[RELEASE] Bushtalk Radio: Audio Tours, Bushtrips, Exploration & Sightseeing

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Bushtalk Radio

Have you given up on your travel plans for the foreseeable future? Become a virtual tourist with this free addon for MSFS2020! Explore the world while listening to thousands of audio tours, local radio and even videos from the comfort of your cockpit. Hate tourists? Become an explorer instead and help us map all of the world’s undiscovered POIs by using your Bush Radar on your next flight.

Join our Discord to keep up with new features!

Read about us on the MSFS Community Spotlight:
https://www.flightsimulator.com/community-spotlight-bushtalk-radio/

Features

  • Thousands of new POIs each with an audio tour that is automatically played on arrival
  • Submit your own POIs and audio tours, just write the script and we generate the audio!
  • Help us map the world by exploring new areas and finding undiscovered POIs using your Bush Radar
  • Tune in to local radio or watch videos relevant to your current location!

What is it?

Bushtalk Radio is a community driven project with the aim to fill the vast world of MSFS with thousands of interesting landmarks and POIs. Each landmark will have an audio tour that will automatically play as you approach it. We have audio tours for all in-game POIs (including World Updates for Japan, USA, UK & Belenux) as well as thousands of community submitted content with more being added every day: mountains, skycrapers, volcanoes, historical battles or a random bit of local trivia - there’s something for everyone.

Users can submit new locations or discover it using your Bush Radar. Once you find a location to submit, just write an interesting, witty script and we’ll create the audio tour for you. Not the creative type? Autogenerate one with our Wikipedia Import tool, we won’t judge you. We want to introduce players to amazing locations around the world. Add them as part of your next bush trip or fly aimlessly and stumble into something special.

There are 3 components to Bushtalk Radio:

  • Bushtalk Radio website - This is where our users upload landmarks and POIs. Once you connect, the audio will be played through the browser so make sure to keep this open.

  • Bushtalk client - The client is needed to upload your airplane location to our server. This is what allows us to automatically play the audio tour based on your in-game location. Drag and drop the folder into your Community folder. Once in the cockpit, press “TAB” to bring up the MSFS toolbar and log in with your account

  • Bushtalk Radio Landmarks Pack (OPTIONAL) - This optional addon allows you to see all of the community POI markers in-game and LittleNavMap. This file will be updated monthly to include all of the landmarks and POIs submitted on the Bushtalk Radio website so if your submissions are mission then wait for next month’s update

How to use

While you can still use the website on mobile to track your flight, we recommend using the computer you’ll be playing MSFS2020 on as the browser needs to be open for the audio tours to be played.

  1. Make an account at https://www.bushtalkradio.com and log in
  2. Download the Bushtalk World Landmarks Pack and install it to your community folder
  3. Download the Bushtalk Radio Client and log in
  4. Choose a suitable departure airport to the landmark you wish to explore. (TIP: our website will tell you the nearest airport if you click on the POI)
  5. If you’ve logged in with the client, you will see your plane being tracked on the website
  6. Fly towards your destination, if you installed the Landmarks Pack then you’ll see the POI marker in-game and as you approach the audio tour will play automatically.
  7. Remember that you need to logged in with the client AND the website, otherwise the audio will not play!
  8. Read the FAQ below if you have any issues

Here are some of the best Bushtalk Radio has to offer

  1. Second Punic War: Battle of Cannae - part of a 11-part audio tour covering the Second Punic War
  2. World’s Largest Beaver Dam - a dam so big that can be seen from space
  3. Sinking of the Titanic - a tragic loss of life in the middle of the Atlantic
  4. Fordlândia - a failed experiment deep in the Amazon
  5. Galápagos Islands - Many islands and volcanoes in close proximity. Find out what makes this place so unique.
  6. Flevoland - If god built the world, then the Dutch built the Netherlands. Find out why

I love the idea! How can I support the project?

Help us pay for server costs and develop exciting new features by:

  • Subscribe to our (as of now, empty) YouTube channel. In the next week or so we’ll put out some videos showcasing the best that Bushtalk Radio has to offer

NEW IN 1.3: Exploring new places with Bush Radar

Bushtalk Radio has thousands of POIs added by players but there has always been one limitation. You can only submit audio tours about places you know. We want to encourage you to explore new locations and make new discoveries to publish with Bushtalk Radio.

