RealTraffic Connectivity

Combine RealTraffic and LiveTraffic for real live traffic

Verify that port 49005 is configured! See below where to change. Due to a bug in LiveTraffic until v3.3.0, default might still be 49003, which no longer works with RealTraffic.

RealTraffic of Inside Systems Pty Ltd "consolidates data from multiple international ADS-B and multilateration networks to obtain information about other airplanes near the position of your (simulated) aircraft – in realtime, live! ..., it then injects this traffic so you can fly with it, or follow it."

RealTraffic usually offers a trial license, beyond that it requires you to buy a license. Please see their web page for details. You'll find the trial license next to the buying options.

Quote:

"Please download the software and test whether it does what you want it to prior to purchasing a license. During the demonstration time the software is fully functional! If it doesn’t work during the demo, it won’t work after purchasing a license!"

From LiveTraffic's point of view, RealTraffic is just another channel feeding tracking data. LiveTraffic and its author are not affiliated with Inside Systems and don't receive any money or other means of kickback from Inside Systems.

Configuration

RealTraffic provides you with a license key in the format XXXXX-XXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX. Copy this key into LiveTraffic's Settings > Input Channels > RealTraffic > RealTraffic License, then click on "Save and Try":

Settings > Input Channel > RealTraffic

Historic Data

Depending on the type of license you acquired from Inside Systems, RealTraffic may be able to provide you with historic tracking data.

How far in the past you can request data is up to RealTraffic. LiveTraffic warns you if it doesn't receive anything at all from RealTraffic: "RealTraffic has no traffic at all! Maybe requested historic data too far in the past?"

At the time of writing this documentation I was able to get about one month of historic data with a Professional License. But LiveTraffic would not limit the historic data you request.

In LiveTraffic's settings you can configure to request historic date. The option Request Historic Data provides three options:

Option	Meaning
Use live data, not historic	RealTraffic is asked to send current live data
Configure date manually	In an additional configuration line you can enter the date/time for which you want to receive historic data, see below.
Send simulator time	RealTraffic is asked for data that matches the date/time you have set up in X-Plane's Flight Configuration as your Time of Day.

If selecting "Configure date manually" another line of configuration shows up, in which you can set the date/time you want to request. Click "Modify" to specify historic date/time:

Settings > Input Channel > RealTraffic: Manually configuring to request historic data

Select date/time via the drop down boxes. The first one let's you choose between local and Zulu time zone. When done click "Save" and LiveTraffic will now request data from that date from RealTraffic.

The Connection Status shows what data is requested.

The manual date configured this way is stored in LiveTraffics configuration file, but not as a hard-coded date but instead as time difference to current time. So it moves along as time passes.

RealTraffic App (Deprecated)

Originally, using RealTraffic required the use of a locally installed piece of software provided by Inside Systems, to be downloaded from their web site. That setup is at the moment still possible and documented here.

How it works: The RealTraffic App connects to its server to receive tracking data and then broadcasts this data into your local network where it can be picked up from software like LiveTraffic, PSXSeecon, or Foreflight. This broadcasted data also includes weather information of the nearest weather station, which primarily is required for converting barometric altitude readings to geometric altitude.

To learn about the simulator's current position, the RealTraffic App connects into LiveTraffic, which triggers LiveTraffic to send regular position updates back to RealTraffic. RealTraffic then sends the traffic in a 100nm radius around this current position.

While all this might sound a bit tricky it is all well encapsulated in the implementations of both LiveTraffic and RealTraffic. It just affects configurations and status displays a bit.

S​etup

T​here are 3 steps to do:

1. I​nstall RealTraffic and verify, „Spotter Mode“ is working

2. In RealTraffic, c​hange Simulator in use to „LiveTraffic“ and shut down.

3. I​n LiveTraffic, enable the new channel RealTraffic, then start up the RealTraffic app again.

1. Installing RealTraffic

...is straight-forward. But I have to direct you to Inside System's instructions and ask for your understanding that I can't help with it.

If you installed it correctly then you should be able to see tracking data right within RealTraffic, i.e. even without starting X-Plane / LiveTraffic. The so-called "Spotter Mode" allows you to tell RealTraffic a location for which it then starts showing traffic:

1. Set Simulator in use to "Spotter Mode", and

2. select an airport of interest from the drop down Select airport (when the drop down is open then typing on the keyboard searches within the list)

RealTraffic in Spotter Mode to verify RealTraffic's operation

If you have trouble getting this far, i.e. you don't see traffic in Spotter Mode, then you won't see anything in LiveTraffic either. Seeing traffic in Spotter Mode is a precondition for successful setup. In case of issues up to here I ask you to check out "Fault finding / debugging instructions" at Inside Systems.

2. R​ealTraffic: Change Simulator in use

Change Simulator in use to "LiveTraffic".

This is the configuration to be used for sending traffic to LiveTraffic:

RealTraffic configured for use with LiveTraffic, using LT's current position and heading

Note that RealTraffic shows current traffic around your current location as soon as it knows that location...but not earlier. So X-Plane / LiveTraffic need to be connected, see below:

3. In LiveTraffic, enable the RealTraffic channel

1. Startup X-Plane with LiveTraffic.

2. In LiveTraffic open Settings > Input Channels > RealTraffic.

3. Select "Via RealTraffic app" as the Connection Type.

4. Enable RealTraffic and OpenSky Network Master Data, disable the other channels (OpenSky and ADS-B Exchange) for the moment (you may re-enable them later after you confirmed RealTraffic to work)

5. Ensure Show Live Aircrafts is enabled so that LiveTraffic wants to show planes.

6. Status below RealTraffic will switch to "Waiting for RealTraffic..." after a moment (screenshot below).

7. Start up the RealTraffic app. The status shown should change to "Fully connected". (If status only changes to "Connected passively", then see below.)

