Plugin updates

[Martin Loxbo (811805)]

7 hours ago, Juha Holopainen said:

• Added weather radar map

Just opened this up and had a quick look. I saw some returns here and there... how does it work actually? (Note: WXR display not available in Sweden IRL. ;))

[Juha Holopainen]

8 hours ago, Christian Kovanen said:

all options in the Radar Menu (ALT + Right Click) are bugged to be one spot down from the actual click spots

The zip file now contains a new dll with this fixed. Note that even though the COOPANS version did not have this bug (as there the first click spot actually is on the first row of the menu), it's best that everyone updates - it's easier for me to troubleshoot issues with everyone using the same code.

8 hours ago, Martin Loxbo said:

Just opened this up and had a quick look. I saw some returns here and there... how does it work actually? (Note: WXR display not available in Sweden IRL. ;))

Well, a short explanation is that is shows some returns here and there . As far as I know, it's not available in Finland either. It had just been on the list for quite some time and I finally decided that in the time I had spent debating with myself whether to do it or not, I could actually have coded it many times over...

The more technical explanation is a bit more boring.

The data is downloaded from RainViewer using its API. The coverage it offers is rather good in Europe and North America, with some areas elsewhere as well. The consistency of the composite image is sometimes less than perfect, it's obvious from the image that when two or more sources are used to display precipitation from the same area, they do not always agree on the level and there's a clear change visible. But so far this is the best I've come up with.

The plugin downloads a pre-defined weather tile from the server at 10 minute intervals (at least the tile center point latitude and longitude must be set in the plugin settings but I've set default values for the provided setups). The plugin then parses the downloaded png image to get the dBZ values, translates the data from the Web Mercator projection to the one used by EuroScope, and draws it on the screen. Using the default settings you'll see two shades of returns, the lighter corresponding to what you'd see as yellow on an aircraft weather radar, and the darker what would be red. Basically something a pilot might want to avoid. Does the VATSIM pilot see anything there? Probably not, at least not exactly the same. I don't know how accurate the current sim WX radars are, but if they at least portray weather in the same general area, the data may help a controller to see areas where some pilots might ask for weather avoidance.

Performance-wise the development was a nightmare. The image tiles are available in two sizes, 256 and 512 pixels. I started out with the bigger size to get more accurate data, but found out drawing the image made refreshing the screen lag badly enough to be completely unusable. If you heard some strange noise about a week ago, that was me banging my head against the wall... The image is drawn only when zooming or panning though, so there's no performance hit at other times. After changing to the smaller 256pix images and some re-coding, the lag is not noticeable anymore. The downside of course is the loss in image resolution, and when covering a large area such as Sweden, the size of a single pixel in the source image now comes to about 5x5nm (in Estonia and Denmark the required display area is much smaller so I've been able to use the next zoom level in the source, getting twice the accuracy with the same 256pix data). Given that what we're seeing isn't the same the pilots do, it's not a big issue, but it'd naturally look better with higher resolution. Feel free to try the 512pix data, it can be enabled using the settings, but test it well before use (the performance hit depends on how much needs to be drawn, so choose a stormy day). It's also possible to use different settings based on login callsign, so ESSA_APP could for example use data from a smaller area with a better zoom level than ESOS.

The weather radar display area can be visualized by opening the Plugin Status submenu. When it's open, two rectangles are drawn on the radar display. The dashed one displays the tile area the plugin is set to download. It can be adjusted by changing the tile center point coordinates and/or zoom level. The solid one displays where I've limited the drawn data to improve performance. It can be adjusted using the plugin settings WXR_Latitude/Longitude_Min/Max. Radar data will be drawn in the area where the two rectangles intersect. The smaller this area is compared to the dashed rectangle, the better the performance (less pixels from the original image drawn).

[Ricardo Sousa (1110850)]

Got two things going on, first is a daily crash, I'm not entirely sure what is the trigger for it, but holding down right Ctrl (ptt button) while doing handoffs or releasing tags crashes the plugin a lot of the times. Other times it just crashes without touching anything. Here's a link to the dump, I think that one happened while holding down right Ctrl but I'm not sure.

Another thing is that I have these areas defined to show only UserText in their label, or at least I was trying to, and it does show. However when UserText is redefined on AreasManual.txt the plugin does recognize it and show it on the airspace management window, but not on the radar display.

