Getting Started

The radar client interface that vice provides is based on STARS. For familiarity to VATSIM controllers, vice generally follows the keyboard command scheme implemented in CRC's STARS implementation; see the discussion of vice's STARS emulation below for more information.

The first time you launch vice, a window is shown for configuring the simulation. (After the first time, the window can be brought up by clicking the "replay" button in the menubar: .) A number of scenarios are available, some departure-only and some including both departures and arrivals. Here is the configuration window for LGA:

(Each scenario usually offers multiple runway configurations.)

In the configuration window, you can set the average departure rate (ADR) for all of the airports that may have departures in the scenario as well as the average arrival rate (AAR) for all of the arrival airports. (The LGA scenario only includes Laguardia Airport, though other scenarios include both a primary airport as well as satellites.) Both of these rates are specified in terms of aircraft per hour, so an ADR of 30 corresponds to one aircraft departing every two minutes (on average). If you'd like an arrival-only scenario, for example, just set all of the departure rates to zero.

The "Sequencing challenge" slider controls how challenging the departure sequence is—the higher it is, the more likely it is that successive departures will be to the same gate or to the same fix. For arrivals, the "Go around probability" slider allows setting the probability that each arrival goes around.

After you have configured the simulation, click "Ok" and you will have a STARS scope and flight strip window to work with. Use the usual STARS commands as appropriate (to initiate track, accept handoffs, handoff to other controllers, etc.), and the additional ATC commands below to issue control commands to aircraft.

When the simulation starts, vice also displays a small window listing the active departures, arrivals, and approaches. For this LGA scenario, three arrivals are active but there is just one approach and one departure. Other scenarios may be more complex.

The approach code—here, "I22"— is used in vice's aircraft control commands like "expect approach" and "cleared approach".

To free up space, you can close this window by clicking on the "X" in the upper right corner. Clicking on the button in the menubar will show the window again.

To adjust the amount of space used for flight strips, right click the line separating the flight strips from the radar window and drag left or right with your mouse.

A number of buttons are available in the menu bar at the top of the window:

• / : pause or resume the simulation.
• : opens the window to select a new scenario and set its parameters.
• : open a window that allows changing various settings. The most useful one is the simulation rate: you can speed up time during slow times or to increase the challenge.
• : show the window that lists the currently active departures, arrivals, and approaches.
• : opens a window that shows a summary of vice's ATC commands and frequently-used STARS commands.
• : open a window with controls for launching aircraft, either automatically or manually.
• : open this webpage to review vice's documentation.
• : display information about the version of vice you have installed.
• : join the vice Discord.

When you exit vice, it remembers everything going on—all of the aircraft in flight, the instructions they have been given, etc. The next time you launch vice, it loads all of that back in and you can continue where you left off. If you'd like to start something new, just click and configure a new simulation.

When vice is paused, you can hover the mouse above a radar track to see information about the instructions the aircraft has been given so far—for example, altitude and speed assignments, whether it has been sent direct to a fix, the approach it has been assigned, etc. An example is shown below. This information is especially useful when resuming a vice session after you have been away from it for a while.

If you are signed in to Discord, vice can automatically update your activity status there with information about your current vice session (the number of arrivals and departures, the position you're controlling, etc.) When you first launch vice you are given the option to disable this feature if you would like. The settings window, available by clicking in the menubar, can also be used to enable or disable this feature afterward.

Drawing Routes

vice can draw the active departures, approaches, and arrivals for the current simulation. This can be helpful when studying those for an airport, since they are drawn directly on the radar scope with annotations that give the fixes, any altitude or speed restrictions, and procedure turns.

To toggle whether a route is drawn on the scope, click the checkbox on the left next to it in the information window that is shown at the start or after clicking on the button in the menubar. For example, here is how the HVN RNAV Runway 2 approach is rendered:

We can see the procedure turn at PEPER and that it is both the IAF and the IF; altitude restrictions at both SALLT and PEPER, that SALLT is the FAF, and that arrivals from KEYED will not fly the procedure turn.

Launching Aircraft

When a new simulation starts, vice automatically launches new departures and arrivals based on the departure and arrival rates set in the "New Simulation" window. During a simulation, clicking on the departing plane icon in the menubar opens a window that allows more control over aircraft launches. (Note that when vice is used with multiple controllers in the same simulation, only one controller may have this window open at a time.)

The rates for automatic launches can be adjusted in this window. Alternatively, aircraft can be launched manually. If manual launches are selected, the window shows all of the available departure runways and exits as well as all of the arrivals, as shown below. Clicking the aircraft icon for a departure or arrival causes the aircraft shown to be launched. If you'd like a different aircraft for the next launch (for example, to have a heavy aircraft), click the redo icon until you're happy with the selection. The window also shows the elapsed time since the launch of each type as well as how many miles in trail (MIT) there would be if the next aircraft was launched. To delete all of the aircraft from the simulation and restart, click the trash icon: .

Multiple Controllers

With vice you can also have multiple controllers working aircraft together. Select "Create multi-controller" in the "New Simulation" window and you can select a scenario and set its parameters in more or less the same way that you do with a single controller. Here is the top part of the multi-controller configuration window; all of the settings that are the same as for single-controller aren't shown.

Each multi-controller simulation has a name associated with it; vice chooses a random one by default (above, it's "following-nature"). You're welcome to choose a different name if you prefer. These names can be used so that you can tell other people which simulation to choose in order to join you.

Selecting "Join multi-controller" shows a list of the simulations that are currently available, including how many controllers are signed into each one. Note that the simulation names are shown in the first column. After selecting one, you can choose one of the available control positions and join. vice also allows you to join a simulation as an observer, in which case you have no control capabilities.

ATC Commands

The commands below issue control commands to aircraft. To indicate which aircraft should be given a command, you can either enter a command and click on an aircraft's radar track or you can enter the aircraft's callsign, a space, the command, and then press the "enter" key. After you issue a command, the virtual pilot's readback is shown at the bottom of the window. The aircraft will then start following that instruction, to the best of its abilities. Unlike VATSIM, the pilots will always do exactly what you tell them to.

If you'd like to issue multiple commands to an aircraft, enter the commands one after another with a space between them and then click on the appropriate aircraft. To open a window that shows the available ATC commands when using vice, click the button in the top menubar.

