Importing Boat Data

There are several ways to import boat data into VRTool. All of them require a little work to establish a reliable connection, but you only need to do this once for each voyage or game.

Getting boat data directly from a game server

For Virtual Regatta games VRTool can be configured to poll the game server directly to retrieve the position, course and speed of your boat and your friends. VRTool uses this data to generate a track for each boat on the chart. You set this up on the Boat Data control panel on the Boats tab. Instructions are here. Using this method the importing of boat data is completely automatic and reliable.

Using the GPS interface

Connecting to an TCP/IP network

VRTool's GPS interface contains a TCP/IP client that can read an NMEA data stream from on an on-board wired or wireless TCP/IP network. VRTool can plot the position of your boat (using NMEA GPS messages) and nearby boats (using AIS messages).

Connecting to a game server through a TCP/IP proxy

The same facility can read game data streamed as NMEA messages over the internet via a TCP/IP proxy server. Your friends boats can also be plotted if the proxy serves these as NMEA AIS messages.

Importing boat and wind data from the Firefox cache

For Virtual Regatta games: If you are running the game console in the Firefox browser you can recover boat positions and game weather from the Firefox browser cache. Read more about that in this tutorial. This method depends on both the game file format and the browser cache management - it may stop working unexpectedly if either of these changes.

When all else fails...

For other games, or as a last resort in an emergency, simply place a mark on the chart, rename it to "Boat Position" or similar, then edit the Lat/Long of the mark manually as you go. How to do this is explained here. While this doesn't lay a track on the chart, it gives you a convenient start point for routing.