Ultimate Traffic 2007 review

by mark.avey on December 22, 2007

This is a review of Flight 1’s Ultimate Traffic 2007 by Paul Webster.

ultimate traffic 2007

Ultimate Traffic 2007 is the latest version of Flight1’s Ultimate Traffic series which has been re-worked to make it compatible with FSX. As with its predecessors, UT07 uses a database of actual airline schedules to replicate real world traffic movements. Also included are a number of potentially useful tools for those who would like to further customise aircraft types, liveries and movements.

Included in the boxed product are a DVD and a full colour Quick Start Guide which walks you through installing the product, getting it running for the first time and a brief description of the configuration utilities which are dealt with in a bit more detail in a pdf document which is installed as part of the initial routine. Inserting the DVD kicks off the installation routine where you select which version of Flight Simulator you want to install the product for and which language you want to use, then follows the usual screens for End User Licence Agreement and Installation directory. Once installed, you are prompted to re-boot your PC. UT07 runs outside of FSX, so once it’s been installed you need to launch the product prior to running FSX in order to configure the traffic files properly.

Ultimate Traffic 2007 Main Screen

From the main screen your first task is to check for updates. As well as software updates for UT07, there are also aircraft re-paints and airfield data downloads to increase the number of these available. I was quite surprised by the number of repaints listed. These seemed to be provided by Flight1 as well as a number of enthusiasts who had worked on their own models and submitted them for inclusion. Unfortunately, though, on installation some of these repaints generated an error message saying that the model had been added but that the assignments database was not updated. Once updated the product needs to be restarted to register the changes then the traffic database can be compiled.

With its focus being on Airline traffic, I was pleased to see that UT07’s traffic compiler also includes the option to have a number of general Aviation aircraft incorporated into the traffic database. As well as scheduled and chartered airline flights, most local and regional airfields will have a mixture of pleasure, training and corporate flights taking place so the ability to have these replicated is a bonus. I left the default settings for the database compilation and clicked the continue button which warned me that the process may take some time. After compilation I received an error message stating that Multiple Traffic.bgl type files can cause a problem with Ultimate Traffic and that the product may not function properly, this error is apparently a known issue which is covered in the Quick Start Guide.

With installation complete it is probably worthwhile mentioning the additional utilities available;

Aircraft Assignment – Lets you replace the aircraft assigned to a specific airline within UT07 with an alternative so for instance you can replace British Airways Boeing fleet with Airbuses if you wish.
Parking – Lets you assign aircraft to specific types of parking for example you can prevent General Aviation aircraft using Gates at airfields and force them to use ramps instead.
Airports – You can assign overlays to airports and then configure rules for these, for instance only heavy aircraft use the main runway or specific airlines use specific terminals.
Tail Numbers – Customise the tail numbers for each airline.
Text-o-matic – helps convert your own repaints in bitmap format into a Flight Simulator formatted texture file.
Import – Allows the import of a custom airline into UT07.
Package – Packages up your custom repaints into the correct format for sharing with other users of UT07.
Repaint List – Generates a list of all the airline aircraft within UT07.

Before you read further, I think I should state that most of my flight simming is done using General Aviation aircraft from regional airfields. My main reasons for wanting to use a traffic program such Ultimate Traffic is to have the Auto Gen traffic more closely resemble the real world situation in terms of liveries and aircraft types and movements at my local regional airfields. For this reason I based myself at Exeter (EGTE) in order to test out how this product would fare in terms of meeting my requirements. Exeter is the regional airport for the South West of England, and is the operational base of FlyBe, Europe’s largest regional airline. In addition to FlyBe a number of other operators run regular scheduled and chartered services from Exeter to Europe and Canada. FlyBe run a fleet of Dash 8 Q400’s, BE146’s and Embraer 195 aircraft from Exeter and there is usually a mix of these aircraft around the airfield.

After installing and configuring Ultimate Traffic my initial sight of Exeter airfield consisted of nothing but the default buildings and 3 service vehicles. This was resolved by setting Airline and GA traffic within FSX to 100% as suggested in the Ultimate Traffic Forums. I must confess that I find it hard to understand why this is not mentioned in any of the products documentation given the importance of this setting.

My second and most profound surprise was that when I did have aircraft, rather than the familiar blue and white FlyBe livery the aircraft were done out in the livery of British European, the former name of Flybe which has not been in use since July 2002. JustFlights Traffic 2005 has the correct livery so there should be no reason why Ultimate Traffic shouldn’t have, especially given Flybe’s prominence.

Next surprise was that with 100% traffic for both Airlines and General Aviation I only had 4 heavies and 2 light aircraft with at least 5 empty parking spots, not exactly busy for 100% activity. It was good to see that the British European aircraft parked up were Dash 8’s, the large proportion of FlyBe’s fleet, so at least the correct aircraft are being represented if not in the correct numbers or correct livery.

To test the the aircraft movements, scheduled flights and GA traffic, I monitored the traffic generated by UT07 on a typical sunny Saturday afternoon when there should be a good mix of pleasure and training GA flights, and between 13:35 and 14:05 there are 4 scheduled FlyBe flights (Chambery, Guernsey, Aberdeen, Amsterdam). Sadly in the half an hour between 13:35 and 14:05 the sum total of aircraft movements was a Piper Cherokee landing, in fact the service trucks were more active than the airliners. The final negative point is that the aircraft models used by UT07 are the same as used in the earlier FS2004 versions, which weren’t spectacular then, and so compared with the default FSX models they don’t stand up too well to any scrutiny.

FlyBe Dash 8 in Obsolete British Europrean Livery

In conclusion then, my thoughts on Ultimate Traffic are not entirely positive. By concentrating on a limited number of supported airfields, Flight1 have restricted the appeal of their product. Having a single GA flight land at a major regional airfield in 30 minutes during peak time is not good enough, the default traffic provides a much better experience than that not only in terms of flight numbers but also model quality.

Had Flight1 got the FlyBe livery right and included a randomly generated but more realistic traffic pattern I would have been somewhat satisfied.

There are a number of known bugs and issues with the software that Flight1 seem happier to document than fix. In most other fields this kind of buggy software would not be acceptable. I don’t know what it is with us flight simmers that makes us let developers get away with this.

Having said that, Ultimate Traffic has received some good reviews and I am willing to concede that unlike myself - if you fly from the international airfields that are supported by this products extensive database then your experience will probably be more positive and more rewarding than was mine.

Tags: ultmate traffic 2007 review

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