Pete Dowson

Backwards compatible to what? The Concorde you installed is evidently not a good piece of work, as it has installed a very old version of FSUIPC, dating from BEFORE the FS9.1 update for FS2004 came out. The original FS9 was 9.00.30612. No, you have it completely backwards. You are using a very old version of FSUIPC, from before the FS9.1 release -- so it is at least 2 years old! Your bad (old?) Concorde installer must be dated from before FS9.1, and, worse, presumably it doesn't even check! There is no way a version of my program dated before FS9.1 could work with FS9.1, surely you must see that. "Backwards compatibility" means that LATER versions work on OLDER software, not vice versa, as you seem to think! :-( Download a later version of FSUIPC. The only supported version at present is 3.71 in any case. Pete

Strange. I don't know anything with such a period. Did you check the Active Sky settings to see if that was adjusting something every 5 minutes? I don't know of any settings which would be relevant to a 5 minute cycle. What settings have you made in any case? By all means enable FSUIPC's weather logging (in the Logging tab), and check the log to see if you can spot anything with such a cycle. Be warned, though, with Active Sky running the weather log can get quite big. If you've enabled the option on the Miscellaneous page to change FS's own weather, I would advise you to uncheck that for now. It can have some odd effects -- I'm waiting for the FSX weather facilities to be fixed. Regards Pete

The WideFS frame rate should match the FS frame rate. Anything around or above 20 fps should be okay -- even less does actually seem smoother in FSX than you'd think, and getting as much as 20 in FSX is not easy at present in any case! Choppy? I thought PM's display software smoothed things anyway? What's the FS frame rate? What does Wideclient show as the average frame rate? They should match within reason. The WideFs ones can be more if there is a lot of data, suffucent to warrant more than one data frame transfer for every FS frame. Run the system, see the choppiness, close FS and the clients down, then look at the WideClinet and wideServer log files. They should be clean of erros (except possibly initial connection and final disconnections), and there will be a performance summary at the end. If there are no errors, but the performance is erratic, if may be that FS isn't leaving enough time for other things to process. You'd need to limit frame rates a tad. Regards Pete

Then I didn't know it did autostart -- but as CyberAvia says above, it will be because it adds itself to the EXE.XML file in the same folder as your FSX.CFG file. Just change the relevant entry in that to show True for now. Or simply rename the file so it won't even be used. When/if MS fixes the problems of two or more Simconnect clients loading together you can change it back. Regards, Pete

Hopefully MS will fix this problem soon so such work-arounds won't be needed. Regards Pete

That's among the facilities I hope to offer when FSX's weather facilities are working correctly. As it is even the options I do provide are rather, er, unreliable or even unpredictable in their results in FSX. I am hoping that there will be a SimConnect update with the weather access sorted out, after which I will be hard at work on making all the weather options work properly. Regards Pete

I'm working on making the FSUIPC4 installer check for a Simconnect.XML file, and correcting it automatically if the "local" section is missing! ;-) Regards Pete

Seems you misread my last reply. I said "Seems that SimConnect assumes the local connection by default if you omit the file, but if you are explicitly listing connections you need to list the local one (on 127.0.0.1 I think) as well, else you won't get one." You can have multiple server ports and addresses listed. You are simply replacing one with another by only having the one entry. There was another thread showing a working XML file. didn't you look? I'm sure this was all dealt with in the Beta newsgroups as well -- didn't I see you there? Obviously MS really needs to get the documentation sorted on this one. Found the other thread now (searched on "XML". See this one http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=57373 Regards Pete

Thanks. But of course for the real problem (MP killing data from SimConnect) it's only a work-around. The solution needs to come from MS. Regards Pete

It does seem to, but as far as I know only if one of them (at least) comes up with the Security warning which you have to respond to. The folks who reproduced this said it was okay once the product(s) were approved. If you tell Windows that programs from me are trusted then it won't ask again about FSUIPC, even after an upgrade. That's why I purchased a proper software publisher's Certificate and sign my code. Also, we found that if the initialisation of the SimConnect data infterface is delayed until SimConnect signals that the Sim has "Started", the crashes don't occur. This is why I changed FSUIPC to do just that. The original reporters said that fixed it with FSUIPC plus their program, but whether it is the same with all systems and all programs is another matter. What two programs are you having trouble with? Microsoft have been told, and they know of the work-around I implemented. They've not acknowledged any of the bugs we reported yet, except the one where Multiplayer kills the data being supplied by SimConnect. I think they are rather overloaded with it all at present. Regards Pete

No, not yetbut does it actually stop there? If so then there certainly will be no FSUIPC entry in the 'Extra' menu. Can you show me a complete Log please, including FS closing? Oh, before you do that please get version 4.03 so we are talking about the same thing. Regards Pete

Okay. Thank you. I think I've found the reasonthere's one little flag which is actually uninitialised. I've fixed that. I will email 4.032 for you to try. Regards Pete

No, sorry. It was never easily accessible, and I'm not going to start hacking into FS2004 now. Regards Pete

