Pete Dowson

I'm not sure I understand properly, sorry. Could you give some actual examples of the DME strings and what you actually see on the displays? It may be that these types of value need special coding in GFdisplay, but I need to kow what you are seeing first. I'm afraid I don't have any GoFlight gear now except for 2 off each P8's and RP48's. Regards, Pete

I think, a long time ago (FS98 and before), BGL code could access quite a few of the FS values, those then stored in "GLOBALS.DLL", but this has not been true since then. I think the only communication you have now with BGLs is through the explicit BGL variables, labelled as such. How you refer to those in BGLs I don't know either, sorry. Regards, Pete

Sorry, I really don't know anything about scenery. There are FSUIPC offsets through which you can communicate to code in BGLs, these are documented, so I guess those could be used. But you need to refer to some BGL documentation of an expert in scenery design. Sorry, I can't help. As long as you don't want me to support it! ;-). See your email. Regards, Pete

Okay, but that was only the first question. What about the others? i.e.: Sounds very unlikely, but it doesn't cost much to try. It would be more likely to get a corrupted CFG file, as that's written all the time. That reminds me of another possible explanation. The CFG file will be written back with details of the next saved files to be deleted when FS is closed. If FS crashes instead of closing, then the CFG file may not be updated, so the previous set of files never get deleted. Some programs (Active Camera was one, till it was fixed) actually cause FS to crash on termination -- it often looks as if it has terminated normally, but it hasn't. Next time you close FS, check that the CFG file has the current date/time on it. Also FSUIPC.INI and a load of other files -- they all get saved on successful termination. Regards, Pete

Well, it won't hurt and it is certainly worthwhile if it isn't costing a lot of money. Traffic over the network will only increase as things get more sophisticated, it will never lessen. But the load placed by WideFS alone is far from nearing the capacity of 100 mbps connections at present. Project Magenta and some other programs will add their own loads, with file type communications. Don't forget to use a switch rather than a hub if you can. Another alternative which works well is Firewire, but you need two firewire sockets on each PC (well, apart from the end two), because you daisy chain them rather than star-shaped hub/switch them. A firewire network runs at 400 mbps, so it isn't as fast as gigabit. I'd like to hear from anyone actually using gigabit. All my new computers seem to have gigabit Ethernet on the motherboard, but until they are all so equipped I wasn't thinking of changing. It isn't needed (yet ). Regards, Pete

There's nothing I know which would do that, unless it cannot update its CFG file or cannot find the correct folder where the FLT files are stored. The last problem of the latter type was with foreign versions of FS, which have a different folder name. AutoSave was changed to get around that by reading the folder name from the Language DLL. What is the folder name for your flights? Are all the autosaved files both FLT + WX types, or are there others? Maybe the files you see are actually made by some other add-on, like .PSS or .FMC files? What version of Autosave are you using? Please show the AutoSave.CFG file (from the main FS folder). Regards Pete

It sounds like you are using illegal keys then. That is the only explanation for this phenomenon. If you believe you are a legitimate user of a paid-for FSUIPC key, please ZIP up your FSUIPC.Key file, with the details, and your receipt from SimMarket and I will check it here. Email to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. An installation of FSUIPC which is not user-registered does not support the facilities offered in the UI, so there'd be no point in trying to edit them in the INI file either. Your solution lies with becoming a legitimate user, assuming that the Key you are using is pirated, which is the main indication at present. Regards, Pete

Is this for Squawkbox, Roger Wilco or AVC? If so, just go to the Buttons tab of FSUIPC options, press your button three, select the right-hand side, to assign a control, and find the PTT control. Assign the transmit on to the Press and the transmit off to the Release, and you're done. Why do you want to mess with INI files? If it is Teamspeak you use then you will need to program the button to send the appropriate keystroke instead, as it doesn't support the direct control of PTT. Regards, Pete

Okay, I've found it. It's a problem which has always been there, since Save Flight was first intercepted about 4 or 5 years ago. Odd that no one has reported it before. But the fix was easy. Please see the interim releases announcement at the top of this forum. Regards, Pete

I don't really know. As far as I know it still works okay in FSUIPC. I've never noticed any such problem, and I've been using ASV ever since it came out. Have you checked its option settings? It is certainly one of the FSUIPC facilities it can override. Next time you have ASV running, go to FSUIPC's Technical tab and see if it unchecked and greyed-out. If there is any FSUIPC problem I'm afraid I won't be able to look at it for a while. I might be able to aqueeze something in after Christmas, or early January, but otherwise it will be February. Regards, Pete

