pellelil 59 Posted December 31, 2018 Share Posted December 31, 2018 In this topic I plan to describe the features that are most likely coming in version 1.9. 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. A few of you have been contacting me personally, but please use the forum in stead, as it lets everybody see what is asked/suggested, in order to have everybody being able to comment. Back to version 1.9. First of all I want to ask if any of you would be sad to see the route list-view be removed from the main-screen (outlined on the screen-shot below). In the part this view was used to inform the user which route was "high-lighted" (it was actually during the beta-phase that the "fat" (highlighted) route-lines were implemented. Likewise (as visible in the screen-shot below) in version 1.8 we got route tool-tips that shows the details of the last "touched" route (both airports and the distance between them). Hence in my view the route listview have serverd its purpose, and I plan to remove it, to make more room for the airport list-view - which I still think serves a purpose for those not knowing all ICAO codes by memory Please login to display this image. I might still let the Route listview exists in an improved version, but then in a form of its own - available from the main-menu. Any inputs? Also for version 1.9 I have begun looking into obtaining the latest METAR for each airport. I guess many users will use this program to find "suggestions" to which flights to fly (e.g. based on a "Leg Search"). But before loading up external software to actually plan the flight (e.g. PFPX/TopCat, SimBrief or whatever you use), it might be nice to be able to see the weather at the departure/destination airport - hence the "need" for METAR. As of now its simply implemented in an external test-program, but I plan to add a METAR-window to the "Info" tab-sheet of the Airport Info form: Please login to display this image. Thats all for now. Hope you had a good Christmas and I wish you all a happy new year !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellelil 59 Posted December 31, 2018 Author Share Posted December 31, 2018 It seems we will have TAF as well as METAR: Please login to display this image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpha117 51 Posted December 31, 2018 Share Posted December 31, 2018 Hi Pelle Looking good. Any ETA for V1.9? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellelil 59 Posted December 31, 2018 Author Share Posted December 31, 2018 No ETA, have a few other items on "the list" that I need to look into. Depending how much time I have to develop I would guess January or February by the latest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellelil 59 Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 Regarding the METAR and TAF-messages I plan to implement two different providers. A real-time provider (downloading weather from the web) and an Active Sky (AS) provider, accessing the weather from the file that AS generates (e.g. "C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Roaming\Hifi\AS_P3Dv4\Weather\current_wx_snapshot.txt"). The latter will allow access to historic METAR /TAF-messages provided via AS. As you might have guessed I use AS myself, so thats why I plan to add an AS-provider. If other weather-engines will be requested down the line I can probably add providers for these as well, as long as someone can provide me with the info I will need to implement these (however that will be for a later version, as 1.9 will only have support for a real-time- and AS-provider). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellelil 59 Posted January 5, 2019 Author Share Posted January 5, 2019 METAR and TAF are now added to the Airport Info form (as visible in the screen shot below). When using the "NOAA Gov" (real-time) weather-provider the weather messages that are downloaded are by default cached for 10 minutes (to not having to fetch the same METAR/TAF-messages over and over). Manually clicking the update button, the weather-messages will be re-fetched no matter how long time since it was cached. If in stead using the ActiveSky weather-provider these buttons will be disabled as the program automatically detects if/when Active Sky have created/updated its "current_wx_snapshot.txt" file, in which case the new/updated weather is automatically loaded. Please login to display this image. As of now I can only switch between the two weather-provilders manually editing the Settings-file. but I plan to add a selection in the lower/right corner of the main-form. However in order to use the ActiveSky provider you must (once) edit the settings file and add a full path to the location of the AS weather-snapshot (e.g. "<ActiveSkyCurrentWeatherPath>C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Roaming\Hifi\AS_P3Dv4\Weather\current_wx_snapshot.txt</ActiveSkyCurrentWeatherPath>"). Edit: Please remark that line-breaks are added to the TAF-message on "BECMG", "TEMPO" and "FM######" in order to make the TAF-message more readable.q Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellelil 59 Posted January 6, 2019 Author Share Posted January 6, 2019 Added a 3. weather-provider in form of an Active Sky network-provider (ActiveSkyNet). The "other" ActiveSky provider (ActiveSkyFile) needs to be able to access the file that ActiveSky generates, which can be a task in itself to setup if ActiveSky (AS) and Flightplan Visualizer (FV) are not running on the same PC (in which case you would need to share drives). However AS have a web-interface, which most likely makes it more easy to access AS running on another PC than FV. Having said that you most likely would need to configure the firewall on both PCs to allow traffic on port 19285 (but at least there is an alternative if you have problems getting access to the file that AS is generating). Unfortunately the web-interface of AS only allows access to METAR-reports (no TAF-reports). It does however allows you to request METAR-reports with a time-offset (METAR-reports into the "future"). I decided to use this feature in order to