NOTacMap

A live tactical map for Nuclear Option, for a second monitor. A BepInEx plugin reads game state and serves it to a page in your browser. Nothing to calibrate or set up per map.

Features

• Opens in your browser when the game starts (can be turned off), and closes itself when the game does if the browser allows it. Double-click the map for fullscreen
• Live position, tracked units, airbases and waypoints, with an icon per unit type and a legend. Units are matched by name, mods included, and anything unknown gets a fallback shape. Icons rotate for your aircraft, helicopter, missiles and bombs
• Teammates, AI/structures and enemies each get their own color, and every map color is editable under DISPLAY, from a honeycomb palette or with RGB and hex values
• Incoming-missile warnings with speed and ETA, from the same RWR detection as the cockpit. Friendly missiles in flight are shown for everyone, labeled with the pilot
• Marked targets get an amber reticle, which turns into a spinning "LOST" marker if you lose contact
• Missile locks show as a pink line and ring. With several missiles out, the closest one gets the label and the rest are small rings (+N). If a missile loses its lock on an aircraft, a ring shows where it was and the line snaps
• Weapon range ring: a circle at your weapon's base range that turns into a cone along your heading once you mark a target. The range matches the cockpit HUD
• Runway approach lines, and fading trails behind moving units. FILTER picks which kinds of trails show, and the grid can be switched off too
• FILTER and DISPLAY (top right) control what's shown, how it looks, and the colors. Saved to a settings.json next to the plugin. A dark outline on text keeps labels readable over the terrain (switch it off in DISPLAY). Tap the legend to open or close it, and the Help button next to it explains the symbols and the settings
• The background map comes from the game's own terrain texture, so any map works. Pan, zoom, and a button to recenter on you
• Optional LAN mode to open the map on a phone or tablet on your home network. Off by default, touch works
• Light on frame rate: redraws slowly when idle, speeds up when you pan or zoom, and sleeps while the tab is hidden

Install

Install with r2modman or the Thunderstore app. The map page opens in your default browser when the game starts. Drag it to your second monitor. To stop that, set Server > AutoOpenBrowser to false in the BepInEx config and open http://localhost:8123/ yourself.

Requires BepInEx 5, which the mod manager installs for you.

Phone or tablet

Off by default. To open the map on another device on your home network:

1. Start the game. The map page on your PC first asks where you want to see the map. Pick "On another device".
2. The first time, a prompt says what that opens up. Confirm it, then press "Show QR code and link". Open the link, or scan the code with the camera, on the other device once. The phone remembers the link afterwards.
3. If Windows asks about the firewall, allow it on private networks only.

Tick "Remember my choice" to skip the question and the prompt next time.

Once access from other devices is on, it stays on after a restart until you switch it off. Picking "On this PC" does not turn it off. The DEVICES button (top right) has the switch and the setting for what the page does when it opens. The QR code and the link stay hidden until you press "Show QR code and link", and hide again after 2 minutes. While the PC tab is on that screen it draws no map and keeps no connection open. You can also set Server > AllowLan in the config; the switch keeps that value in step.

Only devices on a private network address (192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, 172.16 to 31.x.x or 169.254.x.x) are accepted, and they need the secret in the link. The New link button in DEVICES makes a new link and cuts off every device that has the old one. Deleting LanToken from the config and restarting the game does the same. Switching access off and on again keeps the same link.

Anyone who has the link can see your map, and the connection isn't encrypted, so use it at home and not on public wifi. Don't forward the port (router port forwarding, WSL2 or netsh portproxy, a reverse proxy): anything forwarded to this PC looks like it comes from the PC itself and needs no secret. Saving settings only works from the PC, so a phone keeps its own display settings.

If Windows won't let the game listen on the network, the page and the log say so, and the map keeps working on the PC. The page can't keep a phone screen awake over plain HTTP, so set a longer screen timeout on the phone.

How it works

The plugin runs inside the game and starts a local HTTP server (http://localhost:8123/ by default). Only this PC can reach it, unless you turn on LAN access (see Phone or tablet). It only reads data your client already has, and never asks the game server for anything extra or sends networked commands. Marked targets and locks only show what the game's own tracker knows. Other websites can't read it or change your settings. The page is a single HTML/JS file that connects over Server-Sent Events and draws on a canvas.

