tDB is a database layer for FiveM: PocketBase managed for you, with an admin UI, collections, logs and a SQL console — or point it at a database you already run.
Install — drop tDB.zip into your resources folder and ensure tDB before anything that depends on it. It brings its own PocketBase binary and starts it for you; nothing to install separately.
MIT, source included. Nothing in this download is obfuscated or escrowed.
Needs tLib v1.0 or newer — the admin UI is served through tLib's HTTP hub, so there is no second port to open.
The biggest release so far. An AI dispatcher answers your units, your 911 line and your CAD. The in-game radio gains programmable softkeys, real menus, emergency profiles and a scanner. tRadio drops its own port, and every transmission arrives about 200 ms sooner. Upgrading needs a few config changes.
AddedFeatures15
AI dispatcher (experimental) — a unit keys up and gets an answer back on the same channel, with the same radio effects. It knows who is on each channel, raises alerts, sends tones, patches channels, relays 911 calls, and can answer them itself. Recommended setup is an API key for the writing and one for the voice; without keys it runs models on your own server. Configured in Admin Panel → Settings → AI Dispatch. Read the docs
CAD / MDT on every surface — LACORE, SonoranCAD, ImperialCAD, wasabi_mdt, tk_mdt and ps-mdt, detected from the running resource. 911 mirroring and panic now reach all six, not just ImperialCAD. Experimental
Scanners — a new receive-only radio that can never transmit. Any codeplug with Scanner ticked becomes one, and a Scanner codeplug ships alongside LEO, granted to nobody until you map it. The SWX-250 portable is built for it. Experimental
Scanning, rebuilt — scan on/off and the scan list are separate things now, each channel has its own list, and the radio locks onto one scanned channel at a time. Priority 1 interrupts anything, Priority 2 interrupts non-priority. Nuisance delete drops the channel you are hearing; talkback replies on it
A programmable radio interface — every layout runs the same radio: a paging Home softkey row, Select Zone and Select Chan menus where browsing previews and Sel commits, an Options menu, Radio Info, and a clock from the game world or the player's PC. Admins program the Home row per codeplug under Codeplugs → Home Softkeys
Emergency profiles — the orange button is programmed per channel: hold to activate, then Alarm, Call or both, optionally Silent, staying put or reverting to an emergency channel, with a hot mic and configurable retries. Dispatch gets ALARM / CALL / SILENT badges with ACK and Clear. Existing codeplugs become a single Default profile, so nothing changes until you edit it
Direct (simplex) channels — radio-to-radio with no repeater: you hear only units close to you, and dispatch reaches the channel through an optional base radio
Talk-permit, TX denied and a transmit time-out — trunked key-ups wait for the grant, a taken channel bonks, and a key held past the limit un-keys itself after a warning tone. Settings → Audio & Radio → Transmit Time-Out
A QRX-720 in the player's hand — the Shoulder and Handheld animations hold a portable that ships with tRadio, its screen and LEDs mirroring the radio in use
Front-seat radio sharing — driver and passenger work the car's radio together, each transmitting under their own callsign. Nothing to configure
Explosions over the air — an explosion near a transmitting unit is heard by everyone listening, as gunshots already were
Radios by Discord role — Credentials → Role → codeplug, stacking with the job, ACE and item routes
Dispatch panel — tune incoming radio FX for yourself alone, and pick which microphone the panel transmits from
Marketplace — animation packs, search by name, the full catalog past the first hundred items, and theme previews rendered in the real panel
Admin panel — speakers, towers and geo zones placed on a map from one Coverage page, and a Credentials page that stores keys write-only
ChangedChanges13
Voice arrives about 200 ms sooner — smaller packets and a playout buffer that sizes itself per conversation. Latency no longer grows after a stall and stays grown
tRadio no longer has a port of its own. The radio runs over the FiveM connection players already have, and the panels are served through tLib. serverPort is gone and serverAddress is now hostServerUrl. tLib v1.0 or newer is required
ACE permissions are lowercase (tradio.admin) and events are tradio:. Both keep working under the old names; the two renamed convars do not
Radio layouts are ui.html only — config.json layouts are no longer read, and all eleven shipped models were renamed
P25 audio retuned against reference recordings. The digital leg sits at analog level, no longer clips, and no longer changes level with the analog FX toggle
Both FiveM generations ship — the streamed props load on Legacy and Enhanced alike
Escape returns control to the game and leaves the radio visible. The floating × is gone; hiding on unfocus is a setting
Startup checks your config — every problem reported at once, naming the key and the fix, plus a tradio_diag report that is safe to paste
Dispatch themes are folders in layouts/, each with its own identity file, instead of rows in the server's data. Installed themes keep working
Desktop app: one copy, and closing it quits — with Minimize to Tray on Close for the old behavior
Stream Deck gains Softkey and Radio Function actions
Scan priorities relabeled — new entries default to Non-priority; stored priorities are unchanged
Lighter on busy servers — blip bookkeeping no longer grows with the square of the player count, one digital decode is shared by every nearby radio, and the screen redraws only on change
FixedFixes15
The first transmission after about 20 seconds of silence was heard by nobody
The last words of a transmission were cut off at unkey
Incoming audio could go silent until voice settings were toggled
A dispatcher transmitting on a trunked channel heard nothing back
The desktop app transmitted analog on P25 channels
A 911 caller on the panel was heard through radio effects instead of as a phone call
A logout or character switch left the radio on the previous character's channel
A unit whose channel is taken is now told at that moment, and shown who took it
Lowering Compression toward 0 made distortion worse rather than flatter
An integration sending a blank callsign erased the player's saved one
The admin Sounds trash button could delete a shipped tone and always reported success
The admin password printed at first start was hundreds of characters long
Satellites could read the host's admin password through federation
Panel notifications could stay on screen for the life of the page, and froze while hidden
The in-game radio retained memory across reconnects and long sessions
tAFK gets an in-game editor, music that cuts on the beat, and a live radio source. tLib v1.0 or newer is now required — it was standalone in 1.0, and this will not start without it.
