12 hours ago, Sonosusto said:

Even after watching a ton of these videos and recommendations I think sticking with Pilot2ATC is just simply easier. The voices don't sound much better than the ceres/ivona voices I already own and I downloaded extra radio static sounds as well that makes it more realistic. With Pilot2ATC recognizing traffic (plane on final, you being told to hold short....or waiting for wake turbulence to clear etc) and ATC chatter......

I still think its your best bet. Flight following and VFR, touchngoes, IFR.....navigraph.

All of these other programs sound great but if you already own Pilto2ATC it would make them pretty much redundant unless you're obsessed with them controlling traffic. To each their own.

And before anyone gets really angry about this....if you don't own Pilot2ATC but have a lot of negative comments towards it, I think you're flat out wrong about it.

Again, these other programs look and sound amazing but to the original poster...these programs would be redundant IMO.

The problem I have with Pilot2ATC is that voice recognition is really really bad. I`m not a native english speaker and for me it is absolutely impossible to make it work so I have to use copilot and clicking on things I wanna say. I tried SayIntentions and its a mixed bag for IFR flying but at least voice recognition is top notch. I`m also using more and more now FSHud. Voices are a bit better than the free ones from Pilot2ATC and has no voice recognition but its easy to setup and use and works mostly out of the box. It also controlls traffic with varying degrees of succes sometimes is really good and sometimes you get 10 speed restrictions in a row.

26 minutes ago, jkeye said:

Would be great if Vox does what it did for P3D5 although with AI control and realistic variety in voices. 

Already controls AI, the voice variety is something that it's unclear whether people will pay the necessary extra for really, the additional costs of neural voices can ONLY be economically supported through extra payments or a subscription, as all app developers are discovering.

Edited April 14, 20242 yr by kevinfirth

4 hours ago, Tva said:

The problem I have with Pilot2ATC is that voice recognition is really really bad. I`m not a native english speaker and for me it is absolutely impossible to make it work so I have to use copilot and clicking on things I wanna say. I tried SayIntentions and its a mixed bag for IFR flying but at least voice recognition is top notch. I`m also using more and more now FSHud. Voices are a bit better than the free ones from Pilot2ATC and has no voice recognition but its easy to setup and use and works mostly out of the box. It also controlls traffic with varying degrees of succes sometimes is really good and sometimes you get 10 speed restrictions in a row.

I realize the limitation but this was mainly/mostly for the original poster who already owns the program. Speech recognition takes some time in the windows settings.

On 3/13/2024 at 4:24 PM, Juan LLobera said:

I've seen videos in Youtube of people spending 300 dollars for "quality" voices and they will still sound ugly. Specially since those "pro" voices dont have any vhf effect, which not only affects immersion but IMHO as a former GA pilot, hearing an instruction when you have VHF degradation is also part of the challenge.

Hi,

Sorry for being late at the 🎈party, but there is a solution to introduce a VHF degradation effect for Pilot2ATC voices. BTW, if you do not like Equalizer APO you can  use https://www.nchsoftware.com/voicechanger/index.html instead.

 

 

SI's GPT-4 integration is the future of ATC in simming.  The ability to interact in natural language and have the ai controller interpret deviation requests has been a game changer for me... i love it and see the $30 a month subscription fee as helping to fund the continued development effort down this path.  I fly strictly vfr in GA planes in Alaska - where i'm also a pilot in rl, and SI was super helpful in preparing me for my most recent flight review a few weeks ago.  I'm 100% in on this technology, if they are utilizing machine learning like it appears they are...  not only will it revolutionize ATC in simming, but it also puts some light on the inevitability of AI's role in real world ATC. 

IFR flight in SI has received a big upgrade in the past week, with approaches and vectoring having been the main focus. I've hardly had any time to use MSFS this past month, but I crammed in four IFR flights in the last week to try and make the most of my SI subscription. Two of them were flawless, one had a minor vectoring issue (which was easily resolved when I mentioned the mistake to the controller) and one of them was giving me completely incorrect vectors. However, since I last flew, a new bunch of updates have been released to attempt to fix a lot of the remaining issues with vectoring, so it might already be much better.

