VRC issue on mac using wine

[Russell Papenberg 1427621]

Hello everyone,

 

I downloaded VRC and installed it using wine because I am on a mac. All the files are present and the servers.txt is complete. I downloaded the sector files, ALAS, and .pof files for Honolulu for observing. When I launch VRC, I get a black screen with no display except the small text box at the bottom of the screen and the menu bar at the top. There is nothing else on the screen and I get the error message that the servers could not be retrieved. However, I can connect to any server I want and there is no error detected with the sector files. I checked the view menu and try to click the different view options on and off but still nothing. VRC just doesn't display anything.

 

Thank you fo your help

[Don Desfosse]

Hi Russell, and welcome to VATSIM!

 

I see you've downloaded the sector files, but have you loaded them in VRC? Ross, the developer, made a nice Quick Start checklist to get you going quickly. In case you hadn't seen it, it can be found here: http://www1.metacraft.com/VRC/docs/quick_start_guide.shtml

[Russell Papenberg 1427621]

Hi Don!

 

Thank you for answering!

 

I did follow the quick start guide from Ross but the issue seems to be that the radar scope doesn't initialize. I checked the VRC.ini file but it seems alright. I tried to change the background colour just to see if it worked, and when I clicked ok, the background would remain black. So maybe it has something to do with the colour initialisation.

 

But I don't know what to do about the error message I get every time I launch VRC. It still says that it cannot retrieve the servers from the network.

[Don Desfosse]

You can ignore those errors.

 

The server list error happens from time to time when the VATSIM data feed is down (note, that's not the whole network, just the data feed). As long as you can still connect to a server, you're fine. If you cannot connect to a server, you should overwrite the contents of that file with the text below.

 

The version check error is also something you can ignore. The program looks to a specific URL to see if the URL that you're using is the most current. If the URL is down for any reason, it will give that error. Usually goes away in a matter of hours, worst case a day or two. In either case, you can use VRC just fine.

 

In terms of the black screen:

1. When you open VRC, what session profile are you opening?

2. I [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume when you created a session profile, you went to File > Open Sector, and selected the appropriate HCF sector file.

3. Let's make sure you have selected things to actually see. Go to View and make sure things like Airport Labels, Runways, Runway Centerlines, Fixes, VOR Labels, etc. are selected.

4. Let's make sure your radar scope is centered on an airport in Hawaii so you can see what's on the sector file. Enter the command ".center mkk" without quotes. That should center your scope on the MKK VOR.

 

Now that you have made sure you can view objects in the sector file, loaded a sector file and centered your scope, can you see anything now?

 

 

The text below, starting with the ######, is what you can replace your servers.txt file contents with to ensure the most recent (as of today) set of servers is being referenced by VRC, even if the VATSIM data file is experiencing temporary trouble.

------------------------------------------

 

######################################################################

# THIS FILE IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED BY VRC. DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!

######################################################################

180.200.247.40 AUSTRALIA

69.42.61.44 CANADA

212.67.73.150 CZECH

138.201.76.151 GERMANY

212.227.11.18 GERMANY2

139.59.2.4 INDIA

94.73.241.65 RUSSIA-C

84.52.109.230 RUSSIA-W

128.199.91.34 SINGAPORE

176.124.148.55 SWEDEN

185.93.245.200 UAE

178.79.154.95 UK1

178.62.97.26 UK2

69.42.49.158 USA-S

97.107.135.245 USA-E

50.116.3.203 USA-W

[Russell Papenberg 1427621]

Hi Don,

 

1. The first time I followed the Quick Start and chose a default session but it was the same issue with the black screen. There is no toolbox and no message license message at the bottom.

2. Correct.

3. I toggled those buttons many times but they do nothing. I even tried to change the background colour to see if it was working but the background colour doesn't change.

4. I tried entering your command in the message box as it is the only thing I can use but it did nothing.

 

I still can't see anything.

 

I do have the same text in my servers.txt files so the issue doesn't seem to come from here.

[Don Desfosse]

OK Russ. Sorry you are still having trouble. For the heck of it, let's try to reload your sector file. Please follow the following steps (some may duplicates of what you tried earlier; I'm just trying to take a very step-by-step approach):

 

1. Open VRC

2. Select the Session Profile you created for HCF

3. When the scope (screen) is loading, you should see a message "Loading Sector Data"

4. You may (but may not) see an Error dialog stating that VRC could not retrieve server list.... Click OK.

5. You may get a couple of error lines at the bottom of the radio history area that indicate an HTTP error and 0 servers found. As explained previously, it's OK to ignore those.

6. Enter the command (in the command line) .center phnl (This will center your visibility range at the Honolulu Airport)

7. Let's make sure you have selected things to actually see. Go to View and make sure things like Airport Labels, Runways, Runway Centerlines, Fixes, VOR Labels, etc. are selected.

8. (Re)Open the HCF sector file by going to File > Open Sector . Select the appropriate HCF sector file and either double click on it or select it and say Open.

9. Go to View > Diagrams . Select some airport diagrams (on the right, under the STARs menu).

 

Any luck? What do you see?

[Russell Papenberg 1427621]

Hi Don,

 

Sorry for the delay, the last days were a bit tough for me.

 

I tried to follow your procedure and now when I select the diagram button under the view tab it gives me a list of sids, stars, and airport. I tried clicking them but it only highlighted the selection.

 

But still no luck on the display. I don't see the button bar nor the radio history and the command line.

 

Thank you so much for your help. I hope we will get this working

[Manuel Manigault]

Perhaps you should try Bootcamp.

[Russell Papenberg 1427621]

I could but I don't have a spare copy of windows under my hand and getting a windows disk is rather expensive.

[Don Desfosse]

Hi Russell,

 

When you click on one of the SIDs/STARs, it should just highlight on the menu, but the appropriate diagram should be shown on the screen.

 

Having you reload the sector file and center at PHNL looks like it helped. A couple of other things to try:

1. In the command line, type .find PHNL (does not need to be capitalized). A yellow target (e.g. gun sight target) should appear over the airport. Do you see that?

2. Try zooming out. Way out. When you do, does anything start to show up in the field of view?

[Tomas Hansson]

I could but I don't have a spare copy of windows under my hand and getting a windows disk is rather expensive.

 

Windows 7 is all that you need. A copy on (Canadian) Amazon is $17.90! I run VRC on a Mac inside Parallels (which is pricey). While Wine should work, it may be worth trying bootcamp to rule out any incompatibilities that may be the source of your problems.