News

16 July 2024: Version 5.9.7 full release

Bridge Command 5.9 has been released and is available from the Downloads page. This includes the following main updates:

• Virtual reality support for PCVR headsets. Please see Using with Virtual Reality (VR) headsets for details. This is significantly improved from the test version released earlier in the year, including support for controlling the ship and simulation using VR controllers.
• Improved display of close contacts in the radar view.
• Add MARPA and manual tracking of contacts for the radar.
• More robust networking, used for secondary displays, the map controller, and multiplayer.
• When running with secondary displays, implement an option to allow engine or wheel controls to be controlled from secondary computers (for example if you have different joystick inputs for the engines and wheel).

1 January 2024: Virtual reality implementation available for testing

Bridge Command is now available to test in a VR environment. This uses OpenXR, and should therefore be supported across a wide range of PC VR headsets.

This has been tested so far with Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Feedback from testing on all systems would be useful, especially Vive.

Technical details and how to test and use:

The current version is for Windows only, Linux support will follow. Bridge Command uses OpenGL, which is natively supported in most OpenXR runtimes, but if you are using Windows Mixed Reality, you will need to install OpenXR-Vk-D3D12, which adds Vulkan and OpenGL support to the Windows Mixed Reality runtime.

To test, please download the BridgeCommand 5.9.0 installer. Install and start Bridge Command as normal, and choose a scenario. When you have chosen a scenario, your VR runtime should start, and you should be able to see the environment in VR. Before you put on your headset, please ensure that the scenario is started in the normal desktop window, where the display, controls and GUI should show up as normal. Currently, VR controllers are not used to control the ship, so the VR mode works best with physical controls for the throttles and wheel (for example the Ship Console).

If you have more than one graphics adaptor (for example a gaming laptop with integrated graphics and a dedicated GPU), please ensure that Bridge Command is using the dedicated GPU. This can usually be done under Windows Settings: System > Display > Graphics.

If the VR session does not start, the debug messages shown in a console window may be useful. This will be in the background. To see these messages, either switch to this window (alt+tab), or change Bridge Command's settings to start in windowed mode.

Please provide feedback with a copy of the console window output if you have any problems!

29 July 2023: Version 5.8.9 full release

Bridge Command 5.8 has been released and is available from the Downloads page. This includes the following main updates:

• Mooring lines - can also be used for towing in multiplayer mode
• Allow camera to be 'frozen in position' for 3rd person view (Ctrl + Shift + Space)
• Improved physics/contact model, including with land and other ships
• Multiplayer enhancements for increased responsiveness/smoothness
• Implementation of 'pushing' interaction between vessels in multiplayer mode
• Azimuth/schottel drives (thanks to David Elir Evans for his contributions)
• AIS reports for other ships over NMEA (thanks to antoine0183)
• Simple autopilot over NMEA (thanks to antoine0183)
• Configurable radar resulotion (thanks to antoine0183)
• French localisation (thanks to fojac)

29 May 2022: Version 5.7.12 full release

Bridge Command 5.7 has been released and is available from the Downloads page. This includes the following main updates:

• Additional details modelled with 3d models (such as harbour or marina details) can now appear on the radar.
• Multiple colour schemes (e.g. night and day) for the radar display.
• The process for loading world models has been significantly modified internally, which means that:
  • 3dem binary terrain models can be used.
  • The requirements for exact heightmap sizes have been relaxed.
  • See more details in the World File format documentation.

6 February 2022: Version 5.7.7 full release

Bridge Command 5.7 has been released and is available from the Downloads page. This includes the following main updates:

• A significant update to the ground contact model, so contact is checked all around the vessel, rather than just checking the under-keel depth. This will be the first step towards full modelling of behaviour around docking, and a simple contact model has been included. Land objects can now also be used to simulate docks.
• Non-follow up steering controls have been added, as well as simulated operation (or failure) of two redundant rudder pumps.
• Changes to the requirements for world modelling, including relaxing the requirement for exact terrain map sizing, as well as supporting RGB encoded height maps for better height resolution.
• Many smaller improvements, including new startup options.

