Pete Dowson

Sounds like somehow you have a corrupt TRAFFIC.DLL in the FS Modules folder. However, completely un-installing and re-installing FS2002 should have replaced it with a good copy from your original FS2002 CDs. If the CD was bad you should have got an error, so it is a bit of a puzzle. All I can suggest it to try replacing the TRAFFIC.DLL in your Modules folder with someone else's. To this end I am emailing you the one from my own FS2002 installation. Regards, Pete

You have not installed the latest FSUIPC, then. That message doesn't even exist in that form now. Only versions 3.40 and later work with the FS2004 update. The current version of FSUIPC is 3.44. To check the version of FSUIPC.DLL, just find the module in the FS Modules folder, right click on it, and select Properties, then Version. Regards, Pete

Thank you very much Frank. And best wishes from me to you and yours, for a good Christmas and New Year. Oh, and many thanks for helping out with some very useful and sensible replies here, now and then! Best regards, Pete

WideFS doesn't really come into it. All WideFS clients are reading the FSUIPC offsets needed by whatever programs they are running, in any case. That part is automatic. If you mean the button or keypress is on the Client, wellFSUIPC can be programmed for button presses on a client PC, but it really isn't advisable to use Key Presses from a Client. Sorry, I don't understand this "specification". First, you seem to have two uses for offset 7B91 -- but one of zero size? How can any information be stored in anything with no size? I think you must have an error there. In the other cases, what is "size 1"? Is that 1 bit, 1 byte, 1 word, or what, please? The units are important. And what values have to be written to do what? Using the FSUIPC "Offset" controls (in the Buttons drop down list) you can set bits, bytes, words and double words, you can clear bits, you can increment and decrement values in bytes and words. Please take a look at the FSUIPC User Guide (and if you like the list in the Advanced Guide), but mainly just work out what you want to do. If you can say what you want to do and you still don't understand which control will do it, by all means come back. And have you checked for documentation or help from the author of the program you are trying to use? It seems odd for him to provide these facilities and not tell folks how to use them. Regards, Pete

But it would have to do so by editing the Flight or Panel.CFG file! I honestly don't see the point. FS already provides the facilities to save this stuff already, in the Flights you create. And it always has. I don't actually think changing panels is such a good idea as it makes them non-standard and less interchangeable. Flights are your records of how you want things to be. What is wrong with saving them? It is one keystroke (;) plus the entry of a name. There's a program already around for fiddling about with Aircraft.CFG files, I think there's a very good one for editing panels too, though I don't know if it is FS2004 compatible. This sort of thing really isn't an area I would want to extend FSUIPC into, not at all. The "preventing movement" thing is a simple in-line interception at run time. Like all the other FSUIPC things it makes no permanent changes to anything in FS. Regards, Pete

You don't need two Networks to run two protocols. And WideFS runs with either IPX/SPX or TCP/IP (the currently released version actually includes a Server which supports both at the same time). My PM software? You are mistaken, it is Enrico Schiratti who develops PM software. It means that FS is running on that PC, creating the "FS98Main" Window, so WideClient cannot run. As it clearly says in the documentation, WideClient is an FS replacement, running instead of FS on Networked PCs to support ancillary programs interfacing to FS on the Server. It is nothing to do with WidevieW. It is impossible to run Wideclient on the same PC as FS -- if it was running alongside FS, which FSUIPC interface would the programs you wish to run interface to? How can they distinguish between two identical interfaces? Did you miss this in the documentation? For example, the part which says There IS a way to override this, but it means changing the Window Class name used by WideClient. Here's the relevant part of the documentation: If you do this you will have to somehow get the programs you want to run to use the new Class name. For that you'd need to ask the author unless they have documented features for this, which some may well have. Regards, Pete