ChangedNew5
An in-game editor./tafkedit builds the camera sequences on the map itself, with the camera driven by pointer drags rather than key mappings
Cuts land on the beat. Tracks are analysed in the background and the grids are saved, so shots cut against a real beat grid instead of a BPM guessed at play time
A live radio stream can be the music source instead of the bundled tracks, primed before AFK starts rather than at it. Off by default
A still-camera option, for servers that want the screen to stop moving
/tafk_diag — one paste-safe line describing the install, for when something needs reporting
ChangedChanged5
/afk is gone. Starting it by hand is /tafk, and a manual start now gets a grace window before the camera takes over
/tafk and /tafkedit ask the server rather than trusting a client-side cache, so what you see is what the server has
data.json is validated on load. A malformed settings file is reported instead of silently falling back
Five music tracks ship, not forty. The download went from 82 MB to 1.6 MB; the rest were never referenced by a shipped sequence
The interface is themed from tLib's tokens, and every shipped webfont carries its licence
FixedFixed5
Toggling a sequence destroyed the control you had just clicked
AFK could start over an open UI, taking the screen while you were in a menu
Shots were scored against nothing, so the camera framed geometry that was not there
Two duplicate toasts on the same action, and a settings reset with no confirmation
Keyboard focus drew an outward ring CEF could not composite, so focused controls looked unfocused
tDetector becomes a real object in the car. The detector is now a 3D prop with a live DUI screen, placed where you want it, instead of a flat overlay — and faceplates and tones install from the panel without a restart. tLib v1.0 or newer is now required.
ChangedNew4
A 3D detector prop with a live screen, placed in the cabin with a gizmo, with positional audio from the unit itself rather than from nowhere
Faceplates and tone packs from the marketplace, installed in the panel and rendering without a restart
A quick settings tab, and the admin editor split out of the player settings so the two stop sharing a screen
/tdetector_diag and a config check that reports a bad setting at boot instead of at the moment it matters
ChangedChanged4
tLib v1.0 or newer is required. The HUD, configuration, marketplace and keybinds all route through it
Youniden7 is retired. The shipped faceplates are RDX-8000, RDX-4000 and ARC-360 — a server pinned to the old name has to pick one of these
The prop editor button only appears when you are in a vehicle, since that is the only place it can do anything
The NUI bundle is obfuscated in release builds, and every shipped webfont carries its licence
FixedFixed3
The marketplace panel opened blank, because it asked for a tab that did not exist
A locked vehicle's edit was refused only after it had been broadcast
Faceplate keys could not be seen when focused, and could not be reached by keyboard at all
ChangedStill radar-agnostic0
tRadar works with nothing to add. Wraith ARS 2X, Seeker Dual, RS9000 and ProLaser 4 take a one-line export, and a radar shipped under asset escrow — with no file you can edit — is read through a state bag, an event, or a bridge resource instead.
tELS leaves beta. The editor is rebuilt around a single workspace with one undo history, a marketplace lives inside it so patterns and whole vehicle setups can be shared and imported without leaving the car, and a vehicle's configuration can now live in the vehicle's own resource instead of in tELS. There is a Stream Deck plugin, a stealth run-dark mode, and per-rule debounce on triggers. tLib v1.0 or newer is required.
tELS is not an ELS replacement and does not read ELS or non-ELS vehicle packs — every vehicle is configured once in the in-game editor, or ships a tels.json of its own. If you are new to it, start with Installation.
AddedFeatures12
A rebuilt editor — one workspace shell instead of floating panels, a single undo history across every tab, a resizable pattern grid, and the LED editor and feedback moved into the sidebar. The camera is driven by pointer drags on the page rather than game controls
Marketplace, inside the editor — browse LED layouts, patterns and full vehicle setups published by other servers, preview them animating on the card, and import one as a draft edit you can keep or throw away. Read the docs
Publish from in game — share an LED layout from the Light placement header, a single pattern in one click from the Patterns tab, or the whole vehicle setup from the Marketplace toolbar. Each becomes Update and Un-share once published, so a listing is replaced in place and keeps its id and import count rather than being duplicated
A vehicle can carry its own configuration — drop a tels.json inside the vehicle resource and that becomes the vehicle's home, so the lighting travels with the car instead of living in tELS. Export moves an existing configuration out to a vehicle resource
Wildcard model keys — one configuration covers a family of models, and a vehicle can be marked read-only so a shared pack is not edited by accident
Stream Deck plugin — built and published from the production build, and it connects on its own with nothing to configure. Keys mirror live state
Stealth run-dark mode — everything off, including the brake and reverse lights the game drives itself
Per-rule engage and release debounce — a trigger can be made to settle before it fires and before it lets go, which is what stops a rule chattering on a noisy condition
Junction preemption, turn signals and a key lock among the trigger conditions, plus a reminder when a vehicle is left lit
Quick settings in /tels — the handful of per-player options that were buried, on one tab
tels_diag — one paste-safe line describing the install, for when something needs reporting
HUD layout packs carry their own manifest, and a layout installed from the marketplace renders without waiting for a restart
ChangedChanges8
tLib v1.0 or newer is required. The editor is built on tLib's design tokens, and configuration, marketplace, telemetry and keybinds all route through it
The two shipped HUD layouts are renamed to CRX-600 (was WCC) and SPX-1800 (was WCC2), matching the naming used across tRadio, tDetector and tRadar. There is no alias — a server pinned to the old name must pick the new one
