Ultimate Traffic

By Andrew Herd (2 December 2005)

he Flight Simulator AI traffic package market has become increasingly competitive over the past few years, a healthy situation for users, given that the need for developers to differentiate their products has had a considerable impact on the quality and range of options available with each package. AI traffic has been around for so long it is easy to take it for granted, but getting virtual planes to behave themselves is tougher than you might imagine - this has led to the 'great AI schism' - the 'big four' AI addons dividing neatly into two groups, depending on whether they declare themselves to be based on real world airline timetables or not. The non-timetable based packages simulate real world operations by ensuring that the correct airlines fly from each airport, using real-world flight plans, or as near as makes no difference. This group includes Burkhard Renk's MyTraffic 2004, now at version 2.1 and Just Flight's Traffic 2005; the timetable-based group includes AirNav Systems FS Live Traffic and Flight1's Ultimate Traffic. Because there is such great interest in this area I am going to complete a set of reviews of all four over the coming weeks, so that it will be possible for users to make an informed choice about which package to buy. As far as I am aware, this will be the first time any website has carried current reviews of all four products.

Before we take a look at Ultimate Traffic, it might be worth looking at the difference between running timetable-based and timetable-simulating AI packages, as neither method holds the complete answer. The champions of non-timetable based packages claim that timetable-based AI addons are a waste of time in Flight Simulator, because the vagaries of FS weather and the AI traffic engine introduce delays and changes that don't mirror what happens in the real world - but then, as the lady said, they would say that. These developers also maintain, with a degree of justification, that the average user isn't bothered whether the AI traffic he sees is based on real-world schedules or not, as long as it looks realistic; the end result being that their products concentrate on ensuring that the correct airlines operate from the correct airports at approximately the correct flight frequency. The timetable-based product developers take the opposite tack, assuming that what users want AI traffic that operates as close to real-world schedules as Flight Simulator will allow and this too, has a degree of justification, because many users do want to see exactly that. From this arises the question of whether a simmer, presented with copies of Flight Simulator running timetable-based and non-timetable-based AI could tell the difference between them - my own view is that it would be hard to say, but that non-timetable-based AI has a tendency to run into problems with traffic volumes.

At this point we get into lies, damned lies and statistics, because apart from the timetable/no timetable division, the other way AI traffic products seek to differentiate themselves is by the number of flights, number of airports planes operate from, number of aircraft models, number of liveries and the number of AFD files provided in the addon. To this list we might add that the number of AFD files, which are absolutely key to the smooth operation of an AI traffic package: airport facility data being used to control user and AI aircraft at airports and to assign parking slots. AFDs also control the airport information seen on the FS map view, GPS screen, flight planner and in the start position set-up window in Flight Simulator - given that there are around 24000 places to land in FS2004 you won't be surprised that Microsoft hasn't included every single aircraft parking spot at every airport in the world in the default FS2004 installation. I hear cries of 'Shame!' and 'Surely not!' in back there, but although the MS development team are gods among men, it seems that they have lives and families to go back home to, so for example, Jalalabad doesn't have any parking spaces at all and the default London Gatwick only has 49, which is at least a hundred short according to my calculations. The long and the short of it is that for an AI product to provide realistic-looking traffic behavior, be it timetable-based or not, it must provide plenty of extra AFD files, or many flights won't get to first base for lack of stands at busy airports - in a nutshell, Flight Simulator's AI engine can't arrive sixty flights at an airport which only has space for thirty and it deals with the extras by deleting or disappearing them.

The number of flights included with each package would be a no-brainer for comparison purposes, were it not the case that non timetable-based packages generate recurring flights, whereas timetable-based packages generally do not, making it possible for publishers of the former type of product to claim that they provide more flights than the latter, simply by totting up all the recurrent flight plans. Where a timetable-based AI package has to include all British Airways flights from Gatwick over an average week, all a non-timetable based addon needs to do is to spawn a mix of BA liveried flights to representative destinations and then keep repeating them ad nauseam in order to fill an airport with activity. This works because the average simmer doesn't sit with an airline timetable checking arrivals and departures in and out, the important criterion as far as atmosphere goes being the level of activity - too much and the airport will grind to a halt, too little and it looks wrong. Just to add a final nail to the coffin of using the number of flights as a package comparator, users have total control over them via the sliders and the moment you start winding the AI traffic level down in Flight Simulator, you begin to reduce the number of flights. So if you already have to do this to get acceptable frame rates on your system, there ain't much point going for an AI package which claims the highest level of activity, because running the traffic at 100% will slow your system to an absolute crawl. AI eats frames..

