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  1. Plugin Update : WorldTraffic v3.5 by Classic Jet Simulations (Ascend Tech Simulations) Although the X-Plane Simulator comes with it's own built in traffic system (A.I.). It is by all accounts quite a very basic way of bringing traffic into your airport environment and is limited in it's scope. Let us be realistic here in that empty airports are really boring, and don't reflect the hustle and bustle of the real world environment, unless you are in the middle of a pandemic, but we are (almost) now back to normal. Basically in the X-Plane Simulator you have three choices. One is X-Life Deluxe by JARDesign. This application expands on and hitches a ride on the back of the default X-Plane A.I. System, it is clever, but never really took off (no pun intended) with the users. Second version is a basic newcomer, although now about exactly three years old, and this application is Traffic Global from JustFlight. I'm a big fan of Traffic Global with features of almost zero impact on your frame rate and a wide variety of aircraft. But it is very expensive of over US$50 (US$52.99), and the aircraft also fly quite strangely if even a little weird... with their dive-bomber tactics, and the very poor takeoff and landing animations, TG is however a nice background filler application and in reality nothing more. The original and the best is WorldTraffic by Classic Jet Simulations (Now called "Ascend Tech Simulations"), or Greg Hofer, but for now we will still refer it to it's old distinguishable name as CJS. The original World Traffic (WT) plugin was released in early 2013, by Greg Hofer of Classic Jet Simulations and is a concept by Francesco Missarino of Aircraft3D. Basically WorldTraffic is a plugin to create a dynamic world around your flying aircraft, this is in the form of other aircraft in which you can interact with and create a visually dynamic environment in that it fills up airports and its gates and has real form routes that the aircraft will fly between with it's own built in ATC (Air Traffic Control) system which is quite good. It all sounds quite simple, but then the machinations of creating this environment are extremely complex on top of an already complex simulator. The early versions of WT were that extremely complex and had all their own home made groundroutes and parking allocations. Only a few really mastered the complex ideas, it was very good, don't get me wrong, but also very laborious to use and maintain. The bonus was you could edit almost every area to match the correct airport layouts and (Gate) bay allocations, and the pushback element was also extremely good with start up timings. But there are a lot of very different airports and groundroutes to cover out there, so it had it's limitations. When Traffic Global was released it took a different path into automating the groundroutes on the fly, and in using X-Plane's built-in ATC ground-routing system. To be honest it was a very efficient and a far better system to use, and the WorldTraffic update v3.0 (WT3) reflected this idea with a new built in autogenerator to build the same ground routes off the ATC routes, but you could still edit and change the routing details within the application. WT3 also changed the aircraft download system from a multi-download 9 Gb set of aircraft files, to then install just to a single file aircraft download of 1.49Gb. WorldTraffic v3 was then a huge step forward from the earlier more manual input context, and for the users of whom revelled earlier in this sort of complex minute, then they absolutely loved it. But for most of the rest of us, it also created a sort of barrier of access and the ease of use that you could get easily from Traffic Global. So the v3.0 version upgrade significantly closed that user and accessibility divide. The quality however really shines in realism of WT3 in operation. It fills out your airports with very high quality aircraft, and it creates dynamic layouts of airfields. Full "Flight Display" and "Aircraft Info" boards means you see all the activity live. WorldTraffic Radar is a separate install... used to track the departing or arriving aircraft, or even the aircraft enroute passing in your area. So here is the next significant update to WorldTraffic in version v3.5, personally it should have been noted as v4.0 as it has quite a lot of changes from the already drawn out v3 development run. Here is the extensive update v3.5 list. ATC supports IFR and VFR flight requires that users use valid ATC frequencies with frequencies listed on display has auto-tune option for frequencies user may be required to make speed changes or enter holding patterns to maintain separation gives taxi paths to and from runways has interface for other 3rd party ATC products allows for user-defined VFR airspace exit points so ATC can vector VFR flights to these positions Particle effects for contrails (wing/engine), tire smoke, afterburner flame Aircraft base file format modified to include particle placement x/y/z fields for particle emitters Labels for AI aircraft which you can turn on and off to identify aircraft near you Color/brightness options for arriving traffic, departing traffic, or transiting traffic Can turn labels on or off as well for planes on the ground Can set min and max draw distances for labels Can set data you want in the labels like telemetry info, airport info, aircraft type Airport Operations File Changes DynamicTaxiRoutesOnly field added - normally set to 1 (true) but can be set to 0 if the airport creator still wants to use some custom ground routes. It will use whatever is defined or create them dynamically for parking defs without fixed ground routes. I think the dynamic ones work pretty well now though. I plan on letting the airport author specify an alternate apt.dat for specific parking spots in the next update if you want planes to follow a very specific route for 1 or more parking spots. This should get rid of the need for ground routes entirely. option to specify if touch and gos are allowed on a runway, default is true for airports with not much traffic and false for airports with lots of traffic but can be changed. add option to write out default airport ops file added new fields for airspace dimensions (used by ATC), VFR airspace exit points (for vectoring VFR traffic), taxi bridge definitions, and exit waypoint for STARs for STARs used for multiple runways added fields for approaches to specify weather minimums add support for bridges for some scenery packages that have bridges that planes can taxi over which sometimes aren't defined correctly causing the AI planes to drop through them Diversions now supported - if weather is below minimums for an airport, it will close to traffic and aircraft will fly to alternate airports. If the weather is marginal, some planes will attempt approaches but will divert if minimum conditions aren't met. GA Traffic Improvements Allow specification of visual approaches for GA traffic (others too) which are often used in mountainous areas. Examples are included for LOWI. Added support for custom routes so GA planes can follow these on out and back flights instead of flying a random pattern. Also allows the user to create specific routes for airliners instead of auto-generated flight paths. GA traffic will avoid mountainous terrain much better GA planes will now often do touch-and-gos at airports that aren't busy GA planes especially light props will often not fly in IFR weather. About 85% will stay parked. Created auto flight schedules for GA flights between airports for better realism Better parking spot allocations - parking spots for bigger planes will be reserved for those when a smaller plane is looking for a spot unless there are no available spot for the smaller type. This improves problem with bigger planes not being able to find parking spots on landing - most noticeable for spots shared between light props and light jets Added support of Navigraph approach transitions New separation logic (3.2) Interception - probably not included Follow me truck Back-tracking logic improved Wind gust modeling Auto-push-back logic so that AI planes push back to the taxi route path so no parking def customization required Prevent AI planes from running into user in flight or on runway if the user is not using WT ATC Support for ABC Camera plugin Added support for user defined text files for custom arrivals and approaches especially useful for GA planes flying in mountainous terrain Added support for simultaneous runway operations for intersecting runways so planes will wait for other planes taking off on an intersecting runway before departing Auto-throttle traffic at busy airports so traffic does not back up in holding patterns Planes will taxi faster on landing until they get to their exit Planes will brake harder to make runway exits to avoid back-tracking Handle drive-through parking spots Flip planes around in parking spots at a random time after landing if they enter and exit the parking spot from opposite headings check for runway name mismatches between navigraph data and x-plane data so when a runway name changes due to drifting magnetic north from say rwy34 to rwy35, it is still recognized as the same runway add parking def option to test dynamic taxi routes ___________________ ATC The ATC in WT3 was always very good. It works better here because it only focuses on your route and not in a global context like it does in X-Plane... so it it easy and quite realistic to use. The v3.5 update makes even better in that it now supports supports both IFR and VFR flight, and requires that the users use the valid ATC frequencies with frequencies listed on display, a built in auto-tune option for frequencies means it is also independent of X-Plane. More complex commands now require users to make speed changes or to enter holding patterns to maintain separation, and it gives you your taxi paths to and from runways and has interfaces with other 3rd party ATC products. This also allows for user-defined VFR airspace exit points so the ATC can vector VFR flights to these positions... Overall a very big revision of an already good ATC, I like it very much. Aircraft Over the years WT3 has been far more ambitious than the other Traffic tools because it has a very large but talented community base behind it. So aircraft are far more up to date and are modeled with mostly the newer NEW-GEN aircraft and far more aircraft types including GA and Private Jets, and the quality detailing is far better of all the three traffic applications. Over the years particle effects for contrails (wing/engine), tire smoke and afterburner flame have all been added into the basic aircraft designs... ... and the aircraft lighting effects are just as good as (and in areas even better) than your payware aircraft, with fine tuned realistic lighting. So all of the aircraft look brilliant and highly realistic when passing enroute, and the aircraft also show on your TCAS screens. Labels Labels are new. You still have the original "Flight INFO" data in the left lower screen, but now also you have more label information in the air and on the ground... .... these labels are set in three colours, and in that you can also choose any other colour to cover... Arrivals, Departures and Enroute aircraft labels if you desire, and these colour options and