Pete Dowson

If you installed ASX after installing FSUIPC4 it or you may have corrupted or changed the DLL.XML file which tells FSX to load FSUIPC4 in the first place. In case this is so, please re-run the FSUIPC4 installer. If this doesn't help then show me both the Install log and the FSUIPC4 log from the FSX Modules folder. They contain the information which should help determine what is wrong. They are both text files and you can paste them here. Regards Pete

No, WeatherSet2 is the FS9-FSX version of my WeatherSet utility first supplied in FS2000 days. I'm amazed you never heard of it or used it. It will enable you to view the weather details at the aircraft (or any place, actually, including weather stations by ICAO code) in a separate program window, even on a separate PC via WideFS if you use it. Both WeatherSet (which relates to Global weather as used in FS2000 and FS2002, but only partly in later versions) and WeatherSet2 (which deals with Weather localisation) used to be supplied bundled in the FSUIPC Zip file, but I discontinued that with FSUIPC4 as it implied they were still a fully useful tool for FSX, which, whilst they can be, is not an impression I want to maintain. So, look down past the FSUIPC4 update details in the FSX Downloads Announcement and you will find them available to download there. As for a "FSX weather settings pages which should be reporting what I'm getting", I've never found out how to get such information that way -- getting to the Advanced settings page seems to always require that you reset the weather system to user mode, which destroys the download weather setup in any case. Do you know of a different way of getting to the information? Perhaps I've missed something? I'm not keen on "screenies" really. I know they say a picture speaks a thousand words, but I'd normal understand the words better. Sorry. You needn't give me a thousand, though, I'm sure! ;-) Regards Pete

Not sure what you mean by "nervous", unless you mean twitchiness -- which is probably the turbulence and other related effects which i never emulated in FS9. That's why I ask you to test with all those turned off, otherwise the comparison is not valid. To determine whether the effects are reasonable or overdone you'd also need the details of the wind layer you were in at the time. Without that information there's no hope of making any sort of useful assessment. I have noticed that FSX downloaded weather does often have "moderate" or even worse turbulence specified -- for a while I thought it was my "random turbulence" option activated unintentionally, but it isn't. Again, this does strongly point to the possibility that my added effects are responsible, so try with them turned off. Also please use version 4.231. Regards Pete

Sorry? What's that about? Are you upset because I pointed you to the solution? I am surely entitled to point out how folks can actually go about helping themselves to solve their own problems! I do tend to have a lot to do and re-solving old problems isn't productive. I help here to the best of my ability and it takes most of my time. I can do without your sarcastic comeback especially when I have found your answer for you and pointed you to it quite explicitly. :-( Pete

Maybe I should make the turbulence and gust suppressions enabled by default? When you enable wind smoothing you are also enabling my simulation of these effects -- I wanted to do this because I disliked the FS9 smoothing for destroying all such -- but it is entirely possible that these are upsetting the PMDG 747. Okay. Whatever is going on at those points is what needs looking at. Are they perhaps times when there are gusts or turbulence, or more likely, variance showing in the relevant wind layers? If it is only one element which is causing it, for instant wind variability (the "V" or "VRBL" bit in METAR wind reports which can go up to even 180 degrees, but very unlikely except in very light winds), or possibly also the lesser 4-16 degree (max for "severe") directional "shaking" part of turbulence, then I could add a "suppress variance" option and default that ON whilst leaving the others off. Currently I bundle this element in with the turbulence suppression option. There's always such a "battle", but the nasty hack FSUIPC now patches into the FSX code should theoretically allow FSUIPC to win. I am catching the place where the wind elements used in the simulation engine are actually placed into the data structure that it uses. As far as my searches have taken me, I think I have found the only place for the "ambient" wind conditions - the North / East / Up components which then compute the direction and speed. There may well be other places, but I doubt it. My main problem is that I never found the variables for the actual aircraft-axis wind effects -- the X, Y, Z wind vectors aligned to the aircraft body. I can READ these through SimConnect, but I couldn't find their origin. My hope was, and still is, that these latter elements are derived from the main N / E / Up elements which I am controlling. This would make logical sense, and it also did apply in FS9 and before -- the wind smoothing in FSUIPC3 only worked on the N / E / Up elements, not the aircraft oriented ones (even though I found them and experimented with changing them), and it worked without them. So I think the same should apply n FSX. The only thing I can't do without access to the aircraft-oriented wind vectors is control the crosswind for learner fliers, to make taxiing and landing easier in windy conditions. I could probably do it by computing those vectors myself, changing them, and converting back to the N /E / Up coordinates then applying those, but in order to have a smooth instead of horrible ratcheting effect I'd have to do it at the internal sim rate (about four times the frame rate, or more) and with that number of mathematical computations I'd be ruining performance more that I can justify. Hence the implementation of the overall wind speed limit below 1000' AGL option instead. Anyway, I've not given up quite yet. I've spend too many hours on this, especially since Christmas, so I'd like to see it working at least usefully if not perfect. So, please: 1. Try 4.231. 2. When you do notice the PMDG losing heading control, please pause and immediately check the weather at that altitude -- WeatherSet2 will do. Make a note of the wind data for your altitude (the altitudes listed in the program are layer TOPS), and see if you might be close to a cloud layer with turbulence (you don't have to actually be IN the cloud. I can't detect that, even though there is a SimConnect variable that should be telling me). 3. Try with turbulence (cloud and wind) and gusts disabled. If this does show that any of my "effects" are causing the problem, I'll add the variance suppression separately and we'll go from there. Hopefully this won't take too long. There's so much changed now since 4.20 and so many problems I'm referring folks to the interim updates for, the sooner I make a proper release the more time I will free up for myself. Maybe I'll try a 'real' flight myself then. ;-) Regards Pete

Please try with the turbulence and gusts turned suppressed, both on the Winds and the Clouds page. Did you have the pressure or temperature smoothing enabled? I am a little worried about those. And please update to 4.231. There were a couple of odd bugs in 4.224, one enough to crash FSX. What heading bug? Sorry you've lost me. I'm getting very very conflicting reports here. Some say it works well now with the PMDG 747, others (you only at present) are saying it doesn't. I will probably just put a warning in the documentation saying not to use any of the options with PMDG. To put a real blight on it, Lorenzo's original confirmation that the LevelD 767 was fine seems to have gone sour with no explanation in his last post. Not a good night. I've half a mind to take it all out again and leave it till FSXI. :-( Regards Pete

Why? In your last report you said it was good. I quote: So what on Earth do you mean by I've really got no plans to work on anything more with this stuff at present. I have a lot of documentation to update then I want to get a new proper User Release out. Why not explain a little of what you are talking about, as you seem to seriously contradict yourself. :-( Pete

Well, I think you ought to seriously look at improving your searching ability, or is it your eyes? ;-). I used the forum Search facility, specified "LevelD 767" and chose Pete Dowson's FS Modules forum only, and the correct thread was the third one in the list it found. viewtopic.php?f=54&t=66088 Be sure to read right to the end of the thread! Seems to be the same problem discussed back then, and fixed already. So why didn't you try the update available here before posting again? After all, I did suggest that already? Please ALWAYS when you have a problem, first try any update already available. After all it might have been fixed! It might even mention the fix in the list of changes. In fact the LevelD 767 problem does feature in that list. Regards Pete

No doubt. Well, I did say I didn't believe it, but it is simply the first in my list of three possibilities because it still ranks as the most common cause of this problem -- folks using keys generated by an illegal pirate Key Generator that was floating about. The other two causes of the same problem are comparatively rare! ;-) I'm glad it is all sorted now .. good flying! Regards Pete

Zero results? The LevelD was subject to a lot of discussion here some weeks back. You couldn't have searched back far enough. I have no idea (you don't say) what exactly your problems are ("one of two essential items" is hardly useful) -- and you don't even specify FS9 or FSX (surely not both?), but the recent ones are with FSX, due to the way LevelD handle their autopilot control. You also don't even say what version of FSUIPC you are using, so it is difficult for me to be very constructive, but either way please check the FSX Downloads Announcement above and try the latest version of FSUIPC4, if it is indeed FSX you are having problems with. If it is FS9, and you are using at least version 3.75 of FSUIPC3 (earlier versions are not supported in any case), then I would be pretty confident that it is a LevelD problem. However, there is a later version of FSUIPC3 here too, in the "Other Downloads" announcement so you could try that to be sure. Regards Pete

Well, the best I can do at present is limit the wind speed itself, rather than limit only the crosswind as I managed to in FS9 and before. Try version 4.231, now available in the FSX Downloads announcement above. I've not finished all the testing it really needs, but so far it works well -- it even graduates to/from the correct windspeed at the 1000' AGL point. Regards Pete

Version 4.231 is up now. ;-) Pete

Well, the log you posted was wrong. It was a Continuation log, not the log I asked for. You must have pressed the Start/Stop log buttons, which breaks up the log to keep files shorter when working on a long flight diagnosis. Because you did not show me the proper start-up log, the start-up checking is missing, so it is difficult to be precise. Nonetheless, these entries: 5051344 READ0 3304, 4 bytes: 02 00 00 00 5051344 READ0 3308, 4 bytes: 02 00 00 00 can indicate only one of three things: 1. The KEY for FSUIPC you were using was incorrect, possible counterfeit (and i don't believe that either). To test that just remove the KEY file from the Modules folder and see if the TRC program then connects okay. 2. The FSUIPC.DLL signature didn't check correctly -- apart from file corruption (FSUIPC.DLL is changed, eg by virus attack) this can happen on WinXP before SP1 and on older Windows versions because of a missing Windows Certificate. The fix is documented, with a file provided from GlobalSign to install the missing certificate. 3. The system date of your machine pre-dates the date of your FSUIPC KEY purchase. Keys cannot be used before they become valid. If you mean my model railway, no, not at present. I don't seem to find the time. I am hopeful though, one day;-) Regards Pete

No, the file is superseded by 4.224 which went up into the FSX Downloads announcement a couple of days back. Later today (maybe early hours of tomorrow) I'll be replacing that by 4.231 which fixes a few silly little errors (one of which could possible crash FSX! Ugh!) and makes the wind limiter for 1000' AGL work. Just doing final testing on all this now. Best to always check the Announcement first. Links in threads soon get outdated and I can't really go through them all to find and change them. Regards Pete

Okay. That isn't a message from FSUIPC, so unless you have something else using FSUIPC and not liking 3.75 for some reason, it has to be the TRC driver. The fact that it only happens when you start the TRC program seems to confirm that. Please run FS again, but before you run the TRC program, go to FSUIPC's options, Logging page, and enable IPC read and IPC write logging -- just check them on the left hand side. Then run the TRC link program, get the error message, close FS down completely. Look in the FS Modules folder, where FSUIPC is, and find the FSUIPC.LOG file. It's an ordinary text file. Show it to me - paste it in a message here is best, unless it is too big. Regards Pete

Good. Ah, I see. The Saitek extra switches. Glad you are getting it all sorted! ;-) Pete

Sorry, I've no idea what you are talking about. Could you please provide a little more information? What IS this "latest version" of FSUIPC you have? Note that there is no specific version for XP in any case. I always need to know the actual version number! Also, what version of FS are you talking about, please? FS98, CFS1, FS2000, CFS2, FS2002, FS2004 (which version FS9 or FS9.1), FSX, FSX+SP1, or FSX+SP2? Finally, please be more exact about this "request in flight sim to upgrade to a newer version". I really have no idea what is giving you this message nor what it means. What does it say, word for word, and when, exactly, does it occur? Pete

I am not sure exactly what you are doing here with the conditions, but the control numbers are correct in relation to your description. Have you tried using the Button and the Event logging facilities in FSUIPC's logging page to see what results you are getting? Have you tested the controls with a more ordinary assignment first, to make sure they do what you want them to do? FSUIPC merely lists all the FS controls that are tabulated in FS's "CONTROLS.DLL". I don't know what they all do nor if they all work. One way to find the right controls is to enable Event logging in FSUIPC then use the standard FS keyboard shortcuts to invoke them. You can then look up the control in the Log file. For instance, doing that in FSX I find that the "A" button operates the "NEXT_SUB_VIEW" control whilst Shift+A does "PREV_SUB_VIEW". However, the "S" key uses "VIEW_MODE" and the Shift+S uses "VIEW_MODE_REV". Maybe those are the ones you really wanted? Now I didn't know this till I just used the keyboard and event logging, so I continued. I programmed a couple of keys to do NEXT_VIEW and PREV_VIEW, and found that what they do is cycle through alternatively opened views -- i.e. the act as a selector when you have multiple (possibly overlapping) views open. So if you haven't opened any extra views they will not do anything. Again I only found this out using the facilities to hand. Regards Pete

The IAS is a result not an input I'm afraid. I don't know any easy way of presetting it, but you could try experimenting with the body or world axis velocities and accelerations. I know they've been put to use in the past for catapults and braking systems. Look at the values of offsets 3060-30B8 and 3178-31D0. Most if not all of them are writeable and some certainly do have an effect. Regards Pete

If you are comparing it with FS9's smoothing by FSUIPC3 you would need to suppress both, and the turbulence on the clouds page too. The smoothing I did then got rid of it all. :-( When you get these changes look at the wind reports for your altitude in WeatherSet2, see if there is a non-zero value against Gusts, Turbulence or Variance. Gusts changes only wind speed, not direction. Variance changes only direction, not speed Gusts changes both, but much faster and usually with a lot less amplitude -- i.e. a sort of twitchiness. I also make it change the vertical speed a bit, to make it "bumpy", though you'd need a motion base to feel it -- you might be able to see it from outside. The turbulence is currently arranged to have maximum amplitude of +/- 2 knots or 2 degrees per unit in the setting (which ranges from 0 for off to 4 for severe). The other two are set in their appropriate units, knots maximum gust speed and degrees variable direction. When you suppress turbulence I also suppress variance I think (or is it when you suppress gusts? Sorry, it's in the docs). Currently I haven't a way to control only the cross-wind. I think I'd have to limit the wind speed completely. Very unrealistic, but I'll put it in, probably tomorrow. Actually, by eliminating crosswind so much on landings you are missing out on one of the most fun things in flying -- crabbing to land, or (in a GA aircraft) using crossed controls. Mind you, if you have no rudder pedals both are a bit difficult (impossible in the latter case) I suppose. Regards Pete

No, sorry. FSUIPC4 is a new program. It had to be re-written for FSX, and needs purchasing as a new program. Regards Pete

Right. Another thing about Vista I'll need to remember! Well I can't explain that. It is evidently checking some proprty about itself. The real long term solution is to install FSX someplace else. Regards Pete

I just had a thought. I wonder if Vista protects Installers and such, i.e. programs with elevated administrator rights (the position you were in with FSX before) against "hacking", by not allowing other programs to invoke the shared memory facilities with them? The "memory mapped file" facilities used by the FSUIPC interface are partly identical to the procedures used by Debuggers to look inside and manipulate programs. If this is the case, I wonder if those restrictions are lifted if the requesting program (in your case an FSUIPC client application) is also running with such privileges. Perhaps you'd like to try just for our illumination? In other words, get FSX running "as administrator" again, then run one of the Apps as administrator too. Regards Pete

Not in that log! The line "1404 LogOptions=00000001" shows no additional logging, only the default stuff you can see. That value would be 0000000D if you had really enabled that logging. And if you change it whilst FSX is running you get an entry showing this, like: 111641 LogOptions changed, now 0000000D Vista protects all folders in "Program Files" from being written to by anything other than an installer. FSUIPC4's installer enables all read/write access to its Modules folder to get over this, but pre-Vista programs probably do nothing of the sort. Best always to install FS in a different place altogether. I hate those long filepaths in any case -- I always put FS in a simple folder such as "C:\FSX", or, better, on a drive well away from Windows and the fragmentation you get there. That's indeed very strange. No idea what is happening there then. Regards Pete

Yes, with a registered FSUIPC. It is covered in the User Guide. Easiest way is to assign your Engine 1 and Engine 2 throttles in FS, then go to FSUIPC's "Joystick Calibrations" options, find the page with 4 throttles (page 3), calibrate your #1 and #2 properly (following the steps in the user guide), and then check the option on the right saying "Map 1->12, 2->34". The mapping only applies when you have a 3 or 4 engined aircraft. For a 1 or 2 engined one you will still get the normal FS arrangement. The change is done automatically in FSUIPC which detects the number of engines. Note that calibration on this page gives you a reverse thrust zone on the axes. If you don't want that you will need to set the idle zone and the reverse value such that they share one of the joystick "INPUT" values, so that reverse can never be engaged. For example -16384 in the "Reverse" box, "-16384" and "-15234" in the pair of Idle values. The two idle values need to be different to give you a defined place for Idle, with no jitter. With one of those values the same as he Reverse value you get no reverse zone at all. Regards Pete