data.json is no longer shipped. It is seeded on first boot, which stops an update overwriting a server's vehicles, and demo mode is honoured so a demo install cannot write
Runs on both FiveM Enhanced and Legacy
Black is a real colour in the pattern grid. An empty cell and a cell painted black are different things to an overlay — one lets the base pattern through, the other holds the LED dark — and they used to draw identically
Deleting a pattern is one click. It was a two-click confirm whose armed state was invisible in game, in front of an action that Ctrl+Z already reverses and that nothing writes until you save
A published listing records who published it — the Discord, Cfx and Steam identifiers behind a listing, for attribution and moderation. IP addresses are no longer sent or stored
The NUI bundle is obfuscated in release builds, and every shipped webfont carries its licence
FixedFixes6
Transitioning cells never completed their cross-fade in the editor. A long fade rendered at a fraction of itself, which looked like a hard flicker, while the same pattern played correctly in normal gameplay
The pattern preview strip could not show a fade at all — it had no opacity channel, so a dimming LED stepped on and off
The transition gradient in the pattern grid did not reach the cell's edges, so a fade read as a band with an unfinished wash under it
Saving now waits for an answer before closing. A refused save used to clear the undo history and close the editor anyway, discarding the work it had just refused
An unreadable data.json silently erased the server's defaults instead of refusing to load
One bad vehicle model reprinted the same error every five seconds
First release. tRadar is a traffic radar for FiveM: a counting unit on the dash, front and rear antennas, moving and stationary modes, a plate reader, and a BOLO list — standalone, with no database.
ChangedWhat it does6
A real counting unit, placed in the car with a 3D gizmo and rendered as a 3D prop with a live screen, not a 2D overlay
Front and rear antennas with fastest-target tracking, lock and release, and positional audio from the head itself
A plate reader, off by default, with a BOLO list and a radar log
An in-car manual, so the controls are readable without leaving the vehicle
Faceplates from the marketplace install from the panel and render without a restart
A Stream Deck plugin, built and published from the production build, which connects on its own with nothing to configure
ChangedRunning it0
tLib v1.0 or newer is required, and it is the only dependency — no framework code and no database. Six frameworks and nine inventories resolve out of the box for job- or item-gated access; ACE and open access need neither.
config.lua, server/sv_access.lua and every layout are left outside escrow.
tUnit is rewritten. 1.0 spawned a 3D prop per digit and you positioned them by editing a Lua file; 2.0 draws the text as a single quad from a DUI texture atlas, spawns nothing, and is configured in game with a gizmo. tLib v1.0 or newer is now required — 1.0 was standalone.
ChangedWhat changed7
Nothing is spawned and nothing is streamed. 1.0 attached a real object per character from the bundled digit props. 2.0 draws one quad per element
Any character, not just 0–9. 24 per element — letters, digits and punctuation — so a callsign or a department name works, not only a number
Any font. 1.0 had one. Three display faces ship, and your own webfont drops into web/fonts and is named in Config.fonts
Placed in game, not in a file./tunitedit positions, rotates and scales each element on the car with a 3D gizmo, down to individual characters, with an undoable draft. The Lua position config is gone
16 text elements per vehicle model, each independent
Values resolve on the server and publish to the vehicle's state bag, so every player reads the same car the same way. The value comes from a function you write
Layouts can be shared between servers and imported from inside the editor
ChangedUpgrading from 1.00
Your config.lua positions do not carry over, and there is no migration. The two do not describe the same thing: 1.0 placed props by offset from a bone, 2.0 places quads with a full transform. Rebuild each vehicle in /tunitedit — it is a few minutes per model and nothing is edited in a file afterwards.
The old digit props are no longer streamed, so anything of your own referencing those models by name needs updating.
First tagged release since v0.6 (May 2026). This is the version the documentation and every t* resource now pin against.
Marketplace — browse runs server-side, installs are recorded in a ledger, and a refusal says what an operator can do about it. Panel previews render live.
Dialogs — a display field type, rows and maxLength. Action rows now actually fire; before this they were inert everywhere. Feedback is reachable from any dialog.
HUD — keyboard-operable keys, a reduced-motion switch that reaches the whole tree, and synchronous placement.
Worth knowing if you build layouts: the HTML minifier was stripping attribute quotes, so every quote-anchored parser read a release build's layout as having no attributes at all. Dev builds were unaffected, which is why it survived this long. Both the minifier and the parsers are fixed.
Also: boot logging no longer grows with content, and the interface font ships with its licence.
Install — drop tLib.zip into your resources folder and ensure tLib before anything that depends on it. Documentation
Hey, storm chasers! This is the last development update before the Early Access trailer, and the trailer is where the release date gets announced. So this one covers everything that's gone into the game since the last update. It's a lot.
The Short Version
Nine vehicles — seven chase rigs, plus two purpose-built interceptors that spike themselves to the ground
Four new probes — from one you won't miss to one rated past EF5
Photo mode — a viewfinder that tells you if the shot is worth taking, and an album to keep them in
A drone you fly yourself — rebuilt into a single instrument panel
The field tablet — radar, warnings, radio and reports, now on something you can carry on foot
Plus crews, spawn selection, a debris-signature radar product, and more below
The Fleet
First time showing the full vehicle roster. Every chase vehicle in the Early Access dealership is finished.