Airspace

vice is able to indicate when aircraft are outside of the departure or approach airspace, if it has information about the airspace boundaries. (This information is not available at all airports.) If an aircraft is outside of its assigned airspace, a red "AS" error will be printed at the top of its datablock, as shown below. The valid altitudes for the aircraft are shown as well, if there are any valid altitudes at its current location. For example, the aircraft below is at 5,000' but should be between 10,000' and 12,000' (or should be at a different location!)

Two commands are available to draw the boundaries and altitude ranges of the departure and approach airspace. (Note that the placement of the drawn altitude labels is not always ideal.)

Windows

To install vice on Windows, download and launch the installer below. After installation, vice will be available in the Windows Start menu and a shortcut will be added to your desktop.

Macintosh

On a Mac, download the zip file below; it contains a universal binary that runs on both Intel and Apple CPUs. Note that MacOS Big Sur or a more recent version of OSX is required. After opening the zip file, drag Vice.app to your Applications folder to install it.

Linux

On Linux systems, it is necessary to install vice from source. See the directions on building vice on Linux in the source code distribution for details.

Reporting Bugs

If you encounter bugs in vice, apologies! It would be of great help if you would send in a report if vice crashes or if you see mistakes in how it simulates aircraft or the STARS interface.

The best way to report bugs is via the "bugs" channel on the vice discord. Alternatively, if you have a github account, you can file bugs directly in vice's issue tracker.

Release History

0.10.20 (28 February 2024)

• Added new scenarios: SCT LAX (Jud Lopez), IND (Samuel Valencia), MKE (Yahya Nazimuddin), MIA (Mike K).
• Scenario updates/bugfixes: TPA (Connor Allen), SCT ONT/SNA (Eli Thompson), A80, L30 (Michael Trokel).
• STARS: added automated terminal proximity alert (ATPA) support.
• STARS: consolidated wake turbulence (CWT) categories are now shown in datablocks and used for ATPA in-trail requirements.
• Live weather can now be used in sims.
• STARS: fixed various small bugs related to when the FDB should be displayed.
• Facility engineering changes/improvements:
  • For arrivals, the runway endpoint no longer needs to be included in the route.
  • For departures, the runway start and endpoints no longer need to be included in the route.
  • In STARs, "runway_waypoints" are now specified separately per-airport.
  • Improved support for multi-runway departure scenarios: it is no longer required that each runway have a route for each exit; now it is just required that between all of the active runways at an airport, one of them must have a route for each exit.
  • vice is now able to extract STARs and arrival routes from the FAA Coded Instrument Flight Procedures (CIFP). These can be incorporated in scenario definitions, simplifying the development of new scenarios.
  • "location" no longer needs to be specified for airports.
  • Waypoints at the thresholds of all runways are now built-in: for example, KJFK-4L gives the threshold of runway 4L at JFK.

0.10.19 (13 February 2024)

• STARS: fixed bug with flickering airport weather list.

0.10.18 (12 February 2024)

• Added new scenarios: SCT (Justin Nguyen and Eli Thompson), NCT and D01/GJT (Jud Lopez), and TPA (Connor Allen).
• Smaller scenario updates: D10 and JAX (Mike K), AUS (Jace Martin), LGA, JFK, COS, CLE, ASE, DCA, F11.
• STARS: more accurate simulation of the STARS weather radar display.
• Added new syntax for issuing left/right turn in degrees: T10L, T20R, etc.
• STARS: allow middle-click highlight of aircraft regardless of having their track.
• STARS: fix LDB/FRB/PRI/POS brightness usage when drawing things (hopefully).
• STARS: fixed bug where observers were unable to quicklook other positions.
• Fixed a few cases where vice would crash when given an invalid scenario.
• Improved calculation of the final approach course line, which fixed some bugs with bad approach intercepts.
• Facility engineering changes/improvements:
  • Arc routes between fixes can now be specified without specifying a center point for the arc's circle: for example, WUPMA/arc7.5 ALABE has aircraft fly along the 7.5nm long arc between WUPMA and ALABE.
  • The "tower_list" property of airports is now used to prioritize tower list assignment rather than used directly. (Thus, if multiple airports have the same "tower_list" value, they no longer try to share the same tower list.)

0.10.17 (15 January 2024)

• Added multiple new scenarios: D10 (Mike K), CYS, ASE, COS (Jud Lopez).
• Fixed multiple bugs with handling of altitude and speed restrictions in departure routes.
• Many small fixes to scenario routes and altitude/speed restrictions.
• Increased acceleration and climb rate of departures to be more realistic.
• Fixed bugs with point outs (couldn't be cleared, incorrect rendering in STARS).
• Fixed bug in the STARS scope that required secondary scratchpads to be three characters.
• When departures are handed off to center, they are only given direct to the exit fix if they are on a heading; otherwise they continue flying their route.
• (Re-)added optional sound effect for accepted handoffs.
• Airspace warnings are inhibited for aircraft flying approaches.
• Fixed a bug where wind would affect aircraft on the ground and blow them off course.
• STARS: allow control-left-click in place of the third mouse button to highlight aircraft.
• STARS: don't allow scratchpads of arbitrary length.
• STARS: actually use the LDB brightness setting for limited/partial datablocks.
• STARS: fix incorrect error message after issuing "at fix, cleared approach".
• Facility engineering changes/improvements:
  • Fixes in routes may have /flyover after them to indicate that aircraft must fly directly over the fix before starting their next turn.
  • It is no longer required to specify radar sites in scenarios; if no sites are given, then STARS Fused mode is always enabled.
  • Departure routes may be given with either "assigned_altitude" or "cleared_altitude". "cleared_altitude" implies "climb via SID": aircraft obey altitude restrictions and climb no higher than the given altitude, while "assigned_altitude" has them climb without restriction to that altitude.

