Thoughts on Traffic X before purchase

I am happy to start the ball rolling here.

You might also like to check out the Just Flight Traffic X FAQ page. (Link: Traffic X FAQ.)

Others should feel free to add or comment on this list:

============================
Pros.
============================

- Excellent on frame rates.

- Can fly the AI planes (but, being AI planes, cockpits are not programmed for these so they use the nearest/best cockpits from the default FSX planes. I don't use this feature so I do not know if the VCs work for this).

- The AI traffic from the default install is plentiful and works just fine. However, if you want to go that little bit further, the included Traffic Control Centre interface gives you an easy way to comprehensively customise, add, edit and expand the AI traffic. There is a small learning curve for this, and you need to do one or two to get the idea of how it works, but it is all quite straightforward.

- Lots of re-worked airports (AFCAD files) get installed which include more (and better layed out) parking spaces than what the same airports had in default FSX. This includes "grouping" of the parking spaces so that airlines all park together and, generally, in the correct locations as per the real-life airports.

- Lots and lots of airlines covered, even many of the obscure ones.

- The re-worked airports (AFCAD files) include additional cargo parking spots (more than what were included with the default FSX airports) and plenty of cargo planes and airlines are included to take advantage of this.

- Includes FedEx (some other AI offerings do not include FedEx).

- Includes military (and even more if you purchase the Military PlusPak).

- Easy to import new planes in to Traffic Control Centre whether they be payware planes or planes you have downloaded. You can then make flight plans for these imported planes.

- Traffic Control Centre also provides for the ability to edit aircraft settings. You can adjust things such as aircraft min and max range, parking radius, parking type (gate, ramp, cargo, etc).

- Includes a Repaint Tool (but see my comment in the CONS section about the Repaint Tool).

- Included traffic radar is very cool.

- AI aircraft models take advantage of the advanced animations in FSX and have moving parts and opening cargo bay doors etc. They also work fully with airport service vehicles (fuel trucks etc) and jetways. Great realism.

- All of the AI planes are fully DirectX 10 compatible (if you have Vista or Win7 and use that feature in FSX).

============================
Cons.
============================

- American Airlines is "Merican" Airlines (for copyright reasons). But you should be able to find a repaint or do your own repaint for this.

- If you install Traffic X and see NO TRAFFIC then you need to remember that FSX is only capable of supporting one old style .bgl file (the file that acts as a database for A.I. traffic movements). So, if you have previously installed an AI package in to your FSX, then you need to either remove that package, or, make sure that the package is converted to the current FSX style of .bgl so that everything works in harmony. It's easy, but this catches a lot of people out.

- Some of the modified AFCADs could have been better. Some airports have buildings over the apron or the taxiways, some airports have trees over taxiways, some airports have pushback tugs and planes sticking half-in and half-out of buildings. But, generally, there's not all that many of these "faulty" AFCADs. They are fairly rare. (And, if you do your own airport editing with your own separate AFCAD editor, you can fix these up.)

- Some of the included airlines are no longer flying in real-life. This requires you to either "live with it", or open the editor and remove or edit them to other planes/airlines.

- Helicopters are included, but they TAXI and TAKEOFF like airplanes. If you want realism, then this fails miserably! You can use the editor to remove helicopters if this bothers you and then you can replace them with something like "Heli Traffic 2009". (Link: Heli Traffic 2009).

- One or two AI aircraft can seem a little "light" (weight) and as a result have short takeoff runs and short landing runs (stop very quickly after landing). This only seems to affect a handful of aircraft. In fact, I barely notice it. But it may bother others.

- The included Repaint Tool doesn't seem to work properly (well, I do know of people who have it working for them, but I've personally never been able to make it work properly - even after installing the Service Pack which claims to have fixed it).

- If you use the Traffic Control Centre for adding/editing flight plans, you soon notice some really obvious bugs. They're not show stoppers, but are annoying all the same.

- No contribution from Just Flight support or tech staff in this forum. However, they do have a tech support contact page and they do, apparently, respond to that.

You're welcome.

(I added a few to the list AFTER you first saw it. So you may just want to have a quick re-read.)

Depending on how good your PC is KLAX and other North American Major Airports and major European airports could be a problem being so busy and a lot going on it might slow up the computer abit, I know when I fly into North America I have to go bck to FS2004 because my pc can handle that a lot better than FSX 10 but apart from that if you have a realy good computer you will enjoy FSX10 and Traffic X.

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skd Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Check-In Staff Joined: 30 Sep 2010 Location: Ohio Points: 10	Post Options Post Reply Quote skd Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Thoughts on Traffic X before purchase Posted: 08 Oct 2010 at 10:39pm
	Hey everyone, I'm getting really interested in purchasing Traffic X for FSX and just wanted to know everyone's thoughts concerning the software. Pros Cons etc. Also a few questions... Can you fly as all the aircraft included with the software? Virtual cockpits? How is it on framerate? I have a pretty decent rig but just curious how it effects everyone. Thanks!


