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FGCom-mumble - a flightsim radio simulation framework based on mumble

This project aims to provide a mumble-based modular radio simulation for flight simulators. The project started mainly as a successor for the asterisk-based FGCom implementation.

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The main goals are:

  • Provide communication with geographic and channel separation
  • Provide a realistic radio simulation (incl. propagation)
  • Ease of use for the end user / pilot
  • Arbitary frequency support
  • ATIS recording and playback
  • Radio station broadcast support
  • Landline/Intercom support
  • RDF detection for clients
  • Ease of server side installation and operation
  • Standalone nature (no dependency on flightgear)
  • Capability to be integrated into flightgear, with the option to support third party applications (ATC, but also other flightsims)
  • Modularity, so individual components can be easily updated and extended with new features
  • Good and complete documentation

Documentation

The documentation is split up into relevant parts:

Bugs/Feature requests/coding help

The project lives on github: https://github.com/hbeni/fgcom-mumble

If you want to request a feature or report a bug, you can do so on the issuetracker there. I appreciate help with coding, so feel free to clone the repository and hand in pull-requests!

Install / Setup for the Client

Setup requirements

  • have a standard mumble client with recent plugin support (>= v1.4.0)
  • a recent OpenSSL installation

Installation

The release ZIP contains all binary plugins for all supported operating systems in the mumble_plugin bundle.

Several installation procedures exist:

GUI method (recommended)

After installing Mumble, you can usually install the plugin by just double-clicking the .mumble_plugin-bundle.

Otherwise you can also use Mumbles integrated plugin installer:

  • Start Mumble.
  • In Mumbles Configure/Settings/Plugins dialog, hit Install plugin.
  • Select the .mumble_plugin plugin bundle. Mumble will install the plugin file and report success.
  • browse the plugin list and activate FGCom-mumble.
  • You are now ready to go!

Manual install trough terminal

The installation can also be started by calling mumble from the commandline with the plugin binary release, like: mumble fgcom-mumble-0.14.1.mumble_plugin

Manual install by file copying

  • Rename the .mumble_plugin bundle to .zip and extract it.
  • Choose the appropriate library for your operating system and copy it to mumbles plugins-folder.
    • fgcom-mumble.so for Linux (64 bit)
    • fgcom-mumble.dll for Windows (64 bit)
    • fgcom-mumble-x86_32.dll for Windows (32 bit)
    • fgcom-mumble-macOS.bundle for MacOs
  • Mumble will pick it up automatically and show it in the plugins dialog. Activate the plugin.

Updating

When Mumble starts, it will check the most recent version of the plugin against the github release page. This can be disabled in mumbles settings.

When a more recent version is found, Mumble will ask you if you want to upgrade. When you allow it, Mumble downloads and replaces the plugin library automatically for you.
You can also download and upgrade manually by the normal installation procedure described above.

Plugin configuration

Usually the default values are fine. Some features however can be configured differently, like disabling radio audio effects (white noise etc), changing the plugins UDP listen port or the name match of the special fgcom-mumble channel.

You can do this by copying the fgcom-mumble.ini example file to your users home folder and adjusting as needed. The file is loaded once at plugin initialization from the following locations (in order):

  • Linux:
    • /etc/mumble/fgcom-mumble.ini
    • <home>/.fgcom-mumble.ini
    • <home>/fgcom-mumble.ini
  • Windows:
    • <home>\fgcom-mumble.ini
    • <home>\Documents\fgcom-mumble.ini

Running the client

  • connect your mumble client to fgfs mumble server
  • enable your plugin in your standard mumble client
  • join a channel starting with fgcom-mumble

You are ready for radio usage! Some client needs to supply information to the plugin now, so it knows about your location and radio stack.

Generic compatibility

The plugin aims to be compatible to the legacy fgcom-standalone protocol, so vey much all halfway recent fgfs instances, ATC clients and aircraft should handle it out of the box at least with COM1.

Note that frequencies can be arbitary strings. That said, all participating clients must share a common definition of "frequency", this should be the physical radio wave frequency in MHz and not the "channel" (esp. with 8.3 channels spacing).
Also note that callsigns and frequencies are not allowed to contain the comma symbol (,). Decimal point symbol has always to be a point (.).

Despite we expect the connected simulator to provide PTT-information in order to activate radio transmissions, you may also use the configfile to define mappings for mumble's internal voice activation. This way, you can use mumbles own PTT-binding to activate the radios you mapped. By default, the first Radio is already mapped for your convinience.

