ATC Choices

[Maaarp 10]

G'day everyone,

 

I was hoping to get some opinions on different 3rd party ATC options that folks prefer to use. I'm currently using Pilot2ATC which has a lot going for it but lacks flexibility in areas such as routing around weather and general VFR choices.

 

I've started to look at VoxATC but havn't got it running properly yet. From the documentation it seems like it's more detailed and thorough than P2ATC but I was wondering what you guys thought.

 

Cheers

Warwick

[kevinfirth 1,393]

3 hours ago, Maaarp said:

VoxATC

VFR/IFR, UK CAP413 compliant, mats penetration, Vox does all this and controls AI, which no other ATC add-on does AFAIK.

You'll benefit particularly if you have a navigraph subscription as there's a new module come out just for Vox.  Expect better AI management, being stacks, nav routes etc.

May not be the easiest app to fully utilise, but since when was aviation all easy?!

 

[neilhewitt 493]

I've been happy with Pro-ATC/X generally, but it's IFR only and there have been no bug fixes for 3 years as the sole dev had a bad accident. However, they recently resumed development work and a new release that fixes a lot of the problems is expected soon (it's in Beta now). I hope so, because I was on the verge of dropping it. It is very US-centric, though, the phraseology is inaccurate particularly for the UK where I fly most of the time. No allowance for diverting around weather, I just do it and ask for forgiveness later 🙂

I do very little VFR but I have PF3 installed also and I do use it for that - although TBH I've been dropping back to default ATC + EditVoicePack recently because while not particularly realistic, if you just want flight following it's OK as a minimum. I find PF3 overly complex. Its fans really love it but there's no Navigraph import and it doesn't know procedures, you have to add those manually to your flight plan. 

I've also bought Pilot2ATC and VoxATC but in both cases I tried them and didn't like them much. I like Pro-ATC/X's simple interface that can be controlled using the SimConnect menu. That suits my setup in my home cockpit. I'm superficially attracted to VoxATC's speech recognition but I hate hate hate the SAPI voices, I've never found a good one, IMHO pre-recorded voices are better (provided the recordings are good).

Bear in mind that I'm not that bothered about strict procedural accuracy, I just like having to interact with something while I fly, so YMMV.

 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,947]

@Maaarp, Radar Contact v4 remains very popular and is compatible with FSX and all versions of P3D.

More importantly, it's now free. https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/547732-radar-contact-and-jdtllc-in-transition/

 

[rob0203 689]

VoxAtc is the best! It is the only program which actually separates the traffic, and that what Atc is for!

With all the other programs all the aircraft just fly around like madmen which drank much too much whiskey!

Edited April 14, 2021 by rob0203

[vadriver 247]

6 hours ago, Maaarp said:

routing around weather

please anyone .... tell me if there's an ATC offline addon that "appropriately" can advise / direct one about "problem" weather.

vox tries, but not "convincingly"

[Maaarp 10]

Hey fellas,

 

Thanks so much for all that detail, I reckon I'll give Vox a go, especially with the Navigraph integration that Kevin mentioned. I reckon that'll be a job for the weekend!

 

Cheers

Warwick

[IanHarrison 522]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@Maaarp, Radar Contact v4 remains very popular and is compatible with FSX and all versions of P3D.

More importantly, it's now free. https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/547732-radar-contact-and-jdtllc-in-transition/

 

And is key-press controllable, if you fly in a shared home space.

[kevinfirth 1,393]

3 hours ago, neilhewitt said:

hate hate hate the SAPI voices

True, I have many of the ivona voices which are great, but of course come at additional expense.

[kevinfirth 1,393]

2 hours ago, Maaarp said:

Hey fellas,

 

Thanks so much for all that detail, I reckon I'll give Vox a go, especially with the Navigraph integration that Kevin mentioned. I reckon that'll be a job for the weekend!

 

Cheers

Warwick

Bear in mind this is new and in development. There is no hard timeline that I'm aware of for implementation of features which exploit this _now_.  That said the fact that TW has got Navigraph to implement the vox specific feature demonstrates the intent to do so, and TW has said to both @jabloomf1230 and myself that it is being developed now.

[FPStewy 538]

3 hours ago, rob0203 said:

VoxAtc is the best! It is the only program which actually separates the traffic, and that what Atc is for!

I think your overdoing there, I've seen several videos where this just isn't the case where on final it will tell ground cleared for takeoff and basically landing and taking off on top of each other.

[kevinfirth 1,393]

42 minutes ago, FPStewy said:

I think your overdoing there, I've seen several videos where this just isn't the case where on final it will tell ground cleared for takeoff and basically landing and taking off on top of each other.

Never seen that here, the only way I can see that happening is if default AI is active at the same time (which it should never be!)

[neilhewitt 493]

2 hours ago, kevinfirth said:

True, I have many of the ivona voices which are great, but of course come at additional expense.

To be honest with you, all TTS voices sound robotic and unrealistic to me. Fluid speech is important and mis-pronunciations take me out of it and are jarring. If VoxATC would provide the ability to use pre-recorded phraseology as well as SAPI voices, that would be huge (I appreciate with SAPI you can in theory make it say anything whereas with pre-recorded samples you have to have all the parts of speech that you need, but both PF3 and Pro-ATC/X do it passably well and VoxATC need not supply pre-recorded voices with the product, just the capability to use it - people could make their own as they have for Pro-ATC/X).

Of course I'm sure it would be a big development job and unless their users were crying out for it - and I doubt they are - then there's little reason why they should.

No ATC add-on available does everything I want. It's a shame. Every so often I think about writing one myself and then I realise that while I'm a good programmer I am not an air traffic controller 🙂

[kevinfirth 1,393]

32 minutes ago, neilhewitt said:

To be honest with you, all TTS voices sound robotic and unrealistic to me. Fluid speech is important and mis-pronunciations take me out of it and are jarring. If VoxATC would provide the ability to use pre-recorded phraseology as well as SAPI voices, that would be huge (I appreciate with SAPI you can in theory make it say anything whereas with pre-recorded samples you have to have all the parts of speech that you need, but both PF3 and Pro-ATC/X do it passably well and VoxATC need not supply pre-recorded voices with the product, just the capability to use it - people could make their own as they have for Pro-ATC/X).

Of course I'm sure it would be a big development job and unless their users were crying out for it - and I doubt they are - then there's little reason why they should.

No ATC add-on available does everything I want. It's a shame. Every so often I think about writing one myself and then I realise that while I'm a good programmer I am not an air traffic controller 🙂

For me the flexibility of TTS more than outweighs any perceived problems.  I say perceived because a lot of the time it's a very subjective field, and I don't perceive very many problems there myself.  Vox has a utility to train pronunciation, but I've rarely found a problem which needed me to use it.  To each their own 👍

[rob0203 689]

3 hours ago, FPStewy said:

I think your overdoing there, I've seen several videos where this just isn't the case where on final it will tell ground cleared for takeoff and basically landing and taking off on top of each other.

Never seen that also here! 
 

Also if you have Bgl based traffic like AIG or Traffic Global it will take the traffic / liveries from that!