other parameters are controlled via the menu selections. Diversions Diversions are now supported. So if the weather is below minimums for an airport, it will now close to traffic and the aircraft will then fly to other alternate airports. If the weather is marginal, some planes will attempt approaches but will then divert if minimum conditions aren't met. That is a great feature, and just wait until we get X-Plane12 and it's new seasonal system, then the diversion feature will come into it's own... note WT3.5 has already been tested and passed ready for X-Plane12. General Aviation Earlier WT didn't focus much on GA Traffic, the aircraft were in there, but only at a basic level. Then gradually over the versions (or years) the GA aspect has had a lot of development from CJS, and here in v3.5 another big step has been taken forward. WT3.5 now allows the unique specification of visual approaches for GA traffic (others too) which is often used in mountainous areas. Examples included are for LOWI. There is now also support for custom routes GA within the application. So GA planes can now follow these routings on "out and back" flights, and this is instead of the GA aircraft just flying around in a random pattern. This then allows the user to create specific routes for GA aircraft to follow instead of auto-generated flight paths. This auto function will still happen if you choose to as there have been created auto flight schedules for just GA aircraft flights between airports for better realism. GA traffic now not fly into mountainous terrain as bad as before, and for a bit of fun then go and search out for GA planes that will now often do "touch-and-gos" at airports that aren't busy. Finally in bad weather GA planes especially light props will often not fly as often as in and about 85% of them will stay parked or grounded. Again related to seasons. Better Parking There is now better parking spot allocations. The parking spots for bigger planes will now be reserved for those when a smaller plane is looking for a spot unless there are no available spots for the smaller aircraft type. The aircraft mix should also be far better between the Heavies, Jet, Light Jet and regional allocations as well. You can of course still custom stipulate of which gate takes what aircraft type you want. And you can still designate a particular gate at an airport on arrival for your own flight, so no more hunting full bays for a bay or gate to park at. WT3.5 is also now far better in separating the different airport areas, like putting cargo aircraft correctly into their separate cargo facilities. So now no more Cargo aircraft at terminal gates. Navigraph You can use your account Navigraph data (separate download) to keep all the navigation data totally up to date (recommended), but now also added in is the support for Navigraph approach transitions as well. Another clever fix is that WT3.5 will check for runway name mismatches between the Navigraph data and the X-Plane data, so when a runway name changes due to drifting magnetic north from say Rwy34 to Rwy35, it is still recognised as the same runway. This actually happens a lot more than you think it does, and this is a well thought out idea to cover the discrepancy. Separation Logic WT3 always had a few fobiles that it struggled to dial out. The biggest was trying to sort out the order of the landing sequence. WT3 would usually tie itself into knots trying to work it all out and mostly in then placing aircraft in eternal holding patterns. If you had the time, it was brilliant fun to watch these patterns eventually sort themselves out. Usually it would take an hour or so to work itself through all the traffic build up... and you would be just about to give up on an aircraft in a forever hold, and it would then be given clearance to land... a sort of brilliant time-wasting but animated screensaver. So again there is new separation logic (3.2) to try to order the aircraft into the landing phase more realistically and "Auto-Throttle" the traffic at busy airports so the traffic does not back up into the dreaded holding patterns. Also there is also the need to keep the realistic separation distances between the larger and smaller aircraft types. And it looks like it is far, far more better overall in this aspect, but there are still too many go-arounds in my eyes as there was before, another curse to refine. Back-tracking logic is also improved. There is now also "Follow me truck" and "ABC Camera" plugin support. NOTES The biggest change is the not officially noted area in this v3.5 update... framerate. I changed to TrafficGlobal for several reasons, even though being a total WT convert. Traffic was created instantly in TG, of which you still have to manually generate the traffic here in WT3.5, and that is still a slow process. In fact when you generate your route it will take a good few minutes (even up to 5 Min) for all the traffic to spurn all their departure and arrival routes. So don't take that initial empty view as if it was all you have in active traffic, as the airport will soon become very busy as the spurning takes effect. Certainly I would still like an instant on with WT, but the setup probably doesn't allow for that, but it should be able to select your current airport and generate directly from that to sort of animate the startup process, with you adding in your route later. WT was also poor in timeshifting, say if you wanted a different day or night (essential in reviewing) time, it usually froze, were as TG doesn't care what you do. Timeshifting in the application now is certainly now far better and I haven't had any freezes (yet). So that is far more impressive as well. Framerate was poor back then as well. There was always a niggling stutter on all the traffic, it drove me nuts, it felt like cycle or loop thing, but it was so annoying it felt the application was a bit unrefined. The stutter in v3.5 is gone and so has the framerate loss of around 5 fr, that with added in of the xEnviro pull of another 10 fr (average), created in using both applications, it caused an overall worse performance, again that was another reason I moved to TG, which had zero effect on the frame rate... okay then 0000.5 effect. But I'm more than happy here with the far better performance of v3.5, a big if not again another huge improvement on before. Last note is from the developer "I've tried to make things be as automatic as possible now in WT 3.5 so you shouldn't need to define ground routes. And you shouldn't need to define parking defs unless you want to give them priorities or assign some as for international terminals or modify push-back but even the latter should mostly work now in this update. I defined special cases to deal with the taxi network lines extending to parking spots or cases where the plane just has to back up to the taxi network." Summary Traffic is essential in any Simulator, and in X-Plane you have a choice of Laminar Research's default (A.I), or three payware options, X-Life Deluxe, Traffic Global and WorldTraffic. WorldTraffic is the oldest here, released almost a decade ago, but was always the best. Early on it was a serious complicated beast, but since version v3.0 it became a more accessible and far more easier to use traffic application. Here is the next major update in v3.5 (really should be noted as v4.0 with the extensive list of changes). Again ease of use and more refinement are the orders of the day, and that goes across to even the far more easier installation and setup aspects of the plugin. Including one download for the application and one download for the aircraft (plus your latest Flight Schedules). In v3.5 the main areas that have been refined is the built-in ATC, highly upgraded aircraft and quality with new particle effects for contrails (wing/engine), tire smoke, afterburner flame and better and more modern lighting. Label feature is new to give you more on the screen information on the placement of aircraft and the phase they are in (Departures, Arrivals and Enroute) data. General Aviation also gets a major upgrade with real routes, better awareness of mountainous areas, and doing touch and go's at quiet airports. Better parking logic sorts the big aircraft out from the small ones and allocates them to the right gate or stand. Navigraph is more supported with the newer up to date data and the support of Navigraph approach transitions as well. Separation Logic both in the air and on the ground has again been revised to v3.2 and you will now get Diversions if the airport is closed to the weather. There is now also a "Follow me truck" and "ABC Camera" plugin support. Every Simulator needs a Traffic application, as the default A.I. is not going to give you the atmosphere of a busy airport to make your flying realistic. WorldTraffic is the best, better yet again in it's v3.5 refined form. It gives you the high quality in aircraft and all the custom features at a value price, it can also be easily and regularly updated with the latest Navigation and AFRE (real world routes). Overall it is as realistic with creating a real world traffic environment as you could wish for... Highly Recommended. _________________ The World Traffic 3.5 by Classic Jet Simulations (Ascend Tech Simulations) application is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here : World Traffic 3.5 Price is: $29.95 (US$10 off!) This version upgrade version is free to all current WT3 users. Features v3.5 Automated Installers Flight Setup Window Auto Ground Route Generation Auto Flight Plan Generation Airport Operations File has expanded functionality Parking Assignments Window Flight Information Window Updated Aircraft Definition Improved Traffic Separation Diversions now supported Particle effects for contrails ATC supports IFR and VFR flight requires that users use valid ATC frequencies with frequencies listed on display has auto-tune option for frequencies user may be required to make speed changes or enter holding patterns to maintain separation gives taxi paths to and from runways has interface for other 3rd party ATC products allows for user-defined VFR airspace exit points so ATC can vector VFR flights to these positions SID/STAR/Approach improved Requirements X-Plane 11- Support for X-Plane 12 (when available) Windows, Mac and Linux. Standard X-Plane requirement apply Current version: 3.5 (April 29th 2022) Designed by Greg Hofer @ Classic Jet Simulations Support forum for World Traffic (and a ton of resources). _________________ Plugin Update Review by Stephen Dutton  30th April 2022 Copyright©2022: X-PlaneReviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
