OpenRadar Change Log

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Published updates

OpenRadar updates 2018-03-29

• Compatibility updates

• Support for new MP protocol, supports display and chat in both protocols simultaneously
• New flightplan download interface is now supported
• Metar server changed to the server that is used by FGFS

• There is a new data mode FUTURISTIC that changes the contact color in screen with their altitude.

• Radar reception range

• MP protocol allows to tell the server how far you can see / how for the contacts could be away until you don't receive their information anymore. IMPORTANT: You can see them and read their chats, but the contacts have their own setting that defaults to 100NM. You cannot chat with contacts far away for that reason.
• Using a wide range, means you can see many contacts. The flightstrip bay may overflow. OR has a small input, right side, below the radar screen, to define the range that you want to manage in your flightstrip bay.
• The reception range is calculated out of your visible range (zoom situation). The minimum is your flightstrip range setting, the maximum is defined by the MP server with 2000NM.
• As your chat would overflow with messages from contacts far away, the chat filter RNG (range) is back and shows only chat messages from within you flightstrip range setting. Remember again, that contacts can read you only, as long as you are within their reception range (100NM).
• To manage wider ranges, you need to use FGCOM or mumble.

• the METAR URL has been removed from settings, as there is no common data format, some send coma separated, some space separated information with different header lines.
• Fix for missing correction of magnetic declination in route design and mouse attached heading adviser (a test modification made it into production, sorry)
• Added "Delete Airport" button to startup dialog => Simple cleanup
• Improvements in situations without shapefile download server (if it should be down again)

• Download error is displayed in a popup dialog (choose between "run without scenery" / "delete partially download")
• OpenRadar runs without any shapefiles, the runways are constructed out of the internal xplane data, no taxiways and no scenery available, but all navpoints etc.

Published updates

OpenRadar updates 2015-03-16

• chat input foreground color is not fixed to black anymore, adapts to your system settings
• better formula to calculate initial heading to remote airports. Matches now to skyvector results (small error caused by magnetic model of fgfs)

OpenRadar updates 2015-03-14

• Transition is more flexible now

• Transition altitude must be defined (usually fix for airport)
• Default: Calculated Transition Level depending on air pressure: Transition Layer minimum width can be defined
• Fix TL Mode: Less airports have a fix TL: It can be defined now. Usually you are wrong, if you use this on any other airport. Manual TL calculation on normal airports requires frequent re-calculation to ensure separation.

• Fixes to ORCAM

• better control of FGFS to avoid weird things when you adapt the height of the camera via CTRL+A, CTRL+Z
• Fix for missing MP properties (rotors did not turn, livery missing, retracted gear movement), OR forwarded wrong type for a multiplayer property.
• Fix for small bugs that can build a MP packet loop, making usage impossible

OpenRadar updates 2015-03-02

• deselect a contact with a double ESC
• volume control for FGCOM (use your mouse wheel above the number in radio line)
• Possibility to use flightgear as window to the airport (ORCAM)

• Presets
• different camera locations possible
• initial auto zoom
• follow mode (camera follows contact)
• multiplayer port forwarding makes camera invisible on MP server

• remove need for AirportIndex data file, OR finds all airports now

OpenRadar updates 2015-01-31

• call sign can be set before OR is launched
• chat history can be re-used via up and down keys
• contact tails are back (flight history marks)
• better handling of map data issues
• alternative radio text that is sent with ATIS (to publish the mumble server, for instance)
• small weather icon displays the flight conditions around the airport (start and landing): VFR,MVFR,IFR,LIFR

• Integration with http://flightgear-atc.alwaysdata.net/

• Flightplans can be maintained by pilots at website
• ATC can select and download the flightplan
• After download the flightplan is exchanged and shared between all OR ATCs that have the contact in range
• ATC can close flightplan

• Routes

• If routes are split into real world routes and have a name, they can be selected and assigned in flightplan dialog
• Shared route parts can be defined separately and included into other routes
• If a selected contact has got a route assigned, this route is hightlighted too
• Route <text> can be defined to be clickable. Then the nw hotspot can be used to assign a route to the selected contact quickly.

