Pete Dowson

You'd get the same without FSUIPC if you set a lower than a certain visibility in FS's weather. What happens is that Microsoft, in their wisdom, decided that when viewed from above the visibility layer, fog and mist layers below sohuld not looks completely transparent -- which they used to be in all previous versions of FS. this was after complaints about this from users ("why, when I climb out of thick fog and things clear, can I see the ground clearly below me?"). Their fix to this was to automatically add a thin layer of stratus cloud (unlisted in the clouds area) at the top of the visibility layer -- thicker for lower visibility, thinner for higher visibility. The problem is that this cloud layer obeys the rules you set for other clouds (in Options-Display-weather), and there is a limit to how far out those clouds are drawn, the same as for "real" clouds. One answer which partially works is to use FSUIPC's graduated visibility facility. The only other way is to go into the FS weather menus and set the top of the visibility layer well above you. Unfortunately that would give you a fixed limit all the way up to that level. Regards, Pete

FSUIPC looks in the Registry for the correct path. When the GoFlight installer is run it adds that Registry entry -- pointing to GFConfig.exe, which is where it also stores GFDev.dll. The Registry entry in which the path is found is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\App Paths\GFConfig.exe. Maybe he installed things manually, perhaps by copying them over, or has re-installed Windows since then and forgot to re-install the GF software. Any of those would lose the vital Registry link. There's no other way FSUIPC can reliably find the DLL, though I suppose it is possible that Windows would find it for me if it were placed in the Windows\System32 directory. Not sure. Regards, Pete

"Rounds"? What are they? How are your clouds 'disappearing? Do you mean the dynamic weather? You can reduce that to almost zero by setting the slider all the way to the left. However, from what I've seen, sometimes clouds develop rather than 'disappear'. Possibly you are selecting one of the themes? I think they have dynamics built in. If you are setting your own weather then possibly you are only setting your local station(s). If there is a wind at the cloud level, they will move with it. If there are no clouds following, the sky will clear. If this is the problem then you are better off downloading the real weather, or using one of the weather programs such as ActiveSky or FS_Meteo. I'm not sure that problem was ever any different, though I don't think the limit is 10 miles? In FS2002 it was about 4 or 5 miles at which that 'cut-off' happened. Maybe the limit value has changed, but I've not particularly noticed it. Best if you use graduated visibility so you can climb out of it. The real problem with the way visibility is implemented (and this probably has as much to do with the way video cards work as anything) is that the visibility limits apply in all directions -- i.e. up and down as well as horizontally, whereas really it should be the horizontal limit and it should taper off quite quickly with viewing angle. I don't know if that's possible with video card 'fogging', but you should send your suggestions NOW (in time for the next version of FS) to Tell_FS@microsoft.com. Regards, Pete

Most likely reason is that the GF driver (GFDev.dll) is not installed. He needs to go to the GoFlight website and download and install the latest package -- it now automatically installs that DLL as well. To be honest I have no idea what might not work in Win95. I know that nothing works in WinNT, but I haven't had Win95 for many years and I know no one still using it. I would have thought that even FS would have difficulties in Win95. The reason the key press programming is explicitly not supported is that the "SendInput" API which it uses wasn't added to Windows until Win98. KeySend is a method of relating events in the FS PC to keypresses in the client. The client does not use "SendInput" -- WideClient pre-dates that facility in Windows. FSUIPC doesn't recognise any GF stuff. All it does is register a call back function with GFDev.DLL. After that it just gets calls when things happen. The actual units are identified by GFDev. So the only way it won't work is if it cannot find GFDev or if the version of GFDev it does find is not working. The solution to either is to install the latest GF software. Regards, Pete

Why are you attributing these problems to FSUIPC? They are nothing to do with FSUIPC and I'm afraid there is probably nothing I can do which will help. I assume that you are not trying to use any other FS control between pressing the Shift P or Shift E and the number? Folks are always tempted to press Shift P to start the pushback, then select a different view so they can see when to tell it to turn by pressing the 1 or 2. Unfortunately, the way FS is written, any intervening control will take FS out of the correct mode and the numeric will not do its job! In fact, those are symptoms of aircraft panels which are sending too many controls, for some reason best known to their authors. Several of the more advanced complicated ones do this, and it is those, too, which need the "accelerated controls" fix in FSUIPC, for the same reason. What happens in those cases is that the controls sent by the panel intervene between the Shift P or Shift E and the following number. If your problem is due to the panel (check by trying one of the default FS panels -- none of them do such things) then you could try enabling that accelerated controls fix option in FSUIPC (on the Technical page). It may help, but I doubt it, as it cannot actually stop the controls, only disable a timer which makes them accelerate. Regards, Pete

Yes, me too. But I've seen it both ways. Maybe it depends how it failed during the shutdown. Regards, Pete

