Pete Dowson

What version AS2004? If it isn't the very latest, get it. And make sure you are using version 3.45 of FSUIPC. After that I don't want to see ActiveSky messages or logs -- those are for AS support. If you need me to look at FSUIPC it is the FSUIPC Log I'd need to see. Regards, Pete

And was it? Sorry, I don't actually know whether it was or not. This is a question for PM support I'm afraid. Yes, please ask PM support. I am very sorry, but I simply cannot undertake to support their software as well as all my own. It's a full time job as it is! All FSUIPC can do is forward the code to the PM module. What it does and doesn't do with it as a result needs to be sorted out by PM. Regards, Pete

Well, first, please ALWAYS declare the versions you are using. Current FSUIPC is 3.45, WideFS is 6.45. Then, it appears, that this is probably more a question for PM support. All the PM controls in FSUIPC do is operate assorted bits in the offsets declared by Enrico Schiratti in the PM Offsets documentation, available on the PM site. the VS button appears to be bit 31 in offset 5410, which is toggled (i.e. simply changed -- from 1 to 0 or 0 to 1). You should check that first in the FSUIPC Monitor -- see Logging page. Monitor 5410 as a U32 in hex, see if the top bit changes. Again, please check the PM offsets documentation. There is really very little to go wrong in FSUIPC for any of these PM controls. All it does is change bits in declared offsets. You can check those easily yourself. If the bits change, as I believe they do, and PM does not respond, then I really cannot do anything more -- you need PM support to look at it for you. I do know that some of these things have stopped working, started again, and stopped yet again, with different builds Enrico produces. I really cannot re-test them all every time he posts new builds. I think these days he prefers folks to use the "pass through" facilities -- offsets 4F4 (for GC) and 4F2 (for MCP). The relevant FSUIPC controls for these are "PM GC Controls" and "PM MCP Kcodes", which need parameters to pass to PM. There are some listed in the FSUIPC Advanced User's guide, but the main reference really is the PM offsets document from the PM site. Yes, but how is it programmed in FSUIPC? Check that the correct bits are being changed. If they are, as I believe you will find, then it is most certainly a matter for PM support. Please try to eliminate other things when you are trying to diagnose problems. Here, for instance, for test purposes, you could esily simply program a couple of keyboard combinations to the same PM controls in FSUIPC. If they don't work then you know it is PM. Regards, Pete

I sent that last night, well it was today by then -- 00:09Z Monday 31st Jan. Regards, Pete

Okay, this is confirmed as a bug. Apologies. It isn't just the spoiler axis, it is all axes. It will be fixed in the next version, in a few weeks. Meanwhile the work-around is to also check the "filter" setting. It remembers "filter" and "filter+reverse", just not "reverse" alone. Thanks for the report. Regards, Pete

Why do you set ActionKeys=Yes? Radar Contact does NOT use keys directly, it uses the FSUIPC Hot Keys facility, as I said before. Your WideClient INI can simply contain default parameters. And it really is more a question for Radar Contact support. it is certainly nothing to do with WideFS, it is arranged by Radar Contact using facilities in FSUIPC. I know you did, and I pointed out that you are using an out of date unsupported version of WideFS. Please upgrade! The only improvment I can see is in the way you run the programs: RunReady1=c:\Program Files\rcv30\rcv31.exe RunReady2=C:\INSTALLDIR\Modules\ActiveSky2004\AS2004.exe RunReady3=C:\FS2004\SHOWTEXT\showtext.exe You should consider a delay (DelayReady1 and 2) between each, else they could be tripping over each other during initialisation. Regards, Pete

As long as you are on the same PC, your access to FSUIPC means you already have a Window handle owned by the process. Or even without FSUIPC you just need to find the top level window with class name "FS98MAIN" (they are all called that no matter which version!). Once you have the Window handle I think you can find the process name (probably full path name) easily enough. Regards, Pete

It should be saved. The code is the same for all the supported axes. I'll check. (Shame you didn't report it in the previous version -- if it is a bug I could have fixed it by now!) Regards, Pete

