vPAR - Contact and History
March 1, 2005
Michael Oxner
Contact Information
Once again, I've decided to continue the tradition in Flight Simulator
add-on products and release this as freeware. There are consequences
to this idea, though. Since this is not supporting my income, I'm not
making troubleshooting a priority. This means that if you have difficulty
using the program, I may not be able to provide much for technical support,
and what I do provide may not be on a timely basis. I have a great appreciation
for those undergoing troubles with programs and I endeavor to help whenever
I can. In the past, I've worked with e-mail, ICQ, Roger Wilco and online
with VatSim to help solve problems with users and I will continue to
do so at every viable opportunity. In fact, I welcome comments, both positive
and negative, in the hopes that I can improve the product. I've already
corrected major and minor logic flaws with the help of users in the US,
Germany, Japan and others, as well as my own home country of Canada. Any
suggestions are also welcome, whether or not they get implemented depends
on the suggestion and the level of need. I am not a professional programmer
and there are many limits to my abilities. As such, no warranty exists,
and use of either or both of these programs is at your own risk.
Having said all of that, feel free to contact me. My e-mail address in
moxner@nbnet.nb.ca
. I'm in Moncton, NB, Canada, so that's a time difference of UTC-4
(UTC-3 in Daylight Savings Time, approximately early Spring to mid-Fall).
If you're the kind of person who likes to support the continued development
of software financially, I'd appreciate any donations to the cause.
Contact me through e-mail for a mailing address, or send money through
PayPal or HyperWallet to the above e-mail address.
I would appreciate any donations, be they financial or something so
simple as a chart or other item from your neck of the woods, but this
software is meant as freeware.
Release History
Version 2.0 - March 1, 2005
- There have been a number of changes in this release. Let's get to
them:
vPAR QuadRadar V2.0 changes include the following:
- Reworked glidepath calculations. There were minor errors in the old
calculations that didn't show up at low GPA, but were quite evident at higher
ones.
- A reworked PAR elevation view in both modes. The GP is now stationary
on both displays, rather than changing with different glidepath angles. Here's
the catch: The presentation is a little different now on both screens, and
both behave differently from each other.
A. The Logarithmic display is the most changed of the two. The angular
display is now worked in such a way that the sloping surface on the left
is compared with the horizontal line on the bottom, and this angle is now
broken into 7°. 3.5° above the GP, and 3.5° below. If the horizon
is "visible" in that angular width (ie, the GP is less than 3.5 degrees),
it will be drawn as a green "floor". There are now reference lines that
are 1, 2 and 3° both above and below the GP, with markings along the
side to indicate what they are. Now that the angle of the GP is constant
on the screen, the elevation angles are variable in a significant way: If
the GPA is set high, an aircraft in level flight will show up as climbing
sharply from the bottom of the elevation view to intercept the glidepath.
This is simply a function of measuring and plotting the elevation angle
above the radar site, and there's nothing logical I can think of to make
this any different and still make sense.
B. The Linear plot was revised to alter the spacing of the altitude lines
as the GP increases. The altitude increments will, therefore, be different
at different GPAs, always staying close to ten divisions, and the increment
being higher at higher GPAs. The altitudes are marked on the right hand side
of the display. This has the effect of reducing the resolution of the display
on the vertical axis as the GPA increases. In this view, the horizon will
always be the horizontal line at the bottom of the elevation display, as
before.
- The calculations for plotting aircraft elevations as well as angular
elevations were corrected, as with point 1, but in a slightly different
way. These were the hardest areas to fine tune and ensure they were correct.
- The LAW line plot was reworked on both displays to cover some errors
similar to points 1 and 3 that were particularly noticeable at higher GPAs.
- The glidepath comboboxes in the Approach Editor and the PAR Setup
screen were expanded to include values of 0.1-15 in 0.1 degree increments,
15-20 in 0.5 degree increments, 20-25 in whole degree increments and a 30°
entry. Manual entries are also acceptable, as before. Anything above 30
will be replaced with 30.0.
