Initial Setup

Installation

Supercell Wx can be downloaded from GitHub. Download the latest release from https://github.com/dpaulat/supercell-wx/releases.

Windows Setup

Minimum requirements: Windows 10 (1809 or later), Windows 11

Once downloaded, unzip the application to its own folder, and launch supercell-wx.exe from the bin folder. No installation is required, and all dependencies are self-contained.

Note

Installation of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable may be required, provided in the bin folder (vc_redist.x64.exe).

Linux Setup

Minimum requirements:

x64: Linux/X11 with support for GCC 11 and OpenGL 3.3 (e.g., Fedora 34+, Ubuntu 22.04+, EndeavourOS, openSUSE Tumbleweed)
arm64: Linux/X11 with with support for GCC 11, OpenGL 3.3 and GLIBC 2.38 (e.g., Fedora 39+, Ubuntu 24.04+, EndeavourOS, openSUSE Tumbleweed)

AppImage

The Linux AppImage is the preferred way to run Supercell Wx on Linux. It packages most required dependencies in order to run on a large number of modern Linux distributions without additional setup requirements.

To run the AppImage, download the appropriate file with the .AppImage extension, add executable permissions, and double-click the application or launch it from the command line.

Binary Release (tar.gz)

Supercell Wx uses Qt for its interface. The Qt libraries that Supercell Wx depend on are included in each release, but the Qt libraries may have additional dependencies that require manual installation.

In Fedora and Ubuntu, in addition to standard X11/XCB libraries, xcb-cursor must be installed. In openSUSE, a certificate workaround must be installed.

> dnf install xcb-util-cursor                # e.g., Fedora
> apt install libxcb-cursor0                 # e.g., Ubuntu
> zypper install ca-certificates-steamtricks # e.g., openSUSE

Once downloaded, untar the application to its own folder, and launch supercell-wx from the bin folder.

Arm Architecture Notes

Many Arm hardware devices do not have full OpenGL 3.3 support. If you experience issues running Supercell Wx (OpenGL errors, a blank map pane, strange artifacts, or crashing), you may need to set a few environment variables for rendering to work properly on your system.

# Explicitly enable rendering using OpenGL 3.3
MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=3.3
MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=330

# Force software rendering (only if the above doesn't work, has impact on performance)
LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1

Setup Wizard

The first time the application is launched, a setup wizard will appear. Follow the instructions displayed on the screen to configure the application for first use.

The Map Provider page displays first. Here, a map API key must be configured, using either MapTiler or Mapbox (specify the desired map provider). After creating an account and reviewing terms of service, create an API key (or public token) with default scopes (unless one is created for you). Click the button at the right side of the API Key input box to validate your API Key.

../_images/initial-setup-06-wizard-map-provider.png

Note

Both MapTiler and Mapbox offer free tiers. At the time of writing, Mapbox requires a credit card for sign-up, while MapTiler does not.

Note

Future releases will add a basic map when no map source is configured.

Next, the Map Layout page displays. Here, the default display of a single map can be changed. The Map Layout can be configured as large as a 2x2 grid.

../_images/initial-setup-07-wizard-map-layout.png

Configuration

If no map API key has been entered, a black screen will appear in place of the map. An API key can be reconfigured in settings, following the API key instructions above.

../_images/initial-setup-01-initial-startup-small.png

Using the menu, navigate to the Settings window using File > Settings.

../_images/initial-setup-02-initial-settings-small.png

Additional options can be configured in the Settings dialog as desired. Once complete, press OK and restart the application.

Note

Most settings changes require a restart of the application to take effect. Future releases will improve this behavior.

Now that the application has been configured, it is ready for use.

../_images/initial-setup-03-initial-configured-small.png

Map Controls

Supercell Wx uses MapLibre Native Qt to render a responsive map.

To pan the map, left-click and drag the mouse. To rotate the map, right-click and drag the mouse. To reset the rotation to a north-up orientation, left-click the compass icon in the upper right corner of the map. Use the mouse wheel to zoom, or double click using the left or right mouse button to zoom in or out respectively. Pressing z (configurable via hotkey settings) or both left and right mouse buttons will cycle through map styles, including light, dark and satellite underlays.

For more information about the displayed radar product, hover over the time in the upper right of the map. Hold the SHIFT key to view radar moment data or other derived information underneath the cursor. Hold the CTRL key to display a tick marker on each map pane indicating the current mouse location.

Customization

The map and radar display have multiple customization options, including color tables. The default color tables come from NOAA’s Weather and Climate Toolkit, but can be modified from the Palettes category in the Settings dialog. Color tables are compatible with the GRLevelX Color Table File Specification.

../_images/initial-setup-04-settings-color-tables-small.png

Additional color tables can be found at a number of sites, including:

https://grlevelxusers.com/grlevelx-goodies/categories/color-tables/
https://grx.almanydesigns.com/downloads/ (Color Table Format V3.0+ is not supported)
https://www.wxtools.org/

In addition to color tables, alert colors can also be modified. Use the text box to specify a color in ARGB hexadecimal format (#aarrggbb), or use the color picker to select a color.