Traffic Global

Traffic Global for X-Plane 12 and X-Plane 11 (Windows) provides high quality animated AI aircraft models in authentic airline liveries and with full 3D sound and lighting and effects. Installation is simple and the software is ready to run 'out the box'.

Traffic Global comes with 65 aircraft types and over 860 liveries covering most of the world’s airlines. Over 600,000 flights are included by default and these cover more than 3,000 global airports with complex, multi-point, multi-day flight schedules. New or altered aircraft liveries can be easily added and do not require any additional configuration.

Traffic Global loads everything in the background and is usually ready to go as soon as your flight starts. Even with hundreds of AI aircraft on screen and more being simulated nearby, simulator performance is barely affected.

The AI aircraft respond to the movements of your aircraft as you move around an airport and the software is compatible with all third-party airports. Seven new controllable external views allow you to follow individual AI aircraft and three new control windows are also included: a radar display centred on your aircraft, a flight board which is switchable between all nearby airports and a flight plan display showing nearby airports, taxiways and flying aircraft.

FEATURES

Hundreds of combinations of airlines and aircraft provided - Traffic Global comes with 65 aircraft types over 860 liveries covering most of the world’s airlines.

Over 600,000 flights included by default – the flight database is created from recent commercially sourced flight data and processed using custom tools specifically written for Traffic Global. It has up-to-date flights covering more than 3,000 global airports with complex, multi-point, multi-day flight schedules.

High performance – even with hundreds of AI aircraft on screen and more being simulated nearby, simulator performance is barely affected. Traffic Global is highly multi-threaded.

AI respond to the sim pilot – as you move around the airport, other traffic will do its best to stop and allow you to pass. Collision with AI is possible but can be disabled.

Seamless start-up – there is no need to manually configure a flight plan or wait when you start a new flight or move to a new airport; Traffic Global loads everything in the background and is usually ready to go as soon as your flight starts.

Full 3D sound for all aircraft – each AI aircraft has engine and equipment sounds modelled in 3D using the widely supported OpenAL. Volume is controllable independently of X-Plane’s own.

Simple installation – no messing around setting up subscriptions, additional files or per-airport custom setups. Traffic Global is ready to run 'out the box'.

Compatible with third-party airports – Traffic Global uses the same data for airport definitions as the simulator itself, so third-party airports, both commercial and free, will be used if they are installed.

Many new camera types – seven new controllable external views allow you to follow individual AI aircraft, either independently or in association with your own.

Three new control windows – a radar display centred on your aircraft, a flight board switchable between all nearby airports, and a flight plan display showing nearby airports, taxiways and flying aircraft are provided. Each has hotkeys and can be detached from the main X-Plane window.

Full X-Plane integration – new map layers showing flying or grounded AI aircraft are added to X-Plane and most hotkeys can be re-assigned using the standard X-Plane settings.

Networking support included as standard – serious cockpit builders using more than one PC to control their displays get the same traffic across their entire setup.

Extendable – new or altered aircraft liveries can easily be added and will be used with no additional configuration. New traffic can be added using freely-available tools; Traffic Global uses the same traffic database format as Prepar3D and Flight Simulator X.

Potential for third-party plugin integration – Traffic Global publishes 'datarefs' exposing the locations of all nearby traffic and includes example code for using them.


FAQs

Q: How complicated is the product to set up?
A: It comes with an automated installer. Once installed, you will be able to launch X-Plane 11 and immediately see the AI traffic.

Q: How will this impact performance (FPS)?
A: This will obviously vary depending on your hardware and settings but with AI traffic set to 100% at Heathrow, we are only seeing a 1 FPS drop on a PC with a Ryzen 2700X CPU and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU. If your PC can run X-Plane 11 with satisfactory performance, then it should be able to handle Traffic Global.

Q: Can I adjust the density of AI traffic?
A: Yes, there is a simple density percentage slider.

Q: Is it compatible with Mac?
Traffic Global is currently Windows compatible and a Mac-compatible version is due for release in the near future. We currently have no plans to release a Linux version.

Q: Will you be adding GA and/or military traffic?
A: This is something that we would like to include in a future update or expansion pack to the core program.

Q: What is the delay between launching X-Plane 11 and Traffic Global compiling all the traffic data it needs?
A: There is no delay.

Q: What about if I change the flight time or the location of my aircraft?
A: The local traffic is automatically updated after any significant changes in location. This will not pause the simulator and is fully automatic. New AI aircraft should begin to appear almost immediately, and the full process should be no longer than a couple of seconds.

Q: Are there controls for customising the AI traffic?
A: Yes. For example, you can disable specific airlines and prevent traffic from appearing at specific airports. These changes can be made without having to restart the simulator.

Q: How will I interact with the new systems in X-Plane 11?
A: There are a number of new keyboard commands added to X-Plane. These can be customised in exactly the same way as any other X-Plane command.

Q: How realistic are the AI aircraft sounds?
A: Traffic Global comes with its own custom sound set featuring authentic aircraft sounds to add to the immersive experience.

Q: Does Traffic Global support networking across multiple computers?
A: Yes.

Q: Will the X-Plane ATC be aware of the AI traffic? Are there plans to provide compatibility with ATC add-ons (e.g. Pilot2ATC and 124thatc)?
A: X-Plane’s internal AI should be disabled when using Traffic Global because there is no way to inform X-Plane of any external traffic. However, the well-known 'TCAS Hack' is supported to allow third-party tools to see some nearby traffic. In addition, a set of datarefs has been provided, with an example, to allow third parties to access full traffic data.

Q: Will I be able to monitor the AI traffic?
A: We have created custom radar and flight board windows, both of which can be undocked from X-Plane’s main window. There are also a number of external views, allowing you to cycle through nearby aircraft or pick specific ones from either of the control windows. Finally, there is an airport view, using the airport’s designated ‘tower’ position if provided by X-Plane.

Q: Does Traffic Global require the installation of multiple plug-ins?
A: No. There is only be one essential plug-in added to X-Plane 11.

Q: What about airports with inadequate or missing data?
A: Traffic Global can only work with the data that is available. It is aware of improved data as it becomes available, so if a more accurate airport is installed or provided as part of X-Plane 11, that airport’s facilities will be used immediately. Please consult The X-Plane Scenery Gateway for details of how to improve default airports.