Anyone tried AI Live Traffic with VOX ATC?

[LecLightning56 33]

Has anyone managed to get VOX ATC to accept and interact with the .bgl files generated by AI Live Traffic? I have been experimenting with this with limited success but seem to have broken something such that no AI traffic are generated. In particular, when I had things working, aircraft would takeoff at an airport but not land.

If anyone claims to have had some success using AI Live Traffic with VOX ATC, please pass on your findings.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

I haven't use AI Live Traffic, but if it generates AI traffic BGL files, it should work with VOXATC. The sequence would be:

1. Run the AI Live Traffic app to generate the BGL files using a specific flight plan.
2. Run the VOXATC Indexer.
3. Set the VOXATC AI traffic level to 100%.
4. Run the sim and load the the same flight plan as used in #1 above.

I would use AI Companion offline in either Airport or BGL mode to make sure that the BGL files are set up correctly. You should do this before you run the sim.While running the sim, AIC has a live mode which displays active AI aircraft. It doesn't display all the variables correctly with VOXATC AI aircraft, but there is enough information displayed to make AIC useful for troubleshooting. Little NavMap will also display AI aircraft on a moving map. AIC can be found here:

https://www.alpha-india.net/forums/index.php?topic=29651.0

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

You got me curious, so I downloaded the demo. The BGL files are generated with the exact day of the week and UTC. The format for FSX/P3d is:

departureTime = DHHMM, where D = optional day of the week (0=Monday, 1=Tuesday, etc) and HHMM = zulu hour and minute of the day. For example, today is Friday, so the flightplans begin with 4.

I have no idea whether this messes up VOXATC's Indexer, since generally, BGL files have weekly flight plans and start with Monday (Day 0). The AI Live plans that are generated are weekly and only  contain data for today (Friday). But for some reason, the levels (the % that correspond to the level sliders in both the sim and VOXATC) are randomized between 1 and 100%. If I were designing the app, they would all be set to 1% to mimic the real life levels. Also, by only having 8 hours of data, it's possible that VOXATC can't figure out what to do. All this means that combining VOXATC and AI Live Traffic might work sometimes and not other times.

Also, I assume that you are using VOXATC 7.42.

[LecLightning56 33]

Thanks, Jay, for your valuable insight and comments. Yes I am using VOX ATC 7.42. I shall carry on experimenting and report back if I make any progress. Similarly if you have any further inputs/success then please advertise your findings accordingly. 

[LecLightning56 33]

I have followed your logic and tried a short flight to Heathrow and VoxATC worked to some extent but has only chucked out high-altitude flights contrailing overhead. I don't know if this result means anything to you, Jay, but there might be some way of refinement in order to achieve better results, i.e. traffic at destination.

So, some scope for optimism but it might need the interventions of the AI Live Traffic developer to produce the desired effect.

One final thing, the flight plan you generate in AI Live Traffic, cannot be imported into the sim, other than generating a flightplan from within the sim or using another from another source, albeit with the same departure/destination.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

The other problem is that each AI flight plan has only one leg (for example, KLAX to KORD) and does not return to the starting destination. Flight plans generally require closure. P3d4 may ignore this problem, but VOXATC's indexer might get confused.

Also, you could modify the activity level of all three files in bulk using AI Flight Planner:

http://stuff4fs.com/newpage.asp?folder=aifp

[LecLightning56 33]

1 hour ago, jabloomf1230 said:

The other problem is that each AI flight plan has only one leg (for example, KLAX to KORD) and does not return to the starting destination. Flight plans generally require closure. P3d4 may ignore this problem, but VOXATC's indexer might get confused.

Also, you could modify the activity level of all three files in bulk using AI Flight Planner:

http://stuff4fs.com/newpage.asp?folder=aifp

It looks as if AI Flight Planner could be the key to adjusting the flight plans and hence not confuse the VoxATC indexer. The key could be to modify the scheduling to start at Day 0. The only problem here is whether or not one can batch process the 100+ flightplans to accommodate any rescheduling. If you know any clever means of doing so, please drop me a line.

[LecLightning56 33]

26 minutes ago, LecLightning56 said:

It looks as if AI Flight Planner could be the key to adjusting the flight plans and hence not confuse the VoxATC indexer. The key could be to modify the scheduling to start at Day 0. The only problem here is whether or not one can batch process the 100+ flightplans to accommodate any rescheduling. If you know any clever means of doing so, please drop me a line.