17 June 2021: Version 5.6.1 full release

Bridge Command 5.6.1 has been released on Windows, Linux  including Raspberry Pi 4 (i368, amd64, armhf) and macOS, and is available from the Downloads page. This includes the following updates:

• Support for joystick button mapping, including defaults intended for use with the VRinsight console, and support to invert the joystick's rudder direction if required
• Support for own ship models based on panoramic (360) photos, instead of using a 3d model. This may make it much easier for people to represent their own vessels in the simulation.
• Add an elevated view of the own ship
• Improve the user interface, especially in the full screen 3d mode and full screen radar mode

9 June 2021: Version 5.6.1 released for testing

A test version of Bridge Command 5.6 (5.6.1) has been released for testing on Windows. This is available here. This includes the following updates:

• Support for joystick button mapping, including defaults intended for use with the VRinsight console, and support to invert the joystick's rudder direction if required
• Support for own ship models based on panoramic (360) photos, instead of using a 3d model. This may make it much easier for people to represent their own vessels in the simulation.
• Add an elevated view of the own ship
• Improve the user interface, especially in the full screen 3d mode and full screen radar mode

I would be especially interested in feedback from users with the VRinsight console. The defaults joystick settings are intended to work with this, but it would be useful to have confirmation from a range of users.

12 March 2021: Bridge Command 5.5 for macOS released

Bridge Command 5.5.3 has been released for macOS, in addition to Windows and Linux as described below.

28th February 2021: Version 5.5

Bridge Command 5.5.3 has been released for Windows and Linux, including Raspberry Pi. The main work since the last release has been in increasing the performance, particularly for slower computers.

Note that the details of the network messages have changed, so Bridge Command must be updated to version 5.5 for all computers in a multi-computer simulation.

This can be downloaded from Download

The MacOS build will be updated shortly.

This release also includes the experimental support for live AIS data as described in Testing - AIS Data

 

31st January 2021/Updated 26 Feb 2021: Performance increase for Raspberry Pi

Following work to profile and improve the performance on Raspberry Pi, an alpha version is available for testing. This is available as a .deb package for installation on Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS, or any other Debian based OS.

Download Deb file for Bridge Command 5.5.3 for Raspberry Pi. This is for use with Raspberry Pi 4. It may also work with Raspberry Pi 3, with OpenGL support enabled, but this has not been tested, and will be significantly slower.

As it is possible to drive two screens from a single Raspberry Pi 4, this offers a route to a low cost panoramic simulator.

Performance and usage hints:

• Turn off the radar if not needed
• If you are running on two screens, start the Bridge Command launcher twice, and drag to each screen. Bridge Command will then start on that screen.

A more detailed tutorial will be prepared in due course, but please let me know any feedback by email (james@bridgecommand.co.uk) or via the Forum if it works, or if you have problems.

16th November 2020: Alpha version for testing if you have an AIS feed

This version is described in detail at Testing - AIS_Data. This version allows you to replay live traffic into Bridge Command, if you have access to a raw AIS feed. This is an alpha version for testing!

11th September 2020: Version 5.4.8

5.4.7 had a bug where any world model with land lights would not load. This is resolved in 5.4.8, as well as a higher default resolution for the radar.

3rd September 2020: Version 5.4.7

A new update has been released for all platforms. This adds:

• Click and drag to move the 3d display (in addition to keyboard arrow keys)
• Improved sea graphics, avoiding artefacts around the screen edges
• Multiplayer mode - improved the smoothness of other ship movements
• Simulated NMEA data includes tracked ARPA contacts
• Allow multiple secondary display windows on one PC by allowing the user to set different UDP ports at runtime
• MacOS:
  • Fixed an issue where windowed mode on MacOS Catalina on retina displays did not work properly (display was only showing in a quarter of the window)
• Linux, including Raspberry Pi:
  • Added support for 'Borderless full screen' windows to allow multiple full screen windows to be used when multiple monitors are used (drag a terminal to the window you want, and start Bridge Command by running 'bridgecommand')

Current development efforts include adding new sea areas, such as Portsmouth, and allowing live AIS data streams to be used to include real world ship movements in the simulation.

25th January 2020: Raspberry Pi:

Bridge Command has been built for Raspberry Pi, and it is available as a deb package for easy installation. This requires OpenGL, supported by default on the Pi 4. It hasn't been tested on earlier versions, so any feedback is useful.

Please provide feedback via the forum or email if you run on a Raspberry Pi.

19th January 2020: Version 5.4.3

This version allows users of the VRInsight Ship Console to use this with Bridge Command. Different users have reported that the following channels work:

• Channel 1 for rudder, 2 for stbd engine and 3 for port engine
• Or Channel 6 for rudder, 7 for stbd engine, and 8 for port engine,

Please let me know any success or problems.

In addition, a radar bug has been fixed, where land contacts below the height of the radar scanner were never shown.

Please provide any feedback via the forum. Please find the packages on the download page.

