PRO ATC SR is released - first impressions

[timd24 7]

Having previously used ProATC for years in P3D, I'm personally very happy it's now available in MSFS. I've tried Pilot2ATC and FSHud in MSFS, and both left me disappointed.

FSHud needs more development, and Pilot2ATc needs too many clicks for a simple command if you're not using voice recognition.

After a short flight tonight, I think I'm back to using ProATC over the others. 

ProATC has always just worked for me for years without issue, so at this stage I'm not so concerned about the perceived lack of support. 

[vadriver 247]

1 hour ago, SierraHotel said:

voices are already availble ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,consist of Australian

so my voiceset still pronounces phonetic waypoints / stars etc ...... 

& i apologise for not including your airline in my voiceset (let me know & @MaVe64 might arrange a fix)

we would be using TTS for that.

[Falconfly 61]

When I try to read scenery for P3d, it says fsx is missing? 

My P3d folders are recognised within the app. 

I've run make runways exe from within P3d folder and then done a data import. Is that all or am I missing something. 

[virtualstuff 751]

9 hours ago, JasonPC said:

My first impressions are not good. A lot of the same problems from Pro-ATC/X but with new features that also have problems.

2) I received radar vectors upon departure and the vectors provided did not properly follow the mapped vectored path provided by the program. You are really going to have to vector yourself and not rely on the given vectors because they are not responsive/flexible enough. When you miss a vectored point, the program will take forever to give you a new corrected vector and you will end up going in circles.

3) When I couldn't hit the vector waypoints, I requested direct to the first waypoint in the flight plan. There was zero indication that the request was received or approved. The ATC kept telling me in audio the vector to hit the vector waypoint but in text showed the vector to the first flight plan waypoint.

One of the frustrating parts of this otherwise great program used it for years in P3D...

Still on the fence but using now FSHUD...

 

Ok purchased will report back 😨

Edited August 10, 2022 by awf

[Bernard Ducret 787]

3 hours ago, SierraHotel said:

Yes, there are many files available for real ATC Worldwide, you can purchase or find them for free, Google is your friend. New voices are already availble from within PATC and consist of US, UK, Spain, Swiss, German, Australian and Swedish. These voices are NOT computer generated, all have been recorded by real people.

Nothing, really nothing, will ever be as good as text-to-speech, because even if those voices are obviously recorded with "real people (!)" they will always sound awkward at best, they will be delivered in "staccato" mode, since they won't be naturally built but artificially cut and paste fragments.

I have contributed to one of such ATC programme in the past with my "real voice", the result, once used in the software, was somewhat appalling. So if we look for realism in MSFS (we seem to be far more demanding about the graphical quality of clouds, heights of trees!!!), we should also demand realism of voices, not accept this below par sound quality in 2022! Did you hear the "Ry-Ann Air 23" in the video to only name one example?

A good ATC programme in 2022 - in addition to be aeronautically accurate - MUST have credible voices and use another technology than the ones that existed for the past 20 years.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Bernard Ducret

[Farlis 2,277]

19 hours ago, mrlip said:

Why have discounts based on when you bought Pro-ATC X? That’s a very strange policy. Either offer the same discount across the board if you bought it previously, or don’t offer one at all. 

It's obvious: The program was first released almost 10 years ago. Why should anyone be offered a discount at all after such a long time using it? The longer you had it the lower your discount will be. I think that's a fair and good idea.

[tup61 1,542]

1 hour ago, Bernard Ducret said:

Did you hear the "Ry-Ann Air 23" in the video to only name one example?

That was indeed hilarious... The voices are absolutely terrible in places. This simply is the old ProATC made compatible with MSFS (and speech added if you are into that kind of thing) and that's it. After using FSHud for a few weeks ProATC suddenly looks extremely old and outdated. That interface itself is enough to not buy it (but that may be because I am a graphic designer). But to each his own: I still don't understand how so many people seem to like P2ATC (also an ugly and over the top interface) which imho is awful in so many respects.

