Pete Dowson

Hmm. That shouldn't happen though, unless the layers were marked to be "shear", which is not usual or had such variance allowed (which I assumed they had not or, having looked at WeatherSet2 you'd have remarked). I'll see if I can find out what is happening there. I don't suppose you saved a Flight for me? Regards Pete

If the INI file is correct, then, since FSUIPC4 is creating a Log file it must be getting loaded. Since SimConnect logs things before loading any DLLs, it MUST be producing a Log before crashingunless, ah, Vista! Maybe that stops FSX creating files in the C:\ root folder? I never thought of that and no one has mentioned it before. I've changed the FSX Help message now, just in case that's the problem, please? If you still get no Log there must be a mistake in the INI file. In such a case please show me the SimConnect.ini file you created. Paste it all into a message here. By "files" here I do hope you mean "folders". They must be folders. They each contain one file. The FSUIPC4 install log you posted showed this: Checking compatibility with installed SimConnect: ... Okay, Probe Manifest matches installed SimConnect 60905 (Original) Found later build SimConnect 61242 (SP1 May07) Found later build SimConnect 61259 (Acc/SP2 Oct07) so that is why there are three SimConnect folders. The names MUST all start with C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect_67c7c14424d61b5b_10.0.60905.0 C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect_67c7c14424d61b5b_10.0.61242.0 C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect_67c7c14424d61b5b_10.0.61259.0 because if they do not, it would be impossible for FSUIPC4's installer to find them and report that they are okay. Furthermore, if the first isn't there then FSUIPC4 would not get loaded in the first place. I have recently discovered that, whilst the part after the bits above seems consistently the same on XP machines, it is different on Vista (eg it could be "none_ ..."). I think that part is a security scrambled ("hash") key to check the rest, to prevent folks "inventing" their own such folders to fool Windows, so I assume Vista is using a different hashing algorithm to XP. I'll amend the "FSX Help" text to reflect this. However, that is of no consequence at present. It wasn't on the Agendayet. Not sure why you posted that? Do you think it relevant? If you have the Deluxe edition of FSX, the original SDK is on the DVD, so you didn't have to download it. However, the one on the DVD isn't compatible with SP1 or SP2, so versions for those would have had to be downloaded. This is was I was worried that you had installed the original SDK and not updated it for SP1 or SP2. But according to all the details you also installed SP2 (or was it Acceleration you installed?) I am about to install the PMDG 747 myself. According to its instructions it also installs a DLL, and requires this to be loaded via the DLL.XML file. Did you read the installation "read me" you got with it? Somehow the (possibly) required DLL is not present in your DLL.XML file. No. Seems that some very mysterious things have been happening on your PC without your knowledge. The disappearing FSUIPC4 entry in the DLL.XML file, the presumably disappearing PMDG DLL entry too, and the appearance of all those SDK entries! That is indeed very very weird. I'm sorry, but all my installer does is find the DLL.XML file and, if it exists, adds its own entry. If it finds no DLL.XML file it creates one with only its own entry in it. If not you then certainly something you have used / installed has made a mess here. I think you ought to delete the DLL.XML file altogether, then re-run the FSUIPC4 installer to create a simpler one. But let's see if we can get the SimConnect log file first. It is looking more and more like a complete repair is needed -- especially if the PMDG 747 needs a DLL installing too (I'll know soon ...) -- but I'm in favour of taking things in order, and the simpler ones first. Regards Pete

No idea, sorry, but I think it works fine in the latest interim version (4.218) available above, in the FSX downloads announcement. Please try that. Pete

Well, you could stop ignoring all my replies and suggestions and try some of the things I mentioned. That would be a start, wouldn't it? Did you ever make the logging changes I asked and show me the results? Did you check for joystick drivers? Did you use the Joyview program I attached? Have you actually bothered to try doing what I suggested two days ago -- installing 3.777 and setting PollInterval=0 as I said, just to see if it a rogue joystick driver? You seem to be ignoring my replies, so why bother to post here at all? Pete