One thing before the list: none of these names are final. Not the vehicles, not the probes, not the drone. They're what things are called today and any of them can change before release.
Halloran Ironwood — the starter pickup
Vantera Cordera — the starter sedan
Oroville Marlow — economy sedan
Oroville Junction — compact SUV
Bremmer Haulback — compact workhorse pickup
Vantera Solace — mainstream crossover
Halloran Redfork — body-on-frame SUV
Seven separate bodies, not one truck in seven colors. They handle differently and they hold different amounts of gear.
The Interceptors
Then the interceptors. Two purpose-built intercept vehicles, sold out of the warehouse instead of the dealership:
Ferrous Works Testudo — the heaviest build in the fleet. Four hydraulic outriggers swing out and drive spikes into the ground.
Ferrous Works Redoubt — an armored wedge on a crossover chassis. Drops its own suspension and locks down from underneath.
Both deploy the same way. Drive up, hit deploy, watch the hardware dig in. The further out it goes the more wind you can hold, and if the storm wins it tears you loose anyway. Once you're down you're committed.
Probes
Four new probes. Each one is its own instrument:
Terrapin — the cheap one. Light enough to carry two, and you won't cry over losing it.
Scute — the everyday probe. Survives most of what you'll deliberately drive into.
Carapace — heavier, armored, and worth going back for.
Dolos — rated past EF5, and priced like it. Set this one down when you mean it.
Set them in the storm's path, track them on radar, and read what they're measuring as it closes in.
The Brands on the Gear
Every brand in Tornado Emergency is made up. The liveries, the lightbars, the mounts, the radar software on your laptop, the institute issuing the warnings. All of it.
That's on purpose. Real brands need permission, and permission means one person sitting in email threads with legal departments instead of building the game. It also means a logo can get pulled years later and take a vehicle out of the game with it. Making the industry up keeps all of it mine, and it lets the gear get built around how the game plays.
Rivetek — sealants, adhesives and repair
Vector Lighting Systems — lightbars and scene lighting
Rigmount — mounts, drones and camera hardware
Uplink — connectivity out where there isn't any
RadarDeck — the radar software on your laptop
Vantage+ — streaming and broadcast
NSSI — the National Severe Storms Institute, who issue the warnings you're chasing
I checked every one of them against real trademarks and real place names before it went in.
Want Your Real Gear in the Game?
If you make chase vehicles, probes, instruments or storm gear, or you run a chase team with a logo, the real thing can go in alongside the invented ones.
How it works: I build the model, you approve it before anyone sees it, and the design and the name stay yours. You can back out before you approve it, or later on if you change your mind. No money changes hands either way. Start here.
Fly the Drone
The Aerodyne Spotter gets you eyes above the storm. When you fly it you're in the drone, and your character stays on the ground holding the controller instead of standing frozen in a field.
The flying screen used to be a camera view with buttons floating over it. It's one instrument panel now: flight state, link strength, battery and flight time along the top, and a battery timeline with your reserve and land marks on it. You can see how much flight you have left to get home.
The Photo Mode viewfinder works up there too, so you can shoot a funnel from the air with your height, distance and speed on screen while you line it up.
Photo Mode
Line up a shot and the viewfinder tells you whether it's worth taking. When it is, it lists what it can see, how far off it is and how much of the frame it fills. In the shot above it has picked up the tornado and a power flash behind it, with the distance to each. It won't let you document a tornado you can't see, so no pulling one out of the dark or the rain. Everything you shoot goes to your album.
External Cameras
You can pull a live camera feed up on screen. Dashcams on your vehicles, cameras on your probes, and fixed ones out in the world like tower cams and intersection cams. One key cycles through everything you can see, another hides the view. The only player cameras you get are your own and your crew's.
The Field Tablet
The laptop in the truck has been there a while. The tablet is the new part: the exact same screen, except you can carry it out of the vehicle. Radar, warnings, chat, spotter reports, radio and lightning, the same apps whether you're behind the wheel or standing in a field.
Radar
One storm from first echo to tornado, in all three products. Reflectivity on top, velocity in the middle, correlation coefficient on the bottom. Read left to right as the cell builds.
None of that is a video or a canned loop. Every frame is drawn live from the storm actually running in the world. The radar you're reading is the storm you're driving toward.
Correlation coefficient is new in this update. It's the debris signature, the product that tells you a tornado is on the ground throwing debris instead of rotation sitting up in the storm. Watch the bottom row. The dark notch in the last two frames is lofted debris, and it lines up with the couplet on velocity.
Alongside those three, radar also carries warning polygons and lightning.
There are new radar tower models out in the world as well, to spot on the horizon as you close on a cell.
Chase With Friends
You're always in a crew. It's just you until you invite someone. Invite only, no public list, and only the leader can invite or kick.
Pick Where You Start
You pick where you start on the world map when you join, instead of always loading into the same place. It remembers what you picked last time. Every spawn point is sheltered, same as a garage.
Each one shows you what's there before you pick it: whether it has a garage and shelter, the temperature and wind, and how far out the storm is.
The map itself is new as well. What you're looking at there is the atlas style, drawn out with contours and road names on it, and you can switch between that and the satellite view.
Your Chaser
Characters got a lot of work this update. They move and animate properly now, they go limp when something hits them, they sit properly in vehicles, they carry probes in hand out in the field, and their mouths move when they talk on comms.
You pick who you play as from a select screen in the main menu. The chasers are still a work in progress. I'm adding more and I'm still working on the ones that are in, so I'd rather show them off when they're done than put up a half-finished lineup now.
