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

Full Changelog: v0.18.1...v0.19.0

This bug fix release adds support for the Fenix A320 front wheel steering.

Bug Fixes

• Ensure that the front wheel steering simulation variable is not sent to AI aircraft (formation flight) which would cause an "exception 20" (SimConnect data error)
• Support for the Fenix A320 nose wheel steering added

Full Changelog: v0.18.0...v0.18.1

Sky Dolly "Illustrious Ikarus" supports flights with a recording duration over a day: those flights are now properly displayed. For instance the flight duration in the logbook is now shown as timestamp (hh:mm:ss format), in days, weeks, months and so on, depending on the actual duration. The time edit widget next to the timeline automatically also shows the date once the recording time exceeds 24 hours.
New location import and export plugins are also introduced, allowing to exchange locations in the Sky Dolly logbook format which is also automatically converted to the latest format when importing.

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 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
• The replay time widget now properly displays replay times longer than a day
• When loading a flight from the logbook the replay mode is automatically reset to Normal

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
• A distance threshold option has been added to the location import settings, allowing to update existing locations (or ignore the location to be imported, or unconditionally import it)
• 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
• New simulation variables are being recorded, among them nose wheel steering

Logbook

• Rename column Date to Recording Date
• 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 exampel SQL
• Added new analytical SQL 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)

What's Changed

• Feature/location import export sdlog by @till213 in #144
• Feature/location import sdlog by @till213 in #145
• Location import: add distance calculation for neighbouring locations by @till213 in #146
• Feature/separate aircraft attitude by @till213 in #147
• Feature/max sim rate selector by @till213 in #148
• Feature/remove recording sample frequency choice by @till213 in #149
• Bump jurplel/install-qt-action from 3 to 4 by @dependabot in #151
• Fix/160 gpx export elevation data inconsistency by @till213 in #162
• Feature/time of day by @till213 in #163
• Feature/time display by @till213 in #164
• Feature/time display2 by @till213 in #165
• Feature/time display3 by @till213 in #166
• Feature/UI reboot by @till213 in #167
• Fix/date migr by @till213 in #168
• Feature/nose wheel control by @till213 in #169
• Feature/throttle control by @till213 in #170

Full Changelog: v0.17.0...v0.18.0

This bug fix release provides an important correction for a regression that would prevent recording (and possibly replay as well), due to wrongly creating an IPv4 network connection instead of a local ("pipe") connection.

Bug Fixes

• Ensure that the connection is local again ("pipe")
  • Fix the persisted connection type value
  • Migrate existing application settings (fix the "off by one" value)
  • This is a regression introduced with Sky Dolly v0.17.1

What's Changed

• FIX: Correct the "off by one" MSFSSimConnect connection type by @till213 in #159

Full Changelog: v0.17.4...v0.17.5

This is a pure maintenance release without any Sky Dolly specific fixes: it provides the most recent Qt framework release with several Windows 11 user interface style related fixes.

Under the Hood

• Upgrade Qt to 6.7.2 (from 6.7.1)

Full Changelog: v0.17.3...v0.17.4

This release fixes the following issues:

Bug Fixes

• Do not create a logbook backup when importing a logbook (flight) from a previous Sky Dolly release (that needs to be migrated)
• When opening a logbook: retry with a backup directory relative to the logbook path (that is, "./Backups") in case a backup directory given with an absolute path cannot be created (e.g. because it refers to some non-existing drive letter, or otherwise is not writeable anymore)
• Do not create the non-existing backup directory when the periodic "Backup" dialog is shown
  • The directory is created as needed when the backup is actually to be made later on
• When resetting the Logbook filter (pressing the "X" button) then also the search text field is now cleared

Full Changelog: v0.17.2...v0.17.3

This release provides a few improvements and fixes the following issues:

Improvements

• Seeking backward and forward via flight simulator keyboard shortcuts (CTRL+, respectively CTRL+.) now repeats the action while keeping the shortcut combination pressed
• Application settings: the flight simulator connection plugin and connection type (pipe, IPv4, IPv6) combo boxes are disabled while the connection is active (replay or recording in progress)
• When the SimConnect.cfg client configuration that comes with Sky Dolly is removed from the application directory then a local (configuration index SIMCONNECT_OPEN_CONFIGINDEX_LOCAL) connection is used (just like in previous Sky Dolly versions)

Bug Fixes

• Fix the example Flight-Analysis.sql script (documentation) [Issue #150]
  • The flight_number is now stored on flight level (and not per aircraft anymore)

Under the Hood

• Upgrade Qt to 6.7.1 (from 6.7.0)

This release provides a few improvements and fixes the following issues:

Improvements

• Add new aircraft types from simulation update 15, selectable when importing a flight
  • Ornithopter
  • A320 V2 (iniBuilds)
  • Note that any new aircraft that is recorded will be automatically added to the aircraft type list (existing behaviour)
• Platform styles that are not really selectable - such as "Windows Vista" style on Windows 11 and "Windows 11" style on Windows 10 - are not shown anymore in the style selection dropdown list
  • The selection list is now sorted

Bug Fixes

• The aircraft type is properly set again when importing a flight (regression from v0.17)
  • The aircraft type selector (combo box) does not show the unknown special value "-" anymore
  • The aircraft type is properly set in the imported flight again
• On Windows 11 the default style is set to "Fusion", as a workaround
  • The new "Windows 11" style still has a few known visual glitches:
    • Active toolbar buttons are almost unreadable in dark mode [QTBUG-124286]
    • The time display ("time edit" widget) only shows two digits [QTBUG-124150]
    • Alternating table rows are not visually distinct [QTBUG-124564]
  • However the "Windows 11" style can still be set, under File | Settings... | User Interface
• Properly validate persisted enumeration values when restoring plugin settings
• The "native styles" ("Windows Vista" on Windows 10 respectively "Windows 11" on Windows 11) are now properly loaded when explicitly set in the application settings

What's Changed

• Fix/location enums by @till213 in #142
• FIX: Properly initialise style plugins by @till213 in #143

Full Changelog: v0.17.0...v0.17.1

This release provides keyboard shortcut support in the flight simulator, dark theme and SimConnect network support.

New features:

• Keyboard shortcut support in the flight simulator
  • Shortcuts can be re-assigned in the Sky Dolly application settings (no restart required)
• Desktop notifications about recording start and stop events (when triggered in the flight simulator via the new shortcuts)
  • Ensure desktop notification visibility in the Windows system settings (-> Notification Assistant), specifically when MSFS is running in full screen mode
• SimConnect network support
  • Sky Dolly ships with a SimConnect.cfg, providing three configurations
  • Edit the network options with a text editor, in order to match with the corresponding SimConnect.xml server configuration (located in the MSFS data folder)
  • They can easily be selected via the Sky Dolly application settings (no restart required)
• Dark theme support via selectable styles
  • On Windows 10: select the "Fusion" style (the default "Windows Vista" style does not support dark theme)
  • On Windows 11: select the "Windows 11" (default) style
  • In any case dark theme needs to be enabled in the Windows system settings

Improvements:

• The default logbook name is now Sky Dolly Logbook
• The flight number is now also shown in the Logbook table
  • Flights can also be filtered with the flight number
  • The flight number is now stored per flight (not per aircraft anymore)
  • The flight number can now be edited (both in the Flight dialog and 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 Sky Dolly custom replay rate is rounded to the nearest simulation rate, one of 0.0625, 0.125, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, ... 128 ("multiples of 2")
• The flight simulator simulation rate is now shown in the replay speed group
• The simulation rate may be limited in the application settings (note that the replay speed may still be higher)

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 [Issue #106]
• 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

What's Changed

• Feature sdcsv removal by @till213 in #101
• Feature default logbook by @till213 in #102
• Feature/flight number by @till213 in #104
• Feature/modset3 by @till213 in #108
• Fix/formation flight condition recording by @till213 in #109
• FIX: Properly pause/resume recording when toggling "active pause" by @till213 in #110
• Upgrade GeographicLib to version 2.2 (from version 2.1.2) by @till213 in #111
• Enable keyboard shortcuts in the flight simulator by @till213 in #112
• Bump actions/checkout from 3 to 4 by @dependabot in #118
• Bump jurplel/install-qt-action from 3 to 4 by @dependabot in #121
• Bump actions/upload-artifact from 2 to 3 by @dependabot in #122
• Bump actions/upload-artifact from 3 to 4 by @dependabot in #126
• Bump github/codeql-action from 2 to 3 by @dependabot in #125
• Feature/notif2 by @till213 in #131
• Feature/msfs shortcuts by @till213 in #132
• Feature/msfs shortcuts 2 by @till213 in #133
• Feature/123 skydolly on remote pc via simconnect by @till213 in #134
• Feature/settings improvements by @till213 in #136
• Feature/gui styles by @till213 in #137
• Feature/refactor handlers by @till213 in #138
• Feature/simulation rate by @till213 in #139
• Fix/msfs connect flaps by @till213 in #140

Full Changelog: v0.16.2...v0.17.0

This release fixes the following issue:

• Proper CSV validation of Flight Recorder and Sky Dolly (obsolete) CSV files

It also introduces an initial "crash handler" that handles exceptions that are unexpected and hence unhandled by the application logic itself - also known as "bugs" (programming errors).

The crash handler gathers basic application information and most importantly it tries to detect the location of the exception ("stack trace"), plus the nature of the exception. It also allows the user to copy this information and create a new issue here on github.com (free github account required).