• change: The purple contact coloring (when an assigned squawk is not tuned in) has been removed.
• fix for sporadic problems when displaying the flightplan dialog over the radar screen triggered by mouse
• fix for disturbing many screen changes when new METAR is received
• fix: the transition altitude field was restricted to Squawk values, now it is numeric and accepts more digits
• fix sounds, that have been disabled by default, when launching at a new airport
• many other fixes and improvements

OpenRadar updates 2014-05-18

• fix for minor screen refresh issue (when new METAR requires a screen change)

OpenRadar updates 2014-05-10

• fix for course display issue
• fix for FGCOM bug, when OR path contained spaces

OpenRadar updates March 2014

• Flightplan integration into OR

• Destination airport is displayed in data block
• Assigned runway replaces destination airport in data block, if the contact it targeted to the current airport
• Flightplans are stored on the server, so if the contact arrives anywhere else, the ATC can re-use the existing data
• Handover (offer) and TakeOver (realisation of the hand-over offer) to ATCs in range, otherwise release contact from control until he reaches the range of another ATC. FP data survives this uncontrolled phase.
• Auto release from control, if contact leaves the range of the controlling ATC.
• All other ATCs see the current flightplan of contacts that are controlled by someone else.

OpenRadar 2013-10-12

• Model for magnetic field (variation/declination) has been ported from FGFS to OR (same base data, avoid download from server victim to US government shutdown)
• Assign a runway to a contact via double click on runway (select contact, double click runway) => Runway appears in data block (remove assignement, by another double click on rwy number)
• Improvement to METAR parsing
• Fix for auto assigned squawk codes xxx8 and xxx9, that do not exist
• Chat aliases (see forum),

• Examples:

• .tr 010 => Turn right heading 010
• .sqa => Squawk 2004 (next free squawk code)
• .hs 15 => Hold short runway 15

• Arguments to aliases are used internally to update the flightplan (some important) and can be reused in other messages

OpenRadar 2013-05-30

• Standard routes:

• Separate switches for SID and STARs in runway section
• New Attribute for Routes displayMode {always, optional, sid, star}
• New element screenText sets text to a fixed position on map screen
• New element intercept eases the drawing of intercept bows a lot
• New element include to include other xml files in separate directories (for airspace data in shared directories)
• Correction to highlight coloring and documentation
• Navaid elements can appear multiple times in a route, each with its own color.

• FGCom support is now indicated on the flight strips too
• Disabled: Chat messages became too long to be received by flightgear

• Transmitting all FGCom frequencies made text too long => only first frequency is being transmitted
• ATIS details compressed

• Minor fixes for METAR parsing
• Single map switches moved into a small menu at the same place
• Sound support

• Sound for NEW ARRIVING CONTACT (Cessna fly over)
• Sound for new chat message for current ATC (plop sound)
• Sound for new metar received (wind blowing)
• Mute-able one by one and all together

• Fix for NullPointer when trying to load an airport without given tower position (OMDB, LSZN)
• Display of data block in radar is completely dynamic now (lines are build dynamically, symbol drawn dynamically, support for different sets of settings to switch between)
• Transponder support prototype

• Read transponder data from MP protocol
• Display of ident
• Display of tranfered data
• Support of simple squawk management (define range, assign squawk, revoke assigned squawk)

• Extended centerline: If there is no ILS, it is displayed in another color.

OpenRadar beta updates (Jan 2013-Apr 2013)

Beta update 2013-04-07

• Support for runways, where starting and landing is done at the same end (via rw settings dialog "bi-directional")
• METAR: Improvements to parser
• METAR: wind directions < 100 degrees are displayed with leading zeros
• StatusPanel Weather: Second line showing clouds and phenomena

• Tool tip text of second line shows a more human readable version of the screen display
• Double click on first line sends out ATIS as before
• Double click on first line sends out ATIS and clouds as seconds line

• The chat text selection dialogue uses separators and supports html to modify the text display properties
• Possibility to switch off background layers to accelerate the application and to get more reality, if you prefer to have less information
• Radio frequencies are taken from fgcom phonebook. So all frequencies should be recognized by the server
• NDB/VOR symbols are a bit smaller now
• Parking position display, if both, name and number are defined and short, I display them both. Consider to rework groundnetwork xml file, if you have 'General Aviation' or 'Gate' in it! Almost all airports I saw up to now, have only the number defined, e.g. as 'A10', EHAM has name='A' and number='24'. The later is displayed now as 'A24'
• StandardRoutes:

