AI Traffic Software

[Jazz 1,046]

I have been away from flightsim since about 2015 because I was bouncing off the fsx memory limitations and my PC was beginning to show its age enough to put me off P3D until I had a new one. This did not happen but gradually, I have been rebuilding this last year and it will soon be done (providing we ever see graphics cards again). Anyway, as much as I'm looking forward to MSFS my passion is in the big stuff from PMDG and the like so my main sim is still going to be P3D. At least until all my favourites have made the move and assuming MSFS flies as good as it looks.

Back in the FSX days I used to use Ultimate Traffic 2 for AI if my memory serves me correct and I am wondering what the options are for good AI these days? Another thing I wonder is does AI bother to fly SID's and STARS these days? One of the things that used to really annoy me about AI was that it did not do this.

So, what are you all using these days? What are the options and the pros and cons of each?

[LarsA 90]

AIG Traffic!

www.alpha-india.net

It's free and easy to handle with excellent models and flightplans. I'm sure, most of us are using this and I'm very happy with it! 

[Jazz 1,046]

16 minutes ago, LarsA said:

AIG Traffic!

www.alpha-india.net

It's free and easy to handle with excellent models and flightplans. I'm sure, most of us are using this and I'm very happy with it! 

I have a memory of this or something like it. Wasn't it a tedious installation and management nightmare though? One of the things I liked about Ultimate Traffic was that you just installed it, the interface was great and it just worked. I used to enjoy tinkering with my sim as much of the next guy but I don't want to spent hour upon hour messing with AI after all these years if I can avoid it.

Is AIG more of an install and work thing these days or is it still a fiddly process?

 

 

[Urmel81 189]

11 minutes ago, Jazz said:

I have a memory of this or something like it. Wasn't it a tedious installation and management nightmare though? One of the things I liked about Ultimate Traffic was that you just installed it, the interface was great and it just worked. I used to enjoy tinkering with my sim as much of the next guy but I don't want to spent hour upon hour messing with AI after all these years if I can avoid it.

Is AIG more of an install and work thing these days or is it still a fiddly process?

 

 

 

[Jazz 1,046]

49 minutes ago, Urmel81 said:

 

Thank you. I just had a small look into AIG and it seems much less of a ball ache than it used to be so maybe I will look into it a little further. It looks quite promising actually. I still wonder about the SID and STAR behaviour though?

[neilhewitt 493]

How do people find performance with AIG? AIUI it adds BGLs to the sim but uses the sim-native AI feature, which was always notorious for being an FPS killer; whereas Ultimate Traffic Live (and UTL2) inject the traffic via an external process and there is no significant performance hit even with very high traffic levels. 

Anyone here running AIG on a multi-channel setup? If so, how do you handle duplicating the traffic around the network? Widetraffic or AIG on each machine? If the latter, does it stay in proper sync?

Asking for a friend 🙂

[Urmel81 189]

6 minutes ago, neilhewitt said:

How do people find performance with AIG? AIUI it adds BGLs to the sim but uses the sim-native AI feature, which was always notorious for being an FPS killer; whereas Ultimate Traffic Live (and UTL2) inject the traffic via an external process and there is no significant performance hit even with very high traffic levels. 

Anyone here running AIG on a multi-channel setup? If so, how do you handle duplicating the traffic around the network? Widetraffic or AIG on each machine? If the latter, does it stay in proper sync?

Asking for a friend 🙂

 

I've written something about performance with AIG at this topic

 

[edpatino 1,960]

For AI Traffic in P3D I absolutely recommend the use of the Alpha India Group (AIG) package. Works very nicely and has a simple installation system, called One-Click Installer, OCI.

Also the addon can be installed using the addon.xml method that makes the installation even easier.

Cheers, Ed

[abarter 28]

I have used both AIG and UT2 over the last year. What I found is that both are good. UT2 is slightly better on the framerates. It also loads faster. What I found with AIG was not a knock against the software, it was that it creates a single BGL for each airline. Over time I accumulated 100's of BGL's and it was taking an extra 3+ minutes to load P3D. Managing the BGL files was not so easy as you have t move them in and out of the folder depending on where you fly in the world. I fly all over the world so it was becoming too much of a chore. That said, UT2 is frustrating as they don't have all the repaints that you will get with AIG and merging freeware one's with UT2 to get them to work is really hit or miss (70/30). Currently, I'm using UT2 and find it overall more pleasing. Using a combination of both is something I'm contemplating.

[Dave_YVR 968]

59 minutes ago, abarter said:

I have used both AIG and UT2 over the last year. What I found is that both are good. UT2 is slightly better on the framerates. It also loads faster. What I found with AIG was not a knock against the software, it was that it creates a single BGL for each airline. Over time I accumulated 100's of BGL's and it was taking an extra 3+ minutes to load P3D. Managing the BGL files was not so easy as you have t move them in and out of the folder depending on where you fly in the world. I fly all over the world so it was becoming too much of a chore. That said, UT2 is frustrating as they don't have all the repaints that you will get with AIG and merging freeware one's with UT2 to get them to work is really hit or miss (70/30). Currently, I'm using UT2 and find it overall more pleasing. Using a combination of both is something I'm contemplating.

  UT2 or UTL may give you better performance only because it's displaying less aircraft, A LOT less than what AIG's AI Manager adds to your sim. UT2/UTL also loads faster because it has a lot less liveries (900 with UT2/UTL vs 15,000+ with AIG), it actually has nothing to do with the number of bgl's or being injected or not.
UTL also still uses the same models that are from UT2 from 10+ years ago whereas AIG's AI Manager uses a mix of native P3d V4+ and converted for V4+ models.

[fluffyflops 1,845]

how accurate do you want it to be on a rating on of  1-5 ?

[simbol 5,774]

AIGM-OCI is the best freeware you will even find regarding AI models.

S.

[Jazz 1,046]

3 hours ago, fluffyflops said:

how accurate do you want it to be on a rating on of  1-5 ?

As accurate as possible😁

[Dave_YVR 968]

4 hours ago, fluffyflops said:

how accurate do you want it to be on a rating on of  1-5 ?

Accurate being 2-7% of the fleet out for rotating maintenance including proper timing for C and D's and also ferry flights etc? Ah you know I'm just pulling your leg 🙂 . I don't think anyone expects that, but having a decent fleet utiliztion and not the Traffic Global approach where the same aircraft operates the same flights 7 days a week regardless of how many aircraft it needs to fill out the schedule and also fictitious city pairings galore etc (not to mention that EVERY flight operates at FL350 regardless of direction and aircraft type or leg length. lol  💩).

Also to keep in mind that 2020 and so far 2021 was a writeoff AI schedule wise so even now, our best AI ares still using schedules from 2018 and 2019, some are even older. Then look at a major part of accuracy in that bgl traffic all fly direct airport to airport wheras UTL does fly actual air routes (of what quality is certainly under question). 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,924]

18 minutes ago, Dave_YVR said:

Then look at a major part of accuracy in that bgl traffic all fly direct airport to airport wheras UTL does fly actual air routes (of what quality is certainly under question). 

I believe the AIGFP option (as opposed to the BGL one) will have aircraft using jet routes rather than the Great Circle Route. Those are slowly replacing the BGL ones.