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Gypsy Baron

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Everything posted by Gypsy Baron

  1. I edit the CameraDefinition files maually. When I install a new aircraft, the first thing I do is copy the .001,.002 and .003 CameraDefinition files from a similar aircraft and place them in the new aircraft.cfg file. Then fire up FSX and go to the VC and see if any of the variables need to be changed. Creating a new view is just a matter of setting the initial values to an approximate position relative to either the VC model center or the aircraft model center. Then tweaking them until I get the view I am after. In the A2A B-17G I have additional views that put my in the bombardiers position, the tail gunners position, the bomb bay and the upper turret. Those come in handy when I am flying formation on missions in multiplayer. These are, after all, just text files so as long as you backup the originals you can get creative to your hearts content without having to worry about "breaking" anything :) Paul
  2. Dirk, Standard FSX controls assigned via FSUIPC starting at offset 66859 throuh 66860 can be used to call up CameraDefinitions with "HotKeySelect=" statements added to them "VIEW_CAMERA_SELECT_1" through "VIEW_CAMERA_SELECT_0" These assignments can also be made via the FSX "Settings - Controls", "Buttons/Keys" menu. Here is a screenshot of my assignments of camera views to a joystick hat. My link Paul
  3. I can't answer for FSUIPC or Simconnect but if you are talking about FSX the FSX radar gauge, which uses information derived from the fs9gps gauge, has the ability to filter based on Air, Ground, All criteria. It also provides additional information such as range from the user, altitude, speed, ID, and much more. I don't recall if the radar gauge was part of the Acceleration upgrade or was in the initial FSX release. In any case, it is an XML gauge and one can easily inspect the relative statements that gather the desired AI information to enable you to create your own special purpose gauge. Paul
  4. Perhaps I am confusing this new set of "AlsoSave options" with the existing "AlsoManage" feature which I use. AlsoManage1=C:\Documents and Settings\Gypsy Baron\My Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\*.377 AlsoManage2=C:\Documents and Settings\Gypsy Baron\My Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\*.P47 AlsoManage3=C:\Documents and Settings\Gypsy Baron\My Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\*.PJ3 AlsoManage4=C:\Documents and Settings\Gypsy Baron\My Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\*.B17 AlsoManage5=C:\Documents and Settings\Gypsy Baron\My Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\*.ipcbin If whatever changes have been made do not affect the above capability then I really couldn't care less as I am satisfied with the existing capability. Paul
  5. If I do not choose one of those options will the current method still be in force so that my Autosaved "also's" get overwritten on any given day? I really do not want to have to go in and manually remove those files as I have a 7 minute save schedule. Paul
  6. If you have the SDK installed and install the Traffic Toolbox, selecting the Traffic Explorer from the drop-down menu will allow you to see the moving AI ships, provided you un-check the box at the top that says something like "show aircraft only" or some such. I've not looked to see if they appear on the traffic toolbox map display but I do know that they appear in the Explorer listing. I don't know if one can extract that data anywhere and I'm away from my sim computer so I can't check it out. Paul
  7. Hi Jill. I'm glad you got things sorted out. And the Win7 over-protection issue drives me mad at times too! I always use the right-click, run as administrator option whenever I install anything in my Win7 installation. I also changed the permissions on all the folders I regularly access that are outside of my FSX directory...those in the Documents & Settings area. I'm not familiar with SOIC/Open Cockpits but I know there are some cockpit builders over in the A2A forums that use rotary encoders. Both the B-17G and the Spitfire forums. Paul Spitfire Forum B17G Forum