No, this is the sequence since you had a problem. That doesn't help understand how you got into this state in the first place -- it is the sequence of FSX, SP1, SP2/Acceleration, FSUIPC4.1, PMDG whatever, FSX SDK (and which version did you install???), etc., that led to the problem in the first place that is important. Here's another thing which seems wrong. you say you are using PMDG aircraft. Which? Is it one specifically designed for FSX? As far as I knew, all PMDG aircraft need a DLL installed, and for FSX this needs an entry in the DLL.XML file. In particular the PMDG 747X, for instance, says in its install "read me": "FSX has an "achillies heal" of sorts in a file named DLL.XML. This file is located in the same directory as your FSX.CFG file and contains information that allows third party add-ons such as this product to run within FSX. For almost every aircraft add-on developer, this file must be modified to list certain data about the dll files that are needed for the add-on aircraft. I've not investigated this further, having just managed to get a copy of the 747 so I can look into some wind-smoothing problems folks reported with this aircraft and FSUIPC 4.217. I want to see if I've fixed them in 4.128. But I'll check into this DLL tomorrow. So, if you do have PMDG aircraft needing this DLL, how come it isn't mentioned in your DLL.XML file? I thought I was very clear on that. I only wanted to know which version it was, so all you needed to do was find it in the RC package you have, right-click on it, thus getting the Version from the Properties, exactly as I described earlier. Never mind. Too late now. It wouldn't correctly remove SimConnect for the reasons I've already stated, unless you find the SimConnect side-by-side folders and delete all those too. Not easy in Vista unfortunately. You'd have to change permissions etcetera.. Why not at least get a SimConnect log first? I mentioned this right at the beginning and it seems a damned sight quicker and easier to do that than all this prevaricating, doesn't it? Well, not upset but admittedly rather frustrated that I keep having to repeat myself and you appear to be ignoring my requests and suggestions. It is very difficult to help someone who won't cooperate. No one is asking any programming or "SDK" off you -- but whilst you are on the subject, why did you install the SDK anyway if you didn't want to use it? I'm off to bed now, it is getting late here. Good night. Regards Pete

That's a complicated way of telling me one little piece of information, isn't it? Searching through that vast amount of irrelevant stuff (I do not examine RC logs), I see it reported "FSUIPC_Version 41520000", or in other words version 4.152. That was one of the Beta versions made available here before 4.20 -- about August 2007. 4.20 was released when FSX Acceleration was released, in October. Incidentally, there is a much later Beta version here now -- 4.218, in the FSX Downloads announcement above. I really cannot do anything else until I see the SimConnect log file which may hopefully show what SimConnect is doing. If that shows nothing, but merely indicates that it hung, then I can only think it is a SimConnect corruption, in which can I can tell you how to reinstall it -- uninstalling FSX and re-installing it doesn't do this, nor does uninstalling SP1 or SP2 and re-installing. It's all to do with the Windows "side-by-side" library system used here and it gets really complicated, especially on Vista which seems designed to stop you doing anything important. If you can remember the actual sequence of installs and uninstalls you've performed, both of FSX, its updates, and your add-ons, it may help to work out what has happened here. Regards Pete

Only when some program called "windows Blinds" was being used. It interferes with the look and feel of standard Windows dialogues and screwed the system up. No, because it is a FlightSim module. And in any case the same dialogue would occur no matter what program initiated the module. Something installed in your system is screwing up standard property tabs dialogues. I can only think of going through a process of elimination, closing down each non-Microsoft service one at a time till the culprit is found. If you close anything which then crashes Windows you can re-boot and by-pass tht one next time. Pete

The Simconnect log will NOT be produced unless you do something to make it! As I said right at the beginning "look at the FSX Help Announcement above and use the information there to get a SimConnect log of the same sequence. Show me that." Since the DLL.XML file shows no additional modules being loaded, only that you installed the FSX SDK, I am a bit bemused -- how did that DLL.XML file get lost from last time you installed FSUIPC4? (And still I don't know which version it was!?). Or did you instal the FSX SDK after your first FSUIPC4 install? Did you make sure the SDK you instaled was the correct version for FSX+SP2? Let me see a SimConnect log. Make one as I explained, please. Pete

I've just uploaded FSUIPC 4.218, available via the FSX Downloads announcement. I think I've made improvements to the smoothing, but I have no idea if they'll fix the problems you see. Could you try it and let me know, please? Regards Pete

I've just uploaded FSUIPC 4.218, available via the FSX Downloads announcement. I think I've made improvements to the smoothing, but I have no idea if they'll fix the problems you all see. Could you try it and let me know, please? Regards Pete

