Tacview – Understand what happened during your last flight! (alternative ACMI viewer)
-
-
Tacview 1.6.0 is now available to everyone!
The long awaited real-time telemetry is here! Use it with DCS World, FSX, Prepar3D, or X-Plane to record and review in real-time a flight in progress. An first draft of the instructor remote control is also available. This tool enables you to control up to four simulators, to assist trainee pilots and reduce their workload.
To prevent cheating, real-time telemetry may be disabled during network sessions depending on the host preferences.
These two new features go naturally well together: Use the real-time telemetry to watch in real time your trainee from outside and inside the cockpit. Help him/her using the remote control to pause its flight simulator and actuate some of its aircraft controls. In the next update, you will be able to directly bind joystick and keyboard to remote control commands.
All Tacview network features are independent and can be combined the way you want. For example, you can combine the real-time telemetry and the online-debriefing to review, with your fellow squadrons leaders, in real-time, a network battle in progress like a red-flag training.
In addition, many updates and fixes are introduced in this version to better enjoy flight review for all your favorite simulators.
While several surprises are on their way for this year, the next major step will be Tacview 2.0. This new version will offer a fully revamped UI, and a will include most of the improvements which have been requested over the years.
Meanwhile several updates are still planned for Tacview 1.6 and maybe 1.7, to offer a smooth transition while waiting for 2.0. For example, you will soon get an integrated static objects editor to easily add navaids to a battlefield and will be able to display analog cockpit instruments to get more intuitive and faster reading while analysing the quality of a flight.
FEATURES & CHANGES
- Real-time telemetry for DCS World, FSX, Prepar3D, and X-Plane
- Instructor Remote Control to assist trainee pilots
- Added support for iLevil csv files
- Dynamic adjustment of the export frequency to increase accuracy of important objects like player aircraft
- Added an optional 5 minutes playback delay for DCS World exporter
- Integrated Ostsee 3.2.6 theater for Falcon 4.0
- Integrated Pillars of Hercules theater 0.7.8.2 U2 for Falcon 4.0
- Integrated Israel 1.0.3 terrain and database for BMS 4.33 U3
- Trail size can now be defined more accurately and is explicitly displayed in a tooltip
- Added attitude (roll and pitch) charts to analyze pilot induced oscillations
- Added CAS to charts
- Added an additional larger auto scale option
- Added an option to choose the compression level for DCS World recorder
- By default, debug level events are not displayed anymore in the console, use /debug:on to show them
FIXES
- Fixed a crash in DCS World when returning to spectator mode
- Tacview was not properly playing back flights taking place before 1970 like WWII flights
- X-Plane Real-time object teleportation is now gracefully handled
- It was not possible to copy/paste a shortcut containing a bullseye
- It was not possible to select or highlight a bullseye during online debriefing
- Mirage 2000 AA missiles names were mixed up
- Charts horizontal axis graduations were not properly displayed
- ACMI files export path will be preserved when installing a new version of Tacview
-
This post is deleted! -
About 20 people in my squadron have the pro version (now called advanced). Since version 1.6.0, online debriefing does not work anymore. When rolling back to a previous version, it wil work again, but not so with 1.6.0 it seems. Saw on Tacview forum that other BMS flying squadrons also have this problem.
Also, we noticed that if you try to change the connectionport, the port reverts back to the default setting when hitting the join button. We normally do use that standard port 42673, and we all have it forwarded in our routers, but we tried changing the port to get it to work again and then we noticed this. Maybe this is related to the problem?
-
About 20 people in my squadron have the pro version (now called advanced). Since version 1.6.0, online debriefing does not work anymore. When rolling back to a previous version, it wil work again, but not so with 1.6.0 it seems. Saw on Tacview forum that other BMS flying squadrons also have this problem.
Also, we noticed that if you try to change the connectionport, the port reverts back to the default setting when hitting the join button. We normally do use that standard port 42673, and we all have it forwarded in our routers, but we tried changing the port to get it to work again and then we noticed this. Maybe this is related to the problem?
