Audio for VATSIM, released on 14th October 2019, is a big step in the flight simulation. In this post, I will show you my feelings about the new codec, along with the new pilot client for X-Plane, xPilot and so.
About a two years ago, I joined VATSIM network. And the one biggest thing I struggled with was the codec, which was really opaque to understand. I had to say to my dispatcher, if he can say the command again really a lot of times, when I was flying. The biggest nightmare was saying the waypoints, where you had to deal even with the accent sometimes. But now, these are old troubles on VATSIM.
At first, I was really impressed how accurately it simulates the VHF. The audio was way more clear than before, so it’s not hard to understand the commands anymore. Even, if the dispatcher has an accent, you can clearly understand waypoints, or any other things what you can hear on the frequency. I really liked that coverage simulation, where you hear the voice more or less clear, depending on altitude and distance from you. And I shouldn’t forget about the frequency blocking, which adds a bit more realism into it.
What I consider as a little mistake, is the voice unicom. Sometimes, it’s really annoying to be there. Because some pilots uses it like discord or teamspeak, which might not be that confortable for many pilots.
xPilot
Second thing I’d like to talk about is new VATSIM client for X-Plane 11. Xpilot. Previously, my main simulator was Prepar3D. And I consider the vPilot as the best VATSIM client ever created. So I was missing vPilot on X-Plane a lot. Once I got information about xPilot is coming to X-Plane, I was really happy.
The settings of the xPilot are very simple, so it’s easy to set up and configure. The UI is, obviously, almost the same as in the vPilot. What I like on both, xPilot and vPilot is, how the programs are simple to use.
Conclusion
The general feeling about this update is really great, indeed. VATSIM developers took this to another level. This was a big step for the flight simulation community. So I can really recommend flying on VATSIM.