0.10.16 (22 December 2023)

• Added multiple new scenarios: S46, BHM, GSP (Aaron Flett), AUS (Jace Martin), P50 (Mike K)
• Multi-controller servers can now be password-protected
• Added "TO" command for "contact tower"
• Various bugfixes with handoffs and approach navigation
• Match real-world STARS alert sounds
• Facility engineering changes/improvements:
  • The scenario group "nm_per_*" settings have been removed and no longer need to be specified.
  • Fixed crashes with the -scenario and -videomap command-line options
  • It is no longer required to specify "full_name" for approaches; a default name will be assigned using the specified approach type and runway if "full_name" is not given.
  • In "departure_routes", the "route" field has been renamed to "sid". It is optional to specify "sid"; if the aircraft isn't on a published departure it should be left blank.
  • In "arrivals", the "route" field has been renamed to "star".
  • Approaches now have a "tower_controller" field to specify which tower controller arrivals should contact. If an airport has a single controller named "(airport)_TWR", then "tower_controller" doesn't need to be specified.
  • Arrivals specified in "arrival_groups" now have an "assigned_altitude" field (and "cleared_altitude" has been removed.) If "assigned_altitude" is specified, it is treated as an altitude assignment from a previous controller and the aircraft will not descend further. For aircraft on a STAR that have been cleared to descend via the STAR, "assigned_altitude" should not be given.
  • For multi-controller scenarios, departure controllers can be specified per-runway (e.g., "KPHX/25R") or per-SID (e.g., "KJFK/SCORR5").

0.10.15 (19 November 2023)

• STARS: fixed a bug where RBL lines for *T that included aircraft weren't drawn
• Added an option to hide the flight strips (Settings window, Flight Strips section)
• Fixed a bug where inbound handoffs wouldn't send a radio contact message
• Sped up loading of video maps so that vice launches more quickly

0.10.14 (18 November 2023)

• L30 TRACON (Las Vegas) added, thanks to Michael Trokel.
• Added a combined N90 (JFK, LGA, EWR) scenario.
• Important readbacks from pilots (e.g., "unable") are now highlighted in red.
• Improved STARS *T to allow entering fix names and to show ETA.
• Added support for charted visual approaches.
• STARS allows control-shift click to initiate track (CRC style).
• Secondary scratchpads are now supported.
• Fixed bug that would cause arrivals to climb when vectored off of their STAR.
• Fixed other minor navigation bugs.
• Facility engineering:
  • Scenarios can now have "center" and "range" specified; they override the scenario group valus, if present.
  • "default_map" in scenarios is now "default_maps"; an array of values can be given, allowing multiple maps to be initially shown.
  • Departures from different runways at an airport are sequenced better so that CAs on departure are less likely.
  • Added "tracon" to the scenario group definition; this is used to gather scenarios for a single TRACON in the UI.

0.10.13 (5 November 2023)

• Fixed a bug that caused vice to sometimes crash after aircraft were given approach clearance.
• Fixed a bug where descending aircraft would stop descending when given approach clearance.
• Small fixes to the DCA scenario.
• Polished up handling of early hand-offs of departures in the STARS scope

0.10.12 (31 October 2023)

• Added a new DCA scenario.
• Aircraft will now ident if given the "ID" command.
• There is now a short delay (3-6 seconds) before aircraft start following heading instructions, to better model reality.
• Control commands for aircraft can now be given without slewing on the aircraft: enter their callsign, a space, one or more commands, and then hit enter.
• Point outs can be rejected by entering "UN" and slewing on the radar track of an aircraft being pointed out.
• RNAV approaches can now be intercepted via a heading.
• Fixed a bug where departures wouldn't follow altitude restrictions on SIDs.
• Fixed a bug where aircraft that went around would always continue to do so on subsequent approaches.
• Facility engineering updates:
  • The "multi_controllers" field in scenario definitions is now an object where each entry specifies a control position split. If more than one split is specified, then the user will be prompted to pick one of them when launching a scenario.
  • Also in "multi_controllers", a single departure controller is no longer specified using the Boolean "departure". Instead, there is a "departures" field that is an array of strings specifying airports and/or runways that a controller is responsible for.
  • Airports have an optional "name" field that is used in transmissions from aircraft when referring to the airport.

0.10.11 (10 October 2023)

• Added the D01 (Denver TRACON) scenario to single-user vice (it was unintentionally not included in the installer).
• Added support for updating your Discord activity based on your vice session (thanks to Samuel Valencia!)
• Clicking the icon on the menubar opens a window that shows a summary of vice's keyboard commands.
• Fixed a bug with aircraft descending too early when flying procedure turns.
• Fixed a bug where some departures would try to re-fly their initial departure route after being handed off to a virtual controller.
• Fixed multiple bugs with the handling of "at or above" altitude constraints.
• Fixed a bug that left the default DCB brightness set to 0.

0.10.10 (1 October 2023)

• Fixed a bug in the Windows installer that caused new scenarios (AAC, SAV, SDF) to not be installed locally.
• Added the ability to draw active departure, arrival, and approach routes on the radar scope.
• Facility engineering updates related to the above:
  • When specifying fixes in approaches, you can add /iaf, /if and/or /faf to specify that a fix is the initial approach fix, initial fix, or final approach fix. This is then drawn on the scope when the approach is shown but isn't used otherwise.
  • For arrivals under "arrival_groups", there is an optional string "description" field that will be shown in the UI. Similarly, for departures in "departure_routes", you can also give a "description" string.

0.10.9 (28 September 2023)

• Many improvements to the AAC scenario's accuracy:
  • Added turboprop and piston departures and arrivals for AAC.
  • AAC jet arrivals now come in on the TULSA4; turboprops and pistons pass through their approach gate (at lower altitudes) and are routed direct TUL.
  • AAC departures now follow headings after takeoff (props 010 or 190, jets/turboprops 260/310, depending on departure gate.)
  • Inbound handoffs are now 45 miles out.
• Fixed a bug where arrivals would sometimes climb after being cleared for the approach.
• Facility engineering: when exits are specified in "departure_routes", additional text can be included after a period. This text is ignored when determining which exit an aircraft uses. This can be useful if for example piston aircraft and jets have different departure procedures; "COLIN.P" and "COLIN.J" departure routes could be specified with the used for piston aircraft and the second used for jets.

0.10.8 (26 September 2023)

• When altitude and speed instructions are given, aircraft now do both at once. To give consecutive commands (e.g., "descend and maintain xxx, then reduce speed to yyy"), there is now a TS command for "then speed", and TA for "then altitude", or TC for "then climb", or TD for "then descend". (See the ATC command reference for details.)
• Updates to the JAX, C90, and F11 scenarios and a new D01/KSAV/KSDF scenario (Thanks to Mike D and Samuel Valencia!)
• Added a new scenario for KAAC/KJKE.
• Facility engineering changes:
  • DME arcs can now be specified with approaches.
  • Scratchpads may be specified individually with departures.
  • Fixes can now be specified with respect to a distance along a radial from another fix.
• Various small bugfixes related to aircraft navigation and clearing approaches at fixes.