8. LiveTraffic is now receiving tracking data and will displaying the first planes after the usual buffering period has passed.

Settings > Input Channels > RealTraffic, waiting for connection

In normal operations it should not matter if LiveTraffic or RealTraffic starts first. Both should connect to each other. If LiveTraffic keeps reporting "Waiting for RealTraffic..." or "Connected passively..." over more than a minute try switching RealTraffic's Simulator in use to Spotter Mode and then back to LiveTraffic mode, or even restart the RealTraffic app.

Synching with Simulator Time

When you set up X-Plane to use a specific date/time of the year, then LiveTraffic sends this date/time to RealTraffic, so RealTraffic can provide you with the correct historic traffic at that point in time. By default, the time is adjusted for the buffering period, so that eventually the displayed traffic matches up exactly with time in the sim. You configure if the time is sent and if it is corrected for the buffering time in the drop down box Simulator Time Control.

In the RealTraffic app, you must activate the option Simulator controls time offset in RealTraffic's Advanced Settings.

The RealTraffic app displays the time offset in use and if it is controlled by the simulator or not.

In LiveTraffic, you can see the age of the received data in the RealTraffic Settings, or also in the Status / About window.

Historic Data

If in RealTraffic, the Simulator controls time offset option is disabled, then the RealTraffic app supports to go back in time by use of its time slider and date selector:

Time Slider and Date Selector in RealTraffic app

LiveTraffic will detect if historic tracking data is sent and will adjust it in a way that it will display now in X-Plane. You will see a message to that respect in the Message Area.

Also, the Status page will inform you of this fact in the "RealTraffic" row:

RealTraffic status text informing of "historic traffic" from some time ago

When you change X-Plane's simulated time, or RealTraffic's time slider while traffic is already displayed in LiveTraffic, then expect some unrealistic plane movements to happen while LiveTraffic adapts to the changed plane positions.

If other channels provide real-time data in parallel then expect inconsistencies between these two sets of planes. For example, the "historic" planes and the real-time planes may collide or take-off / land in opposite directions.

Connection Status

You can always check your connecitvity status on the Status/About page:

Status Text	Meaning	Action
Off	RealTraffic is not activated as a channel.	Activate RealTraffic in Settings > Input Channels > RealTraffic
Starting...	LiveTraffic is preparing connections to RealTraffic.	Just wait a second...
Waiting for RealTraffic...	LiveTraffic waits to receive data and a connection request from RealTraffic, but has not yet received either.	Start up or restart RealTraffic.
Connected passively	LiveTraffic has received tracking and weather data from RealTraffic. But there is no connection to RealTraffic for injecting LiveTraffic's current position. So the received tracking data might be from somewhere else in the world and not match your current position in X-Plane. You might not see planes in X-Plane. The time of the last traffic message received is added (like "last: 5s ago").	Verify that RealTraffic's Simulator in use is configured to be "LiveTraffic", maybe restart RealTraffic.
Connected, waiting...	LiveTraffic has an active connection to RealTraffic and can inject the current position. But it has not yet received any actual tracking or weather data.	This should be extremely rare a status. If it persists there might be an issue with transmitting or receiving UDP broadcast data. Check your configured Traffic Port number, then Log.txt for errors, see below for technical details.
Fully connected	All set up perfectly: LiveTraffic receives data and can inject its current position to RealTraffic. The time of the last traffic message received is added (like "last: 5s ago").	Enjoy watching planes in X-Plane.
Stopping...	Shutdown is in progress because display of aircrafts has been disabled, the channel RealTraffic has been disabled, the entire LiveTraffic plugin has been disabled, or X-Plane is being shutdown.	(Just wait...it'll pass...)

Technical Details

The following details might come in handy when analyzing network issues, e.g. when different application seem to get in conflict:

The connection to RealTraffic needs no less than 3 ports. Find all the details in RealTraffic's developer's documentation. The gist is:

• TCP/10474 is a direct TCP link from RealTraffic to LiveTraffic: LiveTraffic has to open a TCP port (10747 by default) to which RealTraffic connects. Once established, LiveTraffic then periodically sends its current location via this link back to RealTraffic so that RealTraffic can filter and send the traffic data of that area.

  • That port number is configurable in RealTraffic's UI, called Simulator Port, standard is 10747

  • In LiveTraffic, it can also be configured, but only by directly editing the preferences file (while X-Plane is shut down!) <X-Plane>/Output/preferences/LiveTraffic.prf. The relevant entry is

    livetraffic/channel/real_traffic/listen_port 10747

• UDP/49005 is the port traffic is received on. This port can be configured in LiveTraffic (see above). In release prior to 9.1.206, RealTraffic had published up to three formats in parallel, but since then only RTTFC is published any longer:

  • 49002: ForeFlight format XTRAFFICPSX (no longer in use),

  • 49003: extended format AITFC (no longer in use),

  • 49005: RealTraffic format RTTFC (only format actively published by RealTraffic and hence LiveTraffic's default).

• UDP/49004 is the port on which RealTraffic periodically sends weather data (necessary to convert baroemtric altitudes).

I am not aware of a possibility to configure the UDP ports on the RealTraffic side.

There would be errors written to Log.txt if data arrives on these UDP ports that LiveTraffic doesn't understand, ie. if they don't comply with RealTraffic's formats ("RealTraffic: Discarded invalid message"). Such errors would happen if some other device sends other data on 49005/4 while LiveTraffic listens. These messages wouldn't do any harm to LiveTraffic except for Log.txt output. But they do indicate a network conflict that should be solved.