Ground Radar plugin 1.6 beta 3

Juha Holopainen (839337)

Changes from beta 2:

Added APM safety net (configured using AppPath_APM* settings)
Updated Maps Window (renamed to Map Selection Window, added support for subfolders, etc.)
Changed maps code to better support maps with duplicate names. Maps within a folder having the same name will be grouped together as one entry in the selection list, and activated/deactivated together.
Updated maps data file syntax (//version and rwy_* added, color updated to enable transparency), added option to check for updated maps data from an external source (using setting Maps_URL)
Added option to treat transponder code 7601 as a special code
Added settings (System_Alert_*) to adjust alert texts
Bug fixes

Should the plugin fail to load properly, update your Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package

For users of the Finnish setup, the below package contains plugin data files compatible with the beta version. Overwrite the existing files with the ones in this package to get the intended behavior (must be repeated every time the sector package is updated as it contains the files compatible with plugin version 1.5).

<FINNISH SETUP DOWNLOAD LINK> (looks a bit different starting from this version, but it's intentional...)

Hannes Altmann (1395737)

Juha Holopainen (839337) added option to check for updated maps data from an external source (using setting Maps_URL)

We really appreciate that this feature has been added!
I tried this and it work as intended. But I always need to reload the Data Files first before the external Maps file is loaded. Is there a ways to have the external file loaded directly on start-up?

Julian Maushake (1793205)

Juha Holopainen (839337) Hi Juha,
I have problems with my Ground Radar Plugin. Beta 2 and 3 don't work. EuroScope simply crashes while loading the sector files with Beta 2 or 3. I have the required Visual C++ installed, of course. The Windows Event Viewer showed me that EuroScope crashes because of the GRP. I tried version 1.5, and that works perfectly, but of course I want to use an up-to-date version of the GRP. I even started Windows in Safe Mode, and that worked. I checked all my drivers and reinstalled everything, even Windows. I really don't know what to do anymore. The funniest thing about it is that sometimes Euroscope works fine (for an hour), and then I can't open it anymore (again). While EuroScope was open, it never really crashed. When I am able to open ES, everything works fine.upl-image-preview uuid=9f3cce37-bb1e-42d7-aa1e-b7a437a95166 url=https://forum.vatsim-scandinavia.org/assets/files/2025-06-22/1750579537-921870-ereignisanzeige-22062025-10-03-28.png alt={TEXT?}]

Juha Holopainen (839337)

@Hannes Altmann (1395737) that is the intention, however right now the problem seems to be that on startup the maps data is loaded before the settings file to enable displaying and hiding maps via settings. The external source check is triggered at the end of the maps data loading, and having no URL at that point to check, it does nothing.

I'll see if forcing the maps data to be loaded again after loading the settings would make this work without causing any issues.

Marius Linge (1621930)

Juha Holopainen (839337) External maps is a great feature indeed! Another issue i'm consistently experiencing during testing is if i remove lines from the external maps file and reload data files, those lines are still present and loaded.

As an example i added a simple test map that draws a line. Reloading data files properly adds it, but when i remove that map and reload data files again it is still present. I guess there is nothing that flushes the memory in between the fetches?

I've double checked and verified that there is no caching on the web server.

Do we have to use VERSION in GRPluginMaps.txt to solve this?

Sergej Singer (1407054)

Hi Juha,

there seems to be a problem with the Arrival List, I guess, since beta 1. The list doesn't show anything, despite 100 Arrivals coming to Frankfurt. It may sometimes show single random planes, but I couldn't figure out, why exactly these. When you try to disconnect from the network, suddenly, the Arrival list shows all the 100 aircraft. Could this be a bug or some intentional behavior?

After the first connection to the network:

After the second:

Juha Holopainen (839337)

Sergej Singer (1407054) I haven't been able to reproduce this, so it may be something related to your setup. What I can suggest is to remove all but the absolutely necessary settings and see if that helps, and then start adding the settings back to see what caused it.

Hongye Rudi Zhang (1326158) The setting works fine for me. Check that you have it in an airport-specific part of the settings file.

Marius Linge (1621930) I'll make the code forget the old data. When using the external source, I recommend to use the VERSION line in the local file as well so that the local file won't get overruled if for some reason the external data is outdated.

Julian Maushake (1793205) Some people have had the plugin crashing with the up-to-date msvc package installed. In at least one case I believe the cause was that the EuroScope program folder contained older versions of the msvc package dlls (mfc140.dll, msvcp140.dll and vcruntime140.dll). If they are there, remove or rename them. The next option would be to completely remove and reinstall EuroScope. But if I understood you correctly, EuroScope correctly starts up sometimes even now? If that's the case, I don't know what the cause could be. You could then first try removing all the plugin settings and data files to see if it crashes without any extra data, and if it does, then also try removing all other plugins.

