I keep going back and forth on this.  On one hand, live traffic is ideal and I can see how they increased the density with the last update.  On the other hand, the planes disappear just as they come to a stop on the runway, so the immersion can be somewhat broken on the ground---for example, you'll never really encounter one taxing as you taxi yourself.

With AI traffic you can adjust the density to your heart's content and you will see them on the ground, taking off, landing etc.  But then then it's harder on the frames than live traffic---and of course not totally "true to life".  

What have you guys settled on and why?

Is AI traffic harder on frames than live traffic? 

They both seem pretty unrealistic with terrible liveries, not flaring on landing.  I go for live, but I'm trying to work out what is easier with the stuttering.  Maybe AI traffic with less density. 

2 hours ago, mikeklimek said:

On the other hand, the planes disappear just as they come to a stop on the runway, so the immersion can be somewhat broken on the ground---for example, you'll never really encounter one taxing as you taxi yourself.

That's because there's no appropriate parking spaces. The generic airliners are fairly large, and a lot of airports don't have the space for them.

The same thing will happen with offline traffic if it can't find the right parking spot. I'm pretty sure this also happens in FSX/P3D.

I see Live traffic landing and taking off all the time, but that's because I set the A320 to have the generic flag. The A320 is smaller so it vanishes less often.

Sometimes livery matching doesn't work, as you can see on the Jetblue/American Airlines flight on the right, but it's rare. It will use any of the liveries you have installed, as long as they have the right ICAO code.

Edited May 28, 20215 yr by Tuskin38

51 minutes ago, Langeveldt said:

Is AI traffic harder on frames than live traffic? 

They both seem pretty unrealistic with terrible liveries, not flaring on landing.  I go for live, but I'm trying to work out what is easier with the stuttering.  Maybe AI traffic with less density. 

In some brief testing Wednesday because I was apparently bored I tested both.  I didn't see a massive FPS drop but there still might have been a few with AI set to 50%.  However back in the fall just a few months after release it was very different.  I could turn on AI at 20% and get a solid 5 FPS drop. Swap to live and get a LOT more traffic in game with like maybe a 1 FPS drop if that.  Super weird but it definitely turned me over to using Live traffic instead.

This may have been fixed in the recent update but I haven't checked, Last time I flew with AI traffic, the traffic was always at the wrong altitude above 18,000ft unless it was a standard atmosphere day ( 29.92 ). This would cause ATC to constantly request AI traffic to climb/descend which they never did due to what I believe was a model mismatch between ATC and the AI altitude algorithms. If you listen to ATC then this became annoying real fast. Another reason to use real traffic since they are not controlled by ATC. As I said, this could have been fixed with the recent update, and if you don't listen to ATC, then its not an issue.

I do not notice any difference in performance, which option I use depends on what time of day I play, late nights is AI offline the only option if you not want to fly alone in the virtual world.

Air Traffic type - OFF

Live Real World Air Traffic - OFF

Multiplayer - ON

Flight Conditions - All Players

People everywhere for me. Can find some crazy pilots and some spamming planes on the Runaway but most of them fly by rules, just like IA or live traffic

Edited May 28, 20215 yr by Alfye20

Live traffic all the way, plus multiplayer of course.