I’m using Simple Traffic Offline. Why does ATC call so many planes Generic Microsoft…? Some planes are called correctly, but lots of Generic Microsoft calls. Kind of kills the mood.
This is no use for VATSIM or IVAO, but if you get a lot of “Generic” aircraft mentioned in MSFS ATC comms, you can actually re-name them by editing the aircraft.cfg file for each generic plane in your LocalCache\Packages\Official folder.
Scroll down the list of aircraft to:
Asobo-aircraft-generic-airliner-quadengines
Asobo-aircraft-generic-airliner-twinengines
Asobo-aircraft-generic-piston-multiengines
Asobo-aircraft-generic-piston-singleengine
Asobo-aircraft-generic-privatejet
Asobo-aircraft-generic-turbo-multiengines
Asobo-aircraft-generic-turbo-singleengine
You can use any name you like to replace “Generic”, but I’ve used the ‘most likely’ type based on the model appearance and/or a flyable type in the sim. Open each aircraft.cfg with Notepad and under the [GENERAL] heading, look for:
[GENERAL]
atc_type = “$$:Generic”
atc_model = “$$:”
The model name for Generic planes isn’t used by ATC, so I’ve only changed the atc_type as follows:
Airliner Quadengines: atc_type = “$$:Airbus” ← looks like an A380?
Airliner Twinengines: atc_type = “$$:Boeing” ← probably the most common twin engine airliner?
Piston Multiengines: atc_type = “$$:Beech” ← similar to the Baron in the sim?
Piston Singleengine: atc_type = “$$:Piper” ← looks like a Cherokee?
Privatejet: atc_type = “$$:Cessna” ← similar to the Citation in the sim?
Turbo Multiengines: atc_type = “$$:Beechcraft” ← similar to the King Air in the sim?
Turbo Singleengine: atc_type = “$$:Pilatus” ← looks like a PC-12?
This makes a noticeable difference in the sim and has no effect on FPS.
I made these changes, but I’m still hearing ATC say “alphabet ex Microsoft UPS ph equals WHNE wind slash 2743”, or something similar with more letters and numbers after it. What is that? Only ATC says it, not the planes. I’m testing at KORD.
That’s a different defect, having to do with the parser code when using Offline ATC text to speech. You won’t hear that if you use Azure TTS.
It happens whenever ATC says something related to directions, either wind direction for landing and take-off clearances, or relative clock positions for traffic alerts.
Introduced as a bug with sim update 7. Left in as a wonderful feature in sim update 8.
Azure seems to not be available a lot. I keep getting popups saying that. Any fix?
How can we mere users fix a cloud service run by Microsoft?
I suppose you could apply for a job at Microsoft as a technician or network engineer that works on the servers and then you would be in a position to do something.
I still hear the Microsoft call sometimes, even after making the generic cfg changes. Are there more changes to make to other planes?
I’ve never heard ATC call “Microsoft” to any aircraft - this must be a plane you bought from the marketplace which is being used as AI, the only one I have is the Solo 103 ultralight.
Unfortunately the marketplace planes are encrypted and can’t be edited, so you might have to put up with it for now.
Nothing to do with market place aircraft nor Simple Traffic.
It is a Speech Bug
It will only happen when speech set to offline, or if Azure data stops and switches to offline.
Thanks for the Speech Bug explanation. That is exactly the problem. Looks like it’s not a priority for them to fix, even being so annoying.
Do the cfg changes above take care of eliminating all Generic calls?
Yes they do.