Sky Dolly - The Black Sheep for your Flight Recordings
About
Sky Dolly is an external, stand-alone application that let's you record and replay your flights in Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS). It can also simultaneously replay previously recorded aircraft during recording, making it in effect possible to "iteratively record your own formation flights".
Recording supports multiple sample rates, from 1 Hz up to "auto" ("as data becomes available"). In any case the aicraft position data is interpolated (with cubic Hermite splines), resulting in a smooth flight path.
Recording and replay is done by storing so-called simulation variables that represent the aircraft state. Sky Dolly connects with the flight simulator via the SimConnect API, a standard API introduced with FSX back in the days.
Modules
A plugin-based architecture makes Sky Dolly extendable with new functionality, while at the same time reducing the memory footprint (RAM) to a minimum. The following plugins - or modules - are currently available:
- Logbook - all your flights are automatically stored in the logbook and can be loaded with a single mouse-click. In fact, the underlying storage is an SQL database (SQLite), making powerful filter queries possible
- Formation - this module let's you control your aircraft in the formation, set relative positions to each other, or simply join interactively an existing formation flight. Recordings with over 30 aircraft didn't slow down the simulation in any noticeable way (*)
- Location - the location module let's you quickly teleport to the selected location. Besides the position you also get control over the engine state (start, shutdown, keep), making it possible to define your own custom take-off points (for instance custom helipads). Sky Dolly comes with 100 system locations, all finetuned and with verified GPS coordinates. You can easily capture or add your own user locations, e.g. paste any GPS coordinate with CTRL + V into the location table
(*) See known "aircraft jitter" issue below
Import & Export Plugins
Various file formats can be imported or exported:
Flight data:
- CSV (import & export, including formats from flightradar24.com and Flight Recorder and a simple "position & attitude" format)
- IGC (International Gliding Commission - import & export)
- KLM (import for flightaware.com, flightradar24.com and generic KML, Google Earth export)
- GPX (import and export of the GPS exchange format)
- JSON (GeoJSON export)
Locations:
- CSV (import & export, including Sky Dolly and Little Navmap formats)
For instance you can literally import all world update POIs and airports and more from e.g. here: Little Navmap - MSFS POI Database (made available by Rysatko here on flightsim.to).
Preview Release
Note that this is an early pre-release version 0.14. While it should run stable and all its present features should work as intended it is far from feature complete.
Database Backup and Optimisation
Database backups can be automatically scheduled (once per month, once per week, never, ...) and are done after exiting the Sky Dolly application (where they may also be skipped). Before migration an update is also done. All backup options are now in the File | Logbook Settings... dialog.
By default the backup databases will be located in the same folder as the original "logbook", in a "Backups" subfolder, but can be changed when the Backup dialog shows up.
As flights are recorded and deleted the database file may grow considerably. Unused file space will be reclaimed at some point (by SQLite), but in case many flights have been deleted the database file can be optimised, by the "Optimise" command located in the File menu.
Earlier Releases
In case you want to still use the previous Sky Dolly versions (e.g. 0.12 or 0.13) you may download all previous releases from the github release page (the ZIP archives are identical to the one available here).
Source Code
The source code may be found at:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly
Additional usage information (README) and a complete CHANGELOG is also available in the github.com source repository. You may want to compute the SHA-256 checksum of your downloaded ZIP archive and compare it against the SHA-256 checksums published on github.com, to verify the file integrity of your downloaded copy.
Reporting Problems
Problems can be reported here:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly/issues
A free github.com account is required though. "Small issues" may also be mentioned in the comment section below.
Installation
- Unzip the ZIP archive to any location of your choice
- Run SkyDolly.exe
- Optional: you may associate Sky Dolly "logbooks" (files with the extension *.sdlog) with the Sky Dolly application:
- in File Explorer: right-click on the logbook file and choose "Open with..."