Hongye Rudi Zhang (1326158)

Hi @Juha Holopainen (839337) Thanks for the update! But as you said Your Window_APP setting doesn't match with any of the possible options. You were likely going for the 6 parameter version <index>,<state>,<x>,<y>,<w>,<h> and are missing either the index or state parameter.

I still get this kind of problem. Would you mind having a look?

Hongye Rudi Zhang (1326158)

Juha Holopainen (839337) The setting works fine for me. Check that you have it in an airport-specific part of the settings file.

Ahhhh! I see now. But is it possible to set it as a system-wide display Window_APP? And would it be possible to show the altitude of Label_AFL/Label_CFL in meters as well?

Juha Holopainen (839337)

There are settings for the default position and size that can be global, but the display state must be airport-specific.

Hongye Rudi Zhang (1326158)

Juha Holopainen (839337) Thanks! And would it be possible to show the altitude of Label_AFL/Label_CFL in meters as well?

Bostjan Laba (1190497)

Maybe a bit off question, we're internally developing some plugin for booking etc. and would need to know if GRP has any field we could use to display in the tag of aircraft on the ground some special status like "EVENT" or "PRIORITY" or whatever? Vatcanplugin solves this by drawing text at the tag but if GRP has something we can use out-of-the-box, that would be great since we cannot use es tag-editor for it.
Thank you

Juha Holopainen (839337)

I don't think there's anything that you could use. The scratchpad perhaps, but then that can't be used for anything else.

Federico Handl (1281995)

I'm having issues displaying the new VersionString in a map. Here's 2 lines I tried and the errors associated with each. Note that both of these work fine as long as the text doesn't contain <VersionString>

TEXT:N053.25.25.015:W006.14.05.869:<VersionString> -> A plugin map references an unrecognized location identifier : "N053.25.25.015"
TEXT:DAP:<VersionString> -> File GRpluginMaps.txt contains bad information: Line 11960 : TEXT:DAP: (Problem: Line is missing some of the required elements)

Have I misunderstood how <VersionString> is meant to be used?

Marlon Gomez (1439732)

Heya -- I've been having a few teething issues with the TowerMode for a bit, where it continously crashes with aircraft on short final into FAOR.

This is the ASR setup I've been using here.

DisplayTypeName:Ground Radar display
DisplayTypeNeedRadarContent:0
DisplayTypeGeoReferenced:1
SECTORFILE:C:\Users\kalai\Documents\Sector Files\FASA\FASA-Package_20250515131523-241301-0001.sct
SECTORTITLE:FASA-Package_20250515131523-241301-0001.sct
Runways:FAOR 03L-21R:centerline
Runways:FAOR 03L-21R:extended centerline 1
Runways:FAOR 03L-21R:extended centerline 1 left ticks
Runways:FAOR 03L-21R:extended centerline 1 right ticks
Runways:FAOR 03L-21R:extended centerline 2
Runways:FAOR 03L-21R:extended centerline 2 left ticks
Runways:FAOR 03L-21R:extended centerline 2 right ticks
Runways:FAOR 03R-21L:centerline
Runways:FAOR 03R-21L:extended centerline 1
Runways:FAOR 03R-21L:extended centerline 1 left ticks
Runways:FAOR 03R-21L:extended centerline 1 right ticks
Runways:FAOR 03R-21L:extended centerline 2
Runways:FAOR 03R-21L:extended centerline 2 left ticks
Runways:FAOR 03R-21L:extended centerline 2 right ticks
SHOWC:1
SHOWSB:1
BELOW:0
ABOVE:40000
LEADER:8
SHOWLEADER:1
TURNLEADER:0
HISTORY_DOTS:5
SIMULATION_MODE:1
DISABLEPANNING:0
DISABLEZOOMING:0
DisplayRotation:21.00000
TAGFAMILY:Matias (built in)
WINDOWAREA:-26.364663:27.869641:-26.013520:28.598437
PLUGIN:Ground Radar plugin:AirportElevation:5580
PLUGIN:Ground Radar plugin:TowerMode:FAOR
PLUGIN:TopSky plugin:NoDraw:1

I'm not sure what the trend here is, but it happens when on short final, and maybe by co-incidence, around when aircraft pass 5 DME for their respective runway.

I did initially have this:
PLUGIN:Ground Radar plugin:AirportRadius:5

To maybe see if that had been the root cause, but no. To be honest, I haven't been able to pinpoint an exact reason why this does happen, I'm curious if anyone else would have an idea as to why maybe or a potential fix for this thing?

Happens for both Sweatbox and the Live Network.
Thanks!