RealTraffic Forum

I have just got RealTraffic for use with MSFS and I must say it is excellent and I am extremely happy.

But the "Find Flight" features is not working for any search term, such as Callsign and Registration.

Clicking on the "Find Flight" button displays the "Find Flights" panel and I can enter a search term in the textbox and use the dropdown to select what field to search within but when I click on the "Search..." button it turns blue but nothing happens and the search panel and main RealTraffic window lock up and and require termination via Task Manager. I have tried different terms and fields to search and waited 10 minutes for results to be listed but nothing ever happens. I installed RealTraffic to the default location have tried resintalled it and even to other locations outside of "Program Files" and running it as Administrator but nothing works. This happens in both PSXT and Spotter modes.

Regards,
Guy

Hi

Sorry to hear of your troubles. A lockup is definitely not good that shouldn’t happen. I haven’t been able to reproduce this. Can you confirm which version you’re using? Also, are you entering the search terms in uppercase? They should be.

Hi,

The version is 10.0.253 Standard Edition running on Windows 10 Pro 64bit.

I wasn't entering terms in uppercase as (having been a software engineer since 1987) I did't expect this to be necessary as search terms shouldn't really be case-sensitive. However, I tried using uppercase for a number of search terms and there was no difference.

The first time I click the "Search..." button nothing happens and when I click it for a second time the button "freezes" in blue and that is when both the Search Panel and main RealTraffic window lock up requiring Task Manager to kill them and then start RealTrafficLauncher.exe again.

Bit of an odd one then eh?

PS - I'll fire up a Hyper-V session and see if it works on that.

PPS - I created a default Win10 Enterrpise machine on Hyper-V and started it up and got the exact same results.

I've tried various RealTraffic compatibility options/troubleshooter but nonthing has had an affect.

Can I email/post a screenshot for you?

Regards,
Guy

That is very strange indeed. And yes please take this to email and send me a screenshot, I don't know why a button should turn blue: balt@inside.net
It would also be useful to see a debug log: Create a file named "debug" (no extension) and place the number 3 in it, and put that file where the RealTraffic.ini and .lic files are located. Usually in C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Roaming\InsideSystem. Then start RealTraffic, recreate the problem, and send me the application debug log (not the launcher). Remember to remove the debug file or it'll keep creating logs forever.

Fixed the "find flights" not working problem in release 254 which is live now. Simply restart RT to update.

Yep, that fixed it, what was the cause?

Thanks and regards,
Guy

The v4 API initially supported the old method of launching a search request - that was removed because of some internal server side issues with keeping the data format the same. I didn't update the client to reflect this - done now. Apologies!

Hey, no worries.

I've been breaking code for 37 years, only mine was for the HUDs for C-17, F-5, F-16, Eurofighter and the FCC (fly-by-wire) for B777!!! I've had a number of strokes so no longer grind code as I can't work anymore but tools such as this fascinate me and I can't help wanting to know what's "under the hood/bonnet", I'd love to program something like this myself, just for fun.

Glad it was a simple fix. It's a great product, I've been just watching flights in and out of various US airports in MSFS and comparing them to Flightradar24, there's barely a 20 second delay between the two. Now I just need a beefier CPU, this 3900X is showing its age

Guy

Wow - that's an impressive career! What development environments/languages/platforms did you use to develop for those systems? I've never developed software for safety critical applications, I'd imagine a lot of effort goes into testing and verification.

Glad you're enjoying this form of "remote" spotting via Sim! Indeed the crunching power for astounding visuals can never be enough.

The server side of RT sometimes feels a bit like a big orchestra, with many little parts forming a bigger picture, especially now with the integrated weather system providing winds/temps/cloud aloft for the entire planet. Sadly that part doesn't work with MSFS as they don't provide an API to inject weather due to some ill-conceived exclusive deal they seem to have with a french weather provider. That sadly only works for real-time weather - so when flying with a time offset, you don't get the same met conditions as the traffic around you.