One of the biggest things I noticed was that the ATC response times have really dropped. I don't think I experienced a single response that took over 10 seconds, and several of them were far quicker than that (maybe around 6-7?). The response delays that were a problem for many only a few weeks ago really seem to be getting close to being resolved.

 

So I've only been recently looking for a more realistic ATC experience and I came across the BATC news for the new pricing - which made me aware for the first time of these AI-based ATCs. That journey took me down the rabbit hole a bit :D I've been running the trial for pilot2atc and took the 24hours trial for SI and been running a few flights on both. 

So far, I still need to fiddle a bit more with both. 

1.  P2ATC
   1. Pros: really good vectoring and good experience, as per flight plan. The voice recognition is a bit fiddly but the copilot helps a lot changing frequencies and reading back the boring instructions. 
   2. Cons: default voices are primitive, I've tried to add Polly but no success so far :) and for some reason, so far, for flights in europe, I believe the AIRAC is far out of date, STARS and SIDs don't match even if I import the FP from Simbrief, and it seems like only paying for Navigraph is how you can update it. Definitely a lot of tweaking around to get an immersive experience. 
2. SI: 
   1. Pros: immersive from the get-go, really good voices. From gate to cruise, very smooth ATC and the voice recognition is really good. Also, neat party trick, you don't need to be syntax-perfect like talking to a robot so it makes the experience a bit more human. Unlimited flights with the AI voicing and it has a good chatter function to simulate traffic around with what sounded like appropriate ATC convos for the context you're in.
   2. Cons: cost straight-up. I understand it fully, because it's generative AI, has no flights limits, you can really enjoy this. But the IFR on approach is just not there yet. Starts ok and it quickly goes haywire with random altitudes, random vectors, although you can correct it every time. It does vector you into the runway, eventually. No copilot to help with the workload, either. It would be nice. 

So that's why I'm hoping BATC drops as soon as possible and hopefully has good IFR support. I like the interface and it has a copilot. A bit more rigid, like P2ATC but with better voices, I think with the new pricing it's at an overall really good value. And you can choose to spend more on certain flights for neural voices. If SI would fix IFR soon, I'd subscribe to that, honestly, at least for a month, and then wait for BATC to release.

6 hours ago, SAS274 said:

So I've only been recently looking for a more realistic ATC experience and I came across the BATC news for the new pricing - which made me aware for the first time of these AI-based ATCs. That journey took me down the rabbit hole a bit 😄 I've been running the trial for pilot2atc and took the 24hours trial for SI and been running a few flights on both. 

So far, I still need to fiddle a bit more with both. 

1.  P2ATC
   1. Pros: really good vectoring and good experience, as per flight plan. The voice recognition is a bit fiddly but the copilot helps a lot changing frequencies and reading back the boring instructions. 
   2. Cons: default voices are primitive, I've tried to add Polly but no success so far 🙂and for some reason, so far, for flights in europe, I believe the AIRAC is far out of date, STARS and SIDs don't match even if I import the FP from Simbrief, and it seems like only paying for Navigraph is how you can update it. Definitely a lot of tweaking around to get an immersive experience. 
2. SI: 
   1. Pros: immersive from the get-go, really good voices. From gate to cruise, very smooth ATC and the voice recognition is really good. Also, neat party trick, you don't need to be syntax-perfect like talking to a robot so it makes the experience a bit more human. Unlimited flights with the AI voicing and it has a good chatter function to simulate traffic around with what sounded like appropriate ATC convos for the context you're in.
   2. Cons: cost straight-up. I understand it fully, because it's generative AI, has no flights limits, you can really enjoy this. But the IFR on approach is just not there yet. Starts ok and it quickly goes haywire with random altitudes, random vectors, although you can correct it every time. It does vector you into the runway, eventually. No copilot to help with the workload, either. It would be nice. 