Does the panel accept axis inputs to control these levers? If not then I don't see how you can do it. If so, then isn't it merely a matter of proper calibration? That sounds like 4 discrete switch positions to me, not axis inputs which have a continuous range. I assume his panel is designed to be used with switches and buttons? Or only with the mouse? I'm afraid there are more questions than answers here. Until I know how you are allowed to control those levers -- i.e. what the programmer has provided for such control -- there's no way really I can advise. Certainly there's nothing in any of my programs at present which convert specific axis range values into keyboard or button presses. If the documentation supplied with the panel doesn't tell you these things it seems you will need to contact the author. If he hasn't provided any axis controls for those levers, then possibly he would be amenable to changing it? Regards, Pete

Firstr thing is that you are using an out of date unsupported version of WideFS. Current is 6.45. You don't say what the problem is, exactly. Your title says "Problems getting wideclient to recognize keystrokes" but WideClient doesn't need to recognise keystrokes. If fact nothing on the Client PC has anything to do with keystrokes. Radar Contact uses the Hot Key facilities in FSUIPC, no keystroke facilities in WideFS. The keys it expects are pressed on the FS PC whilst FS has the focus. Regards, Pete

No, not at all. Please read what I said. Here, I will repeat some of the more impoertant bits for you: I also said: In other words, I am anxious to resolve the issue. If you won't help, as your odd over-reaction suggests, then I can only surmise that there is something to hide. How else can I help resolve problems except by checking data? Since you have paid for the registration, then surely you will want me to resolve the problem so that you can keep abreast of all the improvements I am adding to the program? So far, in all cases of problems reported like this, all but a couple have not followed up their reports by providing the Key file for checking. And, oddly, like it seems you propose to do, have never come back for more support. Slightly suspicious, maybe? Of the two that did, one definitely had a genuine problem, but it wasn't the key itself, and the other was actually a counterfeit key. I do have a "Lars Kluver" listed as a purchaser from SimMarket, but the email address is different. This was a registration in early August 2003, and I note that the 'u' was accented (umlaut?). The very first versions of the Key generator did have a problem with accented characters, and it is just possible that this is the cause. But I really cannot resolve it without your cooperation, don't you see that? Regards, Pete

That sounds very useful. Thanks. Yes, that's actually been a facility in most recent versions of FS. I documented it in the FSUIPC Advanced user's guide in the section about multiple INI installations. Is that down to the German FS9 or the German operating system? The "Application Data" sub-folder is used by many programs, not just FS9. I think this part of the path is one of those available through the "SHFolder" API -- there's a constant defined for the API to get a system path as follows: You can get the path as above. Except for the /CFG: option, you can get the name from the Process EXE name. I'm afraid I don't really know how to track down the use of the /CFG: option. In all versions before FS2004 the CFG file is in the main FS path. Regards, Pete

You won't get any support from me for that. If you have something that works well with 3.40 and not with anything later, then it sounds like you are using an illegal (i.e. counterfeit) user key, or at least one which has something wrong with it. Try 3.45 again, but after temporarily removing your FSUIPC.KEY file from the FS Modules folder. If that "fixes" it, then the key is suspect. Zip up the FSUIPC.KEY file and send it to petedowson@btconnect.com so that I can investigate. Regards, Pete