0.10.7 (8 September 2023)

• Fixed a bug where arrivals would disappear in some scenarios (KJAX, KDAB, ...)

0.10.6 (not released)

0.10.5 (6 September 2023)

• Added support for STARS fused mode (updates every second, round markers for radar tracks; choose "FUSED" in the "SITE menu.)
• It is no longer allowed to issue control commands to departing aircraft before they have checked in.
• Added multiple new ATC commands:
  • EC/ED: expedite climb/descent.
  • I: intercept the localizer (of the approach previously given with "expect approach").
  • SMIN: maintain slowest practical speed
  • SMAX: maintain maximum forward speed
  • Afix/Capproach: at the specified fix, cleared for the given approach.
  • More flexible altitude crossing restrictionsCfix/A100- is cross FIX at or below 10,000, CFIX/A120-150 is cross FIX between 12,000 and 15,000, etc.
• Facility engineering changes:
  • Removed the "elevation" field for airports; it is no longer needed.
  • Radars must have an "elevation" value specified, unless their location is given using an ICAO airport code, in which the airport's elevation is used.
• Minor fixes to the ABE scenario.

0.10.4 (16 August 2023)

• Added support for STARS Converging Runways Display Aid (CRDA).
• Made multiple improvements to aircraft flight modeling, including more accurate climbs at departure and better handling of wind.
• Tuned up pilot radio communications, including adding initial contact messages.
• Fixed a bug where after quitting and later resuming a simulation, some aircraft would forget their routing.
• Added support for the STARS Maps system list.
• Facility engineering changes:
  • Added "reporting_points" to scenarios: fixes aircraft may use when reporting their current position.
  • Added support for specifying volumes of space where collision alerts are inhibited.
  • Altitude restrictions at fixes are now more flexible: rather than just "at", they may be "between", "at or above," or "at or below."

0.10.3 (1 August 2023)

• Added "quick look" support to the STARS implementation.
• Added support for STARS dwell mode.
• Fixed a rare crash when manually adjusting launch rates.
• Various small improvements to the JAX and CLT scenario files.
• Many additional small cosmetic and functionality improvements to the STARS radar scope.

0.10.2 (28 July 2023)

• Added scenarios for the A80 (ATL) and A80 (BOS) TRACONs (thanks Mike K!).
• Fixed a bug with drawing *J cones in the STARS scope.
• Many improvements to the STARS DCB, including better rendering of the buttons, more support for configuring font size and brightness, as well as the ability to position the DCB on the top, bottom, left, or right edge of the screen.

0.10.1 (25 July 2023)

• Updated the font used in the STARS radar scope.
• Fixed a few bugs with drawing radar tracks in the STARS scope.
• Fixed a rare crash with incorrect command input to the STARS scope.

0.10.0 (22 July 2023)

• Vice now supports multiple controllers working in the same simulation. In the "New Simulation" window, choose "Create multi-controller" to create a new simulation or "Join multi-controller" to join an existing one.
• Facility engineering changes:
  • Removed "default_controller" and renamed "callsign" in scenarios to "solo_controller". Scenarios now take an optional "multi_controllers" object to specify a multi-controller scenario. Added "full_name" to controller specifications for better radio readback text.
• Launches of arrivals and departures can be controlled manually; click on the departing aircraft icon in the menu bar to open a window with launch controls. Alternatively, launch rates can be controlled during a session via that same window.
• Various improvements to the accuracy of the STARS radar scope simulation.
• Available approaches are now shown by vice at initial connection time and via the button in the menu bar.
• Many small bug fixes to aircraft flight modeling.
• New scenarios and improvements:
  • Added C90, including O'Hare East and West ops, MDW all configs
  • Added CLE TRACON, including final, feeder, and North/South scenarios
  • Added CLT TRACON, North and South configs
  • JAX: added DAB and the TEBOW1 arrival
  • N90: added multi-controller scenarios at JFK and PHL

0.9.2 (3 July 2023)

• Fixed the behavior of *T to better match STARS: the line is now drawn to the mouse position after the first point is selected, without waiting for the second point.
• Added more checks when loading scenario descriptions; in particular, misspellings and unused JSON objects are detected and an error is issued. This led to numerous small fixes in all of the the scenarios.

0.9.1 (20 June 2023)

• Fixed a bug where arrivals wouldn't obey altitude restrictions in STARs(!).
• Improved navigation: crossing restrictions beyond any at the immediately upcoming fix are now considered. Aircraft are now much better at starting altitude and speed adjustments in time to meet the crossing restrictions.

0.9.0 (15 June 2023)

• All new flight modeling engine supports procedure turns (both racetrack and standard 45/180) and more accurate turns to intercept localizers, etc. The approaches in the existing scenarios have been updated to include their procedure turns, where appropriate.
• A number of new aircraft control commands have been added:
  • Cancel speed restrictions
  • Cleared straight in approach
  • Cross fix at altitude and speed
  • Depart fix at heading
  • Fly present heading
• When a departure is handed off to a virtual controller, the other controller won't climb it further until after it is clicked by the user to acknowledge the handoff.
• Fixed very small fonts being used on Windows systems with high-DPI displays
• Numerous other small fixes and improvements, including in the wind modeling and fixing a case where arrivals would fly faster than the aircraft is capable.
• Facility engineering: In addition to new directives to specify procedure turns, there are a number of changes to how routes are specified.