Yes. It is strange. I will certainly investigate it, but it may be a while. If you haven't seen any result or answer by mid-February, remind me, but if I get time I'll try to look at it after Christmas guests have departed, maybe the end of next week. Regards, Pete

Er, the range of a byte is -128 to +127. The range of a float exceeds than by trillions in both the itegral and fractional directions. There's really no way unless you know the float's value is within that very very small range. It can't be done that easily. A Float64 has a number of bits as an exponent and the rest of the bits as mantissa, normalised so that there's one integral digit (i.e. 1). The bit assignments are documented in Intel technical specs. I can fish them out if you like, but there's no easy conversion. If you write in a decent language like C/C++ then the compiler will convert for you using the appropriate floating point register to fixed posint register transfer instructions. Regards, Pete

You will certainly need to get the Yoke repaired. There's really nothing I can do on the reception end if a button is contantly flickering on and off. If you don't want to use that particular button for anything (assuming it is down to one button, which of course it may not be) then you could program the others by editing the FSUIPC.INI file directly -- all the details are in the Advanced User's document. But it isn't very easy without knowing which button is which. One other thought -- maybe the power isn't right to the yoke. Is it powered separately or via the USB connection? If the latter, are you connecting it via a hub? If so is that hub powered? If not, try re-connecting the yoke directly to a PC USB socket. Regards, Pete

I have to leave computers switched off for several days, from when guests/relatives start arriving till most are gone, else I'm in really BIG trouble! However. I am hoping to get some flying for fun in (as opposed to most of my flights which are testing testing, looking for the little details that are wrong, and so on). My main 737NG and Piper Arrow III sim setups are in a separate room upstairs, away from my development, testing and Internet/support systems, so I think I can safely partition the two. To alleviate the "ignoring guests" complaints which may arise, I can take a copilot and jump seat passnger on the 737 trips whilst letting another guest crash the Piper, as they inevitably do! ;-) Pete

Ah, thanks very much for the clarification, Dave. This customer must have got some old stock! ;-) Best wishes for Christmas! Pete

You need the FSUIPC SDK from http://www.schiratti.com/dowson. Check offsets 3380 and 32FA in the programmer documentation. Regards, Pete

Yes, you can do that. you shut down engines by cutting the fuel. Well it might do if I knew the reason they do that -- have you a clue about it? I fly jets, What has the engine type got to do with it? In any aircraft there are times when you need asymmetric thrust. Maybe not if nothing ever goes wrong, but I assure you that the case for having asymmetric thrust capabilities is far more important than some, presumably fuel-saving (?), operation balancing inner and outer engine settings separately. Regards Pete

I've never heard of that. I can save flights fine here. There's nothing in FSUIPC which can stop it. And all that making one "default" does is change a parameter in the FS9.CFG file. Nothing of mine protects any files at all. Are you sure it isn't something else? Maybe you have something installed which uses FSUIPC and therefore isn't actually doing the same things when FSUIPC isn't in place? What are the symptoms? You save a Flight and mark it as default, but it still loads some other one next time? Have you checked the FS9.CFG file? Note that I don't think FS actually re-writes the FS9.CFG file until it is closed -- i.e. check the FS9.CFG file after shutting down FS9. Maybe you have something which is preventing FS9 closing correctly, and in fact it is either still running (do CTL_ALT_DEL and scan the process list for FS9.EXE) or it is crashing silently when you terminate it. Try changing some other, more obvious, option in FS and see if it changes the CFG on closing and reloads it next time. Regards, Pete

Ah, the Windows built-in version of printf obviously doesn't support all the formats. Sorry. Pete

First, could you find the "Caps Lock" key on your keyboard and turn it off, please. Messages all in capitals are very difficult to read and also come over as "SHOUTING". You need to get a later version of FSUIPC -- go to http://www.schiratti.com/dowson. The version you have is suitable for the original release of FS2004 and cannot work with the FS9.1 update. It certainly should do. It doesn't because they have not re-packaged it with a later FSUIPC since the FS2004 update came out. There's no way I can make software compatible with releases before I know about them. You should really complain to your FDC supplier. Regards, Pete