Heres is the area definition on areas and AreasManual

...
CATEGORYDEF:AMC:7:7:0:6:6:0:0:1:0:0:0
...
...
//LPTRA56
AREA:T:LPTRA56
CATEGORY:AMC
LABEL:N039.26.21.000:W008.19.28.000:SFL140
LIMITS:0:130
N039.30.55.000 W008.27.05.000 
N039.32.11.000 W008.16.54.000
N039.32.11.000 W008.16.54.000 
N039.24.35.000 W008.16.08.000
N039.24.35.000 W008.16.08.000 
N039.24.35.000 W008.21.35.000
N039.24.35.000 W008.21.35.000 
N039.23.01.000 W008.26.58.000
N039.23.01.000 W008.26.58.000 
N039.25.33.000 W008.29.41.000
N039.25.33.000 W008.29.41.000 
N039.30.55.000 W008.27.05.000

LPTRA56:191115:191115:0:1100:2359:0:10000:SFL110

First shot is while clicking down on the area info dot thing.

[Alexander Arlow]

Hello Juha, hello fellow Topsky users!

Three questions regarding CPDLC if I may:
1.) I have the following freetext defined in the TopSkyCPDLC.txt, yet when I click on it, no freetext gets transmitted at all (I checked Hoppies website)

FREETEXT:NE:THANKS FOR USING VACC AUSTRIA CPDLC

2.) Is there a built in way to send an aircraft to Unicom? I have inserted the following freetext just now, I have yet to test it.

FREETEXT:WU:MONITOR UNICOM 122.8

3.) What soundfile is played upon DCL or CPDLC message? I have not found any information on that in the manuals.

I have created a short video for my VACC's controllers to familiarize themselves with CPDLC, additional to training documents. Maybe you find it useful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD20NgW3ZOk

kind regards,

Alex

[Juha Holopainen]

On 11/16/2019 at 1:21 AM, Ricardo Sousa said:

CATEGORYDEF:AMC:7:7:0:6:6:0:0:1:0:0:0

The bolded "1" in your definition sets the label to display only the MapText field (SFL140). To display the user text field (SFL110), the next number should be set to 1 instead. But as it doesn't show in the full label, there may be something wrong in the code so it may not work even with a correct definition.

I'll check the freetext code. The DCL/CPDLC sound file must be named TopSkyCPDLCsound.wav and be located in the same folder with the plugin dll.

[Juha Holopainen]

The user text as defined in the manual activation file will not appear in the label even with a correct definition. The reason is that user text fields defined in activation schedules (either datafile or NOTAM based) are shown only in the Airspace Management Window as a reminder of "who" is responsible for the activation. The only user texts that will appear in the label are ones that have been either manually set by the user or specified in the area definition. I'm not sure if I want to change that behavior.

The CPDLC freetext not being sent seems to be a simple typo in the code. I'll get that fixed.

[Ricardo Sousa (1110850)]

18 hours ago, Juha Holopainen said:

The bolded "1" in your definition sets the label to display only the MapText field (SFL140). To display the user text field (SFL110), the next number should be set to 1 instead. But as it doesn't show in the full label, there may be something wrong in the code so it may not work even with a correct definition

Derp, you're right, now when I set it correctly nothing shows on the label. Interestingly if I set the usertext in the airspace management window it shows on the label.

Edited November 21, 2019 by Ricardo Sousa

[Jonathan Hougaard (1457572)]

Is there any way to adjust the resolution of the TopSKy plugin? All the menus are really small on my screen (2560x1440).

Also, the click areas for the top menu are off. For example, to access the "Info" menu, I have to click just right of the "MSG" button. See attached screenshot.

Edited November 29, 2019 by Jonathan Hougaard

[Juha Holopainen]

7 hours ago, Jonathan Hougaard said:

Is there any way to adjust the resolution of the TopSKy plugin? All the menus are really small on my screen (2560x1440).

Very limited at the moment. See the release announcement for the current beta version on the previous page for details.

7 hours ago, Jonathan Hougaard said:

Also, the click areas for the top menu are off. For example, to access the "Info" menu, I have to click just right of the "MSG" button. See attached screenshot.

It's not the click areas that are off. It's all the texts, not only in the top menu but everywhere. The plugin uses the EuroScope font for the user interface and for some reason you don't seem to have it installed. Install the font (euroscope.ttf, possibly in your EuroScope program folder, right-click->install) to fix it.

[Jan Doehring (1356262)]

Hey all,

whilst configuring Topsky for part of the german airspace, I also added the MSA (see below). To inhibt MSAWs during approaches, I added some areas with the "NOMSAW"-line. According to the MTCD-status window (because these areas are MTCD-inhibit-areas) the areas are active and working. 

AREA:M:Muenchen
NOMSAW
NOAPW
LIMITS:000:050
N048.25.00 E012.11.45
N048.21.00 E012.12.34
N048.16.60 E011.21.40
N048.21.25 E011.20.54
ACTIVE:1

MSA around München is at ~3600/3700.

However I am still getting MSAWs in every of the excluded areas. Am I missing a line in the code or is there another way to add exclusions?