FS4? That's pretty old now -- I did do some software for that, about 15-16 years ago? I assume you really mean FS2004. :wink: I assume you must mean WideServer: WideClient runs in your Networked client PCs. Oooh, ouch! How did they get on your machine, do you know? You paid for both FSUIPC and WideFS? It sounds like something you installed or received from someone included an FSUIPC.KEY file!! Ouch. Big ouch! Please send them to petedowson@btconnect.com. Attach the KEY file if you still have it, please. You don't recall how they may have got into your PC do you? By the way, strictly speaking this isn't "hacking", as your subject line indicates, but outright piracy -- allowing free copies to be made by publication of copying of the user details and registration Key. It is one of the disadvantages of not using a hardware-related Key as many products do (including Windows XP of course). For a one-man band like me (despite having simMarket folks handling the initial registration), the numerous re-registrations as folks change hardware, need second copies, et cetera, would just be overwhelming -- hence the simpler system. Thank you. I look forward to seeing the details soon. Regards, Pete

Just use FS to assign that axis as the Mixture (Options-Controls-Assignments). When you've done that, go to FSUIPC options, find the Joystick page containing the Reverser, click the "Set" button for the reverser and calibrate it by following the steps in the documentation. What is so hard about that? What is it about that you don't understand? Why didn't you understand that from the documentation? (Sorry about all the questions, but I do need to know these things to improve documents so I don't have to answer such questions here forever :wink: ). Ah, in which country is this? Is seems rather a localised term. Regards, Pete

I should hope so! It has since it was implemented back in FS2000 days. :D Oh, also, despite the documentation having stood the way it is since then too, I have taken your advice and changed it, subtly, to try to avoid the confusion you found yourself in. Maybe this will make up a little for my continued omission of a ToC. :wink: Section 5 will now read: Good flying! Pete

Right. That depends. It has been recently discovered that it loads DLLs if they are placed in the main FS folder too, so make sure you haven't one there. Even renamed -- if it ends in .DLL it can still be loaded. There may be other places where it can be loaded, but I don't think so. However, you do say "periodically", and it won't be periodic if the DLL is loadable -- it would be 100%. So it sounds more likely that a previously loaded copy of FS is still actually running -- in other words, when you closed it down it actually crashed during the close down. I have seen this several times. I believe Microsoft are looking at it. To check if this is the cause, each time after closing FS, do a Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up the Process list and see if FS9.EXE is still listed. If so, that is the reason. Force close the process before loading FS again. Regards, Pete

Me, yell? :shock: That's wrong. You have to set the Idle range -- you will see on the screen in front of you, in the Idle (central) position TWO numbers, not one. You cannot have just an idle "spot" -- if you did how would you always be able to locate it? You have to have a range of movement where all is idle. So you set Full Reverse, then the TWO idle spots, defining the range, then the full forward. Here's where I get, justifiably I think, to do the yelling :D . See this part of the documentation. I've emboldened the bits you ignored: Skipping one of the 'Set' actions needed meant you got a default value for one end of the idle range -- hence your big idle range. Couldn't you see this from the values shown after you'd set the others? You quote your IN and OUT values, but the important ones are the 4 calibration values under the Set buttons. It is those which you effectively chose and those which control the show. Now maybe you skipped this whole section because you didn't regard the idle as a "centre", but, please think again. It IS between the full reverse and the full forward. See the italicised bit above. And you must surely have realised that you needed more than a single point in the travel which represented idle? Okay. Shouting mode off :wink: ... Yes, but documentation is the biggest pain for us programmers, and such organisation makes it a type of hell on Earth. Sorry. :( Regards, Pete

You might find you can reassign them via FS controls "Select 1""Select 4". I've never tried. Another way is to use the FSUIPC offset setting facility. The engine selection is via a byte at FSUIPC offset 0888. Bit 0 (value 1) is for Engine 1, bit 1 (value 2) is for Engine 2, bit 2 (value 4) is for Engine 3, and bit 3 (value 8) is for Engine 4. The FS hot key for all engines merely sets these bits. So you could program any keys to select engines individually or in concert. In that case it is far easier and safer merely to reallocate RC's keys. Mine are CTRL+SHIFT+1etc. I changed them from the defaults many years ago! After all, the FS number keys are also used for Pushback direct setting (1 or 2 after Shift P) and for dorr selection if you have more than one to open/close. Regards, Pete

Please find the "Caps Lock" key on your keyboard and press it to turn off the all-Caps look. It is not only difficult to read, but it also comes over as shouting. Anyway, you are actually in the wrong forum for such a question. I certainly don't know anything about FS's default ATC (I'm a long-standing Radar Contact user). Try the FS2004 Forum. That's the most likely place for general questions on FS2004. But do please remember, don't send your messages in all capitals! :wink: Regards, Pete

Yesthank you! Regards, Pete

I haven't found one yet. Those were things someone found in FS98 and which were still more or less in place in FS2000, but I have no idea what happened to them. Sorry. They do all have "NO" clearly annotated in the FS2002 column, and in one case the FS2004 column also, in the Programmer's Guide. Now that you have determined that they certainly still don't apply in FS2004 I will mark them so. Thanks. Regards, Pete

