Version 3.21 Maintenance release 07/10/07

Version 3.2 Maintenance release 06/28/07

Version 3.12 Minor Maintenance release 02/26/07

Added new URL's to internal database to reference the NWS "universal" web server which has failover and load balance features to improve chances that SP won't go down when problems happen with regional NWS servers (particularly the Southern Region HQ.) Of course if the NWS servers go offline there is nothing that can be done.

Added alerting feature to advise users of the program with a popup window if there are any operational issue with the program or with the NWS data feeds that serve it. User can disable the popup window if desired.

Other minor cosmetic and bug fixes.

Version 3.11 Bugs fixed in this release:

The program registration would fail when a machine was moved from one network interface to another (wired vs. wireless, docked vs. undocked, etc.).
Two independent network interfaces on the same machine are now supported.

The program would begin collecting history images when the location was changed, even if the setting for automatically loading history images was unchecked.
A custom alert sound file path would not persist between invocations of the program, it would revert to the default setting.

 

New features in release version 3.1 of StormPredator:

-- Lightning strike image overlay is implemented.
(see additional info regarding lightning registration below)

This is the biggest new feature for StormPredator 3.1
Using private lightning data we have purchased from NLDN, we now offer strike imagery on our own server
free of charge for StormPredator Version 3.1 registered owners.

Users can now have lightning strikes for the last radar image update interval displayed like any other layer.
User controls are in place for color, and type of strike information to display, such as strike colors
changing over time, or strike colors represent intensity.

In this sample: http://imageigloo.com/images/1582ltgexample.JPG
Lightning colors get darker over time (about 2 hours) and you can clearly see where there are active thunderstorm cells and cell paths. In this sample, radar echoes were turned off, but you can control them and lightning just like any other layer.

Lightning imagery can be looped just like any other layer component.


-- Radar Echo Contour Smoothing is implemented

The radar echo layer can be smoothed with a contour shaper.
This displays a contoured radar echo similar to what has been in use in some TV Weather radar systems.

Here's examples...

Before contour smoothing http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1318/beforelw9.png

After contour smoothing http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/7235/afterxu2.png

This has been requested by many of our users.
The biggest advantage to this contour method is that it provides better image quality when screen
magnification is used. Select the option in the Display Options dialog.
Please note that applying the contour smoothing will slow down the initial file processing.
The previous method of smoothing available in SP3.0x, which used gaussian pixel smoothing has been replaced by this new and improved method.


-- The Location dialog has been overhauled to allow easier radar site selection.

The sites are now listed in a window that has columns.
The user may sort the list by any column by simply clicking on the column header in that window.
The list can be sorted by state, city, alternate city, or call sign.

The new dialog also sports an adjacent-site arrows control. The control is similar to the adjacent-site
arrows that one finds on the NWS RIDGE web pages. Each arrow represents the adjacent site in that
direction. Place your mouse over the arrows to see text describing the adjacent sites. Clicking
on an arrow will cause that site to be selected in the list window. Press Ok to visit the selected
site, or Cancel to continue viewing the current site.


-- Palette file Save and Load features are implemented

The user may save the current color scheme to a specified file, and load other schemes or themes.
The data that is saved and loaded is all of the precipitation colors, plus the text colors (normal
and highlighted), the distance tool color, the marker color, the button color, and the skin files.


-- Automatic program update notification

The program now detects when a new version is available and informs the user via a popup dialog
That dialog may be semi-permanently dismissed with a "Don't show me this again" button.
The dialog will re-appear if a version different than the last acknowledged version becomes available.


-- Ground clutter filter changed

Before the advent of RIDGE, the NWS images would display ground clutter as high range reflections.
Now, with the addition of new VCPs, ground clutter is displayed (more correctly) as low range reflections.
The Display Options filter feature now allows the user to filter out reflections at 0 dbZ and less in Clear Air modes and, optionally, in all modes.


!!! IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING lightning imagery REGISTRATION !!!


Contractual obligations require us to ask you to register with our server to receive the lightning imagery.
We are providing this imagery (updated approximately at 5 minute intervals on the SP3.1 display) at
our own expense free to our valued customers. Unlike the public domain radar imagery offered by the NWS,
the lightning imagery is from a private company, and is subject to their control.
Users should not have the same expectations for this imagery that they have for the public domain NWS imagery.