In that case, for such simple things, you might find the FS98 interface sufficient -- the direct writable offsets at 0F1C (114 bytes). This interface was all there was in FS98, the extensions in the AWI were to allow for the many more layers possible in FS2000. There's a simple addition for the FS98 interface for rain/snow control and a few other things. Read the Notes in the Progrmmer's guide under the title "Additional information for Application programmers". Anyway, to briefly answer your earlier questions as best I can with my failing memory: Set replaces the whole structure. If you read the actual comments in the header file you will see it does say "set all ...". If you are setting all the weather this is better than adding all the time. AddAt adds a cloud layer at the altitude specified in the command itself (the lower 16 bits). It should do this without disturbing the others, but some small adjustment might be made if this makes any layer too "thin" (and no, sorry, I don't remember how 'thin' they can be). nAfter is merely a counter for the number of layers following the current one in the same command data structure. Since you can only have one such layer in AddAt it is always zero in that. If you were setting 10 layerrs by Set All then the first one would say 9, then next 8, and so on. The last 0. If you have any other existing program which uses this interface you might learn a lot by turning on FSUIPC IPC write logging and seeing exactly what it does. Come to think of it, my own "WeatherSet" program uses the AWI and was intended as just such a demonstration. You can check all sorts of things with that. WeatherSet2 is the demo program for the FS2004 NWI. Regards, Pete

Well, no, not at all. After scanning through the rest I find I really have no idea what it is all about. Never having used Squawkbox or even Multiplayer, I have no idea I'm afraid. Just to carry on a bit: Now ALL of those things that are going wrong, every single one of them, are to do with the relationship between Squawkbox or whatever and FS, via the Multiplayer interface. I really have no idea how that works or even how to set it up, but I do know it isn't at all related to either FSUIPC or WideFS. It will be related to the Network, obviously, but it is a separate conversion between FS's multiplayer interface and whichever part of the rest of the set up which deals with it. That's where I get lost. I have no idea of the relative functions of SBRelay,ServInfo, HostSB, and Squawkbox. Sorry, but I do really think you need to seek help from the folks who do this stuff. It will be some setting either in FS multiplayer or one of the other accessories related to your on-lne flying. All Squawkbox uses WideFS and FSUIPC for is to ascertain the position of your own aircraft, and, possibly (either directly or via AIBridge) to feed the MP aircraft into the FSUIPC TCAS data. Regards, Pete

This is for FS2000 or FS2002 I take it? Er, no. You can set many wind layers all at once. And winds are not necessarily the strength and direct at the upper altitude -- maybe they will be in the centre of the layer, but the altitudes give are the changeover points and normally there's be a lot of smoothing between two adjacent layers. It's a long long time since any one started using AWI. That was designed for FS2000 and extended to FS2002 but it isn't really of much use in FS2004. Can you confirm that you realy do want to program weather for older versions of FS, and then perhaps we'll discuss the interface. I would need to revise it first as I wrote all that stuff five or six years ago and haven't used it or discussed it for years. Regards Pete

There is no way FSUIPC can have any influence on the graphics. That sounds like some limitation has changed on either real memory or video memory. Certainly, different versions of FSUIPC will have slightly different memory occupancy, but not enough to influence anything critical unless something else had made it so already. BTW what version is the "FSUIPC you used before"? Regards, Pete

No. All of the separate language packages in the SDK are aimed at external program writers. The only internal stuff is that in the ZIP for it, and it revolves around C, because that was the only support provided by Microsoft. The methods of module writing are derived from Gauge writing, for which MS provided an SDK. Until recently this was C (or C++ just about, with much care I would think) only, though you can also do XML gauges now. I don't really know how you'd go about making the structures work correctly for a module in another language, but then I don't really know any others than C and ASM. Either way, you will need to change the innards of whatever "wrapper" you are using, or write your own, to not only use the Open2() call but also, of course, supply the memory it needs for the data exchanges. Regards, Pete

AhI've not changed that part yet. I only added the facility to start and stop programs via KeySend. Ooops! [This is what comes of adding facilities for folks ad hoc!] I'll add this and send you a revised version. It may be tomorrow (Monday) now though. Regards, Pete

Unfortunately no attachment. I don't seem to be able to make attachments either at present, and I'm trying to find out why! If this is merely a message box containing a message, the words will do fine. But probably more important is the FSUIPC LOG. Possibly the program (or is it a gauge or DLL?) is not registering correctly with FSUIPC? In that case then possibly there's something wrong with your user Key? If you'd like to try again, then close down FS, Zip up the FSUIPC.LOG and FSUIPC.KEY files and send them to me at petedowson@btconnect.com, I can check things out. But the Log is always the first thing to check. Regards, Pete