Next, we have the number of aircraft models and liveries - this is material, in my opinion. The default AI traffic is unconvincing because it uses a handful of fantasy liveries painted on a small number of different planes so that the same combinations are in your face all the time, whereas by comparison, MyTraffic 2004 offers 113 planes/1800 liveries, Traffic 2005 60/500 and Ultimate Traffic 40/800. To add spice to the mix, MyTraffic and Traffic 2005 offer helicopter AI and MyTraffic has military AI as well. Many of the packages offer the ability to add new planes and liveries after the initial install via update applets and user site links, so acquisitive users can expand the basic AI hangar considerably, but in my experience, the number of different planes needed to make AI look realistic is smaller than you think, particularly when you consider that most people can't tell the difference between most Boeing 737 variants at a distance, despite their making up the backbone of the real world commercial fleet.

As part of the consideration of any AI product, it is also necessary to look at the interface, manual and utilities that come with it. For example, Just Flight's Traffic 2005 scores heavily on the utilities front, going so far as to install three new pilot voices, but all of these products have sought to differentiate themselves by bringing their own unique mix of applets and eye candy. As any power user will point out though, most of the tools you need for AI traffic editing are already available as freeware, chief among them being Lee Swordy's AFCAD (AFCAD221.ZIP). Finally, there is the price, which ranges from FS Live Traffic's $109.90 per annum (yep, it works by subscription), through MyTraffic 2004's $46.83 at current exchange rates, down to Traffic 2005 at $29.99 and Ultimate Traffic, which squeezes in as cheapest package of all, if only by a margin of four cents.

I first reviewed Ultimate Traffic a little over two years ago as an FS2002 product, the good news being that it has since been upgraded to work with FS2004 and is available as a boxed and a download version. The download is 217 Mb in size and Flight1 give the minimum hardware requirements as an 800 Mhz processor with 512 Mb of RAM and a 64 Mb video card, the preferred operating system being Windows XP - note that the developer does not guarantee that the package will work on either Windows 98 or Me. I wish you luck if you are running FS2002 or 2004 on an 800 Mhz machine, my one piece of advice being not to make things harder for yourself by installing an AI traffic package; a more realistic minimum spec to run FS2002/FS2004 with a good volume of AI being a 1.7 Ghz system unless you plan to do clean boots and carry out a scorched-earth policy on the system tray.

Having used Ultimate Traffic for a long while, I have done installations of both the download and the boxed (CD-ROM) version, all of which have gone without trouble, as have the uninstalls. To add a little spice to the mix, I also chose to review the Spring/Summer 2005 schedule upgrade, which installs on top of the 'base' package and shows the world's traffic as it was for 16th through 22nd May 2005. This is a key feature of UT - it is based on real time scheduled flights, but the timetables relate to a single week and unless you install the new sets of timetables that Flight1 periodically offer, the level of traffic will not change on a seasonal basis - in other words, with the Spring/Summer timetables in place, holiday resort airports will still be busy in November.

When the Ultimate Traffic app is started for the first time with the Spring/Summer schedule applied, it updates the AI aircraft dynamics and various data files before you can hit the compile button in order to generate the flights - be prepared for this to take a while. Once that is done, even with an ordinary install, Flight1 advise hitting the update button, going online and downloading every paint scheme you find, because if you don't do this, some airports will end up with only half the traffic they should have, as a result of various liveries having failed to make it into the base package. This process also takes a good while and you aren't finished when it is done, because you still need to 'compile' the traffic database, a vital process because this generates all the flights. There are several options to deliberate over before going ahead with the compilation, chief among them being whether you want to include aircraft that have not been painted with an airline livery; whether you want GA planes included - note the package does not include helicopter or military traffic - and finally, which airlines and which regions you wish to compile, as Ultimate Traffic offers a choice of including any/all airlines and any/all regions. According to the manual, if you check the option to include planes that haven't been painted with an airline livery, they should be assigned a default livery, but during the review, I noticed one or two cases where no livery was assigned at all and aircraft appeared with all over gray textures. The advantage of checking this option is that Ultimate Traffic will provide a plane for every flight plan it has in the database and it can make a big difference out in the boonies, as this is where you stand the highest chance of UT failing to find a plane with a suitable livery and having to do a substitute.

