Pete Dowson

Oh dear. That is very strange. I have already had a separate response from someone else for whom 3.716 "fixed" them. Neither posted here. It is very unhelpful if folks do this and never report it here, or even write to me in other wayts. I really cannot afford the time to be a web browser. Well, it wouldn't be a waste of time if we could get to the bottom of it, but it isn't easy when everyone simply decides to stick with an older version, and even in the majority of cases not bother to report it. But that's your choice. Anyway, now I know you can make it happen in 3.716 I will try to reproduce it here. If I can do this under debugging conditions there is a good chance I can work out a fix or a work-around for it. It is probably a case of timing, where data for one type of aircraft no longer exists for another. There are precautions taken for this, but timings may be critical. There was no way I could debug anything with 3.71 because I don't keep copies of original sources going back so many releases. Regards Pete

It isn't particularly limited. The tables internally alloow for 255 simultaneous connections, but a few of those should be left free for re-connection attempts in the event of errors. I suspect the real limit is imposed by Windows sockets -- the maximum number of sockets it can allocate is specified somewhere in the network properties. That may be limited to something like 128 or even less. Regards Pete

I am assuming you are talking about using FSUIPC offsets? Or are you reading gauge variables direct in FS? It would help if you gave the context of your question. If FSUIPC, can you tell me what offset it is which tells you whether it is a Boeing or Cessna? I don't think I know that one. The main aircraft type offset, at 0609, tells you whether it is a prop or jet or helo or glider, and the offset 0AEC tells you how many engines it has. There are offsets which give you the full "title" of the aircraft, from the Aircraft.CFG file, and other offsets giving other information from that file, such as the ATC type and so on, but all they do is reflect whatever it is that the user or aircraft designer enters into those fields in the CFG files. Please clarify your question somewhat so I can help. Regards Pete

Are you running FS in Windowed or full screen mode? Isn't FSPassengers a module of FS, part of FS, not a separate EXE? I think you have to write an FS module. Have you checked what the programs you are talking about consist of? Regards Pete

Yes, but if it it only WideFS you are concerned with, why worry about FSUIPC'sINI? Pete

First, the only thing you can't stop: if FS loses the focus you will lose the FS sound. You cannot transfer focus (keyboard and mouse input) to a separate process without the original program losing focus, and if FS doesn't have focus it stops the sound. The pausing on loss of focus is an option in FS which you can turn off. I don't remember which menu it is in, you'll need to look through them. You shouldn't be able to minimize FS except deliberately, unless of course you are running it in full screen mode. In full screen mode nothing else can use the screen --- by definition. If you want to share the screen between FS and your program you will have to run FS in Windowed mode. Regards Pete

Apart from possibly upgrading to the FSUIPC 3.716 avaialble above, I certainly don't see the point of uninstalling and reinstalling FSUIPC or wideFS DLLs. they are code. they don't change except from version to version. Unless you have edited the INI files there's no point in reinstalling those either. Have you edited them? Are you using winXP throughout by the way? If you haven't been changing the INI files i don't want to see them. I can look at mine! ;-) Log files are made each time you run FS. Regards Pete

10 minutes!?!!??? 10 seconds is pushing it! What do the logs show? sounds like you have something pretty seriously wrong. It always helps if you have static IP addresses on ALL your PCs on a Network, and your Router too. but it wouldn't account for your long long long connection time. If it is taking 10 minutes or more before it can even see the Server, it is certain to go wrong later too. I really cannot imagine any sceneraio where such a time would be possible. assuming both ends are running WinXP, the Server sends out its details every second, so 2-10 seconds for initialisation is normal. 3.71 is an FSUIPC version number. WideServer version 6 would hsave to be 6.71 or you have an explanation already -- WideFS 3 would be about 6 years old and certainly not very compatible with recent versions. Regards Pete

There's no such thing as a "proper" or "improper" INI file, and there's nothing you can set that will cause CTDs or fix CTDs if something is causing them. Much more important information would be in the FSUIPC.LOG file, but even then, if it is FSUIPC you are having problems with, the Log would show the problem and you wouldn't get a CTD. I assume you are using version 3.716? If not, try that first. Regards Pete

I've not used EPIC for a long time, but axis values could surely be used for V/S too if needed? Is it the EPIC negative number problem? PM doesn't change for FSX, so why isn't the same facility there? FS itself has always had INC/DEC facilities too of course, in FSX just as in all previous releases -- AP VS VAR INC and DEC. These are the ones used by mouse clicks on the MCP. Regards Pete

It's a facility to remove ATC ops in FS9 and patch some parts of FS which otherwise cause CTDs when you have ATC switched off. These are caused by a known bug in FS9, to do with COM1 frequency tuning with ATC windows suppressed. If you use FS's ATC windows then you don't need to use the FSUIPC facility at all. If you look at the current FSUIPC User Guide you will find a complete sub-section on this -- it is even listed in the contents at the front. Regards Pete

