Pete Dowson

FSUIPC4 is a completely rewritten program for FSX and needs new registration. There's a discount for recent purchasers of FSUIPC3. Please see the announcements. Download and install FSUIPC4 first in any case, and check the documentation. See the Important notes in the first announcement above -- FSX has some problems at present which Microsoft are working on. Regards Pete

I can't reproduce anything like that here. Can you give me more information, please? Perhaps the Axis and Joystick calibration sections of the FSUIPC4.INI file? The calibration in FSUIPC merely stretches whatever minimum and maximum values you "set" there to cover the whole range needed in FS. I can't understand what you are seeing. I need the figures please. BTW did you cut and paste these sections from your FS9 FSUIPC.INI file, as suggested? This is what I did for all my controls and they all work just the same as in FS9. If there's something wrong I'll fix it, but I need to understand it first, so please don't give up yet. Thanks, Pete

Unless you can get FSUIPC4.DLL into the Modules folder, you cannot update the one that is there. I don't understand how it is not letting you write to it. If you cannot write to any part of your FS installation you will never be able to update any of it. Are you sure you haven't logged in as some other user with no privileges? Make sure you are logged in as the person who installed FSX in the first place. You probably need to be an administrator. Or you may be able to run the installer using "Run As" and select the correct user or the Aministrator? Regards Pete

You can't have two files both named the same in the same folder. I don't know why there are two - hopefully they are identical so it won't matter which one you put there. Otherwise, right click and check that the version is the same as that you quoted me someplace (it's also built into part of bthat long folder name). Regards Pete

No. this stuff is not leaving your PC. In fact for FSUIPC4 it isn't even leaving the FSX Process. That's what so daft and annoying about it all! Grrr. Regards Pete

Does it need to know? Sorry, I don't know. This is really a question about RC, not WideFS. Can you ask there? It probably depends on the application. It doesn't matter at all to WideFS. But if the application sees a Registry entry pointing to FS9 on the Client PC it may want to get data or stuff from there. That may be a good thing (if the data in that PC is identical to that on your Server), or a bad thing (if the data is different). But I cannot tell you. These are questions about applications which you need to direct to the application folks. All I can say is, that if FS9 is not running but Wideclient is, they will connect via Wideclient and not try to run FS9 automatically for you, even if they used to before. Pete

Good. Okay. Okay. If you want WideClient to load them for you, please check the WideFS documentation -- there's a section which tells you all about the Run and RunReady parameters. But you should test them first. Correct. Just minimise it or hide it. Haven't you looked at the WideFS documentation at all? :-( ErWIDECLIENT is an "FS Eliminator". It sits in your client PCs pretending to be FS with FSUIPC running, to fool all your utilities into connecting to it. How would you run your utilities on the FS PC? You have an FS Window (with FS in it), and you run your utilities, right? Well, this is just the same! The "gray window" of WideClient used to be used by some utilities which liked to "lock" themselves to the FS window. There's even a way to load an FS-looking Bitmap picture to make it not-gray. All this is documented you know. Really the only use of the gray window these days would be for a button array on a touch sensitive screen, as per examples in the documentation. You can re-shape the window to just show the menu bar, so you can see the connection. You can even tell it (via parameters in the INI file -- see the documentation ) to show the Network FS frame rate. 4) How to config these programs to run in wideclient pc? Most will just run. Some which need databases building from FS data will have their own instructions. Have you even bothered to try RUNNING them at alll yet? Why not do that before asking all these questions? I don't write those programs and I cannot support them. I just provide the tools and interfaces. I've no idea what there is there to NOT understand, you just fill in what you want to run. But if you don't, then please just don't use those facilities. Do everything by hand, yourself. They are only assists to make things easier, but if they make it harder for you, don't use them. I really cannot explain better here than in the documentation, else I would have done there! (I really have never had anyone else asking such basic questions. Sorry). If you don't understand anything in it, then just realise that you don't have to use any of the fancy features. If you want to use them you must have understood what you wanted to use them for, surely? Please, just run Wideclient, see it connect, then run your programs. I would have thought that would have been the very first thing you would have tried! :-( Regards Pete

