1.0 Release Information

SimToolkitPro launched just over 3 years ago as a personal project to help me get better at landings. 3 years on, I'm still not very good at them, but SimToolkitPro has changed greatly. The first year was a slow one with uptake on users and no "online" functionality at all. By the start of year 2, we had hit our first milestone of double digit flights online and later that year VATSIM's Cross the Pond event we hit our high of just over 1000 concurrent flights.

As 1.0 rolls out, we have close to 76'000 active users flight 3000+ flights a day. I am consistently humbled by the amount of support this project has got over the past 3 years. 

For those that don't know STKP is a single developer project, entirely developed to try and give the best available tools to the community for nothing at all as flight simulation is expensive enough! The discord staff and support team are made entirely of volunteers donating their time to keep STKP running smoothly.

As of the 1.0 release there are also 220+ active patrons over on Patreon helping support the project and allowing me to improve the hardware behind the scenes to provide a better, faster service. If you want access to the latest test builds you can join them here - https://www.patreon.com/simtoolkitpro. 

So What's New?

Here are the headlines for 1.0!

• Screenshots - Automatically capture and save screenshots from your flights regardless of the sim!
• New Flight Planner - Wizard for easily getting flying without complex options and menus
• New Dashboard - Slimmed down and simpler dashboard
• NAT Tracks - Updated in real time from offical sources the NAT tracks are shown on the live map
• LiveDataServer - Map is now powered by a faster socket based server that updates in near real time for STKP flights
• New API - Faster API for parts of the app to improve response times
• Updated Fleet Page - A more visual fleet page with a better display of your fleet
• Real Ops - Near realtime update of real flight data for airlines
• Better Network Integration - Access to ATIS information from VATSIM/IVAO when available
• Improvements to Network Mapping - Better display of online controllers for networks
• Logbook Improvements - Better display of logged flights and inline display of screenshots from them
• DataCentre for STKP - A web based collaborative tool to improve the data used by SimToolkitPro, as of 1.0 release all user accounts of a certain age will get access to this. It can be found on the website
• New Integrated Ticket System - A new fully custom ticket system with notifications integrated into the STKP client

X-Plane 12 

SimToolkitPro 1.0 ships with a plugin that is currently compatible with X-Plane 12, as X-Plane 12 is in active development things can and will change so issues will be addressed as and when they arise.

Where is {x} feature?

Not everything made it to the 1.0 release, but that doesn't mean it isn't coming. Fully native iOS and Android apps are planned for this year giving remote access to your live flight data, scheduled flights and fleet data from anywhere you have an internet connection.

Release Notes

This is a consolidated list of all the release notes leading upto 1.0.

1.0.0-rc.2

CLIENT

• [FIX] Core - Added autorecovery from UI crashes, hopefully this will recover whitescreen issues automatically

API

• [FIX] Flight Monitoring - Database cleanup for performance
• [FIX] API Endpoints - Changes to better facilitate some future features
• [FIX] API Endpoints - Moved some endpoints to another server to improve performance

1.0.0-rc.1

CLIENT

• [FIX] App - Updated nomenclature for SimBrief alias entry
• [FIX] App - Various package updates for features and security
• [FIX] App - Fixed a couple of missing/changed icons
• [FIX] App - Improvements to first run onboarding
• [FIX] Flight Planning Wizard - New reliable method of getting a departure time
• [FIX] Network Data - All 1.0.0+ clients will now use a new server for network data as it accounted for more than 90% of traffic to/from the server, the old system will be deprecated and eventually taken offline meaning clients older than 1.0.0 will NOT receive network data. The date for this will be confirmed in the future.
• [FIX] VFR Planning - Fixed some issues picking out some specific waypoints in data
• [FIX] Fleet - Fixed bug with map background not fully rendering correctly
• [FIX] Dashboard - Fixed some pop ups not being correctly reset
• [FIX] Settings - Finally fixed UI conformity between tabs for setup

API

• Various endpoint security updates
• Improvements to response times and traffic management
• Implemented some basic load balancing and scaling
• Moved a couple more endpoints to the new API
• Restructured some of the update calls to be faster and less resource intensive

