Pete Dowson

Sorry, I cannot support such old versions! (3.4 dates back to October 2004, three years ago!). The current supported version for FS2004 is 3.75. Pete

What is an "attempt to install FSUIPC", please? There are no "attempts" needed, you simply put the DLL into the Modules folder. That's it. It's either done or not done, not attempted and failed or anything else. What EXACTLY is the message? What makes you think it is anything to do with FSUIPC? If you are not using the currently supported version, 3.75 or later, please do so. Regards Pete

And, if you have run FS9 and registered, there must be three other FSUIPC files there too: FSUIPC.LOG FSUIPC.INI FSUIPC.KEY These three files are generated for you. The INI and LOG files are re-written every time you run FS with FSUIPC installed. I do not know this "RealATIS" program, and I cannot imagine what it is doing looking for the FSUIPC.KEY file. Are you using Vista by any chance? If so it is likely you are not looking at the real FS Modules folder, but at an alias. Vista plays some funny tricks with programs like FS2004 which are marked as "legacy" programs (non-Vista compatible, effectively). These aliases deal with the problems of programs, written to run perfectly under Windows XP or before, which actually have the cheek to try to write to their own folders! Under Vista ALL folders in "Program Files" are read-only except for Installers unless you are an Administrator with elevated privileges. It sounds like this RealAir program is also not truly Vista-aware and is looking in the aliased Modules folder not the real one, though how you do get to the real one I've no idea. Maybe someone who knows Vista will help. Personally, what I would do if I were you, to avoid this problem and probably many more in the future, is un-install FS2004 and re-install it someplace else, like C:\FS9, or even on another drive. Avoid the default "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Flight Simulator" folder install like the plague. If you aren't using Vista I'd need more information to help. In either case please make sure you are using the latest supported version of FSUIPC (3.75 or later). Regards Pete

Yes, annoying, isn't it? Apparently the "administrator" cannot actually administrate properly without gaining extra status through an assortment of extra measures. I think MS have gone a little too far in trying to protect the user against himself! Regards Pete

You need to run FSX in elevated Administrator mode. The need to "run as Administrator" is actually clearly documented in the User Guide. Please refer to the section on Registration which deals with this very point. (Or at least it does unless you are referring to a very out of date manual, in which case please go get and install the current version). Pete

Okay. If it proves difficult at all, and now I know this field is supposed to be the filepath, not the filename, I can do one of two things in the next version of FSUIPC4 (which is fairly imminent, awaiting only the release of the Acceleration Pack from MS): 1. convert any relative filepath to a complete filepath automatically, OR 2. Convert any filepath at all to a full UNC path -- i.e. one which can be used from any PC on a local Network. Does IYP work through WideFS at all? If so it would need the latter form.

This is nothing to do with FSUIPC4. You are loading a different Flight. Just go to the Flights menu in FS and load one you like. Mark it as the default. Pete

Actually I'm surprised it ever gives a path at all -- the SimConnect documentation for the System Event "FlightPlanActivated" being used by FSUIPC4 says: "Requests a notification when a new flight plan is activated. The filename of the activated flight plan is returned". Evidently it means "filepath" not "filename" in this context. It looks like FSX is doing the standard thing with the path, as it always has (witness filepaths for sceneries in SCENERY.CFG files, etc). If the path is within the main FSX folder, it omits that part. Otherwise it gives the complete path. The way to deal with that is to check for two things: 1. A drive (i.e. second character is ":"). If present, it is a full path 2. The first two characters being \\, indicating a computer name and therefore a full path. If neither of these, the path is within the FSX path, available from FSUIPC in a separate offset. Regards Pete

On this note, I found a program which might help fix your registry without needing to reinstall FSX. Check here: http://tweakfs.com/news/free_files.htm Regards Pete

