Pete Dowson

You really need to try using FSInterrogate. It can help clarify most of these sorts of misunderstanding. That's why it is provided. You are correctly reading the 32-bit (4-byte) heading into an unsigned integer variable (at least, that's how I assume Dword is defined?). But this is fixed point, not floating point. What does your "FloattoStr" do when fed with a fixed point number? Try converting the heading to a double floating point value first. In C this can be done automatically by: (heading*360.0)/(65536.0*65536.0) The ".0" bits make all the difference, in C at least. I assume you are using VB, so I'm not really sure what will be happening in the code you are showing. Also, I always like to be explicit with parentheses. In C I know the multiplication will be done first anyway, but will it be so in VB? If not you are actually multiplying by zero: 360/(65536*65536) is zero in fixed point. It is possible that the compiler is optimising the code and converting the 360/(65536*65536) part even before you get to run the code. Regards, Pete

Can you actually set such layers in FS? Certainly the altitudes I deal with are positive only (except the Precipitation Base, to allow rain to reach the ground!). This doesn't mean that there will be no weather below sea level, as the layer levels, excepting cloudbases, are notional, and even with cloudbases you can set the deviation so you get parts lower. The temperatures, for instance, do scale appropriately all the way up and down between the "layer levels". Easiest thing to do, in your program, is check altitude < 0 and if so set it to 0 before supplying it to FSUIPC. Does this cause any unwanted results? Maybe I'm not understanding something you are wanting to do? Regards, Pete

I think that ambitious project put you off, eh? It certainly doesn't need to be anywhere near as complex just for three states. Did you look at the business about flags and conditions in the Advanced User's documentation? I can help, but I'd rather not simply work out solutions -- helping folks reach their own solutions is better because then they understand and can go on to do more. Ask specific questions instead and we'll get there. What you are looking for is simply something like this: if in "state 1" this button should do X and change the state to 2 if in "state 2" this button should do Y and change the state to 3 if in "state 3" this button should do Z and change the state to 1 Now the Flags offered by FSUIPC are either on or off, so you cannot get 3 different states from only 1 of them -- you'd need 2. So, choose 2 arbitrary flags -- these are really button numbers for buttons you haven't got -- FSUIPC provides one flag for each possible button (0-31) on joysticks 0-15, so there are plenty which you won't (cannot) be using for "real" buttons. So, to make the arithmetic easy, say you choose flags on joystick 10, buttons 0 and 1. These have numbers 256*10 + 0 and 256*10 + 1, or 2560 and 2561 respectively. Your "if" lines above (conditionals) will be: if button pressed and not flag 2560 and not Flag 2561, do X, and set Flag 2560 if button pressed and flag 2560 but not Flag 2561, do Y, and set Flag 2561 if button pressed and flag 2560 and Flag 2561, do Z, and clear Flag 2560 and clear Flag 2561 Now, because, in FSUIPC, each parameter line can only do one thing, this amounts not to 3 entries in the INI, but 7: if button pressed and not Flag 2560 and not Flag 2561, do X if button pressed and not Flag 2560 and not Flag 2561, set Flag 2560 if button pressed and Flag 2560 but not Flag 2561, do Y if button pressed and Flag 2560 but not Flag 2561, set Flag 2561 if button pressed and Flag 2560 and Flag 2561, do Z if button pressed and Flag 2560 and Flag 2561, clear Flag 2560 if button pressed and not Flag 2560 and Flag 2561 clear Flag 2561 Note that the very last line looks wrong as it is conditional on "not Flag 2560", but it has to be this way because the line before cleared that Flag. Without this the logic would break down -- FSUIPC executes ALL the lines it finds for that one button press, not just the first one it finds applicable. This also brings up another point. For each of the three little groups the lines need to be defined in this order because FSUIPC processes them in order (actually in the order of the left-hand line number in the [buttons] section). If they got out of order, then the Flags would be changed in the wrong order. Phew ....looks like I've done most of the work after all. I hope I've made it understandable. All you need to do is convert that to the parametric format laid down in the documentation. Do you think you can do that? If not ask questions. Regards, Pete

I hope Mr. Capt is able to help you! Regards, Pete

Have you looked in the Buttons FS control assignments drop-down list in FSUIPC (Buttons page)? They are all in alphabetical order, so look for Gearthere's Gear Down, Gear Pump, Gear Set, Gear Toggle and Gear Up. They are also listed in the List of FS2004 Controls which is included in the current FSUIPC.ZIP package. Pete