  2. Plugin Review : World Traffic 3 by Classic Jet Simulations World Traffic by Classic Jet Simulations is one of the most significant plugins you can use in X-Plane. I will put my hand on my heart and say that I am a devoted follower of the plugin from its early days and here it is in it's latest and greatest manifestation as World Traffic 3 (WT3). World Traffic So what is World Traffic. Basically it is a plugin to create a dynamic world around your flying aircraft, this is in the form of other aircraft in which you can interact with and create a visually dynamic environment that fills up airports and its gates and has real form routes that the aircraft will fly between with built in ATC (Air Traffic Control). It all sounds quite simple but the machinations of creating this environment are extremely complex on top of an already complex simulator. The original World Traffic (WT) plugin was released in early 2013, by Greg Hofer of Classic Jet Simulations and is a concept by Francesco Missarino of Aircraft3D. X-Plane does come with it's own built so called A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) dynamic world, but it is very basic and mostly restricted to the areas around yourself, if mostly concentrated on to your current airport. The A.I. has made significant strides over the last few years, but basically as everyone will tell you it is still plainly average, restricted to 20 aircraft and in most cases I personally have never used it. One of the benefits of World Traffic is that it does not use or is connected to the base X-Plane simulator, it is in reality set a layer above. This allows it to be very frame-rate positive and better still give you a lot of control of the plugin. But this interactivity also created a barrier or complication that if we be honest created a time consuming and limited application of the idea. A few diehards doggedly soldiered on and created the networks and ground routes to make World Traffic at least plausible and workable, and don't get me wrong as when World Traffic did run and smoothly it was was simply overwhelmingly excellent, and so overall WT was certainly well worth persevering with. My way was to create small WT networks. Tight hubs of working ground routes and airline routes that interacted with each other, and to a point it worked very successfully, but the problem was that if I added in a new airport into the network there was a lot of work in doing so, it was not just a point and click and you could fly, but usually an afternoon of work was required to create the details of making it just work. So this was the biggest impediment to World Traffic in being wildly acceptable was in its just plain inaccessibility. World Traffic 3 The inaccessibility of the original World Traffic concept has required a total rethink of the way World Traffic works. For current WT users a lot does and and still is the same, but the interaction with the plug is actually totally changed. The biggest concept of older users to WT3 is letting go of their old ways and embracing the new, once done then you will see how totally changed the plugin is. Once converted, you will then revel in the new, new. I will in this review and semi-tutorial note the changes between the old and the new, most of the old WT files you will actually throw away and after all that hard work that is a hard thing to do. But the benefits are certainly worth all the changes. World Traffic is made up of three components. The main X-Plane root folder called "ClassicJetSimUtils", the actual plugin "World Traffic" in your resources/plugins folder and the "WorldTrafficRadar" plugin also in your resources/plugins folder. Installer World Traffic 3 now comes with a installer. The Installer will do a full install of World Traffic, or if WT3 is already installed then any updates. It will also convert World Traffic from versions 1-2 to the new 3 so you don't have to go through your folders. Older WorldTraffic (1&2) user will however need to remove these folders... • X-Plane\ClassicJetSimUtils\WorldTraffic\AircraftTypes • X-Plane\ClassicJetSimUtils\WorldTraffic\AircraftObjects • X-Plane\Resources\plugins\WorldTrafficRTG You should also delete the Random Flight Plan Generator plugin folder from here on as it is now obsolete First a License Agreement to agree to, then the root file of your X-Plane folder to install the plugin (note you don't need to stipulate the resources/plugins folder just the main root folder) The plugin requires Navigation Data. If you have a Navigraph or Aerosoft NavDataPro account then you can dismiss this data install, if not then it installs the Navigation Data for you. Then the installer will install World Traffic 3 and when "Completed" will show you what has been installed. If you have to set up WorldTraffic3 without the installer or when it is installed by the installer it should look like this... First column is the plugins folder with both the WorldTraffic and WorldTrafficRadar plugins installed... note the installer and running txt files (arrowed) Second column is in your X-Plane main root folder with the ClassicJetSimUtils file inserted here. Inside the ClassicJetSimUtils folder column three (top) are three items in: CustomAirportRouting Data Navigraph Data WorldTraffic The only folder you need to interact with is the final one in the "WorldTraffic" folder in column three (bottom section). AircraftObjects The aircraft for World Traffic are highly modified by Bluebell for X-Plane and they are actually freeware and are not part of the package. You can download the aircraft here WORLD TRAFFIC UPDATES with Airbus 1-4, Boeing 1-4, Regional 1-2 and GA - Military and both png and object files are to be inserted into your "ClassicJetSimUtils" World Traffic/AircraftObjects folder and all txt files go into the "X-Plane\ClassicJetSimUtils\WorldTraffic\AircraftTypes" folder. It is important to note to remove ALL your old aircraft if you are converting over from WT 1-2 before installing the new aircraft as they are all significantly different, as a mix of the two object types will mess up the new version. It is highly recommended to update the "WT Alternative PushBackTruck" as well and insert it into the same AircraftObjects folder. AircraftTypes All the specific data to run the aircraft objects is held in txt files in the "AircraftTypes" folder AirportOperations All the specific data to run the services from airports is held in txt files in the "AirportOperations" folder Airports All the specific data to run the services (airlines and routes) from airports is held in txt files in the "Airports" folder GroundRoutes All the specific data to run the ground routes from within the airports is held in txt files in the "GroundRoutes" folder. Folders are split between DEP (Departure) and ARR (Arrival) folders ICAO Operators List of ICAO operator (airlines) codes for use in WT OpenFlight Route, airline and airport data which is used to create routes is stored here. ParkingDefs Stand and gate parking information data RouteFiles This was in WT 1 and 2 the route file folder, this is now disabled, but two files are still stored here in the "AFRE_Real_Traffic" and "Cargo_Tabular" with information on real airline schedules (AFRE) and cargo routes that are separate from the main routeing data. both items must be activated for both Scheduled and Cargo routes to run in the plugin. Sounds Aircraft and airport sounds are stored here. In most cases once the Aircraft object files are installed, you rarely need to interact with the above folders, it is mostly all background information and data for the plugins use, were as before you would install routes and ground routes for the plugins use, this interactivity is now not required in WT3. _____________________________ Setting up World Traffic It is important to get the (easy) access and the setup correct to use WorldTraffic3, to do this you need to set up your key input in the main X-Plane11 menu "KEYBOARD" under... Keyboard/cjs.... I use just four main F Keys in: F9 - F10 - F11 - F12 Main Keys are: F9 - Radar Toggle / F10 - ReSync / F11 - Go To Previous Menu (backwards) / F12 - Activate Key Command Menu (forwards) Under the SHIFT/ key are: F9 - Flight Info Key / F10 - Camera Track Key / F11 - Activate ATC / F12 - Previous ATC Instruction Two extra keys in SHIFT + and SHIFT - are used for the aircraft zoom (in and out) There are more key inputs available, but the above key commands will cover 90% of all your basic operations and the simple ease of WT3 use. Using World Traffic 3 To use WT3 you have two items in the X-Plane plugin menu with "WORLD TRAFFIC RADAR and WORLD TRAFFIC. World Traffic Radar is just really the same toggle switch as you have set via the key input (F9) to show the radar popup image. World Traffic has two menus with... Flight Setup Parking Assignments Flight Setup This is your main interface in setting up World Traffic 3. When you select "Flight Setup" a window will appear for you to setup your flight details. Top panel is for ATC communication, but also to identify your aircraft in the route files and on the radar screen. You fill in the Aircraft's ICAO name and operator ICAO with the airlines Callsign. Right side requires your Arrival airport ICAO, Cruise Altitude and your departure and arrival time (approximately). In most cases if you use the same aircraft then just change your arrival airport and you are p[retty good to go, but it does require changing if you change your aircraft. Flight Plan Generator The heart of WorldTraffic3 is this panel in the "Flight Plan Generator" In the earlier versions of World Traffic you had the "WorldTrafficRTG" or World Traffic Route Generator. That plugin is now thankfully gone. Instead of creating your own routes , the whole route system is now automatic and all those thousands of route files you created are now quite obsolete! (and yes you have to throw them all away...) ... and I do admit the RTG did allow you to set up very, very specific aircraft flying under selected airlines at certain flying periods, the RTG was however quite slow to set up and laborious to fill out (certainly with all the airlines and their route frequencies). Four sliders are now the go in: Max Number of Flight Plans to Generate slider Traffic Density slider Percentage of Gates with Parked Aircraft slider Flight Plan Load Radius for Arrival and Departure Airports slider First instinct would be to MAX out all the sliders, which is just going to cause you to overload the system, so a bit of restraint will give you better results and better flowing system, the above settings are about right for most uses. Max Number of Flight Plans to Generate slider The first slider will generate your flight plans up to the max setting. Flight plans are now auto-generated to be approximately close to the correct routes with the correct equipment. This means that US airports will have mostly US carriers and international arrivals. In say Norway at Oslo (ENGM) you will get mostly SAS and Norwegian Air Shuttle, but the system at this point is not totally perfect in that you may get say Qantas Boeing 738's instead of Qantas Boeing 747's at airports that Qantas do fly to but with the wrong equipment in mostly long-haul services, in time these fine tuning points will be tuned out, but overall the system works very well in tabulating the correct aircraft to the correct airport on the correct routing. The routing data will also be in continuous development with AFRE_Real_Traffic and Cargo_Tabular regional data becoming more and more reliable, so for the really excessive pedantic users that list every known departure time and routing and expect WT3 to follow suit exactly, then it will come but not straight away as the routing data from AFRE is more and constantly refined in the future. Traffic Density slider The second slider is the traffic density adjustment. This will set the density of the aircraft flying around you and takes the percentage from the amount of flight plans generated, again it is very easy to overload the system if your density is too high. A note in that at large multi-runway airports