- Select the SkyDolly.exe application
- Make sure to enable the "Always open with..." checkbox
- The default logbook is located at: "c:\Users\[Your Username]\Documents\Sky Dolly\"
- One the *.sdlog files are "associated" with Sky Dolly you can double-click on those files and a new Sky Dolly instance will start and open the selected logbook
Basic Usage
- Start a flight in Flight Simulator 2020
- In Sky Dolly, press the "Record" (key R) button
- Stop the recording (either hit key R again, or ESC for "stop")
- Press the "Play" button (spacebar)
- Seek the play position (left and right arrow keys, page up/page down keys)
- Adjust recording sample rates in the settings menu (also during recording)
- Show flight information (key F)
- Hint: press the same key F again to close the flight information dialog
- Show the recorded "simulation variables" (key V)
- Same here: press key V again to close the simulation variables dialog
- Minimise the user interface (key M)
- Hint: Before you minimise the user interface you may also want to hide the replay speed group, in the View menu
- As the "minimal UI" as a "fixed layout" the replay speed group currently cannot be shown/hidden once in this "minimal UI" mode
- Switch between the various modules with the function keys (F1, F2, F3, ...).
Load a Flight
- Select the desired flight in the logbook
- Press the "Load" button (or double-click the row)
- Note: double-clicking its "Title" column will edit the title
Add Aircraft to Existing Flight ("Formation Flying")
- Switch to the Formation module (press F2)
- For each aircraft to be recorded press the "Record" button (press R): the plus (+) sign in the button icon indicates that aircraft will be added to the existing flight
- That's it!
Note again that the existing aircraft will be replayed during recording, so you know exactly where to fly ;)
- To start a new flight simply switch back to the Logbook module (press F1) and press the record button
You may optionally load an existing flight in the Logbook module before switching to the Formation module. Once all aircraft have been added start replay, pause and seek in the timeline as usual.
- Aircraft may be deleted from a flight (but which keeps at least one aircraft)
- The last recorded aircraft becomes the "user aircraft" (the one being followed with the camera in MSFS)
- Before adding a new aircraft you may set its position relative to the current "user aircraft"
- You may switch the "user aircraft" at any time - also during replay!
- Want to fly for yourself together with the formation? Simply select the "Take control" option in order to take control of the recorded user aircraft. Or choose the "Fly with Formation" to join the formation with the currently loaded user aircraft (so you can also join "single aircraft formations" in an ad-hoc manner).
Recommendations
- Disable "crash detection" and "engine/stress failure" options in Flight Simulator 2020 for replay
Known Issues
- While the current Sky Dolly v0.14 improves support for 3rd-party aircraft there are still known issues, for example:
- Spoiler handle position is not properly reported (during recording) and hence cannot properly replayed
- Some light switches do have "dependencies" between each other, hence single switches cannot easily be toggled alone (or at all)
- Some simulation variables such as the flaps handle position are updated "in real-time" (e.g. PDMG 737) and hence may temporarily get "out of sync" when seeking quickly back and forth - with repeated seek operations - on the timeline; however during replay those handles should settle again at some point (with the next change event)
- The stock helicopters from the "40th anniversary update" are not yet fully supported: while position replay works fine, not all flight controls (handles) are fully recorded. Most importantly, both stock helicopters fail to be created when trying to instantiate them as AI aircraft (server exception 22 = "create object failed"), making them "invisible" in formation flights
- Asobo has confirmed that "helicopter traffic" is not yet supported by MSFS: this implies that helicopter models (as of the "40th anniversary update") cannot be spawned as AI aircraft either
- Aircraft in formation flights - so-called AI aircraft - tend to "jitter" when flying nearby. This also seems to be related to the speed at which the aircraft fly ("the faster the more jittery"). On the other hand the number of aircraft in the formation does not seem to have an impact (the "jitter" effect already appears with 2 aircraft in the formation).
- I do have some ideas how to improve on this, but can only tell once implemented whether my idea will be succesful. In either case I will let you know in which release I succeeded or failed.
