How is ProFlight 2000?

[ryanbatc 12,859]

Anyone have PF2000? It was just released I see...I never used the original, but am going to be an air traffic controller myself and am highly interested in softwareDoes it work the same in FS9 and FSX?How do you like it??Thanks!

[ryanbatc 12,859]

nobody is using it?I find it hard to believe after that huge post here...

[Guest PARADISE]

I was thinking the same thing......first a lot of hype, then nothing but discussions about the currency exchange rate between the Pound and the Dollar. They're either busy playing with it or it's a bust. $50 seems a little high for 7 year old software and I too would like to know how it's performing, or would I be better off with Radar Contact?

[Guest bjablonka]

I have Voxatc which uses speech recognition - very real, it might be an alternative for you.

[Paul J 349]

. . . some of us have to work, ya know! :-lolI have one flight, from Salt Lake to Aspen, and it worked as claimed. I haven't flown a flight plan since FSX came out, so this was a relearning curve, plus a program learning curve. "It works as claimed" - and is a great addon: I'm 90% happy!. . .but the instructional side of the addon is pretty darn poor: it's written (I think) by Dave March himself - and the first part is not too badly done - a bit confusing, but ok; it's an overall of the interface between the TWO applications, but with little configuration detail, and then there's a second part written by one of the beta testers, who has a somewhat deeper guide as to how to configure it - except that he only talks about configuring ProFlightEMULATOR - barely mentioning ProFlight 2000. Proflight 2000 has a very similar configuration, and it's really not clear what one should do with any or all of the fields in PF2000. They both have the ability to change any part of the plan, but there's no walk-through that will clarify this. I expect more reading and "pretend" flight plannig sessions will get me where I'm supposed to be, but I just didn't expect it to be this confusing.That being said - in operation - it's WAY better than the default FSX ATC. 4 stars.

[ryanbatc 12,859]

If I may ask, what makes it more realistic or "WAY better" than the default? Voices, or operations you can do as the pilot etc?

[psolk 3,040]

Good explanation, I have definitely found the lack of documentation and a simple flight tutorial a little confusing and frustrating myself. Then the manual omits the ctrl/shft/ keystroke command in places from the old docs and says to use it in newer parts. It is just very confusing but Dave is doing a great job of trying to help everyone in the forum.I agree with what everyone says and I too am "mostly" satisfied. For me, RCv4 has a few limitations and PFE has a few limitations. It is difficult not to compare the two when they are positioned as alternatives to each other.Unfortunately, neither can really deliver everything...For example, RCV4 does not change voices geographically. You can be flying over Greece and get a controller from Texas and Vice-Versa. But RCv4 gives great in flight interaction with AI. It is not uncommon to hear "SpeedBird 184 Traffic is 10-11 o'clock northwest bound Lufthansa 747" and identify MSFS AI. I also find the RCv4 procedures to be more realistic and interactive whereas PFE is still much more "adventure" based based on PF2000. Then again RC does no VFR and PFE does. PFE does a great job of managing the voices so accents are played over the appropriate regions but the total lack of interaction with AI is a complete let down for me. It is like being back before the world of AI where all you hear is canned chatter. So for me, I would take PFE exclusively IF it had AI interaction. I would take RCv4 exclusively IF it had voices tied to regions. (I don't do much VFR) Instead I have both and neither really provide the "complete" solution I was looking for but are both worlds ahead of default ATC. Pick and choose what is more important, is it something that handles VFR/IFR? Is it something that interacts with AI? Do you want controller voices tied to specific areas? Do you want more realistic procedures? At least we have options right... Just my .02,-PaulPrimary RigLiquid CooledIntel C2D E6600 @3.2 gigsAsus P5N32SLI-Plus2 gigs Corsair XMS PC6400 4 4 4 12 @810Dual OC'd XFX 8800GTX @ 2 gigs24 inch Widescreen LCD 16XAA/16XAFDual 19 inch LCD'sRaid-0+1PCPower and Cooling 1k Quad SLIhttp://home.comcast.net/~psolk/3monitorsa.htmlBackup RigAMD 4000 San Diego @ 2.72 Gigs Kingston Corsair XMS CL2XFX 7900 GTX Raid-0

[Paul J 349]

Take a peep here, Ryan:-http://www.oncourse-software.co.uk/pfe_wha...ve_we_added.htm. . as I'm at work right now. It'll give you more information than I can remember at this moment.

