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Improve your AI Traffic: Combine Two
Products, Flight 1's Ultimate Traffic
And Airnav Systems FS Live Traffic!
Hello fellow flight simmers. I have to offer a few words of apoligies to my regular readers for the sporatic schedule of my articles recently, but with this article's topic, and oddly scheduled work hours, I'm sure you will understand.
This article and the tips and tricks you could say may be very easy for some to follow - it may also be a little difficult too depending upon your skill level with file folders, aircraft.cfg (configuration) file editing, and scenery.cfg file editing. Not to worry though, these will all be thoroughly explained so those of you who love tons of traffic at your airports will be able to have their sim operate at its peak traffic handling efficiency.
The main thing you will want to download first of all from FlightSim.Com's library is the most current version of Edit Voicepack, version 3.0, and choose the option to update the call signs of the aircraft. This way, when ATC contacts an aircraft, you should have the airline since FS Live Traffic has just about every airline imaginable in the flightsim world. This program even includes the cargo carriers like FedEx and UPS for you cargo guys. From my understanding as to how this program works, the data is downloaded into FS Live Traffic from FAA servers to make the flight plans. Unlike Flight 1's Ultimate Traffic, that was based on published schedules which even now run at 5 buck a pop or so to download a current past version of what has happened - where's the fun in that? With FS Live Traffic, all is live happening real time! Things may have not been 100% up to par then, but decent enough for its time. You can read more about Andrew Herd's review here on FS Live Traffic and Ultimate Traffic, but I can tell you, FS Live Traffic is a winner! I can never imagine myself going back to the published reports of Ultimate Traffic.
Now it is time for the nitty-gritty part of the "Fix" that I had come up with. This is what you are going to need to do for us current Ultimate Traffic users to enjoy the full benefits of FS Live Traffic. When you go to either of the Pilot Shop here at FlightSim.Com, or the Airnavsystems.com home page, you will have to create an account so that you will be able to use the fully functional 7 day full trial. Do bear in mind though, if not impressed by F.S. Live Traffic, (which I can't imagine why not) you will have to cancel your subscription before the 7 day trial period ends.
The next step on the list is where it can be a little tricky so you will want to make sure you follow all steps to ensure a smooth conversion.
The second step is to make a back up folder in your My Documents of your Flight1 AI Traffic Aircraft - which should be in a directory such as C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Aircraft. Move these files over to the back up folder.
The third step you will want to do is locate the "MyWorld Airport" folder in the Add-on Scenery folder, C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Addon Scenery\MyWorld Airports Make a back up of this folder by moving the contents inside by cutting and pasting them into your back up folder in My Documents or your chosen Directory. You will then need to find your Flight1's Ultimate Traffic Folder, should be in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Scenery\Flight1 or variation there of. Copy all of the F1UT AFCAD files to the MyWorld Airports Folder. You will need to rename the F1UT folder to MyWorld Airports as well.
Then next step you may need to do for the fourth step in the process is to edit the Scenery.cfg file. For those who are not familiar with .cfg files, it is really not as scary as it looks. Before you do make any changes, as always, make a back up! I can not stress this enough how important this is. When you start up Flight Simulator, you will need to write down the Scenery Layers it can not find. What you will need to do is edit the Flight1 UT Layer to where it will ready MyWorld Airports in step 3, and it should be all set from that point. Start the sim again, and you may have to edit more numbers of layers, but It should be fairly straight forward.
The next step in the process is for those of us who own the Simflyer sceneries and the excellent Flightzone 01 Scenery from Flightscenery. You will need to go to both MyWorld Airport folders and delete the FL1UTKPVD.bgl file. This way when you load up KPVD, the old airport layout will not be dominant.
There are several extra AFCAD files that I can highly recommend for usage with this fix. The are 1: af2_dwb_ksfo, available at in FlightSim.Com's file library (dbv3ksfo.zip), 2. klax_gates (klax_gat.zip), 3. KDFW for Simflyer's Scenery owners (af2kdfw.zip), 4. Katl2, (Atlanta Heartsfield for Simflyer's) (katl2.zip), 5. kewrmaxp.zip (KEWR for Simflyer's) (kewrmaxp.zip), 6. lb_kjfk.zip KJFK AFCAD file. (lb_kjfk.zip). These are optional downloads, but when you look at the screen shots I have included, they do make it a lot more realistic and able to handle the large amount of FS Live Traffic Aircraft.
When I load up flights too, sometimes it's a good idea to go to the airport's homepage and find the gates for your airline you like to fly is at, and that way you'd be sure to start with your fellow brothers at the gates properly designated for the carrier.
So to recap what we learned, here are the steps in Step by Step numeric order:
A) Download Edit Voicepak, and update the airline call signs.
2. Back up your Flight 1 AI aircraft models.
A) Back up by cutting and pasting these models. You won't want them in your Aircraft folder after FS Live Traffic installs their aircraft.
3. Locate the MyWorld Airports Folder.
A) Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator 9\Addon Scenery\MyWorld Airports
B) Back up these files by either copying the entire folder or right clicking and sending it to My Documents, then move it to your back up folder.
C) Delete the entire contents of the MyWorld Airports folder but do not delete the folder itself.
D) Locate the Flight1's UT Folder. Copy the entire contents by right clicking, and paste in the original MyWorld Airports Folder.
4. Update AFCAD files: Owners of Flightscenery's KPVD and Simflyer's sceneries.
A) Downloaded all ready? If not, just download the above mentioned and install. Remember, when you do this, back up and delete the old F1UT AFCAD file after, or they may be dominant.
America West hub at KMCO |
Continental and America West gates at KDFW |
Continental and US Airways along with American traffic in back at KEWR |
Delta Airlines at KATL |
Delta gates at KSFO |
Delta hub at KMCO |
KLAS Southwest hub |
KLAS Southwest hub 2 |
KPVD Southwest ramp facing cargo area with FedEx and UPS jets |
KSFO United hub |
KSFO United hub; all United aircraft at designated spots |
Philadelphia US Airways terminal |
Southwest boarding area at KPVD; plane departing live to the right |
United hub at KORD, Chicago, Illinois |
View of Delta hub at KMCO |
Example is based on American Airlines:
atc_parking_types=GATE atc_parking_codes=AALIn theory, this should send the aircraft to all or any available American Gates.
Now, for some light legal stuff:
Flap’s Flap does not accept any responsibility for varied performance in systems. Please note my system specs and the display properties work fine with MY system. Set your display properties accordingly to your computer. Also, with any How To items that are given in these articles, please use at your own risk! I will hold no responsibility to any damage done to your system. And, as always, remember: Back up your files before changing them!
John J. Thuot II
ragtopjohnny01@aol.com
