Preview Installers and Tarballs

The installers and tarballs are now compiled by and hosted on Github's servers. The intention is to automate, as far as possible, the building of releases and to reduce the possibility that a virus on a development machine could infect installers offered up for release.

The version numbers on preview installers will usually be the same as the currently released version. The version number is not updated until just before release.

If you are not sure whether you need the 64-bit or 32-bit version then choose the 32-bit version.

Version 3

Version 3 is the version currently under development. It runs under .NET 4.6+ and Mono 4+.

If you are using VRS to plot aircraft in Flight Simulator then note that the 32-bit version can display aircraft from Flight Simulator X but not Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, whereas the 64-bit version can display aircraft from Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 but not Flight Simulator X.

Preview 11

  1. FixedReports can now show the Database Editor Plugin's link again.

Preview 10

  1. AddedVATSIM plugin now shows the correct flight level and pressure altitude.

Preview 9

  1. AddedSupport for plugins that want to add custom feeds.
  2. AddedVATSIM plugin (see https://github.com/vradarserver/vrs/tree/master/Plugin.Vatsim#readme ).

Preview 8

  1. FixedVarious issues with comparing strings in non-English locales (thanks to Github user SnakePin).
  2. FixedImproved trimming of short altitude and speed trails.

Preview 7

  1. AddedLinks to the SDM site's aircraft lookup editor now shown in aircraft details panel.
  2. AddedNew configuration file WebAddresses.json, let users specify custom back-end addresses.

Preview 6

  1. Added Add setSvgFillColourCallback to support dynamic marker fill colours. See Change V3 SVG Marker Default Fill Colours custom script for an example of use.

Preview 5

  1. ChangedReplaced direct references to System.Drawing with a wrapper to help work around an issue with Mono not drawing images, and also because it is a pre-requisite for a DotNet Core build of version 3.

Preview 4

  1. RemovedLinks to and thumbnails from airport-data.com have been removed after AVG and Malwarebytes have started blocking links to the site.

Preview 2

  1. FixedFixed issue (subject to confirmation) with libpng warnings under some Linux distros.

Preview 1

  1. FixedPressing CTRL+C (or sending SIGINT under Linux) in headless mode now performs a clean shutdown.
  2. FixedCharter and ferry flights are now identified as such.
  3. AddedVirtual Radar Server can now be run as a Windows service.
  4. AddedAdded Airnav XRange receiver support.
  5. AddedAdded SVG aircraft marker support.
  6. AddedAdded balloon marker.
  7. AddedAdded render items for time since last position update and ident active.
  8. AddedAdded support for pre-selecting an aircraft via the query string.
  9. AddedShow counts by message type in statistics screen.
  10. RemovedThe original version 0 website has been removed.

Version 2

Version 2 is the currently released version. It runs under .NET 3.5 and most versions of Mono.

Preview 7

  1. FixedImproved trimming of short altitude and speed trails.

Preview 6

  1. AddedLinks to the SDM site's aircraft editor in the aircraft detail panel.

Preview 5

  1. ChangedReplaced direct references to System.Drawing with a wrapper to help work around an issue with Mono not drawing images.

Preview 4

  1. RemovedLinks to and thumbnails from airport-data.com have been removed after AVG and Malwarebytes have started blocking links to the site.

Preview 2

  1. FixedFixed issue (subject to confirmation) with libpng warnings under some Linux distros.

Preview 1

  1. FixedFixed issue that caused some Beast binary format messages to be ignored.
  2. FixedGoogle Font links are now HTTPS instead of HTTP.
  3. AddedAdded support for XPlane on the flight simulator map.
  4. ChangedLeaflet version updated to 1.6.0.
  5. ChangedGoogle Maps version updated to 3.42.

Code Signing

The Windows installers are no longer signed. For some time now Windows 10's SmartScreen had been putting up "are you sure you want to run this?" prompts even when the program has been signed with a valid certificate. Microsoft waits for the certificate to build up trust before suppressing the SmartScreen prompt for a new certificate which, for Virtual Radar Server, takes a few months. I have to buy a new code signing certificate every year so for a large part of each certificate's lifetime it does not stop the SmartScreen prompt from appearing.

Microsoft will let you skip the wait to build up trust by signing the code with an EV code certificate instead of a normal code certificate. The proof I would need to submit to the certificate registrar is the same for both types of certificate, the only practical difference is that a code signing certificate costs me €25 a year whereas an EV code signing certificate would cost me €325 a year.

I'm not going to spend €325 a year just to suppress the SmartScreen prompt. For a large part of the lifetime of a non-EV certificate the outcome of signing and not signing is the same, you get the SmartScreen prompt either way, so I have given up with signing installers altogether.