The developers behind BeyondATC have announced via a Discord announcement their plans to release the innovative program early. However, features originally intended for a later release date will not come with this early launch. This announcement was in response to previous feedback from the community through a poll posted on their Discord Server.
About BeyondATC
BeyondATC is a program being developed for Microsoft Flight Simulator which will give a more modern and realistic ATC experience compared to the current, very limited ATC built into the simulator. BeyondATC will allow for full vectoring in and out of airports with accurate terminology. It will support IFR and VFR flights which will be accompanied by a sleek and easy-to-read UI. Unlike VATSIM and IVAO which are human-based and online, this ATC program is completely computer-based and powered by AI.
Originally, the developers planned to release their own separate AI traffic injector within the program. This would mean traffic around you would respond and follow directions from ATC. All of this would be handled within the program. However, while it is still planned, traffic injection won’t come with an early access release, according to the developers as it still requires some time in the oven and further tests.
Early Access Plans
On the 27th of March, a poll was put out on their discord server. This poll would allow users to choose between two options for a release. The first is a normal release schedule, meaning BeyondATC would launch with its built-in traffic system taking a couple more months. The other option was an early access release within the next few weeks which would see the program launch without its traffic system.
After a week, the poll results were announced via a Discord announcement. According to the developers, an early access release was chosen by the majority of users. This means BeyondATC will release earlier than originally planned but without its proprietary traffic system. However, after a version 1.0 launch, custom traffic injection will be one of their top priorities.
According to the developers, the actual traffic software inside BeyondATC is around 50% complete. Also on Discord, they posted a roadmap for the program’s future. This roadmap covers the initial 1.0 launch and goes as far as eventual emergency procedures being added.
BeyondATC also adjusted its pricing model over a month ago. You can view the changes in one of our previous articles which covered this change. While there won’t be a built-in traffic system on launch, you can still use external traffic injectors. However, traffic injected by external programs won’t be controlled by BeyondATC as the software can not see that injected traffic and could cause major annoyances.
As of yet, the developers have not given us a release date for this early access release. However, you can keep up to date with the future of BeyondATC and read some of our previous articles covering this ATC software here on FSNews.