Conclusion: the definitive ATC addon still doesn't exist. And I doubt if it ever will (at least not within a few years). Hopefully Asobo has a surprise up its sleeve... and until then FSHud will do.

Edited August 10, 2022 by tup61

[tup61 1,542]

1 minute ago, Farlis said:

It's obvious: The program was first released almost 10 years ago. Why should anyone be offered a discount at all after such a long time using it? The longer you had it the lower your discount will be. I think that's a fair and good idea.

Agreed. I am sure those who bought ProATC this year will agree too. And I am sure they would have found it a really strange policy if they hadn't done this...! In fact, it's kind and generous of the dev. Still won't be buying it for now though LOL

[Farlis 2,277]

12 hours ago, Alaska738 said:

I still hesitate to buy, is it really worth it or not?

It used to be. I was an early adopter back in 2013 and used it throughout the entire lifespand of FSX and P3D. It had its quirks but I find it way less clunky than P2ATC. Whether the new voice recognition feature is any good remains to be seen.

[tup61 1,542]

1 hour ago, Bernard Ducret said:

Nothing, really nothing, will ever be as good as text-to-speech

Perhaps, but imho the voices in P2ATC sound odd and weird and not realistic at all (for ATC). The tone or emotion (however you call it) is completely off.

The biggest mystery to me is... why the default ATC voices sound SO GOOD! I mean, imho they really sound very good! If default ATC would use correct transition altitudes, QNH in hPa and a bit more realistic phraseology it would be great enough for me already.

[ricka47 611]

Can anyone give some insights into how ProATC interacts with AI?

[tup61 1,542]

5 minutes ago, Farlis said:

It used to be. I was an early adopter back in 2013 and used it throughout the entire lifespand of FSX and P3D. It had its quirks but I find it way less clunky than P2ATC. Whether the new voice recognition feature is any good remains to be seen.

Agreed, but FSHud is even less clunky than ProATC. I like addons like this to be simple when it comes to setting up (install and flight) and using it. The other ATC addons offer way too many options: it's overkill. Less is more in my book. Having to run makerunways in order to get things working is making things too complicated already imho. And then all those options... PF3 and P2ATC have way too many options. FSHud needs to be installed and that's it. There is just a little screen with a few options you may want to look at but it's not needed. No makerunways or reading of databases or installing Navigraph is needed at all. Just install it and use it. Life can be so simple sometimes. But well, sorry, I don't want to turn this topic into a HAIL FSHUD thread LOL Hopefully someone will create a good comparison video of all ATC addons soon.

Edited August 10, 2022 by tup61

[JasonPC 173]

I would love to know how the speech recognition works because it simply does not on my setup. It’s turned on, the speech recognition icon is green and it tells me in a box exactly what to say and I say it but absolutely nothing happens. There is nearly zero documentation on this in the manual.

[tup61 1,542]

8 minutes ago, ricka47 said:

Can anyone give some insights into how ProATC interacts with AI?

It only makes sure it doesn't get in your way so it won't bother you. It doesn't interact with AI at all. It only removes it when needed. FSHud is the only ATC addon that tries to do that (though not exactly perfect yet).

EDIT
To be more precise:
The actual traffic (AI) continues to be controlled by the flight simulation but is detected and considered and even changed by PRO-ATC/SR. That means you won't get a clearance for takeoff when an aircraft is on final approach or still on the runway. It will even be controlled to avoid collisions with your aircraft when airborne.

As far is I know that 'controlling' in the last sentence is nothing else but simply removing it from existence.

Edited August 10, 2022 by tup61

[Bernard Ducret 787]

32 minutes ago, tup61 said:

why the default ATC voices sound SO GOOD!

AZURE Microsoft text-to-speech!😄

That is also why I hope Asobo will finally deliver what was promised by Jurg. For the time being I added this freeware work (thanks to Nijntje) for non-US flyers to my MSFS ATC, and it is indeed a very nice improvement: https://flightsim.to/file/4518/european-atc-phraseology-mod

If only we could get Hpa instead of mercury inches... That would be great!

Edited August 10, 2022 by Bernard Ducret