During installation, you will be asked for your name and email address in addition to your serial number.
You will also be given the opportunity to edit your name and email during the registration process.

This information is stored in the database and is used during the lightning imagery registration process.
We will use this information to validate your eligibility to receive the lightning imagery only.
Your name and email address will never be shared except when required by law.

It is important that the information you provide is accurate!
Inaccurate information will result in your account being disabled.

One effect of the registration process is that it enforces the rule of one copy of the software per license. We realize that this may be perceived as a policy change by some customers, but the rules haven't really changed, we are just enforcing them now because it has come to our attention that our generosity was being abused by a few unscrupulous individuals and even companies.

If you attempt to register more than one copy of the software with our server per serial number, you will find that it reports
the serial number already in use.

If you believe that message to be in error, you may contact Technical Support
and we will validate your serial number and other information, and reset the registration process.
At the same time we will also invalidate any other copy of the software that was previously registered with that serial number.

We understand that some users may need to reformat their machine hard drive in the future or will mistakenly delete previous versions of the software before updating, and we have taken that into consideration. We have put measures in place that allow our users to re-install the software without having to re-register.

As with Microsoft Windows, if too much hardware has changed between registrations, the software will determine that the program is being installed on a new machine. In that case, you must contact technical support to reset your registration data.

You may reset your registration a maximum of three times.
After that, we will ask that you purchase an additional license for $9.95

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


Bugs fixed in this release:

-- Pager port setting would not get saved.
-- Pager image size did not get saved.
-- Some precipitation levels were reported incorrectly in alert messages.
-- Color changes to pure black were not transparent in the main display.
-- There were some typos in the precipitation level reports (commas where periods should be).
-- Changing button or skin color could crash the program in the download version.
-- The initial placement of the main window was calculated incorrectly and the window could be off-center on initial startup.
-- The program now resumes looping if it was interrupted for a rescan.
-- The Save Image function no longer appends extraneous extensions when a file is selected to be overwritten.
-- The distance tool calculation is fixed for long range radar products.
-- The ETA tool has been corrected. It is more accurate now.
-- Replaying history when the save image format was set to JPG didn't work.
-- Added a delay at the end of the replay sequence.
-- VCPs 31 and 32 could be reported as 11 or 12, respectively, in some cases.
-- Longitude was offset in the marker placement feature for some maps.
-- Loop could "zoom" forward after a file fetch
-- Markers and scan zones could be displayed prematurely when starting up or switching sites
-- Status messages have been expanded to indicate data fetching from the Internet vs. reading from local disk, and to indicate image processing

Other known issues:
-- The program will slow down, and even stop on some machines. This is very rare and is probably related to slow hardware.
-- The program will show a black screen for some layers or products on some machines. This appears to be a hardware issue, also rare, we are still investigating.
We cannot reproduce these problems, but we are investigating.

 

StormPredator version 3.03 dated 7/13/06

Fixed the Analyze tool not functioning on images that were paused in a loop.
Fixed the program crashing when a scan zone was loaded on some platforms.
Fixed the custom overlay dialog inverting image colors, and included a fixed set of range ring overlays
Fixed minor alignment problems with buttons and text in some dialogs.
Added new buttons for Minimize, and Layers
Revised the button panel layout for new buttons.
Added code to support upcoming Lightning Product, Lightning is not yet active, expect an August 06 release

Changed the default marker to a green flag.
Changed the default loop speed to a midrange speed to allow better startup on slow machines.
-- The loop speed range is the same, only the default starting speed is changed.
-- If the user changes the speed, the changes will be saved as usual

Added a Latitude/Longitude marker placement dialog. Press ALT-N to invoke the dialog.
-- The user enters a lat and lon in decimal form and a list box is populated with matching sites.
-- There will usually be more than one match, most maps overlap their neighbors.
-- The user may use the current marker or choose another from a browse button.
-- The user may elect to create a scan zone around the lat/lon point on the selected map as well, with a selectable radius of 1 to 100 miles.
-- The site need not be the site that is currently displayed, but if the currently active site is a match for the lat / lon, then it is automatically selected by default.
-- Again, one can choose any of the matching sites, it doesn't have to be the current site.

