Vatsim aircraft are not visible in career mode in SU2

Bug Reporting Hub ATC, Traffic & NAVAIDs
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1

Tags

#msfs-2024 #steam vatsim #careermode

ISSUE DESCRIPTION

Description of the issue:

When flying in Career Mode, VATSIM aircraft do not appear — even though they appear as expected in Free Flight mode.

This issue began after Sim Update 2 (SU2). Prior to SU2, VATSIM aircraft were visible in both Free Flight and Career Mode. Since SU2, they are completely absent in Career Mode, despite functioning normally elsewhere.

We have verified that VATSIM traffic is working correctly with model-matching (e.g. FSLTL), and that aircraft are visible on the ground and in the air during Free Flight. However, launching any Career Mode mission causes all VATSIM aircraft to disappear from the world.

This behaviour suggests that Career Mode is now blocking or suppressing online-injected traffic — unintentionally or otherwise.

[PC Only] Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons?

No, but the issue specifically concerns VATSIM traffic, which is injected externally and not part of the Community folder. The behaviour is not affected by Community mods — the problem is the suppression of online traffic in Career Mode.

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

Every time Career Mode is used.
Occurs 100% of the time during Career Mode sessions.

REPRODUCTION STEPS

Please list clear steps you took in order to help the test team reproduce the issue:

  1. Start MSFS 2024.
  2. Connect to VATSIM (e.g. via vPilot) and observe aircraft at a busy airport like EGLL or KJFK in Free Flight.
  3. Confirm that aircraft are visible and injected properly.
  4. Now switch to Career Mode and start any mission at the same airport.
  5. Observe that all VATSIM aircraft are gone — no models are injected or visible.
  6. Return to Free Flight at the same location — aircraft are visible again.

YOUR SETTINGS

Multiplayer and online services are ON.
VATSIM model matching is configured and working.
Live Traffic = OFF (since VATSIM handles injection).

[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it?

Developer Mode enabled for observation and testing. No changes made to internal SimObject or Career systems.

[PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12?

DX12

[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use?

NVIDIA RTX 3080

[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?

  • AMD 7950X3D
  • 64 GB RAM
  • Windows 10 Pro

MEDIA

Can provide screenshots or screen recording showing VATSIM aircraft in Free Flight but absent in Career Mode on request.

2

As Career is intended to be completely offline and VATSIM released a statement months ago asking that their users NOT connect to their network while engaging in Career mode, I’m not sure parties on either side of this “bug” have any interest in “fixing” it.

3

Might seem like that, but worth asking as both in combination are actually a lot of fun! So much upside for everyone if this gets fixed.

4

I think VATSIM’s concerns are that people will not follow controller’s instructions if it conflicts with what they need to do in their Career flight.