• New tag to define minimum altitudes for VFR easily
• New Support for geo formats: N47°57'51,E7°54'58 and N47°57.2',E7°54.10' to define points
• Bugfix for Line: angle 180 and 360 degrees did not work.
• In xml defined addPoints are now real FIX. They can be highlighted and are displayed as a FIX

• ContactDialog: Checkbox for indicating/remembering FGCOM support in radar (little headset symbol) (forum feedback call http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=19648)
• Reworked of AtcMessages:

• Angles are given in 3 digit format e.g. 005,
• ILS angle is now in brackets,
• ATIS: all active FGCOM frequencies are transmitted,
• QNH is given in both units
• Correction in russian file

Beta update 2013-03-10

• Neglect feature: Replaced CTRL+Click by text button above flight strips to toggle selected contact
• Fix for: Sometimes heading line points into wrong direction
• Standard Routes: Added easy possibility to reference Runway Ends in route definitions
• Standard Routes: Added possibility to use own fixes (for fixes that are not in the navaid database yet)
• SHIFT+F12 is reloading the route definitions, to avoid multiple restarts

Beta update 2013-03-10

• Optionally you can show the most important data like direction, distance and ETA beside the mouse pointer (the little dog)
• Possibility to convert/define STAR + SID routes
• Minor improvements

Beta update 2013-01-29

• Fix for chat problem with some airplanes (e.g. A380)
• Repositioning of values on flight strips for better readability

Beta update 2013-01-26

• Added toggle for display of glide slope heights
• Added shortcuts for zoom level
• Added radar zoom per right mouse button drag
• Improved mouse compatibility for Mac mouses (no middle button)
• Added feature to restart internal managed FGCOM if sound is distorted (FGCom issue)
• Last callsign is now persisted to be used when ATC comes back to airport
• Fix for slightly misplaced baseline heading text (extended center line display)
• Added possibility to copy runway extended centerline settings to all other runways of an airport
• Groundspeed is not calculated (out of position and time at client machine), because the values we get are sometimes incorrect
• moved flightstrip help tooltip to question mark label above
• Found tow other reasons to avoid contacts on radar which have no flight strip
• Change: Double click on flightstrip shows radar contact and airport now by setting center and zoom scale (before it centered the map on contact). So you see their relative location to the airport...
• The selected contact (double click) is highlighted to be easier to find
• There is a navaid search box that finds Fixes, NDB, VOR and airports in range, you can search for a comma separated list, the results are highlighted, even, if they are switched off
• Dragging the map is now faster now

Beta update 2013-01-12

• Added heights to the centerline display, they show the height an airplane should have to intercept the glideslope, detail adapts on zoom level (every 500ft, 1000ft, 1500ft)
• Improved status area readability
• Changing of aircraft model now really updated on flight strips
• Changed to current XPlane file format 10.00, runway length must be calculated now, rounded to 100 ft (before it was given)
• METAR parser handles CAVOK now

OpenRadar prototype updates (Nov 2012-Jan 2013)

Prototype update 2013-01-08

• Chat filter VIS: hidden, because not needed
• Tower location is now saved in sector.properties, can be adjusted manually
• Hello messages are back, have been filtered out
• Neglected contacts are painted above ghosts (inactive), but below all other contacts, because they must not hide important information
• Runways have a master switch now: It can be used to define, that a runway is never used for start/landing or both. => Runway Settings Dialogue
• Fix for sending MP messages before position was set
• Flightstrips of inactive contacts show seconds since last update
• Fix for problem with re-appearing contacts (flight strips where sometimes not displayed)

Prototype update 2013-01-04

• Chat filter SEL: Shows only the history of the communication between selected (active) contact and the ATC.
• This filter disables itself, if another contact is selected (Back to Show all)
• Fix for ATC notes saved to a wrong flight strip

Prototype update 2012-12-27

• Data/(airportCode)sector.properties contains a new field metarSource now, if no METAR is available for a small airport, set it to an airport nearby (=> MP map, check if there is METAR available)
• OpenRadar starts now, if METAR is missing, issuing a warning on command line...
• Fine tuning of colors
• Runway display reworked (more logical, display of magnetic runway heading)
• Fix for non workinig PTT key for COM3, COM4

