NextATC Unicom

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12. Options

Open:

Plugins -> NextATC -> Options

12.1 General#

  • Autostart on X-Plane startup: start ATC automatically.
  • Startup splash screen: show the splash when the plugin starts.
  • Auto-tune COM1 for first flight-plan request: tune the first valid clearance frequency when beginning the initial filing flow.
  • Random flight on start: pick a random departure and file a random flight automatically at startup.
  • Automatic update checks: check for new releases at startup.
  • Region filters: choose which regions the random-flight system can use.
  • Export GeoJSON files: write route geometry files for inspection.
  • Enable Debug: add support-oriented detail to the log.
  • GUI animations: enable or disable UI animations.
  • Alert sound: cycle the cue played when a Radio Log action button appears; Off disables it and a selected cue previews immediately.

12.2 NextATC Windows Monitor#

Select which monitor should receive plugin windows and overlays. Use Auto / Primary unless you need to force a specific monitor.

12.3 On-screen Display#

  • OSD flash messages: show short status flashes.

12.4 Theme#

Cycle the UI accent theme. Current themes are Yellow, Blue, Green, and Cyan. The same area also has the language button, Plugin interface scale, and Text style: none, outline, drop shadow, thick outline, or combined shadow and outline. Interface scale enlarges text, windows, controls, hit targets and spacing together; content reflows or scrolls when space is limited, while map zoom and geographical geometry stay unchanged.

12.5 Text-to-Speech#

  • Read ATC messages (TTS): enable spoken ATC output.
  • Speech engine: choose Operating system, Microsoft Azure, Kokoro (offline) or Piper (offline).
  • Disable voice on readback: keep pilot readbacks silent.

In Options -> Voice, use Voice roles / Download... for the selected engine. Kokoro and Piper need their voice models downloaded first. In their catalog, select Download, press Download selected, then choose a pilot voice and the ATC voice pool. Save with Save voice roles; see Voice & Push-to-Talk. For Azure, the Voice roles... button in its section opens Azure Voice Roles. On Windows, Windows voices... opens Windows Voice Roles.

Kokoro and Piper synthesize on the CPU, so the model choice affects the simulator. Both engines use lighter models by default. Piper's Light models option uses medium-quality models that need about eight times less CPU than its high-quality ones; they are the lightest local voices. Kokoro's Compact model (114 MB instead of 325 MB) needs somewhat less CPU and disk than its standard model, with slightly lower voice quality. Piper's catalog marks each voice light or heavier CPU. Clear an option to use the larger models. The voices are the same; after changing an option, download the selected models once with Download selected. Until they are installed, the engine keeps speaking with the model already on disk. On macOS and Windows, local speech runs at a lower priority than the simulator.

For Azure TTS, use Azure TTS setup in Options. The wizard opens the Azure Portal resource-creation page, the Microsoft pricing/free-tier page, and the Microsoft setup guide. Create a Speech resource, copy KEY 1 from Resource Management -> Keys and Endpoint, select the same Location/Region from the NextATC region list, then press Save and Test Azure. NextATC saves the secret in the obfuscated credentials.ini and requests the temporary Speech token automatically.

NextATC also provides a startup reminder for reviewing Azure costs. When no saved reminder preference exists yet, it starts enabled at Every 2 weeks and the first eligible startup prompt appears immediately. Check now opens the Azure subscriptions page; Not now or closing the dialog records that day and waits for the selected interval; Do not show again disables the reminder. It is never shown while Azure TTS is disabled or unconfigured, and its daily, weekly, two-week, three-week, or monthly interval can be changed in Options. Microsoft controls pricing and quotas. NextATC cannot guarantee free use or inspect your billing. Check the Azure Portal and the local usage estimate described in Azure Setup.

Radio voice effect#

Radio voice effect (Azure / Kokoro / Piper) in Options -> Voice applies to those three engines. It changes audio, not phraseology or readback logic. On Windows the section is named Radio voice effect and also processes the operating-system voice, together with the TTS volume; on macOS and Linux the operating-system voice is spoken by X-Plane and keeps its own audio controls.

  • Off / On: disables or enables the radio post-processing filter for the selected supported engine.
  • Filter Intensity: Light keeps more voice clarity, Medium is the reference setting, Strong narrows the band and adds more compression, hiss and crackle. The button also shows the effective Hz band for the selected intensity.
  • Buzz: optional radio buzz/static, with Off, Light, Medium and Strong levels. Use it when you want a dirtier receiver sound.
  • Buzz Type: changes the buzz character between Static, Electrical and Hash.
  • Test: previews the pending audio settings with the selected supported engine. Azure fetches a cloud sample; Kokoro and Piper synthesize locally after their voice models are installed.

The default for new installs is On, Strong Filter Intensity, Light Buzz and Hash Buzz Type.

