Change Log

What has happened already

This change log taken from the readme.html file of the installation package.

v1.5x

v1.52

To update coming from v1.50 or v1.51: Just copy the 3 executables LiveTraffic/64/*.xpl.

• FIXED #174: Aircraft sometimes failed to create when best available data was just half a second away from the end of the buffering period (introduced with v1.50)

• FIXED a startup problem on Windows 8.1-based systems causing "Error Code = 127 : The specified procedure could not be found." (introduced with v1.51)

v1.51

• PARTICIALLY FIXED #174: Should avoid crashing after a rare and yet unexplained event leading to missing data while trying to create a new aircraft.

v1.50 Snap to Taxiways

To update coming from v1.24: Copy the 3 executables LiveTraffic/64/*.xpl and the updated Resources/Doc8643.txt file.

• ADDED #100: Snapping to taxiways to make aircraft stay on taxiways more often. Also determines gate/ramp positions and turns aircraft the right way. Controlled by Snap to Taxiways setting in Advanced Settings. See documentation for some background of how it works.

• ADDED #17: Soft Bezier-style curves for turning aircraft.

• ADDED safeguard to keep approaching aircraft above 2.5° glidescope to avoid landing short of the runway.

• ADDED #13: Ensure nearest aircraft are shown when reaching limit.

• FIXED #170 (Windows only): Multiplayer location info initialized with "far away" again instead of zeroes.

• ADDED message that LiveTraffic does not yet work under Vulkan/Metal. Watch this post and await v2.0.

v1.2x

v1.24 Fix Auto-Land

To update coming from v1.23 copy the 3 executables LiveTraffic/64/*.xpl.

• FIXED #169 auto-land.

v1.23.200222 OpenSky Masterdata fixits

To update coming from v1.22

• copy the 3 executables LiveTraffic/64/*.xpl.

• copy the 3 updated files LiveTraffic/Resources/*.txt and LiveTraffic/Resources/FlightModels.prf.

Changes to LiveTraffic:

• FIXED handling of OpenSky master data, avoiding duplicate requests. Reduces likelihood of HTTP 503 error and improves handling of it.

• UPDATED Doc8643.txt and related.txt to include new ICAO aircraft type codes like B3XM (B737 MAX 10)

• FIXED #156 a bug preventing the display of aircraft when decimal point in regional settings differs from dot.

• FIXED #50 a crash in X-Plane startup after failed initalization of LiveTraffic (again), e.g. due to invalid configuration file.

• ADDED some aspects of #100, snapping to taxiways, already. Few changes to aircraft behaviour will be visible yet. But LiveTraffic already reads scenery information to learn about runways and taxiways. Auto-land aircraft will more often and more accuractely find a runway. But the main part, avoiding cutting corners when leaving the runway for a taxiway or turning tight corners, is not yet in.

v1.22.190829 Fixits, model_typecode file

Changes to LiveTraffic:

• ADDED #44 lookup of a/c type designator by human-readable model text. Can avoid using standard A320/follow-me car in many, though not all cases. Many thanks to @crbascott for providing the mapping file model_typecode.txt, which you need to place into LiveTraffic/Resources.

• 2 changes to LTAPI for other plugins' benefit:

  • ADDED #2 CSL model in use

  • CHANGED #3 precision of location from float to double.

v1.21.190813 Fixits

• ADDED #152 option Log.txt: Set Log Level = "Debug" to Debug Settings, in case users search there when following support request guidelines. Unchecking this option resets Log Level to "Warning".

• CHANGED #149: OpenSky Master Data channel is enforced to be active, when OpenSky tracking data is used to avoid "only A320/follow-me car" issue. Also, OpenSky Master is enabled as a recommendation when activating RealTraffic channel (but can be deactivated manually in this case).

• CHANGED #122 drawing of message area's background, possibly reducing cloud texture glitches. Fix courtesy of slgoldberg.

• FIXED #153 validation of original ADSBEx API keys after ADSBEx's server response changed.

• CHANGED #151 network timeout to 90s and made it configurable in Advanced Settings. This shall reduce the likelyhood that tracking requests to OpenSky time out.