The Menu and Your Record
Single player, multiplayer and the garage all sit on one screen now, with your chaser standing in it. The latest development update gets pulled in on the right, so you can read what changed without leaving the game.
Your career record is in there too: storms chased, strongest wind you've recorded, probes placed and how many came back, distance driven, and what you've earned across every run. Nineteen achievements underneath that, and the ones you haven't got yet show how far along you are.
Settings got the same treatment: video, graphics, gameplay, controls and audio. Every setting has its own reset and a panel explaining what it does.
The HUD
The HUD got restyled at the same time. Compass above the minimap, clock up next to your money, rounded corners on the minimap. Small things, but the screen reads cleaner.
For Streamers
If you stream your chases there's a live data file written to your Documents folder that you can hook up to a custom OBS overlay. Active warnings and their wording, storm cells with distance and bearing, your county and heading, any probes you have out and what they're reading, and your truck's weather station.
It only carries what you'd already know in game, so an overlay can't tell you where a storm is before your own radar does.
If you're covering the game, press or video or a write-up, there's a press kit with screenshots, logos, key art and the main menu theme, all free to use. It also says what isn't ready yet.
A Few Shots From the Field
What Early Access Will Be
Worth saying before the date goes out: this is launching into Early Access, and it's one person making it. Everything above is in and working, but the game will keep changing after it's out. There will be bugs, some things will get reworked, and the map and the content will keep growing. Buy it for what it is on launch day.
Two Ways In, Both Open Now
If you want to be part of this before launch, there are two things you can put your name down for today.
Playtest applications — play it before Early Access, free, under an embargo that lifts before release. I only take a small group at a time, so go in expecting a "not this round" more often than not.
Moderator applications — help run the community Discord. Unpaid volunteer work, and I'd rather leave a gap unfilled than bring on people I don't need, but if that sounds like you the form is open.
Both take a few minutes and you'll hear back either way.
What's Next
The Early Access trailer, and the release date with it.
Between now and then I'll be putting out more clips, screenshots and smaller updates as things get finished. Most of that goes up in the Discord first, so that's the place to be if you want to see things early and tell me what you think of them while they can still change.
Follow Tornado Emergency on Steam so the trailer shows up in your feed the day it lands, and wishlist it if you haven't yet. Wishlists are a big part of how far Steam pushes a game at launch, and this one is close now.
Thank you for sticking with this. See you at the trailer.
tRadio v6.3 is a big one — 911 emergency calling end-to-end, a tower and 3D-speaker system, an official Stream Deck plugin, satellite-server federation, deeper dispatch theming with a new online Studio, LB Phone/Radio and ImperialCAD integrations, and a large batch of stability and audio fixes.
AddedFeatures10
911 emergency calls — /911 command with ringing/animation and ESC to hang up, plus a dispatch Call Queue (poppable into its own window on the desktop app)
Tower config + 3D speakers — place signal towers and speakers around the map and trigger tones from the speakers via the dispatch panel
Official Stream Deck plugin — an Elgato Stream Deck plugin (also Stream Deck Mobile and OpenDeck) that mirrors and drives both the in-game radio and the web dispatch panel — live channel/zone, who's talking, scanning, PTT, cross-channel dispatch, volume, and 911 — with no separate desktop app required
Satellite server federation — satellite servers now auto-sync zones, alerts, codeplugs, tones, and settings from the host every few minutes (previously manual-restart-only), and radio state is safe against duplicate server IDs across federated servers
Geo zones & channel auto-switching — geographic zones you place on the map (alongside speakers and towers) with location-based channel auto-switching, plus a per-player opt-out toggle in the /tradio settings dialog
Hide a zone from dispatch — a per-zone toggle that withholds a zone from the dispatch panel's channel list, transmission log, and live counts (great for civilian/criminal/business RP radio) without changing its in-game behavior or codeplug access
"Always Full Signal" admin setting — disable signal degradation without deleting your tower config
"Simultaneous Scan Audio" setting — hear every scanned channel at once instead of one muting the rest
Transmission playback (experimental) — play back a transmission directly from the dispatch panel, so a call you missed or couldn't quite hear can be replayed instead of lost
Fuller dispatch theming — an expanded v2 theme SDK (design-token tiers, component slots, requires compatibility, and declarative data-rd-* templates) plus a new online Theme Studio / creator at timmygstudios.com
AddedIntegrations3
LB Phone / LB Radio — mirrors tRadio status into LB Radio's phone app
LB Phone 911 dial-in — call 911 from LB Phone in addition to the /911 command
ImperialCAD — auto-creates and closes calls in ImperialCAD when a 911 call comes through tRadio
ChangedChanges3
Theme authoring moved online — the in-panel Theme Studio and the /theme-dev harness have been removed; themes are now authored in the external Studio (with a documented devtools install flow) against the v2 theme SDK. Existing installed themes keep working; theme authors should move to the online Studio.
Vehicle 3D radio audio now defaults on, and only emergency vehicles register as a 3D radio source — ordinary vehicles no longer do. The activation distance is also now admin-configurable instead of a fixed value.
FiveM Enhanced compatibility — admin-panel file writes and model/sound discovery now work on FiveM Enhanced (via a Node filesystem bridge) instead of failing or spamming the console.
