tup61

Just came back here to post the same. 😉 LNM is one of the best and most useful addons ever created for a flight sim. Is has so much depth and offers so much options...! I doubt if anyone knows all the ins and outs of LNM (apart from the dev). In fact, everytime a topic comes by about an addon not being available anymore or being abandoned for whatever reason I immediately think DON'T LET IT BE LNM!!! The default interface may look a bit daunting and intimidating (and a bit out of date) but even that can be changed. (Heck, you can even create presets of layouts! I have a preset I use for planning and a preset for taxiing: even the size and placement of the LNM window is being saved with the preset! My taxi preset removes absolutely everything from the interface and only leaves the map in a small window in the lower corner of my (single) screen which I can easily put in front of MSFS during taxi. it's totally awesome!) To be honest: I am not the kind of guy who donates money for freeware but I donated twice for LNM already. Anyway, long story short: if Aivlasoft EFB ever really completely stops (or if you don't want to pay for Navigraph Charts) you should really turn to LNM and check it out. I do think a lot of the things EFB offers are also available in LNM (in some way or another). For instance SIDs, STARs, approaches (with all possible transitions): it's all there. Plus much much much much much much much much much more. (EDIT Sorry for going so off topic LOL)

Ouch, @Bobsk8 , did you know this already...?! This always is a big fear of mine: one of your favorite addons being dropped... More and more (of not all) addons require some sort of online activity nowadays and this means there may always come a day that you can't use the software anymore. Scary stuff.

Be prepared for more er... early access releases the coming months by devs who are trying to get paid for all their hard work before MSFS2024 gets released and their products may become redundant. (Not specifically talking about AS here btw.)

You missed that he (apparently) has no Navigraph subscription and hence an out of date AIRAC.

Don't really know. The main point is that AS Active mode works with weather themes, so one weather type for the entire globe. How they do that (just metar or also other data) isn't that important to me. That sounds good but I suppose you also didn't see a thunderstorm or any other type of weather (different than the one you are flying in) somewhere on the horizon... It's great seeing different types of weather in the distance and to fly towards it or to evade it. AS active mode can't do that. It's all the same everywhere.

As long as the AS active mode depends entirely on presets, so weather themes like you would manually create them, there is no way this will be possible. Weather presets can only deal with one type of weather, period. Not much anyone (apart from MS Asobo) can do about this. The AS active mode is 'nothing but' an automated preset generator that generates presets on the fly based on Metar and switches between them (as) smoothly (as possible) because only one weather theme can be the active one at a time. Now that we know MSFS 2024 won't come with truly historic weather (when someone talks about history I seldom think about the last 24 hours... usually history has to do with things that happened long ago) my only option to fly in different seasons than the current want seems to be AS (active mode). But I don't think I can stand one active weather theme all around me as far as the eye can see... The MSFS default live weather spoiled me. Who knows MS Asobo will open up the API for 3rd party devs with the release of MSFS 2024 and a truly new and full blown weather engine might appear in the future...

Nice for daytime-flights-during-nighttime but personally I want historical weather for something like (for instance) summertime-flights-during-wintertime. So it's a start but not what I was hoping for and not something that gets me excited.

I wonder if picking your nose or something like that would influence how this software works... Wouldn't it see that as motion somehow? (I wear glasses and probably will only use the head tracking.)

How can you connect the phone to the PC in order to make it a fake webcam...?

Anyone using the Trust Tyro Full HD webcam for this? Only costs 22 euro's where I live. I'd like to give Beam a try to replace my trusty old TrackIR but don't want to spend too much money just for a demo. I love TIR but never liked the cable of the Track Clip Pro. Always gets in the way. And I often have light from behind screwing things up.

I think it's because that's what ATC is supposed to do: control traffic. Don't know what's so hard to understand about that.

