Pete Dowson

You omitted the final line or two in the FSUIPC4.LOG. I really always need to see the whole log. However, I have a couple of observations: First you are still using the original rather buggy version of FSX. So many bugs were fixed by the free SP1 update that I really advise you to install that. It may well be that the IFLY aircraft depends on it in any case. Second, your SimConnect is not working well. Here are the symptoms: Evidently no data is actually arriving from FSX via SimConnect and FSUIPC is retrying every three seconds. I'm not sure what is causing this, but the most likely culprit is an incompatible security program -- either your anti-virus or firewall program or their settings. If you update to FSX SP2 level then these programs will no longer present any problems for local use of Simconnect. You'd need to install SP1 first, then SP2. Both are free. altrernatively you could purchase the FSX Acceleration Pack which will get you to SP2 level in one go. To delve into the technicalities of the problems more please see the FSX Help announcement above. You would need to obtain a SimConnect log file, in the way it describes there. Regards Pete

Hmm. That in itself is very odd. After you uninstall SP2 it should still show SP1 and FSX itself. It sounds like something went wrong some time ago. There's a lot more for FSX in Documents and Settings -- one for each User for whom you have run or installed FSX, and one again in "All users" which keeps the scenery configurations and so on. These will be in Documentand Settings\User Name\Application Data\FSX. All of FSX's configuration data and so on is in these folders -- the stuff in the My Documents folder is pretty irrelevant, mostly. No, nothing. I really have no idea how FSX installations get into a mess, but it all seems to start happening when folks uninstall and reinstall. I have done this on a couple of PCs and never had a problem, so it is difficult for me to envisage why it should go wrong, but when it does you really do need to be thorough it seems. Leaving all of its configuration data still intact as it sounds like you have done isn't a good idea. Have a look in the main FSX forum here in SimFlight. I'm sure someone there posted a link to a complete uninstall script made available by Microsoft themselves. If not there, I've seen it someplace I'm sure. If I come across it again I'll add it to the FSX Help announcement. Regards Pete

Not so much a lecture, more a reminder, which seemed to be needed. The answers to your questions are there, after all. ;-) Pete

Ah, I thought all that was answered by the subsequent additions to the thread. I must admit to thinking it was all one, but I see now that there are at least two threads in one here. Looking at your INI settings, you seem to have a default set of Axis assignments in FSUIPC4 consisting of 0=0V,256,F,66292,0,0,0 1=3Y,256,F,66534,0,0,0 2=3Z,256,F,66382,0,0,0 which is a rather odd selection. You have an Axis Mixture Set on 0V, an Axis Flaps Set on 3Y and an Axis Spoiler Set on 3Z. No aileron, no elevator, no throttles? I assume you aren't using any aircraft other than the "Boeing 747-400 Paint5"? Because that's the only one with enough axis assignments. Before looking at those, may I ask why you are assigning in FSUIPC? Usually it is easier to do so in FS itself. It is a little more efficient in FSUIPC, but it does mean you have to make sure there are no similar assignments in FS -- have you done that? Try disabling the joystick altogether in FSX. (I can't tell what you've done in FS from here). Your "Boeing 747-400 Paint5" axis assignments in FSUIPC4 are: 0=0Z,256,F,66420,66423,0,0 Axis throttle1 Set and Axis Throttle2 Set 1=0U,256,F,66426,66429,0,0 Axis Throttle3 Set and Axis Throttle4 Set 2=0V,256,F,66422,66425,0,0 Axis Mxture1 Set and Axis Mixture2 Set 3=1Y,256,F,66292,66431,0,0 Axis Mixture Set and Axis Mixture4 Set 4=3X,256,F,66428,66431,0,0 Axis Mixture3 Set and Axis Mixture4 Set 5=3Y,256,F,66534,0,0,0 Axis Flaps Set 6=3Z,256,F,66382,0,0,0 Axis Spoiler Set Now this is a mess. To start with, why assign multiple throttles and mixtures to the axes when you can get FSUIPC to Map them in the calibration dialogues. It is no wonder you are in a mess. The calibration is receiving Throttle 1 and 2 signals every time you move that axis, and you are mapping Throttle 2 to 3 and 4! Don't you see how illogical that it? And the Mixture assignments are a mess in any case. Your mixture1 lever is assigned both to "all levers" and Mixture 4, and your mixture 2 lever to 3 and 4 also. Weird! You should really LOOK at the screen when assigning things, make sure you assign what you want. I suggest you DELETE all the [Axes..] sections for you INI file, and go assign your levers as normal in FSX. You are don't want to mess with more advanced things which you don't understand. Assign yout Throttle 1 lever to Throttle 1, your Throttle 2 lever to Throttle 2, and the same for mixture and so on. Use the standard FSX assignments. Check that they all work on a 2-engined aircraft. Then and only then go into FSUIPC4's Joystick calibration, go to the page with 4 throttles, calibrate both Throttle 1 and Throttle 2, separately, and check the "Map 1->12, 2->34" option in the lower right. You can do the same for Mixture and Prop Pitch if you like. That's it. On a two engined plane you have Throttle 1 and Throttle 2 operating their respective engines, and on a 4-engined place you have engines 1 and 2 on throttle 1 and engines 3 and 4 on Throttle 2. Surely this is MUCH simpler that whatever weird scheme you've been trying to accomplish? BTW looking at the Calibration section of your INI file: Mixture1=0,8192,8192,16380 Mixture2=0,8192,8192,16380 Spoilers=-16380,16380 Flaps=0,16380 Reverser=-16380,16380 Throttle1=-16380,-512,512,16380 Throttle2=-16380,-512,512,16380 Throttle3=-16380,-512,512,16380 Mixture3=0,8192,8192,16380 Mixture4=0,8192,8192,16380 Throttle4=-16380,-512,512,16380 These are ALL defalut values! They cannot possible all be correct for your joystick. I've never seen a joystick which gives exact values as assumed by default. You evidently have not even attempted to calibrate any of your axes at all! :-( Please make sure you not only assign things properly, more carefully especially, but also always go through the calibration steps. They are outlined very clearly. you cannot possibly misunderstand any of the simple steps! Get it working before even thinking about anything else. If you then seriously want to use FSUIPC4 assignments instead of FSX it would be best to disable the joystick altogether in FSAX and assign everything in FSUIPC4. But use one control per axis - the facility for multiple controls on each axis is not what you need. Also you can use the "Direct to FSUIPC calibration" instead of the FS controls, which will be more efficient. You may have to re-calibrate if you do that. Regards Pete