Prototype update 2012-12-25

• fix for bug 'Chat field not cleared after sending' (only if FGCom control was OFF, because there was no radio frequency to transmit over MP protocol => NumberFormatException)
• wider call sign column in chat history (some clients truncated output)

Prototype update 2012-12-23

• Settings: More understandable control over FGCom control modes
• Fixed bug in MP protocol (different MP protocol versions exist, OpenRadar could not talk with other OpenRadars)
• Fixed vectoring/baseline number display of enabled/disabled centerlines
• Added ILS Frequency ATC messages

Prototype update 2012-12-18

• Extended center lines have got a configuration dialogue, they can be displayed on one side only and can be asymmetric, have vectoring and baseleg display and show the headings as numbers
• Extended center line settings are saved now
• Zoom level center and zoom value are persisted on per Airport base
• Flight strips have been streamlined to use less space (only two lines without ATC comment)
• Flight strips use more lines, if an ATC comment is maintained
• Distance circles: Depending on zoom level there are distance circles around the airport now
• ATC comments are persisted to stay between sessions
• Frequencies are persisted too
• Added selectable pre-defined ATC messages a la ATC-ML
• Fine tuning of data display and detail level
• Toggles for Display of FIX, NDB, VOR, Distance circles, Airport code and parking position numbers
• Contacts can be set to neglected with CTRL+CLICK on flight strip (grays them out)
• FGCOM/FGCOMGUI is killed when application terminates to avoid ghost instances continue to run
• ATC comments editor has been moved to dialog (right click on contact or flight strip)
• Same dialog allows to set native language, if set, messages of ATC are repeated in this language after English transmission but only for this contact
• Selection clicks work also on radar map now
• Internal redesign to avoid multi-threading dead locks

Prototype update 2012-11-18

• Fixed units, now we display knots and feet not km/h and meter
• Filter for heading when airplane stops on ground: Values seem to come from simulation engine and start to turn wildly when radar contact is not moving. The filter steps heading changes if speed is below than 0.5 knots. So a plane can hold without starting to turn
• In radar display shows feet instead of FL
• If at least one runway is selected for landing and starting, the runway panel can be collapsed with a double click (toggle)
• Foreground in status area is set to white now => better readable
• More space on flight strip for notes and smaller font gives space for 3 lines of some words length
• Chat messages can be drag and dropped to the flight strip note editor to simplify copying of flight plans etc.
• Chat messages: own chat messages are sent for 3 secs. at least 10 times, to avoid that a message does not reach its recipient (udp can loose messages)
• Fixes: removed all fixes ending with numbers from display, so we have more space to display important fixes, changed max. zoom level for their display, so you see them from high above
• Fixes: Sector download retrieves magnetic derivation and saves it in sector property file. All old existing sectors must be downloaded again. Derivation is applied to true coarses, to displayed wind and runway analysis
• Longer timeouts to avoid loosing data of people, who pause flightgear, and continue later (inactive become "ghosts" for 1 minute before they are hidden as expired, a new contact will reuse the existing data)
• Possibility to deselect a contact again
• Sending of chat messages on focus lost fixed
• Added vertical speed in hundrets of fpm to be able to guess what a pilot wants to do
• Added distance and bearing from airport to find radar contacts more easily
• Changed size of area drastically to get all necessary shapes and navaids
• Changed Zoom levels GROUND, CLOSE SECTOR to GROUND, TOWER, APP and SECTOR
• Fixed a bug when dragging map after using the ZOOM Levels
• Flight strips extend their length if you enter more lines to display all. Width is restricted to about 26 chars.
• Elevation display has been adapted to usual way of displaying it: FL has been removed, in Radar the feet display has been adapted too. Now 12345 ft are displayed as 123
• The lines showing the future place in 60 seconds same direction same speed, are shorter now, they point to 30 sec. in future
• The selection to pointer compensates the average wind influence now => it is magnetic and shows the direction to fly to reach the pointer
• Radio frequencies can be set manually by doing a middle click on the selection box
• ATC notes to contacts are stored in a file and stay forever
• New ILS symbol
• Better usability of flightstrips: left click: toggle selection, left double click: select and focus on chat, middle click: selection and focus on details editor, middle double click: center map on contact, right click: select exclusively (show chat messages of this contact only)
• Changed from miles to nautical miles
• Inactive contacts are grayed out to ghosts for a minute and hidden after that.