The LiveTraffic plugin (v4 just released today) for X-plane does that however, and X-plane's visual engine is in my view just as impressive as MSFS, so perhaps an idea to give that a go for a test.

And of course if system realism is your thing, the Aerowinx PSX 747-400 simulator is the pinnacle in system simulation. No visual there, but some people have had good success in using X-plane or MSFS as the visual system.

RT was originally written for PSX (and is still the only sim natively supported by RT). The PSXT and LiveTraffic plugin developers however have been an integral part of the RT universe, even though they remain (fiercely) independent.

I started at GEC Avionics (now BAE SYSTEMS) in 1987 after they sponsored my HND in Computer Science and I was there for 20 years in what was the Airborne Displays Division where we made HUDs, HDDs, MFDs and HMDs for just about everything. They were all coded in Ada, Jovial and Occam running on bespoke CPUs or the MIL-STD-1750A processor along with the MIL-STD-1553 MUX bus, it was all lots of fun and very exciting. I also worked on TRN for Tornado GR4 during Gulf War part 1 and the FCC for Boeing 777.

In the early mid 90s I got into coding Windows tools and programs in C/C++ to support various departments and that led me to writing tools to integrate into Active Directory as well as creating various web apps for our fledgling intranet. I continued developing internal web apps using ASP.Net and Javascript from that point on until I left in 2007.

I also learnt LISP to customise our tech pubs Interleaf DTP system which ended up with the company who made it coming to see my enhancements and modifications and them asking if they could "borrow" me for a while - to which the answer was an obvious "NO!!!".

I haven't written a line of code for exactly 13 years. After I left BAE SYSTEMS and moved to Cornwall which was a bit of stupid plan as there was bugger all work down here and I had to spend 4 a hours a day driving to Plymouth for contract work until it all dried. So I ended up being a kitchen porter until I had my first stroke in 2013 and another in 2016 which basically finished me off - I can't pick up new skills/languages as my memory has been destroyed and all that I did know is now gone.

So now I have all the time in the world (well, at least until my next stroke) to spend on my flight sims - DCS, MSFS and X-Plane 11/12. I learnt to fly IRL as an air cadet in the early 1980s in ASK-21 gliders and DHC-1 Chipmunks. My first flight sim was PSION's Flight Simulator on my ZX Spectrum in 1982, I now have a PC I built in 2020 specifically for flight (and race) sims with a Ryzen 9 3900X and RTX4070 but am looking to move over to the 7800X3D if it were not for the added costs of an AM5 mobo and DDR5 RAM.

I take my sims quite seriously, they are my hobby and I spend a LOT of time flying something somewhere in one of them. I have a Saitek Yoke with a Leo Bodnar board for more resolution in the axes, a Thrustmaster Warthog stick that's floor mounted on a goose-neck extension for use as a cyclic, VIRPIL Base Plus Collective with Hawk grip, Honeycomb Bravo, Saitek X2 Throttle for combat jets and Thrustmaster TFRP pedals along with TrackIR5 and a Quest 2.

All that hardware has built up since 2006 when I really got back into flight sims. I would love to expand more into displays and even a 6-DOF motion rig but as I can no longer work I have a very limited amount of money to spend on all this and have used up all my credit!

I am always looking for a more immersive experience, I used to fly on VATSIM but I have speech problems due to my strokes so don't fly on there anymore as I feel very uncomfortable communication with real people. I've known about RealTraffic and PSXT for some years but never looked any farther into them and am now wondering why on earth I didn't. I also just got BeyondATC for MSFS as that allows communication with AI via speech recognition, so that could be interesting.

I'd love to be able to create something tools/programs like RealTraffic myself as it fascinates me but those days are long gone and I am 15 years behind these days in terms of languages and coding concepts, I installed Visual Studio a couple of years ago and could not remember how to use it just to create a simple "Hello World" dialog!!! I'm forever having to go back to tutorials on how to use avionic systems and concepts such as VOR navigation as if I don't use a "skill" such as those for a while I forget how to use them.

I'll look into LiveTraffic for X-Plane, again it is something I looked into years ago and then completely forgot about, which isn't surprising