Best traffic add-on for P3Dv5?

[Zylx]

Hello, I'm looking for a traffic add-on for P3Dv5.4.  I have found two so far, Traffic Global by Just Flight and Ultimate Traffic Live from Flight1.  One thing I don't care for is that these two packages seem to have lots and lots of airliner traffic but very limited GA traffic.  For example, Traffic Global only has 8 GA planes and the Flight1 addon doesn't say what aircraft it comes with.  I want a traffic add-on that has many GA aircraft.  I did find this one that looks interesting called My Traffic 6 https://secure.simmarket.com/mytraffic-6-fsxfsxsep3d.phtml but it only works with FSX and P3Dv2 officially but I don't know if it will work P3Dv5.  Then I also found one by Alpha India Group but I find it very confusing to use and what it offers but it is free.

I'm just not sure which one to go with and I would really appreciate any advice and if there's any other options out there I would love to hear about it.

Thanks

Edited July 9, 2024 by Zylx

[C2615]

I just use AIG's old bgl type traffic, with One-Click-Install, takes a night but it's OK, I don't try to update to newest season anyway.

Someone claim it cause CTD in 5.4(not 5.3), I do have a few CTDs anyway, but never able to pin it down (removed AIG and still got CTD occasionally so hard to tell)

[Ray Proudfoot]

10 minutes ago, C2615 said:

I just use AIG's old bgl type traffic, with One-Click-Install, takes a night but it's OK, I don't try to update to newest season anyway.

Someone claim it cause CTD in 5.4(not 5.3), I do have a few CTDs anyway, but never able to pin it down (removed AIG and still got CTD occasionally so hard to tell)

Another recommend for AIG here. More work than a simple 3rd party version but far more flexible. Individual airlines can be removed should the real world airline go bust.

It was me that proved beyond any doubt v5,4 caused freezes / lockups with AIG. It happened at many places around the world. With 1300+ BGLs installed it was impossible to identify the ones causing the problems.

Reverting to v5.3HF2 resolved the problem proving 5.4 was causing the issue.

[vadriver]

4 hours ago, Zylx said:

I want a traffic add-on that has many GA aircraft

check AIG .... but you'll need to find GA plans / aircraft for your local (not easy though, depends on what you call GA ... C172's or G500's)

[IanHarrison]

4 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Reverting to v5.3HF2 resolved the problem proving 5.4 was causing the issue.

I am hesitant to completely agree with your statement.

I run 5.4 with AIG and have so few CTD/freezes that I can't remember the last one.

Maybe it has more to do with the fact that you use BGL's whereas I use the alternative AIGFP files?

 

[Ray Proudfoot]

2 minutes ago, IanHarrison said:

I am hesitant to completely agree with your statement.

I run 5.4 with AIG and have so few CTD/freezes that I can't remember the last one.

Maybe it has more to do with the fact that you use BGL's whereas I use the alternative AIGFP files?

 

That’s fine Ian. I’m sure it’s a few rogue BGLs. I do have AIGFP ones but only when the BGL isn’t an option. I can edit BGLs whereas the option doesn’t exist for AIGFP ones.

[blaunarwal]

7 hours ago, Zylx said:

Then I also found one by Alpha India Group but I find it very confusing to use

It's not confusing. Get the AI Manager and the Traffic controller here: https://www.alpha-india.net/software/.

Install both. Then start the AI Manager and add some airlines. You don't need to download the full package at once. That will need some time.

I use the new technique of traffic files requiring the traffic controller. Besides this I also have selfmade traffic in .bgl files. Works very good. I used to have mixed .bgl and .aigfp traffic files and once reinstalled all traffic, to only have the .aigfp files used. The backdraw is the traffic controller, which can hang and needs to be restarted and a short delay until the planes show up.

Before I had MyTraffic 6 and it's pretty outdated today. It works with every FSX based sim but the models are very easy for todays standard and of course the traffic is not actual.

Dan

[Zylx]

Thank you all for the replies, I really appreciate it.  I will certainly look into AIG and see what it's all about though I must admit that I'm not fond of doing all that manual labor.

I'm considering starting with the alpha-india addon first and see how I like it.  I can always change my mind if I don't but a lot of people from what I've read, seem to love it so I think it's worth a try.

[Ray Proudfoot]

@Zylx, the most powerful and comprehensive addons always require more thought than the simpler “run the executable and done” variety. If you have used FSUIPC and marvelled at how good it is then the same applies to AIG. Extremely flexible.

Start simple with one big airline. United, Delta or American. Then take yourself to one of their hubs and check everything looks okay.

One other utility I’d recommend is AiCompanion. It gives you an oversight of all Ai in the sim plus the ability to search for movements from an airport, airline or even just one aircraft type.

The difference between AIG airlines and the simpler packages is what you see at smaller airports in less visited countries. If you ever do a world tour you’ll never be the only aircraft around.