• FIXED #148 late reaction to activating OpenSky Master Data mid-flight and memory leak when OpenSky Master Data stays inactive.

• FIXED #136 (Linux only) freeze when stopping a/c display / deactivating LiveTraffic / stopping X-Plane with RealTraffic channel on but no RealTraffic app running.

v1.20.190718 CSL / AI / Multiplayer enhancements

• CHANGED #111 menu item "TCAS controlled": Can now also be deactivated to give up AI plane/TCAS control, so another plugin can take over mid-flight.

• CAHNGED #120 #129 how planes are selected for the max 19 AI/TCAS slots: Planes in front have priority over those to the side over those in the back. And planes on the ground have even lower priority if you are airborne.

• ADDED #143 a power user workaround to run another multiplayer client in parallel with working animations/lights. Requires your local CSL models to be changed by the latest CSL2XSB script. Please see documentation for details.

• ADDED rotor / propellor / reversers / wheel animations. Requires

  • supporting CSL models (many in the Bluebell package work)

  • conversion of CSL models with latest CSL2XSB script

  See documentation for details.

• UPDATED, basically rewrote the documentation page on many multiplayer clients in parallel, like when also using XSquawkBox, X-IvAp, Swift and the like.

• ADDED #147: RealTraffic now provides a proper timestamp in its tracking data, which LiveTraffic uses for path calculations.

• Features relevant to other plugins' or CSL model developers:

  • ADDED support for more CSL animation dataRefs.

  • ADDED: All sim/multiplayer/position dataRefs are now provided for AI planes, including v_x/y/z.

  • CHANGED: Position reporting by sim/multiplayer/position is the next drawing cycle's position, which helps camera plugins to stay in synch with focus plane.

  • ADDED #144 shared dataRefs for providing textual information about planes as suggested by FSTramp.

  • SEE the Wiki of my libxplanemp fork for more details.

  • CHANGED and ENHANCED #86 communication to LTAPI, which is now an efficient bulk data transfer and includes many text info elements.

• FIXED #146: If using RealTraffic data, OpenSky Master Data will now always be queried and used if activated (Activation of OpenSky Master Data is always recommended). Previously, for most planes no master data was requested and display relied on RealTraffic's info only.

• FIXED #139 ADSBEx data will only be processed if in configured range to avoid immediate removal of planes after creation.

• FIXED #140 identification of network problems with revocation lists on non-English installations of Windows.

• FIXED #14 Set a timeout of 30s for most network operations to avoid hang-ups when network gets lost.

v1.10 RealTraffic, ForeFlight, ASDBEx with key

v1.16.190507 ADSBEx with RapidAPI

• ADDED #138 ability to connect to ADS-B Exhcange via RapidAPI. Note: This is a paid service. See documentation for more info.

• FIXED #135 ADSBEx channel no longer fails and disables when no aircraft are returned.

• FIXED #137 LiveTraffic no longer fails to start up if X-Plane commands (like sim/general/hat_switch_left) are not found. This might allow using LiveTraffic even on outdated vesions like XP10.45 (untested).

v1.15.190428 ADSBEx with API Key

• CHANGED #132 channel ADS-B Exchange to new API after public API closed down. Note: API key required, to get one you need to be feeding ADS-B data to ADS-B Exchange. Then, you can request a key there and enter it into LiveTraffic's Basic Settings to re-enable the ADSBEx channel.

• FIXED #131 errorneous warning valid OBJ8 part types are LIGHTS or SOLID. Got LIGHTS..

v1.10.190406 RealTraffic, ForeFlight

• ADDED #65 RealTraffic as a new channel. See configuration instructions.

• ADDED #47 ForeFlight as an output channel. See configuration info.

• FIXED checking for updates so that it happens every 48h only if no update was found during last check.

• REMOVED #125 historic options from config file to prevent users from being trapped with "No enabled active channel...".

v1.00 Public Release

v1.00.190309

• RELEASE BUILD, i.e. no time limit.

• UPDATED #117 handling of AI/TCAS planes so that third-party plugins have a better chance of seeing LiveTraffic's AI planes with their correct heading. X-Plane's internal map and Little NavMap now show LiveTraffic's planes.

• CHANGED #118 reporting of warnings/infos while parsing CSL packages. Repeated messages per package/xsb_aircrafts.txt file are now suppressed and only a counter reported. Previosuly, packages with additional parameters could cause thousands of lines of repeating Log.txt output.

• FIXED #112 ASSERT FAILED for bWrapAround, a bug in handling roll.

v0.90 Public Beta

v0.94.190303 Public Beta - Release Candidate 2

• ADDED #107 checking for new version on X-Plane.org every 48h; if so message shows up and additional menu item LiveTraffic/New Version... becomes available.

• ADDED #30 menu items

  • Aircraft Info shown, which hides/shows all A/C Info wnds

  • Close All Windows, which closes all A/C Info wnds

  • Labels shown, which toggles if labels are shown in the current view (internal/external/VR)

• ADDED #30 commands for most menu items, so that you can assign keys or joystick buttons to them in X-Plane's Keyboard and Joystick settings. In XP11, assigned keyboard shortcuts show up next to the menu items.

• ADDED #110 option to only control AI aircraft for TCAS blibs on request, i.e. not automatically. That helps integration with other multiplayer clients, who could then control TCAS.

• ADDED #114 button to A/C info window for switching between AUTO and locked-to-selected-a/c mode.

• ADDED #103 manipulation of external camera position using standard commands as in X-Plane's Free Camera view. Hat switch mapped to left/right/forward/aft movement. Zoom supported.

• VR only:

  • A/C Info Window follows into external camera view, so that "Camera" checkbox stays available for getting out of Camera view.

  • CHANGED #115 A/C Info Window cannot be closed when in external camera view, so that the button to return from camery view remains available.

• Linux only: Open help URLs using xdg-open instead of open.

• Further CHANGED initial window positioning, especially for Settings UI.

• CHANGED #108 version number of FlightModels.prf and enhanced validation to make sure everybody updates.

• ADDED #109 Embraer E-Jet and ERJ families to related.txt.

• FIXED #116 banking on approach, which had happened especially often in auto-land situations.

v0.93.190224 Public Beta - Release Candidate 1

• ADDED #98 step-by-step instruction for Bluebell CSL package installation to documentation especially targeting new users.

• ADDED #105 a Help submenu to Plugins > LiveTraffic as well as help buttons labeled [?] to the A/C Info and Settings window for direct access to relevant online documentation.

• CHANGED #106 handling of A/C Info windows in XP11 to make use of XP11 features:

  • Created as floating windows, ie. can be moved across monitors.

  • Created as VR windows when in VR mode.

  • Floating windows move into VR and vice versa when entering/leaving VR. VR functionality untested as I don't have a VR rig. Qualified feedback welcome!

  • New menu entry Plugins > LiveTraffic > Aircraft Info... (Popped out) creates a popped out window (native OS window). Initial position might not be optimal yet, but can then be moved anywhere on your desktop.

• ADDED #16 roll to aircraft movement when flying curves. Still looks a bit shaky, will only get better after implementing Bezier curves (#17) after v1.0.

• ADDED current number of aircraft shown to menu item text of Plugins > LiveTraffic > Aircraft displayed.

• ADDED #102 option to Advanced Settings to select which level of messages to show in message area.

• FIXED #104 positioning of all windows in X-Plane 11. Message are will show up on right-most monitor in top right corner. Settings and A/C info windows will initially be placed in the center of the main screen.

• FIXED #99 Last Data info in A/C information window, especially obvious in ADSBEx streams, in which the last timestamp never became negative.

• CHANGED #97 aircraft's ICAO type selection: Decision is pushed out to a moment before actual plane creation when infos from various channels are collected and combined. Reduces warnings about missing ICAO type in Log.txt significantly. Better identifies ground vehicles especially in ADS-B streams.

• Also, the CSL model for a plane can now change in-flight if new info arrives that affects model-matching, e.g. a proper ICAO type for a plane previously shown with defaults. After manually loading CSL models in Settings > CSL all planes are re-matched, immediately making use of newly loaded models.

