[F4RADAR] Lightweight standalone radar application
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Awesome tool! Have you considered adding the type of aircraft on the contact info? Or to classify it manually by association?
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Thanks for your enthusiastic reaction! And yes, I’m working on that for friendlies. For bogeys I’m still trying to find a way without spoiling the party.
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version 0.11 is out. Main visible change is the table with flight info. You can move the table around and scroll when it’s very long. Bogey info is limited to number of planes for now. Another nice one is that the program now also recognizes other nations.
v0.11 changes (13.10.2020)
- added the a scrollable and movable (click header) table showing flight info, for bogey limited to number of planes
- added support for multination war, neutral, hostile and at war are shown as bogey
EDIT: some weird stuff happened in the aircraft type in the table. A fix is on it’s way.
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Quite a change, the artificial 5000ft and 200NM detection limits have been removed and F4RADAR now uses the logic of BMS itself. Thus all contacts as visible in the 2D screen are also visible in F4RADAR. And when identified within BMS, the program also gives the plane information in the table, which is now in alphabetical order. Friendly contacts are always shown including their plane and mission information.
Also the latitude and longitude of the cursor are shown in the taskbar, currently this only works for KTO. As usual the download link can be found in the first post and your suggestions, bugs and comments are welcome!
version 0.12 changes (15.10.2020)
- added contacts are now shown when spotted in BMS and plane info is given when identified in BMS, 5000ft restriction and 200NM detection limit have been removed
- added plane info in the table when contact is identified in BMS
- added latitude and longitude mouse position in the status bar
- fixed table is shown in alphabetical order
- fixed plane information in table, previous release showed wrong info for certain contacts
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thanks for creating this tool and investing your time in BMS but i have a question.
Why a different tool when OSC is already there and has also integrity check and ivc api and F4Awacs screen as proven technologie ?
The creator of that tool is also in the inner circles of BMS so every upgrade to 4.xx could be a support tool for it
Would it not be better to combine forces instead of creating a new tool ground up (demotivating the current OSC dev) and in the end having nothing when you decide to call it quits (assumption)(call it cheating or not, think the mp host decides as in current modern warfare every form of intelligence is a way of cheating to get an advantage over your enemy, spy on the ground/spyplane/AWACS/satellite)
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thanks for creating this tool and investing your time in BMS but i have a question.
Why a different tool when OSC is already there and has also integrity check and ivc api and F4Awacs screen as proven technologie ?
The creator of that tool is also in the inner circles of BMS so every upgrade to 4.xx could be a support tool for it
Would it not be better to combine forces instead of creating a new tool ground up (demotivating the current OSC dev) and in the end having nothing when you decide to call it quits (assumption)(call it cheating or not, think the mp host decides as in current modern warfare every form of intelligence is a way of cheating to get an advantage over your enemy, spy on the ground/spyplane/AWACS/satellite)
I’ve used OSC plenty of times in the past. It’s undoubtedly a great tool, I like it, and for a long time, it was the only tool to do what it does. Still, some counterquestions:
- If the OSC dev is in the inner circles of BMS, or even active in any part of the BMS community at all, why did OSC not work for the entirety of 4.33?
- How does F4RADAR demotivate Monster, and (pardon my bluntness) why should that ever be a factor in whether or not someone else wants to build a new tool?
While OSC does still have some things that F4RADAR does not (e.g. integrity check, direct IVC integration, importing all theater objects and mission.ini PPTs/steerpoint lines), F4RADAR has already surpassed OSC in others.
I know Tumbler still has plenty of ideas to improve F4RADAR, but for now, most importantly, his tool can show individual aircraft and their type, and it doesn’t use / rely on an entire software suite, making it a lot more user-friendly and reducing possible points of failure. (which raises the question: Why does OSC require running so much software - SQServer, AISpy, Validator, F4AWACS - when F4RADAR can retrieve and show that and more information without it?)Whether or not Tumbler and Monster want to join forces is obviously up to them. It might be great if they did, but I don’t understand why F4RADAR should demotivate Monster at all? If they stay separate: at worst, they see each other’s tool as a threat to their own creation, which would be silly IMO, because this isn’t a competition or commercial market; at best, they accept the other tool for what it is, and possibly use it for ideas to improve their own.
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these where just my personal questions/view
Contact the OCS dev to get your questions answered i cannot talk for him
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In principle F4A and F4R do more or less the same, but I wanted 2 things differently: 1. deagged entities 2. no hassle (no additional programs, no TE loading, no BE definition, etcetc). But yes, F4A contains quite some fancy features. I’ve had contact with Monster and he gave me some tips. But he admitted that currently he has limited time to maintain his programs.
Furthermore it’s fun the create a tool like this for the community and I have still plenty of ideas also not present in F4A. And a little bit of ‘competition’ never hurts.
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In principle F4A and F4R do more or less the same, but I wanted 2 things differently: 1. deagged entities 2. no hassle (no additional programs, no TE loading, no BE definition, etcetc). But yes, F4A contains quite some fancy features. I’ve had contact with Monster and he gave me some tips. But he admitted that currently he has limited time to maintain his programs.