Earlier Releases

• 0.8.1: fixed a bug where the STARS window wouldn't show anything.
• 0.8.0: When you quit vice, now it remembers all of the aircraft; when you launch it again, you can resume right where you left off. When the sim is paused, hovering the mouse on a radar track displays information about its routing and assignments. Many additional small bugfixes.
• 0.7.0: Added LGA scenarios (thanks to Arya T!), and various small bug fixes.
• 0.6.6: Small JAX scenario fixes and added ISP and HVN arrivals/departures to the JFK scenario.
• 0.6.5: Fixed another bug with intercepting the localizer.
• 0.6.4: Fixed a bug with intercepting the localizer that occasionally led to aircraft hanging in the air for a while before proceeding.
• 0.6.3: Added JAX scenarios for F11. Updated PHL scenarios for arrival changes.
• 0.6.2: Added go arounds and ABE TRACON scenarios.
• 0.6.1: Fixed a crash related to handed off aircraft and sped up launching vice.
• 0.6.0: Added scenarios in the F11 TRACON (MCO, SFB, ISM, ORL...). Thanks to Mike K!
• 0.5.1: Fixed bug with RNAV approaches not descending, improved JFK arrival spawn and route details.
• 0.5.0: Added new scenarios for EWR and LIB departure (thanks to Adam Bolek!)
• 0.4.3: Allow specifying JSON config on the command line, to make it easier to develop new scenarios.
• 0.4.2: Fixed a crash at first launch, updated syntax for "turn left/right X degrees" commands.
• 0.4.1: Fixed bugs in datablock positioning, added "turn left/right X degrees" commands.
• 0.4.0: Added PHL scenarios, airspace warnings, and FRG arrivals and intra-TRACON arrivals for JFK.
• 0.3.1: Added JFK approach scenarios, improved aircraft flight model, routes, and airlines.
• 0.2.1: Initial release

The DCB

Entering Commands

Some STARS commands are entirely keyboard based: you enter a command and hit the "enter" key to issue the command. As you type, your input will be shown in the input area, which is by default on the left side of the screen. Entering a space starts a new line. To edit your input, the backspace key can be used. Alternatively, hitting the escape key clears the input (and any errors that are displayed).

Many STARS commands involve selecting an aircraft that they apply to; in STARS this is called "slewing" the aircraft. To slew an aircraft in vice, click on its radar track with the left mouse button. You will often enter a command with the keyboard and then slew an aircraft; if the documentation below, [SLEW] indicates that an aircraft should be slewed to execute the command.

Many STARS keyboard commands take additional parameters such as a number or the name of an airport. These will be shown in parenthesis with the number and type of character expected. Thus (#) indicates that a single digit should be entered, without any parenthesis. Similarly, (ABC) indicates that three letters are expected.

The STARS keyboard has a number of custom keys that are not present on standard keyboards. vice uses the same mappings to regular keys as CRC STARS does. In the following documentation, when one of the STARS keys in square brackets below is shown, the corresponding regular keyboard key should be entered.

When issuing a command leads to an error, STARS prints an abbreviated message above the input area. These are the error codes that vice currently uses:

Quick Reference

For basic controlling, a small number of commands are used frequently. The following table lists them and gives a short description of their operation.

Working Aircraft

Aircraft may be tracked by a specific controller; when a controller is tracking an aircraft, other controllers cannot issue control commands to it. When an aircraft is leaving a controller's airspace, they will generally hand it off to another controller.

Coordinating With Other Controllers

Tracks and Datablocks

Tools

Range Bearing Lines

Range bearing lines (RBLs) track the distance and heading between aircraft and/or fixes. For example, the image below shows an RBL between two aircraft, indicating that WJA466 is 8.46nm miles along a 246 heading for DLH0VZ. (Alternatively, the RBL could have been set up to be from WJA466 to DLH0VZ, in which case the distance would be the same but the heading would be 246-180=66. The "-1" at the end indicates that this is RBL number 1. If additional RBLs were created, they would be given successive numbers to identify them.

The following commands are available to create and delete RBLs.

Minimum Separation

The predicted minimum separation between two aircraft can be shown. Below we see that based on their current routes the two aircraft are predicted to have a minimum separation of 3.19nm and that separation will occur when they are at the two points marked by small triangles.

The following commands are available to create and minimum separation lines.

TPA/ATPA

The terminal proximity alert (TPA) and automated TPA (ATPA) tools provide graphical representations that aid in ensuring that there is sufficient separation between aircraft. A TPA cone can be associated with an aircraft to show a given distance in nautical miles in front of it; see the left image below for a TPA cone marking 3nm. A TPA J-ring is a circle around an aircraft's radar track of specified radius; the right image below shows a J-ring with a 3nm radius.

The following keyboard commands are also available to configure TPA cones and J-rings:

ATPA automatically generates cones for aircraft in the approach volume for a runway. (Approach volumes are generally along the glideslope for a runway.) For example, the image below shows a 5nm cone with WJA466, indicating the required separation for a B737 behind a heavy A343. The in-trail distance is shown in WJA466's datablock, and both that distance and the cone are red, indicating an ATPA alert for loss of separation.

ATPA alerts are issued if a loss of separation is expected in the next 24 seconds, and ATPA warnings (which are drawn in yellow) are issued if a loss of separation is expected in the next 24-45 seconds.

TPA and ATPA can be configured by selecting "SHIFT" from the main DCB menu and then "TPA/ATPA". The following options are provided:

The first four buttons toggle a particular TPA/ATPA option and display "ENABLED" if the corresponding option is enabled, and "INHIBTD" if it is inhibited. "DONE" returns to the previous DCB menu.

• A/TPA MILEAGE: whether the respective radius or length are shown with TPA J-rings or TPA/APTA cones.
• INTRAIL DIST: determines whether the in-trail distance to the next aircraft is shown in the datablocks for arrivals in an ATPA volume.
• ALERT CONES: determines whether ATPA warning and alert cones are automatically created when insufficient separation is predicted. If disabled but monitor cones are enabled, monitor cones will be shown.
• MONITOR CONES: determines whether monitor cones may be automatically created for all arrivals in an ATPA volume.

The following keyboard commands are also available to configure ATPA:

For facility engineers, the ATPA approach volumes are listed in the "PROCESSING AREAS" map list, which can be selected via "SYS PROC" from the DCB "MAPS" menu. Individual maps can be displayed and then hidden by entering [MAPS](###) where ### is the map number associated with the volume.

Range Rings

Range rings are concentric circles drawn around a selected point with successive steps between their radii that are 2, 5, 10, or 20nm. With 5nm steps, the default, here are the 5 and 10nm range rings drawn around KEWR:

The brightness of range rings can be controlled with the "RR" spinner in the "BRITE" menu of the main DCB. If the brightness is set to 0, range rings are not drawn. A few buttons on the main DCB make it possible to configure range rings. Clicking on "RR" activates a spinner that allows selecting the step between radii. If "PLACE RR" is clicked, then the next location clicked on the radar scope will become the range rings' center point. Finally, clicking "RR CNTR" causes the range rings to be centered on the point at the center of the radar scope.