[zfehr 1]

Hi Ryan,Works the same in FS9 or FSX. I did two IFR flights (KEUG to KHIO in FSX in the Garmin G1000 Baron then KHIO to KONP in FS9 in my new Brant Bullet repaint of the Dreamfleet 310) lastnight and one VFR this morning. The VFR was KSDL to KMYF in Aerosoft/DA Cheyenne II at 16,500 lo alt enroute. All flights have been very enjoyable with good ATC interaction, the best voicesets I have heard, really kept you interested because of the differing voices. Handoffs are well done and expect new squawk code when VFR flight following, IFR descents and vectors in to landing are done close enough when flying GA as to not make the flight last an extra half hour for that 20 mile final (hate that). I really do like it, missed it since I didn't do FS2000. I still do like the VoxATC for keeping on my toes for what to say next, but for listening pleasure and immersion experience this is top notch. Wouldn't let the fact it is an older release effect decision making. It was an extremely well thought out and executed program back then and stacks up very well in today's market.

[aerdt 0]

I have to agree with you. I don't own PFE 2000 yet, but the downloadable manual looked a little bit "unpolished" and incomplete.With a little bit more effort, like a user-friendly design of the manual and a comprehensive tutorial it would be definitely a winner, but right now it seems as cluttered, confusing and...um...not very well designed from an UI/end-user perspective - just like FDC Live Cockpit from the same developer.Unfortunately, FDC Live Cockpit suffers from a really, really hideous interface and terrible documentation, despite being an excellent add-on in terms of functionality, and I hope that PFE won't follow the trend.Of course that doesn't say anything about the functionality, but a good manual (a la Flight1, PMDG, Wilco, FS2Crew) and a more appealing presentation is almost a must.Pat

[Ray Proudfoot 8,963]

Hi Paul,<>RC4 does attempt to play the appropriate voice for the region you're flying over but the problem is that we don't have enough voice sets. Unfortunately we didn't get any suitable French or Spanish controller volunteers let alone Greek ones.It's very difficult to get enough volunteers to record over 2200 separate wavs required for a controller and to get the required quality. I need to emphasise the last bit because it isn't easy for people to record good quality sets. We had many sample controller sets we had to reject as the quality just wasn't there.We felt quality was more important than quantity.Cheers,

[Noel 4,504]

Paul, how is the cadence & speed of the ATC in PFE versus RC4? I had RC3 and to me the voices just sounded to chopped up--you could really hear the concatenatedness of it and I didn't like that. Does PFE do better in this area in YHO?Noel

[rhodges 6]

Real mixed emotions!I have made several flights and the program BY ITSELF does everything it claims to do. IMHO it is still the best keyboard ATC that has been put out. I had ProFlight 98, then upgraded to ProFlight 2000. Then made the patch for FS2002 and loved it. I still prefer it to the MS defaults or anything else I know about for ATC with the exception of possibly VatSim. Unfortunately with VatSim, who I need to talk to is frequently absent which is never the case with ProFlight.The downside so far to me for PFE is that on all previous versions I used GameCommander, and GameCommander2 when it was upgraded for Voice recognition. The PFE legend would lead one to believe this works for PFE as well, but I have not been able to get it to work yet, nor have seen a post regarding voice recognition. The PFE manual makes no reference to GameCommander or any other voice recognition program that is compatible with it. The ProFlight 2000 manual in reference to the old program required includes GameCommander as an integral part of the program. In fact, a thirty day free provision was included with the installation. A must if it is still available in my opinion. I have GameCommander 2 which installs and is recognized with no problem, just will not activate for PFE, FSX, or FS9. There is a newer GameCommander3 version, but I do not know if it would work or not (@ cost of about $50/upgrade, $75/Fresh installation. All dated references are no later than 2004.I have another post regarding voice recognition. If anyone has been able to implement Microphone voice recognition with PfE, please give us some information. This was the major plus for the program to me. I am surprised that there have been no other posts or replies toward this end and still wonder if the problem is just me.Not bad mouthing the program, but just disappointed that so far, there is no mic voice recognition that I have been able to implement, or heard about from elsewhere. This was the major plus to me.Respectfully:RTHEdit: In one post or reply, if this old memory remembers correctly, someone made reference to a forum specifically for PFE. Please if you know where this is, or an active GameCommander link, give a reply with the links. All google searches for GameCommander forum info leads to something that cannot still be displayed that I can find.

[zfehr 1]

Forums for PFE can be found here: http://pfesupport.freeforums.org/

[GSalden 4,663]

PF2000 Emulator is working very well when using Game Commander 2 or any other speech recognition program.I myself use GC2 with it.About the PF2000 manuel I am not sure , but will contact Dave about it.Imho it is a great ATC program.Especially all the different accents you here when flying from one country ( or region ) to the other.And it is the same controller who is talking to you that is talking to the other aircraft.