You are very right when it comes to 'complex', 'hard to get right' and 'wait and see'. Not sure if it will take a long time to approach the quality and depth of P2ATC because I don't know P2ATC well enough to judge that (only from video's) but I do know it will take a long time to approach ANY quality and depth for ANY ATC addon. So as I said earlier: don't go waiting for BATC. It won't be released anytime soon. And if it will live up to the expectations is really unsure. If you want an ATC solution this year spend the money on something you can get right now. Or wait for MSFS 2024 and see (plus hope and pray) if that version also contains some ATC improvements.

Yes, the free (non-US/UK) voices read the instructions phonetically. Works like a charm sometimes but sometimes (totally) not. 😉

Was that a Simbrief plan? FSHud often deviates from it due to weather changes/differences. That's a feature, not a bug. 😉

Yes, I am also very curious to see what they come up with! It's a shame all those ATC devs don't work together. Everyone is trying to invent the wheel from scratch again. Such a waste of precious time. Specially if some solutions aren't of similar quality.

Even easy things can be quite hard to do. There is a reason the perfect ATC addon doesn't exist yet. And people should perhaps curb their enthusiasm a bit. Some people seem to expect utterly realistic real life ATC coming out of a box and that won't happen.

LOL Yes, finally! I remember posting about FSHud that it was so great because it actually controlled traffic and a lot of people said 'Yeah, well, what the heck, I've got radio chatter files for that'. And mind you, BATC also started out as an old fashioned ATC tool without traffic! It took quite a few posts on Discord to persuade the dev to think again. This has set back the release of BATC but only for the better. What's the use of Air Traffic Control if it doesn't full control traffic?

Main problem of SI remains the cost... and for me the need for voice. Hopefully the two new products will push each other to new heights. Although I don't have the impression they can be bothered with what the other is doing.

BATC replies are based on scripts. AI is only used for the voice generation. It's nothing like SI. There is no arguing going in in BATC.

Why the heck is everything in flight sim land so focused on the US... So annoying.

That's one thing that should work well indeed thanks to AI. No need to train BATC at ALL!!! There isn't even an option to train it. 😉 Plug in the mic and talk, done.

Well, the current beta mainly is about getting the pilot from A to Z using IFR procedures without any interfering traffic so I simply really can't say anything about the rest of what is planned. I have no idea what the state of all that is. I do have my opinions but since this is a beta I don't think it's fair to share them (even though the NDA allows you to talk about it freely: only pictures and video's need approvement). Some are hoping for an imminent release or perhaps in Q2 but I think it needs a lot more time than that.

I don't think you can say something like that purely based on video's. BATC isn't 'current' yet and until it has been released you can't really say if it will indeed be the best ATC addon ever. The specifications look great but you can't fly with specifications.

I don't use voice so I use FSHud. It's extremely easy to setup and use (the complete opposite of P2ATC with its 'ridiculously long manual') and it does the job. BATC (which I am beta testing) will be similar to FSHud when it comes to ease of use. Install, set just a few preferences and off you go. How it will turn out in the end, I really don't know. SI in its current state is of no interest for me at ALL. As I said I don't use voice and SI currently also doesn't do traffic (afaik P2ATC does neither) and it's way too pricey. When looking at the specifications it seems BATC will offer the best of all worlds: voice and button control, complete control of traffic, FAA and ICAO procedures, worldwide accents, local settings for almost everything, one time purchase (unless you want Premium voices), extremely easy to use and so on. Only problem is: BATC hasn't been released yet and no one knows how it will all work out. Out of the three available ATC addons FSHud wins by a large margin as far as I am concerned as a button user.

If you were Microsoft........ I'd be rich and flying real aircraft. 😉 I've been working daily with Windows and OS X since the early nineties and while Apple was FAR better at first they lost the advantage a long time ago already. In my line of work I am forced to work with OS X so I've got no choice but I wouldn't mind it at all if I could switch to Windows 11. At home I use a Windows PC. I would NEVER EVER buy an Apple computer for home use. And btw I also use an Android Phone. My daughter has an iPhone and boy, am I happy I am on Android... Also there Apple had the advantage in the beginning but they lost it in the end imho. I still don't get why people are so crazy about Apple. it's (ridiculously) overpriced and overhyped. I am glad MSFS runs in Windows. 😉