Transmitter

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What is "Virtual Flight Online Transmitter" ?

It is a small Windows application that transmits your position in Microsoft Flight Simulator to an online database where your last reported position is held for 1 minute. The website then produces a live display of where everybody is, a radar display, and a "whazzup" formatted file that can be used by LittleNavMap to plot aircraft positions live on a map.

Why?

If you and your friends want to see each other on mapping software such as LittleNavMap to run your own air traffic control sessions for group flights, you will no doubt have discovered that Microsoft Flight Simulator only communicates AI aircraft to external mapping applications such as LittleNavMap - not users. The Virtual Flight Online Transmitter application addresses that.

How It Works

The desktop application connects to a running copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator via the SimConnect interface, and reads your aircraft's latitude, longitude, altitude, speed and type. It combines the data with your keyed callsign and name, and sends it to a server on the internet via the settings entered into the desktop application.

The server then outputs all aircraft that have been updated in the last few seconds in a variety of ways - on a world map in the Status page, on a live Radar display, and in IVAO format - a data format that LittleNavMap can use to show you and your friends on the map within LittleNavMap.

Installing and running the Transmitter Client

In order to broadcast your position, you need the Transmitter client application. It connects to a running instance of Microsoft Flight Simulator via the SIMCONNECT API, and broadcasts your location and configured identity once per second to a server on the internet.

1. Download the installer from the link below:
   https://github.com/jonbeckett/virtualflightonlinetransmitter/releases

2. Run the installer

3. Find "Transmitter" in your Start Menu, and run it - it will be pre-configured to use the VirtualFlight.Online transmitter server.

4. Fill in your username and callsign.

5. Run the simulator, then click the connect button in Transmitter.

6. Check the status or radar pages to see yourself on the map.

The transmitter client application will remember your server and identity information. While connected, it is transmitting your location in the simulator.

The Status Display

https://transmitter.virtualflight.online/status

The status display shows a live view of aircraft positions on a map that updates their positions every 30 seconds.

• Beneath the map is a table if the aircraft, listing their properties - you can sort the table by clicking column headings

• You can drag the map around with the mouse

• You can zoom in and out of the map with the +/- buttons in the corner of the map, or rolling the mouse wheel over the map

• If you click on callsigns in the table, the map will zoom to their location

• If you click on aircraft on the map, information about the selected aircraft will pop up

The Radar Display

https://transmitter.virtualflight.online/radar

The radar display provides a live view of aircraft on a full-page map that updates aircraft positions every 5 seconds.

• You can drag the map around with the mouse

• You can zoom in and out of the map with the mouse wheel

• If you zoom in to a group of aircraft, callsign labels will appear - the callsign labels can be dragged around, and will move with the aircraft

• A toolbar alongside the map can be moved via it's "waffle" icon, and provides the following features:

  • Zoom - the +/- buttons zoom the map in and out in steps (you can also use the mouse wheel)

  • Home - re-sets the map to show the entire world

  • Center on Aircraft - re-sets the map to fit all online aircraft within the view

  • Aircraft List - shows or hides a table of live aircraft - clicking on callsigns zooms the map to view the aircraft

  • Coordinate Grid - shows or hides a longitude / latitude grid overlay on the map

  • Smooth Movement - toggles smooth movement on and off. When on, after the next update, aircraft movement is interpolated and smoothed out

  • Map Layer - cycles through the available map layers - including Radar / Open Street Map, Satellite, Dark, Aviation, and Topographic

  • Fullscreen - toggles a full-screen view of the map

• The radar display also has the following keyboard shortcuts:

  • Measurement lines - if you hold the right mouse button down, and drag on the map, a measurement line will be drawn with distance and bearing. When you release the right mouse button, the line will vanish.

  • Radius lines - if you hold SHIFT down on the keyboard, hold the right mouse button down, and drag on the map, a radius line will be drawn with radius distance. When you release the right mouse button, the radius line will vanish.

Integrating with LittleNavMap

You can integrate Transmitter with LittleNavMap - to show live aircraft positions on the map:

1. Run LittleNavMap

2. Click the "Tools" menu

3. Click "Options" in the Tools menu

4. Click "Online Flying" on the left side of the Options dialog

5. Select "Custom" in the "Online Service" section of the dialog

6. Populate the "Whazzup File URL" with https://transmitter.virtualflight.online/ivao
   (be careful you have no spaces on the start or end of the URL - use the test button to make sure it works)

7. Set "Update every" to 5 seconds

8. Set the "Format" to "IVAO"

9. Click the "Apply" button, then the "OK" button

You should now be able to toggle online aircraft on and off in the map with the red aircraft icon in the LittleNavMap toolbar.

A few notes...

• Remember the radar display only updates every 5 seconds - so it might be a second or two after you start transmitting before you show up.

• If you disconnect Transmitter, your old location will show for 1 minute before vanishing.

• The latest version of the server uses APCu rather than MySQL to store aircraft positions. This means it's running in RAM, rather than using a database - so it should be MUCH faster.

• If you have any problems with it, remember it's a development version - the source code is available on Github if you want to see how it works.