Falcon BMS - Interactive Maps

[Micro_440th]

Hi all!

Yesterday we released the first version of the new interactive map for KTO, ITO and Balkans:
https://maps.falcon-bms.com

This map is developed together with our friend Tech from the 440th VFW. He was so kind to let us use his work.
This map is WIP and will be further developed in the future with new features and will be optimized for hopefully all possible devises.

Features:

• Locate airports and navigation beacons and request their information by hovering over them
• Measure distances and headings
• Mission.ini/Pilot.ini drag and drop
• White boarding to use for briefings (4 colors)
• Free whiteboard text capability
• Bullseye placement
• Weather import (.fmap drop)
• Weather charts (Temperature, Doppler, Winds, Isobars)
• Route Waypoint dialog (step through waypoint actions, heading and distance)
• Zoom function

Known issues

• When dropping .ini or fmap while modal dialog is open will open the file.
• Empty your browser cache to make sure you use the latest version

---

Change log:

Update September 1st 2022

• Added Zoom function

Update August 27th 2022

• Added drawing Straight Lines (Hold SHIFT with pencil mode)
• Added PDF browser export of the whole map (use print function in your browser)
• Performance Improvements
• Fixed drag and drop file open issue for setting and waypoint dialogs

Update August 20th 2022

• Fixed Weather type increment when below freezing
• Added Waypoint and Target info (Like Airports)
• Added Waypoint Lat/Long info
• Added Free whiteboard text capability

Update August 11th 2022

• Fixed doppler offset with the gradient filter
• Fixed ruler (swaped the distance and heading in the measurement)

Update August 10th 2022

• Added ITO + Balkans theater
• Route Waypoint dialog (step through waypoint actions, heading and distance).
• .fmap Drop and processing
• Weather charts (Temperature, Doppler, winds, Isobars)
• Settings Dialog (Layer visibility, Chart selection, Unit selection and winds at altitude)
• Map dragging as default mode.
• Minor bug fixes

Update July 26th 2022

• Fix loading Pilot.ini
• Set Bullseye to default for Theater
• Draw Target Triangles for waypoint actions (e.g. Strike, Bomb, etc)

Update July 24th 2022

• Added new layers so Whiteboard/Ruler/Bullseye can be used in parallel correctly without deleting each other
• Added “In use” button color
• Added distance information between STPTs
• Updated KTO 4.36.1 charts

Update July 20th 2022

• Added Bullseye function
• Added 4 colors for whiteboard function

Update July 19th 2022

• Added whiteboard function

Update July 15th 2022

• Added mission.ini drag and drop function

Update July 7th 2022

• Fixes for Windows browsers (Chrome +Edge)
• Landing page updated

---

Browsers

The interactive map has been tested on both MacOS (Safari, Chrome, Firefox) and Windows 10 ( Chrome, Edge, Firefox). On all these browsers the features are fully functional.

User Guide

Find an Airport

To Find and airbase or airstrip, select the desired airport from the selection list at the top left of the map. The list has the airports grouped by country and airbase/airstrip. Once the selection has been made the Interactive Map will draw a red highlight circle around the selected airport on the map and focuses your view on this airport.

You can also hover over an airport to see its name in a tooltip to identify it on the map.

Airport or VORTAC information

To see the information for an airbase, airstrip or VORTAC simply click on it (the mouse pointer will change when there is a clickable item). Once clicked the information will be displayed on the top left:

1. Airport name and ICAO identifier
2. GPS location
3. Elevation
4. Runways
5. TACAN info for navigation
6. Radio frequencies for ATIS, Operations, Ground, Tower, Arrival and Departure control
7. Charts for the selected airport

When clicking on an airport chart a new window will be lauched to display the chart. Subsequent clicks on chart links will display in this same new window. If you desire a new window or tab in the existing browser then right click on the chart-link and request Open new tab/window.

In fullscreen mode the default browser behavior is opening a new tab.

For a VORTAC only a few items are listed:

1. Channel
2. Type (Approach or Enroute)
3. Range but can fluctuate based on Altitude. The higher the more range.

Measure Distances and Compass Angle

To measure distance and angle simply click the mouse and hold and drag the ruler from the start point to where you are aiming while moving. While holding the mouse button pressed the system will update the distance and angle when you mouse the mouse.

Mission Files

When you drag and drop a Mission.ini file onto the interactive map you will see the preplanned threats, flight plan with waypoints and the steerpoint line markings. This is useful when briefing in conjunction with the whiteboarding.

Whiteboard Mode

In whiteboard mode you should not use the ruler and if you do you will ERASE what you have drawn. To start drawing select the pencil from the toolbar and start drawing. You can use the eraser from the toolbar to erase sections on the whiteboard (this will also erase .ini data).
You can select clear/delete icon from the toolbar to remove all the markups and redraw the .ini data.
You have 4 colors to select and the color will be reflected on the toolbar when drawing is active.

To Reset everything on the map you can select the reset icon at the bottom of the toolbar.

Go ahead and give your briefings with the Whiteboard option and share your screen with Discord or Jitsi.

Bullseye

Althought bullseye is target_25 this is not stored in the mission.ini or pilot.ini. However by
selecting the bullseye icon in the toolbar you can enable/disable the bullseye and when enabled you
can drag the bullseye to the location.

Weather

The BMS fmap contains a lot of data that that should be processed and put together to form a pitcure of the weather. Instead of showing Weather type, pressure, temperature and other
sections of the fmap. The Interactive map renders a simulated doppler that combines,
weather type, pressure, temperature to generate a picture. It looks for low pressure areas
and thunder cells, temperature gradients for fronts and blends the temperature to determine
if you have rain or snow.

