announcement COMING SOON: Volanta v1.1 and Volanta Premium!

[Orbx]

The Volanta team have been hard at work over the past few months gathering valuable feedback from the community and integrating it into our ever evolving smart flight tracker. We want to express our sincere gratitude for the support all of you have shown us since we launched in January.

 

Our amazing community has been sending us valuable feedback daily through our various social channels (Discord, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). We get feedback from all types of sim pilots doing many different types of flying. It’s community feedback that drives us to improve Volanta.

 

With that being said, we’d like to showcase what we’ve been working on.

 

The updates mentioned below are WIP and will be in your hands soon!

 

Volanta v1.1

It is with great pleasure that we announce our first major feature update: Volanta v1.1. This has truly been shaped by your feedback and suggestions and molded into something special. After many hours of development and testing, this free update includes exciting new features to further enhance the functionality and polish you’ve come to expect. Volanta v1.1 also introduces our paid tier: Volanta Premium. Learn more below.

 

In addition to our existing core features, we’ve also added a few more things we think you might like in Volanta v1.1.

 

Map

The high performance GPU-rendered map is at the core of almost every Volanta feature. Because of this, we’ve put some extra effort into making it the most feature-rich map available.

 

In Volanta 1.0, it can be difficult to see 3D flight paths. We’ve taken your feedback and overhauled 3D paths, completely changing how they work.

 

 

Whether you look at the weather to avoid it, or to find more challenging environments to fly in, we’ve added a rain radar layer to help. This real-time data is sourced from various weather radars across the globe - and it even shows snow!

 

 

We’ve had a few requests from our community to add light mode to Volanta. But, Mitch misheard and accidentally added Satellite Mode to the map instead. We think it looks pretty cool, especially when zooming into an airport and seeing the taxiway/gate labels on top of the satellite imagery.

 

 

On the flights page, we’ve added two more features to help you browse your past flights. Firstly, when hovering over a flight in the list, the origin and destination pair will now be highlighted on the map. Secondly, if you have filtered your list of flights by searching for something like “aircraft:a320”, we will render only those flights on the map. Much easier shown in a video, see below

 

 

Planning

To make Volanta a more complete planning tool, once you’ve planned a flight with SimBrief (or imported from SimBrief), we’ll add an extra "Flight Briefing" tab below map settings. This will give you easy access to the information you need to plan your flight - all within Volanta!

 

We’ve also included some handy buttons above the OFP. Clicking on these will quickly take you to the relevant section of the flight plan. No more scrolling through the many pages of a PDF.

 

 

Screenshots

If you’re like us, you have a screenshots folder that has thousands of screenshots contained within. As flight simmers, we love sharing our setups - our favourite aircraft, scenery or other graphics enhancements.

 

If enabled, Volanta will watch your screenshot folders and geotag your images with the location of your aircraft. When you choose to upload them (either during the flight or after), you will see a screenshot icon at the exact location where your screenshot was taken.

Your screenshots are organised within a particular flight and are always accessible.

 

To help build Volanta’s community further, we automatically show a random selection of screenshots on the map that constantly refreshes. If you don’t want your screenshots to be public, we have powerful privacy settings that can keep your data private.

 

Free users can upload up to 3 screenshots per flight, which are automatically resized to 1920x1080. Volanta Premium users can upload unlimited 4K screenshots, more on that later.

 

This is just the beginning of screenshots in Volanta - we have some more exciting plans to further enhance this feature (like a feed of screenshots). We can’t wait to see the exciting screenshots you will upload!
 

 

User Interface

We’ve polished some existing features to make them easier to use, as well as giving them a fresh splash of paint. For example, when viewing your aircraft, you can now filter the list by type, airport, airline and registration.

 

Our flight card also got an overhaul - it now has tabs . These make it much easier for us to add new features, instead of making the card longer and longer.
 

