Pete Dowson

You are using FS2004 update (9.1) and have downloaded and installed an older add-on, designed for the original FS2004 release, which carried an out of date version of FSUIPC. Go to http://www.schiratti.com/dowson and download FSUIPC.ZIP. Read a little of the user documentation therein. Regards, Pete

No, because FS normally does that for default aircraft. I assume this is a problem with an add-on? The secret is to calibrate the axis with an area at both extremes which is "dead" -- one at full throttle, the other at idle. Then simply park the throttle when enaging A/T. I normally park it at full on climb and reduce it to idle on cruise, ready for decent. Other things to try include the FSUIPC filter, which may help if the jitter interference is quite small, or programming a button or key to disconnect the throttles manually -- see the drop-down list of controls in FSUIPC Keys and Buttons pages. There are three -- Throttles off, throttles on and throttles toggle. Regards, Pete

Very true. It's all a bit like an arcane art to me. I experiment and when something works I stick to it! You may find it easier to recompile the library in VS2005 instead, or even just link the code directly -- the source is provided, it is yours to do with as you like. My part of FSUIPC really starts on the FS side of the interface. ;-) No doubt one day (later rather than sooner I hope) I will have to upgrade to VS2005 (if only for the 64-bit compiler), but ceretainly not yet. Regards, Pete

Hi Doug! In that case that FSUIPC is obviously legitimate, and this user's very old version of FSUIPC must have been installed by some other package, and marked read-only -- which would have prevented yours replacing it. That, or this gentleman is getting himself very confused somewhere. Thanks! Happy New Year by the way! Pete

orry, I cannot support such old versions of FSUIPC. Please update to 3.53, see http://www.schiratti.com/dowson. Regards Pete

In FS2004 FSUIPC cannot work on the turbulence, gusts or variance like that. It can only filter them out when they are being set by the weather program. The best that I could do is to stop them being set (by the weather program) when your aircraft is on the ground. But then that omission will likely be continuing until the weather program refreshes weather. Once local weather is set into FS I cannot change it, it has to be completely reset again for the relevant weather stations, and weather programs try not to do that for nearby weather stations because it causes stutters and cloud flickers. The same would apply after landing. Whatever weather was set by the time you touched down would continue. Even if I cut out turbulence et cetera after that, it is unlikely that the weather program would resend it. If it did, you'd get a stutter. The weather programs themselves could do it better, cutting out the turbulence initially whilst you are on the ground, but allowing it in any new weather being set after take off -- even then it could take a while flying till you reached the distant stations which have been so set. On approach I can't see how it could be done properly at all without introducing stutters, sorry. Maybe this is something for a future version of FS. Though by then you'd certainly need a more powerful PC in any case! ;-) Regards, Pete

I'll re-check here, but I'm pretty sure that my code is simply dividing one of the values into the other at the same time it stores them. Please check all three values in parallel. The time to station should be changing any time either or both of the others do. You can log them as they change to the FSUIPC.LOG file using the Monitoring facilities in FSUIPC -- see the Logging tab. No. Having two separate values to the same display is way outside of the scope of the program. It is out if the question at this time. Sorry. Regards, Pete

This must be because the aircraft panel gauges you are using are continuous sending controls to FS -- FS needs the very next control after the E to be the 1 or 2 keypress, but many add-ons are sending controls every few milliseconds, defeating this. The same sort of thing happens to pushback (Shift+P then 1 or 2), and to aircraft door operation (Shift+E then 1, 2, etc). FSUIPC does have an option "control acceleration fix" on its technical page which, since FSUIPC 3.45, gets around this. It works for engine selection -- there's a time limit on pressing the numbers though, defaulting to 4 seconds. There's a Hot Key provision for restoring control to all engines -- it is called "Resume all engine control" (Hot Keys tab). Not "noise" so much as other controls being sent to FS's sim engine. Well, it sounds like you were looking for the wrong thing. Read the paragraphs in the bit about "Fix control acceleration" (on the Technical tab window). Especially the NOTE about additions made back in version 3.45 of FSUIPC. Apart from the easier "switch it on" option mentioned above, you could actually program it on a keypress or button, using information gleaned from the FSUIPC advanced user's guide and the table of FSUIPC offsets found in the Programming guide (part of a separate package called the FSUIPC SDK). It would be done by using special offset writing controls added in FSUIPC for just such complex needs. But unless you are a programmer, or at least pretty computer literate, I'd stick to the easy option already mentioned if I were you. Regards, Pete

