Ultimate Traffic

Ultimate Traffic is an AI traffic modification add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.

The add-on contains real-world airline schedules and liveries, for use by AI pilots to fill the simulation with more realistic looking traffic. Initially in 2003 the add-on was available only for FS2002 as a downloadable product; in 2004 it was updated for FS2004 (available as a free update for the previous version) and also released on CD. This add-on is time-table based, having the AI fly real-world schedules as close as possible.

During the lifetime of this product, there has been a number of schedule updates available as payware DLC, to adjust the flights for each airline according to real-world data. The schedules are valid for a specific week and then repeats itself, e.g. 15 dec 2003 - 21 dec 2003, and do not automatically change with seasons. The total amount of scheduled flights are listed as 400.000, though it really depends on the computer used, how much traffic can be utilised. In addition to the schedules, over 700 liveries for 40 different aircraft are added, to create the right looks of the airlines. In order to get the most out of the schedule updates, it is also recommended to get all downloadable aircraft liveries from the developers, to avoid having plain grey (skinless) aircraft on some airports.

The add-on also has a utility tool to manually change which airlines and aircraft are used for the traffic generation. The main part of the add-on is implemented as an external tool, run prior to starting the flight simulator. There are two extra gauges for a pilot included: a TCAS tool to help avoid collisions in the air, and a 'palmspotter' which provides departure/arrival schedules for the current airport, in a sequential list, to be used in the cockpit.