Enjoy!

[hawkdakilla]

Awesome work! Thank you guys!

[Icer]

@Micro_440th said in Falcon BMS - Interactive Maps:

Find an Airport

To Find and airbase or airstrip, select the desired airport from the selection list at the top left of the map. The list has the airports grouped by country and airbase/airstrip. Once the selection has been made the Interactive Map will draw a red highlight circle around the selected airport on the map and focuses your view on this airport.

@Micro_440th - thanks so much, great tool!! One thing, I do not get a “red highlight circle” when I select a base. It does center it but no circle. I tried it in Chrome, Edge, and Brave - all on Win11. Functions as described otherwise.

[TxMtb]

@Icer Weird, was going to post that Chrome doesn’t show the red circle. Also checked Edge just because, and it doesn’t show there either.

On Firefox it is working fine here. And it does center on the other so is still great to have this back!!

Maybe there is something weird with Windows 11?

[hoover]

You can add Linux to the list of tested operating systems.

Thanks for this, great tool for the BMS community.

All the best,

Uwe

[Lippy]

@hoover Also works on Brave good job

[Icer]

@TxMtb said in Falcon BMS - Interactive Maps:

@Icer Weird, was going to post that Chrome doesn’t show the red circle. Also checked Edge just because, and it doesn’t show there either.

On Firefox it is working fine here. And it does center on the other so is still great to have this back!!

Maybe there is something weird with Windows 11?

Could be!
So in Win 11 Pro all browsers will display the map and function normally, but only Firefox displays the red circle.
Brave \ Edge \ Chrome no Red Circle
Firefox - Red Circle
Linux ?
MacOS?

[Rouge1512]

@Micro_440th

Thank you very much.

[TxMtb]

@Icer Would think so, but just because, tested with a Win 10 machine and got the same results for the browsers. Still a great tool and great to see it.
Thanks again @Micro_440th

Win 11 Pro Version 21H2
Chrome is version 103.0.5060.66
Edge is version 103.0.1264.44
Firefox is version 102.0

[ohommes]

The maps have currently the limitation for Edge and Chrome on Windows in favor of rendering the red highlight circle o on iPhones and iPads as kneeboards.

On Windows there seems to be an event ordering difference from macOS (the platform used to develop the CSS and JS for this). On MacOS Chrome, Safari and Firefox as well as on iOS all work properly. Only Chrome and Edge on Windows seem to have an event ordering issue (I guess the use the same underlying engine). Also measurement/ruler is disabled on tablets due to the fact that you need three finger gymnastics (2 to hold the screen lock and the other to measure. So for now it has been “soft” disabled) there is no code that checks in JS but only difference is which event listeners are used for mouse or pointer down (check the code comments if you inspect the HTML page and want to experiment yourself).

I test on:
Windows (Chrome, Edge, Firefox)
MacOS (Chrome Firefox, Safari)
iOS/iPadOS (Safari)
FireHD

As said the limitation of the highlight circle on Edge and Chrome for Windows was/is known but will work on a solution when I get some time again. But in the mean time enjoy all on Firefox on Windows or macOS

[ohommes]

@Icer on MacOS:
Brave (full functionality and red circle)
Safari (full functionality and red circle)
Chrome (full functionality and red circle)
Firefox (full functionality and red circle).

So only on Windows is there and event order issue in the Chromium code. I will try to figure out why and what can be done.

[Icer]

@ohommes said in Falcon BMS - Interactive Maps:

@Icer on MacOS:
Brave (full functionality and red circle)
Safari (full functionality and red circle)
Chrome (full functionality and red circle)
Firefox (full functionality and red circle).

So only on Windows is there and event order issue in the Chromium code. I will try to figure out why and what can be done.

Well, the laptop I use to display Maps/Manuals is a MacBook Pro running Win 8.1 so I can solve this by simply running Firefox or booting into the MacOS!

[ohommes]

@Micro_440th I made the fix for the Windows Edge, Chrome and all other browsers available for you. to deploy. Tested the following

Windows ( fully working)
Edge, Chrome, Firefox ,Brave

MacOS (fully working)
Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Brave

iPad / iPhone (disabled measurement)
Safari

Next new features to work on.

[Jackal]

@Micro_440th
So Balkans map is planned too?
Great!

Thanks a lot to you and all the fellows involved.

With best regards.

[Micro_440th]

@Jackal said in Falcon BMS - Interactive Maps:

@Micro_440th
So Balkans map is planned too?
Great!

Thanks a lot to you and all the fellows involved.

With best regards.

Yes indeed.

[101-Spyder]

Great job! These maps are always very useful.

[dumba]

@ohommes No red circle here (if you’re still looking for feedback on this) - Win 10, Chrome and Edge.

[Micro_440th]

@dumba said in Falcon BMS - Interactive Maps:

@ohommes No red circle here (if you’re still looking for feedback on this) - Win 10, Chrome and Edge.

Fixed and updated.
Chrome and Edge are now working.
First entry updated with Update changelog

[Icer]

@Micro_440th said in Falcon BMS - Interactive Maps:

@dumba said in Falcon BMS - Interactive Maps:

@ohommes No red circle here (if you’re still looking for feedback on this) - Win 10, Chrome and Edge.

Fixed and updated.
Chrome and Edge are now working.
First entry updated with Update changelog

Brave works also!

[jayb]

Would it be possible for the map to pan to whatever airbase is selected, to center the map on that point? I find myself scrolling and zooming a lot. It might not be easy to do though…