45. Connecting to a Flight Simulator

The setup procedure is different for local connections and remote (networked) connections to a flight simulator (Remote Connection).

Little Navmap can connect directly to a flight simulator running on the same computer. The Little Navconnect agent is needed if Little Navmap is used on a remote computer.

The Little Xpconnect plugin has to be installed in X-Plane to allow both Little Navmap and Little Navconnect to connect to X-Plane.

45.1. Local Connection

45.1.1. All Simulators

Open the connection dialog in Little Navmap by selecting Tools -> Flight Simulator Connection in the main menu and choose the simulator to which the connection should be established.

Little Navmap connect dialog set up for a local connection to FSX, P3D or MSFS on the left and X-Plane on the right. The connection will be established automatically.

Click on the tab corresponding to the simulator you want to connect to.

Now click the Connect button. The dialog will close and Little Navmap will try to establish a connection in the background to the simulator noted in the tab header.

Clicking Close keeps all changes and closes the dialog without establishing a connection.

Enable Connect automatically if you do not want to connect manually. The start order of programs does not matter if this is checked. Little Navmap will find the simulator once it is started or when it is already running. This is the recommended setting.

Deselect Fetch AI or multiplayer aircraft or Fetch AI or multiplayer ships to disable the transfer of this information to the program. This can be useful for performance reasons if you use large amounts of AI but do not want to see it in Little Navmap.

This option also affects the frigate and carrier in X-Plane.

45.1.2. X-Plane

You have to install the included Little Xpconnect plugin to use Little Navmap as a moving map with X-Plane.

The plugin is bundled with Little Navmap but can also be downloaded separately.

Copy the whole plugin directory Little Xpconnect into the directory plugins in the directory Resources in the X-Plane installation. The complete path should look like .../X-Plane 11/Resources/plugins/Little Xpconnect

The plugin is installed and working correctly if you can see it in the X-Plane plugin manager. Note that the plugin does not add any items to the X-Plane menu.

Select the X-Plane tab to connect.

45.2. Remote Connection

User aircraft and weather information is transferred to Little Navmap on a remote computer by using the Little Navconnect agent on the flying computer.

Note

Airport weather information and winds aloft cannot be transferred across a remote connection from X-Plane. You can only see the current weather around the user aircraft.

See Network Setup on information how to set up a remote/networked connection.

45.2.1. Start Little Navconnect on the Flying Computer

Little Navconnect is bundled together with the Little Navmap download archive. Start Little Navconnect (littlenavconnect.exe in Windows) on the computer running the simulator and take note of the message that is printed in the logging window. You only need the colored values which tell you the name and address of the computer running the simulator. You can use the IP address or the host name.

Little Navconnect can print multiple IP addresses or host names depending on your network configuration. This can happen if you have Ethernet plugged in and are connected using wireless LAN too, for example. You have to try if you are unsure which one to use. Also make sure to set up the Windows firewall properly to allow communication between littlenavmap.exe and littlenavconnect.exe on both computers.

Little Navconnect is running and waiting for a Flight Simulator. It is running on the computer win10.fritz.box with the IP address 192.168.2.13.

Change the port in Little Navconnect’s Options dialog if you see an error message like shown below:

[2016-07-27 16:45:35] Unable to start the server: The bound address is already in use.

45.2.2. Start Little Navmap on the Client / Remote Computer

Open the connection dialog in Little Navmap by selecting Tools -> Flight Simulator Connection in the main menu.

Connect dialog with correct values to access the computer running the simulator and Little Navconnect as shown above.

Now do the following after opening the dialog:

1. Click the Remote / Network tab.
2. Add the value for host name. This can be either the host name or the IP address printed by Little Navconnect.
3. Check the value for the port. 51968 is the default value and usually does not need to be changed.
4. Click connect. The dialog will close and Little Navmap will try to establish a connection in the background.

Establishing a connection can take some time, depending on your network. The aircraft will show up on the map and on the Simulator Aircraft dock window once a flight is set up and loaded on the simulator. If no flight is loaded yet (i.e. the simulator still shows the opening screen), you will see the message Connected. Waiting for update. in the Simulator Aircraft dock window.

Note that it can take a while until an error is shown if you used the wrong values for host name or port.

Selecting Connect automatically is recommended. The start order of all three programs (simulator, Little Navconnect and Little Navmap) does not matter if this is checked and the programs will find each other.

Deselect Fetch AI or multiplayer aircraft or Fetch AI or multiplayer ships in Tools -> Options of Little Navconnect to disable the transfer of this information across the network. This can be useful for performance reasons if you use large amounts of AI but do not want to see it in Little Navmap.

45.3. Connect Dialog Options

• Disconnect: Disconnect the current session and stop automatic reconnect.
• Connect: Try to connect. An error dialog will be shown if no connection can be established. Little Navmap will constantly try again if Connect automatically is enabled.
• Close: Close the dialog without any changes to the current connection status.
• Connect automatically: Little Navmap will try to connect constantly if this is enabled. This is the recommended setting.
  • All connection attempts will stop immediately if you deselect this button.
  • You have to click Connect once to start the automatic connection attempts after checking this button.
• Update Time Interval: Allowed range is 50 milliseconds up to 1 second. Little Navmap fetches data from a simulator using this time interval. Increase this value if you experience stutters or lag in the simulator. A lower value will result in more fluid map updates in Little Navmap.
• Fetch AI or multiplayer aircraft and Fetch AI or multiplayer ships: Disables fetching of AI vehicles. These settings are applied immediately.
• AI Fetch Radius: Limits the number of AI aircraft around the user aircraft. Only for FSX, P3D and MSFS.