RadioGUI

FGCom-mumble releases ship with a cross-plattform java application that implements most of the UDP protocol and thus can be used not only for testing purposes, but also real operations without the need for another client.
Core features are supported by any radioGUI version but use the latest to be sure to get all features (if in doubt, read the release notes).

SimConnect (MSFS-2020) support

RadioGUI can act as a SimConnect bridge to support MSFS2020 and other SimConnect compatible simulators (P3d, FSX, etc). For details on how this can be done, look at RadioGUI's readme.

Flightgear specific

Just add and activate the FGFS-addon in your launcher (you can use FGCom-Mumble and the old FGCom in parallel).

The FGFS protocol file will handle old 25kHz as well as newer 8.3kHz radios. After starting flightgear, you can use your radio stack like with FGCom (default is space to talk on COM1, shift+space for COM2, alt+space for COM3 and ctrl+space for intercom). Additional radios can be accessed by adding custom keybinds, or by using the Combar.
The addon can be configured via a new entry in the Multiplayer menu.

Your ADF will recognize transmissions in the kHz range. With enabled ADF-mode the indicated bearing is recognized and visible on the instrument. The plane's audio system may also playback the received analog audio signal. This is usually switched at your plane's audio panel.

ATC-Pie specific

Since ATC-Pie v1.7.1 FGCom-mumble is supported out of the box. Be sure to activate the fgcom-mumble option however, as the standard fgcom support does only work with COM1.

OpenRadar specific

Currently, OpenRadar just supports one Radio per UDP port. In case you want several Radios (which is likely), you need to invoke several dedicated mumble processes. This will give you separate FGCom-mumble plugin instances listening on different ports, and in OpenRadar you can thus specify that ports.

For better FGCom-mumble support, patches are already pending and there is a binary package available.
With that patches, you can select FGCom-mumble and then kindly add the same port for each radio (like "16661,16661" to get two radios connected to your single plugin instance).

Support for FGCom special frequencies

A common thing is that pilots may want to easily test if their setup works. This is implemented trough some special bots as well as the plugin itself. Also, FGCom-mumble has builtin special frequencies with alternative behaviour.

Please note there is no global-chat frequency. If you want to globally chat, switch to normal mumble channels or use the landline feature (tune a PHONE frequency, see below).

ATIS

ATIS Recording and -playback is provided by a set of specialized server side bots. Look for the recorder bot in mumbles channel list to see if the server supports ATIS recordings.

Recording

To record an ATIS sample, you need to:

  • Setup your Callsign to the target one. The replay-bot will use that callsign to identify itself
  • Setup your location on earth; pay attention to a proper height as this will mainly determine the range of the signal
  • Tune a COM device to frequency RECORD_<tgtFrq>
  • Start talking on the COM device by pressing its PTT
  • When done, release PTT and retune to a normal frequency.

Regular recordings have a serverside limit of 120 seconds by default.

Note: Chances are good that your ATC client does all this for you and you just need to push some "Record ATIS" button.
The RadioGUI has a tuning template for that. It may be a good idea to start a separate instance of the RadioGUI for recording in order to be able to leave the original client data untouched.

Playback

If a botmanager is running at the server, the recorderbot will notify it to start a matching replay-bot. the recording user is by default authenticated to the playback bot and can thus manage it using chat commands (try saying /help to him to get started).

Landlines/Intercom

Landlines/Intercom connections are a feature meant to be used by ATC instances. They are not subject to radio limits like range or signal quality. They operate worldwide and in full duplex.
Landline channel names starts with PHONE and intercom with IC:. The difference between the two is audio characteristics.

To talk on an intercom/landline connection:

  • Tune a COM device to frequency PHONE:[ICAO]:[POS](:[LINE]), like PHONE:EDDM:TWR:1 or PHONE:EDMO:GND.
  • Use your PTT as usual

Note: Chances are good that your ATC client does set this up for you and provides some "Talk on Intercom" button.

Test frequencies

Test frequencies are provided by a specialized server side bot. Look for the bot in mumbles channel list to see if the server supports test frequencies:

  • 910.000 MHz: echo test frequency. Your voice will be echoed back after you release PTT, to allow you to check that your microphone, speakers/headset and that your connection to the FGCom server works and to let you know how you are heared from others. Test recordings are limited to 10 seconds by default.
  • NOT-IMPLEMENTED-YET: 911.000 MHz: The frequency continuously plays a test sample, allowing you to check that your connection to the FGCom server works.