Your problem is that you are not telling WideClient the name of your Server, nor the Protocol you wish it to use. This is only automatic with Win2000, WinXP or, now Vista. With Win98 you need to edit the INI file and add the appropriate parameters, just as in all the older versions of WideFS for the last 10+ years. The system used to find the Server automatically cannot work with WinMe or Win98 or before. Please, please, please check the documentation. Regards Pete

No, not a mistake -- it is the latest on official user release, and it is supported, but the support necessarily leads to me asking you to try the later versions. It is always worth scanning the announcements here because they are used to notify you of possible problems or changes which might affect what you are doing, as well as provide later versions to try, just in case. Well, that isn't "fixed" in my book. More like "hidden" I suspect. In all the things you said you tried I didn't note anything about the main things I would have thought obvious to try. The FS display option "Render to texture" is one option which seems to be problematic, though whether on or off I am not sure. Certainly one way has been known to be a cause of CTDs. Other things are MipMap levels, and the various other settings for stuff like filtering and anti-aliassing -- different combinations of video driver and FS settings work better than others. FS9.0 used to be a minefield of CTDs. It got a lot better after 9.1 but they din't fix them all, and most were/are involved with video rendering on changes of view or aircraft. Regards Pete

If FSBuild is running on the Client PC, not on the FS PC, then that wouldn't be the correct path in any case. The best thing to do is to "share" that path, on the FS PC, with an obvious name, like "FSPLANS", then, on the client PC, tell FSBuild that path is "\\\FSPLANS" where of course you substitute the name of the FS PC. How you actually tell FSBuild this I don't know. Sorry, but I don't have it. Regards Pete

Good! Could you update your message in the other place(s) you posted your message too, please? It may help others and save some extra threads here! ;-) Regards Pete

FSUIPC 3.65 and WideFS 6.47 are pretty old versions now and not supported. Please check the documentation. you will see that WideFS did not support GPSout until version WideFS 6.50 (and even that one was released about 16 months ago!). Please occasionally check the Announcements in this Forum, or even look in the normal downloads page for updates. Please always certainly be sure to try the latest versions before complaining about any problems or something not working. In this particular case you are attempting to use a facility that never existed in the old versions you are using. Regards Pete

Thank you. But I hope you are not misunderstanding me. The "hassle" was only in relation to the registration of applications -- especially the many hundreds of freeware ones. The registration of users, in exchange for the benefits of the many extras, such as the joystick facilities you mention, has been a success and will continue. In FSX, with Microsoft offering applications the SimConnect interface as their longer-term preferred alternative to working through FSUIPC, the prime focus for the future of FSUIPC will be in supporting and developing useful facilities for end users, rather than those for applications, in any case, so the justification for application key checking diminishes considerably. Thanking you for your support, Best Regards Pete

Since you have not registered FSUIPC, and you have no add-ons using FSUIPC, it is actually not doing anything (not sure why you are even installing it). Just because you can make CTDs happen with it installed and not without, doesn't mean it is the 'cause'. It only means that, whatever true problem is actually occurring only results in a CTD when the timing and memory arrangements are just 'so', just as occurring with that partifcular version of FSUIPC installed and not a different one. This sort of thing has happened now and then through the life of FS and FSUIPC, and with and without other add-ons, and from your description is likely to be one of several things: 1. A video driver problem. It may be worth trying to change some of the settings, in the drivers and/or in FS -- things like "render to texture" in the display settings are often very sensitive in this way. It may also be worth trying different versions of the video drivers. Trial and error is the key. 2. A corrupted file. If you had the problem before, then re-formatted the HDD and re-installed everything and still get it, then this is less likely of course. But otherwise known causes are bad WX files, especially if loaded by the default flight (which you cannot stop loading without editing the FS9.CFG file), or a corrupt graphics file, either for scenery textures or aircraft. You could also try using the latest interim version of FSUIPC, 3.716, which can be downloaded from one of the Announcements above. There's as much difference between 3.71 and 3.716 as there was between 3.70 and 3.71 (3.716 will be released as 3.72 before the end of the month). You say: but the first is certainly different ("my fs9 ONLY crashes in MP sessions"), has no mention of FSUIPC at all, and the thread stops after the suggestion "You're not using internet explorer 7 are you? If so then just delete OLEACC.DLL in the FS2004 root folder.", which seems to suggest that this cleared it up. The second reference actually contradicts you in effectively showing it couldn't be FSUIPC: Of those add-ons, the PMDG aricraft and SB3 both use FSUIPC -- no CTDs. GE Pro does not use FSUIPC, it is pure graphics - CTD. That certainly suggests video driver problems or corrupted graphics files. The only posting related to FSUIPC in that thread is your own. You say there "Read pete's forums and other have same problem." but that is very misleading as the only un-resolved post here like that is yours. :-( You also said this I have nothing to do with SimFlight forums other than answering messages in this one and being able to delete and arrange them. Someone in Simflight deals with registrations and user IDs. Then you say but the first gave no other information and stopped immediately the suggestion from Bob arrived about the ATC bug in FS9 which certainly is a known cause of CTDs, and the second is the one you refer to above, which is not even in my Forum and doesn't mention FSUIPC, only GE Pro as the cause. I would be grateful if, when you want support, you always first try the latest updates -- the Announcements at the top of this forum always tell you what is going on, and provide updates which may be good but simply have not made it to full user release status yet. Regards Pete