  8. Hello Bruce, Yes, it sounds as though you should be using the "ShortAircraftNameOK=Substring " construct if the "common word" you are using is not the very first word of the "title=" entries in all the aircraft.cfg files. And yes, you can create an "aircraft specific" entry and do the edit as you noted above or you can just go into your existing FSUIPC4.ini file and edit the appropriate "Axis", "JoystickCalibration", "Buttons" and "Keys" section titles to contain only the common word (substring) that you wish to use. Just remember that when using the "substring" construct, FSUIPC will match that word regardless of where it occurs in any "title=" line of the aircraft.cfg files. So just insure it is unique to those aircraft you wish to include in the aircraft specific category for those control assignments. Paul
  9. That was Jim's post that pointed you to the correct location and procedure for viewing the menu bar :) After reading your 2nd posting and seeing your dll.xml file, I was about to post something similar :) Paul
  10. It seems that the overly protective features of Win7 have "bitten you" here. You need to have an entry in your dll.xml file that looks like this: &lt;Launch.Addon&gt; &lt;Name&gt;FSUIPC 4&lt;/Name&gt; &lt;Disabled&gt;False&lt;/Disabled&gt; &lt;Path&gt;Modules\FSUIPC4.dll&lt;/Path&gt; &lt;/Launch.Addon&gt; FSUIPC normally creates that entry when it is installed but I'm guessing that this was prevented from happening by the Win7 UAC setup. You might try uninstalling FSUIPC and then install it by right-clicking abd selecting "Run as administrator" or words to that effect (I'm booted into Xp right now so can't check the exact wording). The dll.xml file is a text file locating in the same location as the FSX.cfg file. The path will be something like "Documents and Settings/<user name>/Application Data/Microsoft/FSX" You can check to see if the dll.xml file exists. If so, check to see if the entry has been made as I showed above. If not, add it using Notepad. It can go at the end of the file, just ABOVE the line: &lt;/SimBase.Document&gt; With Win7, you should always use the "Run as administrator" option when adding FSX addons and FSX itself, for that matter. This will prevent SOME of the Win7 "over-protection" activities from inhibiting your changes/additions. Paul
  11. There appear to be a couple of ways to add comments. here is a small portion of some of my FSUIPC4.ini file programming statements with comments: !1=//---------------------- A2A B-17G CONTROL SETS ---------------- [Buttons.Boeing B-17G] !1=//SET 1 GENERATORS, FUEL PUMPS, FUEL VALVES, CONTROLS LOCK 0=B66C0=0 PD,14,CM6:39,0 ;TOGGLE ENG1 FUEL VALVE 1=B66C0=0 PD,16,CM6:40,0 ;TOGGLE ENG2 FUEL VALVE 2=B66C0=0 PD,18,CM6:41,0 ;TOGGLE ENG3 FUEL VALVE 3=B66C0=0 PA,0,CM6:42,0 ;TOGGLE ENG4 FUEL VALVE 4=B66C0=0 PD,15,C66340,0 ;TOGGLE FUEL PUMP 1 5=B66C0=0 PD,17,C66341,0 ;TOGGLE FUEL PUMP 2 6=B66C0=0 PD,19,C66342,0 ;TOGGLE FUEL PUMP 3 7=B66C0=0 PA,1,C66343,0 ;TOGGLE FUEL PUMP 4 Using the semicolon on the same line as the code seems to work just fine. For the "headers" or extended text comments the !1=// construct works. The numbers do not need to be unique it seems and I'm not sure what if just !1 or !1= will work. All of my commented entries have the minimum of !1=// Paul
  12. Hummm....that is a strange situation. Nothing comes to mind at the moment that would cause only the button assignments not to work yet leave the axis assignments intact. Particularly when you say the "before" and "after" files are identical where the coding is concerned. I would leave the letter assignment configuration as your working ini file as that will protect you from any Windows reporting changes in the future. You may need to wait until Pete is back and then attach a copy of the ini file to see if he can find a cause for this behavior. You might try making a couple of assignments using the FSUIPC "in sim" menu and then compare the ini file entries for those vs the previous hand-edited versions. And a slow, methodical, line by line comparison might be in order just to insure you didn't miss something in your previous inspection. I've often had the case where I overlooked some discrepancy the first or second time I went through some malfunctioning code. Paul