So that's why I'm hoping BATC drops as soon as possible and hopefully has good IFR support. I like the interface and it has a copilot. A bit more rigid, like P2ATC but with better voices, I think with the new pricing it's at an overall really good value. And you can choose to spend more on certain flights for neural voices. If SI would fix IFR soon, I'd subscribe to that, honestly, at least for a month, and then wait for BATC to release.

Unusual about P2atc having that issue out of the US. I fly around Europe etc all the time and use Navigraph and don't really see a whole lot of issues with SID/STARs. Any examples? Something I missed?

As for the voices? Yeah ,unfortunately. I ended up spending a few bucks on voices that sound decent. So far (and with the background static noise) I don't see much of a difference between those paid voices and the other program voices.

Have you reached out to Dave regarding the SID/STAR issues? He would help you....

41 minutes ago, Sonosusto said:

and it seems like only paying for Navigraph is how you can update it.

you need  to pay   for  navigraph  if  you want  the  latest  airac data

3 hours ago, Sonosusto said:

Something I missed?

You missed that he (apparently) has no Navigraph subscription and hence an out of date AIRAC.

8 hours ago, pete_auau said:

you need  to pay   for  navigraph  if  you want  the  latest  airac data

Ah, not a problem on behalf of Pilot2ATC then.

5 hours ago, tup61 said:

You missed that he (apparently) has no Navigraph subscription and hence an out of date AIRAC.

I guess I did, didn't I?

Again, these are separate issues not related to the program then.

On 4/26/2024 at 12:54 AM, SAS274 said:

 

 But the IFR on approach is just not there yet. Starts ok and it quickly goes haywire with random altitudes, random vectors, although you can correct it every time. It does vector you into the runway, eventually. No copilot to help with the workload, either. It would be nice. 

 

IFR approaches are handled either via vectoring, which is indeed not 100 % working (but in 9 out of 10 flights), OR via the simbrief flightplan via a STAR. It will clear you for the arrival, giving step descends, and when reaching the Fix it will either start vectoring you to the runway or clears you direct to the FAF including the final approach clearance.

 

Ok, my 10 cents worth on all this.

Pilot2ATC - Not going to happen for me. I have too many bad experiences with the "ATC" falling over and suddenly going deaf.  If it doesn't suddenly go deaf after getting through the IFR clearance, it goes deaf halfway through the flight. The time spent getting the flght plan created in simbrief, loading up P2A, getting the aicraft started, runup, out to the runway etc and then only to encounter a deaf ATC is just too often and too annoying. Other days it worked fine but after countless emails back and forth with Dave, lots of 'special just for me BETA's"  I just gave up. If it doesn't work consistantly it is not on the table for me.  Kudos to Dave, he was always quick to reply, and one of the best support devs out there. But yeah, PASS.

BeyondATC - their platform is amazing in that it allows for speedy development of new features. Pricing is great. Traffic is coming and they have the lead Dev from FSLTL to help get that up and running quickly. Fast to respond to PTT is a plus and having to use a more stringent scripted approach to your voice comms is not actually a bad thing and you will get the hang of it pretty quickly. Definitely a contender with all that their ATC  and Entourage addons bring to the table. 

SayIntentions.AI - stunning, amazing voices and AI. Just WOW. Traffic is coming, the price has been reduced to a Netflix subscription. New features coming. The delays in the AI response are letting it down a little but then sometimes ATC in real life take their bloody time too. I suspect this will all be improved over time.

Then there is the white elephant in the room, Asobo. They have said that they will introduce an entirely new ATC. So who knows what that will bring everyone. Let's wait and see.

So for me personally it will be MS2024 and BeyondATC for the first 12 months. As the game matures I will be keeping a close eye on SayIntentions. Once that matures I will rethink it all and probably switch over to that, even if it is just for a change of immersion and an extra choice.

CG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 20241 yr by CoolGunS

FSHud is the top contender for me now.. it does the main job of controlling user aircraft and coordinating with other AI really well.. handles well in busy corridors too.. still few bugs on busting thru altitude restrictions etc.. but great package overall... voices are improving.. new packs getting added weekly.. UI is okay too, not great.. gets the job done.. its the ATC option with the least shenanigans for me.. 😄

using FShud 2.0 alpha btw..