ATC Interface

Some type of training or lessons.

Whats the point in ATC if there is no traffic?????

I would think AI would be introduced concurrently with ATC. Otherwise, as you say, why bother. The lonely skies will be a buzz one day.

In reply to the OP. I have always favored selectable levels of traffic, therefore reduced or increased levels of ATC chatter. FSX can drive you crazy with their Piper Cub and Cherokee communications when you are flying a Learjet.

Regards,

Ray

Quote from Jetjockey10

I would think AI would be introduced concurrently with ATC. Otherwise, as you say, why bother. The lonely skies will be a buzz one day.

I guess atc will be a while yet, that's not an easy thing to create.

My guess is that IPACS reviewed existing ATC solutions months ago and is now locked in on what they want to deliver in v1.0 and are working hard on that FS2 addition. I will also guess it will be different / innovative.

I only fly VR so I hope there's a VR option for ATC that is 100% audio / voice-command based with no on-screen text.

ATIS ... something like Automated Terminal Information Service, aerodrome information and robotic circuit traffic would keep me happy.

There is a sim independent training software for ATC in real aviation. This is also with voice recognition and far better then any sim-atc implementation today. If Aerofly could interface this software it would be another game changer.

For IFR.

ATC vectors to final, with the option to request to fly the full approach!

Speaking of ATC, 'Radar Contact 4' was the best ATC product I've ever used in a flighsim (msfs 2004/FSX).

I'm not sure if that team is still around, since they haven't updated their website or produced an update in over a decade.

oder Pro-ATC/X.

ich bin mir sicher,das Aerofly FS 2 und IPACS das beste ATC machen was es für Flugsimulatoren 2018 gibt.

bitte ATC auch auf Deutsch,sonst verstehe ich nichts.

macht weider So.

Enrico

Quote from Jetjockey10

I would think AI would be introduced concurrently with ATC. Otherwise, as you say, why bother. The lonely skies will be a buzz one day.

In reply to the OP. I have always favored selectable levels of traffic, therefore reduced or increased levels of ATC chatter. FSX can drive you crazy with their Piper Cub and Cherokee communications when you are flying a Learjet.

Regards,

Ray

I hope/wish ATC and any/all additions to AFS2 are always controlled/selectable by the user with regards to simplicity vs. complexity.

Pro-ATC/X is, from my point of view, the best ATC program for FSX, and I hope IPACS will deliver us a same or better quality product.

Pro-ATC/X is my favorite third party ATC as well.

I suspect that the problem is that IPACS never thought about adding ATC when they wrote the initial code, and now they are laboring to create the hooks that will allow an ATC to work inside the FS 2 world.

I know this is about the ATC, what I would wish would be cabin announcements of the crew before the start or after the landing ... safety instructions and at the start of the verbal adjustment of the pilots of speed and rotates V1 etc ...

I wrote this in my wish-list for the other simulator of the competence, but I'd love to see them too in Aerofly.

ATC can go from very simple feature to very complex, so for starters, I think those are the main issues that need to be addressed before jumping into more complicated stuff:

1) Support for IFR: Fill up a flight plan route. Enter callsign, departure, destination, cruise and expected descent rate. ATC will then approve the route, set the departure runway and the right SID for that route. Ideally, the flight plan can be created inside Aerofly, but by now the users can just use external services to create the routes (as Simbrief). During the flight, ATC will check the plane position to calculate when start descending and what STAR and runway use. On the airports database, would be cool to add an optional field where the community can add the airport operations, so Aerofly will know which runway are actives following certain conditions, time, weather, etc.

2) Voices: From a library of TTS voices, the player should select the “user voice”. Then the rest of the voices will be assigned to ATC controllers. (at least 3 or 4 voices should be enough for ATC to have variations.) The more the merrier, obviously.

3) ATC Basic Procedures: Let’s go for the simple stuff first: You need to request clearance delivery, engines start and pushback, taxi, take off, change altitude and start descending. The player should be able to select a different runway either for takeoff or landing and ATC should resync to allow it.

4) Radio-Communications: All this should be done through a options menu, and we should have the option to auto-tune the right frequency and contact the right ATC. (pretty much like it does now). And ATC should always lead us to the next controller: “contact tower for take-off”. Center Control areas should also be supported.

5) Contextual: ATC should be able to understand in what phase of the flight we are, and be ready to give instructions for it. For instance, if we are in ground frequency, heading towards the take off runway, once we are getting close, we should be instructed to contact the tower. If the weather at cruise altitude is bad, the ATC could suggest us to use another altitude.

6) Vectoring: The ATC could vectoring us towards our destination when we are close to the airport, but must keep in mind the altitude restrictions of the area we are flying over. Flying at night with an ATC that doesn’t have in mind mountains can be really dangerous.

Advanced Features: Things that we should have once the basic stuff is working:

1) AI Control: ATC is able to handle the player flight plan and other AI planes as well, that have their own flight plans. ATC should order stop to planes that are too close to each other, hold planes when another one is getting ready to land, etc. Same thing when we are arriving at the destination. Handling traffic so we are positioned in a queue of planes for landing and assigned to the right parking position.

2) AI Voices: We need a wider range of TTS voices here, so we can listen ATC talking to us and to other AI planes as we see them acting in the sim. As a player, I must wait for a previous ATC communication to be finished before I can ask my request. This was achieved by FSX already a long time ago.

3) Voice Recognition: This can be cool, but no English speakers users can have difficult times with this system, so definitely not a priority.

4) Support for recording player voice: The way I see this option being used is because in real life you can listen to pilots from different countries. If a recording tool allows the player to record different sentences, numbers, and airliners, we can have a good variety of voices and accents, with the community recording those files and sharing them. I agree, TTS voices are more flexible, but this system can open the community to create amazing variety in the communications. (ProATC is a software for FSX that allowed something like this)

5) Multiplayer support: This is the holy grail. ATC is able to control multiplayer users. ATC approves flight plans and fits the users in a spot for takeoff/landing calculating the number of flights in that airport and that moment. It really works like an automatized ATC. I can talk with ATC controllers using the voice recognition system -or some menu option-, so other real users can hear me too. If a user ignores ATC control it will ban temporarily.

I hope we can see a better ATC flow in a near future.

Not sure if anyone remembers, and it is not a prefect solution by any means, but I put together something using VoiceAttack last year. It is for VFR only, and not complete, but it does add a bit of realism. If anyone wants to help, we can try to make it better. Clean up the verbage, add more things to it, etc. At least to hold us over till the real ATC is complete.

Anyone interested in putting a few hours in with me on it?

Quote from MrRCSound

Not sure if anyone remembers, and it is not a prefect solution by any means, but I put together something using VoiceAttack last year. It is for VFR only, and not complete, but it does add a bit of realism. If anyone wants to help, we can try to make it better. Clean up the verbage, add more things to it, etc. At least to hold us over till the real ATC is complete.

Anyone interested in putting a few hours in with me on it?

It was from this thread here: Aerofly FS2 + VoiceAttack = Awesome!

I remember one of the "hardcore" simmers on another forum jumped all over me for liking it. I guess the callouts were not perfectly "realistic" enough....