The radius of the range rings can also be set by entering [RANGE] and then 2, 5, 10, or 20, and then pressing enter.

Weather

The current weather radar can be displayed on the STARS scope. Here is an example South of KSEA. The blue-green areas indicate light precipitation, while the mustard-colored area is moderate to heavy precipitation. Stippling in the radar also indicates the strength, where a denser stipple is heavier precipitation.

The brightness of the radar on the STARS scope can be controlled using the "WX" spinner in the "BRITE" menu of the DCB. It is also possible to control which levels of precipitation are shown using the "WX*" buttons in the main DCB:

With the selection above, the two lowest levels, WX0 and WX1, are not shown, while all of the higher levels of precipitation are.

CRDA

The Converging Runways Display Aid (CRDA) helps ensure separation between aircraft approaching intersecting runways, on parallel approaches, and in related situations. It does so by drawing "ghost" aircraft on one course that correspond to aircraft on another course. The idea is perhaps best understood with an example:

Here two aircraft are approaching KPHL, one with PDT4783 landing runway 27R and PDT4517 landing runway 35. With CRDA enabled, a ghost of PDT4783 is drawn on the runway 35 approach course. We can easily see that PDT4517 will reach the threshold of runway 35 well before PDT4783 reaches runway 27R.

Ghost aircraft may be positioned via either "stagger" or "tie" mode. With stagger mode, the ghosts are the same difference from a common point (e.g., the intersection of two runways); the controller's goal is then to ensure adequate separation between ghost and actual aircraft radar tracks. Alternatively, with tie mode, ghosts are offset so that the controller's goal is to have actual aircraft radar tracks coincide with the ghost tracks in order to achieve separation.

When CRDA is available at an airport, the CRDA status list may be displayed on the STARS scope. Entering [MULTIFUNC]TN toggles whether it is shown, and [MULTIFUNC]TN[SLEW] repositions it on the screen. In the example below, we can see from the "S" in the line below "CRDA STATUS" that CRDA is enabled in stagger mode for runways 27R/35 at KPHL for the current controller, who has id 6N.

Ghost radar tracks are normally only generated for aircraft within a pre-defined volume of space around an approach course and only if their heading is within a specified range of the approach heading. However, a number of commands below allow forcing a ghost track even if these criteria are not met.

A variety of commands are available to configure CRDA. Some take an airport's identifier, which should be given without the initial "K": i.e., "PHL" for Philadelphia, not "KPHL":

Configuring The Display

The center of the radar scope can be moved by clicking the right mouse button and dragging. Zoom in and out using the mouse wheel; each step increases or decreases the radius shown by one nautical mile. Holding down the control key while using the mouse wheel gives three mile steps in the radius. Zooming and panning the scope can be disabled with vice's settings window, which is displayed when the in the menubar is clicked.

Differences from CRC STARS

vice supports the following features from STARS that are not present in CRC STARS:

• vice supports the STARS "dwell" mode, which draws the datablock and leaderline of track under the mouse more brightly when it is enabled. Dwell mode can be configured by choosing "SHIFT" from the main DCB menu and then selecting the "DWELL" button, or via the following keyboard commands:
  • [MULTIFUNC] D E: enable dwell mode.
  • [MULTIFUNC] D L: lock dwell mode—the selected aircraft remains highlighted even if it or the mouse cursor moves.
  • [MULTIFUNC] D I: inhibit (disable) dwell mode.
• To quicklook a controller, vice does not support entering the controller id and hitting enter to toggle quicklook. Rather, the [MULTIFUNC] Q [id] command must be used.
• vice supports the "plus" specifier for quicklook: if a plus sign is specified after a controller id when enabling quicklook, the datablocks for that controller's tracks will be white, not green. (Similarly, ALL+ can be specified to quick look all controllers' traffic in this way.)
• vice supports displaying the current weather radar for the selected location.

Specifying Locations

Throughout the vice configuration files, it's often necessary to specify various locations on the Earth. vice has a built-in database of all of the airports, VORs, NDBs, and fixes in the United States (courtesy of the FAA), which allows using these directly for specifying locations. The locations of runway thresholds are available via the syntax KJFK-22L where the airport name and runway specifier are separated by a hyphen.

Locations can also be specified via latitude-longitude positions, given as strings. For convenience, multiple latitude-longitude formats are supported.

(In all three examples above, the location specified is the same—the JFK VOR.)

In vice, if you hold down the control and shift keys and click on a point on the video map, the corresponding latitude-longitude position is copied to the clipboard—this can be very useful when developing new scenarios!

Routes

vice uses a custom syntax for specifying the routes of aircraft, both for arrivals and departures. In addition to the lateral positions along the route, it is possibly to specify speed and altitude restrictions, handoff points, and headings to fly.

Here is an example route from a JFK departure. The first two waypoints along the departure runway are automatically provided by vice so the route starts with the specified fixes in the departure procedure. The "/h223" after "RNGRR" specifies that the aircraft should fly a 223 heading as departing RNGRR. It will maintain that heading until it is further vectored by the controller. If there are further fixes after such a heading, the aircraft may be sent direct to one of those fixes by the controller.

  "SKORR METSS RNGRR/h223"
            

A number of items like headings can be specified with a fix:

• /arestriction: cross the fix with the specified altitude restriction (with altitudes specified in 100s of feet). The following options are available for specifying altitude restrictions:
  • low-high: cross at an altitude between low and high.
  • alt-: cross at or below alt
  • alt+: cross at or above alt
  • alt: cross at alt
• /deleteheading: the aircraft will be deleted when it reaches the fix
• /hheading: depart the fix at specified heading
• /sspeed: cross the fix at the given speed
• /ho: the aircraft should be handed off from the virtual controller to the user when it departs the fix
• /iaf: indicates that the fix is an IAF (initial approach fix)
• /if: indicates that the fix is the IF (intermediate fix)
• /faf: indicates that the fix is the FAF (final approach fix)
• /flyover: indicates that the fix is a flyover fix (as opposed to the default, fly-by). Aircraft must pass directly over flyover fixes before turning to the next fix, while they may turn early with fly-by fixes.