  13. Yes. The FSUIPC4.ini contains all of your custom settings made using FSUIPC. Also, as a precaution, be sure that this line in you FSUIPC4.ini file looks like this: [JoyNames] AutoAssignLetters=Yes The default is "No". This will protect you from having to redo all of your programming should you change the USB port your controllers are using or add an additional controller. There are two recent threads here that relate to that particular problem when Windows reports the connected controllers in an order that was different from the order when the FSUIPC programming was done. Paul
  14. It is possible to recover from this problem but it will be a bit "messy". First, keep your backups handy. Then, with the current non-working FSUIPC4.ini, set the line "AutoAssignLetters=Yes" in the JoyNames section. Run FSX so that FSUIPC reads the controller inputs reported by Windows as they exist now and assigns letters to them. You will use those assignments to edit one of your backup INI files. I'll demonstrate with my setup as I had a similar issue when I created a dual-boot XP/Win7 arrangement. First, here is what the assignments were when running my Win7 setup with "AutoAssignLetters=Yes": This will be analogous to you running FSX the first time with "AutoAssignLetters=Yes". [JoyNames] AutoAssignLetters=Yes 0=Saitek Pro Flight Quadrant 1=USB ADAPTOR 2=Saitek X45 Flight Controller USB 3=Saitek Pro Flight Yoke 0.GUID={290642A0-830A-11DC-8002-444553540000} 1.GUID={2E3BCC00-678E-11DC-8001-444553540000} 2.GUID={48910F70-888F-11DD-8001-444553540000} 3.GUID={290642A0-830A-11DC-8001-444553540000} A=Saitek Pro Flight Quadrant A.GUID={290642A0-830A-11DC-8002-444553540000} B=USB ADAPTOR B.GUID={2E3BCC00-678E-11DC-8001-444553540000} C=Saitek X45 Flight Controller USB C.GUID={48910F70-888F-11DD-8001-444553540000} D=Saitek Pro Flight Yoke D.GUID={290642A0-830A-11DC-8001-444553540000} Note that FSUIPC assigned the letters A,B,C,D in the order the controllers were reported by Win7. This is analogous to what you need to do first. Get the letters assigned as the configuration exists now. Now, here is what my Xp setup looked like before doing the letter assignment edit. This is analogous to your previous FSUIPC4.ini backup file created before the configuration changed. [JoyNames] AutoAssignLetters=No 0=USB ADAPTOR 1=Saitek Pro Flight Yoke 2=Saitek Pro Flight Quadrant 3=Saitek X45 0.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8009-444553540000} 1.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8007-444553540000} 2.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8008-444553540000} 3.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8006-444553540000} Note that the numbers assigned are different from the Win7 section. The GUIDS are also different but these will be replaced with the new assignments after you edit the old INI file. You will need to do a systematic search & replace operation on a copy of your backup file, replacing the Joy# entries with the new letter assignment. First make your translation list similar to this for each of your listed controllers: Saitek Pro Flight Quadrant is now letter "A" but WAS number "2" in the OLD file USB ADAPTOR is now letter "B" but WAS number "0" Saitek X45 Flight Controller USB is now letter "C" but WAS number "3" Saitek Pro Flight Yoke is now letter "D" but WAS number "1" Using that information, first search for all instances of "=P2," and replace them with "=PA," Do the same for "=R2," --> "=RA," and "=U2," ---> "=UA," Those are the combinations for the simple button assignments. Repeat that procedure for P0,R0,U0 ---> PB, RB, UB, and P3,R3,U3 --> PC,RC,UC, etc That will convert all the simple Press/Repeat/Up button assignments to letters. Do the same for the any other letter assignments, depending upon how many controllers you have. Also, if you have any compound button assignments, you'll need to search & replace those constructs as well. The Axis translations will take a bit more to accomplish as you need to search for the old number paired with these letters X,Y,Z,S,U,Y. "=0X," BECOMES "=BX," "=1X," becomes "=DX," and so on. Once you have all those translations made All that remains is to copy and paste the entire JoyNames section from the first file....the one that you used to obtain the letter assignments, and paste that section into the edited file, replacing the old assignments. Scan through the file to make sure you picked up all the number to letter translations. You should then be able to replace the existing FSUIPC4.ini file with the edited file and your controls should be working again. Good luck, Paul
