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What is - most likely - included in FV 1.8


pellelil

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I know I just posted yesterday that version 1.7.1 of FV was released, but that was actually "old news", but at this forum its "new news" 🙂 Anyhow development is still continuing. In this topic I plan to describe the features that are most likely coming in version 1.8. Some of the items are fully implemented, some will be work in progress. Everything is subject to change, and I can't offer a deadline. Feel free to comment, ask questions and suggest other features.

 

At the old "forum" (a closed Facebook group) back when FV was still in beta, one of the users had requested being able to see when (at which time of the day) there was most traffic at an airport (given the program can only get this info from the imported flightplans). However I had to put that request on the back-burner. Partly because I had other features I wanted to get in place first, and partly because I had to think more about how to implement it. Anyhow its now implemented. Based on the routes that are displayed on the map (either from a selected flightplan, or an active search) when you open the Airport Info form, there is now a new traffic tab-sheet. In the top of this tab-sheet there is a combo-box from where you can choose a chart. Here below are 3 examples (there a few more).

 

Chart showing the daily (average) number of In- and Out-bound flights to/from EDDF per hour. If you want to you can use the "Weekday" combo-box to choose a specific weekday:

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This pie-chart show the percentage of different aircraft types in- and out of EDDF (based on the selected flightplan or active search):

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This pie-chart show the percentage of different airline carriers in- and out of EDDF (based on the selected flightplan or active search):

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Pelle

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Looking at the charts in the previous post, you will first have to either pick a flightplan or perform a leg search (e.g. search all flights in and out of EDDF, in order to have the charts display all flights in and out of EDDF). Perviously you had had to go via the main menu, and from these choose the Leg Search function. In version 1.7 I added a short-cut, so you could right-click the map (with an airport selected, or a route "touched" - so that it was highligted). Then right-clicking the main-map, to open the context menu (the left part of the image below). Choosing either of the 2 last menu-items, would open a pre-filled leg-search form (in this case either searching for all flights in and out of EDDF, or all flights between EDDF and PANC). However in version 1.8 you will be open to perform a Quick leg-search (without opening the leg-search form). If you press and hold SHIFT while right-clicking the map the menu-items will contain the word "Quick" in the beginning (as visible in the right side): 

 

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When you choose either of these menu-items the search will begin at once, and in stead of the Leg-search form you will be presented with a progress form. Hitting cancel will cancel the search. If you don't cancel the window will close by itself:

 

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Also you will be able to press CTRL+Q on the main form to open the airport search browser, and when you select and airport it will perform the quick leg search, finding all flights to/from that airport.

 

Pelle

 

 

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In the current version you can select which aircraft are your "Favorites" (e.g. you can pick all the flyable aircraft you own, as your favorites). When using the Leg Search feature you can chose to only select legs that are serviced by your favorites. In version 1.8 you will be able to setup which airports are your favorites (e.g. you might want to pick the airports for which you have 3rd party scenery as your favorites). Beside simply selecting which airports are your favorites I want to visualize this on the map, so I needed some new map-markers. In the past I have simply been using the stock markers that came with the map-component. Till now they served their purpose but it always annoyed me that the developer of that component was using 2 different shades of magenta (used for "Medium airports"). So now I had to draw new markers I fixed that in the process. All "normal" markers are now "empty" inside, whereas the favorite airports now have a "star"/asterisk inside. Like before these are available in two sizes, however in this screen-shot from my graphics software they are simply shown in one size:

 

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I still have to decide which symbol to use to illustrate "Pseudo"-airports (airports included in the AI flightplan for an airport for which you don't have any scenery). As of now in version 1.7 these are displayed as yellow push-pins (as it was one the the markers included with the map component). Perhaps I will keep using these, or I will make a new one as well !? Anyhow here is how the map looks with the new markers (both big and small, and both "normal" and "favorite" airports):

 

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Pelle

 

 

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With version 1.8 you will have more criteria for specifying what to search for when using the Leg Search form. Since you in version 1.8 will be able to specify which airports are your favorites (e.g. Airports you own as 3rd party airports) you will be able to filter the result to only include airports that are your favorites. As visible in the screen-shot below the "Must be favorite" (in the new group-box in the right side of the form) has been set to "Both depart. and dest." meaning that both the departure- and destination-airports of the flights must be specified as favorites (you do this using the Airport Info form):

 

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The result of this searc h (with the flightplans I have imported, and the airports I have marked as favorites), will appear as this:

 

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In the screen-shot above you can also see the check-boxes in the lower/left corner of the main-form has been re-arranged to make room for a new checkbox that lets you toggle (show/hide) a layer that contains all airports you have marked as favorites.

 

If you return to the previous screen-shot (Search Leg Criteria) you will see additional criteria have been added. You've always been able to set the Rank and Traffic-density for each airport, however it have only been visible in the Airport Info form, and the map tool-tip window. Now you can also filter your search. So if you set the Rank and Traffic-density for the airfields that are important you you, you are now able to filter your search (e.g. only include legs flow between the airports you have marked with minimum a Rank or "Plausible [3]". Likewise in the same manner you can also specify a minimum Traffic-density. Also you can filter the search to only include flights between airports that size-wise are classified between "Minor" and "Major". Also you are now able to search for flights that have runways with a specific length, or the airport is positioned as a specific elevation (e.g. you can use this feature to find challenging flights to or from airports at high altitude, or with short runways). 

 

The map-view was becoming sluggish when I had to display the result of a search which yielded many routes to be displayed. In version 1.8 the routes have been optimized so you can now see search-results with more routes being displayed at the same time without the software almost grinding to a hold. One trick to accomplish this is to split the displayed routes into fewer segments (in order to draw a route as a great-circle arc it needs to be split into multiple segments). In previous versions the segment-length was fixed, however in this version its adaptive. Meaning with fewer/shorter routes displayed at the same time the segment-length is "short", however with more/longer routes displayed at the same time the segment-length becomes "longer" . These longer segment-lines are very obvious above +70° of latitude, and below -70° latitude. Between -70° and +70° of latitude its not so obvious. However keep in mind this is ONLY occurring when you are showing MANY flightplans at the same time (displaying a single flightplan you will never see this):

 

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I don't suggest you do it, but now you can actually "use" the program having performed an "empty Search" (a Search Legs with no criteria specified) - meaning ALL routes from ALL flightplans will be displayed at once. The map-component will still struggle, but its doable - in version 1.7 the program would grind to a hold, and it was not usable at all. But then again, it was never the idea to display ALL at once, so you should still refine your searches 🙂

 

Pelle

 

 

 

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hey Pelle, great work and this is a nice tool which is really helpfull. I like to be near at the real world and though i really appreciate your FPV to have a very comfortable way to find the real world schedules of Lufthansa and Eurowings. Even when those are outdated, this give me a very good overview from where, who is flying when to where. 👍😉

I tried to get this info out of the flightschedules which can be downloaded from the LH-Website but thats just pain in the ass.

 

your work is really welcome.

 

reg. Bernd

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Hi Bernd, glad to hear you find it useful. I don't personally fly with any VA, so I use this program to find inspiration of flights to fly. The flightplans bundled with the program are those I was allowed to bundle, from the time I got that permission. So beyond the flightplans bundled with the program, you can find additional/updated flightplans on the net. In the enclosed manual (in the chapter on "Importing more flightplans") you find a link to the latest 2018 flightplans from AIG, and a description of how to import AI flightplans yourself.

 

Pelle

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