I think both are serious add-ons though ... The LOG file shows that FSUIPC gets as far as asking for a connection to FSX: 1887 SimConnect_Open succeeded: waiting to check version okay but it looks like things then screw up in SimConnect. It is using the SP2 version of SimConnect -- maybe your previous version of FSUIPC4 was using an older version (4.1x used SP1, whilst 4.0x used the base, original, SimConnect). That is why knowing what you had previously, is important. It is a shame you can't go look and find out. You don't need to install it or run it, just right-click on the file and check Properties-Version. Anyway, to get any further I need two things. First, that Simconnect log I asked you to make. Second, find this file: C:\Users\Jeff\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\DLL.XML and paste it here (it is a text file too). That will show what SimConnect is being asked to load. And the SimConnect will show what it is actually getting up to. Once we know that I can instruct youi on how to eliminate the other things to see which is causing the problem. One interesting thing, which I find hard to understand given your earlier explanation of what you did, is this, from the Install log: ... There is a previous DLL.XML, checking for FSUIPC4 section. No previous FSUIPC4 entry found, so adding it now ... If you had, indeed, installed any earlier version of FSUIPC4 it would have appeared in the DLL.XML file. The fact that it didn't suggests either that your previous install failed completely (at an early stage), or that something else you installed overwrote the DLL.XML file rather than simply added itself. That is a bit worrying (and annoying) so it makes it even more important to see the file, please. Regards Pete

Yes, you are right. It is nothing to do with FSUIPC. It is something to do with your graphics system -- either a driver bug, or a card problem, or a bug in FSX or in the scenery you installed. You need to go to the support place for the scenery -- if it works with everything else but not with that scenery then it may be a problem they know about. Graphics drivers stopping are, however, almost always an inidcatyion of a driver bug. Having the latest driver is not always a good thing, and even nVidia don't often admit to having any problems You might find an earlier driver works better. There have been plenty of threads over on the FSX Forum here about video driver problems, especially with nvidia cards, so you might want to browse there too. Also, if you haven't yet done so, you might want to update your FSX -- SP1, SP2? Regards Pete

The shift+Z displays are an internal FS function. FSUIPC offsets aren't involved. You can of course write a program to display whatever you like, where you like. there are quite a few around. FSInterrogate can display everything from FSUIPC and is available in the FSUIPC SDK. Regards Pete

I think that's a red herring, an irrelevant coincidence. As far as I can see, now, with further testing, the wind smoothing isn't working. I'm trying to find other ways, but I don't hold out much hope at present. :-( Pete

Hmm. Yes, it would be possible, but I am rather overloaded at present. I will add it to my list. Look out for it in some future versionbut it may be a few weeks. Sorry. Pete

I didn't know RC supplied one -- presumably it must come with two, one version 3 for FS9 and before, and one version 4 for FSX? Which version of RC is this in any case? Okay. They've not arrived yet. Where did you send them? They should be short enough to paste as text into a message here, and that would be more efficient really. The fact that a Log has been produced is interesting. It sounds like it is hanging later that it sounded. Okay, good. that's okay then. Though of course PMDG's own DLL may stil be getting loaded -- DLLs are loaded with FS. I will be able to check if you can get a SimConnect log, as mentioned. It is easily obtained -- please see the notes in the "FSX Help" announcement. Ah, you have other add-ons installed? Some of these may well add stuff which is being loaded with FSX in any case, like FSUIPC. I shall certainly need the SimConnect log. I really do need to know what version of FSUIPC it was you had installed before 4.20. I'm really none the wiser by saying "the one supplied with RC", sorry. If it was a Version 3 (for FS9), which doesn't come with an installer and is impossible to install or use with FSX, so in that case what do you mean by "reinstall"? Regards Pete

Really? I don't support old versions, but certainly all version 4's work in a similar way as far as RC is concerned. What "old version" was it? Just telling me "latest version" really doesn't help at all. Please give the actual version number! I have had folks telling me latest version and meaning some old one they found which was a couple of years out of date! Also, there are two "latest versions", one for FS9 and before and one for FSX and beyond. FSUIPC4 can't actually do that, not by itself. It usually isn't even loaded (by SimConnect) until later. It sounds more like the sort of thing which can happen when you have the FSX SDK installed but are using the wrong version to go with your level of FSX update. That really proves it cannot be anything to do with FSUIPC4, as with no FSUIPC4 there it cannot run. It doesn't exist as far as your FSX is converned. Unfortunately, if you deleted all those files you deleted evidence to show what FSUIPC4's installer did. It creates an Install log which is placed in the FSX Modules folder. You supply information about your hardware (which is no use to me I'm afraid) but almost none at all about your FSX installation nor about FSUIPC4. So please re-install FSUIPC4. Show me the Install log from the Modules folder. Run FSX, get the problem, then look to see if there is an FSUIPC4.log file produced in the Modules folder. If there is, it is getting further that you imply. Show me that. If there is none there, look at the FSX Help Announcement above and use the information there to get a SimConnect log of the same sequence. Show me that. There are other files to look at, but we'll get to those -- the Install log will help me point them out to you. BTW, you mention "PMDG" in the subject line, but nothing more about that. Are you having FSX load with a default flight calling up a PMDG aircraft? If so it might be a good idea to eliminate that too for now -- PMDG aircraft are very complex and also use DLLs and depend on SimConnect a great deal -- assuming yours is an FSX model of course. To stop it loading with the PMDG aircraft as default, either find and delete/rename your FSX.CFG file, or find the default flight in your "My Documents\Flight Simulator X Files" folder and delete that -- in this latter case FSX may complain but it will continue with its usual default (at Seattle I think). You only mentioned FSX SP1. Did you not update to SP2? Regards Pete

