Beacon Map

2) Your categorization of the radio frequencies is helpful, but it would be more correct to label them as:

- "ATC Modern Aircraft" is "VHF AM"

- "ATC 2nd/3rd Generation Fighter" is "UHF"

- "ATC WWII Aircraft" is "VHF FM"

Pilots in any aircraft with a tunable radio would know which frequency to use based on the input range of their radio.

I'd say You're putting too much faith in assumption that most of sim pilots know what VHF AM, UHF and VHF FM stand for. I certainly don't and I'm not the only one :D. I'd also hazard a guess all the "2nd/3rd/4th gen categories might be even more confusing. Where would one categorize UH-1 anyway?

The current gfx method is so simple even new DCS players will understand how to use it. That should work as a base for future improvements.

what is gfx method?

I'd also hazard a guess all the "2nd/3rd/4th gen categories might be even more confusing. Where would one categorize UH-1 anyway?

I always welcome every useful improvement suggestion and if it worth it, I will implement it into the map. The most relevant aspects for the beacon map should be best clarity, suitability for beginners and up-to-dateness.

Until now I really don´t have any good idea how to improve clatity of the tower-frequency-categories.

Update to version 1.42 is downloadable. Visit first post of this thread for details.

Until now I have just implemented the "Zero-wind-landing-conditions" in the Beacon Map. In this respect, there is just the "standard" landing direction of each airfield shown.

Is there a desire to implement landing directions depending on the direction and the intensity of the wind? This impinges in my opinion on the clearness of the map.

If you want that information in the map, does there exist any reliably document with informations, at which wind direction / wind strength the "standard" landing direction changes?

Until now I have just implemented the "Zero-wind-landing-conditions" in the Beacon Map. In this respect, there is just the "standard" landing direction of each airfield shown.

 

Is there a desire to implement landing directions depending on the direction and the intensity of the wind? This impinges in my opinion on the clearness of the map.

 

If you want that information in the map, does there exist any reliably document with informations, at which wind direction / wind strength the "standard" landing direction changes?

Just found out about this amazing beacon map. Thank hugely :thumbup:, and my opinion is that simplicity and readability outweigh adding additional stuff onto it. Just my 2cents.

Just found out about this amazing beacon map. Thank hugely :thumbup:, and my opinion is that simplicity and readability outweigh adding additional stuff onto it. Just my 2cents.

Thanks for your reply, DirtyFret. We are currently researching the wind behaviour and it´s impact on ATC. I think the best way to make it public is the integration of the data into the "List of all available Beacons in DCS World", which can be found here:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/585582/

your a star Lino thx a million

You are welcome.

This is extremely awesome, but, seems like printing it would be...utterly insane. My work laptop can't handle it zoomed out, and I'm not sure if it might make the color printer explode.

Can ED be bothered to generate an image of this map from their terrain viewer (which would also get rid of the "stitching" artifacts where some of the map is covered by other parts of it), but with elevation contours only? Perhaps that could cut down on size dramatically?

It is rather disappointing that this stuff doesn't come with the game documentation...I don't understand how I'm supposed to do navigation by dead reckoning in any of the prop planes without a usable in-game map, or ability to print a paper one :/

Oh my! That's what I needed!

Thanks a ton Lino!!!

Hi there,

How can I re-size the map?

It won't open on my home PC (which has 6gb of ram) I just get a message saying something like 'out of memory'??

So I've downloaded it at work on an i-5 laptop which struggles but eventually opens it.....

However when i try to re-size it spits the dummy and only saves a blank jpeg.

Could someone better at this than me maybe produce a lo-res version please?

Thanks!

RBG

Thanks!! Good work.

I spent a frustrating amount of time trying to open this image but I finally succeeded. Windows image preview said I had insufficient memory, Firefox said the file contained errors, Paint said the file could not be read because it is not a valid bitmap file or it's format is not currently supported. Irfanview said it couldn't read the file header because it was an unknown format or empty/damaged. It also gave a hint about unicode possibly being a problem.

It turns out the file header information contains unicode characters. The only way I could open the file was to turn on unicode support in Irfanview 32 bit (because apparently the 64 bit version doesn't have unicode support). In Ifranview, go to Options --> Properties/Settings --> Language --> and then check the Load Unicode PlugIn checkbox.

I am sorry to hear that. Any suggestions to prepare the stuff in another way/format? I think most of the users never had problems with opening the file.

I am sorry to hear that. Any suggestions to prepare the stuff in another way/format? I think most of the users never had problems with opening the file.

Just sent you my guess concerning the prob via PN.

Other ideas about this big thing:

Lower color depth (24bit -> 16 or 8 bit)

Use PNG instead of JPG

Nevertheless: Thanks for your work! :thumbup:

I am sorry to hear that. Any suggestions to prepare the stuff in another way/format? I think most of the users never had problems with opening the file.

That's ok, I'm sure you didn't make it difficult on purpose. :D

I have no idea how to change the format so that it works on all systems. It's odd that most people don't have this problem, but I did see at least a couple people mention it. I figured I'd just post the error messages from various programs and a workaround so that if someone else searches for an answer they'll (hopefully) be able to find it.

Thanks for the great map! It was definitely worth the difficulty of figuring out how to open it!

I´ve done a new upload of the 1.42 version. That should solve the problem.

DL Link: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/588673/

Unfortunately it did not fix the problem :( . I was unable to open either of the maps except via Irfanview with unicode turned on.

Hi guys,

Sniporbob - many thanks, your solution worked for me.

I used ifranview (32-bit) to open as you suggested then used it to resize to a slightly lower resolution (file is now 38mb instead of 40mb) and did a 'save as' as a jpeg again.

I'm now able to open with Windows Photo Viewer.

:)

Thanks again

RBG

Lino_Germany, thank you for the map, and the beacons list. Your effort is appreciated! :thumbup:

Just for the record, I never had any issues with the map, even on my almost 10 years old crappy laptop.

the Legend should mention

'direction of the runway in True Heading'

& - perhaps -

'Magnetic Deviation per 2015 is -6 degrees'

(as per the discussion with Piston85)

?

because people will dial your map number into their HSI

I would like to see a way to point out things. AI crew should point out targets and areas of interest. Perhaps some kind of marker should appear on your display. In the Mi-8, for example, the two crew do nothing. You could also use this to simulate friendly radio coms when flying with other AI units.

In multiplayer, voice coms are not always available. Being able to broadcast and highlight targets would really help.

In multicrew, it would simulate pointing or other body language.

The map currently shows the geographic headings for ILS, so that means that with those headings ILS approaches will be erroneous. you'll need to take 6° from all headings to get the magnetic ones just like we integrated in the excel and pdf.

But this is up to Lino if he wants to modify that.

The map currently shows the geographic headings for ILS, so that means that with those headings ILS approaches will be erroneous. you'll need to take 6° from all headings to get the magnetic ones just like we integrated in the excel and pdf.

 

But this is up to Lino if he wants to modify that.

I think the way it is currently in the map is a good compromise between the paintet number of each airstrip (which most users is enough information) and the magnetic headings (for the pro pilots).