you can pull the density below half if your system is struggling with too many services and the opposite with say a light regional airport that can benefit with more services in light traffic periods. Percentage of Gates with Parked Aircraft slider This slider can adjust the amount of aircraft parked at gates in either making the airport full or give you a few spaces and gates to park at, this parking area has another adjustment we will address later. Flight Plan Load Radius for Arrival and Departure Airports slider This slider will adjust the radius that local airports surrounding your departure airport has active routes from, I found 50nm was enough, but if you wish you can close it down to few nautical miles to get the best framerate, this will eliminate most local traffic in GA and prop regional aircraft, but if you want more of this sort of local activity then move the slider up, which is good for local point to point GA flying. Three checkboxes in the lower part of the panel cover: Auto-Gen Ground Routes checkbox Auto-Gen Flights checkbox Augment User-defined Flights at Airport with Auto-Gen Flights Auto-Gen Ground Routes checkbox If ground routes are not available then with this checkbox checked then WorldTraffic will generate the required ground routes automatically. Auto-Gen Flights checkbox World Traffic can either auto-generate flights or you can load flights from the AFRE_Real_Traffic and Cargo_Tabular regions data. If this checkbox is off you will use the real world data... but you will find the arrivals and departures will be far slower than the auto-generated routes. Augment User-defined Flights at Airport with Auto-Gen Flights If you use the above AFRE routing data then it won't contain data for local GA (General Aviation) or military traffic and so you need this checkbox on to fill those routes in with auto-generated routes. If you want active airports and lots of activity then use the auto-generated routes, they may not be perfectly specific in the airports activities but I found they were very close to the airports operations and gets you there amongst the activity straight away. A final bottom bar will then "Create Flights" and activate WorldTraffic3 _____________________________ Ground Route Generator Another area to be totally refined and changed is the generation of WT ground routes. If any area that created the most frustration it was in the creation of the ground routes specific to the requirements of WorldTraffic. Earlier ground routes were a complicated and slow process with a few editors like the AGRE ground route editor by Chopinet to trying to help out in making it a more simplistic way of a very complex way of creating the many ground routes from one end or start of the ground route and then multiplying that factor by the amount of gates and runways that was in that particular airport, it was a very slow and painstaking process... a few users created an auto-gen system but in most cases it just made the situation worse in refinement and in the sheer amount of gates the ground routes totally overwhelmed (I counted nearly 1400 ground routes once for LEBL?). So a lateral think had to done to make ground routes a more flexible, easier and most importantly a more exact art in making WorldTraffic a more accessible plugin. The solution is to use the built in X-Plane ground route system, or the ATC ground routes and Taxi Flow created by the WED (WorldEDItor)... and it works extremely well. But here is a major point to be highlighted. WorldTraffic3 ground routes and traffic flows are only as good as the built in WED ground routes and traffic flows! So if a current airport either payware or Freeware does not have any built in WED ground routes then the generator will not work and generate new ground routes? The better setup the WED ground routes and taxi flows are then the better WT3 will run. As a note all your older specific created ground routes will still work fine, but if they are old then a regeneration of the routes will certainly help in creating a more modern flow around your airport if your scenery has now the currently correctly built in WED ground routes. Biggest problem is for airports that don't have any built in ground routes? Most notable here is tdg's amazing sceneries and there are now 300 of them... But not a single one has any built in WED ATC ground routes? And tdg has given no indication of even wanting to rectify the situation, so in effect all of tdg's sceneries are not usable in WT3? that does create a BIG PROBLEM? So if your favorite airport local or otherwise does not have any built in WED ground routes and taxi-flows then your only option is to create the WED ground routes yourself or I hope than users will share their new WED ground routes to cover the in blank airports, again the standard generated WT3 ground routes are all that needs to be uploaded to the X-Plane.Org WorldTraffic section as you don't need to actually share the WED ground routes themselves. As a note most WED built "Global Airports" are required to have the correct routes and flows built in before they allowed to be up loaded. Ground Route Generator If your current airport or arrival airport does not have any built in WT3 ground routes then WT3 will tell you and offer to generate the ground routes for you (If the WED data is available). If you wish and you have just say loaded in a new scenery in either payware or otherwise, the you can enter in the scenery ICAO code and generate the ground routes ready to use with WT3, just hit the "Generate Ground Routes" bar to generate the routes. First the Generator will tell you if the ground routes exist or not, and the time it will take to Generate the WT3 ground routes. Depending on the size of the scenery in runways and gates it may be quick or take a few minutes to generate all the required ground routes, and insert them in the ClassicJetSimUtils/World Traffic/GroundRoutes folder as Departure (DEP) and Arrival (ARR) routes. When the Generation is complete it will show you a complete list of all the ground routes generated and the ones that failed and why. A trick or tip... is if your favorite airport scenery does not have the built in ground routes and a Global Airport version does, then swap them over and generate the WT3 Ground Routes and then swap the sceneries back again to use them... The ground routes may not be absolutely totally perfect but at least you can use the scenery in WT3 and I have done this a few times with a very good success rate. Activating or running World Traffic3 To start running WorldTraffic3, all you have to do is press the large bar "Create Flights" This action will generate the flightplans, load in the correct airport ground routes and select the correct SID and STAR vectors for the current airport. Then finally it will place all the correct aircraft at the gates ready to fly... It does take a few seconds and depending on the size of the airport to do these actions but the results are well worth the short wait, now WorldTraffic3 is active. If you want a refresh of World Traffic or change to the AFRE routes via the checkbox (Auto-Gen Flights checkbox) then just press the "ReSync" key (F10) or on the WT menu. The simplicity of WT3 is just when you startup X-Plane, in then just running the Flight Setup and setting up your flight details and just hitting the "Create Flights" bar is soon to become second nature, but in most cases you just open the window hit the bar and away you go and WT3 is quickly running... this is a far cry from the original WT setup... it is now just so easy? Depending on the current airport's activity, aircraft will now start up, taxi and depart and via the correct SID (Standard Instrument Departures) patterns, concurrently aircraft assigned to arrive at the airport in this case South Florida KRSW will now also be active and following its route to the airport and via the correct STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Routes). This is Delta flight DL853 from KDTW - Wayne County Airport, Detroit. All relevant information is located on a lower left "Flight Info" panel that can be toggled on and off the screen via our key setup Shift/F9. Detailed is Flightplan Name, Aircraft Type, Altitude, Heading, Position Lat-Lon, Next Waypoint, Waypoint distance and current aircraft state and in this case "Following STAR SHFTY2.06" WorldTraffic Radar So how do you check out which aircraft you want to see? There are several ways as a more options will be shown later, but the easiest way is to use the World Traffic Radar plugin, that is located in your plugins menu... As noted earlier that to set up the Radar pop-up via a key toggle input (F9) and that saves you going to the menus all the time and is a wise choice. You have to input the airport "KRSW" that you want to see and click on the "Select Airport ICAO" button to centre the radar on the airport. You can have four distances from the airport in 10nm - 20nm - 40nm - 80nm and I use mostly the 40nm setting. You can then select any aircraft on the radar screen to see it... this is the aircraft in red. After selecting the aircraft then press the upper right button "Track Camera" to go to that aircraft, the aircraft viewpoint is simply adjusted via your mouse position, if you want to get in closer to the aircraft or zoom out then use your Shift + or - keys as you set up earlier. (you can also scroll though all the active aircraft visually via the SHIFT key: F9 - Flight Info Key) To get back to your normal viewpoint then just hit any other X-Plane view key and you are back in your own aircraft. Checking out the Radar is great for arrival information, because you can see the patterns on how the aircraft are landing at your arrival airport and what STAR's the aircraft are using and what runways are active. Aircraft can also go into holds before landing and they are noted as circled lines but in time they will form into straighter lines and line correctly up to land. The information you inserted on the Flight Planning section will show you your aircraft on the radar screen as we will see more below. Arrival aircraft will follow the correct STAR then line up correctly to land on the assigned runway. World Traffic aircraft are awesomely good, in fact the quality is as good as your own aircraft and the only real giveaway are only the more slightly square wheels. The aircraft have been highly modified for WT3, there are a lot of new and better animations in engine fans, flaps, airbrakes, aileron and rudder movement and aircraft lighting... aircraft sounds are also highly realistic. WT aircraft performance mostly matches the published performances aircraft data and they are also affected by wind and turbulence. The planes will respond to crosswind takeoffs and landings. published performances aircraft data is also used to determine suitable runways for aircraft when looking for takeoff runways. Fuel weights are calculated based on the max fuel weight and the aircraft range as defined in the aircraft definition file. Watching these aircraft on approach is excellent as they adjust and readjust to wind and alignment, did I say addictive, yes it is very addictive to watch. Aircraft behaviour is excellent with runway alignment and even for wind adjustments on the approach. If a heavy is flying across the ocean it's calculated starting fuel weight will be quite high so it will