FixedFixes26
Server-side enforcement that a player's codeplug actually allows a channel before they can join or transmit, even from a modified client
Admin panel warns when a new zone isn't wired into any codeplug, with a one-click fix
Voice-normalization pass across the audio engine for more consistent volume across speakers and channel types
Fixed the radio going permanently unresponsive after a lag spike/disconnect and never auto-reconnecting
Fixed P25 (digital) voice being quieter than analog voice at the same volume
Fixed an occasional "ghost" tail of audio playing after a transmission had already ended
Fixed the toggle-radio keybind not closing the radio when it was already open
Fixed Escape closing the whole radio instead of just the open Settings panel
Fixed disabling 3D audio not stopping sounds that were already playing
Fixed "Man Down" auto-alert briefly re-enabling itself on load despite the codeplug disabling it
Fixed audio/P25 effect settings received right after initial connect not applying until reconnect
Fixed the auto-transmit opt-out setting doing nothing
Fixed panic alert repeats re-keying the mic on every repeat instead of once
Fixed reconnecting to a patched channel showing a stale "ON: freq" instead of "PATCH ACTIVE"
Fixed the panic button wrongly rejecting "not in channel" right after switching to it
Fixed listen-only players not receiving dispatcher alert tones/banners
Fixed a modified client being able to falsely spoof a "transmitting" state
Fixed other players' names showing as "Unknown" due to a join-time race
tRadio v6.2 adds multi-server connection support so several game servers can share one voice server and dispatch panel, full localization through an editable config/locales.json, per-channel GPS blip colour overrides that still fall back to the codeplug, separated TX and RX LED colours on the radio display, the admin panel URL in the startup banner, and a callsign restriction and sync fix.
AddedFeatures5
Multi-server connection support — several game servers can now run against one shared voice server and dispatch panel, so dispatchers see every unit from every server in a single place instead of working one panel per server. The host runs the backend; satellite servers point at it and federate their player, panic, tone, and alert state over HTTP, with requests signed using the shared authToken.
Localization support — every player-facing string now lives in an editable config/locales.json rather than being baked into the resource. The file ships unencrypted and survives updates untouched, and the dispatch and admin panels read the same string table, so one translation pass covers the in-game radio and the web surfaces together.
Per-channel GPS blip colour overrides — a channel can now specify its own GPS blip colour, applied only to players monitoring that channel. Left unset, the colour falls back to the codeplug's own GPS colour exactly as before, so this is purely additive: existing setups keep their codeplug-driven colours until a channel deliberately overrides one.
Separated TX and RX LED colours — the radio display's status LEDs now use distinct colours for transmitting (red) and receiving (amber) instead of sharing one indicator colour, so it reads at a glance whether you are the one talking.
Admin panel URL in the startup message — the startup banner now prints the admin panel address alongside the dispatch panel address, putting the /admin URL in the server console at boot instead of leaving it to be assembled by hand from the configured host and port.
FixedFixes2
Fixed a callsign bug affecting both restriction enforcement and keeping callsigns in sync between the dispatch panel and connected clients.
A batch of smaller bug fixes across the radio UI, the dispatch and server bundles, and the shipped layouts.
tELS v0.3 ties lighting patterns to a vehicle's fitted variant parts — modkits, mods, and GTA vehicle extras — so a pattern only drives the LEDs that physically exist on the spawned vehicle, and fixes a set of state-synchronisation problems that could leave one player's view of a vehicle's lights and siren out of step with everyone else's.
AddedFeatures1
Modkit, mod and extra integration for patterns — patterns can now take a vehicle's fitted variant parts into account rather than assuming every vehicle of a model is identical. An LED bound to a GTA vehicle extra only renders when that extra is actually enabled on the spawned vehicle, so a single shared configuration can cover a model whose lightbar, visor bar, or rear cluster differs between builds instead of needing a separate vehicle entry for each one.
FixedFixes2
Fixed state-synchronisation issues that could leave a vehicle's lighting, siren, and stage state out of step between the driver and the players around them, particularly when network-entity ownership of the vehicle changed hands.
A batch of smaller fixes and refinements across the HUD, the editor interface, and the shipped layouts.
tRadio v6.1 introduces the codeplug system as the single place radio access is defined — demoting NAC IDs to cosmetic labels — alongside pre-configured inventory item integration, per-vehicle and per-livery radio model overrides, dispatch PTT groups with their own bindings, and codeplug-defined scan list presets, plus fixes for a UI render failure and the Radio FX sliders.
AddedFeatures5
Codeplug system — a codeplug is a radio personality: which channels a unit can transmit on, which it can only scan, which radio models it may carry, which features are enabled, and what its emergency button does. Codeplugs are built in the admin panel and mapped to jobs and grades, which makes them the one place radio access is defined instead of it being spread across several config surfaces. As part of this, NAC IDs are now mostly cosmetic — a NAC shows on the radio screen and the dispatch panel but gates nothing; channel access is decided entirely by codeplugs and permission grants. Read the docs.
Inventory and item pre-configuration — the radio can be gated behind an inventory item with the integration already written for you. The item is registered as usable automatically for the supported inventories and frameworks, so using it from the inventory opens the radio with no bridging code to write. Detection defaults to automatic, and the requirement can be bypassed with a permission grant for staff.
Per-vehicle and per-livery model overrides — a codeplug can now override which radio model a player is handed for a specific vehicle spawncode, or for a specific spawncode and livery combination, taking priority over the per-context defaults. A marked unit and an unmarked unit of the same vehicle can therefore carry visibly different radios without either player changing anything.
Dispatch PTT groups and bindings — a group is a named set of channels that a dispatcher arms so their next transmission fans out to every channel in it at once, rather than repeating the same message channel by channel. The panel shows a groups bar whenever at least one group exists, and each group can be given its own PTT key, as can each individual channel card for cross-channel transmits without leaving the channel you are monitoring.