Feedback and bugs

Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/Big-LouDE/NOTacMap/issues (it needs a free GitHub account). Say what you did and what you expected. If something broke, add the NOTacMap lines from BepInEx/LogOutput.log.

About this project

Claude helped out here and there while I was building this, mostly to make sense of how the game's code works.

Source: https://github.com/Big-LouDE/NOTacMap

Credits / third-party components

• BepInEx (LGPL-2.1): mod loader
• Newtonsoft.Json (MIT): JSON serialization
• Mirage (MIT): referenced read-only against the game's own networking types, not redistributed

No in-game assets are bundled. The background map is captured from the game's own terrain texture on your machine each time the plugin loads, and is never stored.

License

MIT

Changelog

1.2.1

New

• A "? help" button next to the legend explains the map: quick start, the colors and symbols, FILTER and DISPLAY, the phone or tablet view, and what to check when something is wrong
• A "New link" button in DEVICES makes a new phone link and cuts off every device that has the old one, without restarting the game
• The phone settings have their own DEVICES button now, and DISPLAY is grouped into Text, Map, Page and Colors
• The QR code and the link stay hidden until you press "Show QR code and link", and hide again after 2 minutes

Better

• Every setting in the BepInEx config has a plain-language description
• If you use the access switch just as the game is closing, the page says the game is closing instead of blaming Windows
• The README is shorter

Security

• In current browsers, other websites can't use up the map's few connection slots any more: the live stream only answers the map page itself
• A device on your network can use at most 3 live streams and 32 requests at a time

1.2.0

New

• Open the map on a phone or tablet on your home network. Off by default: pick "On another device" when the map page opens, or use the switch in DISPLAY > Phone / tablet. The page works with touch (drag to pan, pinch to zoom, fullscreen button) and has a landscape layout
• The map page on the PC first asks where you want to see the map. "On another device" turns on access from other devices after a short prompt and shows a QR code and the link. It draws no map on the PC. "Remember my choice" skips the question and the prompt next time. The switch in DISPLAY turns it off again without restarting the game. It stays on after a restart until you do
• The link follows your PC if it changes network or address while the game is running
• Tap the legend to open or close it
• Colors are picked from a honeycomb palette, with RGB and hex boxes for exact values
• A dark outline behind the map's text so it stays readable over the terrain. Switch it off in DISPLAY
• Text and lines are drawn at the screen's real pixel density, so they are sharp on a phone. Switch it off in DISPLAY if it costs too much
• A "Send feedback or report a bug" link at the bottom of DISPLAY

Security

• LAN access only accepts devices on private network addresses, and they need the secret in the link. The phone remembers it with a cookie afterwards. Saving settings only works from the PC. Delete LanToken from the config and restart the game to cut off old links
• The connection is plain HTTP, so use it at home and not on public wifi

1.1.1

Better

• Big drop in how much the map costs your FPS. It redraws 8 times a second while nothing happens (changeable under DISPLAY) and goes faster while you pan, zoom or something animates
• Units off screen are no longer drawn, and standing structures no longer get trails
• Each update from the game is roughly 25 to 60% smaller, depending on the map
• Sleep and wake: a tab that has been hidden for 10 seconds stops asking for updates, and wakes up again when you come back. Can be turned off under DISPLAY
• The theme loads by itself once you're in a mission, no manual reload
• Your name label and the speed/altitude block no longer overlap

Security

• Other websites can't read the map or overwrite your saved settings anymore
• Settings saves are limited to 64 KB of valid JSON, and only 8 tabs can connect at once

1.1.0

New

• Weapon range ring around your aircraft. A circle that becomes a cone once you mark a target
• Unit trails, with a Trails folder in FILTER to pick which kinds
• LOST marker when you lose contact with a marked target, and a snap when you pick it up again
• A ring and a snapping line when a missile loses its lock on an aircraft (yours and teammates')
• Runway approach lines
• Editable map colors, grid on/off, dark mode and real names/callsigns, all in the panels. No more URL options
• The tab closes itself when the game closes. Double-click the map for fullscreen

Better

• With several missiles out, only the closest one gets the full lock label and the rest are small rings (+N). Labels no longer pile up
• Marked targets and locks use the game's own tracker, so they don't show where a target really is after you've lost it
• Teammate callsigns stay the same after a respawn
• Ejected pilots are hidden by default
• Human teammates are yellow, AI and structures blue
• Missile warnings stack instead of overlapping

1.0.0

First release.