After months of testing in BeyondATC’s Experimental branch, the developer has finally released its long-awaited traffic system into the main program for all to use. Traffic adds a new layer of immersion to the base package, as not only will users be able to talk to ATC anywhere in the world, but they will also be able to see and hear other traffic along with it.
BeyondATC’s Traffic System
The traffic system in BayondATC stands out from other traffic injection add-ons available for MSFS. Most traffic injection add-ons simply give the simulator the information of the traffic to inject, such as the aircraft type, airline, and destination, and let the sim handle how the aircraft moves on the ground and flies. However, the default MSFS traffic system has many issues, such as aircraft getting stuck on runways or using the wrong runways and having a big performance impact. Additionally, this method wouldn’t let BeyondATC interact with the traffic.
The solution for BeyondATC was to create an entirely new system that both injects the traffic and controls its movement in MSFS. According to the developers, their traffic system includes flight operations from all over the world, gate-accurate airlines for every airport, airframe performance calculations, full traffic representation for all stages of flight, pushback tugs, custom takeoff and landing animations for each airframe, and more.
ATC-Traffic interactions are also accurately modeled. Aircraft will call ATC when needed for all stages of flight, aircraft may be ordered to go around if the runway is busy, and all aircraft, the user included, receive sequencing as necessary to ensure enough separation depending on the speed and aircraft type. Additionally, the user is not given priority in any of these interactions and is just treated as another aircraft.
While traffic was previously only available to BeyondATC’s ‘Supporter’ customers for testing in the experimental branch, this update brings traffic to all customers. You can get BeyondATC for both MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 at the official website here. If you’d like to view the original release announcement, you can do so in the developer’s Discord server here. If you’re interested in more BeyondATC news, check out our previous article about MSFS 2024 compatibility.
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