Release 0.16.0

Kia ora!

Sky Dolly “Gregarious Gee Bee” (v0.16) has just been released. This release introduces new Sky Dolly logbook export & import plugins, incuding automated time synchronisation for formation flights based on real-world timestamps.

New Features

• Sky Dolly logbook import & export plugins

Improvements

• Automatic time offset synchronisation for formats that support real-world timestamps (such as the Sky Dolly logbooks)
• New “import mode” parameter for import plugins
• A new recent logbooks menu allows to quickly re-open previous logbooks
• Logbooks can now be opened via drag and drop (e.g. from Windows File Explorer)
• The Logbook and Location module now persist their settings (todo: Formation module) and provide a “reset” button to quickly reset the search filters
• Kia ora! Five new locations in New Zealand
• Various bug fixes & improvements

For all details please refer to the complete CHANGELOG on github.com.

Sky Dolly is open source. The latest binaries are available at:

https://flightsim.to/file/9067/sky-dolly

   

 

 

Edited March 13, 20233 yr by Steeler
Typo in URL

Release 0.17.0

Sky Dolly “Humble Hawker” (v0.17) has just been released. This release introduces keyboard shortcut support for MSFS, for basic recording and replay control.

New features:

• Keyboard shortcut support in the flight simulator
  • For record (CTRL + R), replay (CTRL + P) and other basic replay functions
  • The keyboard shortcuts can be re-assigned in the Sky Dolly application settings (no restart required)
• In case of recording start/stop a desktop notification message will inform the user
• SimConnect network support
  • Sky Dolly comes with a SimConnect.cfg configuration that works "out of the box" on the same machine ("localhost") with the automatically generated SimConnect.xml server configuration (located in the MSFS data folder)
  • For an actual network configuration edit this SimConnect.cfg with a text editor and adjust the server address and port numbers as needed
  • Conveniently select between the three provided configurations (pipe, IPv4, IPv6) in the Sky Dolly application settings (no restart required)
• Dark theme support via selectable styles
  • Windows 10 users can select the "Fusion" style for dark theme support
  • Windows 11 users have a new "Windows 11" style that natively supports dark theme
  • In either case the dark theme has to be enabled in the Windows system settings

Improvements:

• The default logbook name is now *Sky Dolly Logbook*
  • This should make the actual data folder more distinguishable from the application folder (and hopefully prevent data loss due to the accidental deletion of the wrong folder)
• The flight number is now also shown in the Logbook table
• The Formation module settings (relative position, replay mode) are now persisted
• A flight recording in progress is now automatically stopped and the flight stored to the logbook in case the flight simulator is terminated (e.g. also due to a crash)
• The full range of flight simulator simulation rates 0.0625 up to 128.0 is now supported
  • The maximum simulation rate can be set in the Sky Dolly application settings, as higher simulation rates can take up quite a lot of CPU power
  • Note that the actual replay speed can still be set to higher values (up to 200)

Bug fixes:

• KML export: the _first_ position point is now properly exported as well
• Flight condition is not overwritten anymore when recording additional formation aircraft
• Toggling the "active pause" in MSFS while recording now properly resumes/pauses recording and the flight itself
• Prevent a crash that would occur when a flight is loaded and the replay mode in the Formation module is changed to "Fly with formation", but no connection with MSFS exists yet
• Remove last recorded flight or aircraft in case persistence fails (improved error handling)
• In the Formation module the reference aircraft icon is properly initialised
• During replay the replay speed is now properly set to the last "custom speed" (e.g. 0.1) when checking the "Custom" radio button (previously the actual replay speed was always wrongly set to 1.0, mismatching with the *displayed* custom speed value, e.g. 0.1)
• Seeking on the timeline now correctly re-establishes the current flap (and other control element) settings

For all details please refer to the complete CHANGELOG on github.com.

Sky Dolly is open source. The latest binaries are available at:

https://flightsim.to/file/9067/sky-dolly

 

Edited May 7, 20242 yr by Steeler
Formatting

Release 0.18.0

Sky Dolly "Illustrious Ikarus" supports flights with a recording duration over a day. Or over a year. In fact, for a very long time.

