Pete Dowson

I am sorry but Version 3.52 is now 17 months old and hasn't been supported since January 2006 when 3.53 was released. I am not going to answer questions on old versions. The current version is 3.74. Please update first. Regards Pete

FSUIPC4 is not FSUIPC3. The keys sold for FSUIPC3 work on all versions of FSUIPC3. That is one payment for well over three years now of continuous development and support. I had to almost start again for FSUIPC4. Please read your receipts. You purchased a key for FSUIPC3, not 4. All the documentation, the paybooths, the download site, everything separates these as products. What sohws you are registerd, FSUIPC3 or FSUIPC4? If you have and FSUIPC4 key and you registered then you get all the benefits. What is your confusion? No, Version 3 was, back when FS2004 was released. Version 4 only came out for FSX last September. Good. So what is your problem? Regards Pete

Where does this "runkey" parameter come in? Didn't you read the documentation: In other words you can do RunKey1=c:\programme\freefd\eadi.exe and Keysend3=runkey1 and that KeySend will run "eadi.exe" when sent from FSUIPC! Starting and Stopping programs isn't what you want at all, so why are you copying parameters blindly out of a section about how to do that? Why not, instead, read this part: There are even examples there for you to see, in black and white! So, for one of your programs: Run1=c:\programme\freefd\eadi.exe and Keysend3=87,8,Run1 See how the "Run1" parameter matches the parameter telling it which program to send it to? What could be easier? It does say "this is by far the easiest and, usually, the most reliable way." (or, at least, it does now after I corrected the "bar far" to "by far"! ;-) ) Please do read the documentation a little more slowly. You are making things much harder than they really are. Regards Pete

Okay. Thnks for letting me know. I wonder why the time setting has any relevance, though? Regards Pete

I'll have a look over the weekend. I may have to ask you do do a variety of tests if it doesn't look obvious. Regards Pete

It has to maintain the offset image. The SimConnect interface is asynchronous. ou don't ask and get, you ask "to be notified", then, when the value is ready and Simconnect decides to reply, you get notified. It's a server/client model, quite different from how FSUIPC used to interface to FS. It's efficient enough, as it only gets notified of changes, which are in surprisingly small info blocks per frame. And by always getting all the information, not continually changing the data definitions to suit each application as it comes and goes it is smoother and much more efficient in terms of memory usage. FSUIPC 1 through 3 are the same, except synchronous because of the direct reads. All the overheads are out of the way in the first seconds -- EXCEPTING of course when a timeout causes a re-initialisation, then you have all the overhead all over again. If you look at one of the initialisations in the SimConnect long you will see what is involved. The log file isn't relevant. It is recreated on each new session in any case. I hope you won't find some application which you want to use which is more time critical, as I think there will be a need to resolve the problems on your installation then. Maybe SP1 will resolve them anyway -- here's hoping. Please do check the logs again after SP1 and let me know. Regards Pete

That's obtained by sending the string "Hello world" to FSUIPC offset 3380 and then writing a control value to offset 32FA. Please check the SDK documentation. It sounds like the provided test application is designed to do exactly this, in other words the FS equivalent of the standard Hello World test used for introducing every language! What did you expect it to do? Is there no source code in the example? Pete

Maybe it is this additional SimConnect client which is clobbering things? ;-) How many SimVars does your program read? How many Events is it intercepting? Does it get positional and other information on every AI aircraft every time they move? If you read them all, as FSUIPC does, based on changes, every frame not only every 166 milliseconds, would it build up TCP/IP queues, as appears to be happening to cause these 5 second timeouts? If you are happy with everything, that's fine. Sorry if I was worried about your problems. :-( Regards Pete

How strange. I've not made any changes in that area that I know ofbut it is a long time ago, relatively speaking. The current version is 3.74 of course. I have no Goflight equipment. If you had reported this with 3.72 it might have been so much easier to locate. Now it will be next to impossible! :-( Why didn't you ask before? I'll try, but I cannot track back changes over 4 versions, only the last one or two. I always thought that to be enough!! What button numbers are they in 3.71? Pete Best regards Jose

Well, it hasn't solved it so much as worked around it for now. As long as you don't have any uses for FSUIPC which cannot tolerate 5 second delays in receiving information, orhaving FSX acting on it, you are okay. Since SimConnect is supposed to keep FSUIPC abreast of all Sim Values on every single change, or per frame, having it only update values at 5 second intervals, even if only occasionally, is not good at all and most certainly indicates some serious problem in your installation. Regards Pete

A key for FSUIPC4 is valid for all FSUIPC4's, but WideFS needs a separate key. Please check the documentation and visit SimMarket where you'll find a discount if you purchase both together (though it may be too late for that it seems!). Regards Pete