FSUIPC probably sees your hat as 4 or 8 separate buttons, which you can program as you like. I don't know what you mean by "shifted" for the hat -- are you using another button to indicate a shift? If so you could program two complete sets with that button as a condition. See the conditional programming stuff in the Advanced Users guide for FSUIPC. Regards Pete

OkayI think you are right. I Googled it, and all the references and reviews I found, though not terribly clear, did strongly imply that it was a programmable keyboard macro device, exactly as you say. Regards Pete

What have you got the rate set to in GPSout? And what have you selected to be sent? I can get rates of up to 10 times a second here at 19200 bps, using two NMEA sentences, but at the usual default NMEA rate or 4800 you have to be careful not to have too much data for the time available for it to be sent -- if you do that the buffers build up and you not only get a backlog (and therefore an artifical delay) but also a penalty in FS performance. 4800 bps = 480 bytes per second (there's a start and stop bit per byte). The average NMEA sentence is about 70-80 bytes, so provided you are specifying less than 6 sentences (a lot less preferably), then a 1 second update rate should work fine. If you are using AV400 the calculations are different. I don't recall the AV4000 block size offhand. Regards Pete

Installing the SP1 update should certainly not disturb the registry for the original installation. Did the SP1 update go smoothly? Did it find the original FSX automatically, as it should, or did you have to tell it where it was? If the latter you could and should have done the same with FSUIPC4 when it asked. Ultimately though, the Registry does need to correctly reflect the installation details, otherwise other add-ons will also face problems later. Regards Pete

Strange considering that the internal code is completely identical. The position is obtained from the same source in FS as the optional Shift+Z display in FS's screen. In all 8 years of using GPSout with versions of FS previous to FSX, on a moving map plotting the course, I've never once had such a glitch (it would certainly be recorded on the moving map as a very strange diversion!). It sounds like something was wrong with your FS9 installation. As far as I am aware there's no NMEA protocol for such things. I know Garmin have their own protocols for use with their PC planning programs, but they aren't usable in the same mode as the input emulating an external GPS unit. I use Jeppesen FliteMap as both my moving Map and my lanner. I plan BEFORE taking off (of course), and use the plans prepared by FliteMap in my PM CDU (FMS) and in Radar Contact (for ATC). The plan can also go into FS, though since I don't use FS's autopilot or GPS or other gauges that isn't needed. Then, whilst flying, the FliteMap display shows my planned route as well as the underlying Map and current position, as well as having a sidebar showing all the position, speed, and waypoint details. Of course, it then isn't a live planner -- that role is taken by the CDU. Regards Pete

This is saying that FSX is not installed correctly -- the Registry entries which record its installation are not even present! Have you rolled back or re-installed Windows since installing FSX? If so you really should also reinstall FSX. When it asked you to locate FSX.EXE in the browser window presented, did you not do it? It may allow FSUIPC4 to install. However, it most certainly will not solve all of your FSX problems if it is not installed correctly, so I'd still recommend that you re-install it. Regards Pete

Oh, yes. Thank you! Regards Pete

Not just Run1 but Run2 up to Run8 as well, and RunIf1 to 8, as documented (Page 35 of the Advanced Users guide. I use the facility myself in FSUIPC4. Regards Pete

Okay. Hope you are all set now. Let me know what you think. Regards Pete

All FSUIPC is doing, like any weather control program, is setting the weather using the official weather-setting facilities offered by FSX in SimConnect. There is nothing in those facilities for enabling or controlling or preserving thermals. I expect the same may occur with ActiveSky, then, unless you told it not to do any updates. You can prolong the refresh interval in FSUIPC4 by changing the factor from 2 up to 30, which currently would be 2 to 20 seconds -- not for each WX station, as there are 10 including the Global standby. So with 2 as the factor it takes 20 seconds for a cycle. With 30 it would take a 300, like FSInn. After SP2 is installed (when released), the factor will mean 2 = 1 second per update, so both these intervals halve (though this will only be after installing the appropriate FSUIPC4 update. That's a pity. This means that any attempt to do much with the weather will defeat thermals. Looks like glider fans will have to avoid such things-- but then, for gliding, you aren't likely to need wind smoothing so much, are you? It's airliners, flying at high altitude over long distances that are suffering. Regards Pete

