msfs Review #2 of Beyond ATC

[eslader 1,819]

I finally had time to do a full, short, flight from KMSP to KOSH. I ran into some of the same things you did.

• The start/push thing is indeed weird for this side of the pond and I don't see anywhere in settings where you can disable that.
• The default, non-premium voices are pretty good! The only issue comes when multiple 2's or 3's are spoken. Some of the voices are hard to understand. I got a freq 133.3 and it took awhile to figure out what the real number was. 😉
• Sometimes it forgets to say what frequency it wants you to contact. It'll just say something like "Contact Minneapolis Center." It know the frequency because if you acknowledge, it will auto-tune it if that's enabled.
• I was assigned Rwy 9 at KOSH, which is fairly tight for a 737. Doable, but not much margin. I could not request a different runway assignment.
• Upon landing, Ground asked if I needed a parking assignment. I said affirmative. It then asked me what ramp I wanted, but misunderstood Basler, which is the only ramp at that airport, so it ended up unable to give me taxi instructions.
• I'd really like it to be able to detect new audio devices when they come online. I usually start the sim and get the flight setup, etc, before turning on Mixed Reality to go into VR. But if BATC is running before WMR, it won't see when the VR headset's audio comes online and I have to restart it.
• On the same note, I'd love it if BATC had a kneeboard that echoed what it put in the BATC window so VR users don't have to try and instantly memorize a string of 10+ taxiways, etc.

[cappy42 40]

14 hours ago, zorro747 said:

is it possible to set the sound to my headphones? Now the sound goes to the speakers. But did not find any option to change that... Any advice?

Use the sound mixer in Windows.

[Gazzareth 827]

Hmm today's flight (LLBG to LIRF) went swimmingly, until 15 miles from LAT it decided to inform me I was to fly the LAT3A STAR - 24000 feet to drop in 15 miles .. .. Not so clever .. ..

.. .. after that it just got worse - never got back to me as to what approach I should be on, no further communication at all. Tried to prompt it with a wind check but it just said it didn't understand !! ..

 

G

Edited May 9 by Gazzareth

[deepstar 39]

BeyondATC sound output to headset:

1. Start BeyondATC

2. Click speaker icon on taskbar -> Click Select a sound output -> Scroll to Volume mixer -> Click More mixer settings (Cogwheel) -> BeyondATC -> Expand -> Output device

 

 

[UAL4life 242]

They keep telling users on their discord that their taxi way data is out of date. Hmm, no it’s BATC’s data that seems out of date. 

[roland_lfor 249]

9 hours ago, eslader said:

 

• On the same note, I'd love it if BATC had a kneeboard that echoed what it put in the BATC window so VR users don't have to try and instantly memorize a string of 10+ taxiways, etc.

You can use OpenKneeboard to capture BATC window and show it in VR world, as for any other app UI.

Edited May 9 by roland_lfor

[Fiorentoni 4,383]

13 minutes ago, UAL4life said:

They keep telling users on their discord that their taxi way data is out of date. Hmm, no it’s BATC’s data that seems out of date. 

You don't understant how it works: User data *is* BATC's data. It reads from your scenery, so it can use whatever outdated / fictional scenery people use. There's no other way to get taxi way data by the way, since it's not available via the Navigraph API.

[UAL4life 242]

Just now, Fiorentoni said:

You don't understant how it works: User data *is* BATC's data. It reads from your scenery, so it can use whatever outdated / fictional scenery people use. There's no other way to get taxi way data by the way, since it's not available via the Navigraph API.

I understand perfectly. And what you describe is how it should work.
 

But it doesn’t work like this at all.

 

And it obviously didn’t work for the ORD used in this review. And the MUC I have…. 
 

very PMDG cash money of them to say it’s the user’s issue lol

[Fiorentoni 4,383]

10 minutes ago, UAL4life said:

I understand perfectly. And what you describe is how it should work.
 

But it doesn’t work like this at all.

 

And it obviously didn’t work for the ORD used in this review. And the MUC I have…. 
 

very PMDG cash money of them to say it’s the user’s issue lol

If it didn't work, it's the scenery data... because that's what BATC uses. Just because you *see* a taxiway in the sim at KORD or EDDM, does not mean it's in the actual scenery *data* and even less that it's properly connected in the scenery data. So the taxiways are not correctly set and/or connected into the scenery data at KORD and EDDM. Again, what you visually see in the sim is not the scenery data, it's the scenery's visual modelling. Those two can be very different, many payware devs really only take care about what people see in the sim and not about the data, because most people until now didn't use the MSFS ATC anyway and therefore the faulty data did not matter. This hopefully will change with BATC.