There is no doubt that the installation is complex and lengthy compared to other AI traffic products, but there is a good reason for it, which is that it makes it relatively simple for ordinary users to add planes, flights and airlines after the initial installation is done. After that, there is no particular reason to run the Ultimate Traffic (UT) app ever again unless you want to update your traffic or access some of the many utilities and options it offers. Expert users might care to note note that if they have installed any AI packages previously, they may want to visit the ...Flight Simulator 9\Scenery\World\scenery folder before they install UT and move any existing traffic*.bgl files to another folder as otherwise there is a risk of ending up with duplicate traffic at some airports. The manual is found in an Ultimate Traffic program group under the Flight1 banner on the start menu, which also includes links to an updater app, a 'parking codes' editor and the palm spotter voice checker.

The UT main app breaks just about every Windows interface convention you can imagine, but does so in fine style and acts as a consistent interface to the powerful toolbox that lies behind its friendly brushed metal facade. Flight1's design savvy shines out of all the applets and although most users will not see them that often, it is one of the things that makes the package great to use; the interface just looks so damned good. After you have finished any schedule compiling that needs to be done, the options found on the UT main screen allow you to display route maps by operator/airport/aircraft; show a status board by airport/airline, print pdf timetables for airlines/airports, update UT's liveries and AFD files, and to access a 'utilities' page. Dealing with each in turn, the route map allows you to select a carrier/operator combination and, after hitting the 'generate' button, show all its routes, with further options to filter by airport and even by type of airplane; and although the size of the UT app limits the display area, full zoom and pan facilities are available. This is one area where the package could be improved, although the main UT dialog is by no means small, it could be larger for comfort's sake and would be great to have an interface sized for the 1280 x 1024 flat panels that are common these days. 40 Mile Air get pride of place because they are the first airline in the list and once you have gazed in awe at the size of their operation on the route screen, it is possible to look into it in more detail by clicking the timetable button and generating a pdf showing all the airline's flight departures and arrivals, including the ones from Chicken, Alaska - which is what I call thorough. Clicking 'status board' instead of timetable allows you to search for an airport by name or ICAO code and then takes you to a facsimile of an airport status board, which you can filter by arrivals, departures and airlines.

Clicking 'update' requires an active Internet connection and lets UT search for new aircraft repaints and AFCAD files, the latter being split not only into FS2002 and FS2004 flavors, but also into default and 'addon' airport sections, so that there is little risk of installing the wrong AFD files. The catch is that some of the updated files you will find using this process will have been created by freeware authors, which means that the only guarantee you have of their quality is the certification process Flight1 provides. This normally works well in my experience, the one catch being that authors rarely identify their AFDs well enough to allow you work out exactly which third party scenery they are meant to go with, or how the new file for a default airport is supposed to improve on the one that Flight Simulator provides for it. This last case can be a particular problem because the updates tend to concentrate on the larger and more popular airports, with the result that there were four alternatives for Paris Charles de Gaulle (LFPG) at the time I did the review, with no easy way of choosing between them other than to download them and try them. I guess the main thing is that there is a choice, and if you don't like a file, you can always download another one to replace it.

In a similar way, the aircraft repaint updater only checks if duplicates will be created after you have downloaded new liveries, leaving you with the choice of overwriting the existing livery or creating a copy, but no opportunity to discard the one you downloaded without installing it; furthermore, updating is liable to trigger 'assignments database' errors if you download a repaint for an airline which does not exist in the UT database. Although there is a 'preview' button for repaints on the dialog, I have yet to come across an occasion when it has been active, presumably because repainters don't normally bother to include them and the certifiers don't ask for them. Once again, the quality of authors' comments vary from zilch to reams of purple prose, the latter being in the minority. That being said, it doesn't matter too much if you do download a repaint for a non-listed airline, because FS2004 will simply ignore it, but it would be good to see the aircraft updater improved to include some prior warning that a download would create a duplicate and to give cautions about non-listed airlines as this would save user time, bandwidth and disk space - if a solution to the missing previews could also be found, it would be a serious enhancement as at least you could eyeball what you are going to get. One great feature of the update process is that once you have viewed liveries and AFD files, they are listed under the 'previous updates not installed' section, so you shouldn't end up downloading anything twice because you forgot that you already had it. One not so great feature is that there is no quick method of telling which liveries are 'compulsory downloads' needed to populate the airports as described above and which are optional enhancements.