generate pseudo TAF-reports when using the ActiveSkyNet-provider. So beside requesting the current (active) METAR-report, I also requests 6 additional METAR-reports each offset by 4 hours i relation to the previous (6 * 4 hours = 24 hours are covered). The 6 reports (+ the current METAR) will look like this: EDDF 060850Z 31009KT 280V340 9999 FEW014 SCT017 BKN042 07/03 Q1030 NOSIG EDDF 061315Z 30011KT 9999 BKN012 07/03 Q1030 EDDF 061715Z 30011KT 9999 SCT012 BKN020 07/03 Q1030 EDDF 062115Z 30011KT 9999 SCT012 BKN020 07/03 Q1030 EDDF 070115Z 30011KT 9999 BKN012 07/03 Q1030 EDDF 070515Z 28006KT 9999 SCT020 07/03 Q1030 EDDF 070915Z 28006KT 9999 SCT020 07/03 Q1030 And after having been transformed into a pseudo TAF-report, it will in stead look like this: EDDF 060850Z 31009KT 280V340 9999 FEW014 SCT017 BKN042 07/03 Q1030 NOSIG FM061315 30011KT 9999 BKN012 07/03 Q1030 FM061715 30011KT 9999 SCT012 BKN020 07/03 Q1030 FM062115 30011KT 9999 SCT012 BKN020 07/03 Q1030 FM070115 30011KT 9999 BKN012 07/03 Q1030 FM070515 28006KT 9999 SCT020 07/03 Q1030 FM070915 28006KT 9999 SCT020 07/03 Q1030 I realize its not an actual TAF-report, but its the best I can do with the data available to me when using the ActiveSkyNet-provider. I added a small text to the METAR/TAF-labels, so you can see which provider was used to obtain the reports: Please login to display this image. In order to setup the ActiveSkyNet-provider 2 additional tags were added to the settings-file: <ActiveSkyNetIpUrl>localhost</ActiveSkyNetIpUrl> <ActiveSkyNetPort>19285</ActiveSkyNetPort> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellelil 59 Posted January 6, 2019 Author Share Posted January 6, 2019 The Airport Info form in version 1.9 will show both (current) Zulu- and Local time in the upper/right corner: Please login to display this image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellelil 59 Posted January 12, 2019 Author Share Posted January 12, 2019 I have never looked as much at METAR- or TAF-messages as I have done for the last month or so. In the beginning I was naive enough to think that METAR-/TAF-messages were so important that people would make sure they were "without errors", but I have since learned this is far from the case. Look at this following (downloaded / not constructed) TAF message: SBGL 110830Z 1112/1218 04005KT 7000 NSC TX36/1117Z TN24/1208Z BEC MG 1116/1118 15015KT 9999 FEW030 BECMG 1122/1124 10010KT CAVOK BECMG 12 03/1206 07005KT BECMG 1207/1208 32005KT 7000 NSC PROB30 1208/1211 01005KT 50 00 BR BECMG 1213/1216 15015KT 9999 FEW040 RMK PGB In this single TAF-message "BEC MG" (1st line) should have read "BECMG" which would otherwise had triggered that my code would add a line-break. Likewise "12 03/1206" (in the 3rd line) should have been "1203/1206", and last but nut least "50 00" (5th line) should have read "5000". Also I have seen examples where the visibility in a METAR-message was listed as "11/2SM" where it should have been "1 1/2SM" (one and a half statute mile of visibility). Likewise I am sure this line "BECMG 0413/0415 04003KT BKN015 S CHECK TEXT NEW ENDING ADDED KATLYTAA" could do with a "RMK" somewhere. I will add some additional code trying to fix some of these simple typo's in METAR/TAF-massages, as it will make it more easy for beginners to decode these messages.- however at the same time not adding errors by "correcting typos that are not there" (introduce new/additional errors in the messages). Anyhow I am working on something "interesting" (at least I think so myself) regarding these messages, I hope to be able to share some more info on, if this work pans out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellelil 59 Posted January 16, 2019 Author Share Posted January 16, 2019 It have been a hard work, and it is still an ongoing work. When I planed to add support of METAR- and TAF-messages it was my hope that I would be able to decode these messages for those who are not so strong at reading METAR and TAF-messages. To be honest there were many codes I did not know myself. However during the last month or so I have look more at METAR and TAF-messages than I had done in all my life, and I am happy to report that the next installment of FV will include a decoder: Please login to display this image. As of now the decoder can handle the most important METAR-codes. But I have still more codes to implement, and I am sure there are cases where it will not be able to decode some of the codes in their more obscure forms. I would like to add support for the codes that are common in the remark section as well as support for decoding TAF. I am sure it will not be 100% complete when released in version 1.9 and I will need your help to report the cases where it is not able to decode some of the codes correctly. EDIT: Here is another containing Runway-conditions: Please login to display this image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellelil 59 Posted January 17, 2019 Author Share Posted January 17, 2019 TAF decoding is moving forward as well (here a screen-shot from my test-platform): Please login to display this image. Next item on the todo-list is to look at the most common remarks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellelil 59 Posted January 21, 2019 Author Share Posted January 21, 2019 The decoding of METAR and TAF is moving along nicely, and I have managed to add decoding for the most common remarks as well: Please login to display this image. As you can see in the screen-shot the entire remark (the line with "RMK") is listed as one item. Then below all of the codes within the remark that can be decoded will be listed with an asterisk in front (to tell these are part of the remark). If the remark contains words/codes that cannot be decoded these will only be visible in the remark-line. As of now there are no known bugs, but I still want to put in some more testing time before packing it up for release. Edit: DOH !!! Just noticed a bug in the screen shot above. A free copy to the first who spot it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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