Andrew H. from POSCON has updated the community on the development of the upcoming program. Earlier in the year, the developers had outlined a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) list of features that needed to be complete before their first public release. First off, the voice client. The developers have finished development on their voice codec. It is currently stable and ready for release.
Voice Communication System Features
- Low latency.
- Realistic VHF distortion.
- Line-of-sight simulation including both curvature of the earth and terrain modelling.
- Blocking simulation.
- Ability to add custom transmitter locations for ATC through their website.
- Full integration into all of their clients.
Secondly, the server. It contains an update rate of 15 Hz, and they claim that it is “absolutely phenomenal” and extremely smooth. They’ve provided some demos of the experience on their YouTube channel. Some of the recent updates made to the server include:
- The ability of the server to determine what FIR and sector an airplane is at, by analyzing known lateral and vertical airspace stratum.
- Mode-S hexadecimal readouts.
- FIRs the aircraft are currently in.
- What FIRs the aircraft is in the vicinity of.
The server will also be able to auto-assign squawk codes, regardless if ATC is online or not. Ghost mode has been re-enabled, which allows members to remain connected and enjoy the server without being a bother to other users. Also, aircraft that spawn on the runways or slew will be automatically ghosted. That functionality will also be included later on for Runway Safety Area (RSA) alerts in the Radar Client.
POSCON will be utilizing the Google Cloud Platform. Features of this infrastructure will include:
- Automatic server selection and negotiation.
- Memory-only flight servers (no need to read from disk).
- Multi-gigabit network uplinks per server.
- RAM-based databases for core services.
Next is the pilot clients! It has also been finished for a few months but is now in the bug busting phase. One really cool feature of the client is that it will evaluate the terrain underneath the aircraft and will choose from one of two methods to display an aircraft in your sim. It will prevent models from making unrealistic movements during the takeoff and landing phases of flight.
Now onto the website. POSCON’s website will have a Live 3D Map that will display aircraft and airspace, that also includes a live weather radar! Some over little neat features are included, take a look at them on the post.
The Web UI is coming along, according to the developers, its already capable of being able to change VHF radio frequencies, transponder modes, identing, active radio transmitter and reciever in sim, as well as change connection mode and more!
Lastly, the radar client. It will allow for controllers to choose what position they want to control. After logging-in, the server will automatically download all the proper sector and voice communication data. Another feature of the Radar Client is the VSCS (Voice Switching and Control System). It allows you to select which transmitters you want to activate. More information follows, on the update page.
A friendly reminder from the dev, is to watch their Twitch channel, as they announced that it’ll be active in the VERY near future.
