Summary
Virtual Mission Tools (VMT) is a program for assisting mission planners and participants to better understand the situation, including views of friendly and enemy air forces and weather.
Screenshot
Motivation
I wrote VMT because I wanted a better way to view the overall situation in the missions I was flying. The Falcon 2D UI has a lot of great functionality, but I felt that having different visualizations of battlefield information could be helpful. I also wanted to be able to view information from my WeatherGen tool alongside things like flight paths and the disposition of enemy forces. Finally, I wanted to be able to share information about missions I was creating with other pilots in advance of the mission without having to distribute the mission itself, or have an instance of BMS running somewhere.
VMT is my ongoing effort to meet those needs. I and other members of the 1st VFW have been using it for several months in its earlier incarnations. It has now reached a point where I think it’s useful and stable enough to be distributed to the broader BMS community. I hope you find it useful.
Download and Installation
Current version: v058
The latest install can always be found here.
To install, simply download and unzip.
Status
VMT is something I use for every mission I create. I consider it stable and ready to go. That said, there are about a million features I’d like to add, and a few things that are obviously lacking. For instance, currently only airbases are displayed on the map. Display of ground forces is high on the list of things to be added in the near future.
Getting Started
VMT has a lot of features, so expect it to take a little while to figure them all out. Please ask questions here, but also note that VMT, like WeatherGen, has extensive in-app help. Clicking anything with a blue dotted underline or a blue question mark will pop up help for that feature.
To get going, download and unzip from the appropriate link above. Double-click VMT.exe, and when the app opens, click “Load Mission (.cam/.tac)” and select a mission from your Falcon install. Begin exploring!
All VMT Tutorial Videos
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL38Y5xS3fngEkAdUx5AZqU4ZfEWlploq_
FAQ
Q: Where should I ask questions?
A: Right here in this thread.
Q: Does VMT support 4.34?
A: Not yet. Now that 4.34 is out, I will be working frantically to support it, and I hope to have it ready before too long, but there are lots of file format changes that I will need to address, and I have to fit it in around family/work/etc., so I expect it will take me a little while. Go play with all the awesome new stuff while you wait!
Q: How does this relate to WeatherGen?
A: It replaces WeatherGen. It has all of the features of WeatherGen, and many more. It is not however, a web app. WeatherGen will continue to work, but no new features will be added to it.
Q: Doesn’t this do the same thing as Mission Commander?
A: Definitely not. For one thing Mission Commander can edit missions - VMT (currently) cannot. Mission Commander is a great tool for mission planners, but I wanted something that both mission planners and mission participants could use visualize the virtual battlefield.
* Change Log
** v058 [2018-09-18 Tue]
- Fix typos in download page.
- Build Linux version as well
- Change logo to 440th VFW's
- Fix various formatting problems
- Fix incorrect label on annotations copy button
- Improved map sizing and positioning: controls will never move below
map. Instead, map gets smaller if necessary to accommodate controls
when resizing window.
- Titlebar of map is collapsible to increase usable space.
- Tab names now remain visible even when scrolling content.
- Fixed width of dropdowns in annotation controls.
- Implemented "Save map image as PNG"
- Fixed intermittent bug where things wouldn't render right sometimes
- Flights can be opened in their own tabs
- Fix (again) high CPU when app is idle
- Flight colors and check state are now saved with briefing
** v057 [2018-02-01 Thu]
- Add missing help text
** v056 [2018-01-28 Sun]
- Annotations!
- Add arrows, text, shapes, and lines to a map and save them with a
briefing
- Can now save modified briefing when viewing a briefing
- Fix bug where dragging off the map makes things jump around
- Reverse use of triangles/circles in waypoints to match BMS
- Include download link in update notifications.
** v055 [2017-12-26 Tue]
- Fix bug where sorting was broken on flights page.
- Fix bug where flight color selection was not working.
- Fix occasional runaway CPU utilization.
** v054 [2017-12-22 Fri]
- Fix minor bug where "VMT Settings" text was showing when it shouldn't.
** v053 [2017-12-21 Thu]
- Add ability to have VMT automatically check for updated versions of
itself.
- Fix problem where web links were opening in the app instead of in a
browser.
** v052 [2017-12-18 Mon]
- Major speedup in mission and briefing loading.
- Add checkbox in map controls section allowing show/hide of borders
of wind stability areas.
- Wind stability areas and weather override regions are automatically
placed in edit mode when created.
- Fix bug introduced in v051 where squadrons weren't showing up for
carriers and army bases.
- Fix bug where weather override edit button wasn't displaying
correctly when editing.
** v051 [2017-12-16 Sat]
- Handle [[https://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/showthread.php?31611-Release-Tyrant-s-Virtual-Mission-Tools-(VMT)&p=449550&viewfull=1#post449550][weird Balkans bad index bug]].
- Report warning when squadrons have no airbase
- Handle problem with improper handling of time in briefing files.
** v050 [2017-11-18 Sat]
- Fix bug handling consecutive steerpoints with the same time
- Fix bug where briefing wouldn't load due to nil time somewhere.
** v049 [2017-10-15 Sun]
- Fix bug where install ID was saved incorrectly in briefing files.
- Save version of VMT used to create briefing files; warn on load if a
different version of VMT is being used.
** v048 [2017-09-30 Sat]
- Briefing notes: a simple (for now) text box where mission designers
can put notes to be displayed when the briefing file is opened.
- Display version number in the title bar.
- Improved loading progress display: organized hierarchically,
supports displaying warnings.
- Allow mission creator to choose BMS version when multiple versions
are installed and pointing to the same directory.
- Bugfix: warn, don't crash, when a theater is in the theater list but
no .tdf can be found.
- Bugfix: fix excessive CPU utilization when loading multiple missions
** v047 [2017-08-25 Fri]
- Use correct flags for teams.
- Fix errors loading related to objective names.
- Error when reading the last string in the strings file.
- Error when reading the objective name of a carrier objective.
** v045
- Initial public release