17th April 2019: Version 5.4.2

This is a speed improvement version, which is otherwise the same as 5.4.1, but avoids repeated filesystem access while running. Many thanks to ceeac for contributing this via GitHub. Additionally, a macOS/OSX app and Linux .deb packages have been built for this version. Please provide any feedback via the forum. Please find the packages on the download page.

3rd December 2018: Version 5.4.1

This is a small bugfix release to remove a black line that sometimes appears at the horizon.

27th November 2018: Version 5.4 released for Windows (OSX and Linux to follow shortly)

Bridge Command 5.4 has been released for Windows. Builds for OSX and Linux will follow in the next few weeks. Please visit the Download page for the installer.

This includes:

• Multiple updates to facilitate multiple displays on one computer, including
  • Borderless full screen window in Windows mode, allowing selection of which monitor to use for each screen
  • Step view with shift + arrow keys (for setting up views in multiscreen mode where the view angle isn't 90°
  • Multiple UDP ports available, so multiple secondary screens can be run on one computer
• Others:
  • Heading repeater shows wheel and rudder angle
  • Fix the effect of fog on water in DirectX and non-shader mode
  • Show estimated heading and speed of ARPA contacts

28th August 2018: Version 5.3 released for Windows

Bridge Command 5.3 has been released for Windows. This includes:

• Bow and stern thruster support
• Rudder response dynamics and rate of turn indicator supported (Thanks to David Elir Evans)
• The radar screen can be shown in the 3d view
• The separate heading repeater program now also shows the rudder angle

At present this has been built for Windows only. Linux and OSX versions will be released in due course, but the code is available as always at https://github.com/bridgecommand/bc with instructions for compiling.

Please visit the Download page for the installer.

15th February 2018: Version 5.2 released for Windows

Bridge Command 5.2 has been released for Windows. This fixes a significant bug where night time navigation lights went dark after a few minutes.

At present this has been built for Windows only. Linux and OSX versions will be released in due course, but the code is available as always at https://github.com/bridgecommand/bc with instructions for compiling.

Please visit the Download page for the installer.

30th January 2018: Version 5.1 released for Windows

Bridge Command 5.1 has been released for Windows. This includes quite a few improvements and fixes:

• Sound (Sea, engine and horn) included: Press the 'H' keyboard key for the horn!
• Zoom in/out in scenario editor and map controller
• In addition to using OpenGL, you can now use DirectX 8 without shaders, for improved support on old Windows PCs
• Man overboard dummy included: Press the 'M' keyboard key to release, and Ctrl-M to retrieve, or using the map controller
• Tidal streams can be defined in world models (experimental)
• Remember hostname between sessions for networked installations
• NMEA over UDP (ethernet) as well as serial
• Multiple height maps can be included to allow high resolution sub-sections of the terrain

At present this has been built for Windows only. Linux and OSX versions will be released in due course, but the code is available as always at https://github.com/bridgecommand/bc.

Please visit the Download page for the installer.

23rd May 2017: Version 5.0 released

Bridge Command 5.0 has been released for Windows, OSX and Linux. Bridge Command 5.0 and will be the start of a new phase of development. It is a complete re-write of the program, and therefore there are some differences, although compatibility has been maintained as much as possible.

The key difference is that the world model heightmap format has changed, so if you have developed your own world area, please see the documentation on the world file format (included in the download).

5th January 2017

Current work is focussing on the water/wave simulation, and is based on Keith Lantz's ocean simulation code. There is still work do do, but initial results look promising.

17th November 2016

Bridge Command 5.0 beta 4 has been released for testing, and is available from the download page.

Significant development is continuing on Bridge Command 5, with the main focus being on the radar, implementing north up, course up and head up modes, as well as the ability to switch to a full screen radar from the combined view. ARPA simulation is being developed, with the basic simulation working well, and work continuing on the user interface.

 

12th May 2016

Bridge Command 5.0 beta 3 has been released for testing for Windows, Apple OSX and Linux. The main changes are user interface improvements for engine, rudder and radar controls, and a multiplayer mode has been implemented. To test the multiplayer mode, please follow the instructions at Version_5.0_Multiplayer.

Please download and provide feedback here

12th December 2015

An update to the Beta is available for testing. This includes a new settings editor, and should fix a problem with the map based programs (scenario editor, controller), where the background map was not cleared properly between updates.

Please download and provide feedback here

19th November 2015

Bridge Command 5.0 is available for beta testing, and is available for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux (compiled on Ubuntu 14.04, 32 bit). Please download and provide feedback here.