Seems that the Mode switch is either a button numbered outside of the standard 1-32 range (DirectInput, not used by FSUIPC, allows up to 64), or, more likely, it is not configured as a button at all and is dealt with through a private protocol for the Saitek driver. Not likely I'm afraid. Doesn't it have some sort of display on it too? Many modern USB devices are not just standard joystick "HID" (Human Interface) devices, and so are not dealt with via standard Windows libraries. Such devices have proprietary protocols with drivers for those aspects supplied by their manufacturer. The only way for your request to be met, I think, would be to ask Saitek to have a mode in their software which made the Mode switch transparent, as a normal button in the range 1-32. Regards Pete

Ugh! That takes me to some website called "ImageShack", registering me for some prize draw. Yes, it does enlarge the pix enough to read, but it is an awful way to communicate, and I had to do it several times just to answer the one simple question you could have kindly just said "yes" or "no" to -- that concerning wind smoothing! :( Please do not post pictures instead of answering questions again. I will not deal with support in such a way! :twisted: I see you did not have wind smoothing enabled, so I ask you -- why did you download 4.215 (as your first increment since 4.20) when the only change in that increment was the new wind smoothing method, offered as a trial to make sure it works? Anyway, enough said. I am experimenting with some improvements and hope to release 4.216 later today or maybe tomorrow. Try that if you like, but I am still primarily looking for feedback on the main changes. Regards pete

Okay, so everything worked recently, until... Hmm. Seems that uninstalling and re-installing FSX is quite a nightmare for many, and seems to be the root cause of most of the SimConnect issues. Just to confirm that it is a Simconnect installation problem, however, could you please show me the contents of the Install and FSUIPC4 log files from the FSX Modules folder? These really are always needed initially. And when you say: "I have tried your earlier suggestion in locating, deleting and then running repair to replace the simconnect folder" do you mean explicitly the one for the base release I identify in the FSX Help announcement? Possibly the entire set of SimConnect folders might have to go. With both SP1 and SP2 installed there would have been three of them. The one causing the problem may not have been the one you repaired. Regards Pete

Really? How odd. I don't see what that could possibly accomplish. Replacing one file with one which is identical changes nothing. I'm not really aware that IFLY 747 uses FSUIPC for anything, so it is difficult to help, but assuming it does, you need to see if FSUIPC is actually running correctly. Maybe it's a SimConnect installation problem, which does seem to affect an inordinate number of people. So, please look in the FSX Modules folder and find two files, an Install log and the FSUIPC log. both are ordinary text files and you can paste their contents in a message here. Regards Pete