 

We’ve also added support for fictional airlines (such as virtual airlines). To see fictional airlines within Volanta, you must enable them first under Settings -> General -> “Include fictional airlines in search results.” If you’d like your VA to be added, please ensure you meet the minimum requirements then complete our Fictional Airline Form.

 

Volanta Premium

Volanta Premium allows you to support Volanta’s continued development, whilst also getting some exclusive features and perks.

 

As many of you already know, it’s not only about the simulator itself. There are a lot of important programs, features and external tools that go into every flight. Whether that be from flight planning, weather programs or simply searching for flights. It all adds to the clutter and minimizes your actual “sim” time. Volanta Premium gives you the opportunity to focus more on flying and less on setup + paperwork.

 

One of the main goals for Volanta was to incorporate industry leading features, all while keeping our easy-to-use functionality. Since our development team are also dedicated flight simmers, we’ve always wanted a tracking system that added value to our flying. For that reason, we developed ways to minimize downtime and add valuable functionality.
 

Sense of community

Part of the fun is sharing your simulation experience with others. For this reason, we built Flight Parties: fly with your Volanta friends and easily create your own group flights.

 

We currently allow up to 10 participants per party. Volanta Premium is only required by the host of the party - you can invite any Volanta user to join. You don’t have to fly the same route to be in a party. It simply lets you connect with your friends and enjoy the flying experience all in one place.

 

 

Party members can easily copy the origin, destination and filed route from any other member in the party. You can see your party member’s OFP briefings too. When browsing through your past flights, you can even see the party members you flew with.

 

The benefits of being in a party also extend to Volanta’s powerful map. In addition to seeing fellow party members highlighted, you can also draw on a collaborative real time map. Members of your party will see your drawings appear instantly. Each user also gets assigned their own colour. You could use this to show which route you’re going to taxi at a complicated airport, or the path you intend to fly between some towering mountain ranges. Or you could draw some "art". The possibilities are endless.

 

 

This is just the beginning of parties in Volanta. We are super excited by this feature, and can’t wait to hear community feedback.

 

More tools to help you fly

Ever get that annoying CTD or run out of memory? Our cloud save and load system gives premium users the chance to reclaim their flight, without having to manually reload the sim. Simply load the saved flight within Volanta and it will automatically bring you back to where you left off.

 

To further extend our cloud save and load functionality, we introduced smart autosave. This isn’t just a 5 minute timer that triggers a save - it’s a little more. When your aircraft is below 5,000 ft AGL, we don’t trigger saves. This stops annoying saves from stuttering your simulator during the most important phases of your flight - takeoff and landing! 

 

Additionally, we trigger a save as you begin pushback. This allows you to load a save at a point in time when your aircraft’s FMS has been configured for flight. If your sim crashes at some point before takeoff, you can reload from this save, complete your pushback (again), and fly without having to set everything up again!

 

Finally, we also trigger a save when your flight ends. This powers Volanta’s aircraft persistence. See more below.

 

Volanta’s smart autosave is also configurable. Keeping you in control of your simulator.

 

Save, load and autosave currently work in FSX, P3D and MSFS.

 

 

Noticed your simulator time slowly drifting out of sync on a long flight? Volanta monitors the current time in your simulator and can automatically sync it to the current UTC time as soon as it detects a drift. No more confusing ETAs! (FSX/P3D only)

 

Imagine you’re away from your sim and notice (using fly.volanta.app on your phone) that you’re getting quite close to your destination. With Volanta Premium, you can now remotely pause (and unpause) your flight.

 

Continue where you left off

One thing missing from flight simulation is persistence. Currently when you start up the simulator, you have a fresh aircraft spawned in at a new gate. The aircraft don’t really have a history. With Volanta Premium’s aircraft persistence (powered by smart autosave), you can load your aircraft exactly where you left it from a previous flight: aircraft position, fuel, switch states can all be persisted.

 

These aircraft persistence saves are backed up to the cloud, so if you reinstall your simulator, or get a new PC, you can always have access to accurate positions for your fleet.