- Flights imported from flightaware.com (KML) or flightradar24.com (CSV, KML) often have altitudes not aligned with the MSFS scenery, so aircraft either are below or above the runway when taking off or landing. This is still an open issue and not yet addressed by the most recent v0.14.0 release, but it will be addressed together with extended "flight augmentation" in an upcoming release ("still on the roadmap")
- In general while error handling of mal-formed imort files is in place the actual error messages are extremly "generic": "File could not be imported". More detailed error messages may be added in a future update, but for now:
- Make sure that you have selected the proper "flavour" (data source) for a given format
- For instance depending on whether a KML file comes from flightaware.com or flightradar24.com the position data is stored in different "KML elements"
- The generic KML format tries to find a "track" element, but if no such track element is present then the same generic "File could not be imported" error message will be shown (for now)
- In general: if no "position data" (latitude, longitude, optionally altitude) could be found the generic error message will be shown (and also if a "parser error" due to a malformed document is encountered, e.g. an expected number is not in the expected format etc.)
User Reviews
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You Need A really Good You Tube tutorial. The ones I have seen aren't vary good.
Jafajjones
A fantastic addon for FS2020, absolutely extends the overall experience. Apologies if the answer to this question is in the documentation or previously asked, is Sky Dolly intended to allow a user to import and replay a flight from another user logbook.
Thanks in advance
Mike
Steeler 3 day(s) ago
The <tl;dr> answer:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly/issues/75
😉
Yes, I intend to add another import/export format that will use the same "logbook database format" (SQLite) as the "logbook" of Sky Dolly itself (and after that also "multi-selection, such that multiple flights can be exported etc. - but one step after another...)
The current format of choice is the "Sky Dolly" CSV format: it exports (import) pretty much every "simulation variable" that has been recorded for the given aircraft - but being a simple, "non-hierarchical" "row by row" format you'll loose additional "flight information" such has runway condition etc. - but you can exchange aircraft data between Sky Dolly logbooks.
However another (rather huge) disadvantage of the "Sky Dolly CSV" format: you can't import CSV files generated with previous Sky Dolly releases: I simply don't check the available columns and convert accordingly, because the CSV format was always just an "ad hoc format" introduced in the very early days of Sky Dolly, before the "logbook" (= SQLite database) format existed. So you'll get a crude "can't import" errr message instead.
The "logbook" is of course incrementally updated to the current release, and the same will then be true for this export/import format.
Steeler 3 day(s) ago
And yes, the idea is really that several pilots record a formation flight - each on their own PC - and then exchange the recorded flight data and import it into a "master logbook": with the "add to flight" option you can then re-create the recorded formation flight.
With the upcoming "logbook format import/export" the aircraft timestamp offsets can then also be automatically calculated and set, as this format will also contain the exact (local) time/date timestamp when the recording started (whereas the CSV format only contains the timestamps in milliseconds, starting from 0 - so you have to manually adjust timestamp offsets in the "Formation" module as needed).
Lokapix
Incredible little tool! I haven't heard of it until recently and just tried it out. Finally I can take a look at my landings!
Steeler 4 day(s) ago
I am glad to hear that you like Sky Dolly 😊
DizzyG3015
organized and useful tool. However FBW a320 may randomly turn cold and dark during replays
Steeler 8 day(s) ago
Thank you for your feedback regarding the FBW A320 and your rating.
Yes, this is a known issue with the FBW A320 and other 3rd party aircraft that have custom implementations for parts or entire subsystems such as hydraulics, engine etc.: those aircraft do not react properly (or at all) to the recorded „simulation variables“ as sent via SimConnect (the official API to connect with MSFS and other/previous flight simulators). Some aircraft do not even properly report certain „simulation variables“ (during recording).
That said, I am working on improving certain aspects (specifically gears, flaps, throttle levers…), essentially by sending „events“ instead of „simulation variables“. But to set expectations right: I had mixed results, depending on the aircraft (I am focusing on PMDG Boeing 737, Fenix A320 and Asobo A320neo, the later for reference).
