Pete Dowson

In that case it should be fine. What version of FSUIPC are you using anyway? Pete

Reinstalling never does, as the same program overwrites the same program and it is highly unlikely you managed to corrupt it on disk. When you used the axis assignment you probably turned off the Joystick in FS. Did you remember to turn it back on again and check all the FS assignments? The normal calibrations in FSUIPC need assignments done someplace - if not FSUIPC then FS. Pete

Not on the part you show. I could really do with seeing a complete log including the closing lines as they show me things too. Close FS down before getting the Log. Sounds like a scenery or texture problem, or just possibly a corrupt weather file being loaded initially. First thing to try is deleting (or moving to a safe place) your FS9.CFG file, and letting FS make another one. If that fixes it, gradually set your options the way you like them, and try, carefully, loading aircraft and flights. You may find the one which breaks it that way. Regards Pete

But you said "and other gauges (MFC, PFD, etc... all gauges are original window disancored of default 737 FSX) ". In other words it appears you said all those gauges are FS gauges, undocked and moved in their own windows. Did you not actually mean that? If they are separate programs, like those from Project Magenta, which interface to FSUIPC then they will either have to interface to the FSUIPC in the FS on your PC2, or run in a separate PC from FS under WideClient. If "OGS" is indeed a separate program using FSUIPC, then, yes, you are completely correct. You cannot run it on the same PC as FS and have it talking to another FS via WideFS. It isn't possible because WideClient is "pretending" to be FS -- it looks like FS to the program. And you can't have two FS's running together. If the FSUIPC program you want to run is yours, and you can change it, then you could tell it to connect to a different Window class name -- there's a facility to run WideClient with a different class name (see the docs). But most programs interfacing to FSUIPC have fixed class name requirements. Regards Pete

It works fine from here, I just tried it from your message! Yes. Please see the main FSUIPC SDK available from http://www.schiratti.com/dowson. It works the same way. The intent is for everything in the main table there (at least) work the same in FSX. The document you couldn't load does include some extra stuff for FSX, but not a lot. Do note that not all controls you can send to AI are obeyed by them. they only operate a very small subset. Best to check first using the Microsoft Traffic Explorer facilities (available for FS9 and the Deluxe version of FSX). I don't think FSX AI will obey more than their FS9 counterparts, so you can always check first in FS9. Regards Pete

Phew. Some real antique programs you have there! G2D is not third party, it is one of the main graphics modules essential to FS. Disabled G2D? Huh? It is a fundamental essential part of FS. You can't disable it, and you most certainly must not remove it! No. How? If a complete new installation of FS doesn't fix it, then you probably aren't actually uninstalling everything first. Start by deleting your FS2002.CFG file and reloading FS. Else uninstall and re-install. Neither. It is an essential part of FS, dealing with processing scenery and texture BGLs. G2D deals with the 2D graphics overlays, like runways, roads, ground textures and so on. There's also a G3D which deals with 3D objects. If FS is regularly crashing in G2D then the most likely problem area is scenery or textures, or, less likely, graphics drivers or settings. It will have nothing whatsoever to do with FSUIPC, and it shouldn't have much to do with ActiveSky unless the latter came with new cloud textures, or it is trying to set weather and bad cloud textures are being loaded. Regards Pete

Oh dear. You are reading the answer to the first message, before you showed me you were not using the throttle lever as an axis (i.e. continuous throttle adjustments), but merely to send Key Presses to your aircraft. That is of course totally different and the business of setting a correct idle axis value (0) doesn't apply at all! Please stick to this one thread otherwise you will get yourself very very confused! I'm afraid I've no idea what you are talking about here. Your 2nd message seemed to show you wanted the throttle axis to send keystrokes, not axis values at all, so how come you now want axis values instead? I'm afraid I've no idea how the aircraft you are trying to fly does anything. Have you tried asking the suppliers of the aircraft, or their support? Don't they supply any documentation on this stuff? No idea what you mean by "copy the figures". Why are you messing about in the INI file at all? Just use the on-line options pages. If there is an axis which is moving control surfaces all on its own then it is broken. You have bad hardware. On the other hand if you have more than one assignment to the same axis, then they will conflict and cause the axis to alternate between the two inputs. Check for duplicated assignments. Regards Pete