Obsolete legacy FGCom frequencies

The following traditional FGCom frequencies are not special anymore; these are now implemented trough "default" comms (they were special before because of asterisk implementation details):

  • 121.000 MHz, 121.500 MHz: "guard" frequencies reserved for emergency communications;
  • 123.450 MHz, 123.500 MHz, 122.750 MHz: general chat frequencies (they are obsolete anyway since 8.33 channels where introduced 20.12.2019! -> new is 122.540, 122.555, 130.430 MHz);
  • 700.000 MHz: radio station frequency. Depending on the FGCom server in use, a recorded radio message will be played;
  • 723.340 MHz: French Air Patrol communication frequency.

Special FGCom-mumble frequencies

  • <del>: Providing this frequency will deregister the radio. A Radio on this frequency is never operable and thus never sends or receives transmissions.

Troubleshooting

When you cannot hear other pilots or are unable to transmit on the radios, you can check the following:

  • Make sure, your mumble is operational otherwise (so you can talk with others)
  • Check mumbles client comment if the callsign and radio frequencies are registered
  • Check the status webpage if it shows your entry (shows the data others receive from you)
  • To send, you need to activate the PTT of the radio (pressing mumbles native PTT-key is just mapped to COM1 by default).
  • Try to check against the FGCOM-Echo bot (tune 910.00 and transmit something; but needs the bot manager alive on the server)
  • Check that you are not transmitting when you expect incoming messages (Radios are halfduplex -> look at your mumble symbol)
  • Recheck the tuned frequencies and volume of radio and, if present, audio panel
  • Make sure the radio is operable (powered, switched on, serviceable)
  • Check that you really are in range (low altitude severely limits your available range!)
  • Try to leave and rejoin the channel, so the plugin reinitializes; or restart mumble.
  • Check that your software (ATC, flightsim) actually sends data to the plugin udp port. Recheck the port the plugin listens to (the plugin tells you at startup in the mumble chat window)
  • Look at the plugins debug messages (start mumble from terminal; you need to make a debug build for that)
  • Look at the murmur server log for possible dropped plugin messages (look for the string Dropping plugin message), they may cause out of sync state. Reasons can be:
    • the setting pluginmessagelimit in murmur.ini may be too restrictive.
    • a bug in the plugin-io code: The plugin is expected to work well with default settings, so dropped messages may indicate a plugin bug; especially if they appear rapidly over a longer time.

Compiling the plugin

The FGCom-mumble client plugin needs to be in binary form. If you want to use the latest code from github, you can compile yourself. The makefile is tailored to be used mainly on linux, but can be used in windows and macOS too.

  • Prerequisites:

    • git, make, g++, mingw32 (for windows build)
    • OpenSSL: Linux builds dynamically against the installed libssl-dev. MingW/Windows links statically against a build from the git submodule lib/openssl by invoking make openssl-win.

  • Building:

    • Download the source tree: git clone https://github.com/hbeni/fgcom-mumble.git
    • Go into the source project folder: cd fgcom-mumble
    • on linux type make plugin to build the binary mumble plugin library
    • or make plugin-win64 to cross-compile to windows

Other interesting compile targets:

  • make is an alias for make release
  • make release creates release ZIP files
  • make debug will build the plugin and add debug code that will print lots of stuff to the terminal window when running the plugin
  • make test builds and runs catch2-unittests
  • make tools builds some utilitys and test tools

Windows native build

The makefile works well on Windows with cygwin64 with mingw32.
You just need to use x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ instead of x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++-posix:

  • 64bit: make CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ plugin-win64
  • 32bit: make CC=i686-w64-mingw32-g++ plugin-win32

MacOS native build

There is an makefile alias make plugin-macOS that will do the following:

  • You need to explicitely use the g++-11 compiler, as the default g++ is linked to clang. Also you need to adjust the path to the openssl distribution:
    make -C client/mumble-plugin/ outname=fgcom-mumble-macOS.bundle CC=g++-11 CFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/openssl/include/ -L/usr/local/opt/openssl/lib/" plugin

  • After compilation, rename the plugin binary to fgcom-mumble-macOS.bundle to stay compatible with the official releases.