use a lot more runway than if it's on a shorter flight. More runway is also required too at airports with higher field elevations with lower air density and lower indicated airspeeds. On landing planes will use higher braking levels for short runways and they will touch down closer to the runway thresholds and they will leave their engine reversers on longer. Then the aircraft will taxi to their assigned gate, the taxiway and gate details are all shown on the info panel... You can follow the aircraft all the way to its assigned gate, and then you still get the full shutdown procedure, no just a quick cut off here as there is a full gate to gate experience from start up to shutdown. _____________________________ Parking Assignments One of the annoyances of earlier WorldTraffic versions was that if you landed at an airport you would find every single gate was full of traffic, and there is nowhere for you to actually park? Another visual issue was that if there was a static aircraft as part of the scenery at that gate you then also had a doubled up aircraft then also sitting in the same position which was not visually pleasing? Now I like to always park at Gate B2 at KRSW so I would like that gate free anytime I arrive at the airport? Now in WT3 you can do that... From the plugin menu and World Traffic then select "Parking Assignments" A popup will allow you to select an airport (above right) and then the gate or bay you want to adjust (below left).... Again it very important to emphasize that the Parking Assignments selection is only as good as the WED data that it has to interpret. So if the WED gate numbering is poor and there are few airports out there with no numbering completed then you won't find or be able to edit your gate selection, so it important for WED developers to make sure the gate data is correct for the scenery. The "Parking Assignment Edit" panel allows you to adjust and edit that gate, stand or bay situations. It covers the Type/Operator Aircraft name and tail number specifically for that gate (if you want it there). Parking position... this allows you to fine tune any gate position so the aircraft is sitting there correctly and the correct pushback distance and also the correct aircraft door and wheel alignment. If you wish to disable that gate completely for either your own use or if there is a static aircraft sitting at that gate then you need to uncheck the checkbox "Enabled" at the bottom of the edit panel... ... to save the changes then press the "Regenerate Ground Routes" Bar lower right and you will get a panel showing the changed ground route details, and then do a Resync. Gate information is stored in the ClassicJetSimUtils/World Traffic/ParkingDefs folder. You can also select in Parking Assignments on what aircraft and aircraft type you require at a a certain gate or stand. Biggest standout will be cargo aircraft sitting at passenger gates? Selecting the gate (or gates) you can select the aircraft type (or size) that you want to use that gate, and lower even the actual airlines (arrowed below left) via their ICAO code and you have twenty choices allowed. Lower is the definition of either civil, military, cargo only, non-cargo or both cargo and non-cargo aircraft via tickboxes, a regenerate will save your all your gate preferences and a Resync will produce the required results. The parking gate assignments will allow you clean up your airports to your own tastes, but more importantly put cargo aircraft at cargo stands and adjust the gates to the correct type of aircraft or even airlines to specific areas (or concourses), this will be a continuous action with any scenery added to X-Plane, but it does make your airports highly realistic. Ground Route Testing You can test any ground route by using the "Test Ground Routes" button lower right bottom. On that gate or stand selected you have the option of seeing all the available Arrival and Departure ground routes and running a test. When you select the departure and aircraft type and run the test you get four border poles (black and green) and the aircraft park position pole which is a white and red stripe pole, white and blue stripe poles note the ground route path... ... the white and blue stripe poles note turning and hold points and the test poles continue to the main runway hold point. The arrival ground route points are also available with the aircraft appearing directly on the immediate approach. Any ground route editing is now done with WED, that makes it easier to set out ground routes and do any adjustments with the new "test" system able to recheck or track your changes. _____________________________ WorldTraffic Menu To most older World Traffic users the menu is mostly still the same. Accessed through your key input with F12 to bring up the menu panel, F11 is your back track key, and so if you go one step into the menu you can then step backwards and even out of the menu by using the F11 key... easy. There are five menu items listed including: Display Flight Info for Airport Display Flight Info Enable/Disable Regions Preferences Resync Most interesting is the new "Flight Info board" which is selected via the first line. This board lists all the current flight plans for the airport listed at the top of the flight info board. Green lines note non-active flight plans and blue denotes active flight plans (or aircraft that are flying around in WT3). They are listed as ARRIVALS and DEPARTURES with the current ZULU time and date. A third line denotes flights in Yellow Lines are which are departing aircraft, they activate about ten minutes before departure (Zulu) and at that point a pushback truck appears on the departing aircraft. When arriving aircraft could be accessed via the radar screen, you access the departing aircraft via this menu screen in selecting the departing flight you require. Once departure time arrives (Zulu) and then the pushback commences... ... engine start is once the pushback truck disconnects, but you can adjust the engine start time or wait time at this point via a menu preference. You always have access to the lower left flight info panel set up via the Shift-F9 key. Once the aircraft commences its takeoff the flight departure line will change from Yellow to Blue to denote it is now an active flightplan. As with the arriving aircraft following their STAR patterns, then the departing aircraft will follow the correct SID as well. Once the aircraft has become an active flightplan it is now available on the radar screen in red, and you can access the aircraft later if you wish as it leaves the area. The Flight Airport Info board is quite new to WT3 or really a last minute addition, so it is a bit raw in this release version. It works and it works well, but it will also get more attention in future updates as it is a really great addition to WT3 Other menu items are also covered with first the "Display Flight Info"... ... Display Flight Info covers all the flightplans generated, and there can be thousands (and thousands) of them. Any flightplan selected (as long as it is active in blue or yellow) can give you the same aircraft view as the radar. There are sometimes a few duds in red, but ignore them and all the green routes are just parked up aircraft at the various airports. Second Menu option is the "Enable/Disable Regions" This is the old WorldTraffic option of selecting regions to save overloading the plugin and keeping the active aircraft with flightplans within a certain area or airport... this has been discontinued, but the AFRE and Cargo flight data is now stored here (and more data will probably come) and you need to have both data sources switched on to use (in Green). Third Menu option is the "Preferences" The preferences are just simple commands that can change your - Max Track camera distance, AI aircraft volume, Plugin control of X-Plane Aircraft (usually ON), Ground Routes Required for arrival runways (Always ON), Start on runway if there is no ground routes (usually in close by airports to start flightplans), Ground Collision Avoidance (required so aircraft keep separation), Ground Collision timeout, (If a collision does occur then the aircraft won't freeze or stay opposite of each other), Aircraft Startup time in minutes, Navigraph approaches ON/OFF and Radar (Filter) options. _____________________________ Interacting with World Traffic 3 So what is X-Plane like with WorldTraffic3, brilliant... is the first thought. Your empty airport looks bleak, but after the "Create Flights" process has finished (ReSync does the same process) then your airport comes alive with aircraft, this is Aerosoft's ENGM - Oslo. One thing to note is that you won't get activity instantly. WT3 takes a short while to get things running, but check out the radar screen and there are already aircraft heading your way or flying past to other destinations... ... and it doesn't take long before the pushbacks get started, my guess is around ten minutes before the airport is crawling with active aircraft depending on the time of the day and size of the airport, usually around 8.30am is the best for full departure activity. ATC My flight today is with the Zibo B738 from ENGM - Oslo to ENBR - Bergen as SAS - SCANDI. I have cut and pasted in my flight details (below right). Access to the ATC is via Key SHIFT - F11 and the information is shown upper screen (no audio), this will give you a runway selection available, but note if you select a runway not active (or wrong wind direction) then WT3 will totally ReSync to match that, and that does sort of spoil the departure theme, so a check of the radar will usually give you the current working active runways. Then ATC will give you taxiway and runway departure information with the SID you are going to use for departure and bring up the X-Plane communications panel for the airport frequencies. At any point you can go back to any previous ATC instruction via your SHIFT - F12 key input. You have to be very aware of activity around you, as the airports can get seriously busy with aircraft traffic. All around the airport there is activity... aircraft do taxi at correct speeds and slow for corners or tight turns, aircraft separation is excellent, both on taxiways, waiting their turn to takeoff and in sequence in landings. Earlier WorldTraffic versions had poor landing separations that caused a lot (too many) aborted landings, but WT3 is far better in separation, not perfect as you still get some aborted landings and this area is still under more refinement, but overall in WT3 the separations are now pretty good. Your awareness must be not just the local traffic around you, but there are aircraft turning to finals above you as well, it makes it a busy time in the cockpit... ... you also have to form a queue. Yes I have sat in line for long periods before getting my place to depart, a look at the radar showing lots of stacked arrivals can make you wonder "how long will I be stuck here?" when all you want to do is fly, but that is WorldTraffic's realism as well, in most cases you love the aspect of just waiting your turn and checking out the paperwork. Note that is you (below left) at the hold point from the WT3 aircraft perspective! Then ATC as gives you the clear, you have to on the ball and move as there is traffic coming at you, but other times it will allow you to line up on the runway as an arriving