Radio Direction Finder plugin for EuroScope. Still actively maintained.
VectorAudio is an officially recognized multi-platform Audio-For-VATSIM ATC client for Windows, macOS and Linux. This improved RDF plugin utilizes VectorAudio's SDK and sends HTTP GET requests to get transmitting stations and RX/TX status.
- Random radio direction offsets to simulate measuring errors in real life.
- Offers variable precision at different altitudes.
- Hide radio-direction-finders for low altitude aircrafts.
- Draw controllers as desired.
- (Existing feature) RGB settings for circle or line, and different color for concurrent transmission.
- ASR-specific drawing parameters including colors, precision and filtering.
Do the same work as afv-euroscope-bridge. Supports both VectorAudio and Audio for VATSIM standalone client. When a new radio station is set up for RX/TX, RDF detects its status and toggles respective channels in EuroScope.
- For Audio for VATSIM standalone client, toggles are made instantly.
- For VectorAudio, the status are updated at an interval of VectorAudioRetryInterval, by default 5 seconds. See below.
There are two ways to modify the plugin settings - by settings file and by commandline functions.
This table shows all configurable items.
| Entry Name | Command Line Keyword | Range | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| VectorAudioAddress | ADDRESS | 127.0.0.1:49080 | |
| VectorAudioTimeout | TIMEOUT | [100, 1000] | 300 |
| VectorAudioPollInterval | POLL | [100, +inf) | 200 |
| VectorAudioRetryInterval | RETRY | [1, +inf) | 5 |
| RGB | RGB | RRR:GGG:BBB | 255:255:255 |
| ConcurrentTransmissionRGB | CTRGB | RRR:GGG:BBB | 255:0:0 |
| Radius | RADIUS | (0, +inf) | 20 |
| Threshold | THRESHOLD | -1 | |
| Precision | PRECISION | [0, +inf) | 0 |
| LowAltitude | ALTITUDE L_____ | 0 | |
| HighAltitude | ALTITUDE H_____ | [0, +inf) | 0 |
| LowPrecision | PRECISION L_____ | 0 | |
| HighPrecision | PRECISION H_____ | [0, +inf) | 0 |
| DrawControllers | CONTROLLER | 0 or 1 | 0 |
For command line configurations, use .RDF KEYWORD VALUE, e.g. .RDF CTRGB 0:255:255. Replace "_____" with value in low/high altitude/precision directly, e.g. .RDF ALTITUDE L10000. All command line functions are case-insensitive. Command line settings will be saved to plugin settings file (defined in .prf file).
In settings files the default is like the following:
PLUGINS
<eventually existing configuration lines>
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:VectorAudioAddress:127.0.0.1:49080
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:VectorAudioTimeout:300
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:VectorAudioPollInterval:200
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:VectorAudioRetryInterval:5
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:RGB:255:255:255
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:ConcurrentTransmissionRGB:255:0:0
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Radius:20
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Threshold:-1
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Precision:0
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:LowAltitude:0
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:HighAltitude:0
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:LowPrecision:0
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:HighPrecision:0
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:DrawControllers:0
END
- VectorAudioAddress should include address and port only. E.g. 127.0.0.1:49080 or localhost:49080, etc.
- VectorAudioTimeout is in milliseconds. For HTTP requests.
- VectorAudioPollInterval is in milliseconds. For transmission inquiries.
- VectorAudioRetryInterval is in seconds. For re-establishing connection and updating RX/TX channels.
- RGB, ConcurrentTransmissionRGB, see README below.
- Radius, Threshold, Precision, LowAltitude, HighAltitude, LowPrecision, HighPrecision see Random Offset Schematic below.
- DrawControllers is compatible with both VectorAudio and Audio for VATSIM standalone client. Other transimitting controllers will be circled as well but without offset. 0 means OFF and other numeric value means ON.
When EuroScope is running, you can reload settings in Settings File Setup and then enter .RDF RELOAD (case-insensitive) in command line.
Since v1.3.5, all configurations made by command line funcions, except those related to VectorAudio, will only be effective in current ASR and will be saved to ASR instead of plugin settings file. An RDF-configured ASR may contain the following lines, whose value should be consistent with the above:
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:RGB:255:255:255
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:ConcurrentTransmissionRGB:255:255:0
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Radius:20
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Threshold:-1
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Precision:0
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:LowAltitude:0
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:HighAltitude:0
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:LowPrecision:0
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:HighPrecision:0
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:DrawControllers:1
When an ASR is opened, the plugin will use the configurations in the sequence of ASR - plugin settings file - default value.
.RDF RELOAD commmand line will discard all command line configurations in this session and restore ASR-specific configurations. One can change global settings by modifying plugin settings file, reloading settings in EuroScope dialog, and executing this command.
- LowAltitude in feet, is used to filter aircrafts. Only aircrafts not lower than this altitude will be radio-direction-found.
- A circle will only be drawn within radar display area. Otherwise a line leading to the target is drawn.
- Random offsets (when enabled) follow a normal distribution. 99.74% (-3σ ~ 3σ) of offsets are within given precision.
- Threshold < 0:
- Radius is in pixel. Circles are always drawn in fixed pixel radius.
- Precision is used for random offset in nautical miles.
- Low/High settings are ignored.
- Threshold >= 0:
- Threshold is in pixel. Radius is in nautical miles. Precision is in nautical miles.
- Circle size will change according to zoom level. Circles are drawn only when its pixel radius is not less than Threshold. Otherwise a line leading to the target is drawn.
- When LowPrecision > 0:
- Deprecates Radius. All circle radius is determined by precision.
- If HighPrecision > 0 and HighAltitude > LowAltitude:
- Overrides Precision. Dynamaic precision is implemented taking aircraft altitude into account.
- Precision (= radius) is linearly interpolated or extrapolated by altitude and low/high settings.
Precision = LowPrecision + (Altitude - LowAltitude) / (HighAltitude - LowAltitude) * (HighPrecision - LowPrecision)
- Otherwise LowPrecision precedes Precision when determining random offset.
- EuroScope may crash when using TopSky at the same time with certain TopSky settings due to conflicting API method to communicate with Audio for VATSIM standalone client. Goto TopSkySettings.txt and add
RDF_Mode=-1to prevent such cases. - Do not simultaneously load this plugin along with the older version of RDF, or with the original afv-euroscope-bridge plugin, which may cause unexpected behavior.
Important
Check your .prf content and make sure afv-euroscope-bridge will not be loaded.
And check your TopSkySettings.txt if you are using TopSky.
Fail to obey these rules may result in accidental crash.
- Audio for VATSIM standalone client doesn't provide callsign for RX/TX, so this plugin has to guess the corresponding callsign and it doesn't guarantee 100% correct toggles. But it shouldn't affect text receive and transmit function.
- When using professional correlation mode (S or C) in EuroScope, it's possible some aircraft won't be radio-direction-found because the plugin doesn't know the callsign for an uncorrelated radar target.
- For dual pilot situation where the transmitting pilot logs in as observer, this plugin will try to drop the last character of the observer callsign and find again if this dropped character is between A-Z. This feature may cause inaccurate radio-direction.
- Because of new drawing behaviour introduced after EuroScope v3.2.3, switching between ASRs may not change the plugin drawing configurations. In such case, simply pan your view to update configurations per ASR.
- pierr3/VectorAudio: initiative.
- chembergj/RDF: basic drawings.
- AndyTWF/afv-euroscope-bridge: Audio for VATSIM standalone client message handling.
- yhirose/cpp-httplib: HTTP library.