FirstTilt v0.6.2

Added

• The browser viewer now has a dual-pane mode. The Dual button (or the 1 and 2 keys) shows two radar panes side by side, or stacked on narrow screens, each with its own product. The panes share the site, elevation, playback, and a linked pan and zoom.
• The browser viewer now shows weather alerts. Active warnings, watches, and advisories are drawn on the map, and the new Alerts panel lists them with expiration times, hail, wind, and tornado details. Choose which alert types to show in the panel, or turn alerts off in Settings.
• The browser viewer keeps loading new scans and alerts while its tab is in the background, so the loop is current when you switch back. It also fills in scans it missed while the tab was asleep.

Download

Portable copies that update themselves are listed under Assets below.

FirstTilt v0.6.1

Fixed

• On Windows, FirstTilt now asks Explorer to refresh its icons the first time you start a new version, so shortcuts and the taskbar stop showing an old icon left over from a previous version.

Download

Portable copies that update themselves are listed under Assets below.

FirstTilt v0.6.0

Added

• FirstTilt has a browser viewer with site and product selection, live scans, and playback. Choose the WoolawayWx radar feed or process NEXRAD Level II scans on your device.
• Settings now gives you access to local diagnostics. FirstTilt keeps recent desktop session logs and Rust panic reports, and the web viewer can download a report of recent errors.
• FirstTilt can send limited crash reports automatically to WoolawayWx. Automatic reporting is on by default in builds with a report collector. You can turn it off in Settings or review and send a report yourself.

Fixed

• Dragging the "maximum frames" slider no longer deletes loaded frames along the way, and dragging the polling-interval slider no longer restarts live updates on every step. Both apply when you let go.
• The P shortcut now saves the product you land on and skips products that have no data. Single-letter shortcuts no longer fire when Ctrl, Cmd, or Alt is held.
• Esc now closes the update prompt.
• Map layer order set in Settings is now remembered between launches, and the move buttons are disabled at the ends of the list.
• Live radar updates are now merged by compass angle instead of by each volume's radial order, which could blank part of a sweep or draw part of it twice when a new volume started at a different angle.
• Radar downloads and listings now time out and retry instead of hanging forever, and a network problem is reported as one rather than as "no scans available". Switching sites no longer waits on the old site's live catch-up.
• Switching product or tilt while a live update arrives no longer mixes products on the timeline or leaves frames blank.
• The live watcher no longer re-processes the same partial volume while waiting for new data.
• Disabled playback buttons now explain why. Color-table import messages clear on their own.
• Choosing a screenshot, animation, color table, or archive no longer freezes FirstTilt while the file dialog is open, and live updates no longer stall the interface while they are merged.
• Zooming in is limited to a level where radar and map lines stay steady instead of jittering.
• The web viewer is more dependable on slow connections: downloads show progress, retry automatically if the connection drops, and have a Retry button if they fail.

Changed

• Settings is now organized into pages (General, Radar, Map, Alerts, Labels, About & diagnostics) with reset buttons for the basemap, alerts, and labels, an interface size control, and a diagnostics folder button.
• New shortcuts: R shows or hides radar data, T cycles the elevation tilt, H loads history, A opens the Alerts panel, 1/2/4 choose the number of map panes, and Ctrl/Cmd+, opens Settings. A new top-bar button toggles radar data too.
• The timeline lets you drag to scrub through frames and shows each frame's time when you hover it. Icon buttons now have names for screen readers.
• The web viewer works better on phones (pinch and double-tap zoom, Previous/Next stay on screen), lets you type to search for a site or tap one on the map, shows the elevation angle, and can be panned from the keyboard. Background tabs stop polling.
• Live radar playback and the IEM feed use less memory and bandwidth, and the radar cache is written safely.
• FirstTilt has a new look for its icon and logo, in the WoolawayWx burgundy, ink and cream: an FT monogram under a radar scope with a lightning-bolt sweep. It replaces the rainbow icon in the app, the installers, the macOS disk image, and the browser viewer's tab icon and header.
• The desktop app and browser viewer use the same colors as the new logo: warm ink backgrounds, cream text and highlights, and burgundy for selected items and primary buttons. Radar and alert colors are unchanged.

Download

Portable copies that update themselves are listed under Assets below.

FirstTilt v0.5.1

Fixed

• Fixed in-app updates on macOS failing with "failed to unpack ._FirstTilt.app" — the signed
  update archive could include a stray macOS metadata file alongside the real app.
• An available update now shows a centered popup the first time this session, instead of only a
  small toolbar icon that was easy to miss. The full details still live in Settings too.

