About the flight animations

QuadKites.org animations are visual aids. They help explain a path, a call, a formation or the coordination between several quad-line kites.

They do not replace field practice: wind, lines, pilot corrections, the real position in the team and the leader’s choices always change the execution.

Team flying animations are available:

• Jst-4-Fn team maneuvers
• North American team maneuvers

These animations are generated with KiteShow, an internal engine developed to produce the diagrams and simulations used on QuadKites.org.

KiteShow is not a public tool and not a flight simulator intended for direct training. We use it to prepare visual content that is readable, consistent and reproducible on the site.

KiteShow is not open source at the moment. The engine is still evolving as complex figures and editorial needs are added to the site.

A source-code release may be considered later, if the project becomes stable and documented enough to be useful outside QuadKites.org.

Not from the site. Choreographies are prepared internally and stored as code.

Eventually, we hope to provide two editing modes:

• Create free simulations with movements such as moving forward, stopping, turning 90° on the right wing, etc.
• Make live calls as a leader, for example: ball, burst, return, back to line, etc.

The simulator runs in your browser using JavaScript.

For each choreography, we first:

• write the movements of each kite, for example: 90° rotation in the center, 100 pixels forward, 180° rotation on the left wing, waiting for the other kites, etc.;
• write the leader calls;
• record the leader’s vocal instructions.

Before displaying the choreography, the simulator loads this preparation as lines of code, as well as images and sounds.

It then calculates the movements of each kite, the leader’s written calls and the leader’s spoken instructions live. At the same time, it displays the routine like a video player with specific options.

The simulator can:

• simulate solo, team or megateam choreographies;
• read and play the calls made by the leader;
• play the simulation like a video player: play, pause, timeline, full screen…;
• change several options: number of kites in flight, playback speed, pause when calls are made, etc.

Other features are ready but inactive for the moment:

• play background music, just like at a festival;
• generate a video from the simulation;
• increase or reduce the simulation resolution;
• pre-save a list of choreographies for on-demand display;
• use keyboard shortcuts.

We would like to:

• publish an animated guide to individual, team and megateam figures with concrete examples and choreographies;
• improve rendering according to device performance;
• enable the creation of new choreographies;
• issue live orders during a simulation.

Last updated Jul 30, 2026