Same in our SQN
Enviado desde mi GT-I9195I mediante Tapatalk
-
Hi,
Just playing around with real life flight and some capabilities of Tacview,same with SRTM3 élévation data
and with SRTM1 (ALPS from Jonathan de Ferranti web site)
I have modelized with blender a centrair 101 Pegase, which is the glider I am used to fly
This is a 548 triangles model, far less than the 4 000 given as a limit.
The result is really amazing ! -
Thanks to your valuable feedback, the online debriefing has been fixed in Tacview 1.6.1 beta 1.
http://tacview.net/download/beta
Sorry for the inconvenience.
-
Please Vyrtuoz, could you point out where one can find some documentation about the"Instructor Remote Control to assist trainee pilots" feature ?
-
I did not have the time to write a documentation about it yet.
Do you have a specific question in mind?
For now, this feature works only with DCS World, X-Plane and FSX. The idea it to connect the remote control to a session in progress, and to use Tacview to activate the general controls of the aircraft like gear & flap to assist trainees. The available controls will be extended on demand to any functionality of the supported simulators (like to triggering failures).
-
Thanks to your valuable feedback, the online debriefing has been fixed in Tacview 1.6.1 beta 1.
http://tacview.net/download/beta
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Been trying to DL the Beta from your site. Keeps taking me to an Amazon Drive page with no options to DL.
-
yes, click on it and click on download at the botton page, and it will start
-
Vyrtuoz, what would it take in order to get real time telemetry for BMS implemented as well? Do you need to be able to read the .flt files? (Are you already able to?)
-
Its been a long time since I have worked with VHS files and their brothers the FLT files. I am suspecting that it is not possible to read FLT files for two reasons:
- I think that they contain dynamic data which can be interpreted only by Falcon 4.
- They may be locked or not flushed on regular basis which would prevent from reading data fast enough.
I hope it is possible to read F4 telemetry data in real-time, but this will require a lot of investigation and work to do so. This is why I prefer to focus first on other features which are much faster to develop.
I think there is an ATC program for Falcon 4. I forgot its name, but, maybe its developer can help us to know how to read F4 telemetry in real-time over a network connection or something similar.
-
Its called F4Awacs, and you should contact Sakis “Monster” Giokas.
-
Naktakala=NikNak 1st VFW
Real-time telemetry is possible although falcon writes the .flt every 0.2 seconds so its not particularly smooth (5 fps). Once can interpolate pretty easily though which is what the code does when generating the VHS.
The .flt file is ever growing and different from VHS tapes but the file can be read. Currently I have been unsuccessful in memory mapping the file since it grows with varying size datablocks (i.e. Events vs GenPosdata) but you can have a single process read the file and obtain latest positions after which you can seek forward to not read the file from the start. Anyone interested in how to do this can contact me anytime, I am very willing to handover my research.
Below is a picture of the current capabilities, it includes the following:
Reading falcon shared memory
Reading class tables
Reading the vehicle database
Reading the .flt file
Shows friendlies locking enemies (technically enemies locking friendlies too but I removed that for realism)
Has a ruler
Has bulls-eye and raw coordinates
Reads the datacard and displays ppts stpt-lines and steerpoints
Can show a blue arc line for ILS approaches (not seen in the pic)
Updates other aircraft positions every 3 seconds -
Below is a picture of the current capabilities, it includes the following:
Reading falcon shared memory
Reading class tables
Reading the vehicle database
Reading the .flt file
Shows friendlies locking enemies (technically enemies locking friendlies too but I removed that for realism)
Has a ruler
Has bulls-eye and raw coordinates
Reads the datacard and displays ppts stpt-lines and steerpoints
Can show a blue arc line for ILS approaches (not seen in the pic)
Updates other aircraft positions every 3 secondsBit off-topic to Tacview, but that sounds / looks like a great project for a new and improved ATC / GCI tool. Are you working on that idea, and if so, would it be publicly available someday?
