ATC-pie user guide: Difference between revisions

* a flight plan is already filed: if the matching FPL count displays a non-zero value near the callsign field as you type, you can select a flight plan to link to the strip on save;

This feature allows you to overlook your airport and the connected (multi-player games) or simulated (solo and teaching sessions) traffic, like a controller from a tower viewpoint. It allows to choose from the tower positions specified in the source data if any, otherwise defaults to somewhere over the airport to allow towering of all available airports. It is disabled in CTR mode. Additionally, more views can be hooked up to your scene.

'''Running internally''' only requires FlightGear installed on your computer. A basic installation is enough, but you will need the [[scenery]] for your airport if you want anything exciting to see (and not sea!). Also, aircraft will only be drawn properly if the appropriate [[Aircraft|models]] are available. In multi-player, the models required are those flown by the players. For simulated aircraft (AI traffic in solo games and teacher-controlled aircraft), read about <code>icao2fgfs</code> in <code>resources/acft/Notice</code> to understand how ATC-pie chooses models and liveries for its viewers. Aircraft and scenery locations can be filled in the ''System'' settings dialog if they are not in your [[$FG_ROOT|FlightGear root directory]].

== Routes and separation warnings ==

ATC-pie analyses routes and assigned vectors to anticipate conflicts between controlled aircraft.

In solo games, you control virtual IFR planes, receiving and handing over strips to virtual ATCs depending on your position and the aircraft's intentions. ATC-pie allows to train in different situations:

* provided the speech recognition modules are installed, you can turn on voice instructions from the solo game settings dialog and instruct aircraft through your microphone, using the <code>Ctrl</code> key as push-to-talk and standard phraseology (see the quick reference tab about it);

** the mouse vector assignment tool will issue the corresponding instructions: click&drag out of a radar contact for heading, hold SHIFT and drag for altitude/FL vertically and speed horizontally (see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvA3MRlGJjU video 5] of the tutorial);

To hand a strip over, drag it and drop it on the recipient in the list of connected controllers. Note that some ATCs may not be capable of strip exchange. Check [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQIud-cAlT4 tutorial video 6] for a presentation of the feature.

Received strips appear on their collecting rack (if defined), with an identification of the sender which disappears as soon as the strip is clicked on. Double-click on the rack tab or column header to add an ATC callsign from which to collect strips. They may link automatically to identified radar contacts, according to the auto-link configuration (general settings).

The handover feature in FlightGear multi-player games is based on [[OpenRadar]]'s exchange server to enable ATC coordination between users of both software programs. However, it is to note that their philosophies differ in several ways:

* OpenRadar's concept of handover is based on a shared notion of aircraft ownership, whereas ATC-pie allows any controller to pull out a strip, write any callsign and link it to a radar contact;

* in OpenRadar, a handover must be acknowledged by the receiver for the sender to lose ownership and for all neighbouring OpenRadar users to see the handover complete, whereas ATC-pie considers that a strip sent through the hand-over pipe is gone and should land directly on a receiver's rack at the other end, without anybody else necessarily to know.

For most interactions to work while still respecting both philosophies as much as possible, the following principles and restrictions apply:

* ATC-pie users can only hand over strips that are linked to a radar contact (no lone strip can be sent);

ATC-pie comes with a handful of '''helper tools''' to create or import background images:

# The "download OSM background" option facilitates map retrieval from the [[OpenStreetMap]] still image server. After specifying corners and a scale, a PNG map will be generated in the <code>output</code> directory for you to import. Caution: downloads can fail for large images; try reducing the requested size or resolution in such case. Also, the server is rather limited so make parsimonious use of it.

# If you have a VATSIM/IVAO sector file for your area (.sct), the "extract drawings from sector file" option will translate the contained diagrams into ATC-pie drawings. While the generated files always require some post-editing, it is generally the best option for things like SID/STAR diagrams.

=== Text chat ===

ATC-pie has a powerful text chat system for those who use the keyboard extensively, though of course voice radio communications should be encouraged for realism, whenever possible.

Lastly, if a troll or angry user is polluting your session with undesired messages, add their callsign to the '''senders blacklist'''. All messages from the user will then be filtered out from the message pane. You can view and clear this list at any time during the game.