It looks as if my hunch is correct. For a few British Airways arrivals at EGLL, I modified the flightplans to operate on a daily basis starting at Day 0, and all these flights were processed and injected into the sim by VoxATC, i.e. they dutifully appeared as arrivals which VoxATC will interact with. This vindcates your belief that the VoxATC indexer gets confused. So the key is to modify the flightplans accordingly along these lines. Again, if you have any bright ideas as to how the flightplans from AI Live Traffic could be batch-processed by e.g. AI Flight Planner to remove the drudgery, then please let me know. Also, perhaps some scope for passing on our findings to the developer of AI Live Traffic (who seems very responsive) should he see fit to modify the flightplans for identification within VoxATC. 

Edited August 24, 2019 by LecLightning56

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

20 minutes ago, LecLightning56 said:

It looks as if AI Flight Planner could be the key to adjusting the flight plans and hence not confuse the VoxATC indexer. The key could be to modify the scheduling to start at Day 0. The only problem here is whether or not one can batch process the 100+ flightplans to accommodate any rescheduling. If you know any clever means of doing so, please drop me a line.

You can batch process the activity level, but the only way to batch the days is to open the BGL with AIFP, then "Save File Set as..". This generates a set of text files. Then edit the Flightplans.txt file with Notepad (or better yet, Notepad++) to change all occurrences of 4/ (or whatever) to 0/. Open that edited file and recompile to a BGL.

[LecLightning56 33]

1 hour ago, jabloomf1230 said:

You can batch process the activity level, but the only way to batch the days is to open the BGL with AIFP, then "Save File Set as..". This generates a set of text files. Then edit the Flightplans.txt file with Notepad (or better yet, Notepad++) to change all occurrences of 4/ (or whatever) to 0/. Open that edited file and recompile to a BGL.

Bingo! It looks as if you can use "live" traffic with full VoxATC interaction from AI Live Traffic. If, as you say you edit the .txt file and replace all occurrences of "Week" with "24Hr" then remove all entries with 0/, 1/, 2/, 3/, 4/, /5, /6, the recompiled .bgl file is read in correctly by VoxATC and the airport is alive with arriving, departing and static aircraft. I may report my findings to the developer of AI Live Traffic and see if he considers any potential gains from making such modifications in his flightplan compilation, specifically for use with VoxATC. 

So thanks, Jay for your advice and at least we have paved a way forward for using the .bgl outputs from AI Live Traffic to the advantage of the VoxATC user community. Unless I am mistaken, but this would appear to be the only source of quasi-live AI traffic which can be used in VoxATC. There are obvious limitations of using ADS-B data directly, largely on account of inaccuracies (I have seen AI aircraft move very fast at airports using ADS-B data and also on completely bizarre tracks). Also the immersion is lacking in what is otherwise only eye candy if there are no ATC notifications of other traffic directly affecting your own situation. Clearly VoxATC can only operate on traffic files which are unavailable from ADS-B directly. Perhaps in the future we shall have ATC software which interacts directly with AI traffic derived from ADS-B data, if its accuracy can be improved (until such time that the authorities restrict or encrypt ADS-B for public broadcast and accessibility out of so-called national security interests). One thing that bothers me from a simming perspective with the use of ADS-B data directly for AI aircraft, is how one "slots in" with real-world scheduling when aircraft are controlled and separated by real-world ATC. There are obviously challenges in the future to bring the sort of immersion and realism that our community strives for. 

Edited August 24, 2019 by LecLightning56

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

If MSFS 2020 doesn't a ) have ATC that matches what VOXATC does and b ) doesn't use ADS-B data for AI traffic, I will be surprised.

[bmaik 11]

Can anybody help me here, I'm trying to edit the flight plans as mentinoned. I can replace the "Week" by "Hr24" but I don't get what LecLightning56 means with "remove all entries with 0/..." I understand that these are the weekdays the flight operates, but quite naturally every flight/line has such a weekday-tag. What do 1 replace the weekday numbers with? Thank you for your help and patience.

 

draci

[LecLightning56 33]

On 9/2/2019 at 7:03 PM, bmaik said:

Can anybody help me here, I'm trying to edit the flight plans as mentinoned. I can replace the "Week" by "Hr24" but I don't get what LecLightning56 means with "remove all entries with 0/..." I understand that these are the weekdays the flight operates, but quite naturally every flight/line has such a weekday-tag. What do 1 replace the weekday numbers with? Thank you for your help and patience.

 

draci

Please see my comments on your new thread.