No. It only allows software which will work with FSUIPC on the FS PC to be used, instead, on a Networked PC. WideFS is an extension of the FSUIPC interface to Networked PCs. Please persue the documentation. No, WidevieW, a program by Luciano Napolitano, links multiple installations of FS, across a Network, so that they function as one. Yes, by doing this you can have the copy of FS on one PC showing different things to the one on the other PC. How much that can be gauges and so on I'm not sure -- it is usually used to obtain multiple external views, like left, centre, right, rather than to spread gauges around. Check the WidevieW website. And, no, WidevieW does not need WideFS. In fact it won't run on the same client as WideClient, because both Wideclient and FS itself pretend to be the same thing. There are separate packages of aircraft gauges which are provided by external programs, which do interface via FSUIPC, and which therefore do run on client PCs under WideFS. The most famous and professional one is undoubtedly Project Magenta. The cheapest (free) one is FreeFD. Links to both are provided on the http://www.schiratti.com/dowson page. Regards, Pete

Oh, you'd know if you had it. And for it to work you'd have had to pay for it! There's something certainly messing with things somehow. I think there was another report, and a solution was found -- some background program running also was the culprit. But I can't seem to find it now. It is somewhere here in the forum. I wonder if one of those has added some incompatible DLL into the Modules folder? Actually WeatherSet and TrafficLook are included in the FSUIPC package. No, no. You don't want to install any more. It is something that is installed which is doing this, but it may be something installed in FS (which must therefore be in the Modules folder), or it may be something running in Windows anyway. I know that FS is particularly sensitive to some of the background anti-virus checkers around. Check what you have running (use Ctrl-Alt-Del and look at both the Applications and Processes list, see if there's anything odd there. Not that it's easy to spot "odd" things. Windows XP in particular seems replete with many odd processes running most of the time). If you know you have some background checking going on, try disabling it for now. Things like anti-virus and memory check/streamliners are ones to look for. Regards, Pete

Oh dear! PLEASE SEE THE ANNOUNCEMENT AT THE TOP OF THE FORUM!!! It is entitled Interim Test Version of WideFS (6.442) Why on Earth go back when you can go forward? I will be posting a further update (6.447), replacing 6.442, within the next two days. Regards, Pete

There is most certainly a GPSout.ini provided in the GPSout.ZIP from http://www.schiratti.com/dowson. I suggest you download it again if you've lost it. Regards, Pete

First, think about the order in which you are doing things. If you take an integer, say 65535, and divide it by 65536, what do you think you get? Zero, that's what! :wink: So by dividing the value first you lose any fractional part of the metres/sec. Maybe that's accurate enough for your needs? Okay, press on(if not, copy it to a floating point variable first and do all your calculations in floating point). Secondly, what units are you trying to convert it to? You seem to be multiplying by 60 * 60 which will give you metres per hour, then dividing by 1000 -- so, you want kilometres per hour? Correct? What are you comparing this with to show that it is wrong? Please look at FSInterrogate, see what that is displaying and how it converts things. It is a very useful utility and is supplied in the SDK just to help clarify this sort of thing. Regards, Pete

Both Keys need the same name and email, as stated in the documentation. I can replce one or the other Key, your choice. Email me at petedowson@btconnect.com, and attach both Key notification emails you got from SimMarket, and tell me which one you now want to use. Sorry, I don't understand. How have you done that? It is not possible! WideClient cannot support FS gauges. Please read the WideFS documentation -- perhaps you should have read that before you paid for it! WideFS extends the FSUIPC external program interface to work across Networks. It supports programs written to use FSUIPC. There are plenty of them (see, for a start, the list on the right-hand side of the http://www.schiratti.com/dowson page). But no parts of FS use FSUIPC. gauges and panels and other Windows in FS are parts of FS, they are not separate application programs which interface to FS via FSUIPC! Regards, Pete