If the aircraft should follow an arc leaving a fix, /arc can be given after the fix. It can be used in two ways:

• Both a radius in nautical miles as well as the fix at the center of the arc's circle can be specified. For example, HANAV/arc16OMN specifies a 16nm radius arc centered at OMN.
• Alternatively, just the length of the arc may be given. For example, WUPMA/arc7.5 ALABE has aircraft fly along the 7.5nm long arc between WUPMA and ALABE.

For both uses, the direction of the arc is automatically determined based on the position of the following fix.

For approach fixes that have procedure turns, a number of additional items can be specified:

• /hilpt: there is a hold in lieu of procedure turn (i.e., a racetrack procedure turn) associated with the fix. The default is right turns and a 1 minute limit for ILS approaches and a 4 nm limit for RNAV approaches. Different limits can be specified directly; for example /hilpt6nm gives a procedure turn with a 6 nm limit and /hilpt2min specifies a 2 minute limit. For left turns, add a l after the slash, like /lhilpt.
• /pt45: specifies that there is a standard 45 degree procedure turn at the fix. (This has the same defaults— right turns, 1 minute (ILS) / 4 nm (RNAV)—as HILPTs. Alternative values are specified the same way.)
• /ptaaltitude: if the aircraft should descend during the procedure turn, this can be used to specify the final altitude it should have at the end of the turn. (The altitude should be given in 100s of feet.)
• /nopt180: specifies that aircraft approaching the fix in the 180 degree semicircle of directions aligned with the final approach course should not perform the procedure turn. (As an example, see the KJAX RNAV Z 8 approach; this applies for aircraft between heading 346 and 166 arriving at UDAQI.)
• /nopt: when specified at a fix prior to one with a procedure turn, indicates that aircraft that pass that fix should not fly the procedure turn.

Airlines and Aircraft

Both departures and arrivals need to know about which airlines fly their routes and which aircraft they use for them. Airlines are specified via their ICAO strings (e.g., AAL for American Airlines). See the file openscope-airlines.json for the database of possible airlines. In that file, each airline may have one or more aircraft fleets specified, in its "fleets" member. If no fleet is specified, vice randomly chooses an aircraft type from the "default" fleet, but if a particular fleet's aircraft is a better match to a route, you may want to use it. For example, AAL's "long" fleet would be a good choice for trans-Atlantic flights.

For reference, the available types of aircraft and their performance characteristics are available in the openscope-aircraft.json file.

As is probably obvious, both of these databases are by way of openScope, which kindly made them available under the MIT license.

Video Maps

Video maps are specified separately from the rest of the configuration since they require fairly large files and are not normally edited by hand. Video map files are simply JSON files with a series of members, each one of which stores an array of strings giving latitude-longitude positions. Each successive pair of positions specifies a line to be draw when rendering the video map. The following shows an excerpt from the ZNY video maps file that gives a sense of the format.

{
  "ABE": [
    "N041.00.05.616,W075.32.00.217",
    "N041.00.01.277,W075.32.29.551",
    ...
  ],
  "ABE - MVA": [
    "N040.31.00.726,W076.31.35.993",
    "N040.30.09.063,W076.31.21.985",
    ...
  ],
  ...
}
            

There are utility programs available for extracting video maps from both vSTARS configuration files and from installed CRC ARTCCs.

• vstars2vice is available from the vstars2vice releases page. It is a command-line program: the first argument should be the path to a VSTARS configuration file and the second a path to an output file.
• crc2vice is available from the crc2vice releases page. See its README file for information about how to use it.

Scenario Groups

vice offers users a variety of ATC scenarios, where a scenario consists of one or more airports being controlled, a control position (departure, approach, etc.), and airport configurations—the runways that are active at each airport. Scenarios are organized in scenario groups, which generally collect multiple control scenarios at a single airport. Each scenario group is specified by its own JSON file; see the resources/scenarios/ directory in the vice source code distribution for examples.

These are the elements of a scenario group:

Airports

The airports in a scenario group are specified via the "airports" member of the scenario group. Each airports is a separate member, named according to the airport's ICAO code (e.g., "KJFK"). The airport object then has the following member variables:

Approaches

The member names in the airport "approaches" object give the abbreviated name of each approach, as used in vice's ATC commands.

Approaches may be specified using data automatically loaded from the FAA CIFP or manually. To use CIFP data, run vice from the command-line and give it the argument -route KXYZ, where KXYZ is the ICAO code for the airport. vice will print identifiers for the available approaches and their associated waypoints. For example:

  > ...\vice.exe -routes KMIA
  [...]  
  Approaches:
  I12  : DHP GLRIA/a3000+/lhilpt1.0min/pta3000/iaf PIANA/a3000+ VEPCO/a2000+
  [...]
  RY12 : WORPP/iaf GLRIA/a3000/if PIANA/a3000+ VEPCO/a2000+
         FOGSO/s210/iaf GLRIA/a3000/if PIANA/a3000+ VEPCO/a2000+
  [...]

Approach ids encode the type of approach—for example, I12 is an ILS approach to runway 27 and RY12 is an RNAV Y runway 12 approach. Given the id, the approach can be specified with:

Support for loading routes from the CIFP is new so please confirm that routes are correct and report any bugs you find. Note that not all approaches are included in the CIFP.

Alternatively, approaches can be defined manually using the following members:

Departures

There are two pieces for specifying departures: their initial route leaving the airport, which depends on the active departure runway, and their subsequent route out of the TRACON, which does not. These two parts are specified separately.

The "departure_routes" object in the airport definition gives the initial routing for departures, based both on the runway they are departing as well as their exit fix. Here is an excerpt from the KJFK departure routes:

  "departure_routes": {
    "13R": {
      "ARD,DIXIE,RBV,WHITE": {
        "cleared_altitude": 5000,
        "sid": "JFK5",
        "waypoints": "KJFK-31L/h185"
      },
      ...
            

The members of "departure_routes" are strings identifying the departure runway; each departure runway's routes are then represented by an object with one or more members that specify comma-separated lists of exit fixes. (Thus, the specification above applies to departures with exit ARD, DIXIE, RBV, or WHITE, departing runway 13R.)

The exit fix specifiers may include additional text after a period to allow specifying situation-dependent exits. For example, we might specify one route for "RBV.PISTONS", another for "RBV.TURBOPROPS", and a third for "RBV.JETS". vice treats all of these as going to the "RBV" exit. When departures are defined in "departures", they can then refer to the appropriate exit in their "exit" specifier.