Download

Portable copies that update themselves are listed under Assets below.

FirstTilt v0.5.0

Added

• Press Cmd (macOS) or Ctrl (Windows/Linux) + Plus/Minus to scale the size of the whole interface,
  and +0 to reset it. This scales the UI itself, not the window.
• Archive viewer: open a folder or a selection of local NEXRAD Level II archive volume files
  to view them as a fixed loop, separate from the live site — a new header button, or
  Settings → Archive. "Back to Live" returns to whatever site was showing. Weather alerts and
  the live-status/History controls are hidden while an archive is open, since they don't apply
  to historical data.
• Differential Phase is now a selectable product, alongside the existing five.
• Each pane can now show a different elevation tilt instead of always the lowest one, via a new
  picker next to the product selector. Available on archive volumes and any current/history-
  loaded frame; not yet available on the freshest still-arriving live frame.

Changed

• The app's interface now uses a cleaner built-in font, with a bolder weight for headings and
  buttons. Map place labels are unaffected and still follow the font chosen in Settings.
• Correlation Coefficient now renders with its own color table (low correlation in browns/
  oranges for non-precipitation returns, blues approaching white near 1.0 for uniform
  precipitation) instead of the generic ramp shared with other secondary products.
• A product with no data in the current frame (e.g. dual-pol products on an older, pre-dual-pol
  volume) now shows grayed out in the product picker instead of being selectable to a blank view.

Fixed

• In 2- and 4-pane layouts, each pane's product picker could render on top of the Settings and
  animation-export windows instead of behind them.
• Clutter Filter Power's data was silently dropped during frame compaction, so it never actually
  had anything to display even before today.
• Fixed the map briefly rendering blank and the app dropping frames when the UI scale was set
  smaller than 100%.
• The "Saved screenshot/animation to..." message now fades out on its own a few seconds after
  saving.
• The Windows app icon is now embedded in the executable, so it shows correctly in Explorer, the
  desktop shortcut, and the taskbar.

Download

Portable copies that update themselves are listed under Assets below.

FirstTilt v0.4.0

Version: 0.4.0 | Minor Update

Previous: Version 0.3.0

Added

• Copies installed from the Mac DMG or the Windows installer can now update themselves: choose
  Update now in Settings and FirstTilt downloads, installs, and restarts into the new version.
  Updates are signature-checked before installing. Updating from 0.3.0 still needs one manual
  download.
• The Mac installer now opens to a window where you drag FirstTilt into Applications.

Changed

• "What's new" now opens automatically only after feature updates (minor or major versions), not
  after bug-fix updates. Every release's notes are still in Help → What's new.

Download

Portable copies that update themselves are listed under Assets below.

FirstTilt v0.3.0

Added

• Default radar site: right-click a site on the map or in the site list (or use Settings) to load
  it at startup.

• Favorite sites: star sites in the site list or from the map, reorder them in Settings, and press
  [ / ] to cycle through them.

• Help menu and window (F1) listing every mouse and keyboard control.
• In-app update check with a notice when a new version is available, plus "What's new" notes for
  each release.
• Minimum population slider for town labels.
• Alert detail cards: click an alert to pin a draggable card joined to it by a leader line. Cards
  show damage-threat and tornado tags, issue and expiry times (local and Zulu) with a live
  countdown, hail and wind, the towns inside the alert, and product IDs, with buttons to center the
  map and copy the details as text. Pin several at once; a card stays open (marked inactive) if
  its alert is cancelled or expires.

Changed

• Esc no longer quits FirstTilt. It closes the top menu, window, or alert card, like other apps;
  quit with Cmd+Q on macOS, Alt+F4 on Windows, or the window's close button.
• New FirstTilt app icon and logo.
• Refreshed top and bottom bars with a consistent icon set and clearer active/hover states.
• Cleaner site list with search, a favorites section, and default/favorite markers.
• Mouse-wheel zoom now glides smoothly like trackpad zoom.
• Town labels no longer flicker while panning; they stay put and slide off the edge of the map.
• Hovering an alert now highlights its outline with a small label instead of a large fixed card.

Fixed

• Live radar updates now add new frames to the timeline instead of replacing the latest one.
• Reflectivity no longer shows range-folding artifacts or a shortened range from the Doppler cut.
• The site list no longer scrolls visibly when opened.

Download

Important

FirstTilt 0.3.0 and later checks for updates when it opens. The portable versions download and install updates automatically; the installer versions show a notice with a download link.

macOS (Apple Silicon)

Windows (x64)

FirstTilt v0.2.2

Fixed

• Release packaging: checksums are generated reliably for every download.