[F4RADAR] Lightweight standalone radar application
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Great to see there are still many active user of F4RADAR!
And as the last the posters have noticed, the program has some quirks. These are related to issues in BMS itself and have proven to be quite difficult to solve. So for now you’ll see double entries in the flight table, and worse, some contacts dis- and reappearing on the scope.
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@philip40912 yes, I have had that experience too. Sometimes all enemy aircraft disappear for 10-20 seconds. At other times, just some enemy aircraft disappear. I even had friendly aircraft disappear. I was using the “declutter” option off which should have shown all aircraft in a flight, but I could only see updates for the lead of the human flights I was monitoring.
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@tumbler31 there is something interesting I have noticed when “bogey” contacts disappear and reappear.
Let’s say I have a track for “bogey294” who is identified on F4RADAR as “2 x MG29”. These contacts might disappear briefly, and then reappear in the same location.
F4RADAR still has these contacts as “bogey294” and from their location I am positive it is the same aircraft. However, now F4RADAR might list them as "2 x - ".
Why doesn’t F4RADAR remember the aircraft type ID from earlier if it still remembers the “bogey294” name? I have made a habit of writing down aircraft type IDs whenever I see them.
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@tumbler31 Sorry for the flood of replies, but I have just started using F4RADAR.
I wonder if there is a way that the F4RADAR user could “assign” targets using IDM?
In the mission that I was controlling last night, there were only 5 human pilots, so I could have easily been on the IDM list.
Is this a thing for Link16?
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Is anybody experiencing a 2-3 seconds delay when F4-Radar updates the position of the aircrafts?
During this time the program hangs and is inoperable.
Is there any way to make the update time shorter? -
What is the use for this application? A creation of an AWACS?
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@freedomlike The intent is that a human takes the role of an AWACS Controller
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Hey Tumbler
First of all, thanks for the app. Good work.
Now, I was wondering if other than the runway, I can add taxiways and the like via the excel file. Or if you might be thinking of adding an option of inserting airbases automatically like the F4 awacs. -
New version to work with 4.35U3
- version 0.35 changes (19.10.2021)
- Updated for BMS 4.35.3
- Small fix in ground spotting
And thanks all for the suggestions. ‘Remembering’ contact might be an idea indeed.
And for Taxiways the situation is a bit more complex. You can extract info from the xml’s like F4A did, but then you get the texture tiles which gives some weird plots.
Another idea is to include a new category in the geometry file to allow line drawing. The coordinates you then have to extract from eg the editor. That a bit of a puzzle, so something automated with be better. I’m open for suggestions. - version 0.35 changes (19.10.2021)
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@Tumbler31
Is there anyway to add the function of customized Bullseye within the same package for F4radar?
In the battle of kuwait event, i found out that as pilot we can’t move the BMS Bullseye as that is shared by all the participants. However that B/E position is not necessarily useful for all packages.
In F-16 we can change B/E to any coordinate or any steerpoint for making life easier. However humanGCI won’t be able to change B/E together with the package. This makes humanGCI unable to share the same B/E with the package. Now we are using a “landmark” on the map as alternative BE, and GCI must load the map, use the BRAA line to reference landmark to get B/E to do bullseye broadcast. But this is indeed not as convenient. Hence checking if there’s anyway to improve this -
Hi @Tumbler31
I have been using F4RADAR a few times now and have some suggestions for improvement, and some questions about usage.
1: When tracking my human flights, it seems that quite often I lose the ability to track individual aircraft in the flight independently. I have “declutter” mode off. For example, last night Panther21 and Panther22 reported that they were 40nm apart. I could only see “Panther2” on the display, not 21 or 22. I was still able to track another human 2-ship independently, and the enemy were being tracked independently when they were separated from each other. What could be the cause of this?
2: It would be nice to have the ability to track aircraft/flights. I like the feature in Tacview where I can Ctrl-left click the primary target, and Ctrl-right click the secondary target, have them tracked, and see the range (bearing as well would be nice) between them.
3: It would be nice to be able to click a flight in the data table and have them tracked like with point 2 above. For example, I might see a bogey in the list and want to find it quickly. Currently it seems I have to just scroll around the map to look for them.
