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The Simulate tab plays the mission that is open in the Plan tab on a 3D globe, so you can check the route, altitudes and terrain before you fly. It is a preview of the plan: it does not fly an aircraft and it never edits the mission. To run a simulated flight controller, see SITL testing.
Simulate tab with a mission path on the 3D globe, the preview HUD and the Simulation panel with altitude and terrain profiles

Simulate tab previewing a mission over a harbour, with the Simulation panel open.

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Preview a mission

1

Plan the mission

Build or open a plan in the Plan tab. Click Simulate in 3D in the planner footer, or click Simulate in the top navigation.
2

Play it

Press Space or use the transport controls. A drone model flies the mission route.
3

Look around

Switch camera modes, scrub the timeline and change the speed. With an empty mission the tab shows a link back to the Plan tab.
Loading a saved plan from the library (L) asks first if it would replace unsaved work.

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What the globe shows

The mission path and waypoints, the fence and rally points, camera trigger points (when enabled) and the animated drone.

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Preview HUD

The HUD shows values modelled from the plan, not live telemetry, and carries a PREVIEW badge.

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Simulation panel

The panel on the right holds the waypoint list, the altitude profile, the terrain profile, the active waypoint and the waypoint progress, along with the playback controls.

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Playback

Speeds are 0.25x, 0.5x, 1x, 2x and 4x. Stepping moves 1 second.

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Camera modes

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Map controls

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Compare a flown log

Compare a flown log overlays the path an aircraft actually flew on the mission. Click Choose log file and pick a .bin, .log, .tlog or .ulg log. Nothing is drawn unless the log contains GPS-fixed positions. Clear removes the overlay. To replay a recorded flight with its telemetry, use Flight logs.

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Cesium setup

Cesium assets are served by Mission Control itself from /cesium/. npm run copy:cesium copies them from node_modules before dev, demo and build, so the globe works offline. Terrain and 3D buildings need a Cesium Ion token. Set it as the Convex server variable CESIUM_ION_TOKEN:
Without Convex, Mission Control falls back to NEXT_PUBLIC_CESIUM_ION_TOKEN from the build environment. Without any token the globe still renders, but terrain is flat and Buildings is unavailable. Get a token at cesium.com/ion. See Installation.

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Performance

The globe needs WebGL 2. If the frame rate drops, set Quality to Balanced, turn off Buildings, close other GPU-heavy tabs or shrink the window.

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Next steps

SITL testing

Fly the mission on a simulated flight controller.

Flight logs

Replay recorded flights.
Last modified on October 11, 2026