I will reveal more details and pending issues together with the release of the upcoming Sky Dolly v0.14.
Steeler 6 day(s) ago
I will include the (stable) FBW A320 in my „test hangar“ and have a closer look at this „turning cold & dark“ issue.
EllinasFlight 3 day(s) ago
have in mind that most FBW A320 users,forget to replenish their fuel,in the replay,therefore the aircraft goes cold and dark
It's not a matter of Sky Dolly
The replay flight,is aknowledged as another flight with no fuel into it
DizzyG3015 2 day(s) ago
I doubt that because I think i have tried that several times but I will check it again
Steeler 2 day(s) ago
As for the fuel: I will probably record those variables in the future as well, so when you "seek back in time" your fuel tanks should be refilled.
However I don't think that is the issue here: Sky Dolly supports "cold & dark" starts: well, in a simplified manner anyway. It will simply send an "auto-start" event (and "auto-shutdown" event correspondingly) when it detects that the engines are running.
The trick question is of course: "when" are the engines running? One part of the equation is the "combustion" simulation variable which essentially indicates that the engines (including propellers) are running.
Now I remember that I observed that for some aircraft (not the FBW A320 which I haven't tried just yet again) that "combustion" value went "off and on" again, very quickly. Repeatedly, like every other minute or so (at random intervals). The "interruption" was so short that the engines were "re-started" so quickly that during flight you wouldn't notice (but I got the messages in my "debug log").
So it could also be that this simulation variable for the FBW A320 occasionally goes to "off" - perhaps because the FBW A320 uses its own engine simulation altogether and updates this simulation variable only "as a side effects", out of courtesy for the SimConnect API - but perhaps not as reliable.
Anyway, this is just a wild guess, but I will keep an eye on this.
kylane
Awesome tool. Will be watching with anticipation the jittery formation fix.
Steeler 8 day(s) ago
Well… me too 😊 The „AI aircraft jitter“ problem goes back to the beginning of the SimConnect API (introduced with FS X), according to older developer forum entries.
It was in such a forum reply where I read about a very promising technique to resolve this issue. Whether that same technique will still work with MSFS will remain to be seen (once implemented).
The next update (v0.14) will all be about improved 3rd party aircraft support, but the „aircraft jitter“ is very much on top of my to do list after this!
Winglet555
"no valid connection plugin has been found in the plugin directory"....what doin now, pls ?
Steeler 13 day(s) ago
This happens if the connection plugin cannot be loaded, most likely because there is a problem with the SimConnect DLL.
Other SimConnect addons that you might have installed (in the past) might have left global SimConnect configuration files that interfere - somehow - with other connections. Search your computer for SimConnect.ini or the like.
If that is the case then e.g. Flight Recorder (also here on flightsim.to) will also refuse to connect respectively even load - did you try it?
Unfortunately how to solve this is beyond my knowledge (except to find the culprit that prevents a local SimConnect.dll to load).
Steeler 13 day(s) ago
Here is the original issue someone raised in the past, with the exact same description as yours:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly/issues/12
Have a look, maybe you find some pointers to find the problem.
Unfortunately I don‘t know how or if the original poster has ever resolved the issue - but it turned out that he had indeed some „global SimConnect (*.ini or *.cfg or *.xml - see issue) lying in his c:/Windows (!) folder. How it got there he had no clue.
(Note: Sky Dolly does not create such config files)
Steeler 13 day(s) ago
The official SimConnect docu may also help to troubleshoot perhaps:
https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/Programming_Tools/SimConnect/SimConnect_CFG_Definition.htm
Steeler 13 day(s) ago
So first:
Make sure that you have properly unzipped Sky Dolly and that all plugins are in place (in the plugin folder, specifically the Connect folder should contain exactly one DLL („plugin“).
