ATC Tower Simulator

BAO Tower Aerodromes

I have discovered a method of creating aerodromes for use with BAO Tower. I am publishing my info in the hope that one of you interested people out there may be able to improve on my cut & paste system by making a simple editor, additionally the number of aerodromes will be unlimitied with many people creating aerodromes from all over the world. In addition, it may stimulate interest in the creation of aircraft with different colour schemes, which I am unable to do at this stage. http://images.simradar.com/images/upload/trutta/ad1.jpg http://images.simradar.com/images/upload/trutta/ad2.jpg

I am no expert at this so I have tried to put it into as plain a language as possible. It may help you if you read up on the format of BITMAP files on the internet so that you understand what headers etc are...

You will need a HEX editor and a good paint program that can save the file in indexed colour format.

LOAD: BMP and adjust to 5120 pix wide and around 200-250 pix high,this will vary depending on the scenery, (mountains etc)

INDEX: to 128 colours adaptive. (Some paint programs it is 127 as they count "0" as a colour.)

INVERT:

FLIP HORIZONTAL:

Use a pure colour to fill the sky as this area will be replaced with HEX 00 and become transparent in the program

SAVE as BMP windows format 8 BIT

Now use your HEX editor:

CUT of BMP header to the start of picture information (00 00 00 00) and save it separately because you will have to extract the colour table from this later.

Save the remaining file with a BIT extension

Add 17 (decimal) to each byte of the file. (This is to modify the way the file points to the colour table))

Replace pure sky colour with “00” this will make it transparent while running the program.

Save file

Load header file from original program scenery file (0000-068F) eg DCA640.bit. I'll upload a header file to this site.

Load colour table from original BMP and paste over table in header file.

Load the saved BIT file onto the end of the header and save as a BIT file this will now be your scenery file.

The header file used in the BIT files in the program also contain information to create the illusion that the aircraft are taxiing behind things, I discarded this because I wasn't able to figure it out. All you need to do is make sure your aircraft aren't behind anything.

To put runway lights etc. I loaded up the original bmp picture and put black dots where I wanted the lights, searched for that colour with the hex editor and was able to locate the bytes. I then substitute the following:

EB = white

EC = red

ED = green

EE = blue

There's lots of other colour combinations and there could even be flashing lights I haven't explored that far yet.

FAQs

This is the extent of my knowledge and lots more experimentation is required, I hope it is of some help.

How do I make an airport picture?

Try taking the photos from a position at the front of the tower. (You’ll notice in the program the runway at Washingon is actually curved) , Then you use a panorama (Download Panowin here:http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?1500000035360) program select barrel correction off, you may also have to stretch the picture a bit this way and that. (I didn’t say it was easy.)

How do I run tower with XP ?

Get a new version of MSVCRT20.DLL and replace the one that came with tower.

Also put wing32.dll into your system and system32 directory.

How many screens can I use ?

With suitable hardware you can stretch the aerodrome picture over four screens and see the whole runway at once. If you use more than this there will be picture but no action.

Where do I find the colour table?

Use your Hex editor and open the 128 colour indexed bitmap. (Some photo programs you will have to save 127 colours as they count 0 as a colour). Copy the colour table from : 0000:0035 to 0000:0235. This is the 128 colours from your picture. Now open the picture file with the tower header attached and paste this colour table over the one in the tower program. This will be from 0000:0057 to 0000:0257. The information in the header after this seems to control the sky and also make parts of the picture 3D so that the aircraft pass behind them, like the finger at Washington, I’ve deleted these parts from the header that is available on site. This is another area for experimentation.

How do I amend the various files in the DCA directory ?

Use wordpad to amend any files, make sure you save them as plain text without any formatting. In most cases you must keep all the header information or the file won’t work.

How do I use different callsigns?

Got to the “.cpl” file (callsign pool ) here you can add or change as many callsigns as you want, even using different countries. These can then be used in exercises and will show up on the radar.

The format is : callsign aircraft type number

This info is only necessary if you decide to change the voice files to access the callsign (I think) .

How do I change the outline and size of the aircraft on the ground radar ?

Go to the “.inf” (information?) you’ll see two columns. An entry may read;

Type C182. Under this is two columns of numbers. Have a fiddle with these and they change the outline on the ground radar.

How do I change what I see on the radar map?

Go to the “.map” file. You can plot these points as Lats and Longs on a piece of graph paper with your airport in the middle. You can use different lines dashed dotted or solid to show coastline etc.

How do I show tracks and obstacles on the radar ?

Go to the “.sec” file. You can plot the Lats and Longs of tracks and obstacles which will then show up on the radar.