12.6 Push-to-Talk Recognition#

  • AI Voice Recognition (Experimental): enable microphone input for readbacks and action choices.
  • Talk Mode button: switch between hold-to-talk and toggle-talk behaviour.
  • Auto-toggle guided prompts: start listening automatically for guided prompts.
  • Auto-submit after no new words [sec]: submit after silence in toggle mode.
  • Microphone button: choose the input device.
  • Voice Models: install, refresh, and select recognition models.
  • Multilingual model support (default: English): switch the selected model size to its separately downloaded multilingual variant. It improves handling of local non-English names or pronunciation, but the expected ATC readback remains English.
  • Use GPU acceleration: use Metal on supported Apple silicon Macs or NVIDIA CUDA on Windows when the CUDA module is installed. The Windows package includes the CUDA module but requires NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit 12.8 or 12.9 on the PC; install it once and restart X-Plane. This is compatible with standalone and Steam installations. The option is selected automatically when recognition is enabled and the accelerator is available; without a usable backend it remains visible but disabled and grey, with the exact driver/Toolkit/runtime reason shown directly underneath. Both supported Toolkit versions support Blackwell / GeForce RTX 50 GPUs. Recoverable GPU-loading, model-initialization or inference errors retry recognition on the CPU. Fatal errors raised inside the upstream GPU runtime cannot be recovered in-process.

English Whisper variants are the default. Selecting an installed model, or finishing a model download, enables voice recognition automatically and shows the push-to-talk notice.

If the selected active model variant is missing when the plugin starts, voice recognition stays disabled until you select or download an available variant.

Voice recognition is a convenience layer over the Radio Log. The Radio Log buttons remain the reliable fallback.

While you speak, the Radio Box shows the live transcript beside the voice controls and keeps the latest words visible when space runs out.

12.7 Dialog Generation and A.I.#

The plugin can use its built-in phraseology or optional AI phrase variation.

Available choices depend on the build and installed model files:

  • NextATC: built-in phraseology.
  • AI - Gemini: cloud phrase variation, requires API key. Use the Model button in Options to choose Gemini Flash or Gemini Flash-Lite; NextATC always uses the latest version of the selected model published by Google.
  • AI - <model> (Local paused): local model entries can be listed but are not selectable while local generation is paused.
  • Test AI ATC: run a quick validation message through the selected backend.

AI output is constrained: clearances, frequencies, runways, headings, altitudes, callsigns, readback items, and TTS markers must be preserved. If validation fails, the plugin falls back to the built-in phrase.

12.8 Phraseology and Radio#

  • Radio procedure region: Europe or United States. Selects the regional radio phraseology and the default VFR squawk code (Europe 7000, United States 1200). Europe uses "climb to", "descend to" and "cleared ILS approach runway 17L". The United States use "climb and maintain", "descend and maintain" and "maintain 3,000 until established on the localizer, cleared ILS runway 4L approach", without announcing the transition level.
  • Allow non-standard phraseology: allow less strict phrase variation.
  • ATC radio static effect: available only in builds where native static is enabled.
  • Release radio between dialogs: free the radio between message groups.
  • Point instead decimal in radio comms: say "point" instead of decimal.
  • Check Squawk Code: warn when the transponder code does not match the assigned squawk.

12.9 Radio Log#

  • Enabled: show the Radio Log.
  • Max visible lines (1-8): limit visible history.
  • Auto-hide: hide the log after inactivity.
  • Auto-hide timeout [sec]: delay before hiding.
  • Show anchor dot when hidden: show a small hover/click target.
  • Use sim time for timestamps: show simulator time instead of real time.

12.10 SimBrief#

Set your numeric SimBrief Pilot ID. This is used by the flight plan dialog to fetch your latest SimBrief plan.

  • Connect Navigraph: approve the plugin with your Navigraph account.
  • Download Now: download and install navdata into the plugin Navdata folder.
  • Reset Navigraph Login: remove the saved local token.
  • Download navdata at startup: keep navdata updated automatically after the first successful login.

12.12 FMS Programming#

Choose the FMS mode in the flight plan dialog for each filing:

  • Program NextATC route into X-Plane FMS: write the route where supported.
  • Read route, SID and STAR from X-Plane FMS: use the already programmed route.
  • Do not read or write X-Plane FMS: keep the plan inside NextATC.

The separate Options setting is:

  • Insert Approximation points in FMS: include NextATC-generated approximation vector points in the FMS route. These points help the aircraft fly a smoother turn toward final; disable this option if you prefer to keep only the published route plus the final approach reference.

12.13 Vectoring#

  • Reduce heading vector calls: reduce repeated heading corrections.
  • Precise heading: use tighter heading handling.
  • Calculate wind correction angle: account for wind when issuing heading guidance.

12.14 Altitude#

  • Automatic local pressure phraseology and units: select hPa or inHg from the known airport country policy when enabled.
  • Manual preference / automatic fallback: QNH and hPa: select the manual pressure convention, also used when the automatic policy is unavailable.
  • Altimeter [inHg] with decimal: speak inHg as a decimal value.
  • Low altitude speed restriction: warn about excessive speed at low altitude.
  • Check ground elevation: include terrain/ground elevation checks.
  • Respect SIDs and STARs restrictions: use procedure altitude restrictions when building and clearing the route.

12.15 Flight Assistance#

  • Heading indicator: show a heading guidance overlay.
  • Draw taxi guide on ground: draw taxi guidance while taxiing.

12.16 Traffic#

  • Traffic Options...: open the traffic settings window.
  • Traffic engine: enable or disable built-in synthetic traffic.
  • Enable Traffic at startup: remember the traffic engine state.
  • Publish to X-Plane TCAS/map: export synthetic aircraft to the X-Plane TCAS datarefs when available.
  • Draw 3D aircraft: draw synthetic aircraft in the simulator world.
  • Traffic amount: cycle Low, Medium, High, Ultra High, and Nuts for the total ground-and-air traffic budget; airport profile and local time adjust the effective count. See Traffic for the exact ranges.
  • Traffic 3D label controls: show labels, color, opacity pulse, max distance, and content mode.