The AWI didn't change from FS2002 to FS2004, but it is only capable of dealing with the global weather, which, in FS2004, is no use -- global weather doesn's stay global, it gets localised, and then you lose control unless you constantly restart by clearing all weather so it will install new global weather to all localised weather stations. Yes, well. I never did those experiments. I suspect FS crashes because they made provision for extra cloud type graphics but never actually had time to implement them. I expect their use leads to pointers to graphics which aren't present. In FS2002 and before, the unallocated numbers actually just gave one of the others, so they were never of any separate use in any case. There are actually several references to the implemented types, which I believe date back at least to FS95, certainly FS98. Here is just one relevant extract from the FSUIPC Programmer's Guide: As far as I can check at present, FSUIPC has never imposed any restrictions on the cloud type setting. And until FS2004 it was never a problem -- bad values were defaulted to other meanings automatically, by FS. No one before has mentioned that bad values crash FS2004, but I suppose it doesn't surprise me. The complete weather system was discarded and written anew by different people for FS2004. I'm not sure, really, how far FSUIPC should check data and try to prevent daft things from happening in FS. With most offsets and values there's really no way I can tell. Adding development time to test all possible values for all possible inputs is really not feasible, and in any case much of what has been added has been found by experimentation such as by using "incorrect" values, so I could, if I'm not careful, be restricting progress if I do such things. Sorry, I don't know. No. You or I would have to experiment. This is how we learn things and develop new methods. Regards, Pete

No. Your registration covers all Versions 3.xxx. I don't want to discourage people from upgrading as I can only support the latest versions. I use Project Magenta, which has its own system and uses real satellite images. I don't really know much about any others. I think RealityXP do one which is supposed to be quite good -- but it certainly doesn't use any of my software -- and there's one that has just been released called SA_WXR, by AOG (http://members.chello.at/addongauges), which I might try myself. Thank you very much, you too! And Good Flying! Regards, Pete

There's been no changes in COM port handling in the PFC drivers, and 1.90 has been out for some time. The initialisation is via standard Windows APIs and work for all my programs using COM ports, and has done for many years. You need to check cables, and try swapping COM ports. If this has started recently you need to think what you changed in the system which could be messing things up. You may also need to contact PFC to see how to check the hardware. I find that, with most modern PCs, the USB port works better and is more reliable than the old COM ports which I think Microsoft want to forget. To use a USB port you would need to get a USB serial adapter. Regards, Pete

The version numbers are presumably 3.411 and 3.44, as version 4 won't exist for a while yet. If it works without your FSUIPC user key and doesn't with it, then it is almost certainly the fact that the key is not correct. There are a number of stolen and counterfeit keys around and so far every single report like this has turned out to be related to one such. If you believe you have a genuine key, properly purchased, that belongs to you, then there may be a problem in my checking on this. But so far no one has supplied any information for me to check it, despite my requests. Please rerun it registered, get the problem, then close FS. Find the FSUIPC.LOG and FSUIPC.KEY files in the FS modules folder, ZIP them up, and send them to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. I will check it out. Regards, Pete

You must enter all the details -- name, email and Key, exactly as provided in your notification. It isn't just the key which must be correct. It makes no difference. You can use FSUIPC on as many PCs of your own as you like. I do not restrict this. But the details you enter MUST be exacly correct, all of them. The only problems ever with this have all been due to incorrect details being entered. Regards, Pete

Almost any which interface to FS via FSUIPC. That's all WideFS really is -- an extension of the FSUIPC interface to other PCs on the Network. There's no way i can make a "list" -- there are programs interfacing to FSUIPC I've never heard of, and new ones appearing all the time. I think approaching your setup in this way is not really a good idea. You should first decide what programs you want to run THEN you find out if they will run on WideFS. Usially the author/supplier/documentation of the program itself is the most reliable source. Relieving the FS PC of any extra workload is going to be beneficial. Whether you would notice it particularly would depend on a lot of things, like how often and how busy the program(s) is/are and whether the PC is already struggling with FS as it is. Of those, ActiveSky, FDC and Squawkbox can be run via WideFS. ActiveCamera and FSNavigator certainly can't -- apart from the fact that they don't use FSUIPC anyway, they are, themselves, FS modules like FSUIPC. I don't know the others (except FSUIPC of course, which is an FS module). Regards, Pete