Well done! I like to see folks solving things quicker than me! Regards Pete

If there is no Log file and no INI file then FSUIPC isn't actually being run -- FS is crashing before it gets that far. In your re-install did you again install the 9.1 update? If so try just the base 9.1 first. Also when uninstalling do you delete all the ancillary files -- the Flight files from My Documents/Flight simulator file ad the CFG file in your Documents & Settings? It may just be something wrong hungover from a previous install. Regards Pete

If you've never deleted the INI file since you changed the name, it would still be listed. It does no harm. WideFS keeps track of things so it can number buttons, as I said. Really? WideServer cannot guess at such a name -- it must actually see the connection and LOG it for it to be added. Check the Log. Might you have more than one Network connection? Anyway, back on performance, you can experiment with the "AutoUpdateTime" parameter in WideServer.INI to change the performance of the WideFS operation. Smaller number = faster scan, larger = slower. Try different values, like 4, 8, 20, 30, 50. Regards Pete

Strange. It works perfectly here. Can you show me an FSUIPC4.LOG and the INI file please? Pete

Yes, I found it. The reason I didn't recognise it is that it isn't defined in SimConnect, but in a standard WinError header file! So, yes, you are rightit simply means "an error has occurred"! How naff! :-( The SimConnect author merely agrees that the SimConnect error reporting needs improving. He cannot say what the error is yet. Of course. There's no way anything I can change in FSUIPC can get around the fact that SimConnect is simply refusing to connect. "ASL"? I don't use the expression so I don't mean anything. What does it stand for? Looking back on your previous report, I see you've created a SimConnect.XML file for remote use of SimConnect, but in that you have not allowed the default local use. I think that is the problem. If you don't have that file (rename it for now) I think FSUIPC will work. Seems that SimConnect assumes the local connection by default if you omit the file, but if you are explicitly listing connections you need to list the local one (on 127.0.0.1 I think) as well, else you won't get one. Daft I know, and I only discovered that through another user recently -- there's a thread here about it somewhere. Regards Pete

I've never heard of that before. Is FSUIPC the only file you've added to the Modules folder? Is there an INI file? Is there any FSUIPC Log file being produced in the Modules folder? There's no reason why it should help at all. Nor has any one else to my knowledge. Regards, Pete

I think it probably needs registering with Windows somehow as well as simply "being there". Good. Thanks for letting me know. Regards Pete

Yes. That is what it is for. Set everything up the way you want it, save the flight, then apply the lock. Good, shows it works! Wish I could get it working on FSX. :-( Regards Pete

Why did you uninstall and re-install FSX? Sounds like something went wrong. That message happens if either SimConnect is not installed, or the wrong version is installed. If this is the case then FSUIPC4 could not operate (nor could any other Simconnect client) even if the Installer did continue. There's been one reported incidence before of the FSX install not installing simConnect correctly. The user got that sorted eventually by contacting MS tech support and getting detailed instrcutions for a manual install. It can be done that was but it is messy. First, do a search in your Windows folder for "Simconnect.dll" -- make sure you tell Explorer's search to look in hidden and system files/folders too. It should be found in a folder lke this: C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.FlightSimulator.SimConnect_67c7c14424d61b5b_10.0.60905.0_x-ww_429211e9 If it isn't, then the FSX install went wrong. You'll need to find the SimConnect.msi file on your FSX DVDs and execute it to install SimConnect properly. Regards Pete

No, it is completely different. Have you by any chance enabled the Miscellaneous option in FSUIPC4 to allow FS's own weather to be modified? That can do it. There are bugs in the SimConnect facilities to control weather in FSX and this is one of the nastiest. I reported it duing the Beta. It produces some very weird effects on screen. If you know how to reproduce it, just before doing so enable the Weather logging in FSUIPC4. Check the METARs being logged afterwards. The ones that are returned are influencing the ones that are sent back, esepcially if you use that Miscellaneous option. And not only are the reported ones wrong, the ones sent back aren't actually obeyed correctly. This is why I recommend not using it for the time being. Regards Pete

Two things to note there. 1. 50 fps for Widefs is very very high for an average. What sort of super-processor is ther Server? What is your FS frame rate limiter set to? 2. Have you tried using UDP protocol at all, to see if it is something in the TCP/IP part of the Windows drivers? You say there's no apparent latency in the actions on the Clients, so it isn't queuing problems. I can only think that somehow the Network parts of Windows, on the Server, are getting far too much of the processor time. Can I see the INI files too please? There are parameters which can slow down WideServer, but there's not been a case needing their use in many years. I must admit never to having seen a case quite like this before, not in the seven years or more of WideFS! It's rather puzzling. Regards Pete

Well, that's really weird then, because that's al it needs for the installer to find FSX automatically. I use exactly the same standard Windows calls as all other installers will, so I think you will have problems with any other add-ons you try to install in future. If that didn't change the registry entry it shouldn't matter. You ARE installing FSUIPC as an administrator, aren't you, or a user with Admin privileges? I wonder if IE7 might change some of those types of settings? Who's we? It's only you at present I think. I can email you 4.031 not 4.03, but I still think you need to try to solve the problem. Regards Pete