Hello All,

After a long time away from flight sims i've just made the leap to P3D (previously on FSX!).

Following much trial and error i've got most of my old scenery & tools up and running, but having a rather frustrating issue with Pro-ATC/X: everything seems to be working apart from taxi instructions, e.g. using UK2000 Heathrow Extreme the taxi instriuction will just be 'taxi via runway 23R'. I seem to get the same at any airport that I try.

I have successfully imported scenery and runways into PATC (multiple times).

Has anyone encountered this and found a solution?

On their forum, there are some recorded instances of this issue.

When I was running P3D v4.5, my work-around was using an older version of Makerunways (I think it was 4.8.4). That older version of Makerunways no longer works in P3D v5.

I'm still using the software without the departure taxi information (arrival works fine). Ironically, I have noticed, the Nav needle still points to the path of the desired taxiway when using Pro-ATC-X.

My two latest requests for assistance for this issue at the Pro-ATC-X forum have not been approved...I guess the mods don't want to hear about it (or from me) anymore.

Its sad, but, it appears as though the developer has walked away from the software...there has not been an update in some time...the forum appears to be moderated by volunteers.

There was an announcement that they would be making a new version of Pro-ATC/X for MSFS, but it also said not to expect that any time soon. No comment on updates for the P3D/FSX version other than that they won't say anything at all until they have something to announce. This 'you'll just have to wait' attitude is pretty rife in Flight Sim development, I find. Not that it isn't common in other kinds of commercial software development too. Supposedly the reason why everything just stopped is that the actual developer of Pro-ATC/X had a serious accident of some kind and has been recovering. But it's been years since even a point update. I guess it must have been a very bad accident, and if so, obviously I feel bad for the guy, but total radio silence for months on end is not really acceptable for a commercial product. The project manager says not to expect any updates of any kind before Q2 2021 and that's all they will say. But as rmeier notes, the forum is run by volunteers who don't know any more than anyone else, and the PM appears only very occasionally and almost never says anything about the future of the product.

Then, when the developer is back working, I imagine that all the effort will go into the MSFS version and P3D users will just have to wait... again. I'm honestly starting to feel like a 2nd class citizen these days. 

Really, this is a big problem - so many crucial tools that we need to make our sims go are built by 3rd party developers where it's just one person (often as a hobby project), or there's just one developer with a commercial org like Flight1 etc in front of them (UTLive). So if that one developer has a major life issue or passes away unexpectedly, the product is basically gone. That's not a good situation for any of us. I like and use Pro-ATC/X still but it has some really noticeable issues and there's no hope of getting them fixed any time soon. 

(I realise I sort-of hijacked the thread here... but I needed a moan 🙂)

Edited November 8, 20205 yr by neilhewitt

Thanks for the responses!

21 hours ago, rmeier said:

When I was running P3D v4.5, my work-around was using an older version of Makerunways (I think it was 4.8.4). That older version of Makerunways no longer works in P3D v5.

This helped me arrive at a kind of solution..

As I still have FSX installed and mostly the same scenery addons installed in both FSX and P3D (at the moment) I was able to run an old version of makerunways on FSX.

The taxi routes seem to be contained in the T5.txt and T5.bin files generated by makerunways.

First of all I ran makerunways 5.0.1 on P3D and generated the usual .txt and .bin files in the P3D directory. I then overwrote the T5.txt and T5.bin files in P3D with the ones generated in FSX. Next I ran the AIRAC import in ATC-X and now taxi instructions are working again.

I'm not sure what the implications are using the old taxiway files, but i'd imagine that the taxiway names and locations don't vary much, particularly if you're using the same legacy scenery. I've done a couple of flights and everything seems to be working as expected..

18 hours ago, neilhewitt said:

Really, this is a big problem - so many crucial tools that we need to make our sims go are built by 3rd party developers where it's just one person (often as a hobby project), or there's just one developer with a commercial org like Flight1 etc in front of them (UTLive). So if that one developer has a major life issue or passes away unexpectedly, the product is basically gone. That's not a good situation for any of us. I like and use Pro-ATC/X still but it has some really noticeable issues and there's no hope of getting them fixed any time soon.

As I mentioned above, I've been away from simming for some time. After buying P3D 5.1 and the FSlabs A320-X I found myself plunged into addon purgatory - trying to work out which of my old purchases could be re-used and what I might need to buy. This has been translated into days of installs and reinstalls, searching forums, dead ends, frustration etc. 🙂

The biggest headache seems to be working out which products are still supported and have a future - I've quickly learnt that just because a product is still being sold it doesn't mean it's still valid! Perhaps a little more transparency on this front from developers would be helpful.

Nontheless - very grateful to all the individuals, hobbyists, developers that use their time to develop these tools!

Does appear that it might be time to move on from PATC though - VoxATC looks interesting.

I also hear good things about Pilot2ATC, but of course every ATC platform has its fans and detractors. Despite its issues I use Pro-ATC/X because it's straightforward to use, works via the standard simconnect menus, and can be operated with just a numeric keypad (I have mounted a door-style keypad onto my glareshield for this purpose so I don't have to touch the PC keyboard). I also use PF3 for VFR flying as Pro-ATC/X doesn't do VFR. I don't get along as well with it as I do with Pro-ATC/X but TBH for VFR all I really need is flight following / de-confliction. 

6 hours ago, lordonion said:

Does appear that it might be time to move on from PATC though - VoxATC looks interesting.

You could try Radar Contact v4. Free nowadays. Works with both P3D and FSX. Support? Well I do my best on the RC Forum here on AvSim.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/547732-radar-contact-and-jdtllc-in-transition/

 

Based on Lordonion's response above, I found the following thread on Pete Dowson's Forum:

https://forum.simflight.com/topic/88841-makerwys-potential-bug/

According to Pete, the issue (apparently) is with how Pro-ATC/X reads invisible hold points within (mostly) third party scenery.

The taxiway information is indeed held within the t5.bin and t5.csv files that Makerunways.exe produces.

Lordonian is correct: using Makerunways 4.8.4 in P3D v4 (assuming the same scenery installed in both sims) will correctly compile the two t5 files that can then be dropped into the P3D v5 directory.

Note: you still have to use the Data/Import AIRAC Data/Start Import feature of Pro-ATC/X to have taxiway read out correctly. (DO NOT Re-read the scenery within Pro-ATC-X.)

Happy to have this feature working again in P3D v5.

Thanks for the tip from Lordonion!

Edited November 10, 20205 yr by rmeier