23 hours ago, longdistanceobswerver said:

It has been a 4 year break from Flight Sim for me - new PC build today and MSFS 2024 is going to be the main event.

Having airports populated by realistic liveries and ideally traffic which corresponds to real world schedules would be the ideal for me.

Is this attainable and if so what add ons should I be using ?

Many thanks

Hey — welcome back to MSFS! 😊

For traffic/liveries there are two solid directions:

FSLTL — great for live traffic injection (based on real-world flights, but you’ll see some delays/limitations depending on data/servers and MSFS behavior).

AIG (AIG OCI) — best if you want real airline schedules (offline/compiled timetables) with a very complete airline/livery library.

Then comes the missing piece: ATC.

If you want an ATC that actually controls all the aircraft around you (not only you), works with any traffic solution, and gives you the most “real ops” feeling, I’d suggest FSHud – Air Traffic Control.

Why:

It manages/controls AI traffic around you (departures, arrivals, spacing, runway flow).

It works with FSLTL, AIG, and other traffic add-ons.

You can configure airports to match real-world AIP procedures, including runway usage and even parking/stands behavior.

Vectoring/approach handling is one of its strongest points.

 

3 hours ago, simsuper80 said:

Until the atc add-ons like beyondatc and sayintentions improve the ai traffic movements (aircraft basically land so hard it should be a crash landing, and the aircraft in beyondatc move around on the ground like RC models and not actual heavy machines) I'll be sticking with PSXT

 

Aircraft injected by PSXT actually land smoothly 

That's an interesting comment. So, do they also take off properly? As in, do they rotate, and then lift off the ground? What about the taxi animations? Do they roll up slight slopes, instead of "step, step, step"?

4 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

That's an interesting comment. So, do they also take off properly? As in, do they rotate, and then lift off the ground? What about the taxi animations? Do they roll up slight slopes, instead of "step, step, step"

 

From my experience it’s actually very good overall.

Takeoffs are fine (proper roll, rotation, then liftoff), and taxi looks natural — they don’t “teleport” or do the weird RC-model style movement. They handle turns and speed changes smoothly, and slopes are generally ok too.

Two limitations to be aware of:

 

No pushback at the moment (aircraft rotate 180).

Landings: sometimes an aircraft may touch down a bit before the touchdown zone, but still on the runway (not off the pavement), so it’s more of a “not perfectly accurate point” than a broken behavior.

Also, this isn’t just a canned animation layer — it’s real-time control of each individual aircraft, which is why the ground/air movement feels much more “alive” than default AI. Or not so ideal and un realistic as other ATC add-ons... 

19 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

So, do they also take off properly? As in, do they rotate, and then lift off the ground? What about the taxi animations? Do they roll up slight slopes, instead of "step, step, step"?

Yes, they take-off properly with rotation then lift off.

Taxi animations seem accurate they will sometime switch on landing lights for a brief 1-2 seconds before switch to taxi lights (but usually only after push back from stall).  In most cases (not all) they follow the correct taxi-ways … but again, very important to use LiveTraffic (not MSFS but above payware link)  if you want accuracy.

Haven’t noticed and slight slope issues?  Got a specific airport in mind I can test?

As far as performance hit, at night with 90% target at a large airport like KSFO with a complex aircraft (PMDG 737-8), you’ll see an about 12.5% drop in FPS. (so if at 40 FPS it’ll drop to 35 FPS).  That’s A LOT of aircraft making for a very busy airport.

Edited December 21, 2025Dec 21 by SayAgain

21 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

So, do they also take off properly? As in, do they rotate, and then lift off the ground? What about the taxi animations? Do they roll up slight slopes, instead of "step, step, step"?

All depending on the quality of the RealTraffic data for the airport in question, but generally yes - to all your questions.

@Christopher Low
Oh sorry, I'm scrolling by the phone and was thinking you asking me about fshud....

 

I use BATC for traffic and its been getting better at least for me. I use freeware AIG and FSLTL but bought JF traffic a while back as well. BATC uses the models/liveries (like a few other atc programs) but I prioritize JF at the top as I find their performance to be better, landing gear, effects, lights etc. BATC is also adding VFR and have started developing this as well. 

You really cant go wrong with most ATC programs and have freeware traffic used alongside it. 

Pilot2atc is also excellent but doesn't inject traffic, just recognizes them. Very indepth and customizable. When they add traffic injection ill get that as well

Keep in mind that none of them will be perfect. Sometimes users endorse missing gear or LOD issues like lights not being on. Wrong liveries in certain areas etc. Me? Im too focused on flying to pay tthhaatt close attention. 