aircraft departs on to a taxiway a long way down the runway, here I get a lineup until the Lufthansa has cleared the runway Then the ATC gives you the all clear to go with heading vectors and speed constraints. Once airborne you will get vectors to follow the SID (ATLA8B) and it will set up you up in going into the right direction. If you have a running SID flightplan then ATC will ignore you. You are noted on the radar screen (as long as you have filled in your "Flight Planning" details), again if you are not sure of your last instruction then press your for your previous ATC instruction via your SHIFT - F12 key input, added details include your current status. ATC arrival is the same as departure with you following the assigned STAR procedure, but again you might be put in a hold before being assigned a runway. The WT3 aircraft will navigate around you and you have to follow the ATC instructions to the letter on the STAR's and with aircraft separation, again your radar screen is your best friend. There is a Baltic Dash 8 to my north-west (red) and so I keep an eye on it and fall into a landing pattern behind it for ENBR RWY35 (arrowed above). It is great to land at an airport with plenty of activity, and ENBR is busy... A point to make is that a feature I would like is to be able to change my arrival airport enroute? You can't do this at the moment, but I think that would help, it helps in another way if you have to ReSync to make a dull airport active. These areas are still in refinement and overall it works fine, but a few times you may have to Resync an airport to reset it after you have landed. "Oh, where did he come from?" The Baltic Dash 8 suddenly reappears as he is far slower and took a longer route before turning off the runway, now he is suddenly in my ten o'clock... So I let him pass and fall in behind. One of the great features is that aircraft will go to their correct parking areas in gates or stands, so the Baltic DHC8 goes off to the stands while I head for the gate (27). Even when parked the activity doesn't stop as we here (above right, arrowed) have a departure, a Norwiegan shuttle B738 taxiing in and a Widerhoe DHC8 also arrived and heading to the stands... did I say this WT3 can lose you hours and hours of your life just watching airport activity? no... well it does and it is very, very addictive! Did I also note that night operations are also very highly addictive? "No", well they are also with all aircraft having great lighting with full landing and taxi lighting (that turn on/off as required), logo lights and the usual strobe and navigation lights. There is a huge range of liveries with retro and promotional painted aircraft as well... Aircraft types and airlines are very varied, even to some very obscure ones and every continent is covered around the world and not just focused only on the US and Europe. _____________________________ Summary A few of the World Traffic purists will go "What the!" But what happened is that World Traffic in its third version is that suddenly it went very accessible and easy to use. The total benefits of the original innovations originally on offer here with WorldTraffic are now available to everyone. In reality now it is a click and almost instant airport activity, not just from the actual aircraft taxiing, departing and arriving, but in the way you can also easily set up any airport with the correct WED ATC traffic data in just a few minutes, no more hours and hours on the ground route editors any more, it is now just a click and go setup. And that is the whole theme around Worldraffic3, in making it totally accessible and easy to use in every area. Everything else has also had attention. The aircraft are far more animated and the quality is excellent, some GA's are a little average in textures but in the main you will be hard to be not taken in by the quality of the aircraft, they are very varied now as well, with everything from light GA Cessna 172's, twin-props, regionals in both props and jet, light B737/A320 and heavy jets up to even the modern Dreamliners and A350's and of course the super heavies in B744's, A380's and Cargo aircraft and their schedules and routes are also covered. Airline liveries also cover all bases with specialised liveries also presented, in fact it is all very expansive in all areas compared to the original WT versions as is the real world route and schedule information, SID and STAR departures and approaches are also now part of the new WT3 system. One thing to note with the release of WT3 is there is still a bit of ground to cover in complete coverage, is some areas it is still a bit early on release. There is a lot of airports and their distinctive layouts to be fine tuned, ground routes to be generated and it will take time to get full coverage. I have found that setting up new airports (mostly payware) is a breeze, as most new releases do have that important WED routes completed, but many older sceneries don't have such built in WED data... here is looking here at you tdg? But X-Plane users are an industrious lot and we love nothing than challenges like this, and to a point that is also part of the fun... Older ground routes do work, but many could also be outdated, so if they can be updated and regenerated then it is worth the effort, but older ground routes are still valuable on airports that don't have built in WED ATC routes and have been carefully crafted for certain airports. ATC is still quite basic, but to a point that was not the focus of this current new version and that will be part of the feature list in the future, and a lot more features are certainly coming. For most of this year and throughout all the early WT3 betas we have used WorldTraffic and it has been very highly visible within our reviews, The plugin adds in a totally new dimension to the way we use our simulator and it is a huge bonus to any one that uses the features provided, empty airports suddenly become bustling hubs of activity and the plugin adds in great visual and interactivity into our flying. For current users versions WT1 and WT2, there is an upgrade fee to WT3 of US$10 (if purchased since 1st Mar 17 the update is free), Originally WT3 was just going to be an update, but the development aspect took a more major turn that then turned into a total 3000hr redesign and the basic philosophy change to make the plugin far more accessible which has certainly been delivered in this comprehensive upgrade. For anybody else then this is a plugin you need or should have as part of your X-Plane system... I am a true believer in WorldTraffic so I will state my case here honestly, but I not going to blind to the fact that WT3 is a significant step for X-Plane and is very if highly addictive... once used it is now never forgotten, it is that great and WT3 for X-Plane activity, interaction and the sheer visual spectacle it is just highly addictive and simply brilliant. _____________________________________________________________________________________ The World Traffic 3 by Classic Jet Simulations is NOW available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here : World Traffic 3.0 Your Price: $29.95 For past users before 1st March 2017 there is an upgrade fee of US$10.00, go to your X-PlaneStore account to get the discount. If purchased since 1st March 2017 this version upgrade is free. Version 3 new features: Automated Installers Flight Setup Window Auto Ground Route Generation Auto Flight Plan Generation Airport Operations File has expanded functionality Parking Assignments Window Flight Information Window Updated Aircraft Definition Improved Traffic Separation SID/STAR/Approach improved see the full list of all new features here Requirements X-Plane 10 (any edition) or X-Plane 11 - running in 64 bit mode Windows, Mac, Linux in 64 bit mode Installation and documents: World Traffic has three components. The main X-Plane root folder called "ClassicJetSimUtils", the actual plugin "World Traffic" in your resources/plugins folder and the "WorldTrafficRadar" plugin also in your resources/plugins folder. There is a full installer and details on how to install WT3 into X-Plane. Aircraft packages are downloaded separately and inserted into the "ClassicJetSimUtils" World Traffic/AircraftObjects folder. A QuickStartGuide and a full Technical Manual manual is also provided... WorldTraffic3 and all aircraft download links can be found here: World Traffic 3 Update Page A key number is required and it is placed within the "World Traffic" plugin folder to activate the plugin World Traffic development forum is here: World Traffic - X-Plane.Org Forums A note of thanks to both Chopinet for his skills in creating a lot of WT3 detailing and editors, Bluebell for aircraft conversions, and without them then WT3 would just not simply exist in its current form. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Review and tutorial by Stephen Dutton 26th September 2017 Copyright©2017: X-PlaneReviews (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions) Review System Specifications: Computer System: Windows - Intel Core i7 6700K CPU 4.00GHz / 64bit - 16 Gb single 1067 Mhz DDR4 2133 - GeForce GTX 980/SSE2 - Samsung Evo 512gb SSD Software: - Windows 10 - X-Plane 11.02 Addons: Saitek x52 Pro system Joystick and Throttle : Sound - Bose Soundlink Mini Plugins: Environment Engine by xEnviro US$69.90 : XPRealistic Pro v1.0.9 effects US$19.95 Scenery or Aircraft - KRSW - Southwest Florida International by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$24.95 - ENGM - Oslo Gardermoen by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$24.95 - ENBR - Bergen Airport by Aerosoft (X-Plane.OrgStore) US$21.59 - Zibo Mod Boeing 737-800 - Default X-Plane11 aircraft by Laminar Research
