfect!

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

Hello @ll,

I got too many requests to handle all of them manually, unfortunately I am very busy currently.

So I have decided to put the latest version of LLTX back up on the DOWNLOADS page of the Lorby-SI website - it is way at the bottom of the page.

This version still has a cost free option for real world traffic, but that is limited. When using only the OpenSkyNetwork data, the aircraft models will be picked at random from the fleet of the appropriate airline, plus departure and arrival airports are unknown. So this free option only makes sense in "Live AI" mode, where there is no ground traffic.

The mode that is using RealTraffic as datasource is still fully featured, you can use "Live mode" or "Simulator AI" mode with good results. "Live mode" is what it says on the tin, all aircraft will be where they are in the real world too at all times (without ground traffic). "Simulator AI" mode instead creates the real world flights that are happening right now as "legacy" AI in your simulator as you know it, which will taxi in/out properly and interact with ATC. They won't fly the real world routes, but LLTX has two options for advanced routing built in to make it more believable.

Best regards

Edited May 8, 2019 by Lorby_SI

[Romio59 1]

On 5/8/2019 at 5:40 PM, Lorby_SI said:

Hello @ll,

I got too many requests to handle all of them manually, unfortunately I am very busy currently.

So I have decided to put the latest version of LLTX back up on the DOWNLOADS page of the Lorby-SI website - it is way at the bottom of the page.

This version still has a cost free option for real world traffic, but that is limited. When using only the OpenSkyNetwork data, the aircraft models will be picked at random from the fleet of the appropriate airline, plus departure and arrival airports are unknown. So this free option only makes sense in "Live AI" mode, where there is no ground traffic.

The mode that is using RealTraffic as datasource is still fully featured, you can use "Live mode" or "Simulator AI" mode with good results. "Live mode" is what it says on the tin, all aircraft will be where they are in the real world too at all times (without ground traffic). "Simulator AI" mode instead creates the real world flights that are happening right now as "legacy" AI in your simulator as you know it, which will taxi in/out properly and interact with ATC. They won't fly the real world routes, but LLTX has two options for advanced routing built in to make it more believable.

Best regards

Hello,
does LLTX still work at all???

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

1 hour ago, Romio59 said:

Hello,
does LLTX still work at all???

Yes.

[Romio59 1]

55 minutes ago, Lorby_SI said:

Yes.

I have downloaded and installed the program for Prepar3d Vers. 4.5. On startup, an error message appears from Windows. If you click on continue, the program Lorby Live Traffic opens, but it does not connect to Opensky!