[zorro747 33]

5 hours ago, deepstar said:

BeyondATC sound output to headset:

1. Start BeyondATC

2. Click speaker icon on taskbar -> Click Select a sound output -> Scroll to Volume mixer -> Click More mixer settings (Cogwheel) -> BeyondATC -> Expand -> Output device

 

 

Thank you, Bro!

[snglecoil 1,828]

Ha I’m base in Chicago, that’s not bad. In East Flow most of the time Chicago uses 9C/FF for as one of their departure runways. The other is 10L/DD. Coming from the north, you’ll generally get 9L for landing. 

Now once you land, I wished taxi clearances were that easy! 🙂
 

From 9L “standard taxi” in East flow from 9L is M1, M, M2, C, C3, D, hold short of VV (with 9C tower controller), on VV get cleared to cross 9C, Hold short 9R and contact ground.  Ground will clear you across 9R and… thats when the fun begins depending on which gate you are going to.

For Terminal 1 it could be G, cross 4L to the “north port”.

For Terminal 2 lately it has been something like J, T, U, B, A12 (or A13), A to the ramp.

For Terminal 3 it is G, cross 4L, TT, A, to the ramp.

And for terminal 5 it will be similar, G cross 4L, TT, A, depending on the gate one of the A (21,20,19) to the ramp or A18, V, to the ramp. 
 

I’ll only consider BATC if they get their stuff together and get all these taxi clearances as realistic as possible /s

Edited May 9 by snglecoil

[BrammyH 464]

I tried it, and have some thoughts I'll share below. But first, the taxi ways.

I have tried the stock MSFS ATC, FSHUD, and BATC. All of them give those weird, long taxi instructions. Where a human controller may say "taxi via W, G, E, hold short Runway 25L" because the scenery taxi ways have all the coding for taxi ways you get "taxi via W1, W2, W, G1, G, T3, Echo." I end up just going "ok, ok, it wants me to take this route. I get the theory."

In terms of BATC, my first flight went ok. I had an issue where Right after a handover before descent, when I clicked my PTT to check in, i just got a loud BEEEEEEEP like someone was stepping over someone on Vatsim. I tried swapping frequencies etc. I ended up restarting the app. but I couldn't tell it I was in descent. Eventually, we all caught up to each other but becuase I was fussing around I ended up high. I couldn't tell it I was going missed until after Tower cleared me to land. It's clear there is some sort of a script and falling off it causes a problem.

It vectored me on the missed fine, however.

[F737MAX 5,738]

8 hours ago, BrammyH said:

because the scenery taxi ways have all the coding for taxi ways you get "taxi via W1, W2, W, G1, G, T3, Echo."

At EIDW, there's taxiway F, which is split into parallel 'inner' and 'outer' taxiways.

Before 28R became operational, taxi instructions in an earlier sim for the correct layout were: [Callsign], taxi to gate 109 via taxiway Echo 6, Bravo 6, Bravo 5, Bravo 4, Mike 2, Mike 1, Foxtrot Oscar Uniform Tango Echo Romeo, Link 5, Foxtrot India November November Echo Romeo. 😅

Anyone would think EIDW was the size of KDEN with that set of instructions!

Also, default MSFS ATC not great. Nearly always referred to as 'R' 'Y' 'an' 'air' 5 Yankee Papa during my flight as RYR5YP yesterday.

[eslader 1,819]

On 5/9/2024 at 3:20 AM, roland_lfor said:

You can use OpenKneeboard to capture BATC window and show it in VR world, as for any other app UI.

That's a good workaround, yes, but unless I'm missing a setting somewhere, you can't interact with the BATC window using OpenKneeboard. Because you have to tune the initial radio in BATC, not in the plane, in order to get dialog options, and also because sometimes you need to scroll back to see something, it'd be even better if BATC had its own VR interface.

[roland_lfor 249]

33 minutes ago, eslader said:

That's a good workaround, yes, but unless I'm missing a setting somewhere, you can't interact with the BATC window using OpenKneeboard. Because you have to tune the initial radio in BATC, not in the plane, in order to get dialog options, and also because sometimes you need to scroll back to see something, it'd be even better if BATC had its own VR interface.

Actually you can tune frequencies from the aircraft. Set the frequency, then switch it to active and BATC will recognize it.