Furthermore it’s fun the create a tool like this for the community and I have still plenty of ideas also not present in F4A. And a little bit of ‘competition’ never hurts.
For me, those two PROs makes this software very useful. F4A is great, but when you have 4 fighters on a CAP and in many other cases, you must see all the assets available.
F4A still have other very cool functions, like IVC integration.@tumbler31, we are trying to use it on our spanish SQN, and it seems there is a bug with the “Iberia Theater”.
Contacts are shown out of the map. -
@tumbler31, we are trying to use it on our spanish SQN, and it seems there is a bug with the “Iberia Theater”.
Contacts are shown out of the map.May be the map is 8192 x 8192 px. Did you try to resize it to 4096 x 4096?
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For me, those two PROs makes this software very useful. F4A is great, but when you have 4 fighters on a CAP and in many other cases, you must see all the assets available.
F4A still have other very cool functions, like IVC integration.@tumbler31, we are trying to use it on our spanish SQN, and it seems there is a bug with the “Iberia Theater”.
Contacts are shown out of the map.Thanks for pointing it out that POH doesn’t work. So far I only tested KTO and included some hardcoded values such as the standard 1024x1024 theatre size. POH is 2048x2048, so that’s why the map didn’t work for you and also the bullseye sometimes appeared at the wrong place. I’ve got that fixed and should release an update soon.
@AlphaFox: the resolution of the image you’re using doesn’t matter. F4RADAR will stretch or shrink the image on the theatre size. So as long as the image has the same aspect ratio as the theatre you’re fine. And of course a higher resolution image makes it look better when zoomed in, eg the 40MB .png supplied with POH.
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Dear Sir
Thank u so much !
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Version 0.13 is out. It now also correctly shows the maps image for all theater sizes, so also for POH. Furthermore I’ve added that allied nations can also to the spotting for your country, just like in BMS. Valuable feedback from users brought this lacking behaviour under my attention.
So keep your feedback and suggestions coming and help me improving this program for all users.
version 0.13 changes (26.10.2020)
- added spotting and identifying of contacts can now also be done by allied nations
- added lat/long for all theaters in the northern-eastern hemisphere
- fixed map image for 2048x2048 theatres like POH
- table no longer shows empty flights
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Small update with a yard stick in the bottom right corner as well as a toggleable context menu. On mouse over this gives you the detailed info also visible in the table, but without having to scroll though all info. Enjoy it, and let me know of any improvements.
version 0.14 changes (29.10.2020)
- added toggleable context menu to show detailed info at mouse over
- added yardstick
EDIT: there’s seems to be something funky with the context menu in certain cases, I’ll have a look at it
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Fixed a bug in the context menu showing sometimes the wrong aircraft type. Thanks Eagle-Eye for pointing it out!
version 0.15 changes (30.10.2020)
- fixed bug in aircraft type in context menu
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After tedious work I managed to add taxiways for quite some KTO airbases for those into ATC and ground ops. Do let me know if you like it and if maybe taxilines are missing.
version 0.16 changes (02.11.2020)
- Added taxiways for Kunsan, Osan, Seosan, Sachon, Choongwon, Chongju, Suwon, Yechon, Mandumi, Kwangju, Hoengsong, Kangnung, Pohang, Sokcho, Taegu, Pusan, Pyongtaeg, Kimhae
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I Tumbler, it seems good on Win 10, but not on Win seven. The F4Radar failed when BMS entering 3D.
With my first look on Win 10, the position of the planes is good for Chongwoon, my friends will check the others airfields. -
Tumbler, good work!
I have some recommendations for improvements:
1. label deconfliction - If there some A/C flying close together, nobody is able to read call sign, height nor speed. It would be better, that a user can grab the label and move it to an other range and/or bearing from the track symbol and fix it there.
2. hook of track symbol - to measure the bearing and range between two a/c it would be better to assign the line to the tack symbols so that you get a read out of bearing and range continuously. State of the art would be to draw multiple of this bearing/range lines between multiple a/c.
3. draw of static lines and points to mark something on the scope
4. import of routes, preplanned threat steerpoints and steerpoint lines from the current TE of BMS (selectable)
5. display of BE-position of the cursor on an movable window and
6. display of the bearing/range from a certain point or hooked track on the cursor position
7. display on M-number instead of speed on an a/c label (switchable)
I know this is a lot of work, but it would make the job of an aircraft controller much easier.
And I would prefer to couple the detection volume on the AWACS or the coverage of the ground RADAR station(s), that’s more realistic.
Regards Prot
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So after verification, all your AB improvements are good. Nice job Tumbler.
For next job, i wish to have a movable BE, and your soft will be fully usable for us.
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Anyone trying to use this on a small P2P MP Coop Campaign setup? Trying to find an out of the way flight close to TO time to put the “AWACS” pilot in and leave on the Ramp is not easy. To test it out I put my AWACs pilot in as my wingman and left him there, not an ideal situation, but I looked at every other base and it just sat in the “Planning” stage with no new flights fragged. Ideally putting him in a C130 or and actual AWACs would be great… or am I missing something?