Is there a Simconnect.dll readily available on the DVD? I don't know. you could try I suppose. I just cannot imagine why the installer would bother to create that complicated (but correct) folder and then not put the file into it. Very strange. Regards Pete

I'm afraid I can't quite picture what you mean. In FSUIPC4 you are using the Axis Assignments, right? Do you select the "Send direct ..." or "Send to FS ..." option in the Axis Assignments? It sounds like you might be sending them to FS. If you do, it is likely that the Sensitivity and Null zone settings are robbing you of some of the claibration possibilities. You need FS set to Maximum Sensitivity (full right) and Minimum null zone (full left). Alternatively if you select the "Direct" method you bypass FS altogether and go direct to FSUIPC Joystick Calibrations. Regards Pete

Yes, I think the TCP/IP usage with SimConnect is causing a typical queuing or bunching effect, like on a crowded motorway. I've been informed by MS that they are trying to get to the bottom of all these things. Meanwhile, I'm doing some experiments here to see if I can bypass Simconnect at all for some of the more frequently changing and needed variables. Incidentally, changes to video drivers seem to be able to have a MUCH more dramatic affect on frame rates than any of that stuff. I was using nVidia forceware 91.47 from a few weeks ago. There's now a revised download on the nVidia site (still confusingly called 91.47) which, after installation, has boosted my frame rates by 30-40%. Not only that but they appear to have got SLI working quite well too (it even specifically mentions FSX on the nVidia notes about this revision) -- on my one PC with SLI the frame rates are 50% better and smoother! I'll press on with whatever optimisation I can though, and hope that MS come up with some solutions. Best Regards Pete

Er .... that looks right for the FOLDER, in fact it's exactly the same as mine. But what do you mean by "the Simconnect folder" inside it? There should just be SimConnect.dll inside it, no more folders? If there is no Simconnect.dll I'm not surprised!!! The error message from my Installer will be the same. Without SimConnect NO ADDONS USING SIMCONNECT will work! I think you need to contact Microsoft support. If a complete re-install still isn't installing FSX properly then either you have bad DVDs or there's something about your system preventing correct installation and Microsoft need to be told. After that, if you have the Deluxe version, you can try installing SimConnect from the msi file as I suggested. But you shouldn't need to! Something is wrong and that should be reported! Regards Pete

If I were you I'd ditch your antivirus program and get something that works properly. Sorry, there is no way that I can solve your problems from here. You need to stop your program preventing you from installing a completely valid program. Pete

Unless you checked the option to interfere with FSX's weather (in the Miscellaneous tab), FSUIPC4 does not touch FSX's weather at all. I wouldn't recommend enabling that option yet in any case. The Simconnect weather facilities are not working well. I have pointed this out in the important notes in the documentation. Regards, Pete

Install it on the Client PC. Then, assuming Wideclient is running, run the program on the Client. Haven't you even tried just running it? No. You said the Wideclient was connecting, so it knows already. You don't need to. Why should you need to? By "WideFS main window" do you mean Wideclient's window? Normally you'd just minimise that. Why do you want 'buttons' on the client window in any case? I use the facility (my example is shown in the documentation), but I have a little touch-sensitive screen. Do you? If you mean joystick buttons, you don't put them on a screen. You program them in FSUIPC on the FS PC, no matter which PC they are on. Pete

That's wrong. It's the right version. But it not only won't work from there, it needs proper Windows installation as a side-by-side library. It should be in a rather complexly-named Windows folder, inside your Windows \WinSxS folder, but even if we could work out what that name should be, I don't think just placing it there does the job. I've really no idea at all how your FSX installation went so wrong, but wrong it has most certainly gone. There are two possible ways of recovering, I think. The one I really should recommend is an uninstall of FSX and then a complete re-install. Then search for Simconnect.dll again to make sure it's worked this time. An alternative, if you have the Deluxe version, would be to find the SDK on DVD1, install that, then find the Simconnect.msi file which should be in the SDK's "Core Utilities Kit\SimConnect SDK\lib" folder, I think. Then run the msi file to install Simconnect. Whatever you do, you should never have been able to get into this situation so I think you should still report this problem to MS. Regards Pete