StormPredator version 3.02 dated 6/20/06

The beam center is variable. To use this feature:
-- Invoke the special radome marker with ALT-R.
-- Move the marker using ALT-left-click-and-drag.
-- The beam will emanate from the center of the marker.
-- Reset to default location by deleting data\zones\radome.mrk

Feature changes in this version:
-- The tracker plot icons are all visible in the main window. As you place each icon, it will become visible on the main screen regardless of which thumbnail is active. The active icon will be displayed in the distance tool color, and the inactive icons will be displayed in a gamma-reduced version of the distance tool color.
-- The text of email and pager/cell phone messages now includes the maximum dbZ level detected in the scan zone, as well as the user's selected threshold.

Bugs fixed in this version:
-- Fixed a message queue overflow error. This is the root cause of all of the programs crashes and unexplained exits.
-- Fixed a text error where the email and pager messages would report incorrect dbZ values.
-- Fixed a few typographic errors in various dialogs
-- Fixed the short range scan zone showing up on long range products.
-- Fixed an initialization error that would cause a Windows exception if the Analyze tool was invoked before an image was displayed.
-- Fixed distance calculation in long range products
-- Fixed email/cell phone SMTP port defaulting to 25 after change to something else
-- Fixed the ground clutter filter, its function was inverted, turning pixels to white instead of black to make them disappear

StormPredator Version 3.01 released 6/7/06 Major release

Version 3.00 was released 6/1/06 and 3.01 is a minor maintenance release to fix some small bugs and oversights. All CD's purchased after June 1st get V3.01 Here is what is new in 3.01

• Added a Radome icon to the standard markers, and also a special Radome marker for the radar site location (ALT-R toggles this on and off).
• Fixed a bug where the Analyze tool was examining a smoothed image vs. a pre-smoothed image.
• Fixed a typo in the Legends dialogs.
• Fixed the long range distance and latitude/longitude tools.
• Fixed the custom overlays, they are now site- and range-specific (two overlays per site, a long and a short range custom overlay).
• Added range ring overlays to the cdrom version. Short range only.
• Added brightness-adjusted topographic map sets to the cdrom version.
• Added psuedo-greyscale and monotone (brown) topographic map sets to the cdrom version.

Why are we charging for this upgrade?

Its important to note that we have never charged for an upgrade since StormPredator was released on 10/1/03, and there have been many feature upgrades since then that we have offered free to our loyal user base. However, this version 3.0 is essentially an entirely new program. It uses different radar data, has many more displayable products, has improved accuracy, and many new and exciting features not possible in previous versions. SP 3 represents months and thousands of hours worth or work. And this is just not to the program itself. All the skins had to be redone, all the basemaps had to be reworked, plus dozens of other adjustments had to be made.

So while we know that paying for an upgrade is not something everybody wants to do, we felt the sheer volume of work and new features on Version 3 justified the upgrade charge.

New features in SP3
 

• SP3 now uses the latest RIDGE radar imagery
  from the NWS
   
• There are now nine NEXRAD radar display products where before there were two:

• Short range base reflectivity
• Short range composite reflectivity
• Long range base reflectivity
• One-hour precipitation
• Storm total precipitation
• Storm relative motion
• Base velocity
• Vertically Integrated Liquid
• Echo Tops

• Detailed, accurate, and photorealistic
  topographic maps come standard for both long and short range display
  projections and for all radar product types. These maps have been designed
  using our extensive experience in broadcast TV weather, making maps that are
  pleasing to the eye and easy to view on most any display, including NTSC video
   
• Multiple overlay layers are supported
  including roads, county borders, state/national borders, rivers/lakes, city
  names, and weather warnings, all instantly and independently selectable.
  Custom overlays can be added.
   
• A new map key now exists to show weather
  warnings that are overlaid on the radar map
   
• Every map layer overlay exists on the disk as
  a graphics file which can be modified/customized to your liking using third
  party graphics editing programs
   
• The program sports a new interface, and has a
  instantly switchable rectangular mode in addition to the classic round PPI
  radar scope mode try ALT-Q to see it.
   
