Pete Dowson

Sorry, I don't know such hardware, but if it is an assignable axis, then of course -- just assign it to the spoiler in FS. It sounds like you are trying it on the ground. If you try to arm the spoiler on the ground, FS deploys them 100%, as if you just landed. You can't move them into any possition without going through the ARM detente. Try testing them in the air. If they are still the same then you badly need to re-calibrate the slider in the Windows game controller. :-( Did you check the documentation at all? Joysticks tab, look through the pages till you see "spoiler". Regards, Pete

I don't see why. I'm not sure why you even ask me. The PFC MCP can be used separately (direct to the PM MCP program), or in line with the console (the latter connects to it) with my PFC.DLL. If you mean other makes of MCP, what possible interaction could they have with the PFC gear? Certainly my PFC driver doesn't touch them, so it depends what software you are using, doesn't it? Regards Pete

Sorry, I don't really know any of that sort of stuff. I've provided mappings in FSUIPC for a number of failure types -- they are all I know of. I have never heard of specific types of engine failure, only a generic one. Check offset 0B6B -- I think you can fail individual engines. If you are an ex-Adventure writer, have you considered using the replacement for APL, the ABL or whatever it is called? Regards, Pete

Goodit must have been scenery/texture loading progress messages then. I haven't got them here, under test, but that's the only explanation. Regards, Pete

Good. Thanks for the feedback. Pete

Does the mixture lever control the mixture in FS already? If so, and if you have a user-registered FSUIPC, simply go to the Joystick options, page through to find the Reverser, and calibrate it as described, step-by-step, in the FSUIPC user guide. (FSUIPC defaults to using the mixture axis for reverser in any case). There's an option to do this only for jets, so you still can use it for mixture on props. If your mixture lever isn't already working in FS you need to fix that first. Regards, Pete

Ah, great! ;-) Good luck then. I hope I have not put you off asking more questions as you need to. Regards Pete

Okay, I've sent Wideclient 6.599. Please try it and let me know. Regards, Pete

No, I'm not getting any progress bars even over land in daylight. Maybe the problem only happens when you fly over a corrected time zone, one where FSRealTime has to intervene -- elsewhere, where FS is "on the ball", so to speak, it works? Anyway, since I've completely failed so far to reproduce any problem at all I am relying on you two gents to test it some more please -- I've sent you both FSUIPC 3.605 which removes the new check for menu/dialogue actions for all messages except those from the FSUIPC Monitor. Let me know how you get on please. If there's still a problem, then I think we need to start going into details about scenery add-ons, and maybe get some FLT files set at places where you have problems. I would certainly need to reproduce it to preogress any further. Regards, Pete

I've been worrying about this odd difference between what I see and what you see with these messages, and whilst scanning through the code searching for ideas I have, I think, come across one possibility. I have in position an extra check which wouldn't have been in place when your "working" versions of FSUIPC were in use. This is to make sure I don't try to ask FS for a message display whilst it is involved in menu or dialogue activity, or things like reloading aircraft or scenery. Could it possibly be that, on your system, when crossing the time zone, FS is displaying some sort of reloading progress bar? On mine it doesn't -- possibly because from the UK the first zone change is over the Sea. I'll try a test further East to see. The problem with attempting to display messages when FS is in menus, or heavily engaged in other disk-related activity, is that is sometimes seems to cause crashes or other problems. I shall have to see what I can do to relieve this check for the progress bars themselves, if this is indeed the root of the problem. Later ... Pete

Aircraft controls? Who mentioned those? Please just find the list of FS controls, scan down and find the one called "REFRESH SCENERY". It will have a number. Use it. Are you a programmer? You don't seem to understand much so i hope this isn't an example of your programming. Sorry if I'm getting impatient with you, but if you refer back, my very first suggestion was to reload the scenery . remember? See this: It's actually called "refresh" rather than "reload", but it should have still been very easy for you to find if you'd bothered to look. Regards, Pete

Why isn't it clear to you? The control number goes to the first 32-bit word, any parameter (most have none) to the 2nd, written at the same time. There's a list of controls supplied with FSUIPC (obscurely (?) called a "List of FS2004 controls") and there are also others downloadable from the usual places. Please try to help yourself a little, and don't reprint my documents in replies to me. I do know what I wrote. If something is confusing you, why not explain what it is instead of wanting re-prints of existing things? Regards, Pete

I've installed 1.793 and that works fine too. Logging also shows that there's no difference in what FSRealTime sends for any of the messages. I'm sorry, but i've no idea why you don't see them. There's nothing complex or odd about any of this and that part simply hasn't been affected by any of the other window changes -- I only added the "Hide ..." option because one user was left with using AdvDisplay JUST so he could hide them, which was a bit of a waste. I am using a slightly later version of FSUIPC than you, though with no changes in this area. I'll email you a copy to try. Let me know. [LATER] I just tested FSRealTime 1.793 with FSUIPC 3.60, and I simply cannot get anything to go wrong. I'm flying, or slewing, across the North Sea from England to the Netherlands. It always comes up with the UTC+1 message initially, when I connect it, and with the UTC+2 message about half way over the Sea. It isn't so good over the 20 mile English Channel hop to France -- but that isn't the message, it isn't changing to the correct time zone. I guess the boundaries aren't correct around here? So, I'm sorry: the messages are the same format, the same parameters, as the ones you are seeing, and there's really no way FSUIPC could distinguish between them even if it wanted to. They are just strings of characters. Maybe yours are different for some reason? Or maybe, more likely, for some reason the Time Zone changes aren't actually taking place for you in any case -- the message is only a notification of an action after all. Have you checked? I suspect there's not much else I can do. You may have to ask Joshua, the author, to look at it for you. Regards, Pete