All versions of FSUIPC have had registration optional. You just don't get all the user facilties. Please read the User documentation, it does explain what you get and what you don't. The key is never asked for, you enter one if you purchase one. Regards Pete

Yes, the interface is the same. Regards Pete

Hmmm. Most have said the at least the free version of AVG gives them no problems. If you have no firewalls and no spy-sweeper type programs, but you do have AVG installed on both PCs, I would suggest trying to uninstall it on one of them as a test. I can of course simply take out the stall detection in FSUIPC4 and allow it to simply stop working when SimConnect data traffic quits -- that's what it used to do in the very early releases -- but this sort of silent failure is not nice and makes it look as if FSUIPC is to blame. Have you tried extending its timeout as I suggested? Maybe you are getting periods of very low frame rates. The SimConnect log should show what is happening from its point of view. Every single visual FS frame there should be listed an event and several data frames sent to FSUIPC. If these stop for more than a few seconds, FSUIPC reports it in its log then re-initialises the SimConnect connection -- that causes an immense amount more data in the Simconnect log because every single Sim Variable and control has to be added again to each of the data sets maintained in the link. Incidentally, I use Norton Anti-Virus which is always fully engaged even when running FS, and have never had any problems, but I only use the Windows Firewall, if at all. I had to scrap ZoneAlarm as it didn't get on with SimConnect at all, and many reported that all the McAfee stuff is incompatible too. Quite a few folks switched over to the freeware AVG so I thought that was okay. Regards Pete

Well, in that case you should be having no trouble at all with stalling. It is really sounding like either a security program conflict or a bad Simconnect install. i've no idea, sorry. I've never had any of these problems on any system -- three under XP and one very recently on Vista Ultimate. I have the VFR X scenery installed on one of the XP PCs. All I can say is that some folks who've had such problems have fixed them by re-installing Simconnect -- so it is worth a try. I don't know if MS has discovered why that part of the FSX install sometimes doesn't work properly, but it is certain that it sometimes doesn't. Possibly it is, again, related to other software on the system. Okay. Regards Pete

But on XP the FSUIPC files are still in the FSX\Modules folder. I only moved them for Vista because Vista stops me writing to that folder when FSX is installed in PRogram Files (the default) unless FSX is "run as administrator". But what's the problem if the were always FSUIPC4.xxx for FSUIPC4 data files? Sorry, I'm missing something here -- if I don't correct this blunder it will make life more difficult for me if they have different names as I'll be saying things like "check your xxx file" or "show me ..." etc and getting responses like "I don't have any such file". There won't be any work for you -- FSUIPC4 will simply rename the files for you. Something is seriously wrong then. What are your frame rates like? Are they dropping way down? Check the SimConnect log, see if there's anything odd there. I've only ever known this to happen with overloaded PCs and multiple clients, unless Simconnect has been messed up (re-install it) or you have some firewall or antivirus program blocking the TCP/IP routes. Have you only recently moved to FSX, or only just noticed this problem? Pete

It's been mentioned many many times and has always come down to one or a combination of three things: 1. Such an appalling frame rate in FSX that it sometimes drops so low as to invoke a timeout in FSUIPC. 2. Multiple clients clamouring for Simconnect attention on an already overloaded PC. 3. Third party programs, usually security things, slowing down the TCP/IP processing and building up queues and thereby invoking FSUIPC's safety timeouts. 4. A bad Simconnect nistall. What other programs have you got using SimConnect? This won't be something new in 4.09. Have you checked the SimConnect log or tried re-installing SimConnect as per the FSX Help above? You could try increasing FSUIPC's timeout, but there could stil be related problems like severe latency in responses and so on. The relevant parameter is SimConnectStallTime, which controls the timeout from 1 second (default) up to 9 seconds. Adjustment should really ever only be needed on systems where the normal frame rate drops to 1 fps or less. I have no idea, at present, sorry. There have been enough complaints about how frail SimConnect is with multiple clients and other TCP/IP processing programs, so one would hope MS would have been able to look at it and sort it. But I've never been able to reproduce any similar problems here on any of four FSX installations, so it is going to be difficult for me to check if there are improvements. It may be a matter of getting feedback, again, from those who do see such problems. I think it must be very much associated with other things on specific systems, usually programs interfering with the TCP/IP processing and getting the exchanges bogged down. Ooops! So it is -- Ouch! And the KEY and INI files too have lost their '4'. :-( This must have happened in the process of moving them to the "My Documents/Flight Simulator X Files" folder! I'm going to have to rename them else documentation and so forth will be wrong! Drat! That's have to wait till after SP1 now. Regards Pete