30th September 2015

The sixth Alpha version of Bridge Command has been released. This includes a Mac OSX app version for the first time, in addition to the Windows installer.

This can be downloaded from the Downloads page.

The Alpha 6 version is a minor update, and is expected to be the final alpha version. The next version is expected to be a Beta release version, and will include a scenario editor, which is currently being developed.

24th August 2015

The fifth Alpha version of Bridge Command has been released. This is a minor update on alpha 4, including additionally

• Configurable radar background & echo colours
• Configurable field of view angle
• Anti-aliasing (if OpenGL anti-aliasing is supported by your video driver)

This can be downloaded from the Downloads page.

21st August 2015

The fourth Alpha version of Bridge Command 5.0 has been released.

This fixes the crash in the launcher program for Windows, includes secondary display mode for panoramic views, as well as basic collision and grounding detection.

This can be downloaded from the Downloads page.

18th July 2015

Bridge Command 5 has now been tested successfully on Mac OSX, meaning that the version in development can now run on Apple, Windows and Linux computers. In parallel, development continues on the final features before an initial beta release, expected in around a month from now.

7th July 2015

The full version of Bridge Command 4.7 has been released. This is a minor update, which includes:

• Improved sending of GPS NMEA messages (each message sent in turn every 150ms)
• New NMEA messages for engine, rudder and heading
• Allowing the synchronisation of navigation lights, for example for pairs of lights marking a transit
• Add variable range marker (VRM) to radar
• Allowing multiple joysticks for different controls

Please visit the download page.

In parallel, development continues with version 5.0. Source code for this is hosted at https://github.com/bridgecommand/bc, and now fully compiles and runs on both Windows and Linux.

2nd June 2015

The third alpha version of Bridge Command 5.0 has been released, including GPS emulation for use with a chart plotter, joystick support for rudder and engine controls, and a networked controller program, so an instructor can control the behaviour of other ships in the simulation. If you download this, please provide feedback in the forum. You can download this on the Download page.

7th May 2015

Development continues on Bridge Command 5.0, with emulation of GPS (NMEA over serial) implemented, and work continuing on the networking and the controller program. 'Other ships' and 'Controlled ships' will be merged, using the controller to change the current and future route of 'Other ships' as the scenario develops.

Version 4.7 of the current implementation will be released shortly. This includes a collection of minor updates including:

• Improved sending of GPS NMEA messages, and new messages for engine, rudder and heading
• Allowing the synchronisation of navigation light sequences, for example for pairs of lights marking a transit
• Add variable range marker (VRM) to radar
• Allowing multiple joysticks for different controls

15th December 2014

The second alpha version of Bridge Command 5.0 has been released, including the basic radar controls, a new water simulation, and the overall interface set up. You can download this on the Download page.

In other news, Blitz3D has now been released as an open source product, so users who want to make modifications to Bridge Command 4.6 can use this freely: See the Blitz3D section on http://www.blitzbasic.com/Products/_index_.php

8th November 2014

Development continues, including work on the interface, and the basic radar features implemented (range, gain, clutter and rain clutter controls). In addition, a more realistic sea is being developed (based on https://github.com/elvman/RealisticWaterSceneNode). A second alpha release containing these features should be released in the next few weeks.

19th September 2014

The initial Alpha (incomplete) version of Bridge Command 5.0 has been released. This has been compiled for Windows, but uses cross platform libraries, and should be compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac OS. This is an early alpha release, and does not include networking for instructor control or multiple screens, and has a basic user interface and radar simulation. Work continues on these areas, and will then move into improving the realism of the graphics and ship behaviour, as well as general optimisation of speed and other areas.

This release is primarily aimed at developers. If you are more interested in using Bridge Command's features, please use version 4.6. The alpha version can be downloaded here.

1st May 2014

Work on the cross-platform version continues steadily, with work on the very first stages of radar simulation and scenario loading.

13th April 2014

The early stages of development have started on a new cross-platform version of Bridge Command. Maintenance and development of the existing version will continue, as the cross-platform version will take a very significant time to develop. The screenshot below shows the very initial stages completed so far.

The new version is being developed in C++, using the Irrlicht engine, and will run on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. In addition, the aim is to significantly improve the simulation graphics and realism.