TopSkyMSAW.txt

Edited December 3, 2019 by Jan Doehring

[Jan Doehring (1356262)]

And I might have found a bug: Whenever entering a COORD:LAT:LON-line in the areas.txt, Topsky crashes with an unhandled execption error. When using fixes, airports, NBDs or VORs instead of coordinates all works fine.

Edited December 4, 2019 by Jan Doehring

[Martin Stockzell (1294494)]

I have a small future request for the holding menu, to be able to manually add text (for example a manual sequence since we all know that even if the thought behind the current system is good, VATSIM pilots aren't )

[Jan Doehring (1356262)]

11 hours ago, Martin Stockzell said:

I have a small future request for the holding menu, to be able to manually add text (for example a manual sequence since we all know that even if the thought behind the current system is good, VATSIM pilots aren't )

To add to that: What about a differentiation between a "published holding" and a regular holding. Also it would be nice, if that could automatically be injected into the scratchpad then: HOLD ROKIL/180/L/1, so other controllers now what's going on.

[Alexander Arlow]

15 hours ago, Martin Stockzell said:

I have a small future request for the holding menu, to be able to manually add text (for example a manual sequence since we all know that even if the thought behind the current system is good, VATSIM pilots aren't )

Real Topsky does not have such a feature.

3 hours ago, Jan Doehring said:

To add to that: What about a differentiation between a "published holding" and a regular holding. Also it would be nice, if that could automatically be injected into the scratchpad then: HOLD ROKIL/180/L/1, so other controllers now what's going on.

And neither does the real Topsky have those features - neither the definitions of holding types nor automatical entries of the OP_TEXT.

From my understanding this is supposed to be a representation of the real Topsky, it would be shame if there were fictional features that are not present in the real system.

[Martin Loxbo (811805)]

I believe we already have some fictional features, such as being able to scroll with the mouse wheel (no mouse wheels but just a middle button in the real ATC centres in Sweden ), but I believe you're right that in general Juha is trying to simulate the real system as closely as possible. We have gone to some lengths figuring out the correct RGB values for every colour etc etc...

@Alexander Arlow I'm curious, is TopSky in use in Austria these days?

[Alexander Arlow]

41 minutes ago, Martin Loxbo said:

I believe we already have some fictional features, such as being able to scroll with the mouse wheel (no mouse wheels but just a middle button in the real ATC centres in Sweden ), but I believe you're right that in general Juha is trying to simulate the real system as closely as possible. We have gone to some lengths figuring out the correct RGB values for every colour etc etc...

@Alexander Arlow I'm curious, is TopSky in use in Austria these days?

Topsky is in use in Austria, on VATSIM as well as the real world and I have the pleasure to work them both

Regarding the mousewheel - you can use it in the real system - you just have to hover over the scrollbars to use it. I have been working 5 years with Topsky until I realized it, my mind was blown.

Edited December 6, 2019 by Alexander Arlow

[Martin Stockzell (1294494)]

I can elaborate on my "request". Perhaps make it a FSS-temporary thing. Since we are entering the season of the World Championship of Aircraft Holding - better known as Fly and See Santa. I expect there will be a new attendance record this year and most controllers will have roughly 20-50 aircrafts holding in each sector simultaneous during the evening. Last year I made a crude system with just OP2-marking each tag starting with 1, then 2, and so on. However a better "sequence" option would be preferable with these kinds of "unrealistic" holding situations  

[Oliver Gruetzmann (961224)]

On 12/3/2019 at 6:27 PM, Jan Doehring said:

Hey all,

whilst configuring Topsky for part of the german airspace, I also added the MSA (see below). To inhibt MSAWs during approaches, I added some areas with the "NOMSAW"-line. According to the MTCD-status window (because these areas are MTCD-inhibit-areas) the areas are active and working. 

AREA:M:Muenchen
NOMSAW
NOAPW
LIMITS:000:050
N048.25.00 E012.11.45
N048.21.00 E012.12.34
N048.16.60 E011.21.40
N048.21.25 E011.20.54
ACTIVE:1

MSA around München is at ~3600/3700.

However I am still getting MSAWs in every of the excluded areas. Am I missing a line in the code or is there another way to add exclusions?

TopSkyMSAW.txt 3.11 kB · 0 downloads

Same with STCA suppression.

AREA:S:STCASUPP
ACTIVE:1
LIMITS:0:100
N049.15.18.271 E008.28.53.922
N050.12.47.388 E007.11.29.956
N050.40.01.179 E009.14.00.833
N050.03.26.287 E010.07.49.259

still shows STCA alerts within this area.