  3. News! - Plugin Update beta : WorldTraffic3 WT 3.1.10N by Classic Jet Simulations Classic Jet Simulation have released a last minute Christmas present with a beta/test copy of their next update to WorldTraffic3 (WT3). This is version WT 3.1.10N and it comes with some really nice fixes... here is the change log: WT 31.10N A message will pop up if you have plugin control of AI aircraft enabled but you haven't set the AI planes to the WT AI aircraft which would cause you to see overlapping planes. When opening flights window, auto-scroll to flight at current time Two ground routes get created for light prop aircraft as there is a big difference in landing distances between planes like the C-150 and BE-20. Planes will pick whichever ground route has an exit greater than it's landing distance as defined in the aircraft definition files. Three different ground routes for large jet and heavy jet aircraft for the same reasons. You can edit the taxi exit distances for ground route creating for large jet and heavy jet exits if you don't like the defaults if you want to tailor ground route creation for airports with several exits. Planes now pick whichever ground route is most appropriate looking at the aircraft's landing distance and whether the exit is a high-speed exit or not. If there is a plane on short final behind the landing plane, it will use max braking and pick the exit in line with the min landing distance as specified in the aircraft definition file. This helps reduce overshoots for planes behind landing aircraft. Planes will keep their speeds up if their exit is quite a ways down the runway so they get off the runways faster. Lots of other small bug fixes and improvements to separation including preventing more than 1 plane on short final. That isn't perfect yet but it's much better. Fixed issue where the odd plane would taxi onto the runway for takeoff but never depart... had to run WT in the debugger for 2 days to trap that one! Fix problem where aircraft overlap was detected at gates that were angled in relation to each other. Prevent planes from crossing runway in front of landing planes as soon as they touch down... was not updating landing aircraft position frequently enough Improved GA aircraft operation so planes including spawning fixes, approach paths, earlier landing points on runways Make sure when a plane crosses a runway that there is no plane stopped just on the other side so it doesn't end up stopped in the middle of the runway (still need to refine this) Missing from this update but will be in the Jan update: Use XP traffic flows if they exist and no airport operations file exists. Override active runways UI Autostartup Change demo version to work with full traffic at KSEA - will also distribute ground routes for KSEA For flights with tail numbers, check calculated arrival time and make sure it's at least 30 min behind it's departure time to prevent flights arriving later than their next departure time. Pick most precise approach when several available if on final before doing a missed approach, see if there is another free parallel runway that can be used Put planes in middle of taxi routes when resynching... if on top of another plane, move backwards down taxi route This is a test or beta version, so expect a few niggles, but currently it seems to be very stable. What this update does do is fix a lot of those little niggles that drove you balmy. Like the departing aircraft that sits on the runway hold, and then the rest all pile up behind it, or drive though the offending aircraft. Same with the aircraft that went to runway start position and again gave up... Aircraft that overlapped at certain gates, mostly on this circular satellite terminals where the aircraft didn't park very well. Another fix was to stop those pesky GA aircraft that thought they could do a quick runner over the runway, with shades of the LA crash that resulted in many deaths. The biggest bug of dual landing aircraft has had attention, it should be better with bigger separation distances as noted, but for some reason it seems extremely hard to fix, I am sure that CJS will keep plugging away at it. Current local time will now apply when you access the flight window, which works with the Zulu time (zulu time is still officially the main time keeper as it is in the real world). But it means no more constant scrolling to find the latest arrival/departure times, this is a very nice new feature. The main focus has been on runway arrival. Mostly to separate the GA from the heavies as GA aircraft now have their own set of ground routes for shorter landing distances and quicker turn offs, you need to regenerations to create the new ground routes, otherwise it still uses the current versions. The aim is get more efficiency at the runway arrival points (my guess is to to reduce the number of call-offs or go arounds) and to clear the runway for the next arrival with even aircraft keeping up their landing speeds if the exit point is further down the runway. More changes are coming in January 2019, including better use of parallel runways and better resyncing. Feedback is of course welcomed. WorldTraffic3 and all aircraft download links can be found here: World Traffic 3 Update Page A key number is required and it is placed within the "World Traffic" plugin folder to activate the plugin World Traffic development forum is here: World Traffic - X-Plane.Org Forums _____________________________________________________________________________________ The World Traffic 3 by Classic Jet Simulations is available! from the X-Plane.Org Store here : World Traffic 3.0 Your Price: $29.95 Update is free to all current users of the WT3 Plugin ______________________________________________________________________ News by Stephen Dutton 23rd December 2018 Copyright©2018 : X-Plane Reviews  (Disclaimer. All images and text in this review are the work and property of X-PlaneReviews, no sharing or copy of the content is allowed without consent from the author as per copyright conditions)
  4. Plugin Update - WorldTraffic update to version 2.1.3 by Classic Jet Simulations The excellent WorldTraffic plugin has been updated to v2.1.3 in the addition now that WT is being available now to Linux users. The conversion to Linux was done by Bill Sparker a well known Linux coder. The update is here: WT_Update213.zip 2.5MB. The full version if you want to do a clean install is here: http://www.classicje...loads/WT210.zip Again there was a list of tweeks, but the plugin has certainly matured very well since the update to the v2 series run. Full changelist is below. While we are on the WorldTraffic page there was another great ground routes editor "AGRE Ground Routes Editor 1.2.1" released by Chopinet here: AGRE Ground Routes Editor 1.2.1 It is windows only and I have tried it out with WINE on my mac, but was not quite successful. But it uses the Laminar Research's WED WorldEditor and nodes to add in the routes, and quick it is... worth adding to your toolbox. Full WT changelog v2.1.3 - (2.1.3) - Added plugins for linux - ATC Radar plugin for Mac now included - Navigraph Approach data is now being used which is apparent for places like the old Kai-Tak airport or airports in mountainous areas. - You can turn off Navigraph approaches if you want to use the automatic approaches which often work better for airports in flatter terrain. There is an option for this in the preferences menu. - The ground model has been enhanced so that aircraft now anticipate turns so that they will turn early before a waypoint with a sharp corner so as to roll out on the direct line between waypoints. The aircraft will also make steering corrections to stay on this center line. - Waypoint angles in ground routes can be any angle now. A waypoint is considered as passed if the relative angle to it is greater than 90 degrees and the distance is inside of the aircraft's turn radius. - Code optimizations to eliminate pause when lots of flight plans were use tail numbers. This should allow you to run all of the Germany flight plans without pauses now. - New SET_PRIORITY command for ground routes to override priority which by default is determined using the ground route distance with the shortest ground routes having the highest priority. See the manual for details. - Planes will now agressively try and get on the runway center line when landing which is evident for places like Kai-Tak - On resynch make sure to put aircraft at the end of appropriate ground route files instead of picking any ground route file - Limit taxi speeds to 54 knots for jets and 35 knots for prop planes so thrust reverers don't cycle on and off during landing and to ensure aircraft are slowing down enough to make their exits. - Aircraft no longer have to land in between the first and second waypoints in a ground route, just after the first one. Many ground routes not following this old rule had aircraft back-tracking to missed waypoints on the runway. - Make final STAR speeds variable based on distance to runway so they don't end up on final approach way too fast. - Exit STARs early if necessary to not overshoot the runway center line. Fixes: - Fix freezing issue resulting from trying to read too many files from call to XPLMGetDirectoryContents function - Fix problem loading flight plans from random folders when a new region folder is added - When waiting to cross runway, don't hold for planes on runway unless they are in a state of taking off and moving otherwise planes can delay for way too long waiting to cross a runway. - fix problem when adding a new region and they all end up getting enabled - Fixed problem where aircraft could use SIDs/STARs from another airport after a resych due to airport id changing if different regions get enabled or disabled... store airport name instead of airport id with STAR/SID file - Fix problem where ATC was ignoring user aircraft when it was a light prop - (2.1.1) Fix problem on Mac when freezing trying to open hidden .DS_Store files - (2.1.1) Fixed the Durian dataref - cjs/world_traffic/tracked_aircraft_id - (2.1.2) Fixed overshooting problem with rising terrain before runway - (2.1.2) Fixed SID processing to make proper use of VECTORs - (2.1.3) Fixed STAR approaches using multiple runways to not always pick one runway, but instead pick one randomly - (2.1.3) Fixed Overshooting planes to use ground routes instead of disappearing once landed X-PlaneReviews have done a quick overview of WorldTraffic here: Plugin Addon Viewpoint : World Traffic by Classic Jet Simulations v1.2.3 World Traffic by Classic Jet Simulations is now available from the New X-Plane.Org Store here : World Traffic and is priced at only US$24.95 To use World Traffic in its full capacity you need a key (after purchase) that will be emailed to you from (Classic Jet Simulations) to install within the plugin to make it work. _____________________________________________________________________________________ WorldTraffic Extensive Features include : General Features Now with Random traffic generation based on an airport definition file specifying traffic type, connecting airports, and traffic volume to allow you to quickly generate air traffic for your favorite areas. Sample flight plans and ground routes are provided for KSEA. These illustrate almost all of the functionality of the application and may be used as examples for your own flights. Several default aircraft are provided with many more to come. Users may create their own aircraft as well. Flight plans can be grouped into zones to enable/disable flights for a specific region or to enable/disable flights for a specific vintage of aircraft. You can organize the flight plan folders however you wish and enable or disable whatever regions you are interested in. Custom sound engine with directional, multi-track aircraft engine sounds with doppler shift. Simple ATC system to allow you to interact with the World Traffic application so that it is aware of your position and can vector you and and assign you arrival/departure runways. Flight information window allows you to quickly find active flights, flight information about that flight, and it lets you view that flight with the track camera. Collision avoidance features for ground traffic so aircraft hold for approaching and departing aircraft, aircraft will overshoot if they are too high or too fast or if there is a plane on the runway, and planes will enter holding patterns if the airport is too busy or their crosswind landing limit is exceeded. Flight Plans User-defined flight plans to specify the flight path of an aircraft or a formation of aircraft. Settable altitudes for each steerpoint in the flight plan where altitude can be in feet above sea level or feet above ground level for terrain following flights. Flight plans can be defined for specific aircraft tail numbers so that a specific aircraft can be defined to follow a multi-leg route. Ground Routes User-defined ground routes to specify specific parking locations for aircraft. Ground routes can be specific to a general type of aircraft, a type of aircraft, or a specific tail number so you can have planes park in the parking spots you want Flight Model Simple, tunable flight model using aerodynamics and ballistics equations from the NASA web site to provide a natural looking flight model accurate enough that you can follow the World-Traffic controlled aircraft. Wind and turbulence affect aircraft so that they will bounce around in turbulence and crab into the wind in flight to maintain desired headings. Afterburner thrust is settable so afterburner-equipped aircraft can accelerate quickly when required, perform vertical departures, and fly supersonic. Aircraft Object Animation and Lighting Custom datarefs are provided to provide your aircraft with full animation of control surfaces, landing gear, canopy, nozzle, engine blades/prop, thrust reverser, lights etc. All types of aircraft lighting is supported and the lights will function correctly depending on the phase of flight and aircraft type. Landing lights will go on and taxi lights will go off when the aircraft taxis onto a runway for takeoff. The strobe lights will turn off when the plane arrives and turns off the runway. Cabin lights will stay on and aircraft doors will stay open for a few minutes after an airliner parks until the passengers are all off the plane. Most other lighting turns off when the aircraft engines are shut down. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Developer Site : Classic Jet Simulations X-Plane support Sites : World Traffic Downloads Support Threads Stephen Dutton 24th October 2015 Copyright©2015: X-Plane Reviews