FSUIPC is actually doing nothing whatsoever during FS startup, other than the original loading of its INI file and setting all of the options to match. It does this early, out of the way, deliberately to avoid any hesitations later, whilst you are flying, for instance. Apart from that it is merely awaiting the readiness of FS. Even after FS is ready, it still isn't doing much. Apart from the possibility that somehow the FSUIPC.INI access is very slow, the only thing which could be causing any slow down whatsoever would be access to FSUIPC from third parties -- ranging from Gauges and add-in DLLs to external programs. Maybe you should start with a freshly-installed FS2004, then compare it with FSUIPC installed and without? Well, another identical copy of the same thing obviously won't change things. there's no chance it could get corrupted because it is codesigned and checks itself. Really, the best action is ALWAYS to look in the "Other downloads" Announcemtn here and get the very latest update (3.775 is there at present). Aha! That is where the problem lies, then. You have some rogue joystick driver which is causing the problem! This has been reported a few times before -- check Windows' Game Controllers, see if it knows of any drivers for devices you no longer have. The usual problem is an old Game Port joystick driver still hunting for a device on a probably unconnected or even non-existent game port. The EPIC driver could also do the same, with no EPIC connected. Try the attached "joyview" program, see if it helps track it down ... Regards Pete joyview.zip

Good! Pete

It's similar whatever way you want to do it. See the Buttons and Switches tab. Why not refer to some of the extensive documentation supplied with FSUIPC, or at least browse through it and see what you can do? Because it is not an FS control (of which I list all), and there are hundreds of possible commands PM may take, and many, like this, are channelled through one offset, 04F4 in this case. I provided a general "PM GC Controls" control for all those through that channel, and all you need to do is look up the parameter for the WXR button. I provided the list in the documentation supplied with FSUIPC, and PM document them all on their website. I don't see how much more you could possibly expect! :-( Pete

Is that with wind smoothing on or off? Have you tried it off at all? If not, can you? Why switch back to 4.20 without trying anything? Do you use the non-really-working windsmoothing in 4.20? I'm sorry, but I do need this sort of information otherwise the feedback is of no use. Sorry, I cannot read those they are too small. Surely it is much easier to tell me the answers rather than attach mini-pictures? There may be ways I can speed up the smoothing operations -- it is probably being called too often at present -- the problem is how to select when to do anything. However, the feedback I really could do with is whether it is actually working. I need those who have been complaining about FSX's wind shifts to let me know. If you've never suffered then you might as well switch the smoothing off in any case. But you shouldn't need to go back to an older version. BTW I'm out this evening so my next reply will either be much later or more likely tomorrow. Regards Pete

You lost 5 fps with wind smoothing enabled or without? And what portion of your FSX performance IS this 5 fps? 5 off 40 is a lot different to 5 off 20! There's no difference between 4.212 (the previous version) and 4.215 other than the wind smoothing. There have been many versions between 4.20 and now, have you only just got around to trying an increment? Some information would be useful please. Pete

Thanks Thomas. Incidentally, there's also already a special FSUIPC control, documented in the FSUIPC Advanced User's guide, called "PM GC Controls (by param)" which drives that offset. The Guide does actually list parameter value 72 as "Toggle WXR". Regards Pete

Found it, a silly typo. Also affected the range parameters. Fixed in 3.775 available now from the "Other Downloads" Announcement. Thanks for reporting it. Pete

There's no differences at all in the FSX weather between SP1 and SP2, nor the original release and SP1. After many hours slaving over disassemblies of FSX modules, and trying to trace through what is happening, I think I've managed to make some improvements with wind smoothing. I've not got anywhere with visibility, but please try FSUIPC 4.215 (or later) available in the FSX Downloads announcement and see if the winds are more amenable. Please note that the "fix" is rather messy, involving some interference between modules in FSX, and it will only work as intended if you have FSX SP2 or Acceleration installed. Regards Pete

Well there is no message "asking" for a SimConnect, but if you mean it says that it cannot run because it cannot connect to the Release version of SimConnect (60905), then please refer to the "FSX Help" Announcement above and follow the instructions to repair your installation. Next time please show me the Install Log from the FSX Modules folder, if it is there. This details precisely what the installer did and what went wrong, and it is therefore very useful. It is an ordinary text file and you can paste it into your report here. Regards Pete