I've tested the gauge on WinXP SP2 with no problems, but maybe I've disabled some of that Internet stuff. I'll check. I would have expected any pop-up stopper to only run when I use Internet Explorer though. There is certainly no reason why any such program should be running all the time in any case. it should start when you open up your browser (e.g. IE) and terminate when you close it. ANY process doing things in the background like that is something you most certainly do not want when flying with FS. It will reduce performance, and, worse, introduce stutters and jerks. Regards, Pete

I had a look and it was quite easy to do. Try this WideClient 6.453, which will work with WideServer 6.45 already released. The new Run/Close facilities, summarised, are: In each case N = 1 to 9 RunN= runs program when WideClient starts and when KeySend says to RunReadyN= runs program when FS is ready to fly and when KeySend says to RunKeyN= runs program only when KeySend says to CloseN=... closes program 'RunN' when WideClient closes CloseReadyN=... closes program 'RunReadyN' when WideClient closes or as controlled by Shut Down options and wideServer hot keys. CloseKeyN=... same as CloseReady, but for RunKeyN program. Then there are these new parameters for KeySend. As usual, the KeySend number M can be anything from 1 to 255: KeySendM=RunN to run the RunN program if not running now KeySendM=RunReadyN to run the RunReadyN program if not running now KeySendM=RunKeyN to run the RunKeyN program if not running now KeySendM=CloseN to close the RunN program if it is running KeySendM=CloseReadyN to close the RunReadyN program if it is running KeySendM=CloseKeyN to close the RunKeyN program if it is running I think this covers all the angles. Let me know how you get on! OUCH! OUCH! I am not allowed to add this small attachments! I'll be back soon ... Regards, Pete

I see. How odd. Have you mentioned this difficulty to the FreeFD author, or is it not in development any more? Obviously it would be preferable for it to have a keypress to tell it to load or reload a plan. I have added your request to my list and will see if there's a tidy way to implement it in the next WideClient update -- I am actually working on some small improvements there at present. But if, in the mean time, you do arrive at a better solution please do let me know. Regards, Pete

It doesn't? Writing 0 to 05DC should most certainly switch slew off in all versions of FS since FS98. See offset 05DE, as documented. That's the difference. Hmmm! It may indeed be the difference described in offset 05DE. In FS2004 there's no way to prevent the axes being swapped (there are separate axis controls in FS for slew mode). You may need to do something about those too. Check offset 310B. Regards, Pete

Jeppesen's? Do you mean FS's own downloaded weather? FSUIPC cannot interfere with the actual local weather so directly like that, only the wind and visibility at the aircraft location. You say you are getting the airport wind forecast/ATIS stated as 0/0 even when you have a local wind, so it really cannot be anything of mine. That is weird. Have you tried going into the weather menu of FS and explicitly setting the local weather at the airport to have some wind? Just as a test I mean? Do the weather stations actually appear correctly on the FS weather setting map? Is the rest of the weather at the airport "standard" (no winds, no clouds, pressure 1013 (29.92"), temp 15C)? If so, is this applied at all airports or only the specific one you are noticing it with? The FS defaults may be kicking in for some reason -- possibly the METAR station list in FS is corrupted. These files are used by FS: In FS's "weather folder": wxmapping.bin icao_pos.bin wxstationlist.bin which are, I think, the originals, plus, in the same folder as the FS9.cfg (i.e. Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9): wxstationlist.bin I think this one gets updated at times and may have got corrupted. Make a safe copy of it and either delete it (FS will probably make a new one), or copy over the one from the weather folder (assuming that one isn't corrupted). If the airports you've checked don't match the weather station list then local weather details from any source -- FSMeteo, AS2004 or MS's own downloads -- won't be getting assigned, and defaults may prevail. I really cannot think of anything else which could even come close to producing the sympptoms you describe. Regards, Pete