This file also controls the ratio size of aircraft. If you want to increase the apparent size of aircraft , change the altitude and the aircraft will appear larger. If you set all the Lats and Longs the same at the top of the file, the radar , tower and the point from where the tracks start will all be the same.

It is worth noting here that the orientation of the runway to lineup with the compass is done in the “.bit” file. By changing the fifth and sixth byte of the file the compass can be made to line up with whatever runway you choose to use.

Can I change the way the aircraft flys a circuit ?

In the “.pat” file you can change the way the different weight categories of aircraft behave. The weight category is assigned to the aircraft in the “.prf” (peformance file). You can set up take off distances etc. , and new aircraft types. The CAT 1 altitude is the circuit height, the others seem to affect the way the aircraft joins the circuit either close in or at a distance.

Can I make up new aircraft ?

I don’t know how to create new aircraft, but have a look in the “models” directory and you’ll see plenty of different types. However, some won’t fly until you make up a performance file for them. You can also create a B737-800 for example by copying and renaming the model B737.dbt to B738.dbt and then changing the performance characteristics in this file.

How do I create taxiways, runways and parking bays to match my runway picture?

This is where the work starts. You have to plot the airport on graph paper or you can try a program like excel. I found it easier to plot Washington for practice and it soon becomes apparent how you have to plot each holding point, turning point and parking bay. You can also plot a GA area which will randomly hold as many aircraft as you make provision for, but category 2 and 3 aircraft have to have a parking bay or they will automatically go to GA or even worse jam up the program. You’ll need to write a new “.twr” file. If you set out your airport on graph paper with the tower in the middle you’ll be able to plot all the points as in columns 3 &4 of the point section. This includes the ends of the runways, holding points, parking ramps etc. Once this is done you can plot preferred taxiway routes around the aerodrome. It sounds difficult but if you practice with Washington, you’ll soon figure it out. All the info has to go into the “.twr” file this will show up when you select rwys , at the start of the program. There’s a bit of experimentation to be done here as I still don’t know what all the points are.

What is the “.typ” file ?

I think this is to do with the voice files. I keep it up to date but I don’t know why.

What is the “world.dat” file ?

I’ve got no idea.

How do I get aircraft to follow their flight planned route?

After you clear the aircraft for takeoff, before it gets airborne tell it to call departures. It will take off and follow its flight planned route.

Can I reduce the keystrokes I need to run tower ?

Try using a program like Macro Magic (Download here: http://www.iolo.com/mm/)and you can assign multiple instructions to aircraft at the one time (you'll need to experiment). You can also make it switch off those annoying popups that tell you how bad you are.

How do I write “.sim” files ?

I’ve noted in brackets what each part does.

Tower Simulation File Version 3.8

!!! THIS FILE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USER MODIFICATION !!!

!!! USER MODIFICATION CAN CAUSE UNPREDICABLE BEHAVIOR !!!

[SimInfo]

Sector DCA.SEC (This is the name of your airport sector file)

Aircraft 1 (This is the number of aircraft in the exercise)

Vehicles 0 (I don’t know)

Minutes 20 (Minutes you want the exercise to run)

Seed 1234 (I don’t know)

SimType NORMAL (I don’t know)

[Description] (You can fill a description in here)

This scenario is used to give you a taste of working traffic in the

Washington airspace. It only uses simple controller commands, and

consists of three arrivals and three departures.

[Environment] (I don’t know)

[WindLevels]

0 10 340 (You can put a wind in here, it will appear in program)

[Waypoints] (I don’t know)

[Aircraft]

BA940 B747 VFR -1 a 00:00 250 5500 1500 1200 36

IRONS DCA Twr @FS @GD14

BA940 (Speedbird 940) Callsign

B747 Aircraft Type

IFR or VFR (I don’t know what difference this makes)

-1 (I don’t know what difference this makes)

a or d Arrival or Departure

00:00 Minutes & secs since the exercise starts.

250 The aircraft cruise speed – sometimes this changes,

I don’t know why

5500 Cruising altitude?-sometimes this changes,

I don’t know why

1500 Circuit altitude?-sometimes this changes,

I don’t know why

1200 Final altitude?-sometimes this changes,

I don’t know why

36 Runway

IRONS Tracking point

DCA TWR Destination

@FS Full stop landing. @TG = touch and Go then landing @TG @TG = multiple touch and goes.

@GD14 The parking gate number. If blank will park at GA

N22734 C172 VFR -1 d 01:04 120 1999 3999 1200 15

DCA OTT Ctr @TO @LP

@TO @LP

This appears on departures I don’t know why. It works without them.

Can I change the voice files?

I haven’t used these but they are wav files joined together, and they are indexed from the performance file.