FSUIPC does not remember panel window positions, that is a job done by FS itself. FSUIPC's panel locking simply stops you moving them about by accident (as when trying to operate switches or drag levers with the mouse). Try saving a flight after moving things around, then loading that flight later. The details get saved in the FLT file, by FS. Regards, Pete

Hmmm. It is quite possible that, in all the enhancements made to GPSout over the years, that it is no longer compatible with FS98. I haven't had any dealings with FS98 for many years. Can you ask me again after Christmas some time (if it is still important then), please -- I would need to sort through my old disks and try re-installing it. Regards, Pete

Okay, it's correct then, it's "spoileron" operation. Full Flap? Quite honestly, I never get out of the plane when I'm flying it. Seems to rather spoil the illusion rather. :wink: Regards, Pete

There's really nothing in FSUIPC which will "stop" just because you go into a dialogue box. Certainly it will be less responsive whilst you are in a dialogue box, because Windows simply doesn't direct messages to it so often. Maybe the Elite driver gets a timeout on one of its requests and then never bothers to try again? I really couldn't say. It seems odd that they won't support you with this. If this is at all a general problem you'd think they'd be deluged with support requests. Assuming they are not, I can only think there's something specific going on in your system. If you'd like me to look at what it looks like from inside FSUIPC, you'll need to generate and send me some logs. Make sure you are using FSUIPC version 3.44. Switch on the IPC read/write logging (FSUIPC logging page), then close down and reload FS, and try to make this happen as soon as possible after FS starts, then close down FS. Try to keep the session as short as possible, else the Log will be very long and make it more difficult to see anything useful. Zip up the FSUIPC.LOG file (from the FS Modules folder) and send it to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. This is something Elite should be doing in any case -- they have written their interface to FSUIPC without any contact or consultation with me, and have never offered to take out any sort of license for accreditation, so I really don't owe them any support at all. If I do find out anything useful I will try to describe it to you, but then you'll have to fight with Elite yourself. Regards, Pete

No. Aircraft panels in FS come coded to work in FS only. The Gauge files which are used in the panels are built using an interface in FS specifically to handle the graphics, the updating, and the controls. The only way to have cockpit panel parts on other PCs is to use separate instrumentation designed for this. Project Magenta and FreeFD are two sets of glass cockpit instruments, both suitable for a 737NG, which come to mind. Project Magenta is very professional, but you pay, and FreeFD is, well, free, and pretty good for the price. Links are provided on the right hand side of the http://www.schiratti.com/dowson page. An alternative is to configure your FS PC to have more than one monitor. Then you can undock panel parts and move them over to those other monitors. Many video cards these days support up to 2 monitors (the Matrox Parhelia supports 3), and you can usually add a PCI video card to work alongside your AGP card for yet more monitors. But of course this all places a heavier load on the processor in the FS PC, so you need a good, fast PC to start with. Regards, Pete

Okaybut I've made a note on my list to find out what is going on with WideClient anyway. It just won't be soon, as I've been putting off a load of other stuff I need to do, for too long! Regards, Pete

But do both left and right operate, or only one? If both are operating, then, yes, it sounds like some sort of assignment problem -- check in FS joystick assignments that the spoiler axis isn't assigned wrongly. But if only left or right spoiler operates, there really cannot be anything wrong in your controls, because there are no controls which will do that. It would then be simply the way the aircraft visuals and gauges are modelled. Regards, Pete

