When using a flight simulation product, you always want to get the most realistic possible response. After all, the majority of users will be using as either light training for their piloting career, or as a chance to get as close to the real thing as possible. Therefore, it’s vital to make sure that you have the right kind of realism around you at all times – of course, as any flight simulation fan will know, the realism that you experience goes far beyond just the aircraft that you are flying. The type of aircraft is always important, but the world itself has to feel realistic.
This is where the various community mods that add in AI traffic are so important. Whilst there is some traffic in FSX, any “real world” aircraft that you can use or fly aren’t actually included in the flight simulator.
This is something the, presumably due to licensing, means that the atmosphere of the game can be hurt quite significantly as you won’t be able to see your favorite aircraft flying around in the skies with you.
Thankfully, an abundance of mods exists that you can get the most out of if you decide to give them a shot.
This article is quite lengthy so you can jump to individual sections using the links below;
The AI in FSX is very impressive normally, but some people aren’t too keen on the original AI in FSX. If you are sick of this AI and want to replace it with something better, then this is well worth reading about – the mods available to you will give you a lot more benefits than you might imagine.
However, some people would like to be able to remove the default traffic as well, in preparation for adding in their custom traffic instead. if you want to do this then the process is actually very simple – you only need to follow a rather easy set of instructions which are listed below.
This will make it easier than ever to make the FSX experience that you get as close to the real thing as possible, making sure that you can feel nice and comfortable as you use your own copy of FSX.
To get rid of the default traffic in FSX, all you need to do;
The reasons for actually using AI traffic vary quite dramatically depending on your own needs or experiences – here are just some of the reasons why you might want to add in AI traffic to your FSX installation, though;
There are many benefits to having AI traffic installed, though; many of them might seem rather simplistic to begin with, but you’ll see a massive difference once you get to see all of these benefits forming into the one thing, such as;
One of the most important things to get your head around, though, is the fact that installing a new AI traffic mod can bring a few problems as well. You need to make sure that you deal with these issues before taking your ideas any further – here are some of the main things to consider about your new AI traffic mod;
Taking the time to get this right can be very important for making sure that you can enjoy the overall experience as much as you possibly can – it will take some time to get your head around, but it’s worth doing so you can get optimal results.
Like the vast majority of the essentials out there for those involved in the wonderful world of flight simulation, the mods that can give you improved AI traffic are varied – and for those on a budget, many of them are also free. With so many options out there though, you could spend more time looking for a mod than you will flying with it!
To help you make a decision and to get you back on the runway with your AI controlled friends as soon as possible, we would highly recommend that you check out one of the two following options;
World of AI is the free equivalent, and we will give you more details on both below. This will help you see what kind of features both can give you in terms of the accessibility and the overall quality of the AI. Knowing the difference will make it much easier to actually put in place; you just need to know what suits you the best. If you are running on a budget and need a bit help in making FSX more believable then you might decide to go with World of AI for example.
It all comes down to personal choice and what you will feel is the more comfortable of the two options. Whatever you decide to go with, you’ll find that working with the options available from these two choices will make your life much easier in general, giving you extra choice.
World of AI is the main choice for many people because it’s completely free to use and gives you all the help that you need to start getting involved in flying aircraft in the right way. Its overall style and ease of use make it a simple choice for many people who need something a bit more laid back and something that pretty much takes care of itself once you install it. The actual packages are created by World of AI, but they use models and aircraft from all across the community to make the most impressive designs possible.
If you are looking to see something genuinely impressive that is also very easy to work with then we would recommend trying out World of AI. At the very least, this will give you a glimpse of what the AI traffic can be like with the right tools and mods installed.
It just takes a bit of patience and understanding to get the job done; you only need to do some basic calibrations and changes to see a significant improvement in the overall composition and style of your flight simulator. Everything that you download from the World of AI website gives you incredible levels of realism and quality, making it easier than ever before to get yourself into the frame of mind needed to fly an aircraft.
So, what can you expect if you decide to go with the freeware option in the form of World of AI?
As mentioned above, the actual installation of World of AI is relatively simple. You just need to follow this link to the World of AI website, and make sure that you get the help that you need from the help files and the forum on the official website. It receives a lot of new releases in terms of the actual aircraft, too, so it’s vital to keep this page bookmarked for regular checking back – at the time of writing, the most recent updates and additions were only a few months ago.
The overall installation process, though, is very easy. All you need to do is download the ‘Installer’ file from the page of the same name on the World of AI website. It’s very effective and makes it nice and easy to load in those new downloads that you picked up for using with World of AI.
