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June 17, 2024Beyond ATC For Microsoft Flight Simulator Review
Let's take a dive in and have a look at Beyond ATC, I think it is fair to say and note that this is a work in progress, with that out of the way let's take a look at what Beyond ATC does. Beyond ATC is an AI replacement for the standard Microsoft Flight Simulator, Air Traffic Controller. Similar to what Sayintentions.ai does, however where Sayintentions focuses on VFR / GA - Beyond Focuses on IFR / Airliners and doesn't at the moment support VFR flying. Being only IFR Beyond ATC requires you to simbrief in order to use Beyond ATC in your flight, which means every time you want to use Beyond ATC, you must file a simbrief flight plan for it to work/launch
Beyond comes feature-packed with a nicely laid out UI, let's go over the UI - compared to its competitors I'd personally say Beyond has a far better UI. It has some stunning features, when given taxi instructions you'll have nicely in front of you the taxi points clearly laid out for you to see.
Settings
Beyond ATC also has a very nice and simple settings page, where you can change the premium and free voice models. In the settings, you can change other things like keybindings and control bindings for push-to-talk along with "your" voice if you use the buttons over talking to the AI.
The Downsides
While Beyond ATC is great, it also has some large downfalls compared to its competitors at Sayintentions.ai. Beyond ATC is very limiting, you can only select a few options to say to the Air Traffic Control / Say - you can only say what push options are. At least from what I've found, there is also no option for VFR flying which is a real bummer - something that sayintentions.ai does really well. Not only that but sometimes Beyond will struggle with read backs, you have to say the exact correct statement to what Beyond ATC wants to hear - otherwise, Beyond ATC will just keep saying "No - XYZ " Xyz being the statement you need to repeat (However if found even repeating word for word, it will still miss understand me. Beyond ATC at the moment is very limiting for what you can do within the simulator, Beyond ATC is what should have been included in the base simulator, which would have been perfect and amazing. However, it's worth noting it does have some large downfalls.
Set / limited options
What I mean by this, is there is only so many things you can say to Beyond ATC, and if you say something outside of this the AI / Beyond ATC will just simply say Request not understood. Compared with Sayintentions.ai where you can ask and say almost anything, leading to almost limitless potential within the interactions. This is something that is missing from Beyond ATC
Who is it for
This is perfect for someone who is seeking more than what the standard simulator offers, but isn't quite wanting to join a network like Vatsim. But at the same time, you'll also need to use simbrief. If you didn't need to use simbrief then I'd say this is a must-have - however, with the need to file a flight plan for every flight in simbrief, it can be a bit annoying.
So if you want something that is less intense than Sayintentions.ai and offers IFR and button options, then absolutely Beyond ATC is worth it for you. However, if you want limitless possibilities and VFR then Sayintentions.ai Is for you - At least with how beyond is currently, this could and probably will change. With that all said, go check it out - it offers a once-off payment instead of a subscription plan Check it out Here
Disclaimer: Everything in this post is my personal opinion. I'm not a professional, and this isn't advice. I try my best to provide accurate information, but I can't guarantee it's all correct all the time. So I cannot be held responsible for any decisions you make based on what you read here
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