Installation
This summarizes installation quickly.
If you are relatively new to X-Plane plugin installation and/or especially to CSL model installation you definitely want to follow detailed step-by-step instructions instead:
If you are upgrading from v1.5 to v2.0, then please follow these steps:
First of all make sure to understand inherent limitations of the approach LiveTraffic takes and if it fits your purpose under these conditions. Then please double-check requirements are met. They include
Windows only: Do update the Visual C++ Redistributable!
If you don't see LiveTraffic in your Plugins menu, and your Log.txt contains
Code = 126 : The specified module could not be found.
then you have to
Download and install https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vc_redist.x64.exe!
Yes, it's a hassle...but it saves significantly on LiveTraffic download size.
​Download the plugin from X-Plane.org.
The LiveTraffic plugin ships as a ZIP archive. Unzip it. The LiveTraffic folder is then to be moved into <X-Plane>/Resources/plugins, the same as with other plugins.
You must install CSL packages with aircraft models, otherwise LiveTraffic has no models it could put into your sky and will fail.
To start with, please use the Bluebell packages. They are known to work, although installation is a bit of manual effort. Users experienced with CSLs might venture father.
The Python script CSL2XSB (also shipped with LiveTraffic) can try to convert other packages for use in LiveTraffic. It has been developed and tuned for X-CSL but may work for other packages, too, to a certain extend. Feedback welcome, e.g. as comments to the file download.
Install "Bluebell" OBJ8 CSL packages (or, recommended, take this ZIP file version) including the vertical offset files, listed as BB_IVAO_vert_offsets_* in the downloads and recommended for the X-IvAp users. LiveTraffic can and shall use them, too. These files make the aircraft roll on their wheels on the ground rather than sitting on their belly. The most accurate way of having them roll on their wheels is the VERT_OFFSET Tag in the BB_IVAO_vert_offsets_* files.
Follow instructions there...it's many files and easy to screw up, but in essence all archives need to be installed into Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL.
Essentially, each CSL package is one subdirectory under CSL. Each package directory must contain an xsb_aircraft.txt file, which describes the planes included. (This is the file which shall include VERT_OFFSET lines to make planes roll on their wheels.) The actual object files are often but not always organised in nested subdirectories. The Bluebell installation should then look similar to the following:
You can and should verify the correct installation and recognition of installed CSL packages by starting X-Plane and taking a look into Log.txt.
Verify your Log Level in Advanced Settings: Set it to at least "Info", then restart LiveTraffic, to see all of the message listed below.
There shall be one line per CSL package under plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL like below, which matches the installation in the screenshot above, along with some errors and warnings, which are due to the quality of the CSL packages:
Log.txt (extract)0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic: LiveTraffic 2.00.xxxxxx starting up......0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO XPMPMultiplayer.cpp:213/XPMPLoadCSLPackage: Loading CSL package from .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/ShippedCSL0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:609/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Processing .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/ShippedCSL/XCSL_CARS/xsb_aircraft.txt0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z WARN CSLModels.cpp:681/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Following commands ignored: HASGEAR (1x)0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:751/CSLModelsLoad: Total number of known models now is 10:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO XPMPMultiplayer.cpp:213/XPMPLoadCSLPackage: Loading CSL package from .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:609/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Processing .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Leipzig_Air_VA/xsb_aircraft.txt0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:609/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Processing .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Mil/xsb_aircraft.txt0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:609/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Processing .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Jets/xsb_aircraft.txt0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z ERROR CSLModels.cpp:369/CSLModelsConvPackagePath: Line 523: The file '__Bluebell_Jets/E145/E145_BMI_G-RJXI.obj' could not be found at .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Jets/E145/E145_BMI_G-RJXI.obj0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z WARN CSLModels.cpp:386/CSLModelsAdd: Duplicate model 'E170_DAL', additional definitions ignored, originally defined in line 583 of .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Jets0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z WARN CSLModels.cpp:386/CSLModelsAdd: Duplicate model 'E170_LOT', additional definitions ignored, originally defined in line 608 of .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Jets0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z WARN CSLModels.cpp:386/CSLModelsAdd: Duplicate model 'E170_USA', additional definitions ignored, originally defined in line 648 of .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Jets0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:609/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Processing .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Heli/xsb_aircraft.txt0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:609/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Processing .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Airbus/xsb_aircraft.txt0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:609/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Processing .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Repaints/xsb_aircraft.txt0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:609/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Processing .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_GA/xsb_aircraft.txt0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:609/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Processing .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Props/xsb_aircraft.txt0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:609/CSLModelsProcessAcFile: Processing .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL/BB_Boeing/xsb_aircraft.txt0:00:00.000 LiveTraffic/XPMP2 21-Apr 21:14:48Z INFO CSLModels.cpp:751/CSLModelsLoad: Total number of known models now is 1823
LiveTraffic can identify, that tracking data comes from ground vehicles. Some of them carry ADS-B transponders and send the same kind of infos as planes do.
For this purpose, LiveTraffic ships with a CSL model of a FollowMe Car in the Resources/ShippedCSL directory. Author of the FollowMe Car model is the X-CSL team, many thanks for their kind permission! Find the original here along with many other models offered by them.
No action is required from your side.
Advanced users only: If you wish to use a different model for display of ground traffic, then:
Install its CSL model somewhere. If it is placed in a new base directory include this directory in Settings > CSL.
Put its type code into the Ground vehicle type field of the same settings page.
LiveTraffic is able to read CSL packages also from other locations. If you have CSL packages somewhere else you can point LiveTraffic to them. This certainly also goes for the above recommendations: If they are on your disk already somewhere then just let LiveTraffic know.
See Settings / CSL for the configuration options.
Other packages will work to a certain extend only. Over time, differences in package formats (especially content of xsb_aircraft.txt and how to provide liveries) developed. LiveTraffic sticks to the original standard.
Other packages (like X-CSL for X-IvAp) provide several liveries in one OBJ8 file. LiveTraffic can process such packages, but only uses one livery. This forum post summarizes it.
The Python script CSL2XSB can try converting those packages. It is known to work with X-CSL.
None of the following settings hinder LiveTraffic to display traffic. But they may affect the user experience:
...should probably be off. LiveTraffic won't display parked aircraft per se, but sometimes aircraft can be followed up to their parking positions. And it simply looks better if there is no other aircraft then.
...are no longer needed for LiveTraffic's purposes as of LiveTraffic v2.03 together with X-Plane 11.50. If you had configured them only to see TCAS you may remove all of them now.
If you are running X-Plane before 11.50, then you will still need to configure AI Aircraft in X-Plane's aircraft settings to see TCAS blibs and for providing data to some 3rd party plugins.