0.9.0-rc.2

CLIENT

• [FIX] Importer - Fixed issue with importer not assigning some aircraft correctly
• [FIX] SimConnect - Updated receiver code to check for incorrect heading information and fix automatically
• [FIX] Flight Plan Wizard - Fixed sending IATA code in place of ICAO when dispatching with the flight planning wizard
• [FIX] Flight Plan Wizard - Can now load last SimBrief plan from the main page
• [FIX] Planning Map - Fixed wrapping when crossing the -180/180 from east to west
• [FIX] Live Map / Flight Summary - Fixed potential for spaces to break network user id's to remove "ghost" versions of your flights
• [UPD] Checklists - MD80 procedures updated by Kosmonautas

DATACENTRE

• Fixed issue uploading new logos where there is no existing logo

0.9.0-rc.1

CLIENT

• [NEW] Flight Plan - When selecting the network from the flight planning page just prior to starting a flight Departure and Arrival ATIS will be checked for the selected network and displayed if available with 2 buttons in the bottom left
• [FIX] Dashboard - Fix issue causing friend names to not render correctly or at all
• [FIX] Text Flight Summary - Fixed FMS plan export issue
• [FIX] Text Flight Summary - Fixed issue when cancelling flight
• [FIX] App - Improve startup error handling

API V2

• [FIX] NAT Tracks - Added some missing fixes that broke display of the tracks (there will likely be more)

0.9.0-beta.16

CLIENT

• [UPD] App - New airport referencing method when looking up position information
• [UPD] Navdata Manager - Improvements to data lookup speed for navigation data
• [FIX] App - Fixed package compatibility with incoming windows update for windows 11 
• [FIX] Flight Planning Wizard - Improved flight selection UI

API

• Flight data system moved to APIv2
• Changes to database structure to improve indexing
• Reduction of IO ops to improve responsiveness of the existing API at peak times and reduce chances of issues at 0.9.0 launch

DATA CENTRE

• Source is now required for all submissions
• Increased rate of accepting new users onto the system

0.9.0-beta.15

CLIENT

• [FIX] App - Removed a bunch of legacy packaged and upgraded some for security updates
• [FIX] Flight ETE - Fixed an issue with ETE calculation for a second planned flight
• [FIX] Flight Planning Wizard - Now populates Flight number and Callsign with details where possible
• [FIX] Flight Summary - Now interchangeable between Text and Graphical, settings have been updated to reflect the default shown
• [FIX] Text Flight Summary - Fixed various layout bugs
• [FIX] Text Flight Summary - Update Taxi layout to match new graphical flight summary
• [FIX] Text Flight Summary - Added ATIS system when flying on a network with support (IVAO/VATSIM) currently
• [FIX] Screenshots - Fixed issue when starting a new flight that would prevent screenshots being recorded correctly

0.9.0-beta.14

CLIENT

• [FIX] SimBrief Planning - API will now send an empty value by default instead of defaulting to LIDO, ideally a SimBrief API update will allow the use of account defaults to make this fix worthwhile down the road
• [FIX] Live Map - Fixed missing aircraft image
• [FIX] Flight Planning Wizard - Removed excessive fleet data logging
• [FIX] Flight System - Starting a flight with one active will now cancel the active flight meaning the aircraft doesnt "move" in your fleet
• [FIX] Export - Fixed MD80 export

0.9.0-beta.13

CLIENT

• [UPD] Planning Wizard - Can now filter fleet aircraft by airline, icao, iata, callsign or registration
• [FIX] SimConnect Server - Fixed data lookup issue causing disconnects when using STKP and SimConnectServer over a network
• [FIX] Flight Summary - Fixed map type display for VFR maps
• [FIX] Flight Planner - Fixed SimBrief reporting [Object object] when no flight number is set when planning on the SimBrief website
• [FIX] Logbook - Fixed screenshot icons rendering below the route line

0.9.0-beta.12

CLIENT

• [UPD] Backtrace - Added backtrace crash monitoring for the rollout of 0.9.0.
• [FIX] Screenshots - New image upload API, 3rd party one was a little unreliable so there is now a custom one in place to test
• [FIX] Screenshots - Added remote data system to allow me to rebuild the user screenshot database in the event of local data loss
• [FIX] Fleet - Will now remember sorting order
• [FIX] Live Map - Can now toggle visibility of NAT layer
• [FIX] App - Moved STKP over to some of the new API routes to reduce main API load

API

• Fixed a major performance issue affecting API availability at peak time

0.9.0-beta.11

CLIENT

• [NEW] Flight Summary - Added ATIS/METAR menu which will pull live ATIS when on VATSIM/IVAO
• [FIX] Logbook - Returned CSV export button
• [FIX] Bulk Import - Updated format to match CSV export format