 

Aircraft persistence is an extremely powerful feature for which we have many improvements planned, including sharing aircraft among friends and seeing your other aircraft parked in the simulator. Making your simulator world more dynamic and ever-changing.

 

Even more benefits

For those of us who really love taking screenshots, Volanta Premium allows you to upload unlimited 4K screenshots to your flights.

 

As a Volanta Premium user you’ll receive a Premium badge that’ll be displayed on your profile, in the friends list and when other users view your active flight. You’ll also receive an exclusive role on our Discord server which grants you access to premium-only channels.

 

To further reward Volanta Premium early adopters, we have an exclusive 25% off a large range of Orbx products that will be automatically applied to your Orbx account. This discount ends on the 1st of November 2021, conditions apply.
 

Pricing

Pay monthly: $6.45 AUD + tax (approx. US$4.99, €4.10, £3.53)

Pay yearly: $64.50 AUD + tax (approx. US$49.90, €41.00, £35.30) - TWO MONTHS FREE

 

Here's a quick summary of what you get in Premium:

	Core (always free)	Premium (US$4.99/month or US$49.90/year)
Flight Planning, Tracking & Logbook UPDATED
Aircraft Statistics
Powerful Map UPDATED
Challenges
Friends
Flight Parties NEW Collaborative map, easy group flight planning	Can join only	Join & host
Cloud Screenshots NEW	3 per flight 1920x1080	Unlimited 3840x2160
Aircraft Persistence NEW
Cloud Saves + Autosave NEW
Time Sync NEW
Remote Control NEW Pause and unpause
Premium Status in App NEW Visible on the map and in the friends list
OrbxDirect 25% Discount NEW Conditions apply, ends 1st Nov 2021
Premium Discord Channel NEW

 

The current core features of Volanta will always remain free of charge with ongoing support. For those looking to expand their experience, Volanta Premium is for you!

 

We have so many features coming down the pipeline for both Volanta Core and Volanta Premium. We can’t wait to hear your feedback and suggestions.

 

We want to thank everyone for their continued support. Without you, Volanta wouldn’t be where it is today!

 

The Volanta Team

[Toga Virtual]

This looks really good and will 100% go premium  excellent work guys!

[Bruno Carvalho]

Amazing ! Premium all the way for me too. Thank you for the hard work to implement these features.

[EasternT3]

Interesting, I'm guessing unless it states the sim, the feature works with all sims? To restart CTD flights may be worth premium alone, so many lost flights because of it. Also the aircraft persistence works with any aircraft in P3D/XPL/MSFS? Sounds similar to GFO

[cleptric]

What are the benefits of the save features over FSUIPC? 

[B777LR]

Is there any of the flightplan functionality usable if using PFPX?

[Sante Sottile]

1 minute ago, B777LR said:

Is there any of the flightplan functionality usable if using PFPX?

 

Once you export your flight plan from PFPX, you can upload the file to Volanta. Although, SimBrief is the current recommended method as it connect to your account automatically.

[Nicolas Marsh Jackson]

This sounds like a really good value! Love the app. Thank you for all the hard work!

[UrgentSiesta]

For me, $5/mo is too much relative to the additional features.

 

Is there some "Economy Class" tier you folks could come up with? 

• I couldn't care less about hosting parties
• I don't do long haul
• I'm NEVER a.f.k. during a flight
• most of my flights are now MSFS or DCS World. My P3D and X-Plane have become infrequently launched and usage is declining steadily as MSFS ecosystem advances.
• Don't care about unlimited high-res screen shots (the Screenshots concept itself is very cool)
• "Premium Status Badge" is even less important to me than hosting parties

I wouldn't mind chipping in for Volanta if there was essentially a Free, Economy, Business, and Premium type of price structure. Don't know exactly what that looks like, but the gap between $0 and $60 is too wide to bridge.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by UrgentSiesta
words

[Sante Sottile]

59 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

For me, $5/mo is too much relative to the additional features.