  15. For those panels you can use the "PANEL_1", "PANEL_2", "PANEL_3" commands based on their Window position in the panel.cfg file. Looking in the Simicons1024 folder and examining the icon xml code I see: Overhead panel ident = 250 Pedestal = 150 ECU = 10 GPS = 225 If there is an icon for a particular panel in the panel.cfg just find it and examine the xml code. You should see something like this: &lt;Click&gt;200 (&gt;K:PANEL_ID_TOGGLE)&lt;/Click&gt; The number (200) is the ident for that particular panel. As an alternative, for a specific aircraft, you could just replace the noun names in the ident= line with a numerical value of your choice in the range of 10000 and 19999 according to the SDK. I have used numbers in the range of 1000 and up when I needed a special ident. Paul
  16. I have multiple FSX EXE's and thus CFG files for various flight regimes...FSX_Propliner, FSX_Military, FSX_Test, etc. In your "Modules" folder find this file: FSUIPC4.key Simply make a copy of it and rename the copy "FSUIPC4_Helico.key". Paul
  17. This process is easier done than explained in text :) If you "copy over" your INI file, make sure you do the "AutoAssignLetters=Yes" change on the working INI file and then run your WORKING system and verify that everything "took" with letter assignments. Make a copy of the INI file before making the change. You will use this in the new configuration to get the "JoyNames" assignments that are made there with the letter assignments. First, on the original system configuration, make the "AutoAssignLetters=Yes" change and run FSX and make sure all your programming is working. You should see letters now where the Joy#'s used to be in the programming statements. We'll call that FSUIPC4.ini file "INI-REF". Save a copy of this. We'll call this copy "INI-A" and it will become your new INI for the new configuration. Now, Use the copy of the ORIGINAL INI file that you used BEFORE the letter assignments were made and set "AutoAssignLetters=Yes". Put this in your Modules folder for the new configuration. Run FSX and then exit. (If that file no longer exists on your system, then try just removing the INI file from the new configuration and FSUIPC SHOULD create a new one with number assignments.) Save this new INI file that should now include a section in the JoyNames entries that have the letter assignments made. We'll call this "INI-B". Now, in a copy of the working INI file, INI-A, replace the 'letter assignments' entries with those from the new INI ,"INI-B". Leave the number assignments entries alone! Now, change the LETTERS in INI-A for a given device to the same letters assigned to that device in the woking INI file, INI-REF. This edited INI-A can now be put in the modules folder for your new configuration and all your programming should work. See my example in my previous post and note that the numbers and GUID's are different for the same-named devices but what IS common is the letter assignments. As to the programming not "sticking", I've not seen this issue, although this sort of behavior sounds suspiciously like permissions problems in Vista/Win7 systems but I've not seen any posts regarding that relative to FSUIC. Paul
  18. You should change the following line in the FSUIPC4.ini [JoyNames] AutoAssignLetters=No <------- change that to Yes Windows is most likely reporting the USB devices differently in the two system configurations. When FSUIPC gets the Windows input it assigns a number based on the order the devices are reported. This causes any programming to become non-functional if the reporting order is different than when the functions were programmed originally. By allowing FSUIPC to assign LETTERS to the devices, based upon the reported GUID's, the programming is now linked to those GUID's and not dependent upon the Windows reporting order. I had this problem when I created a dual-boot WinXp/Win7 system. I had to go back and let FSUIPC assign letters to my working Xp install. I then transferred those same letter assignments to the Win7 FSUIPC4.ini Here are the two JoyNames sections from Xp and then Win7 on my system for reference and to demonstrate the problem: //------ Xp --------- [JoyNames] AutoAssignLetters=Yes 1=USB ADAPTOR 2=Saitek X45 Flight Controller USB 0=Saitek Pro Flight Quadrant 3=Saitek Pro Flight Yoke 0.GUID={290642A0-830A-11DC-8002-444553540000} 1.GUID={2E3BCC00-678E-11DC-8001-444553540000} 2.GUID={48910F70-888F-11DD-8001-444553540000} 3.GUID={290642A0-830A-11DC-8001-444553540000} A=Saitek Pro Flight Quadrant A.GUID={290642A0-830A-11DC-8002-444553540000} B=USB ADAPTOR B.GUID={2E3BCC00-678E-11DC-8001-444553540000} C=Saitek X45 Flight Controller USB C.GUID={48910F70-888F-11DD-8001-444553540000} D=Saitek Pro Flight Yoke D.GUID={290642A0-830A-11DC-8001-444553540000} //------- Win7 -------- [JoyNames] AutoAssignLetters=Yes 0=USB ADAPTOR 1=Saitek Pro Flight Yoke 2=Saitek Pro Flight Quadrant 3=Saitek X45 0.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8009-444553540000} 1.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8007-444553540000} 2.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8008-444553540000} 3.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8006-444553540000} A=Saitek Pro Flight Quadrant A.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8008-444553540000} B=USB ADAPTOR B.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8009-444553540000} C=Saitek X45 C.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8006-444553540000} D=Saitek Pro Flight Yoke D.GUID={C2624D30-8952-11DF-8007-444553540000} Note that the assigned numbers and GUID's are different in each of the above sections but by making the same letter assignments to the same devices in each INI, the same programming will work in either setup. Just insure that the letters assigned in the "working" setup are used for the same devices in the other setup. You can edit the INI file in any text editor to make this happen. FSUIPC will automatically replace the numerical references in the programming with the letters assigned in the JoyNames section. Paul
  19. If you do ANY complex joystick button/switch programming in FSUIPC4 or have a lot of aircraft specific setups, I HIGHLY suggest that you set the option "AutoAssignLetters=No" to "AutoAssignLetters=Yes" instead. It will save you a ton of grief should you intentionally or unintentionally disconnect one of your controllers or add/change them. It will also come in handy should you decide to migrate from WinXp to Win7. Having the FSUIPC4 tied to the letter assignments instead of the Windows reporting order will keep your setups intact should that reporting order change due to those factors mentioned above. I say this from first hand experience! Paul
  20. Aha....I didn't know that. Thanks for that tip,Pete! Paul
  21. Thanks Pete. I'm surprised that I didn't see it before as I have spent a great deal of time making control assignments via that menu system in the past. The only downside that I see from my perspective is the additional space in the menu that the duplicates take up, resulting in more scrolling to get to an item far down in the list. Paul
  22. Hello Pete, When going into the "Buttons + Switches" tab and opening the "COntrol sent when button pressed" drop-down list, I am seeing duplicate entries for many of the standard FSX controls. I'm not sure when this started happening but I noticed it yesterday. I am running FSUIPC4, Version 4.661. Here is a link to a composite screenshot that illustrates the issue in three different areas of the menu. Duplication of entries I've not seen anyone else report this during my daily visits to the forum so I thought I should bring it up. Paul
  23. In trying to solve a mystery surrounding another users reporting of once seeing the Mode Rotary on his X52 stick being displayed in the FSUIPC4 Buttons + Switches window and now NOT seeing those switch positions reported, I did some digging on the web and discovered an old 2007 post on the Microsoft Developers Network Forum that addressed this issue. Using my Saitek X-45 for a test, as it did not report the Mode switch positions to FSUIPC4 either, I did the following: Opened the Windows Control Panel and then selected the Game Controllers application. I selected my X-45 from the list of attached controllers and then "Properties". With the Properties window open, showing all the functions available on the X-45 INCLUDING the Mode switch positions, I then started FSX, loaded a flight, opened FSUIPC4 and the Buttons + Switches window. The result under those conditions was that the Mode switch position WAS being seen now by FSUIPC. On the X-45 the three modes showed as Btn# 8, 9 and 10. I wrote a little Lua script to use the "n = ipc.buttons(joynumber)" function to read 32-bit mask showing