First, please give the full version nmuber. Do you mean 4.00, 4.01 or 4.02? If not 4.02 can you download that and try again? If you do really mean 4.02, then this can only occur if your FSX instllation is incorrect. Did you by any chance have a Beta FSX installed before? Otherwise I cannot think how you could not have the correct version of SimConnect installed. Can you search for the SimConnect.dll file in your Windows folder and tell me the folder it is in? Also right-click on it and check the Version number (Properties-Version). Somewhere in one of the longer threads here, about lack of Add-On menus, you will find more information about where the SimConnect module gets installed. By "add on file at the top of FS" do you mean the Add-Ons menu entry in the normal flight-time menu bar? Otherwise I don't understand. FSCopilot provides an Add-Ons menu entry as well. Do the folks there have any better clues than I? The Add-Ons menu is created and maintained by SimConnect. If SimConnect isn't loading then you will not get an Add-Ons menu entry. It really does have to be your FSX installation gone wrong. Simconnect either isn't installed, or it is but in the wrong place or, less believably, the wrong version (only possible at present from a Beta FSX). Please also report all this to tell_fs@microsoft.com. They really do need to start helping with these problems, so the more reports (in as much detail as you can please) the better. Only that I think FSX may have been released too early. I'm afraid most add-ons -- all those that already do and soon will be using SimConnect -- just won't work until this is sorted. In my Installer I check these things BEFORE installing a program which simply won't work. It looks like FSCopilot and FSInn just install and hope for the best? I can't blame them. It was quite complex sorting out how to probe manifests for side-by-side installed DLLs like Simconnect. Regards, Pete

Because the file effectively contains random strings of bytes formed by Zipping a compressed EXE containing an encrypted set of files. Evidently your virus checker things one of those strings of bytes represents something in its list as a virus. It is not. It should be reported as an incorrect identification to your virus checking authority (though I doubt they'll do much). I use Norton Antivirus which is kept bang up to date. The EXE file in the ZIP is signed in any case. It cannot be tampered with without nullifying the signature, so just check the signature before running it. See my other reply. Pete

My file is signed in any case. Before running the EXE the downloader can just check the Certificate (right-click, Properties-Version-Signatures. If that shows a valid signature in my name, issued by GlobalSign (going into details now!) and timestamped by Verisgin, then that is total assurance that the file has not been tampered with. That's the point of signatures. Regards Pete

Got it now. I'll take a quick look now, but it is getting late so it may be morning before I get back to you. [LATER] No need to get back to you in the morning. There's definitely an FSX bug happening there. The FSUIPC log shows everything okay, it doesn't "disappear", it simply contines for the 10 minutes of your test session (599 seconds in fact), and terminates normally. However, the Simconnect log shows a different story. As I mentioned, FSUIPC only creates its menu entry once. That is done here, 13 seconds after FSX is started: > 13.10964 [63, 20]MenuAddItem:szMenuItem="&FSUIPC ...", MenuEventID=10, dwData=0 > 13.10966 [63, 21]MenuAddItem:szMenuItem="&Load Flight ...", MenuEventID=11, dwData=0 > 13.10967 [63, 22]MenuAddItem:szMenuItem="Load Pla&n ...", MenuEventID=12, dwData=0 I see you've also enabled the options for the Flight and Plan loading entries. The SimConnect log runs fine for 505 seconds (up to less than two minutes before you closed FS -- was that when you saw that the Add-Ons menu had disappeared? The Simconnect ends abruptly with 505.47342 [63] I/O Error! .... and that's it. not very informative, but it seems that SimConnect just suffered an irrecoverable error and stopped working. thus, on the next menu re-draw it wasn't there to provide the Add-Ons entry. As well as this, FSUIPC4 would have effectively been left marooned with no access to FSX data! I'll report this with these details to Microsoft through my channels, but please also do so "officially" via tell_fs@microsoft.com, please. I can't really do anything about this myself, not unless Microsoft come up with a suggestion or solution, but I still think it is most likely related to your security software or its settings. You said earlier that you used AVG anti-virus (which others have reported as ok), and that you had "disabled" you firewall (what software though?). I know it isn't a good or nice thing to do, but if you could just try uninstalling all such software (just switching it off doesn't always seem to help) temporarily, it would prove it for MS attention. Please provide all those details in your report too. Reinstall afterwards, but maybe try to adjust the settings to make FSX completely trusted. This may be a "privacy" part of the firewall program rather than a straight firewall as such. Some programs seem to differentiate between these. Thanks, Pete

