A brand-new development blog post was shared by the team at Orbx in relation to their flight tracking tool, Volanta. The team said that so far there are over 1,000 Discord members who are delivering feedback on the beta of the software.
The development update gives us a little more insight into some of the new features being added to the platform in preparation for the public release.
To begin, Volanta has now integrated VATSIM ATC coverage, including the latest FIR/UIR definitions. This is pulled directly from the VATSIM servers offering an accurate representation of coverage so that you can prepare for any ATC you may have enroute. In addition, local ATIS information and active controller information will also be displayed. Other online networks are being looked at including other helpful indicators to help you know when ATC is online for a particular airport.
Another common piece of feedback was the option to display flights in 2D lines instead of 3D flight paths. As the world in Volanta is flat, some anomalies began appearing when taxiing at high-altitude airports. As such, a new 2D toggle is now available to beta testers.
A key part of the application is the challenges presented to simmers. A lot of work has been done behind the scenes to improve the challenges component including the ability to base it on real-world approaches and also the ability to track progress on each country you fly to.
In addition, the automatic flight tracking element is more robust than before. For X-Plane 11 users, for example, the aircraft’s registration is automatically detected providing it is present in the livery folder name. Discord rich presence has also been improved with many more features to come in the future.
The full post on the Orbx forums details how you can get involved in the beta of Volanta. Whilst the invite-only beta is still being rolled out, a public release appears to be close.
If you’re keen to see what the team is working on, you can see the roadmap here.