Well, there are several things wrong here. First, offset 0x0840 is a 2-byte "Crashed" flag, not any altitude at all. Where are you looking for your offset values? The aircraft altitude is a 64 bit signed integer at offset 0x0570. Second, you are reading it as if it is an 8 character string!? why? It is a signed 64-bit integer. If your compiler supports it, define it as an __int64. In this line: wsprintf(alting, "%d", alt[0]); you appear to be converting the value in the first 8 bits (for "alt[0]" is a character, which is 8 bits) into character form, so evidently you did realise, somewhere, that you weren't reading a string. However, the first 8 bits of a 64-bit number won't be very useful. Then in these lines: altint=altint*3.28084/(65536*65536); wsprintf(alting, "%d", altint); you do the accurate conversion from metres and fractional metres to feet, but store the result back into an integer. If you want the altitude to the whole number of feet blow, I suppose that's okay, but if you want more accuracy consider using floating point. Try: __int64 alt; double dAlt; char alting[8]; ...... if (!FSUIPC_Read(0x0570, 8, &alt, &dwResult) || !FSUIPC_Process(&dwResult)) fTimeOk = FALSE; dAlt=alt*3.28084/(65536.0*65536.0); wsprintf(alting, "%.2f", dAlt); If your compiler doesn't support 64-bit integers then it gets a bit more complicated. You'd have to read it into two 32-bit values and treat them separately, as integral and fractional parts. You'd need to search an airport database, having obtained the aircraft's Latitude and Longitude. There *should* be a way to find it inside FS, but I don't know how. Regards, Pete

Erthe short answer is no. Sorry. I don't understand why you'd want to do what you say. The whole point of two throttles, one for all the left engines and one for all the right, is for asymmetric thrust when needed -- for instance, to help tight corners when taxiing (though that's an unusual one) and when one or other engine is out and you need to re-balance the aircraft with both throttles and rudder trim. I can see no use for driving inboard engines with one lever and outboard with another lever. That DOES seem entirely pointless, and in the six or so years of FSUIPC it has never been requested once. Can you explain what you think it would be useful for, and why you think the only useful arrangement is "pointless"? Regards, Pete

Ah, must be all that grunt that helps! No good on my fastest, an Athlon 4000+. Really? I thought the SLI operation was invisible to Windows and applications? It surely simply doubles the power of the video system by splitting the work on the graphics, and is all handled in the drivers/hardware. All the reviews I have read of systems with SLI seem to prove it has a dramatic effect! I'd certainly go for it on my next system. Well, thanks, but that's mostly done by my PFC.DLL module rather than FSUIPC. ;-) Regards, Pete

But, as I said, if you have more than one outside view open in FS your frame rates will be dreadful. That's why i suggested the three alternatives. You must have missed that important point? I think that's all to do with drivers. I'm afraid I can't help there. You will have to experimant with all the settings. Some drivers won't handle all the settings on more than one window. Unless you are using WinXP I don't think you even get acceleration on more than one window at a time with most drivers. Well, you wouldn't if all FS had to do was maintain one window and the other was kept blank. Regards Pete

No outside view? Ahthat implies you have the forward view already on one of the above. If you try multiple separate views on one PC, FS's frame rates will be awful. Try it on the monitors you already have connected. Just open up another outside view and watch your frame rates plummet. The only solution I know of on a single PC is to be sure to have the video driver set to the mode where the monitors can be regarded together as one large screen. nVidia drivers can do that, as also can the Matrox Parhelia drivers. I don't think the ATI drivers can, but I may be wrong. If the monitors are on one video card and treated as one large screen then you can stretch the FS outside view window across them both. With the Parhelia the FS window can be stretched across three monitors, which is better because then the centre is not "obstructed" by the monitor divide. I can run the outside view at resolutions up to 3840 x 1024 across my three 18" TFTs, though I use lower resolutions for higher frame rates. An alternative, of course, is to get one huge widescreen monitor, or better a projector and screen, and have such a large outside view that you can actually reduce the Zoom level to real widescreen -- so you effectively have the forward and 45 degree views (well, partly complete) in one view. The projector would be driven as one monitor and you use the other, on the same video card, for your panels. With the tumbling prices and improving quality of projectors these days this is becoming a sensible choice. The only other way would be to use one or two other computers (if you want left and right views I think you'd need two others), both equally as capable as your first, both running FS and linked by Luciano Napolitano's WidevieW program. Nothing of mine can help. I don't have anything dealing with graphics at all. Sorry. For other ideas you might want to try a more general forum, like the FS2004 Forum here. Regards, Pete