which buttons are currently ON or OFF and the "ipc.display" function to show that variable on the screen. This revealed that as long as the Windows Controller Properties window was OPEN, bit 11 of the button mask was set along with either bit 8, 9 or 10. There is no "button 11" on the X-45. The numbers jump from 7 ot 12 without the "Properties" dialog window open. The setting of this "switch" is apparently some hidden feature. Any other buttons or switches activated showed up as well, added to the current mode switch bits. Once the Windows "Properties" window was closed, the mode switch was no longer reported to FSUIPC4 nor was bit 11 set. I do not have knowledge of the inner workings of DirectInput or what might be happening to allow the pass-through of the mode switch settings when that Properties dialog window is open but it seems there is some communication between the X-45 (or X-52 I believe) and that Windows function that enables this "special condition". It would be nice if this behavior could be "activated" without having to keep the "Properties" dialog open. Barring that, anyone who wishes to use the compound button programming facilities of FSUIPX4 to implement modes and all their other button/switch programming for FSX, without having to use other switches, could use this technique. This would enable the use of an otherwise unusable switch, (Mode) assuming one chooses not to use the Saitek SST software. Paul Here is the link to the old post I found: My link
  24. Thanks. Yes, I did have a great reunion with my Dewey shipmates old and new. If you have any further questions/problems setting up your X-52 "modes" with FSUIC just drop me a PM and I'll try to help you out as time permits. Have a Happy New Year! Paul
  25. This is exactly correct. The "Mode" knob looks just like 3 switches in FSUIPC or Win7 for that matter. I suspect "Mode 1" will return "Joy#0 Btn# 27". So, you have Btn# 27,28,29 that represent the three different states of the "Mode" knob. It is up to you to use those states to modify how the other buttons/switches act in FSUIPC. You will not see those other buttons/switches do anything different unless you program them to do so. You need to spend some time studying the document "FSUIPC4 for Advanced Users.pdf" that is provided with the download of FSUIPC4. Page 12 starts the section on Button Programming. Page 16 starts the discussions on the more advanced methods of switch programming, which is what you will need for implementing the "Modes". The Saitek software does this for you but is limited in it's usefulness. Tha FSUIPC facilities go far beyond what can be done with the Saitek software. Essentially, you can have 5,6,10 or more "Modes" using the advanced programming methods defined in the FSUIPC documentation. Add the Lua capabilities and the possibilities are endless! I have over 70 functions defined for 10 switches on my Saitek dual quadrants using a form of the compound button programming. That's essentially 7 "modes". I use the various capabilities of FSUIPC and Lua for all my complex aircraft control assignments such that I rarely need to resort to keyboard or mouse inputs when flying them. The time you spend investigating the advanced techniques will be well spent. And keep that document "handy", along with "List of FSX controls.pdf" and "FSUIPC Lua Library.pdf". I refer to those documents on a regular basis when setting up my Saitek X-45, Pro yoke and dual throttle quadrant functions. The "Mode" knob actually "adds" three additional switches/buttons to multiply the overall setup by "3". Recall also that sticks like the X-45, and I assume the X-52, also have the "pinkie switch" that is essentially a "mode" switch. As to remembering the various settings, on my A2A B-17G setup, I have 7 "modes" as mentioned above. To jog my memory I created a 2D pop-up window with a BMP showing the fuctions assigned to each switch in each "mode".....I call those "control sets". I also implement a little Lua plugin script that displays the "current control set" assignments on the screen in a small Lua Display window for 10 seconds each time I change the control set switches (mode switches). Here are the JPG representationsd of two of my BMP pop-up "reminder panels". FSUIPC can support the X-52 with no problems. It is up to you to "extend" the capabilities:) Paul
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