So I have been using Navigraph to update the AIRAC cycles… And it got me thinking I never see planes at the airport, in the air, at gates, taxiing, nothing… But a buddy of mine who does not use Navigraph and has the same AI settings as me… Has planes at his airports, planes, flying (sometimes) and what not… I hear ATC talking to other planes but never see any?
I use Navigraph and have no issues with AI.
Given the amount of people who use it, If there was a true link / coronation to Navigraph and AI it would have been discovered long ago.
It was just a thought I had… Because otherwise there is no reason that even with AI Offline or Real-time online… I should never have AI traffic…
I think we all need to learn about the proper terminology. And most people seems to be confused about what they’re seeing and apply the wrong term to describe them. There are different types of “traffic” that we can see in the sim.
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Ground Aircraft = These are just models that the sim spawns on the parking spots. They don’t do anything other than just sitting there doing nothing other than populating the airports and parking spots. They don’t even talk to ATC at all. Ground aircraft are randomly generated with random models and liveries that matches their parking spot type. If you have AIG model and liveries installed, they will appear here. You can adjust the amount of Ground Aircraft using the slider in the Traffic General Options. If you set to 0, the parking spots at airports will always be empty. You put it to 100, then it’s generally quite full except for a few empty spaces.
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AI Offline. These are moving traffic. Meaning the sim spawns them, gives them a flight plan to follow and fly like an AI would. They talk with ATC gaining clearance, etc. And they either spawn at the gate, or already on the taxiway or in the air and they move. You can adjust how many of these AI offline traffic that the sim spawns. The more you put them (100 for example), the more crowded your airspace will get, so much so that it can get so crowded that you can’t even have a chance to talk to ATC at all because they all will talk to ATC one after another. Usually 10-20 is the sweetspot. Still busy, but not too busy that ATC will ignore you.
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Live AI Traffic. These are similar to AI Offline traffic above, but they spawn depending on the data the sim receives from online servers. They also either spawn at the gate for outbound departing flights, on the taxiway, or out in the air on approach for inbound flights. They move around too. But you are at the mercy of your internet connections and your ping to the Azure server. You can’t set how many or how few these traffic are spawned. Either you see them, or you don’t, but that depends on the data you receive and your connections.
All of these, have no relations to Navigraph Navdata at all. They’re completely independent. It’s just a matter of your settings. But if you have AIG model and liveries installed, the generic aircraft and liveries for ground aircraft will be random according to the parking type. But for moving traffic like AI Offline or Live Traffic will be based on the data that the sim receives. a 737 flight will spawn a 737 model with the livery that matches the airline of the traffic data.
So if you’re not seeing any traffic at all, it depends on which type you’re referring to, but also your connection and your settings.
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