Assuming that this is all as expected try another addon such as FlightRecorder: if this also refuses to connect then you can be reasonably sure that it is the SimConnect.dll (provided typically together with the addon, such as Sky Dolly as well) that fails to load (which in case of Sky Dolly causes the „connection“ plugin to fail to load - hence the „no connection plugin found“ error).
In such a case maybe it is an existing addon that launches together with MSFS (and it could really be anything, including 3rd party aircraft). Try renaming your Community folder temporarily („disable addons“).
Sonetimes EXTERNAL addons launch together with MSFS. There is some „launch.xml“ (or similar) config file in your MSFS „data folder“ (where the Community folder is in) - check it.
Next search your entire computer for anything that looks like a „SimConnect config file“ (XML, INI, or CFG).
If you manage to fix it I‘d be glad for some feedback.
Steeler 13 day(s) ago
And sorry for the sketchy description of the folder names - I am on holidays, with no access to Windows 😉
aidanroad
Any progress on the fix for the jitter in formation replay? I seem to have that problem a lot recently.
Steeler 15 day(s) ago
I am currently working on improved 3rd party aircraft support.
The formation replay code is up for a later update.
Steeler 15 day(s) ago
Also read here about the current priorities („outlook“):
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/sky-dolly-v0-13-free-flight-recorder-replay-location-management/405367/58
(Spoiler: the "outlook items" listed in that post include your "jitter fix" 😉)
aidanroad 13 day(s) ago
No worries. Everything else on the mod works fantastic. Great work! Thank you.
DownedAviator
This is great. Is it possible to also record the audio?
Steeler 17 day(s) ago
No, but what would be the use case? Engine sound etc. is recreated anyway during replay. So are we talking about recording (online) ATC chats (by the way: recording voices from people via Discord is problematic without their consent anyway)?
DownedAviator 16 day(s) ago
I meant the in-game ATC. I have no interest in Discord or how to use it with the sim. Anyway it doesn't matter, it was just a question, nothing to get excited about.
Maybe I can record the ATC separately on my iPhone and then somehow stitch it all together with a video capture of the replay using a video editor.
Steeler 16 day(s) ago
Ah, no, in-game ATC (or any other sound) is not recorded. But there are plenty of applications out there that can record "system sounds" (also specific from a given application / window) etc.
Here are some options:
https://www.howtogeek.com/217348/how-to-record-the-sound-coming-from-your-pc-even-without-stereo-mix/
Teun_onMSFS
Hey I'm having a lot of trouble running SkyDolly.exe. Whenever I hit run it tells me I might harm my PC and even if I bypass it, it gives 5 error codes E.G. ''Error Kwaqk file was not found. try reinstalling the program'' I've tried reinstalling but it wont work. HELP ME PLEASE
Steeler 17 day(s) ago
„Kwaqk file was not found“
What file? 😉 There is no dependency on any „Kwaqk“ file. Are you sure you copied the correct file name from the error message?
And are you on Windows 11 or 10? The „could harm your computer“ message is probably the one which tells you that „the *.exe is not digitally signed by the developer“ (which is true: I don‘t have a digital signature, signed by Microsoft - this costs money, I think even yearly). It is up to you whether you trust my code, I can‘t give you any recommendation (note: don‘t trust strangers like me on the internet).
What you can do is verify the integrity of the downloaded ZIP archive, as described here:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly/blob/main/SHASUM256.md
(Whoopsie: and I just noticed that I should publish the SHASUM256 of the latest 0.13.1 release - will do so tomorrow!)
UPDATE: The SHASUM256 („checksum“) is actually published on the „0.13“ branch:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly/blob/0.13.0/SHASUM256.md
But I need to merge this yet onto the MAIN branch /END UPDATE
That essentially tells you that no one ELSE has tampered with the ZIP archive - but you would still have to TRUST ME (and that no one hacked my github.com account - but no worries: it is protected both with a STRONG (generated) password and two-factor authentication.
