Traffic Injection: Phase-1 Preview (FAQ)

TRAFFIC INJECTION PHASE-1 IS IN "EARLY PREVIEW" MODE

SAYINTENTIONS.AI PARTNERS GET EARLY ACCESS TO PREVIEW NEW FEATURES THAT ARE NOT YET READY FOR RELEASE.

If you want early access to Traffic Injection Phase-1, please consider becoming a SayIntentions.AI partner. All proceeds from our Partner Program go directly to funding new R&D initiatives, such as this. More Details Here.

Q: When will traffic be moved from preview to the main branch?

A: Late December is the currently scheduled time-frame before we feel like Phase-1 is ready for prime-time. We will likely release it to the experimental branch 1-2 weeks prior.

Q: What did you release?

A: This is traffic injection Phase-1.  There will be two additional phases launched over the next few months. (In other words, this is 33% of the total project, from our perspective).

Q: Where does the traffic data come from?

A: We are using historical flight data from our own network combined with real world traffic data, weather data, and other sources of information to create a traffic scenario for every airport that should feel reasonably similar to the real thing.

The reality is that most of the online sources claiming to source traffic from real-world ADS-B data, or live traffic data-feeds, have serious issues with the integrity, continuity, or resolution of the data. We've solved most of these issues in some very clever ways, and, like many aspects of our platform engineering, prefer not to provide significant details.

To put this another way, we've solved this in some unique ways, and we believe our approach will provide a fantastic, and highly immersive experience!

Q: What features are included in Phase-1?

A: Here is a brief summary of what we've released in Phase-1:

1. Non-Ground (In-Air) IFR and VFR traffic
2. Departure traffic is injected at the moment it takes off.
3. Arrival traffic injected up to, and just before it lands.
4. En-Route traffic is injected above 10,000ft (most injected planes are flying a similar route as you).
5. You can see AND hear every airplane that is injected, assuming you're tuned to the same frequency they are. (COM1 and COM2 are both fully functional).
6. You will see injected traffic on TCAS and other MSFS tools.
7. Traffic is injected AND contextual for every controlled airport world-wide.
8. You will receive radar service traffic advisories for traffic SI has injected
9. You will receive radar service traffic advisories for traffic from your own traffic injection program
10. All injected traffic is sequenced with you AND each other, with the exception of speed changes.
11. The amount of traffic can be controlled as a setting
    
12. The amount of traffic also factors in the size of the airport and the time of day
13. Runway sequencing is included with traffic that SI has injected
14. Runway sequencing is included with traffic from your own traffic injection program
15. Arriving and Departing traffic patterns should be matched to your current weather and current airport ops.

Q: What features are NOT included in Phase-1

The most obvious things you will notice that are missing from phase-1 are:

• No ground handling, ground injection, or ground sequencing
• No en-route speed sequencing (e.g. speed changes), or vector sequencing.
• Only basic model / livery matching.  This matter less than you think, because you have to be extremely close to the traffic to see it.
• No VFR pattern-work sequencing or pattern-work injection

Q: What kinds of things can I expect?

A: You will sometimes hear ATC tell you AND other traffic to hold short of runways, go-around, line up and wait, etc. You'll hear traffic advisories to you and other aircraft, and you will hear every airplane you can see (assuming you're on the right frequency).   Additionally, you may be given short-cuts, and route changes.

Speed changes and vectors for sequencing will come in later phase.

Q: Do I need to have multiplayer chatter on?

A: No.  If you want to ONLY hear traffic that has been injected, you can turn off all multiplayer chatter settings.  (As always, if want to contribute to this project, please keep the "share my audio" checkbox on).

Q: Will I experience a drop to my FPS?

A: Yes, any time additional aircraft are added to your simulation context, you will experience a drop in FPS. This is a limitation of MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024. You can control the amount of aircraft added in your settings.   Note that we use generic models to try to make the impact as minimal as possible. (This matter less than you think, since you can't actually see en-route traffic unless you're less than a mile away, which would be very unusual).

Q: I changed the amount of traffic in my settings, but it didn't change immediately. Why?

A: Decreasing or increasing the amount of traffic will not INSTANTLY change the number of aircraft in your sim, all it does is prevent NEW aircraft from being injected above and beyond the basic constraints. (You can remove all injected aircraft by restarting the app, and then wait for them to slowly build back up over time).

Q: I just started a flight. Where are all the airplanes?

A: The realistic traffic amount will build up slowly over time (5 to 10 minutes after you start a new flight).

Q: I had something happen and ATC didn't sequence the other traffic, or me, correctly.

A: This feature is not expected to work correctly, which is why it's deployed on our experimental server for now.

Q: When will it be completed?

A: Phases 2 and 3 will likely be completed over the next few months, but "traffic" as a whole will probably never be finished, just like ATC.  This will be something we are constantly growing, evolving, and iterating with. It will never be "done", but will slowly become more and more immersive. This model follows the same deployment method we used for the rest of our products.

Q: Is there model-matching?

A: Since we are only injecting terminal-area and en-route traffic, only generic model matching is needed for now. (You won't be close enough to the aircraft to see it, and this saves you the FPS hit associated with detailed models).  However, many traffic injectors have model matching, and those will work great, if you're willing to withstand the FPS hit.

Q: What tricks are you using to make sure my FPS remains at peak efficiency?

A: You can think of our traffic injection strategy as having three modes:

• Close-Up Visual Range:  Full model and livery matching, which will take the largest FPS hit. This is only necessary for ground handling, and final approach / takeoff. You will receive traffic advisories for aircraft in this category,.
• Basic Visual Range:  Aircraft that are 2 to 30 miles out are visible, but not at a level of detail where you can see liveries. Aircraft in this range will use generic models, which uses way fewer resources, but still provides a highly realistic visual experience. Your TCAS system can see aircraft in this category.
• Beyond Visual Range: Aircraft beyond the 30 mile range will not be injected at all. Not only can TCAS not see aircraft at this range, but a human can't either. Therefore, you will HEAR, but not SEE these airplanes, resulting in a sky that feels very alive, but has no FPS impact.

Using this approach will provide the highest possible level of immersion, while still making sure that your system resources aren't being wasted by rendering object details unnecessarily.  Note that phase-1 is focussed on terminal-area and en-route traffic, so the first bullet point does not apply to phase-1, and this strategy in general is a work in progress.

Q: Does it work with FSLTL or <any other traffic injector>?

A: Yes. It works with ANY form of traffic injection. However, if you "bring your own traffic", you will only receive radar services and runway sequencing, and you will not be able to hear them talk to ATC.

Q: I'm having a problem with the traffic injection and need support. Who do I contact? 

A: At this time, there are many known issues. We ask that if you are having problems, you please just turn it off, instead.

Q: What simulators are supported?

A: MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 Only, at this time.

Q: I have more questions. Do you mind if I join your Discord server and ask?

A: All of the information we are providing is in this FAQ. If it's not here, we're probably not going to provide additional details or information at this time.