Yes, they aren't actually simulated in FS itself, that's why. You are probably looking at some add-on implementation. Regards Pete

You didn't need to do that! You could have merely re-installed and re-registered FSUIPC with your original details. Not all of the contents, I hope? You only want the FSUIPC.DLL file. The rest is documentation and additional optional utility programs. What version of FSUIPC were you using with your Elite hardware before? It is not a package I know, but apparently there were incorrect version checks in some Elite drivers. If it is an early version see if there's an update. You may need to contact Elite about it. You should of course also check that the Elite drivers are working correctly on WinXP -- again, depending how they drive their hardware they may have had to make a new version for XP. If you want me to confirm that it is the Elite drivers which have the problem, please enable IPC read and IPC write logging in the FSUIPC options (Modules menu in FS, FSUIPC, Logging tab). Run the Elite driver, see it not working, then close down FS and show me the FSUIPC.LOG file you will find in the FS Modules folder. If it is too large to display in a message, Zip it and send it to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. Regards, Pete

Mr. Schiratti doesn't frequent this Forum. Perhaps I can help. I haven't heard of "rcbco-20". What is it? It must be several years old, and intended for FS2002, not FS2004, because FSUIPC version 2 is that old and never worked with FS2004. Additionally, packages which include my FSUIPC should have applied for permission before doing so. I'm not surprised. That really is a bad package you have got hold of, then. Nothing installed that way should ever be read-only. That cannot be anything to do with FSUIPC as such. I've never used passwords. To delete a read-only file you just need to uncheck its read-only attribute in the Windows file properties (right-click on the file in Explorer and select Properties). Again, there is no such thing that I know of. This is something to do with your "Rcbco-20" package. I can only suggest you try to contact the author. It isn't a virus or worm you've installed there, I hope? It doesn't sound very healthy. Regards Pete

Hmmmthat's certainly a new one on me. I've not heard of that before. Do you often have turbulence and gusts? They don't seem to be so frequent here. This seems to be the exact reverse of what you really need! Surely, when flying close to an airport, especially on approach, you want the highest frame rates you can get -- why would you want high frame rates for easy manoevres like taxiing and low stuttery ones for challenges like landing? Regards Pete

Hmm. Someone must be rather poor at translating English into German then. ;-) 3.53 simply solved a problem with NEW registrations entered after 31st December 2006. It was merely due to the unexpected continuing development of FSUIPC 3 well beyond the two years I'd originally assumed would be needed. Certainly once FSUIPC 4 comes out, if there will ever be one (still to be determined as I explained), then NEW registrations will no longer be sold for FSUIPC 3 -- unless I cannot for any reason keep FSUIPC backward compatible with previous versions of FS. At present there is no thought of expiring existing registrations, it would only be the support and development which ceases as technology and software move on. Regards, Pete

i don't think it's possible -- I never found the place to hook for it. But the Flight file saved with Radar Contact restart information should certainly position you at the place the aircraft was when the flight was saved. That's the whole point. You should be using Radar Contact to reload the flight for you -- it will reload the flight, the weather and all of its own saved data! There's a button on its main start-up window for this. Do NOT load the Flight in FS, just tell RC to do it. Regards Pete

Okay. I've done some code already. I''m out tonight, but I'll test it a bit in the next day or so then send you a copy to try. Regards, Pete

But 4,261,696,370 is not a possible number in 32-bit signed format. It is FE045372 in hexadecimal. The top bit is set (2^31) which is the sign bit. The value is actually -33270926 in decimal. ((-33270926 / 65536) * 360) / 65536 = -2.7887368 according to my calculator. [My calculator has only 8 digits so to maintain accuracy I split the two divides as you see -- you could do the same to keep it all fitting into 32 bits. But it is best to convert to floating point in any case, keeps your fractions]. Well, if it started with a -ve number it must finish with one, else the compiler is in error. Sounds like, if you don't have a bug, Microsoft does! Regards, Pete

