Just a couple of thoughts today after a flight from Birmingham to Dublin…
As the weather outside was unbroken sunshine, I turned on Live Weather and Live Traffic…
Weather deteriorated over Wales (which is no real shock!)…climbing up through FL20, I had unbroken cloud for the rest of the journey until the last 2000 ft of descent.
I know it rains a lot in Ireland…but the cloud was so thick at 1:50pm over Dublin airport, it was more akin to a night landing.
The real bug was the live traffic. Aircraft absolutely everywhere. Ghosting in here and there, and to top it all, whilst I was taxing to the gate, a hotshot pilot ghosted right through me and ended up parking in my assigned spot…hope the CAA sort him…
They['ll be after me too - cos I ghosted over his aircraft and parked as assigned…
This truly turns a genuine flight sim into an arcade feel which I hate!!!
Is it worth it - cos without it , it truly feels better!
I never run live traffic - either AI or multiplayer. As for weather, it has its issues, but it can also provide some spectacular visuals. It tends to be a little behind the real-world environment sometimes, so if you keep that in mind and don’t expect it to mirror what’s outside your front door, it’s quite nice.
Live weather always. I usually fly below the clouds though so no problem with just seeing a sea of white beneath me.
Live traffic, never. I don’t use ATC either. The big airports are slow enough and live traffic doesn’t frequent 99% of the places I land at. Multiplayer is just chaos when you even see someone.
Live weather does has its limitations that it’s only ‘realistic’ as long as you also fly at the right time. Recording the weather for the past 24 hours would be very useful,
I tend to always use live weather then regret it when thunderstorms (usually from low cirrus clouds rather than towering cumulonimbus) follow me around.
I turned off live traffic (and AI traffic) months ago in order to try to minimise the CTDs. It can be kind of lonely but at least I can respond to ATC and not get timed out due to AI traffic constantly hogging the frequency being told to expedite their climb/descent.
I usually fly with Live Weather, but almost always turn the traffic off, and rarely do Multiplayer.
Multiplayer is filled with a bunch of kids with F-22 mods slewing around the world, and the ATC trying to communicate with generic airliners is just annoying.
IRL, unless you’re doing patterns in busy areas like LA County you don’t really notice a gazillion planes like FS2020 has if you’re in MP.
I’m about to go up and do some stuff as we’re beating a heat record for the day in the PNW and it’s going to be about 112, the hottest day in recorded history for Portland OR.
Live traffic was broken for me for the longest time. I’m not sure %100 when it improved as I have basically been offline since before SU4.
I enjoy it now as I fly out of mostly municipal/executive airports. So its nice to see some planes in the sky.
I mostly fly life weather and don’t have to many issues as I am not flying in a human controlled virtual airspace. The game and Pilot2ATC are close enough. I’ve experimented with REX Weather force to try and get better synced weather but it its just not worked right for me.
I would be annoyed at someone flying through me on taxi (in Live Mode) but if we where both going to the same spot who knows they could be using a different ATC.
Until MS improves the ATC and lets you talk to it tough TTS services ill be sticking to Pilot2ATC.