The installer is pretty much self-explanatory and will just run right through everything that you need to make sure you have the most robust and comfortable installation that you can. If you need to install new additions in terms of the AI packages, each individual file comes with specific instructions to follow.
For those who are looking to flash a bit of extra money in the way of their flight simulator to get the best experience possible, you should really consider picking up Traffic 360. It’s the most complete style in terms of AI traffic out there that makes it incredibly easy to download and start seeing the benefit from almost right away. These massive changes that this makes to the freeware addition, and especially the original minimal AI traffic in FSX, will give you a completely new experience.
As we mentioned before, this is for those who feel like FSX is simply not realistic enough and want to see how the performance can get any better. It’s something that you really need to consider as you start working with your flight simulator; do you mind paying a bit extra if it’s going to give you a much more enjoyable experience? Aircraft take on far more dynamic flight types, and you will be provided with a huge selection of aircraft that you can come into contact with, as well.
The huge selection of changes and additions that are added in with Traffic 3D make it much more authentic and will ensure that you can get to grips with the overall flight side of things easier than ever before. This will also help you become a far more educated pilot; with so many different aircraft to try and deal with, you can feel like you’ve taken a massive step forward in overall flight authenticity.
Below is the trailer video for Just Flight's Traffic X product. This is the version before Traffic 360 but there is no trailer for 360 as of yet.
Installation for Traffic 360, though, is just as easy as it is to use the other option available to you, World of AI. It installs the file once it’s finished downloading the hefty file size; you just need to run the installer and answer the questions that you will be asked by the installer.
This will then more or less deal with everything and leave you with an easy to use AI traffic mod that is very simple to adjust and use to your own needs whenever you are ready to take things to the next stage with flight simulation.
Using traffic 360 in-game depends on how you want to do it; there are many in-game customization features that you can use to balance out the overall performance. If you find frame rates dipping and the overall quality of the performance coming down you need to make an active change.
The first thing that you need to do, then is to run the installer and get it working. Once it’s installed you only need to open up FSX and you can deal with anything from there – Traffic 360 also requires you to have Traffic X installed.
Whatever you need, though, you’ll find that using Traffic 360 can be the ultimate traffic upgrade that you would possibly need to make sure that you get what’s required.
We have just released a fully-featured AI ships and boats add-on for FSX and P3D (including v4) in our file library developed by the wonderful Henrik Nielsen (and others).
The package is released as freeware and can be used without any registration or complications.
The package includes 800+ ships and boats for both FSX, FSX: Steam Edition and Prepar3D (all versions including v4). Included are small boats, cruise ships, frigates, military ships and boats, and more.
Included are also real-to-life routes that these ships will take in the real world. The original package was released in two parts (v1 and v2) but we have compiled them into one easy to use download containing both parts.
The file size is around 650 MB and contains everything needed to bring your AI watercraft to life.
It all really does just come down to a personal choice – do you feel like you have enough precision in terms of the overall flight simulation experience with just the freeware edition? Or do you feel like, even with that, it’s still a little bit below what you would have been hoping for?
Whatever you decide to go with, we recommend trying out World of AI first since it’s free. This will let you see the jump in quality and then you can decide if you need the extra authenticity and volume that the brilliant Traffic 360 brings to the table.
Whatever you decide to do, though, you’ll find that changing to something new can be a massive improvement over the original format that you would have become accustomed to. Whilst the old FSX AI is decent, the lack of real-world aircraft means that the skies can feel a tad hollow; you feel like you are the lone wolf in a sea of normal aircraft.
If you need realism to make sure things are as enjoyable as they could be then you just need to think about making serious changes.
Either of these options can be the right one for you – you just need to decide if you want to make an extra investment or if what the still impressive World of AI can give you is going to be enough to keep you learning, improving and overall satisfied with the performance of your flight simulator.
I'd love to hear your comments regarding your experiences with AI traffic and any addons you use to enable it. Please post your comments below, they are very valuable.
Don't forget. We have a huge selection (over 24,000 files) of free mods and add-ons for MSFS, FSX, P3D & X-Plane in the file library. Files include aircraft, scenery, and utilities All are free-to-download and use - you don't even need to register. Browse on down to the file library here.
Ian Stephens is a flight simulation industry expert with over 20 years of experience and also has a keen interest in aviation and technology. Ian spends a lot of his time experimenting with various simulator packages but has a love for Microsoft Flight Simulator X because of the huge selection of add-ons available. However, Ian also has copies of Prepar3D and X-Plane installed.
Ian has been writing for Fly Away Simulation for over 9 years. Should you wish, you can contact Ian via email at ian.stephens@flyawaysimulation.com.