4: What controls the update frequency of the display? Is there any way to get location updates of contacts more quickly?
Thanks
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@philip40912 said in Lightweight standalone radar application:
@Tumbler31
Is there anyway to add the function of customized Bullseye within the same package for F4radar?
In the battle of kuwait event, i found out that as pilot we can’t move the BMS Bullseye as that is shared by all the participants. However that B/E position is not necessarily useful for all packages.
In F-16 we can change B/E to any coordinate or any steerpoint for making life easier. However humanGCI won’t be able to change B/E together with the package. This makes humanGCI unable to share the same B/E with the package. Now we are using a “landmark” on the map as alternative BE, and GCI must load the map, use the BRAA line to reference landmark to get B/E to do bullseye broadcast. But this is indeed not as convenient. Hence checking if there’s anyway to improve thisBy default it using STPT 25. You can cycle the STPT up/down with Z/X-keys. In cockpit you can change this on the BULLSEYE page in the DED ( list-0-8 ).
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@tumbler31 Would changing STPT 25 automatically make AWACS call out contacts based on the new bullseye coordinates ? (my guess is no, but just checking)
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@pegasus82 said in Lightweight standalone radar application:
Hi @Tumbler31
I have been using F4RADAR a few times now and have some suggestions for improvement, and some questions about usage.
1: When tracking my human flights, it seems that quite often I lose the ability to track individual aircraft in the flight independently. I have “declutter” mode off. For example, last night Panther21 and Panther22 reported that they were 40nm apart. I could only see “Panther2” on the display, not 21 or 22. I was still able to track another human 2-ship independently, and the enemy were being tracked independently when they were separated from each other. What could be the cause of this?
2: It would be nice to have the ability to track aircraft/flights. I like the feature in Tacview where I can Ctrl-left click the primary target, and Ctrl-right click the secondary target, have them tracked, and see the range (bearing as well would be nice) between them.
3: It would be nice to be able to click a flight in the data table and have them tracked like with point 2 above. For example, I might see a bogey in the list and want to find it quickly. Currently it seems I have to just scroll around the map to look for them.
4: What controls the update frequency of the display? Is there any way to get location updates of contacts more quickly?
Thanks
nr1 is an issue within BMS, nothing much I can do about that now.
The update frequency is fixed at 10s and cannot be changed. For GCI activities that should be more than sufficient.
And thanks for your other suggestions, I’ll keep them in mind.
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@jayb said in Lightweight standalone radar application:
@tumbler31 Would changing STPT 25 automatically make AWACS call out contacts based on the new bullseye coordinates ? (my guess is no, but just checking)
The AI AWACS uses whatever the player set as BE (list-0-8) as reference.
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@tumbler31
I tried but the Bullseye position in F4Radar does not change at all.
I frag an AWACS flight in the same package and have also made sure the the package have same overlapping steerpoints.
AWACS seat is taken by human GCI and stay on the ground while the package takes off.
Package changes bulleyes through List - 0 - 8 to the agreed steerpoint.
However human GCI’s Bullseye position on F4Radar remains unchanged although in 3D it’s changed to another steerpoint already.
Did i do anything wrong here? -
@philip40912 said in Lightweight standalone radar application:
@tumbler31
I tried but the Bullseye position in F4Radar does not change at all.
I frag an AWACS flight in the same package and have also made sure the the package have same overlapping steerpoints.
AWACS seat is taken by human GCI and stay on the ground while the package takes off.
Package changes bulleyes through List - 0 - 8 to the agreed steerpoint.
However human GCI’s Bullseye position on F4Radar remains unchanged although in 3D it’s changed to another steerpoint already.
Did i do anything wrong here?Cycle the BE stpt with z/x-keys
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@tumbler31
I did as per your instruction again.
I cycle BE via the STPT up/down in 3D.
All package fighter & human AWACS in 3D did the same.
But human GCI alt-tab to check out F4radar, the bulleyes position remains the same default, nothing has changed although in 3D bulleyes position is confirmed updated. -
@tumbler31 I was curious and tested this after I read your comment. The AI AWACS will only use the BE set on the 2D map and will not change references if you do in 3D. Might there be something similar with F4RADAR that produces the behaviour in the above discussion?