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.

Manual DOWNLOAD

Features

Locate airports and navigation beacons and request their information by hovering over them
Move map, zoom in/out and measure distances on map
Mission.ini or Pilot.ini drag and drop to show route on map and more.
Full whiteboard collaboration using collaboration server
Save Whiteboard(.png) and restore with drag and drop
MIL-STD-2525D symbology
Weather import (fmap drop) for weather charts (Temperature, Doppler, Winds, Isobars)
Route Waypoint dialog (actions, heading, distance and duration updates, etc)
Computed Mission Flight Info, Mission Radio Frequencies and Mission Objectives
Show Lat/Long on map and x,y of image map
Aerodrome Weather Report (METAR) as tooltips and on route dialog (uses) fmap
Add notes on Whiteboard
Bullseye placement

Known issues

iPhone TOS adjustments will zero the time fields so if untouched you get proper delta times towards landing.

Changelog

Update July 06th 2023

Public collaboration server available on www.falcon-bms.com
For connection info, please refer to section 2.5.1.2 of the Interactive Maps manual

Update June 26th 2023

Download and Import GFS data and files
Save GFS data as .fmap
Added Map Laser pointer
Full whiteboard collaboration using collaboration server
Improved METAR with Haze weather type added
Fixed Map Legend location for Balkan and ITO ghost legend
Fixed Bullseye not scaling properly with zoom
Fixed Lat/Long coordinates scaler

Update June 4th 2023

Added Calculated Playtime
Added Mission Package Flight Data inputs
Added Mission Datacard (Mission Briefing)
Added Weather Report (Weather Briefing)
Interactive Maps Documentation sections 3.4 changed and 3.5 added

Update May 16th 2023

ADDED: Manual

Update May 2nd 2023

ADDED: Performance optimizations (canvas refresh, ruler, mouse listeners )
ADDED: Improved network loading times
ADDED: Quick min/max zoom with Shift.
ADDED: Additional map filters for night mode and higher contrasts.
ADDED: Cloud Rendering for SCT, BKN and OVC.
ADDED: Adjust window size to new chart width x height ratio
ADDED: Whiteboard.png stacking (hold ShiftKey and drag and drop)
ADDED: Added more Symbology (For Air, Sea and Land)
ADDED: Multi version .fmap support (version 5, 8 )
FIXED: Draw Bullseye always on top

Update April 4th 2023

Map Filter (Default or Greyscale)
Whiteboard full style control (color, line style, fill style, opacity and erase size)
MIL-STD-2525D Land Unit Symbology ( BMS used only)

Update March 17th 2023

Draw Circles
Save / Restore Whiteboard

Update February 18th 2023

Remember session last zoom level
Save preference settings in browser
Performance and Minor bug fixes (not always .fmap is available)
Airport popup UI changes
Update doppler radar with weather beam scan and occlusions
Updated Bingo calculation
Added METAR for airports in tooltip and route from .fmap

Update January 29th 2023

Show x,y of image map and Lat/Long on map when enabled in Settings
Auto focus mission on Drop .ini file or <SHIFT> Compass button.
Bug fix for STPT number when radio data was not provided (Mission.ini)
Bug fix for Objectives list creating null object

Update January 22th 2023

UI update default to map dragging after Settings and Route dialogs
Updated Route Dialog tab to show Track direction and distance to next waypoint
Added TOS and TAS to experiment with different TOS and Speeds during briefing to Route
Added Duration in minutes to more accurately determine the total flight time.
Duration defaults for Hold Pt. (4 min), CAP (15 min) Refuel (20)
Allow Altitude to be updated ( will be used in future updates for wind adjustments to GS)
Notes section added AWACS and Tanker callsigns for steer-points other than Land and Takeoff
Added Radio Tab for Route information with all UHF and VHF frequencies for presets
Added Mission Tab with computed Flight Data and Mission Objectives
Minor tweaks

Computed Flight Data:

Total Distance (Sum of legs)
Duration (derived from Distance and Ground Speed)
Estimated Fuel (Based on Heuristic average Fuel Flow)
Computed Bingo (Based on Maximum distance from Home Plate and Fuel Flow Heuristics)

Objectives Section:

Lists the Objectives from Steer-points 81 to 99
Uses Abbreviations to keep objectives text to max two lines per objective (e.g. Airbase = AB)

Update January 3rd 2023

Updated charts for KTO, ITO, Balkans
Updated Navaids
Added EOR charts (KTO only)

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

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: