RDF

Radio Direction Finder plugin for EuroScope. Still actively maintained.

Features

TrackAudio & Audio for VATSIM Standalone Client Support

Supports Audio for VATSIM standalone client through hidden window messaging. This has been used since the birth of AFV.

TrackAudio is a multi-platform Audio-For-VATSIM ATC client for Windows, macOS and Linux. This improved RDF plugin utilizes TrackAudio's WebSocket SDK to synchronize active frequencies and to achieve radio-direction-finding.

Important

Since RDFPlugin version 1.4.1+, TrackAudio 1.3.0 Beta 5 is required due to changes in TrackAudio SDK.

More Customizations

• (Existing feature) RGB settings for circle or line, and different color for concurrent transmission.
• 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.
• Flexible use of lines instead of circles.
• Draw controllers as desired.
• Per-ASR drawing configurations.
• Tag item type RDF state to indicate previously transmitting aircraft.

Integrate afv-bridge

Do the same work as afv-euroscope-bridge. Supports both TrackAudio 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.

Configurations

Note

All command line functions are case-insensitive.

General

This table shows general configurable items that would affect the plugin globally.

Entry Name	Related Command Line	Value	Default Value
LogLevel			None
Bridge	.RDF BRIDGE ON/OFF	0 or 1	1
Endpoint	.RDF RELOAD		127.0.0.1:49080

• LogLevel is none by default. Accepted levels include none, error, warning, info, debug, verbose. Log levels other than none will automatically save an RDFPlugin.log file next to DLL file.
• Bridge controls whether TrackAudio and Audio for VATSIM standalone client RX/TX stations should be synchronized to EuroScope channels' text receive/transmit.
• Endpoint should include address and port only. E.g. 127.0.0.1:49080 or localhost:49080, etc.

General Command Line Functions

.RDF REFRESH

• Clear transmission records.
• (Audio for VATSIM standalone client) set all channels to off (except primary & active ATIS).
• (TrackAudio, if Bridge is ON) try to synchronize all RX/TX with TrackAudio.

.RDF RELOAD

• Clear transmission records.
• Reset TrackAudio connection.

Tip

To change the endpoint or mode for TrackAudio without exitting EuroScope, you may modify plugin settings file, reload settings file inside EuroScope, then run .RDF RELOAD.

To change log level, the only way is to unload & reload RDFPlugin.dll inside EuroScope plugin setup dialog.

Drawing Parameters

This table shows all RDF drawing parameters. All entries allow per-ASR configuration.

Entry Name	Command Line Keyword	Range	Default Value
EnableDraw	DRAW	0 or 1	1
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

• EnableDraw controls RDF drawing functionality. 0 means OFF.
• RGB, ConcurrentTransmissionRGB define drawing colors when single or multiple stations are transmitting at the same time.
• Radius, Threshold, Precision, LowAltitude, HighAltitude, LowPrecision, HighPrecision see Random Offset Schematic below.
• DrawControllers controls whether transimitting controllers should be drawn as well. 0 means OFF.

Note

When an ASR is opened, the plugin will use the configurations in the sequence of ASR > plugin settings file > default value.

Drawing Parameters Command Line Functions

.RDF [Keyword] [Value]

• E.g. .RDF CTRGB 255:255:0 will set drawing color to yellow for concurrent transmission.
• Replace _____ with value in low/high altitude/precision directly, e.g. .RDF ALTITUDE L10000
• Settings will be saved to plugin settings file.

.RDF ASR [Keyword] [Value]

• [Keyword] and [Value] are the same as above.
• Settings will be saved to ASR file.
• E.g. .RDF ASR DRAW 0 will disable RDF in current ASR.

Random Offset Schematic

• 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.

Samples - Plugin Settings File

RDF Plugin for Euroscope:LogLevel:none
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Bridge:1
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Endpoint:127.0.0.1:49080
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:EnableDraw:1
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

; My own setup
; To help with diagnose RDF
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:LogLevel:debug
; I use Parallels Desktop and run TrackAudio in hosting macOS
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Endpoint:10.211.55.2:49080
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:RGB:0:255:0
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:ConcurrentTransmissionRGB:255:0:0
; Drawing parameters are for radar ASRs
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Radius:10
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Threshold:10
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:Precision:10
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:LowAltitude:3000
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:LowPrecision:2
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:HighAltitude:41100
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:HighPrecision:25
RDF Plugin for Euroscope:DrawControllers:1

Samples - Per-ASR Drawing Parameters

; Disables RDF in this ASR
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:EnableDraw:0

; Always draw lines instead of circles, set Threshold to big number
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:EnableDraw:1
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:99999
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

; My own setup for ground ASRs
; Circle are centered to aircraft with fixed radius of 20
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:LowPrecision:50
PLUGIN:RDF Plugin for Euroscope:DrawControllers:1

Known Issues

• 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=-1 to 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 ASRs may not change the plugin drawing configurations. In such case, simply pan/zoom your view to update configurations per ASR.

Credits

• pierr3/VectorAudio & pierr3/TrackAudio: initiative.
• chembergj/RDF: basic drawings.
• AndyTWF/afv-euroscope-bridge: Audio for VATSIM standalone client message handling.
• yhirose/cpp-httplib: HTTP library.
• machinezone/IXWebSocket: WebSocket library.
• nlohmann/json: json handling.
• SergiusTheBest/plog: logging library.

Developing

Vcpkg, either standalone or bundled with Visual Studio v17.6+, is required. Run vcpkg integrate install in Visual Studio CMD/Powershell and build directly.

README for Legacy Versions

See https://github.com/chembergj/RDF#rdf.