- Servoing the GP has changed. To aid in adjusting the GPA quickly over
the new, wider range, new shortcut keys and menu items were added to the
"Display" menu. In addition, it was decided that the servoing of the GP and
FAC should be similar in that <CTRL>+<ARROW KEY> is now used to
make 0.1 degree changes for both, and <SHIFT>+<ARROW KEY> is
now used for 1.0 degree changes.
- Added Extended Centerline, a facility which allows the user to add
an extended runway centerline along the currently set final approach course
to a specified distance on the Traffic screen which may extend well beyond
the PAR Block and the PAR range. The color is independently set so it can
be different from other map colors. Its length is set on the Traffic Setup
screen. Preset values in 5NM increments to 50NM are available, though any
integer can be typed in the box. Any non-integer will set the value to 0.
If the user sets it at 0, it will not be drawn.
- The Connection Manager is no longer a modal window. This means the
user can open the Connection Manager and view its contents, then close it,
or it can be left open without forcing the user to close it to make changes
to or interact with the program. This allows a continuous display of those
connected without interfering with program use.
- PAR, ASDE, and Traffic Setup dialogs, as well as the Connection Manager
and Approach Editor windows may be repositioned. Especially with the new
Connection Manager window, this may lead to windows being repositioned off
screen in multiple monitor environments, as well as by inadvertent cursor
movements. Under the Window menu, each of these windows have a "reset position"
menu item which allows for quick and easy resetting of position to the top-left
corner without having to edit the INI file.
vPAR Transponder V2.0 changes include:
- Last IP used is now saved in the INI file and will be reloaded the
next time the program is run. Useful for repeated connections to the same
controller.
- The IP boxes where controller IPs are entered have been replaced with
comboboxes. These boxes will contain 10 user defined IP addresses to allow
quick entry of common IP addresses. See point 3.
- New button to the right of the Ident box toggles IP list editor. This
will pop out from the right hand side of the window, much like the Approach
Editor pops down from the bottom. The listbox contains currently saved IPs,
as they appear in the comboboxes. Enter an IP in the box above the Add button,
then click the Add button to add the IP to the list. To remove a saved IP,
highlight the IP in the listbox (by clicking on it), then click the remove
button. There is no undo. This editor can be closed by clicking the "Close
Editor" button, or by clicking the "Edit IP List" button that was used to
open the editor. When the editor is closed, the IPs in the listbox will be
saved to the three controller IP boxes' dropdown lists. These lists will
be saved to the INI file when the program is shut down.
- There is a new IP checking routine that will prevent errors in the
IP address boxes. It checks the overall length of the string, the values
between the "dots", and makes sure only numeric characters are put in. If
the program detects an error, it notifies the user that there is an error
(though it doesn't tell the user what the error is) with a message box, and
places the cursor in the offending field when the user clicks "OK" in the
message box.
- The glidepath combobox in the Approach Editor were expanded to include
values of 0.1-15 in 0.1 degree increments, 15-20 in 0.5 degree increments,
20-25 in whole degree increments and a 30° entry. Manual entries are
also acceptable, as before. anything above 30 will be replaced with 30.
vPAR QuadRadar Analog V2.0 changes:
- Some code was reworked and should result in better memory usage, making
it somewhat more efficient.
- There is no some basic value checking in the approach info
fields. This will turn the background in a box yellow if the value appears
to the program to be an error. This is meant to call the user's attention
to the data to check to ensure it is correct. It will still accept the value
and use it in approach plotting. The parameters which will turn the corresponding
box yellow are:
A. Latitude and longitude values are checked against integer values. The
process used to convert string data to numbers return a value that is truncated
at the first non-digit character (other than +, - signs, commas and periods).
If a latitude or longitude value is an even integer, which is a possibility,
though slim, the boxes turn yellow.
B. If the GPA is less than 1.0°.
C. If the GPI exceeds 4,000 feet.
D. If the DH is below the Elevation.
There are no other checks, currently.