-
Good question… I am developing it under the 1st VFW and I want the wing to be the owner of it first, so consequently I want the wing to decide that. I am wary though because if it is available, then basically people will have a much better view of the world than others. The fact is, although it is close to realistic, its still a kind-of Hack IMHO. More than welcome to discuss opinions.
-
Niknak(Naktakala)'s work (see above) is the reason why I asked the question as I figured maybe his discoveries could be beneficial for Tacview and possible real time info from BMS to be used as GCI etc. Maybe you guys should talk haha
Its been a long time since I have worked with VHS files and their brothers the FLT files. I am suspecting that it is not possible to read FLT files for two reasons:
- I think that they contain dynamic data which can be interpreted only by Falcon 4.
- They may be locked or not flushed on regular basis which would prevent from reading data fast enough.
I hope it is possible to read F4 telemetry data in real-time, but this will require a lot of investigation and work to do so. This is why I prefer to focus first on other features which are much faster to develop.
I think there is an ATC program for Falcon 4. I forgot its name, but, maybe its developer can help us to know how to read F4 telemetry in real-time over a network connection or something similar.
-
Nice work Naktakala!
This is definitively bumping up the task about Falcon 4 real-time telemetry
I will come back to you as soon as I have the time to work on a prototype.
-
Tacview 1.6.1 is available!
Download: http://tacview.net/download
Before everything else: The online debriefing is working again! My apologies for the delay and the inconvenience. This feature was broken because of a change introduced by the real-time telemetry. This is now fixed and everything should work as expected. You may even combine the real-time telemetry and online debriefing to oversee with other officers a battle in progress!
This intermediate version also introduces several fixes and improvements to make the whole debriefing experience smoother:
- The long-awaited fuel telemetry is here! You can now review the fuel quantity and flow in most of the flight simulators and even in real-life (with the Garmin G1000 for example).
- Terrain colors have been modified to match the ones used in US VFR charts. It is an experiment with the idea of Tacview 2.0 being able to auto generate virtual VFR/IFR charts for the ground textures. Which should give a final result to the one you can see on Skyvector.
- Preliminary support has been added of IL-2 Sturmovik: Soon, you should be able to see proper 3d models for the aircraft (some may remain generic because Tacview library is growing up slowly), colors, coalitions, bullets, bombs and everything you can expect from a Tacview debriefing. IL-2 terrains should follow in Tacview 1.6.2.
- Talking about WWII: The famous DCS: Normandy 1944 Map has been added to Tacview.
- It is now possible to display full 3D earth without ocean surface to see submarines. In a future revision, a translucent ocean surface should be visible too.
What’s next?
In the coming revisions of Tacview:
- All the major IL-2 terrains will be added to Tacview.
- Because of lack of time, Falcon 4.0 real-time telemetry is still a project. But, be assured that I will do my best to offer you this feature if it is possible to do so.
- You will get a brand-new static-objects engine with its integrated editor! Handy to easily and quickly add runways, nav-aids and any other objects you would like to see in the world of Tacview.
- Native support for Open Street Map and Bing Map tiles.
FEATURES & CHANGES
• Added fuel quantity and flow for DCS World, X-Plane, FSX, and Garmin G1000
• Added support for custom raw elevation maps with arbitrary coordinates
• Added Pegase and Duo Discus 3d models donated by Benoit ’Windblow’ Wingedsky
• Added terrain high-contrast mode for video projector use
• Added most of IL2 aircraft to Tacview database
• Added support for DCS: Normandy 1944 Map
• Added an option to automatically reconnect the real-time telemetry
• Added Eject & Respawn commands to the remote controls
• Added a status bar icon when real-time telemetry is active
• It is now possible to display 3D oceans to see submarines
• New FAA VFR style terrain color schemeFIXES
• Fixed a crash in charts when some options where selected
• Online debriefing was not working anymore with Tacview 1.6 final
• It was not possible to change the online debriefing port
• Left ALT was not working properly (e.g. ALT+F4 was not closing Tacview)
• DCS World exporter was not always active and compressing files in zip on a fresh install
• Charts were updated even when not displayed
• X-Plane main aircraft pilot name and importance are now properly exported