Lastly you could compile Sky Dolly from source yourself:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly/blob/main/BUILD.md
But this would mean that you understand the whole code basis to trust the source code.
In short: the decision whether you want to run unsigned code / apps - any app, for that matter, signed or not - is alway up to you to take. And again, without knowing the actual file (supposedly some DLL) that is seemingly missing I cannot help on that point.
You may create an issue here and provide some screenshots:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly/issues
Steeler 17 day(s) ago
Oh and what exactly do you mean by „re-installing Sky Dolly“? Sky Dolly doesn‘t have an installer (yet): all you need to do is to unzip the downloaded archive and run SkyDolly.exe in the extracted „Sky Dolly“ folder. Do you mean this by „installing“?
techstepman
i love this and i use it all the time! i just have one issue and i dont know whether its sky dolly or the sim that is doing this but as you can see in my vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PaEvHCYxRU when the aircraft turns left the wings move wrong as if the aircraft is rolling on the opposite side, also the movement is more extreme than it should. So is it the sim? is it sky dolly? or did i do something wrong?
Steeler 22 day(s) ago
„when the aircraft turns left the wings move wrong as if the aircraft is rolling on the opposite side“
This problem also occurs with the stock A320neo and F/A-18 - and will be fixed in the upcoming Sky Dolly v0.14 😉
The issue is seemingly related to a „wrong“ physical unit that seemed to have caused the „PID controller“ to „counter-steer“ the aircraft (PID: „proportional, integral, derivative controller“: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller). Sky Dolly used to record the rotation velocities in „radians per second“ (which is actually the correct unit), but MSFS is expecting „feet per second“. And this was seemingly confusing the PID controllers in the various aircraft.
This took me quite some days to figure out over the new year 😉
Whether this is the same issue with the F-16 as shown in your video remains to be confirmed. But from your description it very much sounds like the same „PID controller“ problem.
techstepman 22 day(s) ago
i got no expectation from such an awesome free tool to fix whatever ccould be wrong with payware aircraft... "and will be fixed in the upcoming Sky Dolly v0.14" - thats great! You are amazingly awesome as is sky dolly!
Steeler 21 day(s) ago
Just to clarify: the issue ("wrong rotation velocity unit") is actually with MSFS itself, not with any specific 3rd party aircraft (and the issue also affects the stock A320neo and F/A-18, as mentioned in my previous reply).
And yes, there is actually a "PID controller" implementation in MSFS. For the interested:
https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/Samples_And_Tutorials/Primers/PID_Primer.htm
And once I enabled the various debug options in MSFS (with enabled "developer mode") and stumbled over the PID controller trying to "counter-act" the aileron commands (as sent via SimConnect) it was only a matter of time until I found the culprit. And as mentioned this seems to be the "radians per second" unit (which is actually the correct unit for rotation velocity): MSFS seems to expect the (actually wrong) "feet per second" unit here. I only found this out because I was actually trying to observe those values via the provided "SimVar Watcher" example application that doesn't even let you set "radians per seconds". And once I came to this point it was then when I discovered the "fix" for this "counter-acting ailerons" (and probably also elevators) problem...
And this issue only occurs with (3rd party) aircraft that are actually making use of this "PID controller" in MSFS. Especially older aircraft that are not "fly by wire" are not affected, nor those (3rd party) aircraft that come with their own simulation logic for ailerons, elevator and rudder etc.
As a side-note: the "rotation ACCELERATION" simulation variable does have the correct "RADIANS per seconds squared" unit in MSFS - go figure 😉
Steeler 6 day(s) ago
The „PID controller“ issue should now be solved in the just released v0.14: ailerons, elevator and rudder should now move in the expected direction.
ponny2oo2
doest play replay as formation with helicopters
Steeler 25 day(s) ago
Not (yet?) with the helicopters that were introduced with the „40th anniversary update“ (SU 11): Asobo has confirmed that „helicopter traffic is not supported by the game.“
https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/questions/12336/su11-spawn-helicopter-as-ai.html
Unfortunately that also implies that helicopters cannot be spawned as „AI aircraft“ either (and then be positioned / controlled via SimConnect). Whether that will be implemented (in MSFS) in the future we shall see.