You download the FSUIPC.ZIP package (available in several places, most reliably at http://www.schiratti.com/dowson ), then you open the ZIP, extract the user guide and read the Installation section, which is very short and quite near the beginning. Pete

Well, you may have got further than me. I have done almost no EPIC USB programming. i was used to the old ISA version under MSDOS or Window 95 (or was it Windows 3.1? Probably) many years ago, but by the time R&R went to USB I'd just about finished using any EPIC stuff. i did a driver conversion using the R&R DLL but that was it. Well, no only read. Pigeon holes and "QPs" are for OUTPUT from FS to EPIC displays. EPICINFO is almost 100% concerned with that direction. There's some very specialised highly technical input options, but I'd ignore those for now!. For EPIC to FS you should be configuring your EPIC stuff to look like normal axes, POVs and buttons. Sorry, I don't know what you are talking about here. Inputs from standard Windows joystick devices are of three types - axes, buttons and "POVs" ("Point of View" controls). Axes come with a variable parameter, buttons are just on or off, POVs come with a parameter stating "angle" of view, either in degrees or, sometimes, in 1/100ths of a degree. You need to sort out how to define your EPIC to provide whatever standard Windows inputs of these types you need. Regards Pete

Please refer to the my edit above. Ah, you suppressed them. So it isn't anything to do with my various simulated wind changes?! :-( That's very annoying. It means there is something wrong with the way I'm doing it rather more basic. Drat. :-( Pete

Except the text is confused. Please see my reply already, above. And I really do need the saved flight stuff. Pictures don't help a lot, really. Sorry. Pete

You mean the still had erratic flight with changeable winds with the suppress options set? Did WeatherSet2 show any turbulence, variation or gusting? FSUIPC doesn't touch the OAT. The TAT would presumably change with airspeed. Strange. But it all needs correlating with observing what is happening at the aircraft altitude in WeatherSet2. not realy, not without figures. Quite often with FS you can see clouds even though the actual weather at the aircraft i clear, and vice versa. I'm not sure about the range, but bear in mind that the clouds you can see out of the window are usually some way off. Without a top-down view it is difficult to correlate what you see with the local reports. This is why I have to go by what FSX is telling program's like WeatherSet2 what is actually is simulating. It is actually possible that your observations above are the opposite of what what happening actually at the aircraft. I have a couple of file sets now to try here. I won't have time until tomorrow. It looks like until I can see these things for myself I'm not going to get any sense out of it. Maybe when you have definitely reproducible events you could send another set of two of FLT_WX_FSSAVE files. Please try to use a default aircraft when you do so I can easily run the same here. [LATER] Ah, I see you've already sent something else. Thanks. Ahonly pictures, no FLT stuff for reproduction. :-( And I don't understand what you said in the covering email: By "suppress turb and gust enabled" and "turb and gust disabled" I understand the same thing, that they were both disabled in each case, which therefore makes no sense. Did you mean to state two different conditions? Anyway, no more from me on this till tomorrow I'm afraid. I'm going to have to fly the two I have already. Regards Pete

Maybe. Without wind smoothing aren't you seeing ANY wind variability at all? From the figures you sent you should most certainly see and feel some!? By all means please try the same with the options set to suppress turbulence and gusts. Pete

Both the FSX-listed WideFS and the FS2004-listed WideFS packages on http://www.schiratti.com/dowson are identical, and they both include the documentation. It sounds like you never actually bothered to get the full package but only an interim (Beta) update from the downloads announcements above? You should always start with the full package, not just an interim update. Pete

That is really annoying, because it was occurring originally with the default aircraft, and I spent many hours over it and thought I'd managed to get rid of it completely. If I haven't actually succeeded in making it smooth, though I thought I had, it is looking like I may have to withdraw the whole thing and await FSXI. :-( Oh I see what you are trying to say. I will have a look and edit this post accordingly. Also, see if suppressing turbulence and gusts helps at all. Regards Pete