WEB

• Changes to font for readability
• New devlog listing page

0.9.0-beta.10

CLIENT

• [NEW] Flight Summary - Warning notice if you've not clicked a prefile and are flying on a network (Disableable in settings)
• [NEW] Flight Plan Export - Can now show/hide export formats to save on clutter and make it easier to see formats you regularly use
• [UPD] Plan Wizard - Will now use the plan format specified in the standard dispatcher
• [FIX] App - Moved some loading code to a little later in the boot process
• [FIX] App - Removed some analytics code
• [FIX] App - Removed some excessive debug output

WEB

• Ticket system is now accessible from within the app (support site link on sidebar). This will include links to the FAQ/Help article system soon!

0.9.0-beta.9

CLIENT

• [FIX] Live Map - New layer handling to improve performance
• [FIX] Live Map - Aircraft icons will now scale to a larger size when zoomed in at airports
• [FIX] Flight Summary - New layer handling to improve performance
• [FIX] App - Client alerts enabled and set to not time out for ticket notifications

0.9.0-beta.8

CLIENT

• [FIX] Flight Summary - Fixed issue with lookup rate on WX layer
• [FIX] Flight Summary - Added runway designation labels
• [FIX] Flight Summary - Plan route will now fade when zooming in
• [FIX] Live Map - NAT data more reliable after building my own NAT data parser
• [FIX] Live Map - Improved NAT UI with waypoint names and no client side processing for display!
• [FIX] Live Map - STKP flights will now display flight plan when selected and available
• [FIX] Flight Planning - Advanced selection now fixed

WEBSITE

• [FIX] New email backend for sending forgotten password emails that should improve delivery rate

API

• [NEW] New endpoint for parsing NAT data
• I am aware of clipping images for logos on the Airline ops page

0.9.0-beta.6-7

CLIENT

• [UPD] Airline Ops - Now lives on the sidebar
• [UPD] Airline Ops - Full redesign and improvements to performance
• [UPD] METAR Lookup - Source will auto switch between networks to match current flight network
• [UPD] Flight Planning - Added units to planning page
• [FIX] App - Last used aircraft is now cleared when you cancel or finish a flight
• [FIX] METAR Lookup - IVAO METAR lookup fully implemented now
• [FIX] Flight Planning - Fixed reloading when creating a new plan when one is already active
• [FIX] Airline Ops - Fly now button now correctly passes IATA and ICAO codes where possible
• [FIX] Flight Summary - Vastly reduced stuttering when moving the map
• [FIX] Flight Summary - Fixed issue with lookup rate on WX layer
• [FIX] Live Map - Fixed network traffic not displaying

API

• New API implemented at a base level and providing a backup to existing
• I am aware of clipping images for logos on the Airline ops page

0.9.0-beta.5

CLIENT

• [UPD] Planning Wizard - New autocompletes, these will be implemented across the app once tested
• [FIX] Live Map - No longer takes into account Mag Var for MSFS connections due to change in heading data source used
• [FIX] Planning Wizard - Can now exit from the wizard page
• [FIX] External Device Access - OFP fixed on remote access app (http://ip.of.stkp.device:51011/app)
• [FIX] App - Internal call rate for flight update reduced (Old flight map system)
• [FIX] App - Debug log handling improved
• [FIX] Data - A bunch of UTF8 encoding issues have been fixed
• [FIX] Logbook - Fixed Geodata issue when viewing flights
• [FIX] Airline Routes - Hovering on a route filters the map correctly now

0.9.0-beta.4

CLIENT

• [NEW] Planning Wizard - A more streamlined method of flight planning
• [NEW] Settings - Can now select default planning interface, "Classic Style", "Advanced" or the new "Wizard"
• [NEW/RETURNING]  Settings - Can now select VATSIM/IVAO(soon) as source for METAR requests for flight data and the quick lookup
• [FIX] Autoupdater - Removed excessive debugging output
• [FIX] Fleet - Loading images from local device now supported
• [FIX] Screenshots - Added some debugging to try and pinpoint some of the issues with detection
• [FIX] Screenshots - Changes to monitoring options
• [FIX] Live Map - Search is fixed for users and callsigns
• [FIX] Settings - Cleaned up and made a bit clearer

0.9.0-beta.3

CLIENT

• [FIX] Screenshot - Will now accept images of type jpg, gif, png, tiff, bmp
• [FIX] Live Map - NAT data is now fixed and checked before rendering