The departure route specification includes the following members:

Either "assigned_altitude" or "cleared_altitude" must be specified.

The other part of specifying departures is the array of objects stored in "departures". Each one describes a departure to a particular destination. Here is a JFK departure to Paris Charles de Gaulle:

    {
      "airlines": [
        {
          "fleet": "long",
          "icao": "AFR"
        }
      ],
      "destination": "LPFG",
      "exit": "HAPIE",
      "route": "HAPIE YAHOO WHALE N251A JOOPY NATZ MALOT NATZ GISTI LESLU M142 LND N160 NAKID M25 ANNET UM25 UVSUV UM25 INGOR UM25 LUKIP LUKIP9E",
      "scratchpad": "HAP",
    },
  ...
            

A few additional things must be specified with each departure:

Arrivals

Arrivals are specified via the "arrival_groups" variable, which allows specifying one or more STARs that bring aircraft to the TRACON. Members of "arrival_groups" give the names of arrival groups; each one stores an array of one or more arrival objects.

Because arrival rates are specified per-arrival group rather than per-STAR, vice can simulate center controllers sequencing multiple STARs into a single arrival flow rather than spawning arrivals on two STARs that follow nearby routes and thus should be sequences.

Each object stored in an "arrival_groups" array corresponds to a STAR. These objects have the following members:

STARs are sometimes able to deliver aircraft to multiple airports. Therefore, the "airlines" member is an object with airport names as members. Each of the airports is associated with an array of objects that specify departure airports, airlines, and (optionally) airline fleets. Here is an excerpt from the CAMRN4 arrival group at KJFK:

  "airlines": {
    "KFRG": [
      {
        "airport": "KDCA",
        "icao": "EJA"
      },
      ...
    ],
    "KJFK": [
      {
        "airport": "MMMY",
        "fleet": "long",
        "icao": "AMX"
      },
      ...
    ]
  }
            

We can see that CAMRN4 applies to both the KFRG and KJFK airports, though with different airlines and different departure airports for the arrivals. The specified departure airports (here, KDCA and MMMY) are only used so that flight strips and data blocks on the scope are realistic, but the specified airlines are used to select the type of aircraft from their fleets. As elsewhere, a value for "fleet" may be specified to limit which types of aircraft may be chosen.

There are two ways to specify a STAR's waypoints: automatically using data loaded from the FAA CIFP or manually. To use CIFP data, ensure that the STAR is available by running vice from the command-line and providing the -routes KXYZ argument, where KXYZ is the name of the airport. vice will print the available STARS with their transitions. For example,

> ...\vice -routes KLGA
STARs:
APPLE3.SHLBK: SHLBK LOUIE/a13000 BACKY ODESA DQO RUUTH WNDYL BRAND/a8000 KORRY DEPDY TYKES MINKS JERZY RENUE APPLE PROUD/flyover/h45
APPLE3.SWANN: SWANN GATBY KERNO ODESA DQO RUUTH WNDYL BRAND/a8000 KORRY DEPDY TYKES MINKS JERZY RENUE APPLE PROUD/flyover/h45
APPLE3.ALL  : RUUTH WNDYL BRAND/a8000 KORRY DEPDY TYKES MINKS JERZY RENUE APPLE PROUD/flyover/h45
[...]

If the STAR specified in the "star" parameter is present, vice will automatically use the available routes to define the STAR's transitions and runway-specific waypoints. In that case, one additional parameter must be specified:

Alternatively, the waypoints may be specified manually using one required and one optional member.

The "runway_waypoints" member can be used for STARs that have different routes depending on the arrival airport and runway. When the user instructs the aircraft to expect a particular approach then the corresponding waypoints are added to its route. As an example, the specification of the KPHL JIIMS4 arrival starts with the following string for "waypoints": "HEKMN N039.27.43.645,W074.56.38.400/ho JIIMS/a8000". (The second point is used to set the handoff point to be between HEKMN and JIIMS.) It then has the following "runway_waypoints", corresponding to the runway-specific routes into KPHL, the only active airport in the scenario. Note that all start with JIIMS, the same fix at the end of "waypoints".

  "runway_waypoints": {
    "KPHL": {
      "27L": "JIIMS/a8000 ZMRMN CHPMN PSOUT MKORD/h087",
      "27R": "JIIMS/a8000 ZMRMN CHPMN PSOUT MKORD/h087",
      "17": "JIIMS/a8000 SNEDE/h312",
      "35": "JIIMS/a8000 SNEDE/h312",
      "9L": "JIIMS/a8000 WUDRR WEVVE ERNYY/h268",
      "9R": "JIIMS/a8000 WUDRR WEVVE ERNYY/h268"
    }
  },
            

Airspace

Airspace volumes may optionally be specified using the "airspace" object in the scenario group. These volumes may be assigned to controllers in scenarios, in which case vice will show an alert when aircraft are outside of the controller's airspace. The airspace object has two members:

Each member in "boundaries" names a polyline of one or more line segments. Polylines are specified by arrays of locations. The first and second points specify the first line, the second and third points specify the second line, and so forth. Here is an example from the KPHL airspace:

  "PHL_DQO27_33": [
    "N039.21.58.949,W075.28.55.977",
    "N039.25.56.240,W075.29.47.255",
    "N039.26.20.204,W075.27.28.196",
    "N039.22.24.699,W075.26.48.535",
    "N039.21.58.949,W075.28.55.977"
  ]

Note that the first point and the last point are at the same location and thus, "PHL_DQO27_33" is a closed polygon. Airspace boundaries do not have to be polygons like this; because boundaries are generally shared between different volumes of airspace, it's often useful to define boundaries just as polylines and to assemble multiple boundaries to define the lateral extent of a volume of airspace.

Given the boundaries, "volumes" specifies full 3D volumes of airspace. Airspace volumes have three members; "boundaries" is an array of strings that names the boundaries that give the airspace's lateral extent, and "lower" and "upper" specify the altitude range of the airspace. Here is an example from KPHL that uses the boundary defined above:

  "PHL_DU_APP27": [
    {
      "boundaries": [
        "PHL_DQO27_33"
      ],
      "lower": 5000,
      "upper": 6000
    }

Scenarios

Scenarios pull together components from the definitions in scenario groups in order to present specific control scenarios to the user. The scenarios object's members are the names of the scenarios. Each of these scenarios may have the following members: