Pete Dowson

Just uploading now. Be there in a couple of minutes ;-) FSUIPC 4.224 (also includes experimental pressure smothing mentioned elsewhere, INI file only) FSUIPC 3.783 Pete

I've done that too. But please also try 4.222, just in case, and make sure also you do have the latest TRC driver. Regards Pete

Sorry, found it! Typo in that change I mentioned. It was bypassing a piece of code which dealt with the change in the flaps range needed by FS2004 and FSX, differently to FS2002 and before. It applies to all aircraft, not just the PMDG one, and it doesn't affect you if you use the FSUIPC flap detentes facilities. That was my problem. When I re-tested this are after the changes I omitted to clear down my detentes and check it in "plain" mode as well. Apologies. I'll get a new update in the Announcements soon. Maybe not till the morning now. It also affects the latest FSUIPC3 increment! Regards Pete

Okay, so not in FSUIPC. Whilst that may well be true, in the past they have had problems because they've implemented some things in a undocumented and unsupported way. This may well be something I've already discussed with them and sorted out, so also make sure you have the latest version of their driver. Without knowing how they are trying to control these things I have no idea where even to look, or how to ask you for more information should you even be able to supply it. There's a 4.222 available in the FSX downloads announcement above. By all means try that. But if that is the same I think there's no alternative but for you to go back to TRC and insist they talk to me about this. You should not have to act as a go-between, and it is up to them to get their products working, not yours nor mine. I will help them sort it out, and if it is something I need to do in FSUIPC I will do it, but I cannot do that in a vacuum. You can quote me if you like. Regards Pete

Nothing's been deliberately changed in this area except for the provision of a facility to disconnect the flaps axis altogether. For me to investigate further I need to know a little more about how you've set up the flaps please. Do you use the detentes facility? And can you show me the Falsp entries from the Calibration section of the INI file, please? I'll try and set up a test here in the meantime. Regards Pete

But that was the problem with the original implementation of my new wind smoothing which everyone so far, except you, has said is now working perfectly with the latest improvements. What is deflecting the A/P off the heading, can you tell? Can you give any more information? I don't understand how you have this conflicting result, especially when you are only really checking the pressure smoothing at this stage ... ... unless it IS somehow due to the pressure smoothing? Are you saying it was okay before you enabled that? If so, then I will just have to remove the pressure smoothing, or at least publish strong warnings. Are you saying the PMDG 747 works fine without ASX? I don't get any noticeable hit from ASX at all, so I'm surprised by what you say. There seems to be quite a bit more of a hit from the PMDG 747, but I have only tried it on my test PC in any case. It won't be any good in my cockpit where I don't use any FS panels at all. Regards Pete

Calibrated them where? Sorry, I don't know TRC stuff too well. Are your controls run through this driver, or is that just for instrumentation? No idea what that is, I'm afraid. Sorry. Do the suppliers offer any support? I would need quite a lot more information to assist I'm afraid. Like how you calibrated and where, how these things are assigned, and what they are supposed to drive in FS -- axis controls or some direct connection to offsets? Regards Pete

They are made simply in agreement, individually, as needed. The users of FSUIPC are too diverse to be covered by one unless it gets as complex as those EULAs of MS. I am not overly in favour of excessive legislation I'm afraid. Write to me privately at petedowson@btconnect.com with your needs and maybe a suggestion as to what you want worded, and I'll see if it is acceptable. We'll take it from there. Regards Pete

I searched for the program and found this in the description: "Created virtual serial port can have any name (COM by default) or can have the same name as real serial port. In this case virtual serial port overlapping happens. Applications may reach virtual serial port via real serial one and vice versa." So it appears it is a (clever) deliberate action. Okay, thanks. I shall make a note of it and recommend it to others if they have difficulties with MixW. Regards Pete

Good! Thanks for letting us know! Pete

Great! Strange. I've been using it successfully on several different computers, both lap tops and tower PCs. They are all running WinXP though (SP1 and SP2, a mix). Maybe you are using Vista? Hmm. It must override the default hardware-specified COM1 and 2 then. They have been defined with fixed hardware addresses ever since PCs were invented, and the same assignments are still normally made even if there's no actual hardware port showing. (Most motherboards have them as a set of pins sticking up awaiting a connector). Well, MixW isn't mine of course. It was just the only freeware one I found. Like you I looked at other, payware ones. In fact I did buy one and try it, and it didn't work as well as MixW -- slower and with corrupted sentences if you ignored its throttling. I complained and submitted bug reports but never got any answers other than stuff like "reinstall Windows, it must be corrupted"! So I couldn't recommend it. It was money wasted for me. Regards Pete

Well, ideally I'd have 3 projectors and a wrap-around view, so that through the windows I could see everything you could see from a real aircraft of the type I model (a 737). However, my room isn't big enough. :-( As it is the 10 foot forward screen does have a really good width of view. I just need direct side views on occasions, so, for checking for traffic and working out where to go, especially when taxiing, I use a pair of self-centred rocker switches to select a fixed view - forward right and right on one, forward left and left on the other. i.e those views I should be able to see out of the side windows. The "incorrect" view only stays whilst the switch is kept pressed, returning to the "real" forward view on release. This way there's never any loss of orientation, I always know where I'm looking. Panning in a cockpit with a fixed real panel is very disorienting, but I never really liked it even when I flew using just a screen with a normal FS panel on it. I've always used the fixed view options instead. I suppose with the onset of decent "virtual cockpit" panels in FS the panning is a little more useful, but it still makes me a little disoriented. I am trying TrackIR on my GA setup (which also has a hardware panel) and I find I can use it with a VC setup, but having a real panel and a virtual one at the same time is a little annoying. However, I can see something like TrackIR would be marvellous for helicopter and microlite flying. Regards Pete

FSUIPC merely lists the FS controls it finds in "CONTROLS.DLL". These are mostly also assignable in FS's assignments, but not all. FSUIPC just lists them all by their internal names. There's also an AXIS_PAN_TILT for the third axis of rotation. All AXIS... controls take a parameter running from -16384 to +16384, as from a calibrated joystick. Whether the PAN axes values are related to the actual angle of view or the rate at which that is changing I don't know, but I would have thought that they directly relate to the angle, otherwise you'd always have to return the axis very smartly to 0 to "stop" panning. The easiest way for you to find out what they do would be to try them, assign them to a joystick. Sorry, I don't know how to do that. However, if those AXIS values pan at a rate proportional to their parameter you have a ready made solution -- just plug in another joystick dedicated to panning. Even if they don't operate like that it would seem to be a potential solution. A joystick with twist could control HEADING, PITCH and TILT angles or speed, whatever. In my jet cockpit the outside world is on a projection screen seen through the cockpit windows, so panning would be wrong, it would sort of destroy the orientation. I don't use any FS panels so there's no reference. I do have a smaller set up for GA flying, but I use TrackIR with that, and of course it controls the panning at the rate you choose with your head as the "joystick". Regards Pete

This is with the LevelD 767, is it? Thanks. I need someone to test with the PMDG 747 now. Regards Pete

What are you using for "panning" -- what controls, where assigned? I don't use panning at all myself, so I'm not really aware that there was a variable speed available. Pete

Check that the speed is acceptable to the program as well. Most need that specifying. If it doesn't, it probably assumes 4800, the NMEA standard for GPSs. At slower speeds like 4800 don't try sending too many sentences -- there just isn't time to send them every second. If you want to test all sentences set the interval larger, but best really to stick to 2-4 at most. Pete

Only two possibilities I can think of. Either the virtual port COM11 isn't actually created (go look in the Device manager under Ports), or the map program you are using cannot handle COM port numbers above a certain range. There are a few (older) programs like that. Pete

I've added some code to FSUIPC4 to see if the variables I found for pressure and temperature can be used to smooth these things. I am rather worried that I'm only seeing part of the story and that by smoothing some values others may be incorrect and upset finely tuned aircraft like those from PMDG and LevelD. So, for now I am not publicising the facilities, nor are they accessible through the options, only in the INI file. If you want to test these, please download 4.223 using this link: http://fsuipc.simflight.com/beta/FSUIPC4223.zip Then you have to add these parameters (or change them if you find them there) in the [General] section of the FSUIPC4.INI file. PressureSmoothness=0 TemperatureSmoothness=0 With these zero values the options are off. Otherwise set the number of 1/100ths of an hectoPascal (hPA or mb), or degree Celsius, which you wish to allow changing, at most, each second. For example: PressureSmoothness=20 TemperatureSmoothness=50 sets pressure smoothness at 5 seconds per hPA, and temperature smoothing at 2 seconds per degree. I am rather dubious about temperature smoothing and might not keep it in. After all temperatures can drop and rise considerably in and out of clouds and, obviously, with changes of altitude. For the latter I don't smooth a change if the altitude changes by more than 10 metres in the same checking period. I'm not sure if this is good enough. I won't have time to do much testing this week I'm afraid. The smoothing shouldn't happen when the aircraft is on the ground. Please try these facilities, especially the pressure one, and let me know how you get on. Regards Pete

