Best ATC Add On

[chumley]

It is without doubt that FSX attempt at ATC borders on pathetic.

 

I was a user of Radar Contact but that was in yesteryear.

 

I wondered if any of the people here use VOX ATC or Pro ATC and if so whether or not they are worth the investment.

[dominique]

I've tried VoxATc which is not bad at all and does VFR contrary to RC. The downside is that voice recognitionit eats up some fps. I'll wait for a networked version before buying it.

[Kev D]

Personally, I've given up on the ATC add-ons and also, could never find the time or inclination to use the on-line ATC services.....BUT..I have found a great solution that adds real imersion and works for me and that is Live ATC available here: www.liveatc.net

All I do is set myself up at whatever airport I want, for example Monterrey, and type in KMRY into the box on Live ATC and you can sometimes choose whether you want arrivals departures, tower or Centre and you are good to go. Reduce the window to the task bar, and now you have realtime ATC transmissions hearing both aircraft and ATC in the background. It is free and really adds the immersion factor. Only drawback is that the UK CAA won't allow access, but it works worldwide otherwise. Quite often you can get sidetracked listening, especially if there is an emergency, or the Ground moves screws up!

I hope this helps, maybe a lot of people already know about this, but I don't see it mentioned in the forums. Give it s try, you will be impressed.

Also, you can get a free LiveATC app for iphone or ipad which will do the same thing without tying up any proccesses on your rig - you can even wifi your ipad to your pc speakers to get the effect.

Kev

[olli4740]

VoxATC would be my vote. Works nicely with a route quickly built by PFPX. (Assigning SIDs and STARs.)

[ridinroun]

Thumbs up for the liveatc. I do the same thing. I always set up a vfr plan in fsx so that I can at least have a taxi route to active and can ask for take off clearance but that's the extent of using any atc for me. I just wish there were streams in the UK and Germany. I seem to spend a lot of my time in fsx in those 2 countries.

[Ziggy]

I use VOX with no Fps loss together with WOAI, does a good job with the traffic, can't fly without it now.

[toriu]

I have been using Pro Flight Emulator (PFE) together with FDC Live Cockpit (FDC) for a number of years now and I can highly recommend them. PFE replaces the default ATC and includes many voice sets with different English accents, taxi guidance system both verbal and visual and many other improvements. FDC acts as a copilot, performing checklists ext. also has cabin crew announcements, again with different accents. You can buy them individualy or together. They have been tweaked to work together.

 

http://www.ocs-support.co.uk/forums/index.php?sid=a2eaa632a068b563a8d6a5f94baf724c

[KevinJH]

I have been using Pro Flight Emulator (PFE) together with FDC Live Cockpit (FDC) for a number of years now and I can highly recommend them. PFE replaces the default ATC and includes many voice sets with different English accents, taxi guidance system both verbal and visual and many other improvements. FDC acts as a copilot, performing checklists ext. also has cabin crew announcements, again with different accents. You can buy them individualy or together. They have been tweaked to work together.

 

http://www.ocs-support.co.uk/forums/index.php?sid=a2eaa632a068b563a8d6a5f94baf724c

 

+1 

[kiwi stu]

I am like a few others.. I only use FSX ATC to get clearance to take off and that's it.

I run Live ATC on a seperate laptop with good external speakers plugged into it.

Suits me fine .

Stu

[Psybear]

EditVoicepack XL is a very pleasant addon for both P3D and FSX default ATC. Speeds dialogue up, enables ICAO dialogue if you fly outside USA, adds call signs and a bunch more. A great value too.

 

Clayton

[tennyson]

There are two other ATC programs worth looking at.

Pilot2ATC is excellent, as is ProATCX.

They are both now, voice activated and are on a par with each other, but still going throo heavy development phase.

I use both on my P3D machine here, and they both work well.

Frank

[Krono]

Hi

 

I use Pilot2ATC on a networked machine and it works great. With a bit of work you can link a PTT switch from your yoke to the network machine. It has a moving map and parking director included amonst other items.

Ken

[paddler]

Ken,

Could you explain how you link the PTT switch to a networked machine please. I intend to do this with my rebuild. Thanks.

[Krono]

Hi paddler

 

I use P3d on my main machine with pilot2atc on my network machine. Using the PTT button on your yoke connected to the main machine is possible. After hunting over the net I found this solution that works beautifully with pilot2ATC. I have to thank VPilot for the information here as it is wrttien for their software but it also works for our situation here. If you use the pdf file on the link below you will be able to use your PTT button as you hope to using Peter Dowson's registered versions of FSCUIP and FSCUIP Wide.