Clicking the 'utilities' button on the UT applet takes you to ten power user options, all of which have consistent, usable and friendly interfaces, which at the risk of repeating myself, wake up at the back there, is a huge plus point of the package, especially if you are not an AI afficionado. First in the list is an 'aircraft assignments' editor, which lets you assign not only the FS aircraft model that will be flown when the schedule calls for it, but also to add multiple liveries against a single plane type - a good example of why you need the latter option being British Airways 'World Tails' theme. The assignments editor is a powerful little app in its own right, as it gives you a free hand at importing AI planes and liveries into UT without most of the pain normally associated with editing AI traffic, but one thing it does not do is to check for unassigned liveries, for which purpose you will need something like ACA2005. Next applet in the list is an aircraft parking code editor, which means that if you do manage to import an AI Parnall Pixie using the assignments editor, you can make sure Flight Simulator doesn't try taxiing it into the spaces where the big iron plays. Then you get an 'airport assignment' editor, which lets you change the ICAO codes around - dangerous in the wrong hands, as you can theoretically assign KLAX to Chicken, Alaska, but it no doubt has its uses. Fourth in the list is a tail number designator, which can be used to create sophisticated rules for assigning tail numbers to AI planes; probably a minority interest, but virtual plane spotters will love it. Fifth is the 'gauges' utility, which installs the UT Traffic Collision and Avoidance (TCAS) and PalmSpotter gauges into the FS planes, the only snag being that it does this with all the planes - it would have been good to have had an option to choose which ones. Sixth is a cut-down version of Text-o-Matic, which lets you create your own repaints based on templates that Flight1 have made freely available - this really is a simple process and having read the manual, even I think I could create new liveries using this app. Seventh is a flight plan import utility, which allows you to create and import completely new airline schedules into UT so that its planes operate seamlessly with the other AI traffic, but although Flight1 provide some examples to work on, to have any realistic chance of using this feature, you will require a working knowledge of Traffic Tools and I would recommend a thorough read through the UT manual before you get started, because it is a complex, multi-stage process, although UT renders it about as painless as it gets, which is still painful. The remaining options can be summarised quickly: an AFCAD manager for FS2002 users; a package wizard which lets you upload and share aircraft paints; and AFD files and a button which generates a useful list of all the repaints currently held within your UT database. One facility UT lacks is a quick way of generating traffic at your favorite local airport, other than sweating over the flight plan import utility, which is not for the faint of heart - Traffic 2005 has a neat tool which creates random flight plans to neighboring airports, but such a thing would be out of place in a package that has nailed its colors to the mast of real-world schedules. Another improvement would be a taxi speed editor to help prevent go-arounds.

The TCAS is a sophisticated little gauge which boasts both traffic advisory (TA) and resolution advisory (RA) modes, as well as being switchable for range, direction and tilt. In normal operational circumstances, the instrument generates symbols showing aircraft around you, this is done in the real world by interrogating their transponders. When the TA mode is engaged, possible track conflicts are highlighted by a change in the offending aircraft symbol to yellow, annunciation of the word 'TRAFFIC' top right of the gauge and an aural warning. In RA mode, if a conflicting aircraft symbol goes red and a specific aural warning is given, you disengage the autopilot and get the hell outta there - which explains why most crews switch to TA mode in the vicinity of airports when they are IFR as otherwise it would be going off the whole time. This gauge will prove a revelation to simmers who rely on the default FS planes, but is redundant for most of the better airliner addons which usually include a built in TCAS.

PalmSpotter is a miniature version of the airport status board, compressed into a PalmPilot look alike gauge. To use it you enter the ICAO id of the airport you want flight information about and after a short loading period, PalmSpotter lists arrivals or departures. Its major, and possibly only use is to allow you to be a virtual traffic spotter, maybe the world's saddest occupation (-:

I have used Ultimate Traffic as my AI traffic package ever since its release, which says something about its quality and ease of use, but took the opportunity to look at the addon afresh for the purposes of the review. My first move was to station myself at the threshold of London Gatwick (EGKK), which is the perfect airport at which to assess AI packages, because it has two runways, one of which hasn't been in operation for a long while, is reasonably busy and isn't so well known that AI traffic developers are inclined to give it special attention. But before getting onto how the traffic behaves, perhaps I had better make a comment about the AI planes themselves, which were designed by Project AI and beyond the obvious and necessary limitation of having fewer polygons and simplified liveries than the flyable planes, look good. There may only be forty different models, but at the distance at which you get to view most AI planes, it can be hard enough working out whether you are looking at a Boeing or an Airbus, let alone which variant. Another thing worth pointing out is that the AI planes look good at night and unlike their Traffic 2005 counterparts, do not switch on their landing lights while still on the taxiways - and when they do, the lights look much more realistic.