By "SPUIPC" I assume you must mean FSUIPC? Else you are in the wrong Forum! :wink: Two points here: 1. If you have a user registered FSUIPC then you do not need any keys for any applications whatsoever. The user registration covers them all. 2. Registration of WideFS covers the use of WideFS -- it allows WideServer to run and link to Wideclients on networked PCs. It most certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with "supposedly allowing for the registration of other products"! Where do you get that idea from? To register an application for an unregistered install of FSUIPC, the button to press is labelled "Register an application program" or something very similar. Surely this is more obviously aimed at registering other products than "Register WideFS" -- the latter actually is for registering WideFs. I really don't see how such clearly labelled buttons can be interpreted in the reverse way you seem to have done. It sounds like you entered the details into the wrong place, then, as above. Or you entered them incorrectly. Why not ask about that instead of rushing off and buying FSUIPC instead? You certainly don't have to pay for FSUIPC just to run legitimate accredited freeware -- or accredited payware, for that matter. There are some much older Gauges which may not work, however. These are only those written to interface to FSUIPC in the wrong way (using the external interface). I don't know of any specifically, but I suppose it is possible that some of Eric's older ones are of that type. If the only problem was that the gauge isn't getting access to FSUIPC, then there will be a message indicating this. Check the FSUIPC LOG. But it wouldn't cause FS2004 to freeze. Maybe there is a message window, and it is behind FS -- do an ALT TAB to see if there is an error message awaiting your attention. Anyway, if you have a legitimately user-registered FSUIPC, then there are no access checks made at all, for any program or gauge or DLL. So, if this is the case, you certainly have something else going on with that A318, not an FSUIPC access error. Regards, Pete

Sorry, I've not really had time to follow the link. I tend to be stuck answering emails and messages here too much. Perhaps if you'd actually state exactly what you want to try to do I can tell you, but I really cannot examine someone else's documentation and translate it for you -- if you really want that I think the author of those facilities (IVAP) would be the best place to go. Regards, Pete

I don't use it, but the GPS is just another FS panel window isn't it? Up to 9 panel windows are operated by keypresses Shift+ 1-9 (the numerics on the main KB, not the key pad). The numbers vary from panel to panel, according to how they are defined in the PANEL.CFG file. What list are you looking through -- the list of FS2004 controls, you mean? That's for advanced users and programmers. To program Keys or Buttons, use the options in FS -- find the Modules menu, then FSUIPC in that. Click it. The FSUIPC options dialogue will display. Finmd the Keys or Buttons tabs, click whichever. You'll be able to press you key or button, drop down a full list of FS + added FSUIPC controls, and assign them as you like. Please browse through the appropriate sections of the User guide -- do not bother with the other documents yet. Find out first how to open up the FSUIPC options and use them from inside FS. You seem to be confusing yourself by looking at the last things first. But "GPS poweron", I should think, is just the FS control to power on/off the GPS, not display it or hide it. I don't think the power button is actually supported in any case. Maybe MS ran out of time, or added the control ready for future changes. Regards, Pete

Sorry, none whatsoever. And I'm afraid it will be a while before I can get time to look at it. Really you are trying to make WideClient do something it was never intended to do. (I only added the ClassInstance option reluctantly). Most of the time when WideClient is running it is getting run because client programs are connected and using it. I take it you have no client programs for it. To make it run as a fully operational program on its own is really a different design job. Have you checked WidevieW options to see if it'll do what you want? It would seem much more appropriate. I know that Luciano has recently released a program to do things with mouse movements and clicks over the LAN. Have a look, and perhpas make suggestions to him. It would obviously be better for WidevieW to pass messages amongst its instances than trying to run a parallel, possibly conflicting, system. Regards, Pete

That shouldn't be a problem. Why impossible to pilot? I think you may just be blaming some other little error on the wrong thing? I think a small amount of spoiler is used for turns on many jets. I'm not sure of the details. But, whatever, it isn't a function of FSUIPC or PFC.DLL or any of your controls, because, put plainly and simply, there are NO FS controls availble for operating the left and right spoilers separately. Since it isn't anything to do with any axis or controls, other than links to the ailerons in the aircraft modelling, I am not surprised you can't change it. I think you need to look elsewhere for your piloting problems! :wink: Regards, Pete

You don't need to mess about in the INI file. Go to Keys or Buttons pages and program them using any one of the several Offset controls in the drop down list. When you select an Offset control you will be able to enter the hexadecimal offset (x....) and the value or mask or increment and limit to be used. There's some discussion of this is the FSUIPC User documentation, and definitions of the resulting INI parameters in the Advanced guide. Regards Pete