8 hours ago, thepilot said:

In all my years in FS9, FSX, P3D and MSFS I've found that (aside from flying online) there is nothing superior to default ATC, which in itself never really was very good, though (which is of course also a statement about the third party products available...).

In P3D at least there are several tools available that improve the default experience quite a bit. Sadly nothing of the sort is available for MSFS, and it shows. In my opinion ATC and AI handling are the weakest, most unrealistic parts of the simulator and will hopefully be improved upon some day.

To those tuning in to real ATC for "aural immersion", is there any tool that facilitates this?

https://www.stickandrudderstudios.com/fs-atc-chatter-overview/
 

this is what I use just to add some immersion just to have playing in the background. At the cost it’s great. Can be used when on VATSIM when the skies are quiet

8 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

At the very least, an ATC addon needs to 1) integrate seamlessly into the ingame toolbar, 2) provide realistic sounding voices with regional variations. 

What I find annoying is that if you utilise the route generation in the World Map and have the waypoints pop up automatically, they give you the height you should initially climb at then descend at for your destination airport yet the default ATC never uses this function and demands that you stay at say 17,000 feet whilst the pop ups state say 3,000. Do any of the add on ATC respect the sensible climb and descend heights or do they give instructions as daft as the default ATC?

9 hours ago, MikeH99 said:

I haven't used any ATC except VATSIM. Some robotic voice giving you directions is a huge immersion killer.

 Depending on where you fly with vatsim, default sometimes sounds better! Between the corny VHF distortion that some say is supposed to sound realistic and the commonly lackluster I heard it on YouTube phraseology.  🙄

Edited December 10, 20223 yr by Dave_YVR

3 hours ago, Espana Pete said:

What I find annoying is that if you utilise the route generation in the World Map and have the waypoints pop up automatically, they give you the height you should initially climb at then descend at for your destination airport yet the default ATC never uses this function and demands that you stay at say 17,000 feet whilst the pop ups state say 3,000. Do any of the add on ATC respect the sensible climb and descend heights or do they give instructions as daft as the default ATC?

Pilot2ATC rarely gives me any problems with altitudes. Normally with a STAR it will give a sensible crossing restriction, without a STAR I normally request an "enroute descent" which clears you down to the approach at your discretion. 

Once in a blue moon it throws a fit and messes up altitudes, in which case I do my own thing according to the restrictions in the STAR.

 

G

 

 

For now I'm still OK with default ATC. Its main issues for me are:

- loss of audio/subtitles (seems to happen atter setting frequencies manually or switching to COM2)

- loss of menu functionality (after voice overlap or identical voices being used)

- active runway logic, or lack of it

- altitudes and approaches being assigned at the very last moment

I find altitude assignment usually works OK for me when using a sensible flight plan, the times when it goes wrong is when an approach requires overflying the airport or significant terrain. I suspect ATC cannot handle certain airspaces and restrictions.

1 hour ago, Gazzareth said:

Pilot2ATC rarely gives me any problems with altitudes. Normally with a STAR it will give a sensible crossing restriction, without a STAR I normally request an "enroute descent" which clears you down to the approach at your discretion. 

Once in a blue moon it throws a fit and messes up altitudes, in which case I do my own thing according to the restrictions in the STAR.

 

G

 

 

I also use Pilot2ATC and I find it works well and is way better than the awful default ATC, the developer Dave is excellent at providing fixes and is always available if you need help.

10 hours ago, MikeH99 said:

None. I haven't used any ATC except VATSIM. Some robotic voice giving you directions is a huge immersion killer.

I wouldn't call the built in ATC robotic, they sound very real to me but I see what you're getting at with reference to some of their punctuation.

Personally I've never seen the point of AI ATC.  I enjoy Vatsim even when there's no controller on, because you're being sequenced with other human beings.  If things are uncontrolled, you coordinate with others to make the sequencing plan yourself, but at least there's some intelligence and communication behind it. AI ATC strikes me as just flying arbitrarily generated headings, altitudes, and routes.  Maybe I haven't seen the right program yet, but... Meh.

28 minutes ago, Stearmandriver said:

 AI ATC strikes me as just flying arbitrarily generated headings, altitudes, and routes.  Maybe I haven't seen the right program yet, but... Meh.

Which programs HAVE you seen to deem it arbitrary? 

2 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

Personally I've never seen the point of AI ATC.  I enjoy Vatsim even when there's no controller on, because you're being sequenced with other human beings.  If things are uncontrolled, you coordinate with others to make the sequencing plan yourself, but at least there's some intelligence and communication behind it. AI ATC strikes me as just flying arbitrarily generated headings, altitudes, and routes.  Maybe I haven't seen the right program yet, but... Meh.

I use to fly and controll online  a lot but now have two little children. So it is nice to have a pause option when somebody starts crying on final approach during your flighsim evening! 

But I agree online is the best!
 

 

Edited December 10, 20223 yr by rob0203

I chose other.

I use my own voice interpreting different persons and genders, even the radio clicks.

8 hours ago, jbdbow1970 said:

Well unlike the default atc they will not direct you into a Mountain.

I have been cleared for an ILS intercept flying at 8000 AGL by Vatsim. 😉

@Espana Pete I find Pilot2ATC does a bang up job with altitudes. Have not had an issue yet. I even downloaded more windows voices (for free) so I can have more variation. They are a bit mechanical but do a great job. My other choice was Pro ATC but I was not impressed by how they moderate their forum nor their track record of bugs that persist through several iterations of the program. (just what I've been reading I don't have first had experience with the program myself)

52 minutes ago, Lotharen said:

@Espana Pete I find Pilot2ATC does a bang up job with altitudes. Have not had an issue yet. I even downloaded more windows voices (for free) so I can have more variation. They are a bit mechanical but do a great job. My other choice was Pro ATC but I was not impressed by how they moderate their forum nor their track record of bugs that persist through several iterations of the program. (just what I've been reading I don't have first had experience with the program myself)

I read those same comments about PRO-ATC then watched a few videos. Two by Q8Pilot, which i think knows what he is doing. He really likes PRO-ATC and says it is better than FSHud, which he also reviewed. Voices are excellent, but you need to limit the choices to eliminate an issue where multiple voices respond to same message. Geared towards airliners, but you can use it with GA but you lose the co-pilot features, i think. 

Another positive is PRO-ATC sees the AI and can even direct them, but it does not inject them like FSHud. If you are using AI and 2 planes are in front of you it will tell you that you are number 3 to takeoff. So that is appealing to me. I like FSLTL and prefer to let it just handle the AI traffic. 

Edited December 10, 20223 yr by RobJC

3 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

I have been cleared for an ILS intercept flying at 8000 AGL by Vatsim. 😉

The more reason I use Nav charts and do my own vectoring. Can't trust anything these days.