0.9.0-beta.2

CLIENT

• [NEW] Flight Screenshot Tracking and Tagging using remote storage
• [NEW] Reworked Logbook for performance improvements and displaying screenshots
• [UPD] Splash - Autocompletes are populated at app startup for more static data such as airports, airlines and aircraft data
• [UPD] Screenshotting - Screenshots are now pre-cached from the server
• [UPD] Logbook - Fixed preload issue with MSFS location data before flight start
• [UPD] Dispatcher - Updated aircraft selection display to be more visual
• [FIX] Live Map/Flight Summary - Fixed network filtering for own VATSIM/IVAO flight
• [FIX] Live Map - Selected flight data will now update correctly
• [FIX] Live Map - ATC Coverage zones will now fade out when zoomed in
• [FIX] Screenshotting - Can now be deleted from logbook page
• [FIX] Exports - Fixed exports for various aircraft
• [FIX] Checklist - Dark mode.. That is all
• [FIX] Settings - Selectable screenshot monitoring folders

0.9.0-beta.1

CLIENT

• [NEW] Live Map - Live map updated to use STKPDataStream system for all network flight data
• [NEW] Live Map - North atlantic track data added
• [NEW] Dashboard - New dashboard update to reduce the clutter and give a cleaner simpler interface
• [NEW] Flight Summary - Schedule timer now shows countdown to departure time and indicator if running late
• [NEW] Flight Summary - Drawing overlay allows persistent map annotation
• [UPD] Flight Planning - Changes to layout and styling to improve clarity
• [UPD] Flight Planning - Selected fleet and routing is now carried over when switching to advanced dispatch
• [UPD] VFR Planner - New map sources
• [UPD] VFR Planner - New performance centred layout
• [UPD] Live Map - Changed light mode map provider and attribution
• [UPD] Live Map - Network Approach controllers are now more visible with a range circle around the controlled airfield 
• [UPD] Live Map - Added a progress indicator for loading the map
• [UPD] Settings Page - Reworded and improved settings UI for ease of understanding
• [UPD] Flight Summary - Routing is now collapsible and defaults to collapsed giving a more concise overview of the flight
• [UPD] Flight Summary - All new ATC features from live map now available on the summary page
• [UPD] Fleet - Added airframe level support for the Concorde
• [UPD] App - Improved visibility of scroll bars
• [FIX] Dashboard - Fixed flight data from friends list not showing
• [FIX] Dashboard - New faster rendering method for dashboard map
• [FIX] Login - Fixed a bug where the pilot name is not set correctly from remote data
• [FIX] Flight Summary - Fixed missing text on airport overlay UI
• [FIX] Live Map - Network controlled airspace now shows contact frequency
• [FIX] Live Map - Fixed missing names on STKP flights
• [FIX] Fleet - Fixed issue adding some aircraft to fleet
• [FIX] Fleet - Fixed issue with updating registration on fleet aircraft
• [FIX] Fleet - Fixed some image lookup issues
• [FIX] Fleet - You will be warned when adding an aircraft with a registration matching an existing fleet entry
• [FIX] Scenery Scanning - Fixed some issues with scenery scanning in MSFS
• [FIX] METAR Service - Fixed issue with some reports causing a duplication error
• [FIX] App - Better ultrawide monitor support
• [FIX] App - Improved consistency of navbar highlights
• [FIX] Flight Planning - Full support for 3 letter FAA airport codes
• [FIX] Flight Planning - Network flights now shown
• [FIX] Flight Planning - Fixed map alignement and centering
• [FIX] SimBrief Planning - Added support for stepclimb planning, option is saved between flights
• [FIX] SimBrief Planning - Fixed export formats for Airbus EFB and Rotate MD11
• [REM] Swift UI Mod - Removed as its out of date now

SIMCONNECT SERVER

• Improved support for Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Fixed heading issue with certain airframes in Microsoft Flight Simulator by switching Heading data source

PERFORMANCE

• Background update of network data is now only handling ATC information and runs much less often

What next?

Well there will inevitably be a chunk of patches to follow to fix some bugs and 0.8.14 will continue to function, so you don't need to jump to 1.0 immediately. I will be working hard to make sure the patches are out as soon as possible and the next development build will be up on Patreon within the next few weeks once the patches are stable!

I hope you all enjoy the new 1.0 client and features that are with it! Thanks to everyone that uses and supports STKP and I will chat to you all again soon!

Dan <3

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