The options in FSUIPC (Winds and Clouds) normally try to enforce themselves by changing the weather set at the surrounding weather stations, so this may be a bit variable depending on which stations are changed when and how long FSX takes to "morph" these changes to your aircraft location. But certainly, overall, they should help to suppress them. If you have FSUIPC's wind smoothing enabled, then since 4.219 (I think, certain 4.222) these options are performed as part of the smoothing instead. So if they don't seem to have any effect then you are actually saying the wind smoothing isn't working at all and I might as well throw it all away (?)but that seems contrary to most every other report so far. Well if you have gust and turbulence, you have gust and turbulence allowed I think. Did you really go to the Cloud options and ask for them to be suppressed??? Pete

Have you information about what the map program needs? The standard NMEA speed is 4800 by the way, not 9600, but most programs allow you to set higher. I use something very high with FliteMap (115200 nowadays I think). No, is is a version of Jeppesen's FliteStar planner. I don't think they sell it as "FliteMap" any more. I started using it when it was a MentorPlus product some 10 or more years ago. I've updated through versions 6, 7, 8, and currently 9.3, but it is very expensive, especially for the world-wide corporate edition I have. Of course not!!! You still misunderstand, or you didn't read my last reply properly! You gave COM11 to WideClient, you just stated that. Two programs can't own the same port. You said the virtual serial port program was linking COM11 to COM12, so your map should be reading the results on COM12 ! Why do you think you have two ports? That MixW program emulated two ports with a piece of wire. It saves you having REAL ports and a REAL piece of wire! Pete

Well, you don't need to be either a programmer or a comms "expert", just think about where to look in Windows. I only find out what is free by going to the Windows Settings-Control Panel-System-Hardware-Device Manager display, opening up the Ports(COM & LPT) item and seeing what the next unused port number is. Generally COM1 and COM2 are taken by motherboards, reserved for real "heritage" hardware ports, even if they are not listed there. On my Notebook I see others reserved for one thing or another all the way up to about COM12. Pete

I am very surprised you can use such port numbers as virtual ports on any PC, let alone a laptop. Most I know of have pre-assigned ports right up to 6 or 7 or more, for built-in modems, IR devices and the like. How do you know? Have you used a port monitor to check? (You can get one from http://www.sysinternals.com). Also, check the WideClient log file -- maybe it can't open COM2 because it is reserved anyway. Also check the WideServer.log file in the FS Modules folder, see if it is registering the client as a GPS capable one. Of course it cannot open COM2 if you've told WideClient to use that port!! If the virtual port program is truly linking COM2 to COM3 the map program should find COM3! Sounds like FSUIPC is not running then. After such a test (but with 3.75 or later, not 3.50) close FS down then show me the complete FSUIPC.LOG, from the FS Modules folder. Pete

How big were the airspeed jumps? If there are turbulence, gusts or variance settings, then you'd expect to see the airspeed jumping about a little, in proportion (something like +/-2 knots per unit of turbulence). For turbulence I also try to make the ride feel "bumpy" by variations in the vertical speed, but I suppose without a motion base you wouldn't feel that! ;-) (but you should see it from outside the aircraft!) The "suppress turbulence" and "suppress gusts" options on the Winds and Cloud pages should now work though. If you don't like the disturbance simulation, try turning it all off. No, not at all. If it was the same with wind smoothing off then it was FSX's very own simulation doing it all. They have implemented it, you know. The only reason for my efforts is that it seems it doesn't always work -- that's what folks have been complaining about! The only reason I simulate disturbances when smoothing is enabled is that otherwise the smoothing action cuts out any disturbances which FSX is putting on which should really be there. I'm only trying to put back that which I'm removing, when it should be so! I should have done that really in FSUIPC3 -- the wind smoothing there did smooth out all those types of features, incorrectly IMHO. Regards Pete

Yes, the problem with my new Wind Smoothing on SP1 and before is that it can't stop the "ratcheting" action on the ASI, which does become rather annoying. I found a way of dealing with that too in the SP2/Acceleration updates, via an actual coding hack ("patch"), but although I've spent hours looking I cannot find the same routines in SP1 or before. I think MS must have changed quite a bit in this area. Note that version 4.222 is now up, with some minor corrections to some problems with the option settings. Regards Pete

This tends to happen because of two things, probably together: 1. A non-standard version of "comctl32.dll has been installed, probably by a video driver, which is, in fact, not really compatible with your version of Windows. Restoring the correct one from the Windows install disks might help, but you have to do this after a fresh boot before any program starts using the library, which is a bit tricky. I think there's a method of doing it using Wndows facilities but I can't find it at present. 2. A non-standard larger font has been selected in your screen properties. Right-click on some empty part of the screen, select Properties--Appearance. Set the "Font Size" to "Normal". In actual fact, because FSUIPC uses 100% standard Windows dialogue facilities, and doesn't set any of its window sizes or fonts explicitly, the Windows libraries are supposed to scale the Window to match the fonts, every time, 100%. That's why I believe you have an incorrect, mismatched standard library installed. Regards Pete