No, WideFS does not connect FSX to FSX. Correct. But then you do not need WideFS in any case. WideFS is to link FSUIPC applications running on a PC without FS to the PC which is running FS. All of your listed uses for the two PCs are for FSX things, not FSUIPC applications. Regards Pete

Your FSUIPC key is not valid then. The expiry date is only approximate in any case. I've no idea why or how you are managing to get time-limited keys in any case when they are not for Project Magenta. does Katy know you are using them for other purposes? Regards Pete

Yes, but you need to calibrate INSIDE the range -- those figures need to be less. Otherwise you cannot move the leves beyond those values in order to trigger the key press. There are other German English-speakers here sometimes. Maybe they can help. Regards Pete

They are pretty meaningless on their own, aren't they? I didn't realise you weren't using the throttle as an Axis but as a series of key presses. Looks like you have four zones where you are sending a "NumPad+" key when the change is upwards, and four pressing a "Numpad-" key when the change is downward. Correct? Is see that the extreme ranges in each case end in 16383 and -16363 respectively. That might be your problem, because thoseare the theoretical maximum and minimum values attainable -- they cannot be exceeded. In turn this would mean that the throttle movement can never move OUT of those zones in the right direction, so never actually operate the final Numpad+ or Numpad-. Try to recalibrate the change positions with some free space at both extremes. Regards Pete

You need to calibrate for an output value of 0 (zero) at idel. That would get N1% down to its normal idle -- but don't go by the N1 reading, view the FS throttle quadrant. You cannot reverse until the throttles are pulled back to idle. I'll look there. Try to keep to one thread per subject next time please. Regards Pete

Yes, but of course the documentation isn't perfect, and I can answer specific questions here. That's what the Forum is for. And the documentation has been gradually improved by including answers from here into it as time goes by. In fact I think it even says that somewhere. Of course. Regards, Pete

Ouch! Actually, if the registry was pointing to the wrong place, you could have re-installed FSUIPC4 (using the Installer program). It would have asked you to find FSX.EXE and then offered to fix that Registry link for you. Okay. Good luck! Regards Pete

Sorry, I didn't mean it to come over quite like that. But it did seem odd having apparently clear instructions so badly misquoted to me, to make such a simple situation look complicated. I do try hard, and WideFS has stood the test of time (being my oldest FS package by far, dating back to FS95). I do tend to find it best to make the programs simpler to use so that most of the documentation is not relevant most of the time. With WideFS 99% of users can simply put WideClient.EXE on their client PCs, run it, enable WideServer on the FS PC, and it all just works. That's the idea. The fact that you need to actually DOWNLOAD the WideFS package in the first place shouldn't really be a surprise, surely? I you want to use a package, you download it. It is that simple! You were, on that web page. It told you to get WideFS 6.75, which you took to mean, apparently "FSUIPC 6.75" (which doesn't exist). If you had downloaded the package you would have found documentation. Well done. That's more than 99% of folks do. And 90% of the documentation is for reference. You only need to refer to those parts if you want to use the frills. It works out of the box without twiddling unless you have an unusual set up. Really? Where does that sort of confusion arise? The documentation for WideFS would tell you if you need an FSUIPC registration. Why would you expect it to say “You don’t need an FSUIPC registration”? There are lots of things you don't need. Surely it should only tell you what you do need? Thanks. That doesn't help a lot does it? Maybe we should finish here. Regards Pete

What sort of problems? No. But I'd like to know what the problems were. Regards Pete

I have no website. Presumably you mean Mr. Schiratti's? He's the only one kind enough to host all my programs, freeware as well. Yes, exactly, and nothing like what you quoted. It does EXPLICITLY state you need the WideClient program from the WideFS package. No. Why? Please explain. Obviously misquoting it to BE confusing will confuse, but reading it correctlysurely not? Quite honestly, if you are confused already, please think again before embarking on multiple PC setups for FS. As a "noob" it may be best to stick to one PC for a while, don't you think? Regards Pete