  5. News! - WorldTraffic 2.0 Released! Updated 24th August 2015 Since the release of WorldTraffic 2.0 last week there has been an update posted for v2.0.5 v2.0.5 now allows Mac users to use the plugin as well as Windows users and there is a bug fix included as well but still a few outstanding known issues. Notes: Fixes:(2.0.1) Fixes some weird taxiing behavior on takeoff and planes taking off in the wrong direction.(2.0.2) Old Braking Model is fixed.(2.0.2) Fixed logged error with invalid flight plan index filling up log file.(2.0.2) Log aircraft being loaded at startup - a couple of users are reporting that X-Plane is crashing at startup when loading a specific aircraft. If this happens, please send me a copy of the WorldTraffic.txt log file in the X-Plane/resources/plugins folder which logs the aircraft being loaded, and a copy of the aircraft that was being loaded at the time so I can send it to Laminar.(2.0.3) Fixed crashing problem on startup and with large number of flight plans in a single region folder.(2.0.3) Don't read SIDs/STARs if they're already loaded to speed up resynch time.(2.0.3) Randomize found stars before picking one so same approach is not always picked.(2.0.4) Code optimizations that should give a 25% frame rate increase at busy airports.(2.0.4) Fixed problem where route files in only one region folder would get loaded(2.0.5) Updated the code to run on the MacKnown Issues Sometimes you must resynch after starting X-Plane to get aircraft to start moving in the air.Random flight plan generator does not look yet at apt.dat files for custom scenery areas Approaches have not yet been parsed for Navigraph data. STARs work fine and approaches generally work except for airports where the approach path between the final STAR waypoint and the airport follows a complicated approach path like at Kai Tak. This is next on my list to add.This is the full details of the v2.0 release of WorldTraffic and it is a huge significant update of the this exceptional plugin for X-Plane. Details: Support for STAR approaches and SID departures using data provided from Navigraph specific to WorldTraffic.Support for custom approaches and departures for aircraft not using STARs or SIDS. This will work well for custom traffic patterns or define approaches and departures into airports in mountainous areas.ATC Radar window to watch aircraft come and go from an airport (see threads elsewhere in this forum for screenshots)Airport Operations file so you can easily define what runways are in use at an airport based on wind conditions and time of day. Runways can be configured to allows specific aircraft types and also approach types can be specified (eg RNAV, ILS CAT I, II, IIIa, IIIb, etc.) which are matched against the aircraft's nav equipment and ceiling and visibility to determine if an aircraft can land. X-Plane flows didn't work as they don't have enough information and the airport operations file is much easier to define so you don't have to define 1000 flows in WED.Numerous changes to flight plan, aircraft definition, and ground route file formats to support changes requested by users.Airport and runway information is now read from all the custom scenery folders too and not just the main X-Plane apt.dat file.Fuel burn is now calculated for AI aircraft. If you set the arrival and departure airports far apart, the AI planes will be taking off at a high takeoff weight and will accelerate slower, need a higher takeoff speed and will require a lot more runway than when flying only a short distance.Aircraft Callsign now can be defined in the flight plan. if you want to have custom flight numbers for your aircraft. These get displayed on the new radar display. If no callsign is entered, one is generated using the operator IATA name associated with the aircraft and using a random flight number between the flight number range also associated with the aircraft.Alternate Airport can now be defined in the flight plan. If an AI aircraft can't land at an airport because the ceiling or visibility are below minimums or because a runway is not available due to excessive crosswinds, the runway being to short, or the aircraft not being allowed at the airport as defined in the airport operations file, the aircraft will be sent to the alternate airport. This is to get around the problem of aircraft circling forever above the arrival airport if it can't land. Aircraft will land at the alternate airport regardless of conditions just to get them on the ground. If an alternate airport is not defined, aircraft will return to the departure airport if they can't land.Required runway length at MTOW can now be defined for specific aircraft. Most of the time a selected runway works ok but sometimes when an aircraft is at MTOW the selected departure runway might be too short. ATC enhancements to work with STAR approaches and SID departures so you can be vectored along these routes if your aircraft has a FMS. Aircraft ground model enhancements. Aircraft brake much more realistically now and generally take a lot more runway to slow down. Aircraft can also turn a bit faster now at low speeds. There are preferences to turn these features off if they break existing ground routes. I'll obsolete those preferences in a few months to give people enough time to fix the existing ground routes.A lot more little flight model changes including adding a little turbulence when aircraft are going slow on approach so they don't always look like they're flying on rails in calm weather. X-Plane turbulence and winds are already used by the flight model so if you set turbulence to a high value, the AI aircraft bounce around quite a bit. I also watched several videos of landing aircraft to adjust how fast the nose wheel drops during landing, and when the reversers and speedbrakes are deployed and retracted during landing so that looks nicer now. Climb angles have also been adjusted to be more realistic, especially after takeoff and a plane with a higher thrust:weight ratio will climb at a steeper angle. Fighters of course can still do vertical departures.Code optimizations to improve performance.Dataref additions (including durian's)There is a load of fixes and install information in WT 2.0 as well as noted : Install the update as follows:Move the win.xpl file to here: "X-Plane\resources\plugins\WorldTraffic\64" over the old file.Move the CustomAirportRoutingData folder to here: "X-Plane\ClassicJetSimUtils"Move the LOWI.xml and CYVR.xml files to here: "X-Plane\ClassicJetSimUtils\NavigraphData"Move LIVD_LOWI_Columbia.txt and LOWI_LIVD_Columbia.txt to here: "XPlane\ClassicJetSimUtils\WorldTraffic\RouteFiles\LOWI"Move 747.txt and 747_400_BASE.txt to here: "X-Plane\ClassicJetSimUtils\WorldTraffic\AircraftTypes". This shows how you can create aircraft definition files, using a common base file so in this case, the 747.txt file only has a few lines related to the operator and the 747_400_BASE file has all of the aircraft definition parameters not related to operator. You can download the updated 747 package from the World Traffic aircraft addons section here: http://forums.x-plan...&showfile=19827Fixes:(2.0.1) Fixes some weird taxiing behavior on takeoff and planes taking off in the wrong direction.(2.0.2) Old Braking Model is fixed.(2.0.2) Fixed logged error with invalid flight plan index filling up log file.(2.0.2) Log aircraft being loaded at startup - a couple of users are reporting that X-Plane is crashing at startup when loading a specific aircraft. If this happens, please send me a copy of the WorldTraffic.txt log file in the X-Plane/resources/plugins folder which logs the aircraft being loaded, and a copy of the aircraft that was being loaded at the time so I can send it to Laminar.(2.0.3) Fixed crashing problem on startup and with large number of flight plans in a single region folder.(2.0.3) Don't read SIDs/STARs if they're already loaded to speed up resynch time.(2.0.3) Randomize found stars before picking one so same approach is not always picked.(2.0.4) Code optimizations that should give a 25% frame rate increase at busy airports.(2.0.4) Fixed problem where route files in only one region folder would get loadedFeatures (2.0.1) (see updated manual online for more info):Custom approach and departure data should now go in the "CustomAirportRoutingData" folder. This should be kept completely separate from the Navigraph data so it can be shared among users.Added a new field START_FLY_TO_COMPLETION to flight plans. If this is set to 1, the route will be flown to completion and a STAR will only be searched for during the last leg of the route instead of at any time.Set the taxiway name to 0 in ground route files if you don't want to display it and want comments after.Route file changes:The LIVD to LOWI file was modified to use the Fly-to-Completion option so the aircraft doesn`t start looking for a custom arrival to LOWI until it has completed its route and is above the mountains.A custom departure was added for LOWI so that the plane will climb on the heading of the valley until reaching 10,000 feet before proceeding on course.NOTE! You have to change all, yes all of Bluebell's aircraft to work with WT 2.0, and Jesus my god there is a lot to download... As if you replace all the files listed you will have nearly 4200 aircraft of choice for WorldTraffic! They can be found here: http://forums.x-plan...ads&showcat=157 You can purchase this excellent plugin here: Yes! the updated WorldTraffic 2.0 plugin by Classic Jet Simulations is now available from the new X-Plane.Org Store here : WorldTraffic - Price is US$24.95 Stephen Dutton 22nd August 2015 Copyright©2015: X-PlaneReviews
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