No!!! That's the place for all official releases. For over a year now all interim releases and other goodies have been provided here, in the Forum. The FSX stuff is all in the FSX Downloads Announcement, above, -- as I in fact did state! I really would advise you to scan the Announcements from time to time. They are actually there to Announce things. I'm constantly amazed at the number of questions I get here in new threads which are already long-answered in the Announcements! :-( Pete

FSUIPC3 should recognise any of the main 6 axes, X Y Z R U and V. It doesn't use DirectInput (unlike FSUIPC4, so may not recognise the two sliders added for DirectInput but not supported by the standard Windows joystick interface. Is the "lateral trim control" on your device a true axis, or is it just a local trim, used by the device for trimming? Is it assignable for anything in FS itself? If not, there is no way FSUIPC can see it. The other possibility is that it is one of the basic six axes, but the main three (X Y Z) are so jittery one of those is always seen first. This is the purpose of the "Ignore Axis" button. Each time FSUIPC detects an axis you aren't interested in, click the "Ignore Axis" so that any jitter on that one won't stop it seeing the others. (After all it can only see and deal with one at a time, and if they are all clamouring for attention it's a matter of first come, first served). That's hardly relevant if the correct axis cannot be seen! Regards Pete

Okay, the change I described in in version 4.168 (yes, FSX only), is now available in the FSX Downloads announcement above. Please let me know if it works okay -- I've never used Multiplayer or On-line flying programs and I'm not about to start just yet! ;-) You should be able to view the Squawk codes in the airport "To" column in TrafficLook. Regards Pete

Okay, thanks. 4.168 is up in the FSX Downloads announcement now. Regards Pete

Yes, that is purely an internal gauge facility. There are no FS controls for it, and no keyboard shortcuts either I fear. Sorry, I may not be understanding you here I'm afraid. Toggles are the same as momentary push buttons but you program them to switch something "on" with "push", and "off" with "release" -- the "push" is switching the toggle on, the "release" is switching it off. Is that clearer? Regards Pete

It'll be reading, modifying, and writing back the METAR strings (often several hundred characters each) for 10 WX stations (a 3 x 3 grid, plus GLOBal weather) at regular intervals. The default interval is around 2 seconds per station, so the whole cycle takes 20 seconds before it repeats, possibly by which time a new set of stations is used as the aircraft is moving. There is an adjustment for the frequency -- you can make it twice as fast, or a lot slower. I've no idea how it'll impinge on performance on your systems compared to mine, only that it will have some effect. It's feedback on this that I need. When SP2 is available (or also the Acceleration pack), the default will be twice as fast, because SimConnect operates faster for local clients in the new version. I hope this will make the facility more effective, because the slower it runs the more likely "glitches" (unwanted wind changes) will slip through. Also, because trying to operate with this 3 x 3 grid of WX stations isn't actually guaranteed to catch the three WX stations really responsible for the weather at the aircraft, there might be glitches in any case. In FS2002 (or was it FS2000?) I remember that at Rotterdam one of the three stations was way down in North Africa -- the triangulation had a really weird elongated shape. Of course this was an error in the data, but it definitely had some weird weather effects as a result! Incidentally, you can get an idea of performance from the current interim version, 4.167, available in the FSX downloads above. If you enable the changes to FS's own weather (Miscellaneous tab) and the Graduated visibility, it will be doing exactly the same as the wind smoothing one will -- it won't add anything to this to do wind smoothing as well. However, I'm making the interval factor modifiable on the Winds tab so you can do experiments with it. It won't stay there, I hope, once we know how it performs and what to set it to. I'm on schedule to release 4.168 in the Downloads section sometime tomorrow (Monday). Regards Pete