 

Is there some "Economy Class" tier you folks could come up with? 

• I couldn't care less about hosting parties
• I don't do long haul
• I'm NEVER a.f.k. during a flight
• most of my flights are now MSFS or DCS World. My P3D and X-Plane have become infrequently launched and usage is declining steadily as MSFS ecosystem advances.
• Don't care about unlimited high-res screen shots (the Screenshots concept itself is very cool)
• "Premium Status Badge" is even less important to me than hosting parties

I wouldn't mind chipping in for Volanta if there was essentially a Free, Economy, Business, and Premium type of price structure. Don't know exactly what that looks like, but the gap between $0 and $60 is too wide to bridge.

 

 

 

Out of the options that you listed, the free version might suit your needs perfectly. Remember we aren't abandoning the free version, it will still receive new features and updates in the future.

[EvidencePlz]

"Continue where you left off" aka aircraft's state persistence <<< Does this work with all default and 3rd party aircraft in MSFS 2020?

[UrgentSiesta]

17 minutes ago, Sante Sottile said:

the free version might suit your needs perfectly. Remember we aren't abandoning the free version, it will still receive new features and updates in the future.

 

Oh, for sure I understand that and I'm most appreciative! 

Just letting you know you're missing some revenue at the current all-or-nothing premium price 

[andInTheGame]

4 hours ago, Orbx said:

The current core features of Volanta will always remain free of charge with ongoing support. For those looking to expand their experience, Volanta Premium is for you!

Take my money! (You folks at Orbx are consistently top-quality with your releases).

[breakinghbts]

5 hours ago, Orbx said:

We’ve also added support for fictional airlines (such as virtual airlines). To see fictional airlines within Volanta, you must enable them first under Settings -> General -> “Include fictional airlines in search results.” If

 Any chance for support for defunct airlines? My Northwest Airlines flights look out of place with no airline name listed. I would imagine I'm not alone in this, as I do many flights involving defunct airlines. TWA and US Airways are listed, I also believe I saw America West. But no NWA. Please add thanks!

 

Otherwise i'm a huge fan of this easy to use all in one 'logbook'. Keep up the good work. Just add NWA please!

 

-Tony@PVD

[erict]

One thing I highly dislike about this app is the time tracking. I use time acceleration as built into PMDG products. This app only tracks real time. I should have the option to track sim time for my flights.

[Sante Sottile]

22 minutes ago, erict said:

One thing I highly dislike about this app is the time tracking. I use time acceleration as built into PMDG products. This app only tracks real time. I should have the option to track sim time for my flights.

 

Hi Eric,

 

Send us a ticket https://Orbx.to/volanta-support as we compile all the valuable feedback and our team goes through every single one. There might be a way to accommodate this, although we've never come across this one yet.

[CaptainC]

"Flight parties"

 

Would you be able to see the other pilots in the sim or just on the map?

[Ben McClintock]

2 hours ago, CaptainC said:

"Flight parties"

 

Would you be able to see the other pilots in the sim or just on the map?

For now, just on the map. But we do have many plans in this area

 

[The Merowinger]

The remote-function (pause and unpause) - will it work in MSFS too?

[gjprice92]

This looks amazing. Any thoughts about offering this to Virtual Airlines with packaged pricing?

 

Thanks!

 

Gary

[drewdrew46]

15 hours ago, The Merowinger said:

The remote-function (pause and unpause) - will it work in MSFS too?

I assume if they don't specify a sim it works for all. I mean why wouldn't it work for MSFS? You can pause it

[The Merowinger]

5 hours ago, drewdrew46 said:

I assume if they don't specify a sim it works for all. I mean why wouldn't it work for MSFS? You can pause it

In MSFS there isn't a really pause like it is in P3D/FSX. You have the active pause, but this is not a really pause/break; some functions are still working on and the other choice is the escape button. This would come closest to the pause function in P3D IMHO.