Bush Radar is an exploration tool that allows you to find undiscovered POIs while out in the bush. New discoveries can be found on the map as green blips which will also be added to your Discovery Log. Once you’ve found something worth sharing, publish it to Bushtalk Radio along with an audio tour. To get started simply turn the radar on from the Discovery Log page. On your next trip, keep an eye out for new Discoveries. Once your Bush Radar is on, it will automatically scan as soon as it’s ready. There are 3 attributes to your Bush Radar that you should keep in mind:

  1. Range - The range is maximum distance in kilometers that you’re able to scan. This is given as the radius of the scanning area
  2. Cooldown - The amount of time between each scan. Bush planes are perfect for ensuring you have optimal coverage between each scan. Keep an eye on your scan history as you fly (faint grey circle) and adjust your speed accordlingly
  3. Scan limit - The maximum number of retrievable discoveries in each scan. You are more likely to hit the limit when flying in dense urban areas

Publishing new Discoveries can done from the map as you fly, or at the end of a long trip from the Discovery Log. Keep in mind that not all Discoveries are worth publishing, but this is up to you to decide. Open your Discovery in Wikipedia and see what interesting tidbits of information you can find. Did you find the site of a decisive battle or is it just another high school in the suburbs?

Stay tuned as we’ll be adding different Discovery types and collectables around the world for you to find.

FAQ

The audio tours are not playing automatically

Make sure you’re connected with the Bushtalk Radio client AND> logged in our website. Do not minimize the browser window. Some browsers do not support audio being autoplayed without user input. For the best experience try using Chrome.

I have a feature request or bug to report

Best and quickest place would be on our discord server, but you can also email me at admin@bushtalkradio.com or through the feedback form on our webite via the ‘+’ button.

I’m having issues with the new cockpit client and/or I prefer the external client

Our old external client is still available to download here. This is a python script packaged into a executable so your browser/windows might flag it as a virus but rest assured this is a false positive.

10 Likes
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I used Bushtalk Radio a few days ago and it worked great. Going to install the landmarks pack now.

Thank you!

3

Getting this:

Dangerous

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This is because it’s a python file packaged as an .exe file which tends to get flagged as a virus. This is a false positive. I’ve open sourced the client so you (and others) can read the code and be certain that nothing malicious is happening. If you’re extra paranoid you can even repackage the source code into an .exe yourself. Have a look at the FAQ section on my GitHub page where I take you through the steps.

If you don’t want to go through that then you can always tell chrome and/or your antivirus software to trust the file and you shouldn’t get this issue again.

Thanks!

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Hey MojoRisen55, the client has now been updated so you won’t get those issues anymore. It’s now in-game panel from you toolbar that you use to login. Just drag and drop it into your Community folder.

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I was reading about this earlier today (Community Spotlight: Bushtalk Radio - Microsoft Flight Simulator).

On the face of it, it sounds amazing and something that I would definitely use, although I’m yet to watch the video. I occasionally don’t bother opening google/Wikipedia when I fly over interesting Poi’s so this could be the solution I need to learn more about the world.

Has this kind of thing been attempted previously in any other sims or versions? If so, was it useful?

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Very interesting, languages are missing to be able to enjoy it, I hope it will come soon with an update.
All the best .

9

Very cool app to learn about places in the world, while flying, thanks for this great addon tool

Just a suggestion:
Would it be possible to get better support on Android devices, in Chrome browser?
Currently, the voice talks as expected
But position is not updated on map, and I need to turn the setting “Desktop view” to have the POI window fully displayed, with the playback icons, but very small and hard to use on a phone

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Hi,
it’s a great idea to add the POI to little Navmap for flight planning, unfortunatly I don’t see the proper icon for those, just a default black question mark on a grey square.
Any idea of what I missed?
Thanks

11

I can’t seem to activate the local radio, or is there something else that needs to be added?
Very good app on the tour information. I take it on every flight. :slight_smile:

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I like this a lot. A great way to learn a bit more about the places I fly. But sometimes, even when logged in on both the web page and in sim, the audio doesn’t always start automatically. Even though I see my location on Bushtalk radio webpage. Is it something else I can check?