                                            

                                                                                                                     http://vpilot.metacraft.com/Assets/Files/vPilotNetworkSetup.pdf

I hope this helps.

 

[paddler]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for that. I have a PFC panel and the yoke already has a PTT dedicated through FSUIPC so that may on its own work even with the client machine through Pete's companion program with FSUIPC. I will try that out first and if unsuccesfull thry the vpilot approach. Thanks for sharing the link.

[Krono]

Hi Paddler

 

The vpilot approach is through FSUIPC.

In the example they have given you are told to use                                  Keysend1=123,16 ;Press F12

                                                                                                                  Keysend2=123,24 ;Release F12

                                                                                                                  UseSendIput=Yes

 

This is just an example becuase you can use any key you want as your PTT.  If you look in the FSUIPC4 for Advanced Users pdf supplied when you install FSCUIP in the P2D/ModulesFSUIPC Documents folder on page 20 you will find a list that you can use. You have told the sim that when you press your PTT button it will send it as F12. Using the wide client when it sees the keysend 123 (which correlates to F12 in the FSUIPC manual) you network machine knows you are using the PTT switch. Just for example A = 65 and NUMPAD- = 109

If you read from pages 16 to 22 in this pdf Peter D explains how the programming works.

 

Ken

[Capt Pugwash]

Yep, I also use "Live ATC" app on my ipad, just use FSX ATC on depart & approach...

[paddler]

Hi Paddler

 

The vpilot approach is through FSUIPC.

In the example they have given you are told to use                                  Keysend1=123,16 ;Press F12

                                                                                                                  Keysend2=123,24 ;Release F12

                                                                                                                  UseSendIput=Yes

 

This is just an example becuase you can use any key you want as your PTT.  If you look in the FSUIPC4 for Advanced Users pdf supplied when you install FSCUIP in the P2D/ModulesFSUIPC Documents folder on page 20 you will find a list that you can use. You have told the sim that when you press your PTT button it will send it as F12. Using the wide client when it sees the keysend 123 (which correlates to F12 in the FSUIPC manual) you network machine knows you are using the PTT switch. Just for example A = 65 and NUMPAD- = 109

If you read from pages 16 to 22 in this pdf Peter D explains how the programming works.

 

Ken

Ken,

Ack, thanks.

[gfd]

ProATC/X has restarted development, with several updates in the last few months. Many of the bugs have been swatted and functionality improved. My guess (no connection to the program) is that the introduction of Pilot2ATC woke up the author of PATC.

Vox for voice control. Vox controls AI completely, if you can live with that. Also, I believe Vox reads destination weather at beginning of flight and that's it. If weather changes at destination, you're out of luck (I believe a fix is in the works for that).

I've bought and tried them all. These would be my choices, although if I were the authors of these programs, I would be concerned about Pilot2ATC; if the author keeps up the pace of development.

My 5 cents worth. We no longer have pennies in Canada

[dominique]

ProATC/X has restarted development, with several updates in the last few months. Many of the bugs have been swatted and functionality improved. My guess (no connection to the program) is that the introduction of Pilot2ATC woke up the author of PATC.

Vox for voice control. Vox controls AI completely, if you can live with that. Also, I believe Vox reads destination weather at beginning of flight and that's it. If weather changes at destination, you're out of luck (I believe a fix is in the works for that).

I've bought and tried them all. These would be my choices, although if I were the authors of these programs, I would be concerned about Pilot2ATC; if the author keeps up the pace of development.

My 5 cents worth. We no longer have pennies in Canada

The Pilot2ATC  tutorial videos are dreadful IMO  and give the impression that the program heavily relies on a window GUI  hiding most of the cockpit !

[Stillwater]

ProATC/X has restarted development, with several updates in the last few months. Many of the bugs have been swatted and functionality improved. My guess (no connection to the program) is that the introduction of Pilot2ATC woke up the author of PATC.

My 5 cents worth. We no longer have pennies in Canada

 

Thanks for your hands up on ProATC. Had it running for long, so I did not have the auto-updater (and did not see the updates in the forums). Great that the developer goes on with that machine, I´ll check the functionalities (incorporation of AI traffic, weather integration, descend paths) in the next days...