Not arrived here. Did you send to petedowson@btconnect.com? Can you try again? It may be tomorrow now before I can take a look. Regards Pete

Can't you simply disable or override your virus checker? It shouldn't stop you doing things you want to do with your own computer. I don't know any system like that. And surely you are not telling me that the virus checker stops you downloading but not receiving email copies of exactly the same file? That's a bit of a waste of a program isn't it -- surely the need is more vital in emails which you may receive involuntarily rather than in downloads which you are deliberately choosing? It seems to be designed backwards! Regards Pete

Sorry. My files are signed and secure. They are also compressed and encrypted. There's no virus. Your virus checker is giving a false reading. I cannot help, you have to sort out your virus checker or disable it. Regards Pete

4.02 not 44.02? ;-). Many years before we get to version 44! Anyway, my first reaction is AAAARRRRGGGGHHH! I assume your FSUIPC4 is not user registered? In my haste to stop the horrible 5-30 second delays suffered by some of those with third party security programs installed, I deliberately stopped the unregistered version of FSUIPC4 intercepting and forwarding axis controls -- thinking, of ocurse, that those were only of use to registered users, using the Joystick Calibration facilities. However, it is indeed possibly that part of that same interception facility is used by the PFC driver for throttles, and maybe some other exes. Grrr. This is a problem I shall have to think about before rushing into a solution. Each time I help one person I harm someone else. I need to slow down. Look out for a 4.021 or so soon. If I can't fix this today, I'll find a copy of 4.01 and place a link to it in the announcements. I cannot even look at present, sorry, I am off for a couple of hours. Regards Pete

FSUIPC4 only ever adds its menu entry ("FSUIPC", not "Add-Ons") once, and that is upon initialisation. It never deletes it. Something else must be going wrong, and, in fact, it must be an FSX bug. Can you show me any FSUIPC4 logs? A simconnect log might be useful too. you'll find instructions on how to get one of those eariler in this thread, I think. if not get back to me. Regards Pete

Thanks. Meanwhile I have been testing here too. On my slower development PC, where I have Norton active both as Antivirus and Firewall, I can see a degradation in FSX performance of atount 20% (15 down to 12 fps, for example). It is hard to jusge because the frame rate varies so much all the time, but that seems like the average. On a separate, more powerful, PC, with no firewall or antivirus software installed at all, and even with the default WinXP stuff disabled, I am still getting some measurable degradation. Not as much -- maybe 15% or so. The lowest FPS I saw was similar with or without FSUIPC4, but the peaks were certainly less with FSUIPC4 installed. This was certainly more than was noticeable durring Beta phases. I am quite cooncerned about this, as never in the seven years of FSUIPC have I ever been able to measure any consitent degradation caused by its installation. I don't like it at all. I shall tackle my Microsoft contacts about it, and also look at potential work-arounds. Short of hacking into the FSX code as in previous releases (something I am really loathe to do now), the could look at polling the gauge / panels interface for the more frequently changing values, instead of getting them via Simconnect. None of this is easy nor quick though. I shall study it and pursue the Microsoft folks about it and see what can be done. Hmm. I expect there's too much invested in the current methods. I think the best I can hope for is for the same interface to work more directly from an in-process program like FSUIPC4 (and of course the gauges which will be forthcoming which may also start using SimConnect for the extra data it can provide). Currently I face the same problems as any external Simconnect application would. Regards Pete