Yes, but, in FS2004, unfortunately you'd need to repeat the "clearing all weather" at intervals, because even with the weather dynamics slider set to minimum (or zero programmatically), the weather you set globally will change to become local. Once that happens, any further writing of global weather only affects weather stations not yet set -- certainly nowhere near the aircraft. Clearing all weather resets the weather set at every station and so allows the global weather, which is the default, to be set again. If you clear all weather at intervals you will get the occasionally hiccough in the weather visually, and on instruments, whilst it is reset. That's a good question. Infortunately I don't know the answer. As the flight is loaded various things are set, but what, exactly, indicates the completion? I really don't know. When you load a flight there are calls made all over the place to so many subsystems in FS -- aircraft, panel, scenery, weather, ATC, AI, etc etc. I really have no idea what the very "last" thing done is, and even if I did, what happens if that "last thing" wasn't needed in this case? You might try looking at the FS time. The seconds count will presumably get reset then start incrementing again, but I'm not sure that this is the 'last' thing either. There is also the "ready to fly" flag at offset 3364. That may not go non-zero immediately you tell FS to load a flight, but see if it works when you wait for it to go non-zero then zero again. Of course I only found that for FS2004 so it won't apply to your FS2002 version in any case. Regards, Pete

Sort of, but not quite. The mask at 3128 tells FSUIPC which bits YOU want to control. All bits not set to 1 there are still under FSUIPC/User control. The bits in 312C corresponding to those in the mask then tell FSUIPC how you want them -- set to 0 or set to 1. As you'll notice, to DISABLE a facility doesn't always mean setting a 1 there or a 0 -- they vary (depending historically on how the defaults used to be set). You need to look at the description of each one. Many of the options don't really apply to FS2004. To control weather properly in FS2004 you really have to use the New Weather Interface (NWI) and do it locally, station by station. Global weather simply doesn't stay global as it does in FS2002 and before. The FS2004 weather engine is a complete new beast -- I don't think you'll be successful with one method for both even though FSUIPC still does support the FS2002 facilities in FS2004. Regards, Pete

No, sorry. I did download PocketFMS, but I can't even get that to install anything on my iPAQ, so I eventually gave up. I would have tried harder, but I don't actually need or want this as for a moving map with FS. I use Jeppesen FliteMap on a PC with a 20" screen! Trying to use a 3" screen for the same thing isn't that attractive to me :wink: . Maybe when I'm less busy I will try to make PocketFMS work again. I did also try disabling ActiveSync, which wasn't as easy as it sounds, but afterwards I had a job getting it back working correctly with my iPAQ anyway -- much trial and error and not a little cursing was involved :? . All this makes me feel rather ignorant about the ways of PDAs, and not really eager to learn I'm afraid. Perhaps someone else who has achieved it will jump in and help you. Regards, Pete

Sorry, I've no idea. I assume you waited a while? Sometimes FS can appear to hesitate for a while duing the load, especially first time. Please ask in the FS2004 Forum. There's a lot more experience in dealing with general FS problems there. But if this is a straight install from MS disks it also becomes a proper Microsoft support matter, so they should be called upon to assist too. Regards, Pete

The only condition I can recall which causes this is an older version of FSNavigator. Do you have that installed? If so, get it updated as it has this bug in it. The only other possibility I can think of, but less likely I think, is a corrupted WX (weather) file being loaded. To test for that temporarily (or permanently if you like) remove the FS9.CFG file from your Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9 folder. FS will make a new one and load default settings. Regards, Pete

The details show that this is not, in fact, the version of AIBridge which is accredited. If you check the details in the Log against those listed for AIBridge in the Freeware Keys list above you will see that it needs a Product Name of "AIBridge". As it is it has no Product Name and an empty Description field (both are from its "Version" information), so FSUIPC is not recognising it. I understand that Jose still maintains this program and a link can be found on the http://www.schiratti.com/dowson page. Please check there. If you still have problems locating a working version, you should be able to contact Jose there too. Regards, Pete

Yes. You will have to do this by editing in the FSUIPC.INI file. You can do it by using the facilities for setting and clearing flags and having conditional actions. Check out the Advanced User's documentation. You could also do it by using FSUIPC offsets - incrementing one and making other actions on the same key dependent upon the value. But for that you need some publically available offsets. I will be releasing a batch of those soon, mainly aimed at making it easier to use my GFdisplay (Go Flight display control program), but they could be used for anything, providing that it's for private use (so avoiding clashes between different products). Look at flags first though. Regards, Pete

