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KmlCam Demonstration Script

These notes provide a suggested "script" to help demonstrate some of the enhancements made to PilotPathRecorder in support of KML "LiveCams".

Intro

One of the nicest add-ons I've come across for Microsoft Flight Simulator is a nifty tool named PilotPathRecorder, created by SA Horowitz, available as a downloadable ZIP file from GitHub. I love how it can help me post-analyze and visualize flights I've taken within Google Earth's simulated 3D world.

Being a huge fan of moving map technology to help gain real-time situational awareness from a secondary device, I thought it would be worthwhile to enhance PilotPathRecorder to enable visualization in Google Earth while flying, in near "real time" - not just retrospectively, after the flight completes.

This demo is a short presentation of the enhancements made so far to add this type of functionality to PilotPathRecorder.

<<bring up the PilotPathRecorder dialog>>

Feature Presentations

Three enhancements made to the user interface are:

  • Two new "Connection Types" for providing flight path data input
  • Addition of "LiveCams" for providing "near real-time" display in Google Earth
  • A new "Launch KML File" button

Connections

When developing new features, it's important to have a reliable and abundant source of test data. To this end, I introduced the ability to generate two new streams of flight path data:

  • Replay - replays a previously logged stream of flight data
  • RandomWalk - generates a new, random stream of flight data

I found it cumbersome without these enhancements to develop LiveCams, since otherwise I would have needed to fly while developing. With these new features, I can test LiveCams while either replaying a previously recorded flight, or while playing a new, randomly generated flight.

LiveCams

The term "LiveCam" is used to describe the new view that PilotPathRecorder can give the user of a flight path it's receiving.

I've considered two of the LiveCam definitions I've experimented with so far worthy of inclusion as "builtin" to the application - they are:

  • Cockpit - representing a view from the "cockpit" of the simulated flight
  • Tagalong - where the "camera" is moved only manually by the user

<<show these in the "LiveCam" checkbox and drop-down>>

Demonstration

Here's a demonstration of some of these ideas:

Random Walk
  1. <<start the PilotPathRecorder dialog>>
  2. <<point out Automatic Logging>>
  3. <<start a RandomWalk>>
  4. <<point out logging started>>
Cockpit LiveCam
  1. <<select the Cockpit LiveCam>>
  2. <<start Live Camera>>
  3. <<use Link to start it in Google Earth>>
  4. <<point out how it's tracking the Cockpit view>>
Tagalong LiveCam
  1. <<select the Tagalong LiveCam>>
  2. <<use Link to start it in Google Earth>>
  3. <<point out it's tracking both Tagalong and Cockpit>>
  4. <<point out the KML "Placeholder" representing the airplane>>
  5. <<click on the Placeholder to retrieve the current data>>
  6. <<disable the Cockpit view in Google Earth>>
  7. <<point out how in Tagalong user controls the vantage>>
  8. <<point out how the track line is left in Tagalong>>

LiveCam Development

LiveCam definitions were kept external to PilotPathRecorder, and are stored in JSON files containing what are called "Lens templates." Using the Edit button, you can customize built-in LiveCams or create your own. As an example, I'll modify the Tagalong LiveCam to un-comment a block of KML which was disabled in the built-in template because it sometimes caused Google Earth to crash.

  1. <<select Tagalong and press Edit>>
  2. <<introduce the three Lens tabs>>
  3. <<briefly show the templates and their inter-lens references>>
  4. <<un-comment the Model tag>>
  5. <<show the reference to the 3D model>>
  6. <<change the Scale tag to 15 times>>
  7. <<save the updated LiveCam definition>>

This change will take effect right away, and you'll see the 3D airplane model in addition to the airplane Placemark.

<<point out the 3D airplane model, and that it's 15x normal size>>

The modified version of this LiveCam will now be used instead of the builtin version you started with.

Launch KML Button

I also found myself wanting a "shortcut" to invoke Google Earth directly from within PilotPathRecorder, so I created the Launch KML File. Pressing this button is the same as pressing the existing Create KML File button, then loading the newly created file manually within Google Earth.

Another Cool Idea

Just before I created this video, I happened upon another really cool resource for helping me to use Google Earth as a "moving map" for tracking my flight progress. At the bottom of this chartbundle.com page, find the link to the file chartbundle_aero.kml, which I used to overlay FAA aeronautical charts directly onto Google Earth, on top of which to project my flight path with `PilotPathRecorder'.

<<demonstration of navigation atop an FAA "terminal" or "sectional" chart>>