First announced in March 2021, VATSIM’s volunteer development team has been manufacturing new backend software that increases the refresh rate to allow for pilots to experience up-to-date positions of fellow aircraft. 

Pilots are now able to experience the program for themselves, as Velocity has been implemented into VATSIM and is in use as of today, January 31st. The planned downtime has already occurred, so pilots nor controllers need to worry about any operational disruptions. 

No impact has been made to any existing ATC clients, and they will work as they have with no additional difficulty. Pilot clients require an update to their newest versions to implement this new technology. While insignificant, the Velocity update also brings some other changes to the VATSIM platform, pertaining to better error messaging, and new member registrations being automatically updated into the system. 

Specific Client Updates:

• vPilot users will be prompted to update their clients when they open their clients.
• xPilot users must download the newest version of the program here.‍
• Swift users must also download the latest version of the client at this link.‍
• xSquawkbox users will no longer be able to use the client and are encouraged to download the xPilot client instead.
  

To close, the VATSIM team thanks all users for their patience with the Velocity rollout, and to the volunteers who made the project possible.