Edited December 6, 2019 by Oliver Gruetzmann

[Juha Holopainen]

On 12/3/2019 at 7:27 PM, Jan Doehring said:

Hey all,

whilst configuring Topsky for part of the german airspace, I also added the MSA (see below). To inhibt MSAWs during approaches, I added some areas with the "NOMSAW"-line. According to the MTCD-status window (because these areas are MTCD-inhibit-areas) the areas are active and working. 

MSA around München is at ~3600/3700.

However I am still getting MSAWs in every of the excluded areas. Am I missing a line in the code or is there another way to add exclusions?

The MTCD and STCA inhibit areas (areas with types set as M or S) are supposed to inhibit only their respective safety nets, nothing else. The next version of the plugin will do a better job at both documenting this and flagging any such definition lines as faults. I'll probably have to remove the possibility to define an area as more than one type (for example both TSA and MTCD inhibit) to make the check fool-proof though.

For a permanent exclusion, the best way is to define a suitable area at the top of the MSAW data file. I've used circular areas centered on the aerodrome reference points, such as 

C,N060.19.02.000,E024.57.48.000,8,-1 // EFHK ARP

This sets the MSA to -1ft within 8nm of EFHK which effectively inhibits any alerts in that area. A suitable radius value depends on both the surrounding safe altitudes and the approach profiles.

For non-permanent inhibitions, you'll have to use TSA type areas with the NOMSAW line.

2 hours ago, Oliver Gruetzmann said:

Same with STCA suppression.

...

still shows STCA alerts within this area.

The STCA inhibit area check code had an uninitialized aircraft position, so any checked aircraft was considered to be at 00N000E. I'll get that fixed.

On 12/4/2019 at 2:49 AM, Jan Doehring said:

And I might have found a bug: Whenever entering a COORD:LAT:LON-line in the areas.txt, Topsky crashes with an unhandled execption error. When using fixes, airports, NBDs or VORs instead of coordinates all works fine.

Did you mean the Maps data file (as the areas data file does not allow fixes/airports/etc instead of coordinates)? I can confirm a bug in the Maps code regarding this, but do you also get a crash with the COORD:LAT:LON line in the Areas data file?

22 hours ago, Martin Stockzell said:

I have a small future request for the holding menu, to be able to manually add text (for example a manual sequence since we all know that even if the thought behind the current system is good, VATSIM pilots aren't )

The ETO column in the Holding list can be used as a rough sequence. Pen and paper work fine too  There will be no new functionality before this year's FSS as the chances of introducing a major bug are just too big considering the limited benefits. This being said, there will be new versions for both the release and beta lines shortly to address a specific CTD issue as well as the above mentioned Maps file related CTD. The first one is apparently very rare as the faulty code has been around for a long time, but as there's no way for a user to avoid it happening, I'll be releasing a fix for it ASAP.

[Jan Doehring (1356262)]

1 hour ago, Juha Holopainen said:

Did you mean the Maps data file (as the areas data file does not allow fixes/airports/etc instead of coordinates)? I can confirm a bug in the Maps code regarding this, but do you also get a crash with the COORD:LAT:LON line in the Areas data file?

Yep sorry, the transition from areas to maps wasn't clear, my fault...

But yes, the problem only occurs with maps, areas seem to work fine as far as I'm concerned. 

1 hour ago, Juha Holopainen said:

For a permanent exclusion, the best way is to define a suitable area at the top of the MSAW data file. I've used circular areas centered on the aerodrome reference points, such as 

C,N060.19.02.000,E024.57.48.000,8,-1 // EFHK ARP

Okay, thanks! 

And btw: Thanks for your work, Juha! We are still in development phase, but I'm pretty happy with Topsky so far  !

[Oliver Gruetzmann (961224)]

And today I had a "Unhandled Exception" crash (on all three instances I was running at once) caused by TopSky when dropping (Free) a target from the Lost list (not sure if I was pushing a button or something).

I have a total filter (Radar Hole) overhead the airport to avoid ground targets. Dump is uploading, I'll send the link via private message.

Oliver.

[Martin Loxbo (811805)]

10 hours ago, Alexander Arlow said:

Regarding the mousewheel - you can use it in the real system - you just have to hover over the scrollbars to use it. I have been working 5 years with Topsky until I realized it, my mind was blown.

Interesting, but you'd need a mouse wheel for it! Not just a middle button like in Sweden.

[Alexander Arlow]

48 minutes ago, Martin Loxbo said:

Interesting, but you'd need a mouse wheel for it! Not just a middle button like in Sweden.

Until recently you had a white radarbackground color, i think a wheel is the least of concerns

[Martin Loxbo (811805)]

Hmm no it was never white, but a light grey colour. Actually it worked very well with the light conditions that they have in the Swedish ATC centres (BIG windows, lots of natural light). I think they've had to start using blinds a bit more now to make the screens easier to see with the darker colours. But you get used to the new colours fairly quickly as well...