Traffic 2005/UT/MyTraffic X comparison

[Guest nigel28]

well, I have tried a few different traffic programs from UT, to MyTraffic to Traffic 2005. All have their good points. However, after all the negativity, I finally broke down and decided to try Traffic 05 after achieving sub-par results from UT and MyTraffic in FSX.Traffic '05 has the best performance/aircraft detail ratio of the three that I tried. UT has great aircraft models but they are severe framerate hogs. Even after running a few passes to remove light maps and convert them to DX1 textures, anything over 20 percent traffic and FSX slows to a snails crawl. With MyTraffic, the models are very FPS friendly. However, the detail is very archaic and the aircraft lights are horrid. Traffic 05 has the perfect blend of the two. The aircraft models on Traffic 05 are very nice looking with great animations and they are very FPS friendly. I was sitting at Heathrow airport looking over the terminal at dawn with the ramp almost full of aircraft staring down 08L into London and was achieving 30 FPS. Mind you, I dont have autogen on. But, everything else is set at around 75 percent. I love the product. I have also added the expansion packs Jetliners, Commuters, and Military Aircraft vol. 1. It is a little pricey for all the packages however, this is by far the best alternative for FSX right now in my case. This is just to help those who are thrwarted with which program to buy. Give Traffic 05 a try.

[Joseph 0]

Interesting. I was all set to buy a package and poured over all 3 majaor sites and came to the conclusion that each one had something that was a "show stopper" for me. I used UT for the previous FS and really liked it. Unfortunatly they have no upgrade or new version as of yet (and may not have ever).I do want perhaps the impossible; great models, frame rates, semi-real schedules, wide coverage, a spotter mode and a general "this feels right" feeling.Ok... I can bend. Bottom line right now is for me to wait... then again if I see nothing down the road I will break down and probably get 2005 (though the name sounds like it is an old version with 2007 just around the corner).Thanks for the post... has me itching once again.

[Augie 2]

Ok, for FSX there's Traffic 2005, and MyTraffic X, and possibly Ultimate Traffic (if and when they decide to update it).And then there's Traffic X, coming in Q1 of 2007, according to this:http://flyawaysimulation.com/article1788.htmlMy experience with UT for FS9 was good, and I was originally thinking of sticking with that, not having tried the others. But then I saw article about Traffic X and thought I'd wait and see some screenshots of it before making a final decision. And then there's always the excellent freeware stuff out there like WOAI. Ahh, decisions, decisions. :)

[GHarrall 494]

Freeware FPS models are 100% better than any of the commercial packages, provided you don't mind a bit of work. The end result is well worth the effort and you have a fully customized traffic solution.World of AI is a great starting place as they have some excellent packages of the best freeware models that use a nice installer.Some of the newer PAI packages use nice FPS freindly models too.Glenn

[Guest KaelOost]

Hey all,I've been down this path. I used Traffic 2005 for FS9, but didn't like the fact that the flightplans are unrealistic, putting airlines at airports they never get too. For FSX, I bought UT (the FS9 version) and installed it into FSX (There are a few, but not many problems with this, certinatly nothing that can't be overcome). I then started the process of replacing all the very average models that come with UT with AIA, FSPainter, Evolve and PAI models. This is much better on frames, and they obviously look a lot better too. Its been a long process, but once its done, you've got the best of both worlds ; Good models, realistic flightplans and good FPS.When they release UT for FSX, then I'll swap over to that, and replace the models that come with it with the AIA and FSPainter models I already have. Until then, I'm sticking with UT and FSX.

[Guest Speed]

A "bit" of work?!?!I went down that path with FS9 and spent hundreds of hours assembling the worlds traffic, completely replacing UT models and supplementing the schedules with missing airlines, creating my own GA and military traffic. It was argually better than any payware packages but for the hours its not worth it. I'd rather just pay someone else to do it.

[jorandp 0]

Personally, I have always prefered Traffic X for two reasons:a) AI airplanes are very friendly, in term of fps,:( very easy to add or modify flight plans.Concerning traffic at airports where it should not go, this is recurent with all AI traffic add-ons, for the simple reasons that, when copying the real airlines flight plans, they integrate the code-share flights.So it gives strange results such as:-plenty of NW A320's in Amsterdam, operated in fact by KL, under NW flight numbers, or,-plenty of SK DC9's (not flying anymore) in North america, on sectors operated by UA on behalf of SK, from SK US gateways....!This is why I always delete code-share flights (mostly 4 digits) from flightplans,which create non existing and huge additional traffic.PatrickGeneva, Switzerland

[Guest nigel28]

I agree that the flight plans are very easy to modify in traffic 05. I do like world-of-ai but I have had the issue of the traffic being at either 0 or 100 percent...meaning I have not been able to scale traffic with the slider with world-of-ai planes...this results in some major performance problems at big airports when all of a sudden you have 60-70 planes on the ground and 20 or so on approach. It slows my system to a screeching halt!! Is there a way to scale down the percentage of world-of-ai planes???

[Guest JohnEGPF]

Is there a way to scale down the percentage of world-of-ai planes???I'm using WOAI great looking models and very good in the FPS department.I used TTools to decompile the BGL's I then opened the flightplan in notepad, and noticed every flight had a 1% at the start like this:AC#1000,G-EZJA,1%,WEEK,IFR,1/07:23:51,@1/10:59:11,340,F,5303,GMMX,1/11:28...etc etc etcWorking through each flight I set the first to 5% next to 10% adding 5% each time until I got to 60% then just started over again until I got to the end of the flightplan then simply recompiled it,took a little time with the Big airlines like BA But they scale well now via the % slider in FSX.CheersJohn

[northtexas 51]

>Is there a way to scale down the percentage of world-of-ai>planes???>>I'm using WOAI great looking models and very good in the FPS>department.>I used TTools to decompile the BGL's I then opened the>flightplan in notepad, and noticed every flight had a 1% at>the start like this:>>AC#1000,G-EZJA,1%,WEEK,IFR,1/07:23:51,@1/10:59:11,340,F,5303,GMMX,1/11:28...etc>etc etc>Working through each flight I set the first to 5% next to 10%>adding 5% each time until I got to 60% then just started over>again until I got to the end of the flightplan then simply>recompiled it,took a little time with the Big airlines like BA> But they scale well now via the % slider in FSX.>>Cheers>JohnYou can do it a lot faster by downloading reduceai.zip from the Avsim Library. Another nice little utility is FP_FS9_FSX, a FSX Flight plan compatibility checker and converter that can be found here:http://aifs.pvdveen.net/