Really? no one has talked to me about this, yet. I believe you are the first to mention it. Well, two points of clarification there: 1. I cannot actually guarantee to provide a version of FSUIPC compatible with any new version of FS. That just isn't possible, as it may turn out that the things I do to hook into FS cannot be done with a new version. This happened with CFS3, for example. All I can do is promise to do my best. 2. Whilst I would try to make a compatible release "close to" (i.e. soon after) the release of a new version of FS, this does depend on many things -- like how much has changed, and whether I was lucky enough to be invited by MS to be part of the Beta team. If things are difficult and I am not involved before release, then there could be quite a long gap. Possibly, or quite likely, yes. You are quite a bit ahead of me really. For instance, maybe a renewal of a licence will be possible at less than a full new fee. It really depends on the amount of work involved in making the new version, if it is possible in the first place. If it is as much work as FSUIPC 3 was, then, yes, I am more likely to say that renewals will cost the same as new sales, except possibly for sales in the few weeks or months leading up to the new release. Yes. Of course, though support for older versions will dwindle -- once Version 4 is out I shall not be adding new facilities to 3, that's for sure (just as I do not support version 2). But it also depends on what exactly version 4 is. I may even split off the user-facilities parts from the application interface part -- users only pay for the former in any case. It seems reasonable, though very premature as no decisions have yet been made, nor can they be until I know more about the future. ;-) Could you tell me why? What is it that you are worried about at this point in time? Just because it is now 2006? Regards, Pete

Most of the work is actually in designing a usable user interface to do it correctly. If, as a temporary measure, you wouldn't mind measuring things, as you have done, then entering the numbers as parameters into the INI file by hand, then maybe I could do something for you much quicker. What do you think? I could look into that for you this week. I don't know. Maybe someone knows of one. Regards, Pete

I'm afraid it doesn't work that way around as it stands. You have to set the positions of your flap detentes to match what FS needs in the way of input on the axis -- i.e. match the hardware to the software, not the other way around. Neither FSUIPC nor FS has a translation table for axis inputs to flaps positions. The whole range is simply divided into equal numeric intervals, as in fact is documented. I did have it on my list to implement a more sophisticated system, but it never made it to the top. It could certainly be considered for a future version, but I couldn't even consider looking at it until February at the earliest. Regards, Pete

No. In this case you are interpreting the value incorrectly as unsigned when, of course, pitch and bank (and magvar) are signed. Most of these angular values are given in the same units -- such that the maximum possible precision can be accommodated in the space available. It is -2.79. Draw a circle and plot its position. You'll see that. Pirch and Bank have to be signed as they can be up/down or left/right. No, because then a position pitch or bank would turn out to be a big negative number. Please used signed values where that is sensible, unsigned where that is sensible. Regards, Pete

It's okay. I found the problem! Please go to http://www.schiratti.com/dowson and get FSUIPC 3.53. You should be okay then. Seems I forgot to extend the life of FSUIPC version 3 into 2006. When FS2004 came out I expected FSUIPC 3 to only have to last two years -- the normal Flight Sim interval. Duh! Regards, Pete

WideFS can be purchased separately. You don't need to purchase FSUIPC as well, but you must do so for WideFS. These are typical symptoms of a bad registration. If you purchased it legitimately from SimMarket, please ZIP up the FSUIPC.KEY file (found in the FS Modules folder) and email it to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. Please include the email from SimMarket with the details too. Regards, Pete

Is the registration a legitimate one? If you want me to check, ZIP up the FSUIPC.KEY file (from the FS Modules folder) and send it to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. Preferably include a copy of your original notification from SimMarket. Regards, Pete

From the Logs you sent me it appears you are using FSUIPC version 3.14, which clearly is NOT "3.44 or later", and is about two years old, totally unsupported. Please always make sure you are up to date before asking for Support. It would save a lot of time! ;-) See "Supported Version" announcements above, and go to http://www.schiratti.com/dowson. Regards, Pete

Thanks! The same to you and yours too! Good flying as well! ;-) Pete