Scan lists and memory — codeplugs can define named scan list presets that a player loads in one click from the radio settings dialog or from the radio's own menu, instead of adding scanned channels one at a time. Each entry in a preset carries a priority tier, so a loaded list keeps high-priority traffic ahead of the rest.
FixedFixes3
Fixed the radio UI failing to render, which surfaced as a length error rather than a usable radio.
Fixed the Radio FX sliders in the admin panel having no effect on the transmitted audio chain.
A batch of smaller bug fixes across the radio UI, the dispatch and server bundles, and the shipped layouts.
tRadio v6.0 ships a new external admin panel, a dispatch panel theming system, man-down alarms and spoken zone and channel announcements, user-definable background transmission FX including a K9 mode, per-channel PTT bindings that survive a right-click to unbind, patches that persist across restarts, and pre-configured support for every major framework.
AddedFeatures11
New external admin panel — server configuration moves out of config files and into a browser-based panel served by the resource itself. Zones, channels, codeplugs, alerts, audio settings and props are all edited there, and changes reach every connected client immediately rather than waiting for a restart.
Dispatch panel theming system — the dispatch panel can now be restyled rather than only used as shipped, with several themes selectable directly in the panel's settings and no install step for the ones that ship built in.
Man down alarm functionality — an optional alarm that watches for a unit being down or stationary too long, plays a warning tone at 45 seconds, and escalates to a full emergency broadcast 20 seconds after that if nothing changes. Both delays are configurable, the feature is gated per codeplug, and players toggle it themselves when their codeplug allows it.
Voice announcement system — the radio speaks the zone and channel name aloud as you switch between them, so a unit changing channels does not have to look at the radio screen to confirm where they landed. Codeplug-gated and on by default for new players.
Add your own background transmission FX modes — the background sound other players hear behind your voice is driven by a hook that returns a mode string, and that string is mapped to a WAV file. Three modes ship mapped; returning any other string, adding the mapping, and uploading the file is all that is needed to add your own, and an unmapped mode simply plays nothing rather than erroring.
K9 background audio FX — a K9 mode ships as one of those defaults, triggering when a dog ped is riding in a passenger seat so the animal is audible behind the handler's transmissions. The list of ped models that count is configurable, so custom K9 peds can be added.
Patches persist over restarts — patching bridges two or more channels so every patched unit hears the others, and a patch now survives a server restart instead of having to be rebuilt afterwards. Patched channels carry a badge so it is obvious which are bridged.
Per-channel PTT bindings — each channel can be given its own push-to-talk key, so a dispatcher can transmit on a specific channel without first switching to it.
Right-click to unbind channel PTT — key capture fields accept a click to record a key and a right-click to clear it, registering the action as unbound. Removing a binding no longer requires setting it to something else first.
Separate channel and transmitter UI bindings — the monitored-channel transmit control and the per-channel transmit controls are bound independently rather than sharing one binding.
Improved PTT keybind support — push-to-talk and the other radio actions are registered as proper FiveM key mappings, so players rebind them from the game's own key bindings screen rather than through a resource-specific menu.
AddedIntegrations1
QB, ESX, Qbox, Ox and ND Core come pre-configured — the framework is auto-detected at startup and the framework-specific job lookup is already written, so the common case needs no bridging code. The detection order and the resource names it probes for are configurable, and a custom mode is available for anything not on the list.
FixedFixes4
Fixed the 3D prop's screen icons failing to load, leaving the dashboard radio prop's display incomplete.
Fixed push-to-talk not activating or triggering in-game voice chat.
Fixed the 3D Prop Editor not saving placements to data.json, so edits were lost rather than applied.
Fixed tones not playing after the radio UI had been closed.
The first beta release of tELS, an emergency vehicle lighting system for FiveM built around configuring a vehicle from inside the vehicle rather than by editing and reuploading pattern files. This release is available to buy on request rather than through a public listing — open a ticket to purchase.
AddedFeatures1
Beta release of tELS — emergency lighting configured in the vehicle instead of in a file. Rather than compiling patterns into a resource and reuploading it for every flash-rate change or LED adjustment, tELS puts the lights, the patterns that drive them, and the conditions that trigger them behind an in-game editor, and pushes a save out to connected clients. Being a beta, expect the configuration format and the editor to keep moving between releases. Purchasing is by ticket — open one and it will be handled from there.
Hey, storm chasers! Hail now physically dents your vehicle's paint, so a rough run leaves marks you can actually see. The main menu has been rebuilt as well. It has been almost a year since the last update — I'll explain why further down — but Tornado Emergency is very much alive.
The Short Version
Hail: dents vehicle paint now — your rig wears what you put it through
Main menu: rebuilt with a refreshed theme and style
Field shots: previously unseen map and tornado screenshots below
Updated Main Menu
The main menu has been overhauled with a refreshed theme and style.
Hail Denting
Get caught in a hailstorm and your vehicle will show for it. Hail now physically dents vehicle paint, so your chase rig will look the part after a rough run.
A Few Shots From the Field
Some previously unseen shots of the map and a few tornadoes for good measure.
Where I've Been
I said I'd explain the gap, so here it is. This past year has been the most demanding of my life outside of game development. I'm in my final year of college, running TIMMYG Studios as a self-employed business at the same time, and recently moved into my own apartment — turns out it comes with power and internet bills too. Between coursework and keeping the business going, development time has been limited.
But Tornado Emergency has never been cancelled, and I've never stopped working on it.
What's Next?
The focus remains on bug fixing, polishing, and finishing out the remaining content. Updates will be more frequent as life settles down.