[wolfko]

1 hour ago, The Merowinger said:

In MSFS there isn't a really pause like it is in P3D/FSX. You have the active pause, but this is not a really pause/break; some functions are still working on and the other choice is the escape button. This would come closest to the pause function in P3D IMHO.

 

Yes, and even when using the escape button e.g. for altering settings the sim time of day will not pause.

[blakefb21]

Premium user suggestion. I think I speak for most that we would LOVE to see a feature where when flying with Volanta on, we can see other Volanta traffic. I often find myself flying in close proximity or at an airport with other Volanta users and would love to see them in sim. I think this would be an awesome feature for premium users that would probably sell itself. 

[JonnoN]

re: in-sim traffic, for X-Plane I'm using Live Traffic which already has the AI plane models and stuff, and uses various data sources. Maybe Volanta could work with them to be a data source? Just a thought; I think this would be very cool to see other users in-game.

[antonvs]

I look forward to trying this new version out. It looks promising.

[Nighthawk1977]

On 6/7/2021 at 11:56 PM, Sante Sottile said:

 

Hi Eric,

 

Send us a ticket https://Orbx.to/volanta-support as we compile all the valuable feedback and our team goes through every single one. There might be a way to accommodate this, although we've never come across this one yet.

I think I have the same topic with MSFS flights. Just a few minutes I had to do a flight once again because of yet another CTD.  I used up to 16x sim speed in order to be able to return to the spot where I could continue my Skypark job. The Beechcraft G36 won’t do around 200 nm in 20 minutes...

[Martyn Pearson]

On 6/9/2021 at 6:49 AM, The Merowinger said:

In MSFS there isn't a really pause like it is in P3D/FSX. You have the active pause, but this is not a really pause/break; some functions are still working on and the other choice is the escape button. This would come closest to the pause function in P3D IMHO.

 

This is not strictly true.

 

1. Go to your Keyboard bindings (or whichever device you want to use) in controls
2. Set the filter to view all commands
3. Search for Pause
4. You're looking for "Set Pause Off" and "Set Pause On" under the "Miscellaneous" heading.
5. Bind a key/button/whatever to each of those (yes you need two, it's not a toggle)

[Whistonscouse]

Been burned with premium (Monthly/Yearly Subscriptions) in the past, a certain M*** D***** so will stick to the free version for now along with how I set up my flights and various external programs. Who knows what the future holds. 

[EasternT3]

I hope we see 1.1 soon, just had a CTD in MSFS and wish I had the reload feature!

[LN-KMM]

This looks very exciting and a great update to Volanta! Looking forward to it!

[fahdriyami]

Hopefully this releases in time for Sim Update 5. Really looking forward to it.

[EasternT3]

@Ed Correia @Ben McClintock, Any indication when we may see v1.1? I can't wait for the persistence features

[bon t]

Already a great app and looking forward to this. Premium option looks very well implemented. Have any changes been made to landing analysis? Would love to see more details such as offset angle and distance from TDZ centre similar to STKP.

[Psebcool]

Very Nice !

 

Hi, is there a way to add filter to only show flights between two dates or within a certain period like a month or year ? (and only display them on the map).

 

Congrats for your fantastic software !

 

Thx !

[Tapi]

It would be also great if we could filter flights by the first two ICAO letters of departure place and/or arrival destination...

[chumley]

I have Volanta loaded and am running v1.1.6.

I have Navigraph authorized as a connection and the Map Settings tab indicates Navdata Cycle 2109 is loaded.

How do I load Cycle 2110? 

[MaxTurso]

Hello,

is it possible to use Volanta on a networked computer? If yes, how?

 

Thanks

[porsche]

Never really considered this product but maybe I will have to have another look at it.

Never used simbrief either and maybe it's time to look at it too.

 

[Pengpeng]

how to download