• REMOVED settings for reading historic ADS-B Exchange data, see here for reasoning.

• CHANGED #101 and enhanced technical exception handling. LT disables itself in case it can't recover from exception (instead of re-throwing the exception, which causes CTD).

v0.92.190211 Public Beta

• ADDED compatibility with X-Plane 10 again for the moment. This will not last forever, but with the goal to have at least one release version still supporting X-Plane 10.

• ADDED #96 an error message if there are no active channels serving tracking data.

v0.92.190209 Public Beta

• Setup

  • REMOVED compatibility with X-Plane 10 in preparation of using pure X-Plane 11 features.

  • CHANGED #70 Reality time is now taken from the network channels; removes the dependency on local PC time being correct.

  • CHANGED #71 creation of network connection, working around an issue when certificate revocation check is unable (Windows only)

  • CHANGED #85 the way text files are read, now independed of line endings. This allows to use the same installation in a dual boot config Windows/Linux and not fail on Linux when reading a CR/LF encoded LiveTraffic.prf file.

• New/Changed Functionality

  • ADDED #80 ability to hide and hence impersonate planes, see documentation.

  • ADDED #93 external camera view sitting on any plane's tail, see documentation.

  • ADDED #88 Advanced Setting to hide traffic below a certain height AGL or while taxiing, to allow better parallel operation with airport traffic plugins.

  • ADDED #76 Advanced Setting to allow landing lights on during taxiing to see planes at night.

  • ADDED #69 A/C Label Setting to control if labels shall appear in internal / external / VR views.

  • CHANGED #74 distances in Advanced Settings from km to nm. Existing settings from previous versions will be converted on first startup. Rounding applies.

  • ADDED #92 menu item to try to get access to AI planes for TCAS control. Reorganized menu. See new documentation on menu items.

  • ADDED ability to search for squawk code in A/C key field of A/C Information Windows.

  • ADDED #75 options in Debug Settings to fix model matching parameters for CSL model makers. See documentation.

  • CHANGED model matching: Now passing registration (tail number) as the match string for LIVERY. CSL model makers are now able to configure liveries per individual airframe.

  • REMOVED menu item for reloading plugins. No longer needed with new handling of access to AI planes / TCAS.

• CHANGED #81 multiplayer lib to base on latest upstream code, which in tun

  • ADDED #45 ability to work without access to AI planes (then no TCAS) to enhance parallel operations with other multiplayer plugins. See documentation for usage instructions.

  • CHANGED #63 label drawing back to 3D phase, no longer drawing over cockpit. However, in VR labels still appear in one eye only (#69).

  • ADDED ability to control taxi lights in CSL models. I have not yet found a model, which supports taxi lights, though.

  • ADDED clamping, i.e. the ability to detect from the OBJ8 models the necessary vertical offset for fairly good placement on the ground. Still, a well maintained VERT_OFFSET setting in xsb_aircrafts.txt is more accurate.

• Pure Bug Fixes

  • FIXED #73 model-selection based on related.txt for some Diamond models, which appeared as gliders.

  • FIXED #84 Message area moving too high on Linux

  • FIXED rounding of altitudes to full feet in internal calculations, which removes step climbs/descends by 1ft, especially visible on the ground.

  • FIXED #50 a crash of X-Plane after failed initialization of LiveTraffic.

  • FIXED Stop requesting master data when shutting down, speeding up shut down of X-Plane when LiveTraffic is in the loop of fetching master data from OpenSky.

v0.91.190120 Public Beta

To update coming from 0.90 or ealier:

• The v0.91 package now ships with a directory LiveTraffic/Resources/ShippedCSL, which contains the X-CSL FollowMe Car courtesy of X-CSL. Move ShippedCSL under the existing LiveTraffic/Resources directory, in parallel to the existing CSL directory with the Bluebell installation.

• If you had installed the X-CSL FollowMe car manually, then remove it now by deleting the CARS directory from your LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL directory.

• If you ever had trouble with "ghost planes" (seeing yellow labels without aircraft) then likely your Bluebell CSL installation has been damaged, possibly by the X-CSL installation. Recommendation is to start over: Clear the LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL directory and download the Bluebell package once again, following the installation documentation.