2nd January 2014

The full version of Bridge Command 4.6 has been released. This includes

• An experimental networked multiplayer implementation, so users can interact in the same sea area.
• Improved Radar simulation, improving blocking by large contacts, and introducing Search and Rescue Transducers (SARTs) and Radar Beacons (RACONs).
• Rain and improved weather controls.
• Improvements have been made to the scenario editor, including modification of existing scenarios.
• Import and export of scenarios, to make scenario distribution easier.
• Scenarios can be logged in Bridge Command, without need for a networked session.
• An improved start-up process, especially for network sessions, so you can use hostname as well as IP address, the previous session values are stored.
• New settings editor (from http://code.google.com/p/ini-settings-editor/).

25th October 2013

The development (Beta) version of Bridge Command 4.6 has been released. 

17th Dec 2012

Bridge Command 4.5 has been released. This includes:

• GPS emulation for use with chart plotter.
• Improvements in the start-up and scenario selection interface.
• Sailing simulation.
• Improved ship dynamics.
• Full screen radar display option for use in multi-screen simulation.
• Improved ARPA performance during own ship course and speed changes.

Bridge Command 4.5 in use with full screen radar display and panoramic view

27th September 2012

One feature currently being developed is the emulation of a GPS NMEA data, so Bridge Command can be used with an electronic chartplotter. As an example, this is Bridge Command being tested with OpenCPN:

29th April 2012

Development work is currently underway on sailing simulation in Bridge Command, and 'two player' simulation, with two users controlling their own vessels in the same scenario.

26th Dec 2011

Bridge Command 4.4 has been released, with continued improvement in radar simulation, including an enhanced radar model and realistic scan rate.

22nd May 2011

Bridge Command 4.3 has been released.

• There are significant enhancements to the radar, including gain and clutter contol
• A graphical scenario editor, so scenarios can easily be set up as required
• Scenario objectives can be set and judged during the exercise

20th June 2010

Bridge Command 4.2 has been released.

This contains a number of significant new features, including:

• ARPA simulation, including manual and automatic tracking of radar contacts to give information such as predicted closest point of approach (CPA) and time to CPA.
• Improved radar simulation.
• A fully charted estuary training area, including land features, lit buoys, tides and tidal information. This area is intended to be useful for pilotage, rule of the road and buoy recognition training.
• Improving the dynamics model, including the 'prop walk' turning effect of single and twin propellor vessels.

14 March 2010

Current work being carried out on includes:

• Adding ARPA tracking of contacts on the radar to give information such as predicted closest point of approach (CPA) and time to CPA
• Improving the realism of the radar, with sea clutter and noise
• Developing the available world models to create better environments for pilotage and navigation training.

17 January 2010

Bridge Command 4.1 has been released.

This contains a number of significant new features, including:

• A realistic radar simulation, including parallel indexes.
• An improved controller for interactive exercises, including the re-positioning of vessels to make simulation set-up easy.
• Simulation recording and replay in 3D.
• Running Bridge Command on multiple screens to get a panoramic field of view.

23 November 2009

Development continues steadily, with some of the key points being:

• A realistic radar simulation method has been developed to replace the current simple radar image.
• The networking code to connect Bridge Command and the Map Controller has been re-written to improve speed and smoothness.
• Development is underway to allow multiple computers to run the same scenario, displaying different viewpoints around the ship, in order to provide an unlimited view around the ship. Each computer will display one viewpoint, with one master computer controlling the scenario.

For a preview of some of these features, see the bottom of the features page. It is likely a Bridge Command release containing these new features will be available in the first quarter of 2010.

17 June 2009

A bug affecting the communication between Bridge Command and the Map Controller program, when used together, has been fixed.

14 June 2009

Bridge Command 4.0 has been released as open source software, under the GPL. This release contains major enhancements in almost all areas over previous releases. These include the ability to control the behaviour of other ships in a scenario from another computer, general usability enhancements, improvements in the graphics, and a full set of documentation.

8 May 2009

Bridge Command development continues, and Bridge Command now provides the software for the Albatross Bridge Simulator at CAPACITACION CICERON LTDA, which has been inspected by the Chilean Navy, and found to accomplish the STCW standards to provide training in the following IMO model courses: 1.07 and 1.08 and it was elevated to the following category: FULL MISSION SIMULATOR. Congratulations to Sergio Fuentes Fernandez for achieving this status for a bridge simulator powered by Bridge Command.

11 February 2009

Development of Bridge Command has now restarted actively. Some of the new features to be released soon include a control programme to run scenarios interactively - The scenario running on one computer and the controlling programme on another, which can set the speeds and directions of the other ships in the scenario.

Also added are fog for more realistic visibility at sea, the ability to use an external set of throttles and a wheel to control your own ship, as well as many other enhancements.

Look out for the release in the next few weeks. A preview is shown in the screenshot at the top of these pages.