Other 3rd party helicopters should work though, at least the pre-SU11 ones, as they are based on the original „aircraft model“.
ponny2oo2 25 day(s) ago
Ok Thanks
WTF08
Thank you Steeler! This is the best add on ever! The formation flight has tripled the value of the sim for me. Asobo should add this to the sim. CHF inbound on my next paycheck.
Steeler 28 day(s) ago
Thank you very much for your encouraging and kind words, very much appreciated 😊
christophhametne
there is no enigne sound at all only flaps sound
Steeler 1 month(s) ago
@christophhametne:
Member since: September 27, 2022
Uploaded Files: 0
Downloads: 0
Comments: 1
Wow… are you sure that you have actually downloaded and tried Sky Dolly? Because from the looks of it you only came here for this one rating you just gave me 😞
In any case: which aircraft? 3rd party? Please also have a look at the Frequently Asked section here on this page (it may be easy to miss), specifically the answer to the question:
Flaps, spoilers, ailerons and/or gears are not animated during replay - why?
It explains how Sky Dolly (and other recording applications, for that matter) works and the related issues with certain 3rd party aircraft, especially those that apply their own simulation logic (in case of the Fenix A320 even in an external application).
To state the obvious: Sky Dolly does not record sound. It records so-called "simulation variables" and sends them back during replay to MSFS. So from your short description I can only assume that the problem here is that the throttle position is not properly set (remains at 0), and/or the engine cannot properly (re-)started. On that note, Sky Dolly is - to my knowledge - the only recording tool that actually supports recording and replay of "cold and dark" starts. This works "as designed" with at least the stock aircraft (not perfectly though: it essentially does an "autostart engine", the equivalent to "CTRL + E" - but at least Sky Dolly detects when the engine is (supposed to be) started and stopped.
Ironically I just posted hours before your comment a post, both here in the "Sky Dolly" forum on flightsim.to and on the MSFS forum:
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/sky-dolly-v0-13-free-flight-recorder-replay-location-management/405367/58
that I am actually working on improving 3rd party aircraft support, specifically having the Fenix A320 and the PMDG Boeing 737 in mind. Now before you get too excited I can already tell you that I have found a major "show stopper" with the current Fenix A320, release 1.0.6: this release stopped reporting certain "simulation variables" correctly, specifically the thrust lever position (not reported at all, always 0%) and flaps handle position (only positions 0 and 2 reported).
I deliberately said "stopped working", because a previous release, 1.0.4, that I still have is still reporting those values back as expected. So while there is a chance I could improve the replay of those variables there is no way I can improve things if I do not even get back the proper values, unfortunately. Once I digged a bit more into this - and can actually backup my claim here - I will report this to Fenix. Chances are that this is "just a bug" on their side. But in the worst case it could also mean that they customised their simulation so heavily that it has become inveasible for them to reliably report their values back as "simulation variables". We will see...
dd31
.dll virus flag, and no I will not disable it.
Steeler 1 month(s) ago
Virustotal.com and Microsoft Defender both reported 0 issues.
So which virus scanner are you using? And which DLL exactly is reported?
Anyone else having issues with any DLLs provided by Sky Dolly v0.13.1?
Steeler 1 month(s) ago
Also refer to the scan result from virustotal.com:
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/aa990d71b16c06cce7a79c0310bf497b5cd3339c919bf6eb70ad2873665442bd
Steeler 1 month(s) ago
You may also build Sky Dolly yourself from source. Instructions given here:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly/blob/main/BUILD.md
flightsim99 1 month(s) ago
My goodness man, do some research before coming here and throwing around accusations on a public forum.