• SP3 now has a selectable "drop shadow" feature
  to make the radar echoes more visible, especially when used with TV displays
  that use S-Video or NTSC output
   
• The program is now GIS accurate. A custom GIS
  graphic overlay can be imported if desired
   
• Thanks to the GIS capability, latitude and
  longitude settings are much more accurate than before, making distance
  measurement more accurate, and storm tracking more accurate
   
• The GIS accuracy built into SP3 paves the way
  for future product additions such as lightning strikes, surface weather data,
  upper air data and more
   
• Storm Predator now fetches all 24 frames of
  radar loop images that are available upon startup or location change. No more
  waiting to collect additional images
   
• For low bandwidth (dialup) connections, the
  fetch of loop images can be disabled
   
• SP3 can now save and playback thousands of
  history files, allowing for tracking entire days of storm events
   
• The looping feature can now play back radar
  loops at real-time speeds if the graphics card/CPU supports it
   
• SP3 keeps track of six distinct Volume
  Coverage Patterns (VCP) of the radar, and adjusts its operation accordingly
   
• There are now 22 levels of radar echoes in the
  radar images, each of which (including the end points) can now be adjusted
   
• The program supports custom palettes. The user
  can select a palette file from a list and the colors in the file will be
  applied to the radar image and/or the user interface. This is useful for
  creating a "winter" palette for snow for example
   
• Email/Pager images can now be a custom size to
  handle a wider variety of cell phones
   
• The Email and Pager engine is now more robust,
  supporting a wider variety of ISP's that have mailing restrictions
   
• The full screen image caption can now have
  custom elements you can choose
   
• The user may now save individual images in
  several common image formats including BMP, PNG, JPEG, and GIF
   
• SP3 has a more robust communications engine,
  and handles Internet errors better than before
   
• SP3 also includes a manual "re-fetch" feature
  to allow the end user to re-fetch all the images from the radar site
   
• The "analyze" tool has been updated to support
  the new radar products in SP3
   
• A new tool for showing Latitude/Longitude on
  the map has been added. By pressing the ALT key and simultaneously pressing
  the left mouse button, lat/lon is continuously displayed as the mouse pointer
  is moved over the map
   
• The Help file has been significantly updated
   
• The Analyse Tool can now work within the loop dialog using single stepped images

-- System Requirements
Minimum:
1.0 GHz processor ("may" run on systems as slow as 600 Mhz)
256 Mb RAM
DirectX 9.0b compatible video card
Monitor capable of displaying 800x600x24
Internet connection
Windows 2000 (Win95,98,ME are no longer supported)

Recommended:
2.0 GHz or faster processor
512 Mb RAM
DirectX 9.0b compatible video card
Monitor capable of displaying 1024x768x24
Broadband Internet connection
Windows XP Pro or Home, or Windows Media Center Edition

-- Bugs fixed in this version

The Tracker would sometimes report odd ETAs -- fixed
The Tracker dialog displayed incorrect images in the thumbnail view -- fixed
The Tracker dialog would flash unnecessarily -- fixed
The Tracker dialog would not update the main display correctly -- fixed
The Save Image function would report no images to save - fixed
The Print Image function could crash on XP platforms - fixed
The Alert Delay timer would only send one alert - fixed
The distance tool and the latitude/longitude displays were incorrect -- fixed
The analyze feature would report incorrect values -- fixed
There was no convenient way to get the program version -- fixed
The program could crash on entry or exit due to unintialized variables -- fixed
There was no visible indicator that the flash was on or off -- fixed

-- Some feature changes

Beam: the beam sweep speed and arc width can no longer be adjusted.
Beam: the beam is not available in full screen mode.
Range Ring: no longer a standard feature, may be an upgrade (file download) later
Overlays: a single custom overlay is available. More overlays may be added
in later versions if the market desires.
Tracker: image creation times are now displayed in local time vs. UTC
Mailer: for security reasons, HTML mail is no longer an option
Mailer: for technical reasons, the mailer has changed in favor of blat

-- Known issues:

Trial version will not run on machines that have previously expired trials

Will no longer run on Windows 95 or Windows 98 as these OS's no longer supported

"May" run on Windows ME but we don't recommend it as ME is flawed and unstable

StormPredator Version 2.82 Maintenance Release released 3/03/06

StormPredator Version 2.60 Maintenance Release released 6/24/05

Bugs fixed in this release

To use this feature add this switch to the command line "-noexpand" Example: stormpredator.exe -nologo -noexpand would cause SP to not show the splash screen and not show the side button panel

-- Added content to and updated the help file to reflect new features over the last several versions.