No, but, at least in FS2004, there's a control for it, which can be sent via FSUIPC offset 3110 just like any other. I'm afraid I don't know if the control is there in FS2002 but I would think so. check the FSUIPC Keys/Buttons dropdown lists. Regards, Pete

I found 1.79 on AVSIM, and installed that, and that works fine too. The display is "FS Real Time: UTC + 1", and so on. Is it the same in 1.793? Where did you get 1.793. I checked the Logs and 1.79 is doing it in exactly the same way as 1.73 did. [later] Ahclicking on the Help - Update option gets me to another website with the 1.793 version on. I'll try that now ... Pete

No. Good, same as me. Well, in the version I have, both are sent using exactly the same method and parameters, and both show fine. I'm not really interefering at all with any of that unless that Hide option is checked. Maybe FSRealTime is different? Mine is 1.73 not 1.793. I'll see if I can find 1.793. Pete

No. Good, same as me. Well, in the version I have, both are sent using exactly the same method and parameters, and both show fine. I'm not really interefering at all with any of that unless that Hide option is checked. Maybe FSRealTime is different? Mine is 1.73 not 1.793. Pete

It looks like a bad WideFs key. Where did you buy it? Pirate keys give these sorts of results. If you ZIP up your FSUIPC.KEY file and send it to me at petedowson@btconnect.com I can check. Please include your purchase details. Regards, Pete

99% of the log was not relevant, merely settings continuously being made by ActiveSky. I'll send back the version with all that deleted and only relevant stuff left. It is much shorter! ;-) Wind smoothing ONLY operates in the wind layer you are in. WeatherSet2 shows not the "ambient wind" (the wind at the aircraft) but the wind layers set in FS for the aircraft geographical location. According to the log this was being changed by FS, not by me. I suspect you were flying through areas of closely spaces WX stations with wildly different winds. Fs's interpolation in such places is quite weird. The smoothing is shown in the "Ambient wind at planealt = ..." lines, and appears to be running at 1 degree per second, not 2. It is struggling to keep up with the changes FS is trying to impose (those shown by the ">Change" lines. This is made worse a bit by my smoothing algorithm which, although initially computing the shortest way (clock or anticlock wise) tries not to keep reversing it on every change it sees. On the whole the compromise I reached works well, but you may want to slow it down even more, eg. 2 secs per degree. Or fly elsewhere. The sorts of changes you are getting look very much like those which, without smoothing, caused immediate 180 degree changes -- I found them very noticeable in the Chicago area, for instance. Judging by the WX stations being set by AS2004 you look to be in the Illinois/Indiana area. Is there a crowd of close WX stations? BTW you are still using the original release of FS2004. I suggest you upgrade. It may help. There were a huge number of fixes in FS9.1 and it would be a shame not to take advantage of them. I'm really not sure if my eventual smoothing system helped so much in FS9.0. Regards, Pete

No, the sim engine controls that. You might be able to influence it with some of the acceleration and velocity vectors, but they have limited effect. Regards, Pete

If you can see the changing, then it is NOT variance really -- that is sudden. I evidently misread you. You now seem to be saying it smoothly changes from one to another. You originally said which is EXACTLY the problem with the direct wind option before it was fixed. The wind variance problem in one of the weather programs was fast, but not instance, and not always 180 degrees. Please tell me, is your complaint that the smoothing isn't slow enough or that there shouldn't be any changes? You said you used 2 degrees per second, so a smoothed change 9without variance) should be 90 seconds for 180 degrees. What is your estimate now? Yes, okay, I'll take a look, but there may be not a lot I can do. There's been no wind problems reported for a long time, and I need to get on to future things now that FS2004 is nearly three years old. If I can help I will, but no guarantees. Pete

I think when you change seasons you need to send a "reload scenery" control afterwards. I'm not sure this exists in FS2002. I am really not in a position to deal with older sims much now. Regards, Pete

Strange. The only other cause I know of is wind variance. See this item in the FSUIPC History (a change in FSUIPC 3.52): Try limiting that. I don't remember whether it was ActiveSky or FSMeteo, but one of them was occasionally setting wild wind variances, derived I think from misinterpreting something in the METARs about variable winds. That's why I added the option. Okay, but try the above first. If that isn't it, try to start the logging a little before where you normally get the phenomenon. ZIP it together with your FSUIPC.INI file please, to petedowson@btconnect.com. Also try using WeatherSet2 to see what that reports please -- I'm still especially interested in "wind variance" as this can cause sudden wind direction changes despite smoothing. Regards, Pete

No -- the wind smoothing works fine. There was a bug a few versions back which did that, and there's also one in FS itself (but the wind smoothing overcomes that). Please double check that you are actually using 3.60 -- look in the FSUIPC Log file. There's an option in ActiveSky for "direct wind control" (or similar wording) -- if it is on, turn it off. If that fixes it then it does sound very much like you actually are using an old version of FSUIPC -- perhaps installed by an add-on? If you are absolutely sure you are using 3.60, and you can reproduce the problem easily, set Weather logging on and induce the problem. Keep the session short or the log with become very large. Also check for updates to ActiveSky. The current version seems very good, very smooth. Regards, Pete

For an all WinXP setup you shouldn't need to specify Server name or IPaddress, or even protocol -- you can set a PreferredProtocol in the Server. The Clients will find the Server automatically provided all PCs are Win2000 or WinXP, and all in the same WorkGroup. Then this problem wouldn't arise. I don't get the problem here in any case, I've been trying to reproduce it -- it is certainly some sort of timing difference. If you have a WinME client, that will certainly need the server and protocol set. The auto stuff won't work on WinMe or Win98. If I determine a way of preventing the problem I may need to ask you to test it for me, please. Regards, Pete