freddy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Chief Pilot Joined: 29 Nov 2008 Location: Melbourne, Aust Points: 1339	Post Options Post Reply Quote freddy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Oct 2010 at 11:24pm
	I am happy to start the ball rolling here. You might also like to check out the Just Flight Traffic X FAQ page. (Link: Traffic X FAQ.) Others should feel free to add or comment on this list: ============================ Pros. ============================ - Excellent on frame rates. - Can fly the AI planes (but, being AI planes, cockpits are not programmed for these so they use the nearest/best cockpits from the default FSX planes. I don't use this feature so I do not know if the VCs work for this). - The AI traffic from the default install is plentiful and works just fine. However, if you want to go that little bit further, the included Traffic Control Centre interface gives you an easy way to comprehensively customise, add, edit and expand the AI traffic. There is a small learning curve for this, and you need to do one or two to get the idea of how it works, but it is all quite straightforward. - Lots of re-worked airports (AFCAD files) get installed which include more (and better layed out) parking spaces than what the same airports had in default FSX. This includes "grouping" of the parking spaces so that airlines all park together and, generally, in the correct locations as per the real-life airports. - Lots and lots of airlines covered, even many of the obscure ones. - The re-worked airports (AFCAD files) include additional cargo parking spots (more than what were included with the default FSX airports) and plenty of cargo planes and airlines are included to take advantage of this. - Includes FedEx (some other AI offerings do not include FedEx). - Includes military (and even more if you purchase the Military PlusPak). - Easy to import new planes in to Traffic Control Centre whether they be payware planes or planes you have downloaded. You can then make flight plans for these imported planes. - Traffic Control Centre also provides for the ability to edit aircraft settings. You can adjust things such as aircraft min and max range, parking radius, parking type (gate, ramp, cargo, etc). - Includes a Repaint Tool (but see my comment in the CONS section about the Repaint Tool). - Included traffic radar is very cool. - AI aircraft models take advantage of the advanced animations in FSX and have moving parts and opening cargo bay doors etc. They also work fully with airport service vehicles (fuel trucks etc) and jetways. Great realism. - All of the AI planes are fully DirectX 10 compatible (if you have Vista or Win7 and use that feature in FSX). ============================ Cons. ============================ - American Airlines is "Merican" Airlines (for copyright reasons). But you should be able to find a repaint or do your own repaint for this. - If you install Traffic X and see NO TRAFFIC then you need to remember that FSX is only capable of supporting one old style .bgl file (the file that acts as a database for A.I. traffic movements). So, if you have previously installed an AI package in to your FSX, then you need to either remove that package, or, make sure that the package is converted to the current FSX style of .bgl so that everything works in harmony. It's easy, but this catches a lot of people out. - Some of the modified AFCADs could have been better. Some airports have buildings over the apron or the taxiways, some airports have trees over taxiways, some airports have pushback tugs and planes sticking half-in and half-out of buildings. But, generally, there's not all that many of these "faulty" AFCADs. They are fairly rare. (And, if you do your own airport editing with your own separate AFCAD editor, you can fix these up.) - Some of the included airlines are no longer flying in real-life. This requires you to either "live with it", or open the editor and remove or edit them to other planes/airlines. - Helicopters are included, but they TAXI and TAKEOFF like airplanes. If you want realism, then this fails miserably! You can use the editor to remove helicopters if this bothers you and then you can replace them with something like "Heli Traffic 2009". (Link: Heli Traffic 2009). - One or two AI aircraft can seem a little "light" (weight) and as a result have short takeoff runs and short landing runs (stop very quickly after landing). This only seems to affect a handful of aircraft. In fact, I barely notice it. But it may bother others. - The included Repaint Tool doesn't seem to work properly (well, I do know of people who have it working for them, but I've personally never been able to make it work properly - even after installing the Service Pack which claims to have fixed it). - If you use the Traffic Control Centre for adding/editing flight plans, you soon notice some really obvious bugs. They're not show stoppers, but are annoying all the same. - No contribution from Just Flight support or tech staff in this forum. However, they do have a tech support contact page and they do, apparently, respond to that.

skd Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Check-In Staff Joined: 30 Sep 2010 Location: Ohio Points: 10	Post Options Post Reply Quote skd Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Oct 2010 at 11:46pm
	Wow this is a great list and exactly what i needed! Thanks so much Freddy!


freddy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Chief Pilot Joined: 29 Nov 2008 Location: Melbourne, Aust Points: 1339	Post Options Post Reply Quote freddy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09 Oct 2010 at 12:09am
	You're welcome. (I added a few to the list AFTER you first saw it. So you may just want to have a quick re-read.)

BigTex Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List First Officer Joined: 04 Dec 2008 Location: RKSI - Seoul Points: 325	Post Options Post Reply Quote BigTex Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 Feb 2011 at 2:05am
	One other thing that I have noticed is that at airports where runways share one ILS frequency on reciprocal headings is that the localizer at one end usually the west end will be for a backcourse. Try KLAX on ruways 06L 06R 07L or 07R. Other airports I've found with this problem are Houston Hobby and Chicago Midway, London Gatwick and a few others that I can't remember now. I never had this problem before installing Traffic X and it's airports. There is no problem when the ILS frequencies are different on the reciprocal headings. Is there a fix for this? I deactivated the Traffic X airports in scenery because of this. I have loaded the airports in AFX (an AFCAD editor) and can find no problems, but then I am no expert on AFCAD's. Rick

Darren Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List P/UT Joined: 12 May 2008 Location: Melbourne Points: 116	Post Options Post Reply Quote Darren Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 13 Jun 2011 at 10:46am
	Depending on how good your PC is KLAX and other North American Major Airports and major European airports could be a problem being so busy and a lot going on it might slow up the computer abit, I know when I fly into North America I have to go bck to FS2004 because my pc can handle that a lot better than FSX 10 but apart from that if you have a realy good computer you will enjoy FSX10 and Traffic X.