Resulting folder structure shall be:

    LiveTraffic
    - 64              (.xpl binaries)
    - Resources
      - CSL           (for Bluebell installation)
      - ShippedCSL
        - XCSL_CARS   (contains the FollowMe car as included in the package now)

Release content:

• ADDED FollowMe Car into the LiveTraffic package, courtesy of X-CSL. No need to install this model any longer from X-CSL.

v0.90.190118 Public Beta - Hot Fix

• ADDED a delay between requests to OpenSky Master data channel to avoid HTTP 503 Service Unavailable responses.

• FIXED error handling of OpenSky Master data channel, so that too many errors now do lead to channel deactivation as per design.

• FIXED requesting routes from OpenSky: Don't query call signs with spaces as they lead to HTTP 400 Bad Request. (Could probably be replaced with %20, but for these call signs there aren't any routes anyway so just safe that network traffic.)

v0.90.190117 Public Beta

No change beside the version number.

v0.80 Closed Beta

v0.86.20190112 Public Beta candidate

• NEW #37 flight route number and routing information from OpenSky, which takes priority over routing info from ADS-B Exchange. This is the first time flight numbers of commercial flights become available. Note that such info is manually maintained by OpenSky supporters based on call signs. You can report wrong routes in the flight detail window of their OpenSky Explorer if you have an OpenSky login.

• NEW #53 configuration for label colors in "Settings > A/C Labels".

• NEW #42 tab "Settings > CSL" for configuration of up to 7 CSL paths, and standard codes for default aircraft and ground vehicles.

• NEW "CSL model" info in A/C information window.

• UPDATED #38, related.txt with twin engine props, GA, and helicopter codes.

• UPDATED Doc8643.txt file to January 2019, better replacement of unicode characters (similar character instead of just ?).

• FIXED #66, which removes deprecated code for Macs around file system access. This is pure code refactoring and shall not influence functionality.

v0.85.20190106

• FIXED #60 #67 aircraft too high on final and turning 180 degrees on touch-down (I hope). This is yet another significant change to the handling, analysis, cleansing, and landing/take off prediction code of flight tracking data. New isse will require new data for analysis.

• FIXED #63 Label text size with HDR and antialiasing settings SSAA and higher. Involves a hack of reading X-Plane.prf file to find out about current settings. Try playing with "Visual Effetcs" and "Antialiasing" sliders in XP11.

• CHANGED #53 color of labels for Airbus to red...which at the moment is just a proof-of-concept that LT can set individual colors. Will become configurable in future release.

• CHANGED AGL text to "GND_ON" when on ground in A/C info wnd and labels.

v0.84.20181229 Intermediate Release

• NEW #62 feature 'auto-select' for A/c Info Window. Can be activated via new menu command Aircraft Info (Auto-select) or by typing 'AUTO' into an open info window's edit field. Indicated by trailing text '(AUTO)' in title bar. Window will follow the closest a/c in view, slightly prefering a/c straight ahead over a/c to the side.

• CHANGED #61 #43 #58: In a multi-channel configuration, OpenSky now has priority when creating a/c, meaning: if both channels 'see' an aircraft before it is actually created then OpenSky will be the channel LiveTraffic prefers. Reason is on average worse quality of unconsolidated ADS-B Exchange data.

• FIXED #48 #57 #58: Further enhanced flight data cleansing. Mostly affects data from ADS-B Exchange, which don't seem to be consolidated on the server.

v0.84.20181224

• FIXED #61 #43 #58: Better handling of mixed channels. Please run with all channels enabled. A/c will at any point in time be fed by one channel only, but switching to another is possible if (a) the original channel stopped feeding and (b) the new position is in a reasonable direction to prevent 180 degree turns. As channels aren't time-synched LT needs to make up for the reported time difference with unusual slow/fast plane movements. A channel switch will be document with a DEBUG-level Log.txt entry like DEBUG AA73C3 (SWA1730): SWITCHED CHANNEL from 'ADSB Exchange Live Online' to 'OpenSky Live Online' .

