Thanaks for thanacking, and for your precious and informed comments. A few questions and remarks below, but also many things simply added to the wish list.
- Assigning speed from radar screen should not increment by 1. 10 or 5 as a minumum. I would never instruct " Reduce speed to 111KIAS"
Sure, this was really proof of concept. I'll even add: do not go beyond reasonable values, e.g. negative thousands of feet altitude lol
EDIT: Done! Improved scales a little (less sensitive) and bounded the values (neg alt's was simply ridiculous). Speed increment is 10 kt.
? A small line with an undecoded metar should be possible to display somewhere, [...] so that I would have the weather at a glance without clicking around tabs
I was actually going to duplicate the two bigger-sized font infos of the weather pane (wind and QNH) in the status bar. Would that do? An option could be to choose between full raw METAR or that...
EDIT: Done! ensured wind and QNH always visible in bottom right-hand corner, these two being constantly needed in communications. Question is whether we need other weather details to use up similar space permanently.
EDIT2: Now the METAR string additionnaly shows in the status bar as well when there is no notification. QNH and wind above are permanent.
? A small line with selection information, a good location would be between auto-center and LOC/GS buttons so that I would have the information at a glance without clicking around tabs or having a big window with information.
True, but we'll have to choose a few. A line above the scope? Also docking the selection info pane somewhere UNtabbed will obviously keep them visible.
- No leader lines with min/nm estimate.
What does this mean exactly? Perhaps off topic or perhaps partially an answer: the course line when showing assignments shows a 5-minute fly time, and the "to mouse" block in selection info shows time to fly.
EDIT: Done! Combined with current & assigned course line indicator: speed marks drawn, one for every minute of fly time. Also combined with an assigned speed indicator: marks will point to show if accel/decel is needed to reach assignment. See the quick reference.
- No way to display only some navaids/waypoints.
Double-clicking on those will "pin" them, i.e. make their label persistent instead of mouse over. Though hiding the layer will hide even the pinned labels. I had the plan of making pinned labels resist to layer hiding, and you are in a way confirming that wish. Also related wish: save the pinned labels like the custom labels are saved. That way you'll be able to restore, say, an almost blank scope with only entry points made visible, even across sessions.
EDIT: Done! as described above
? Text chat format is pretty obvious but there are table column names that take some space, are they necessary?
Good point.
EDIT: Done!
? No known way to assign SID/STAR in the strip.
I have ideas on route management to avoid new fields on the strip, but that is linked to the discussion higher up in this thread. Definitely something to come some time about this...
? No wake turbulence in the strip
Yep, a few fields have remained missing. I'll arrange those when I need to kill half an hour.
- No .find command to zoom onto an airplane or navaid/waypoint from the text chat area, the navigator is noce, but again it takes up space/time
Like all docks you believe take space, you can close them and recall them when needed from menu or ALT+... shortcut. But good point, we should be able to find a plane from its strip (or chat message). How about centering the map on selection if "auto-centre" is pushed?
EDIT: There is actually no realistic reason to find an aircraft from a callsign if it has not been identified by you already. I'd rather allow auto-centre from linked strip selection only, as just typing a callsign (or clicking on chat) should not allow you to know where it is. Please comment.
EDIT2: Done! Now SHIFT-click on a strip will indicate the linked aircraft if any, possibly auto-centring if the option button is pushed. But as I said I think it makes no sense from MP chat so if this is desperately asked for again I shall call it a cheat mode.
? Zoom slider redundant, mouse wheel better. Could be optional?
Indeed I have NEVER used it. Let's see if anybody stands to defend it, or else I know what to do.
? No way to customize the TAG so that it would display ground GS/assigned KIAS, Assigned HDG etc.
True: ground speed value is not shown (other than selection only) while it is useful. Assigned heading I think is better seen by "show>assignments".
EDIT: Done! 3-digit speed indication added to info boxes.
? Distance to airport in selection window could be replaced by distance to any selected navaid/waypoint/airport/target/coordinate in the area, a lot like the .distance command in Euroscope ( which by the way can measure distances between two targets to help with separation )
I see the point, but how much better is this from SHIFT+right-click&drag?
? An option to have a second window just for the windows and docks and one only for the scope and maybe text chat, for those with two or more screens.
Already prepared (see "view" menu) but disabled because still buggy: open as many new radar scope windows as you want, each with its own visibility options and freely movable across screens/workspaces. Only the central area of the main window I still need to fill with something, so why not a radar there as well!
Having all the above in mind I found the default screen setup is not optimal.I moved things around this way: [...]
Once we have a dedicated ATC forum here or on lenny's website (or thread somewhere appropriate here), we can have a screenshot fight of GUI dock layout. I am sure there are many ways in which to arrange it better than the quick and dirty default suggested.
Really, thanks again.