X-Plane LiveTraffic

This looks like an interesting traffic generator for X-Plane. If I understand it correctly (never a sure thing), it takes publicly available information from ADS-B and then uses that data to call up object models from a library (Bluebell) and then puts it all into motion around you. It should somewhat accurately provide near real time traffic. Looks like the kind of cool programming @fearlessfrog would appreciate… :sunglasses:

  • Channels for live tracking data: OpenSky Network, ADS-B Exchange
  • Displays aircrafts (and some ground vehicles) based on tracking data, using matching CSL models
  • TCAS support…no guarantees but seems to work pretty well
  • info on aircraft/flight as labels to the planes or in info windows
  • basic flight modelling for rotate, pitch, flare; acceleration, deceleration; gear, flaps; lights; landing and take-off prediction
  • auto-land in case of live tracking data interruption on approach

Limitations:

LiveTraffic relies heavily on available live flight data. This data:

  • can and will be inaccurate,
  • never includes all planes in the air,
  • is geographically restricted to the coverage the channels provide,
  • often misses moving planes on the ground as ADS-B receiver coverage is more difficult the lower a plane flies,
  • provides by design only positional data every few seconds but no reliable paths or vectors,
  • does not include situational or configuration info (pitch, roll; gear, flaps, …).

This inevitably leads to some aircraft:

  • not sticking exactly to taxi routes on the ground,
  • touching down before or after the beginning of the runway,
  • hovering above it,
  • missing the runway by a few meters or even landing off-site,
  • appearing and disappearing at will,
  • performing funny maneuvers like full circles or flying extremely slow,
  • missing from the scenery due to limited coverage, which most often happens to exactly those flights you’d really really like to follow.

So with all of that in mind, I plan to give it a whirl tonight…

5 Likes

Oooh. I do love things like that - thanks. Going to check it out.

1 Like

Ha, cool - it works! KSFO looking suitably frantic

A fair bit of ‘suddenly appearing aircraft’, but what a nice idea. Will give it a good tryout.

Matches up with OpenSky of course:

Real-time at CYVR

3 Likes

Can the ID tags be turned off?

Yes. I just left them on to see if the flights were accurate.

It’s suprisingly good in terms of performance, with TCAS working as well. It’s not great at ground control, but a nice idea to make things less sterile (for free rather than World Traffic).

The biggest pain was the install needed some resources that meant lots of unrar’ing stuff into directories.

2 Likes

Yeah. It would be kind of nifty if once the planes touched down they could be taken over by X-Plane’s own taxi system…but I don’t think that would be capable of getting planes to gates or anything.

I can see it now. Pilots flying in real life and with themselves virtually in real time.

Wheels