One final thing. It will run on a network if you have WideFS installed.

[Zylx]

Thanks @Ray Proudfoot for the advice, I will give it a try and see how it goes.  I do like the fact that all or most airports will have traffic.  The others I've looked at talk about only having 5,000 or 6,000 airports that the traffic works on is disappointing and considering P3D comes with over 24,000 airports, not to mention the extra 1,000 or more I've added through my Orbx scenery and other third party airports packages like Ant's Aussie Airports and the OZx Airports and others.  I want as many airports as possible to have traffic.

[Ray Proudfoot]

@Zylx, the only problem I’ve come across is the disappointing number of parking positions at v5 default airports. If you have more inbounds than there are parking positions those Ai will just disappear on approach.

With 3rd party airports that problem is alleviated. You should see plenty of airlines at your ORBX airports.

[Ray Proudfoot]

This is one reason I love AICompanion. Look at these stats...

Top left - the busiest airlines.

Top middle - the most used aircraft.

Top right - the ratio of international / domestic legs. *

Bottom left - the busiest airports.

Bottom middle - the busiest countries.

Bottom right - the most popular routes.

* if you have Unknowns that indicates airports not in your airport database. Ideally it should be zero. You can download my updated airport file here. Backup yours first. Download on page 2.

[Zylx]

2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@Zylx, the only problem I’ve come across is the disappointing number of parking positions at v5 default airports. If you have more inbounds than there are parking positions those Ai will just disappear on approach.

With 3rd party airports that problem is alleviated. You should see plenty of airlines at your ORBX airports.

I do have lots of Orbx scenery, I own all their global scenery that improves a bunch of airports and I have many regional scenery's as well as some True Earth scenery's as well and I have dozens of other 3rd party airports as well so all that combined should give me some good traffic.  Even though the AI traffic disappears at default airports if no parking spots, at least they land and take off from them so that is nice.

2 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

This is one reason I love AICompanion. Look at these stats...

Top left - the busiest airlines.

Top middle - the most used aircraft.

Top right - the ratio of international / domestic legs. *

Bottom left - the busiest airports.

Bottom middle - the busiest countries.

Bottom right - the most popular routes.

* if you have Unknowns that indicates airports not in your airport database. Ideally it should be zero. You can download my updated airport file here. Backup yours first. Download on page 2.

Very interesting chart, that is very helpful information to have.  Thanks for the airport file, I will download it for sure.

Thanks for all your help and advice Ray, I appreciate it.  I'm always looking for new ways to add realism to my sim and traffic is something that I think will add a lot to P3D's atmosphere.

[787flyer]

1 hour ago, Zylx said:

Very interesting chart, that is very helpful information to have.  Thanks for the airport file, I will download it for sure.

Thanks for all your help and advice Ray, I appreciate it.  I'm always looking for new ways to add realism to my sim and traffic is something that I think will add a lot to P3D's atmosphere.

FWIW: I have tried UT and Traffic Global in the past but found their software to be "clunky" and/or limited.

With AIG, its pretty straightforward to get up and running.

 

And my approach for loading AI aircraft in AIG OCI has been to decide upon a route and then Google the airport websites for departures and arrivals to see which airlines fly in. Then instal those airlines into AIG OCI. After several flights to different airports, you will be surprised how busy the airports can get. I typically am using an AI setting of 35-40% in P3D on most occasions.

Oh and BTW, if you decide to use the AICompanion tool that Ray was talking about, it has the benefit of being able to "cull" aircraft if you are at a busy airport by setting the maximum number of aircraft to be displayed or a target FPS to be achieved. This also helps to optimize performance in the sim when you have a lot of AI aircraft loaded at some of the larger airports.

[Zylx]

42 minutes ago, 787flyer said:

FWIW: I have tried UT and Traffic Global in the past but found their software to be "clunky" and/or limited.

With AIG, its pretty straightforward to get up and running.

 

And my approach for loading AI aircraft in AIG OCI has been to decide upon a route and then Google the airport websites for departures and arrivals to see which airlines fly in. Then instal those airlines into AIG OCI. After several flights to different airports, you will be surprised how busy the airports can get. I typically am using an AI setting of 35-40% in P3D on most occasions.

Oh and BTW, if you decide to use the AICompanion tool that Ray was talking about, it has the benefit of being able to "cull" aircraft if you are at a busy airport by setting the maximum number of aircraft to be displayed or a target FPS to be achieved. This also helps to optimize performance in the sim when you have a lot of AI aircraft loaded at some of the larger airports.

That's a good approach, I wouldn't have thought of that.  Interesting too what AICompanion can do, that's really helpful to be able to optimize performance using it.  I don't like extremely busy skies though, then ATC goes nuts and confuses me with all the constant chatter to AI planes.  I like things a bit more relaxed tbh.