Oh, that's odd. I'll check it again here. Pete

For non-Vista aware third-party add-ons, yes, for sure. Not for exactly the same reasons as with FS2004, as Vista doesn't alias the FSX folders as it does with non-Vista programs, which saves difficulties finding things. But non-Vista aware programs which still want to write stuff to FSX subfolders will have difficulty. (Under Vista, programs are supposed to go into Program Files, and their data into a program-specific subfolder in Documents & Settings "AppData" fodler, or something like that -- one for each user, or into All Users). The FSUIPC4 installer still puts its stuff into a newly created FSX Modules folder, but it manages okay because it also automatically sets the permissions on that folder for all user read/write access. I expect, gradually, all third party add-ons will be changed to do this. Another reason for installing into something nice and easy like C:\FSX is that, well, it's shorter, easier to remember, etc. I've always used such short paths. In fact i usually install FS on a separate disk (or at least a separate partition) from the main system, so fragmentation happens less often and less severely and hopefully access will be faster. Maybe there's a third-party program trying to save its state someplace in the FSX subfolders? Regards Pete

Pete- I think everyone's calculating this instead... you're doing enough work as it is, so we don't ask for more if we can do it on our own :-). Oh, rightthanks everybody! ;-). Actually it was easy to find and furnish, so it's provided now in FSUIPC3, for FS2002 (untested) and FS2004 (tested ok). Same offset as FSUIPC4's. Best Regards Pete

With Vista it is a bit of a mistake installing FS to its default location, in "Program Files". Vista applies data protection to anything installed there -- this has been causing a lot of headaches. Because Vista recognises FS2004 as a pre-Vista program, and therefore one which will probably need to write stuff to its own folders (apparently a no-no for Vista-aware programs), it actually creates the folders elsewhere (I've no idea where -- they are hidden) and the ones you can see as a user are NOT the real folders, but aliasses. They don't contain anything written as data, all that stays in the "real" folders, wherever they are. There are two choices. For a trouble-free future I suggest you un-install FS2004 completely and re-install it elsewhere, like C:\FS2004. Alternatively you would need to either run everything to do with FS2004 as an "elevated administrator" (by Run As Administrator, or changing properties for every such program), or somehow change the access and user permissions for every folder which needs data files written to it. These methods are difficult and frankly I gave up trying and just took the simpler installation path method instead. Regards Pete

WideFS doesn't link multiple copies of FS! It is not any part of its job! It just links to FS add-on programs running on a PC which is NOT running FS at all! You can do what you want to do with FS's own multiplayer provisions. It has a built-in capability of flying with friends across the Internet. Check the documentation/help. Pete

This should never happen -- in fact this is the first report ever of such a thing. Please show me the Install log from the FSX Modules folder. I always need to see that for any problems with FSUIPC4 installation. it is an ordinary text file and you can paste it into your messages here if you like. The install log will show exactly where FSUIPC4's installer is looking for it. In fact the log is displayed on screen whilst it is operating, and is still there when the error message came up. The XML file is an ordinary text file and can also be pasted into a message here. However, a quick solution should be to simply delete the XML file you have and try the install again. Unless you have other add-on DLLs being loaded into FSX this should be fine. Otherwise, try it by renaming the DLL.XML file as "DLL.oldxml" or similar. FSUIPC's installer will make another. No, I agree. That error is theoretically only likely to happen when a user has already been editing the file and made a mess of it. Some add-ons do actually instruct you to edit this file (MyTrafficX, for example), and in fact to make full use of the Microsoft FSX SDK (included in the Deluxe version) you have to edit that file. This is why the error is worded in such a way. Regards Pete

Yes: the first two lines show that either the code signature failed (look at the top of the log) or you are using an illegal key. In the latter case please immediately delete your FSUIPC.KEY file. And ignore that "error". It is deliberate so that I can tell the version of the FSUIPC SDK library being used -- the library code writes its version number to a read-only location to force an entry in the log. 04B0 = version 1.200. BTW later (interim) versions are often available in the Downloads announcements above, if you want to keep really up to date. Pete

As in the response I gave, this was because you didn't follow the instructions. I have purchased from SimMarket many times using PayPal. Just follow the instructions -- you MUST return to SimMarket by pressing the button to do so -- this confirms! No no no! You are reading "debit" the same as "credit". Look at what you just posted. See the obvious difference? Sorry, no. I'm not taking sides here, but it looks like a lot of misunderstanding, no one being rude at all. Check the wording again. Regards Pete