Version 1.51 - November 18, 2004
- Another minor update issued. This time, while trying to track down
another issue, I noticed that fullscreen Traffic and ASDE modes left airport,
fix, VOR and NDB labels drawn in the same color as the targets, instead
of the same color as the fix they are related to. Then I realized that the
color used was different even while not in full-screen modes. I tracked
down the issue, and V1.51 was released of the QuadRadar today. Also, V1.51
of the Transponder was released to fix the same problem that was thought
to be solved in V1.5 release detailed on November 14. It turns out that I
missed a section of code related to reading the file in the Transponder,
so I had to reissue this program. The Analog QuadRadar was updated to V1.51
for consistency in version number, with no further changes.
Version 1.5 - November 14, 2004
- A minor update that won't affect most North American users, but
will help those who use commas as their decimal separators in their regional
settings in Windows. If "44.5" is used as a latitude value, for example,
but the user's computer represents this as "44,5", then vPAR_Q would fail
trying to read it. Now, vPAR will read the file first to determine if there
are any commas in the file, and change them to periods, since the period
has to be used with the mathematical computations within vPAR. It will automatically
change these commas in the file, wherever they are, and save the file with
periods instead. Thanks to Emiel Ekamper for helping me nail this one. He
was the only one who reported this problem, though I'm sure others must have
found it, too.
Version 1.4 - August 18, 2004
- Version 1.4 is actually an update to the Transponder, and the vPAR
QuadRadars remain unchanged. Brian van Hout, from South Africa, discovered
a flaw in the multiple addresses. It seems that a simple typo managed to
creep into the code which forced the second and third connections to be
made to the IP in the first IP box. The controller at IP#1 would see 2 pilots
connected, but would see only one aircraft on the radar, and only one listed
in the Connection Manager. If he booted the listed pilot off, he would still
see him connected -- via the second connection in the pilot's Transponder.
This was a simple fix, but an important one for anyone using the mulitple
connection interface, one of the important enhancements over the orginal
Transponder version.
Version 1.3 - July 24, 2004
- As detailed in the FAQ & Forum page, the new RBL feature was
added. Version number was incremented to 1.3, and the QuadRadar Analog and
Transponders were updated with new version numbers accordingly. No changes
were made to these two packages.
Version 1.2 - May 10, 2004
- Another non-critical update. This time, numbers along the range
markers in the PAR screen were added to the vPAR QuadRadar, as well as making
the Low Altitude Warning line consistent (it was a dashed line on one plot
method and a solid line on the other -- now it's a dashed line on both
as originally intended). The QuadRadar Analog now has a 5 NM range in addition
to the 10, 15 and 20 mile ranges. The Transponder was updated with the
version number in the title bar with no other changes introduced. More
to keep up with the other versions and actually show what it is.
Version 1.1 - March 26, 2004
- A non-critical update was issued to the website only. No other
attempts to contact users were made. The issue? The key for FSUIPC version
3 and later was placed in the stats included within the executable, but
I put the wrong key in. The program would still work if a user registered
the program with the key separately, but it means something that shouldn't
be required. Anyway, the executable was re-built today with the correct code,
and this should work properly now without having to take the extra step.
Version 1.1 - February 8, 2004
- New version corrected a bug, which was first reported by John
Gayford of New Zealand, which caused a repetitive error giving "ACOS DOMAIN
ERROR". The error was isolated to one particular function, and occurred
primarily when an aircraft was stationary and displayed in the Traffic
screen, and could also occur if the aircraft was *exactly* over top of the
GPI. The vPAR QuadRadar and vPAR QuadRadar Analog were both fixed and updated
to Version 1.1, and the vPAR Transponder was also updated to 1.1 for consistency,
but no changes were made here.
Version 1.0 - February 1, 2004 & February 2, 2004
- Initial release of vPAR, the successor to my old PAR program.
Originally meant to be V2.0, the new name just made me feel like starting
over. :)
- Additionally, the new rewrite of the Analog QuadRadar was released,
again being considered V1.0 for the sake of keeping numbers the same.