Okay. How's this? Pete

What made you think FSUIPC4 could add weather effects to FSX if it doesn't provide them in any case? I am not aware of a lack of turbulence in FSX, but if this is the case it should be reported. Too late now for the forthcoming SP1 update I fear. Please be clear, too, whether you mean cloud turbulence (which I think does work), or wind turbulence (which I am less sure of). Have you actually tried setting turbulence in FSX itself, in the weather menus (select user-defined then go through the Advanced menus)? As explained elsewhere, I pretty much gave up on FSX weather for the first user release as there were too many problems. I advised folks not to use the FSUIPC filter options, yet - and most certainly not the "change FS's own weather" option. I have more hope for these facilities in the upcoming SP1 update for FSX, where I hope they have fixed some if not all of the problems. In general you have to use it twice, I think, but I'll re-check that. It operates by trying to put the FSX weather into Global mode, then sending a Global all-clear METAR. After that it probably sends a command to put FSX back into whatever mode it was before (else I'd get complaints that FSUIPC changes weather modes). Maybe this brings back the localised weather from the stations -- I'll have to check. I'll check all this in the SP1 update and hopefully get back to looking at the FSUIPC weather facilities once more when that's available at last. ;-) Gusts are variations in wind speed. There's also variance which are variations in wind direction. Both may seem like turbulence, but they are not the same effect. Turbulence should have a high change frequency but, usually, less amplitude. Maybe your friend is mixing them up? And if he got them, why don't you? Best, especially as things stand at present, when flying on-line or with ActiveSky to let those programs deal with the weather. Click the button on FSUIPC's first tab to set minimum weather interference. Let us re-visit this when SP1 is available. I honestly think expecting any predicatble control with FSX as it is at present is a little optimistic. Regards Pete

I don't understand this really. What is button 27? When is it pressed? And then why you have the button send a key which sends a control. Why not have the control programmed on the button instead of the keypress? The Flags are only used in Conditions, they don't represent the real setting of a switch for the prime operation. flags are referenced via the "F" letter in the Condition parentheses. I really don't understand exactly how you are tring to do this thing. What is your method of operating this facility? It sounds like what you really want is a latching switch, not a button. Is that right? If so, use your button to toggle a bit in the Virtual Button offsets (3340), and program that virtual button to (conditionally) send the control for offset 3478 repetitively. I still don't see where the keypress comes in. why use it? Regards Pete

No, not without the usual DLL injection techniques used to invade any program. For those see books like "Programming Applications for Microsoft Windows" by Jeffrey Richter (Chapter 22 applies). Please see my previous reply. Regards Pete

No, they are not. There is no automatic loading system for modules simply by providing them with certain exports and placing them in the Modules folder. To start with there is no Modules folder (the one you might have is created by FSUIPC4's installer specifically for FSUIPC4 files and my other modules). And the old exports aren't used. You can make modules and have them loaded automatically. You just need the SimConnect SDK and its documentation, which is provided in the FSX Deluxe package, though it has to be installed separately. Look on the DVDs. There's also an update for it already, on the official MS Flight Sim website. Regards Pete

Not all add-ons, only those which ask SimConnect for data before FSX is ready to supply it, like, it seems, AutoThumbnail, which has affected three users posting here so far. And if you install a signed add-on, like FSUIPC4, you can tell Windows to trust the publisher so that prompt doesn't occur with any further new installs from the same one. I'm hoping that the problem in SimConnect / FSX will be fixed in the SP1 update, but in case it isn't it is a good idea to tell the authors of the relevant programs that they really need to wait for a "SimStart" event before asking for data on objects. It isn't a difficult change -- I did it in FSUIPC4 as soon as we learned of this problem. Regards Pete

This is due to the combination of another SimConnect add-on you have installed, one which improperly asks SimConnect for data before FSX is ready, and a bug in FSX which causes the crash when it produces its Security question at the same time. Please refer to threads http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=61355 and http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=61026 When you find the culprit add-on I'd be grateful if you could contact the author and tell him of this. I cannot fix anything in FSUIPC because FSX is crashing before it is even loaded! The same would occur with any new add-on, by the way. You can easily stop FSX coming up with this prompt for my new versions if you tell Windows to trust me "Peter L Dowson". Check the drop down when you do get the prompt to read. I paid for a proper security code-signing licence specifically so you could do this, it would be a shame to waste it. Regards Pete

It sounds like you are falling foul of the bug in FSX which causes it to crash when one program is intialising its Simconnect interface whilst FSX is asking for Security Clearance to load another. This occurs when your earlier add-on starts asking FSX for data before receiving notification that FSX is actually ready. Hopefully this will be fixed in the forthcoming SP1 update for FSX, but meanwhile you will have to identify which of your other add-on/add-in programs for FSX is the culprit. Please refer to the thread "088 version, FSX abort": http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=61026 which is about an identical scenario. If you follow the same advice you will be able to resolve it. Regards Pete