WideServer 7, to be exact No it doesn't. WideFS works with the WideClient provided in the WideFS 6.75 package -- or in fact any WideClient from any recent release. WideServer is HALF of WideFS. For a Server there is a Client. The Server runs in FS, the Client runs in the other PCs. Changing the version of FS running in the Server PC doesn't affect the Clients at all, so the same WideClient is used for all versions of FS -- from FS95 through FS98, FS2000, FS2002, FS2004 and FSX. Even CFS1 and CFS2 would use the same WideClient. All that happened in FSX was that WideServer, which used to be a separate module in FS, was absorbed into FSUIPC4. WideFS documentation is included in the WideFS.zip package, which you should have downloaded (as explained in the "blurb" you misqoted. ;-) ) You need ALL of the WideFS package with the sole exception of the little bit called WideServer.DLL which is only needed in versions of FS before FSX. FSX's own SimConnect provides Network support, without WideFS. WideFS provides network extension for FSUIPC client programs. If that's what you are interested in then the obvious place to start is to download WideFS and read the documentation. Regards Pete

The airport name is included in the BGLs, but I have never had any cause to extract it. I assume most programs use a look-up table, using the ICAO ID. I cannot change any of the current file formats to add this information, but I guess I could produce another file containing just ICAO ID, Lat, Lon, Alt and Name. But I am fairly busy at present. If you have a real need for this, write to me at petedowson@btconnect.com and I'll put in somewhere on my "to do" list. For those airports which are also Weather stations there are files providing this information, installed by FS into its Weather sub-folder. "wxmapping.bin" is an index of names. Regards Pete

It won't even get loaded by FSX. It isn't supported even on FS9 or before these days, being replaced with the new FSUIPC window facility. The FSUIPC window facility, introduced into FSUIPC when AdvDisp was discontinued, is not a green bar across the screen, but a titled sizeable window which can be docked or undocked the same as any other FS window and which gets remembered in saved flights. Please do read the FSUIPC documentation some time. It does explain the window facilities quite early on, in both FSUIPC 3 and 4 user guides. Incidentally, your "silly green bar" is also actually undockable and sizeable. You are merely referring to its default state. There is also a freeware program called "ShowText", included in the WideFS package, which operates somewhat similarly to AdvDisp's window except that it is a separate program, primarily so that it can be used on a WideFS client PC. Regards Pete

No, if it accepts NMEA data on a serial port then it shouldn't be able to distinguish what it gets from FSUIPC/GPSout from a real GPS. But unless you send it the right data at the right speed then it likely won't do anything at all. PortMon will show whether you have FSUIPC/GPSout/WideFS set up correctly. Then it's between that and your mapping program, which I cannot help you with. GPSout was originally written for use with a simple 3 wire serial cable, of course. It was only the discovery of virtual serial port programs like MixW which allowed the Networking method to be used. If there's no other reason for your Network connection then a plain serial port to serial port connection would be simpler -- but you'd need a USB serial port adapter for your laptop, obviously. And if you don't want to make up your own 3-wire cable then you'd need what's called a "null modem" cable too. Pete

Yes-- enable GPSout in FSUIPC4, and select WideFS there. As described in the documentation. Sorry, I've no idea what your "Anywhere" program accepts. Try all of the standard NMEA ones first, then remove them one by one. No, but you need to set the speed in WideClient.INI too. Try using the handy PortMon program, free from http://www.sysinternals.com, to see what the ports are doing. It logs the initialisations and the data transactions. Regards Pete

I've found the problem. It'll be fixed in the next interim update. Meanwhile you will find it works okay if you re-enable the Connection Checks (an option on the main tab) and re-boot. The codes which sets up the links appears to get bypassed if you elect to bypass the connection checks. Watch for a new version in the FSX downloads announcement within the next few days, maybe a week at most. Thanks, Pete

Thank you for that very nice post. I am glad you like my program and hope it continues to meet or exceed your expectations! Regards Pete

Hi Glen, Checking through the code in both FSUIPC4 and PFCFSX, the difference between PFC button actions whilst in normal flight and how they are treated in the FSUIPC options screen is that in the former case they are fed to FSUIPC explicitly by PFCFSX, but in the latter case FSUIPC4 calls a routine in PFCFSX to get the current "pressings". In this latter case, PFCFSX has to supply the pointer to this routine. If it doesn't, then we'll get the symptoms you describe. Before I work on that basis, this can be checked fairly easily. Please load up FSX, go to the FSUIPC options screen and select the Hot Keys tab. Is there a Hot Key option for "Restart PFC Driver"? If not, that's this routine omitted -- so I'd need to add more logging to the PFC module, not to FSUIPC4. Thanks, Pete