Steeler 1 month(s) ago
Happy new year, everyone! Please don't get grumpy at each other here 😊
While virustotal.com (which checks binaries with a couple of dozens virus, malware, adware, you-name-it find tools) didn't claim any issues it is well possible that there are other virus / malware detection tools that would still claim that there is a (potential) issue.
This is because most malware detection tools do not simply check for "known viruses / malware", by checking each bit one for one, but rather they also try to anticipate (find) yet unknown threats, by checking for "suspicious bit patterns" and/or suspicious system API calls (such as trying to open an internet connection, which in combination with "other activity" may be suspicious).
It goes without saying that there are also "false positives" (side note: yet another chapter is so-called "scareware" that suggests to the user that "there is something wrong on your system", and then "if you pay a monthly fee for the 'professional upgrade' we will actually tell you what it is" - which, in some cases, is then simply a 'scam', to get your money).
But so far we only know that the tool that @dd31 is using apparently raised a "DLL virus flag", and so I kindly ask for the following again:
While there is probably little I could do about it (still assuming of course that this is a "false positive", of course) I'd still like to know whether it is a "pre-compiled DLL" (either one of the underlying "Qt framework" that is used to render the user interface and more, or the SimConnect.dll that comes from the MSFS SDK itself), or a DLL of my own (compiled from Sky Dolly source code).
dd31 1 month(s) ago
Geographic.dll Norton flagged it, and deleted it.
dd31 1 month(s) ago
@flightsim99 Reporting back to the person that made this, of what Norton flagged, is hardly an accusation. But that's all the time I'm going to give to you.
RustyDog
This is better than a certain payware replayer that I bought. That one's going in the bin. Sky Dolly is where it's at ! Nice work sir.
AJLedbetter123
Any chance an option could be introduced which allows the user to name the clips?
Steeler 2 month(s) ago
What „clips“? Are you referring to a recorded flight? If so, each flight has an editable „title“ attribute, editable both in the logbook and the Flight dialog.
AJLedbetter123 2 month(s) ago
Ah, that's exactly it! I didn't notice that tab.
Steeler 2 month(s) ago
In the logbook you can even "filter" your flights with keywords - the "title" attribute is among those text fields that is being searched (the "description" and departure, destination fields are the other fields being searched).
Ginete
Great, Tx!
Ahuso
Just than'ks , your mod is amzing !
FrittenFritz
Any steps forward regarding the Flap, Gear etc. control during replay? you said you were working on an "workaround" 😊
Steeler 2 month(s) ago
While I do not give details about upcoming features and least about their potential release date I can say so much: "This will be next" 😉
Steeler 2 month(s) ago
If you are familiar with development and source version systems such as Git you can track this "feature branch", if you want:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly/tree/feature-simvar
Otherwise you can trust me that I have already started experimenting with this topic, but didn't want to delay the current v0.13 release any further: originally it was planned as a "small, under the hood performance improvements and refactoring" release, but turned out one of the bigger releases, at least as far as changed code is concerned:
https://github.com/till213/SkyDolly/compare/0.12.0...0.13.0
"518 changed files with 14,022 additions and 8,695 deletions."
😉
Pilot100
Thanks for this excellent application, could I ask where the record files are stored physically? I also wonder how the export works - I could not get this to work.
Steeler 2 month(s) ago
All data is stored in the „logbook“ which is in fact a SQLite database (and can be opened and explored using e.g. https://sqlitebrowser.org/).
The location is shown in the „Logbook Settings“ (in the File menu - there is also a „Show“ button which opens the containing folder in the File Explorer). By default it is stored under c:\Users\[Your User]\Documents\Sky Dolly\
Steeler 2 month(s) ago
And as for the export: you first need to load a „flight“ into memory (e.g. by double-clicking the desired entry in the „Logbook“ table).
You can then export the sampled data via File | Export and choose the desired data format: CSV, KML, IGC, …
(„Video encoding“ is not supported, if that was the question. See other questions and answers here, e.g. use „OBS Studio“)