Good. Have fun! Pete

It looks like your aircraft has about three gauges which are attempting to access FSUIPC using the external application methods, which have not been "legal" since the special internal access facilities were provided in the SDK in the FS2000 era. The method of identifying the caller so that it can be accredited goes wrong when the wrong entry calls are made. Furthermore, even if your copy of FSUIPC were to be user-registered (which would certainly overcome the illegal access problem), it is still possible for the separate callers to clash with each other, on occasion, because the external entry method depends upon process IDs and they will all be the same for internal gauges and DLLs. Is the aircraft you are using an old one? You say it happens each time you "click on an aircraft", which is ambiguous. Do you mean any aircraft or just this specific one (Blackhawk)? If it is occurring every time, then maybe it is an add-in DLL which is doing it? If you'd like me to investigate further please do this: 1. Before loading FS, edit the FSUIPC.INI file, adding the lines Debug=Please LogExtras=2048 LogReads=Yes LogWrites=Yes to the [General] section. 2. Run FS, but please, for this, do not run any extra external programs like AS2004 -- the Log will get too big. 3. After the error, close FS. Then ZIP up the Log file and send it to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. 4. Edit the FSUIPC.INI file again and remove those lines you added above. Please also tell me what operating system you are using on your PC. Regards, Pete

If you moved to a new PC or reinstalled Windows, just copying the KEY file won't work. You need to re-enter the details exactly as before. If it isn't working then you've probably got something wrong. Open the original KEY file with an editor (e.g. NotePad) and check -- cut and paste if you are not sure of any of the characters. Once you've done it for FSUIPC or WideFS, for the other you would just need to enter the key, although by then your KEY file should work. Regards, Pete

Ah. I wish you'd said it was registered in the first place. With a correctly user-registered FSUIPC the Gauge registration is not relevant (it is bypassed -- though as an aid to developers FSUIPC still logs it as good or bad), so Mr Capt's reply was not actually at all relevant, unfortunately. Just as an experiment, try removing the FSUIPC.KEY file from the FS Modules folder and see if it then works. If so, then it sounds like there is something wrong with your user key (or FSUIPC's checks on it). In that case, please Zip up the FSUIPC.KEY file and send it to me at petedowson@btconnect.com and I'll work out what is happening. If, however, it still does not work, then I'm afraid we are dependent upon Mr. Capt finding out what is going on, as the log shows that the interface is working perfectly correctly between the gauge and FSUIPC. You could, also, enable IPC read and write logging (in the FSUIPC Logging page), which will show us the sort of interchange that is happening. But take care, the Log file could get very large. Hmmm. There's no interface for such things in FSUIPC in any case, so that is something else. Maybe it will take ZIPs? Regards, Pete

How did you "unregister" it? When you update FSUIPC all you need to do is copy the new DLL over the old one. Don't delete your FSUIPC.KEY file, or you will have to enter the details again. No. Unless you've done something wrong, like published your key details openly for others to use, or told your credit card company to stop payment. In either case your Key will be blocked. I am emailing you about this. Regards, Pete

Version 3.44 is current. I only support the latest version, so please do upgrade when you can. The entries which are blank are simply those which no one has confirmed to me as being correct and working. I am not an expert in all these things, so it isn't any use just me checking them. I think they are correct, but someone who knows what he is looking at would need to confirm this before I mark them as "ok". If you know how to derive the same values from others, then you can check them that way. On the other hand, maybe some or all of these are saved in the FLT file, so if you Pause, save a flight, then compare the saved values with those read here by, say FSInterrogate, then you could verify them that way. I think this is how I checked some of the others, but the FLT file naming for this stuff is not always clear. Let me know when/if you do verify them and I will mark them accordingly. Thanks, Regards, Pete

I assume you are using a free install of FSUIPC? i.e. you've not registered it? Can you show me the Log file please? I need whatever information is included in the file, as Mr. Capt pointed out already. Also please tell me if you are using Windows 98 or Windows XP, or what other? Then, AFTER getting the Log for me, please, you can also try manually registering the gauge, before loading the aircraft. Do this by going to the FSUIPC options (Modules menu, FSUIPC), selecting the "Register an application program" button, then entering the details Mr. Capt gave you. i.e. Program: ACS.Zulu-MD11.gau Key: EHTM OBYE XWXI You will only need to do this once, as it is remembered in your Key file. If this works, and you are using Windows 98 or Windows Me, then it may be the same problem reported to me yesterday with another program entirely. I am working on this now. But I need to see the log, and know the version of Windows you are using, to be sure. Thanks Regards, Pete