I think I’ve finally settled on Pilot2ATC for an ATC add on - after a lot of research and discussion here. Now I’m turning my attention to AI Traffic. 

Tonight I loaded up AIG and installed the Air Canada livery and then struggled to get the sim to start with this and my YVR scenery and after several crashes and restarts, I got it to work. It seemed ok, but the work involved and the poorly optimized software just turns me off. 

So I’m thinking of buying Simple Traffic for now, just to have some decent liveries on the default live AI traffic and wait and see what FS Traffic looks like. 

I feel like I’m being blasphemous by thinking of using Simple Traffic, but I don’t want to spend the time AIG is going to require. Life is too short and the accuracy of plane models to me is not a top priority… I’m not using the sim for plane spotting… I just want an airport to not look like a ghost town. 

Thoughts?

Edited August 20, 20223 yr by Virtual-Chris

31 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

Thoughts?

Thoughts? This topic has been done to death in a number of threads. I'd suggest this one is going to end up like all of those - a back and forth argument about the pros and cons of AIG were one camp say its brilliant and the other say its too much work.

 

I particularly like the pointy noses of the AI native models with Simple Traffic,

& it just works!

AIG. It requires some time to set up, but then it works without having to do anything else apart from starting the AIG traffic controller on your flight.

If you want to see Ryanair liveries with pointy noses at Vancouver, then go with Simple Traffic of course. Aerosoft needs all support they can get, since they are being massacrated constantly for their CRJ and Twotter.

But yeah, we've had that topic already a thousand times, so this is not leading anywhere. If you need help for setting up AIG @Virtual-Chris just let me know (@ or PM).

AIG is for the committed enthusiast who is prepared to put in a fair degree of effort. Simple Traffic - as the name implies - will give you plenty of different aircraft and airlines at major airports but not the smaller airlines at the many thousands of airports around the world. That’s where AIG comes into its own.

So if you only ever fly into the larger airports go with the simpler option. But when airlines fold don’t expect to see them removed from the package. Likewise with new airlines. They’ll take a while, perhaps a very long time, before you see them.

In comparison the newly formed ITA replacing Alitalia already has new liveries for its aircraft. There are updates every week for AIG including loads of private and corporate jets.

53 minutes ago, Fiorentoni said:

but then it works without having to do anything else apart from starting the AIG traffic controller on your flight.

how absolutely reliable & performant is that process?

are there any ‘downsides’ ?

2 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

I think I’ve finally settled on Pilot2ATC for an ATC add on - after a lot of research and discussion here. Now I’m turning my attention to AI Traffic. 

err ..... you won't hear AI comms anyway.

just keep your head in the flight deck

2 hours ago, craigeaglefire said:

how absolutely reliable & performant is that process?

are there any ‘downsides’ ?

Not really. You have to start it only after you are in the MSFS menu (or started your flight), not earlier, that's the only thing to remember.
Also performance of course is directly related to the number of AI aircraft (as by MSFS default and also with Simple Traffic), which you can however change directly in the traffic controller.

Two little bugs:

1) Very rarely I start the AIGTC and click "inject traffic" and no traffic appears. I close the AIGTC and restart it, then it works. Really like once a month.
2) For some system the AIGTC likes to crash randomly (not the sim, just the AIGTC app). I have that too but was able to mitigate by using AIGTC in "win 8 compatibiliy mode". It does crash only very rarely now and I always can restart it via the shortcut mid-flight, so no real harm done. As said, this does not happen on all systems, so you might be lucky and not get that at all.
 

Edited August 20, 20223 yr by Fiorentoni

If you want it to work without having to baby sit it, Simple Traffic is the way to go. 

For traffic I personally use PSXseecontraffic which is actually live, real-world traffic:

https://lekseecon.nl/

I have AIG, but only installed it for it's liveries.  However, I believe users can also use the Simple Traffic liveries with PSXseecontraffic as well.  Another option to consider.

By the way, good call on Pilot2atc, I think you'll enjoy it.  

Just Flight is working on FS Traffic for MSFS, but it's not released yet and there's no firm release date set.

4 hours ago, Fiorentoni said:

Not really. You have to start it only after you are in the MSFS menu (or started your flight), not earlier, that's the only thing to remember.

You can launch it before launching the sim. The issue that prevented that was fixed ages ago.

Edited August 20, 20223 yr by Tuskin38

Thanks for your thoughts. I will probably go with Simple Traffic primarily because I want to jump around the world and one evening do a few flights around Hawaii and tgen the next night maybe switch to the Caribbean and tgen off to the Himalayas or something and I don’t want to have to spend a few hours getting AIG airlines into the system. It’s just not worth it.

Related question… with the default ATC and AI traffic, you get constant chatter which is cool, but I often hear ATC referencing “Generic” rather than a flight # or regular call sign. What is this referring to?

6 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

I often hear ATC referencing “Generic” rather than a flight # or regular call sign. What is this referring to?

Generic is the aircraft model name for the generic AI models that the sim uses.

So if ATC gives a traffic alert they'll say 'generic' for the model name, or when GA is flying VFR they'll say 'type generic'.

The sim doesn't have any AI specific models that aren't generic, but if you're using Live Traffic, it will use any aircraft you have installed if the ICAO Model code matches.

Edited August 20, 20223 yr by Tuskin38

4 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Generic is the aircraft model name for the generic AI models that the sim uses when you don't have a matching aircraft model.

So if ATC gives a traffic alert they'll say 'generic' for the model name, or when GA is flying VFR they'll say 'type generic'.

I see. Do they recognize any aircraft models? I may have heard Cessna in the past… is that possible?