• FIXED #48 #57 #58: Flight data cleansing introduced, which tries to remove ill-looking positions from the position queue. This shall lead to a lot less 180 degree turns and other weird movements. It will not remove all weird behaviour, though. A position removal will be document with a DEBUG-level Log.txt entry like DEBUG A25CDC (SKW4148): Removed an invalid position.

• CHANGED default configuration: Auto-Start enabled, all channels enabled.

• ADDED #37 (still open): A/c info wnd displays origin/dest airport info as reported by ADS-B-Exchange. No interpretation...if wrong refer to ADSBEx.

• FIXED #64: Fixed using correct altitude value from OpenSky stream, specifically: geo altitude instead of barometric altitude. Should lead to OpenSky a/c better hit runway threshold.

• FIXED: Enhancements to take-off prediction. Should more often and more smoothly see rotate phase right before take off.

• FIXED #56 reading [CSLPaths] in LiveTraffic.prf containing spaces. Tested/fixed full path usage on Mac.

• ADDED Config file entries for DEFAULT_AC_TYPE A320 and DEFAULT_CAR_TYPE ZZZC to LiveTraffic.prf to specify ICAO types to use when (a) no a/c type could be determined and (b) for cars.

• ADDED #51 identification of ground vehicles in flight data and display of them using the type configured with DEFAULT_CAR_TYPE in LiveTraffic.prf. Requires such a type as a CSL model. Tested with this model .

v0.83.20181212

• FIXED #44 (still open) a bug in Multiplayer Lib preventing to find a match based on Doc8643 aircraft categorization (ie. find something of roughly similar size) after no match was found directly or via related.txt.

• ADDED feature to Multiplay Lib to do this Doc8643 match also with matching airline livery. This fix will mean that with a reasonable number of CSL packages installed nearly no plane will need to be rendered with the default plane (currently A320) provided the ICAO type code is included in the received tracking data.

• ADDED #52: Multiplayer Lib: If VERT_OFFSET is not given in xsb_aircraft.txt files then it will default to a value between 1.2 and 5.5 depending on Doc8643 aircraft categorization to avoid planes sliding on their belly.

• ADDED a new option Any a/c id to Settings / Labels, which displays the first non-empty field from flight number, call sign, registration, transponder hex code. Good as the one option to id an aircraft.

• FIXED #54 flight phase "Rotate": Aircraft taking off should now in most cases rotate before take off and initially climb with pitch up. Might also positively influence occurences of too steep take offs, but that was not initially targeted with this fix.

• CHANGED #55: Once an aircraft reaches an invalid position (like climbed too high with no more live tracking data available) it is now removed immediately. Reduces number of CalcPPos: Ignoring invalid pos debug messages in the log dramatically.

• UPDATED related.txt, especially in the area of business jets and GA, still ongoing.

• CHANGED #49 Settings / Advanced: Cleanup, moved debug options to bottom, added option for logging raw network data to LTRawFD.log.

v0.82.20181208

This version does not solve any issue completely but lays the foundation to do so with the next version.

• CHANGED #38 (still open): Reorganized Resources directory, now also includes FlightModels.prf, Doc8643.txt regenerated from scratch, current as of November 2018, related.txt reworked in large parts (smaller planes yet to do). All comes completely with the LT package.

• CHANGED #44 (still open): Identify, log, accept a/c master data without ICAO type code, but will still be rendered as A320.

• CHANGED #42 (still open): Started to change how LT looks for CSL directories. Will become a config option. Location will now default to LiveTraffic/Resources/CSL only, but additional places can be added.

• ADDED #52 (still open) a default of 3 for VERT_OFFSET if not given by xsb_aircraft.txt. That should be OK for mid-range jets, might be a bit high for GA which might appear hovering over ground. A better implementation to come which distinguishes five defaults by a/c classification.

v0.81.20181202

• ADDED #39 easier usage of LiveTraffic and XSquawkBox in parallel. See new topic on Parallel usage .

• ADDED #40 support for MacOS versions before 10.14 Mojave. 10.12 Sierra confirmed by tester. Should work down to 10.9 Mavericks.

v0.80.20181130

• First version offered to selected beta testers