All AI packages take a while to get into gear, as aircraft have to taxi to the runways and arrivals have to be spawned in cyberspace and cover some distance before making the approach, so I indulged in my normal practice of turning the simulation rate up to four times normal speed for a couple of minutes, before returning it to normal and assuming the role of a, er... virtual air spotter. The place was deserted - so I mooched around my FS settings and discovered I had the AI turned down to 39%, which was what it took to make Gatwick work properly with Traffic 2005. In that product, the AI used a single runway and a huge queue built up on the taxiway which led to aircraft vanishing because they had been waiting so long and if you want an illustration of why some people prefer timetable-based packages, that is it, because with Ultimate Traffic installed and 100% AI traffic set, planes used both runways and no queues built up, although I did see the occasional go-around caused by planes being slow to clear the pavement. In general, planes landed on 08R and took off from 08L, but there were a few landings on 08L but when I first installed the package without using the updater to download the missing planes, the level of activity appeared to be quiet for mid-May. Unlike Traffic 2005, which generated a mix of traffic which British Airways tended to dominate, in Ultimate Traffic, BA are the dominant airline at Gatwick, with few other carriers getting a look in. Given that the real Gatwick is used by 70 different airlines and is the sixth busiest international airport and the second busiest in the UK, I generated a departures timetable to see what was going on; this listed just under 60 airlines, so the relatively low activity had to be explained by missing flights or planes - and surely enough, it improved after updating, although it still didn't match the traffic level I would expect. Before I finish with this airport, I realise that regular Gatwick users are probably hammering out emails to tell me that Gatwick's 08L/26R isn't in use and hasn't been in years, which is another problem with UT's schedules. This can be fixed by importing one of the AFCAD files we have on FlightSim.Com for Gatwick and installing it - I searched for a Flight1 approved substitute using the UT updater and failed to turn up anything at the time I was writing the review.

Next, I went to Seattle another twin runway airport, to watch what happened there. This time there was much more activity after using the built in updater, but thanks to the departing traffic favoring the nearest runway to the taxiways, a queue built up and stayed built up despite my leaving FS2004 running for several hours. Although queuing is a feature of real airports, it normally doesn't happen to as large extent as it does in Flight Simulator because air traffic hold planes at their gates rather than on the taxiways buring expensive fuel. In FS2004, queues are caused by the way the AI traffic engine operates, so the fault can't be laid at the door of Flight1. What this behavior does show, however, is that timetable-based packages are as prone to queues as their non-timetable-based rivals.

After Seattle, I took myself to Dallas Fort Worth (KDFW) and London Heathrow (EGLL), good places to see large airports in action, as these two are among the busiest in the world. Both looked fine, bar the occasional go-around. At a busy airport, even one with multiple runways, near realistic traffic levels make go-arounds a fact of life in FS because the AI traffic engine doesn't clear planes off the pavement at anything like a realistic speed. This prevents operations at an airport like London Heathrow looking like they should - on most days, the real airport has planes strung out on the approach like pearls on a necklace so that an observer at the threshold can usually see three of four incoming with the naked eye. Heathrow lands or despatches a plane every sixty seconds at peak times, a performance that can't be replicated in Flight Simulator because of the snail-like progress planes make off the pavement after they have landed. This means that even if all the stands are active in an AFD file, some will be empty when they should be full, purely and simply because the planes that should be there were 'bumped' by the AI engine and never got to land.

Verdict? Ultimate Traffic is an extremely well desigend, neatly presented and cohesive package which will make it very attractive to simmers keen to see more realistic AI traffic. The only real drawback is the need to download extra AI planes with the updater after the package is first installed in order to populate the airports fully - if this process identified which planes were compulsory and which were optional downloads, it would make life a great deal easier for the user. as the third-party liveries generate a lot of error messages during the installation process. However, this aside, if you do need to change anything, or want to try your hand at customising settings, a full suite of applications is available, all of which work reliably and share a common interface and flexibility and expandability are built in as standard. Ultimate Traffic has proved to be a faithful friend to me over the years and I can unhesitatingly recommend it.

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