New features

• New location Sky Dolly logbook (*.sdlog) *export* plugin
• New location Sky Dolly logbook (*.sdlog) *import* plugin
• Locations exported from older Sky Dolly releases are automatically migrated

Improvements

Recording & Replay

• The maximum simulation rate spinbox in the application settings now steps in powers of two (1, 2, 4, 8, ..., 128)
• The maximum custom replay speed factor has been increased from 200 to 99999
• The recording sample rate setting has been removed
• The *Statistics* dialog now shows separate recording rates, for both positition (always around 1 Hz) and attitude samples (e.g. 30 Hz, that is the *simulation frame* rate)
• The simulation time is now updated in the flight simulator during replay: this can be disabled in the *Replay* application settings
• The replay time widget now properly displays replay times longer than a day, by displaying the date as needed (for recordings with a duration over a day)
• When loading a flight from the logbook the replay mode is automatically reset to *Normal* which will properly position the user aircraft at the initial replay position

Import & Export

• A new *Export system locations* option has been added to the location export
• When importing flights via the Sky Dolly logbook (*.sdlog) format no *system* (default) locations are added (migrated) anymore (they are already created and present in the main logbook)
• A distance threshold option has been added to the location import settings, allowing to *update* existing locations (or either *ignore* the location to be imported or unconditionally import the new locations)
• GPX export: the geoid height (<geoidheight>) can now also optionally be exported
• The exported GPX waypoints now have a description (<desc>) element: *Departure*, *Waypoint* and *Arrival*
• IGC export: the proper standard pressure altitude (at a 1013.25 hPa (1 atmosphere) setting) instead of the indicated altitude is now exported

Simulation Variables

• Position- and attitude simulation variables are now sampled separately
• Position data (latitude, longitude, altitude) is only sampled at 1Hz: the expectation is that "stutters" during recording should be automatically smoothened out
• Removed `SMOKE_ENABLE` support (there exists  no "default smoke system*)
• New simulation variables are being recorded, among them nose wheel steering

Logbook

• Rename column *Date* to *Recording Date*, for clarity
• Also show the simulation departure- and arrival dates in the tooltip
• The *Total Time of Flight* column now supports durations measured in *days*, *weeks*, *months* and even *years*

Application Settings

• The application may now be automatically restarted after changing the user interface style ("Windows Vista", "Windows 11", "Fusion", ...)

Bug Fixes

• GPX export: The elevation (<ele>) values are now properly exported as "above mean sea level" (and not "above WGS84 reference ellipsoid" anymore)
• GPX export: the trackpoint timestamps are properly calculated and exported when exporting the entire flight (and not just the user aircraft); the proper timezone suffix (Z) is appended, too (ISO 8601 format)
• Record the flight conditions - specifically the flight start date/time - when the *first* aircraft is recorded directly from within the Formation module
• Prevent teleporation to the equator (0° latitude, 0° longitude) when no flight is currently loaded and *Fly with formation* is selected
• Do not reset the time edit widget when the recording is paused (keep the current recorded time)
• Migrate (update) missing logbook start- and end simulation times (local and zulu) based on the actual recorded positions (timestamps) amd/or the recording creation date/time

Documentation

• Added new timelapse example  SQL script
• Added new "analytical" SQL example script for the various altitude measurements

Under the Hood

• Ensure common creation- and start/end date (local and zulu) date & time formats on database level, add "not null" constraint for data conistency
• Upgrade GeographicLib to version 2.4 (from version 2.3)
• Upgrade cpptrace to version 0.6.3 (from 0.5.2)

For all details please refer to the complete CHANGELOG on github.com.

Sky Dolly is open source. The latest binaries are available at:

https://flightsim.to/file/9067/sky-dolly

Release 0.19.0

Sky Dolly “Jaunty Jodel” carries the Olympic spirit into the world: over 200 new locations - each country taking part in the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 - have been added as location presets. Please enjoy the diversity and beauty of our little planet - happy flying!

Improvements

• Better sorting, focus handling and visibility support of newly inserted items in the logbook, aircraft and location tables
• 200+ default locations added
• Renamed some countries (common English names)
• Added new location categories: Beach and Castle
• The On Ground column in the logbook table is now sortable, too

Bug Fixes

• No duplicate entries when adding new locations
• Properly restore table layout, specifically column sort settings

For all details please refer to the complete CHANGELOG on github.com.

Sky Dolly is open source. The latest binaries are available at:

https://flightsim.to/file/9067/sky-dolly

Does Sky Dolly have any application in 64 bit Prepar3D?

Thanks in advance.

Steve