Wishlist Tornado Emergency on Steam if you haven't yet, and follow the page so the next update lands in your feed. Wishlists are a big part of how far Steam pushes a game when it launches, and it genuinely helps a one-person studio.
Hey, storm chasers! The radar got a serious overhaul this month — warning popups, other chasers on the map, your own probes and reports, tracked lightning, and stations the storm can knock out. Here's what's new.
The Short Version
Radar: warning popups, spotter blips, probe and report markers, tracked lightning, and an active-warning indicator
Minimap: added to the bottom left of the HUD
Stations: short-range sites, destructible stations, and 3D models for all of them
Updated Radar System
Reflectivity ScanVelocity Scan
The radar and map system has been overhauled with new hover popups for warnings, a spotter network showing other players as green blips, and visibility for your placed probes and storm reports. Lightning bolts tracked by radar stations are now displayed, and there's an alert indicator in the top right showing the count and highest severity of active warnings.
Minimap
Added a minimap to the bottom left of the HUD for navigation and awareness.
Short Range & Damaged Radar Stations
Yellow/orange blips show short range stations, red blips show destroyed stations
Short-range radar stations (yellow/orange blips) have been added, similar to those found at airports and schools. Radar stations can now be destroyed and will show their last scan with a red blip indicator.
Radar Station 3D Models
Radar station models
Added 3D models for radar stations.
What's Next?
A smaller update this time — final exams have taken most of my time. The main tasks remaining before release are tweaking, bug fixes, and adding the rest of the vehicles and player outfits.
Wishlist Tornado Emergency on Steam if you haven't yet, and follow the page so the next update lands in your feed. Wishlists are a big part of how far Steam pushes a game at launch.
Hey, storm chasers! The tornado has been rebuilt from the ground up. It's volumetric now, so it sits in the clouds properly instead of being effects painted onto a cone — and it means we can go much, much bigger. Here's what's new.
The Short Version
Tornadoes: a completely new volumetric shader, far more realistic, and much larger storms are now possible
Map: 15 x 15 km — 265 km² — with three populated counties plus highway and rural roads
World: planes and birds overhead, reflective road signs, and a new fog weather state
New Tornado Visuals
Completely reworked tornado shader for more realistic appearance
I've completely reworked the tornado shader. Previously, the tornado was rendered via effects being applied to a procedural cone geometry. Now, the tornado uses volumetric effects to create a more realistic appearance as well as fit in better with the volumetric clouds.
The new shader allows for much greater control over the tornado's appearance, enabling much larger tornados as well.
Map for Early Access
Current map details and future expansion plans
While the map is still expanding and will continue to be improved, currently there are 3 populated areas/3 counties, with the rest being highway and rural roads. The map is 15 x 15 km or 265 km². While the amount of roads may appear small, the length of each road is quite long.
Environmental Details
Planes and birds in the sky to make the map feel more alive
Realistic reflectivity on road signs and reflectors
New foggy weather state
What's Next?
My focus is now on bug fixing, adding more buildings and neighborhoods to populate the map, adding the rest of the vehicles and probes, and more testing to make sure everything works as expected before release.
Wishlist Tornado Emergency on Steam if you haven't yet, and follow the page so the next update lands in your feed. Wishlists are a big part of how far Steam pushes a game at launch.
Hey, storm chasers! Internal multiplayer testing has started — the servers are up and we're working through bugs on them. The larger tornadoes also look considerably better than they did. Here's where things stand.
Tornadoes: improved visuals on the bigger ones, still a work in progress
Stability: vehicle physics, weather system and multi-tornado performance all improved
Improved Tornado Visuals
I've made some improvements to our larger tornado visuals. While this is still a work in progress, we wanted to share the current state of these enhancements.
Multiplayer Progress
I'm excited to announce that we've begun internal multiplayer testing! Our servers are up and running, and we are actively tracking issues on our bug board.
A glimpse of our multiplayer menu interface.
Bug Fixes & Optimizations
Numerous bugs have been squashed over the past few weeks - mainly regarding multiplayer, improving stability and performance across the board. My focus has been on creating a smooth experience for the upcoming playtesting phases.
Fixed various vehicle physics issues
Improved weather system stability
Enhanced performance in areas with multiple tornados
Resolved several UI and menu glitches
Many more
What's Next?
The next phase of playtesting is on the horizon! Here's what you can expect:
The next phase of playtesting is expected to begin either at the end of this month or early next month.
Pre-Alpha Supporters can expect an official announcement for the above.
Our current focus is on completing the EA map.
Playtesting times and release dates will depend on how long it takes to complete the map and fix any bugs or performance issues discovered during testing.
Wishlist Tornado Emergency on Steam if you haven't yet, and follow the page so playtest news lands in your feed. Wishlists are a big part of how far Steam pushes a game at launch.
Hey, storm chasers! You can now track your probes on radar, report weather to the spotter network, and talk to other chasers over proximity voice and radio. Here's what's new as we head toward playtesting.
The Short Version
Spotter network: track your probes, read temperature, pressure and wind speed, file reports
Comms: proximity voice, global radio, and global and team text chat
World: a new rolling-fields map style, grass and wind animation, improved destruction
Loading screens and main menu are near completion.
Settings menu with DLSS and FSR3 support.
Tons of bug fixes
What's Next?
Addressing bugs, refining the experience, setting up servers, conducting internal playtesting, and introducing more vehicles and characters.
Wishlist Tornado Emergency on Steam if you haven't yet, and follow the page so the next update lands in your feed. Wishlists are a big part of how far Steam pushes a game at launch.
TIMMYG Studios