Correct. It was becoming too much of a hassle. With SimConnect being the MS "preferred" FS interface for the future, and that being "free" (except for new development effort of course), I saw no point in forcing key checks for FSUIPC access any more. No process needed other than you telling your users to use the most recent versions of FSUIPC -- 3.71 or later. ;-) Regards Pete

Because all of FSUIPC4's "reads" are from an internal area populated by updates automatically sent by SimConnect when they change, variable reads are always valid. Actually 11D4 was the pointer to the SIM1 modules data area, and was zero when SIM1 wasn't loaded. Since FS2002 the SIM1 module has been resident, so it hasn't really been of much use. I did fiddle it in FS2002 days for internal use, but it really doesn't quite mean what you think it means now. It is actually marked as "not applicable" for FS2004 and it certainly isn't for FSX. The best "busy" indicators, which are more likely to show when FS is not changing values (in FS2004 or later especially) are those in bytes 3364 and 3365, which can be read as a 16-bit value and tested for zero. If you think it would be useful I could simply set 11D4 zero when 3364 or 3365 are non-zero and vice versa. Would that help? I'm not really sure what you mean by "post-read processing errors". Are you getting invalid values in some offsets? Yes, as documented. It is what SimConnect supplies, and I have retained the whole path in case there is a possibility of referring to aircraft outside the main FS path. Are you suggesting it isn't desirable? I could strip off the FS part if present, or leave it intact if not, but I would think it more generally usable as supplied. Ah! Great! Thank you very much! I assume you are working from the latest list, downloadable above and updated for FSUIPC 4.067? Regards Pete

I assume this is with FSX? Most things aren't controlled by "offsets" at all -- offsets are identifiers which represent programmable values, many dating back as far as FS98 and maintained for compatibility over all the FS releases since then. Most cockpit functions will be controlled by what I call "FS controls" and Microsoft refer to (internally at least) as events. You only had to ask, or better, use FSUIPC event logging and see what control does what. You could do the same here. They must be new controls in FSX as I don't recall any in previous versions for these functions -- those cockpit sporting such knobs were mouse-controlled as far as I recall (or maybe keyboard for add-ons like PMDG aircraft). There's a list of FSX controls installed in the FSX modules folder for you when you install FSUIPC4. However, I've glanced through that and I don't see anything useful for this. How do you do it in the FSX cockpit? If you can switch on FSUIPC's event logging and use the relevant keys (or that GoFlight unit) then you should be able to find out. If you can find the control numbers then they can be written to offset 3110, if your system can only work with offsets. Usually it is easier to program a button, switch or key. Regards Pete

I assume this is with FSX? Most things aren't controlled by "offsets" at all -- they are programmable values, most dating back as far as FS98 and maintained for compatibility over all the FS releases since then. Most cockpit functions will be controlled by what i call "FS controls" and Microsoft refer to (internally at least) as events. You only had to ask, or better, use FSUIPC event logging and see what control does what. You could do the same here. They must be new controls in FSX as I don't recall any in previous versions for these functions -- those cockpit sporting such knobs were mouse-controlled as far as I recall (or maybe keyboard for add-ons like PMDG aircraft). There's a list of FSX controls installed in the FSX modules folder for you when you install FSUIPC4. However, I've glanced through that and I don't see anything useful for this. How do you do it in the FSX cockpit? If you can switch on FSUIPC's event logging and use the relevant keys (or that GoFlight unit) then you should be able to find out. If you can find the control numbers then they can be written to offset 3110, if your system can only work with offsets. Usually it is easier to program a button, switch or key. Regards Pete

Thanks Nico for jumping in. But I'm still not clear. Okay. I assume he has instructions for that with his encoder ... Ah, so the positions are denoted by the individual bits, not the value itself. Ok, in that case, yes, that sounds fine. Are there only 6 range values supported in a 767? There are 8 in a 737NG (5nm to 640nm). Again, values 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32? Surely there are not 6 modes? The normal is 4 modes, APP, VOR. MAP, PLN. From what you've told me, yes. But I don't know the aircraft nor the offset usage. Sorry. Regards Pete

I'm afraid I know nothing about the LDS767 nor how it interfaces to anything at all. The only dumb questions are those that remain unasked. But I'm sorry, I don't know how to help with this question since I simply don't know anything about the aircraft and not very much about FSCONV. Most add-on aircraft either use mouseclicks for special functions, in which case programming is difficult (maybe needing Luciano Napolitano's Key2Mouse), or do have keyboard shortcuts assigned (as in the case of the PMDG aircraft). I think the LDS767 aircraft does have a software development kit (SDK) to allow control via FSUIPC, but that's about as far as I know. Hopefully some one else will be able to help. Is there an LDS forum? Or maybe one for FSCONV? Regards Pete

Sorry, I have absolutely no experience of any basic do-it-yourself cards since I stopped using EPIC. I do have some ready-made GoFlight modules with rotaries, toggles and buttons and they work well. Pete