vPAR - Compatibility
March 1, 2005
Michael Oxner


Hardware Requirements:

There is nothing advanced about vPAR, either the QuadRadar or the Transponder. I used four computers during development and testing of vPAR, both Intel and AMD processors, and the weakest machine tested was a P133 with 32 MB of RAM. Decompressed, the vPAR QuadRadar, the largest of the two programs, requires less than 2 MB of free space. No fancy video cards are required, either, since OpenGL and DirectDraw are not involved in the old-style plotting commands used.

Operating Systems:

The only operating system that vPAR was designed for is Windows. The original version of the PAR program, as well as the early stages of development for vPAR, was developed and tested in Windows ME and then later in Windows XP. The P133 test machine I mentioned above ran the vPAR Transponder on Windows 98 and a P166 with Windows 98 ran the vPAR QuadRadar. There are no plans to build this program for support of any other operating system. There are no extra DLL's, or "runtime libraries", required as both vPAR programs were written to include all required function calls. This made the programs larger than they really needed to be, but they really aren't large to begin with, as mentioned above.

Flight Simulation Software:

The only simulation software this program was designed for is Microsoft's Flight Simulator. As mentioned above, FS98 should still be supported, and this program was tested successfully with FS2000, FS2002, and FS2004. The Transponder requires FSUIPC to be installed in the "MODULES" folder in the Flight Simulator's main folder. See below for versions supported.

FSUIPC Versions:

The original program was written and tested with FSUIPC 2.8. The vPAR Transponder, which is the only part of vPAR that accesses Flight Simulator's state data through FSUIPC, should be equally compatible with FS98 and later. The required state data in use include Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, Heading and Magnetic Variation. To operate with FSUIPC 3 and later, which is required for use of the vPAR Transponder with FS004, you'll need a registry key. Use the following:

Program Name:
vPAR_X.exe
Key:
ELDV W3GG 40IT
Note: The key contains a zero, not an 'O', in the last grouping.

Note:
If you had downloaded this and got a message saying this program is not accredited, the reason is because the wrong key was built into the executable. My fault. As of March 26, the program contained on this site has the correct key. Registering the program with the proper key above should work, even though the old executable would cause this message to appear.

The vPAR QuadRadar is a stand-alone product and does not require the use of Flight Simulator, nor does it require FSUIPC. It merely receives and processes data over a network.

Network Protocols:

TCP/IP is the sole network protocol supported by vPAR. There are no plans to expand this capability due to the wide use of TCP/IP within home LANs and of course the internet itself, which was the primary medium involved in the reason for or vPAR's development.

Some folks have had difficulty with routers, but I have no experience with routers. I've heard the term "virtual server" associated with one successful 'repair', so that might be a place to look. I've also been told that setting up static IP allocation behind the router, rather than dynamic, might help. Thanks to John Gayford of New Zealand for these suggestions. Also, for firewall information, vPAR uses port 4242.

Sector File Specification:

Out of ASRC, ProController and vPAR, I think vPAR has to be the most anal when it comes to reading sector files. Basically, if vPAR will read it, the other two should be able to. I have built no error trapping code into the sector file reading routines, so it is possible that files that read easily with the others will cause an "Abnormal Program Termination" or some similar error in vPAR when attempting to load a sector file. The following "measurements" were used as a guideline, and all fixes used in airways or other segments must be defined in the [FIXES] section, which must precede any other use in the sector file.

Sector File Section:
Pattern: (1=spot 10, 2=spot 20, and so forth)
[FIXES]
;-----*--1---------2-*-------3-----
PLUNC N042.07.50.440 W088.03.36.340
[VOR]
;---*----1--*------2-------*-3---------4-
ORD 113.000 N041.59.15.607 W087.54.17.635
[NDB]
;-----*--1----*----2---------*---------4---
ERMIN 332.000 N041.43.08.415 W087.50.11.198
[AIRPORT]
;----*---1---*-----2--------*3---------4---*
KORD 120.750 N041.58.46.542 W087.54.16.071 B
[RUNWAY]
;---*---*1--*---*--2---------3-*-------4------*--5---------6-*-------7-----
04L 22R 040 220 N041.58.53.997 W087.54.50.079 N041.59.51.169 W087.53.46.912
[ARTCC], [ARTCC LOW] & [ARTCC HIGH]
;--------1-*-------2------*--3---------4-*-------5------*--6---------7
CHI_CTR    N040.00.00.000 W086.09.00.000 N040.41.00.000 W084.40.00.000
[SID] & [STAR]
;--------1---------2------*--3---------4-*-------5------*--6---------7*--------8
CATALINA FIVE CATALINA    LAX            LAX            SXC           SXC
[LOW AIRWAY] & [HIGH AIRWAY]
;--------1---------2------*--3---------4-*-------5------*--6---------7-*-------8
J84-94-100-128            OBK            OBK            DBQ            DBQ
[GEO]
;--------1-----*---2---------3*--------4-----*---5---------6*----
N040.00.00.000 W124.00.00.000 N039.45.00.000 W123.50.00.000 WHITE

If it doesn't match these exactly, there is a good chance that vPAR won't like it.

The RIF format soon to be standard with ASRC V1.2 *may* be supported in the future. It depends on how much time I get to reinvent the wheel. If I were a better programmer, I'm sure this would be easier, but for now, I haven't begun to work toward this. If users report a strong desire to have this worked in, perhaps that can be done. Until then, I'll wait and see what develops.