Edited December 21, 2025Dec 21 by Sonosusto

3 minutes ago, Sonosusto said:

BATC is also adding VFR and have started developing this as well. 

I’ve been waiting for VFR support (a while now), but it still is 3 steps away according to the their progress roadmap.  Is this being pushed forward?  Haven’t heard any details … I do get regular updates but no actual new features per their roadmap.

I'm currently using FSLTL for models and PSXT for injection.

Those of you using FSHud for injection, does it work properly? I'd rather pay once and not subscribe each month to RealTraffic. I understand it uses their own injection and not utilizing MSFS engine.

I mean I tried BATC and 1 out of 3 times it couldn't generate traffic and when it did, planes were still behaving similar to default MSFS engine i.e. getting stuck in middle of a taxiway.

21 minutes ago, intheshadow said:

I'm currently using FSLTL for models and PSXT for injection.

Those of you using FSHud for injection, does it work properly? I'd rather pay once and not subscribe each month to RealTraffic. I understand it uses their own injection and not utilizing MSFS engine.

I mean I tried BATC and 1 out of 3 times it couldn't generate traffic and when it did, planes were still behaving similar to default MSFS engine i.e. getting stuck in middle of a taxiway.

Odd. Have actually never experienced this issue before. Curious what your settings are and if you reached out to the devs. They're pretty responsive to feedback. Was this SU4 2024 or 2020?

I use it nearly everyday

Edited December 21, 2025Dec 21 by Sonosusto

2 hours ago, Cloud Surfing said:

 

From my experience it’s actually very good overall.

Takeoffs are fine (proper roll, rotation, then liftoff), and taxi looks natural — they don’t “teleport” or do the weird RC-model style movement. They handle turns and speed changes smoothly, and slopes are generally ok too.

Two limitations to be aware of:

 

No pushback at the moment (aircraft rotate 180).

Landings: sometimes an aircraft may touch down a bit before the touchdown zone, but still on the runway (not off the pavement), so it’s more of a “not perfectly accurate point” than a broken behavior.

Also, this isn’t just a canned animation layer — it’s real-time control of each individual aircraft, which is why the ground/air movement feels much more “alive” than default AI. Or not so ideal and un realistic as other ATC add-ons... 

Well when I say RC plane style movement, I am referring to the way beyondatc moves the aircraft on the ground. For example, they will pull into the gate very quickly, 20 knots or so, and then stop as quickly as a car. And when it comes to sharp turns such as 90° or more, they will turn extremely quickly. They just don't seem to have realistic inertia if you know what I mean.

 

Takeoffs are ok of course, but I'm still seeing extremely hard landings.

Edited December 21, 2025Dec 21 by simsuper80

3 hours ago, intheshadow said:

I'm currently using FSLTL for models and PSXT for injection.

Those of you using FSHud for injection, does it work properly? I'd rather pay once and not subscribe each month to RealTraffic. I understand it uses their own injection and not utilizing MSFS engine.

I mean I tried BATC and 1 out of 3 times it couldn't generate traffic and when it did, planes were still behaving similar to default MSFS engine i.e. getting stuck in middle of a taxiway.

I use both BATC and FsHud (and FsLtl, tried PSXT.. don't want a subscription) and they work fine to inject traffic. I'm enjoying both BATC and FSHud these days, they are both very much better than they were last year. 

I tried the “plane spotter” approach (PSXT). Yes, you get real-world aircraft showing up in the sim and moving, but ground behavior can be glitchy sometimes — it depends a lot on the tracking data quality.

If you want ATC that actually controls all traffic around you and controls you as well, then it’s FSHud. It’s the only solid option (in my view) with sensible vectoring, plus proper runway + parking configuration.

I run FSHud with FSLTL models, so I still get realistic airline presence.

On 12/21/2025 at 3:39 PM, Andreas79 said:

I tried the “plane spotter” approach (PSXT). Yes, you get real-world aircraft showing up in the sim and moving, but ground behavior can be glitchy sometimes — it depends a lot on the tracking data quality.

If you want ATC that actually controls all traffic around you and controls you as well, then it’s FSHud. It’s the only solid option (in my view) with sensible vectoring, plus proper runway + parking configuration.

I run FSHud with FSLTL models, so I still get realistic airline presence.

How would it run with AIG traffic. And how does it get the traffic data 

1 hour ago, simsuper80 said:

How would it run with AIG traffic. And how does it get the traffic data 

You pay a monthly subscription, but then you get actual real world real time data.  So the flights you see are happening in the real world. It is great if you need that level of accuracy. I like it but I am not that serious about flying exactly like the real world so don’t pay. BATC/FsHUD/FSLTL plus in game default works for me. 
 

PSXT uses the AIG models. You don’t run the traffic controller.