Of course you can get help here. I'll be delighted to help. But you do have to be more specific. Just asking "how do I do ..." when it is explained already in documentation that I spent weeks preparing doesn't help, because all I can then do is reproduce the relevant parts of the documentation, which is obviously silly. Surely you must understand that if I have tried my utmost to explain it as best I can in the documentation, I am not likely to be able to do better here in different or fewer words. Please, therefore, do as I say. Go back to the document, read the parts about joystick calibration. Just try calibrating the throttle first -- if you come across a step there which you don't understand, come back and ask about that particular part. When you've calibrated succssfully, the rest is as easy as pie. Please don't feel you are being re-buffed. It is just that you sound like you aren't even bothering to look at the documentation, which is very upsetting considering the amount of time I spent on it! If you are looking at it, prove it by explaining what parts you don't understand. If it is just that you don't understand English at all, then please say so. I am sure we can find someone here who will help translate the relevant parts. Regards, Pete

Not in that fashion through FSUIPC. You would need to use a database and look it up -- maybe one derived from scanning the Navaid content of BGLs, or maybe from a separate source. If you are within reception range (distance and altitude) of an NDB then you could do it by setting the frequency in the ADF radio and reading the bearing at offset 0C6A. The flag in offset 3300 will tell you when reception is ok -- you have to allow a second or two after tuning. If you want to avoid mucking up the user's ADF settings, you could try using ADF2, which FS2004 does support -- the bearing is then in 02D8. I think to make ADF2 operational you would have to alter the AIRCRAFT.CFG file though -- there's a Radios section and you can add a line for ADF2 there. You don't need a gauge for it for what you need. Regards, Pete

Unfortunately the FS COM simulation has either COM1 or COM2 in TX state all the time, with the same one or both in RX state. There's no "PTT" mechanism actually simulated. That doesn't appear to be simulated either. I'm afraid I don't know how to get to those. It's all tied in with DirectSound COM type interfaces and gets pretty complicated when trying to hack through disassembled code. I never got very far. For ATC I actually use Radar Contact. There are many who use on-line (Internet) ATC of course, via Roger Wilco and the like. I expect both of these to be more worthy of such realism. Regards Pete

I didn't find it needed any documentation just to run it as it is with PM + FS. I just run the EXE and that's it. It works. Regards, Pete

If you don't tell me which part you don't understand, how can I possibly help here? If I could explain it better I would do it in the documentation. That is what it is for. The documentation has been used successfully by thousands, even those whose English is not so good. I spent a lot of time on it! If you want help you have to do some of the work -- it is no use me reproducing the best explanation I can muster here when it is already in the documentation. Regards, Pete

FSUIPC does not touch anything to do with your controls unless you ask it to. Just delete the FSUIPC.INI file before loading FS -- by default no joystick facilities are operative at all and FSUIPC leaves everything alone. Sounds like you have some rubbish calibration settings in the INI. Regards, Pete

The instructions are in the User Guide. Which part don't you understand? I don't really want to copy it all into here. Regards, Pete

Easiest for several reasons is simply to develop it with a user-registered version of FSUIPC. When and if it comes nearer the time that you think you want to distribute it, then apply for a Key. For freeware that will be free, but otherwise we discuss it. Please check the Access Registration document in the FSUIPC SDK. Regards, Pete

Sorry, I don't understand the point of that statement. What do you mean? Okay. And that has a seat belt switch? What does it do? The seat belt signs aren't actually simulated in FS at all, so this is particular to that aircraft -- maybe the programmers have provided a keyboard shortcut for it, in which case you can program that in FS from your switch. If not you may be able to program a key for it via Luciano Napolitano's "Key2Mouse" program, which translates keys to mouse movements and clicks. Well, unless the panel programmer has provided a way, no -- or unless you wish to program it via Key2Mouse, but for that to work the FS panel window must be visible too, which spoils the point somewhat. If that's all the switch does on the panel you are using, why not wire up your switch to a device that goes dong? Or you could download pmSounds (which was freeware once, I don't know if it is still) and see if you can trigger it to make the correct sound. I think it is relatively flexible in that way. I think we could have made this thread a lot shorter if you had explained yourself a little more, initially, don't you think? :wink: Regards, Pete

Is this with default panels? Maybe sometihng in the aircraft panel you are using is failing to redraw the value or bug position at a decent speed? That sounds rather like a hardware problem then. A few seconds? Phew! The only change on the PFC driver in any of this was to adjust up or down in 10's at the fast rate -- in fact it is more intelligent than that. It will go to the next mulitple of 10 up or down, so you can get to any value very quickly in 10's then turn it slower to adjust the units. This has been working perfectly on my two systems since it was implemented back in 1.844, as described in the User documentation thus: "Before" what? You need to see what you may have changed, but possible avenues to explore are (a) aircraft panel problems, or (b) hardware problems -- in the latter case you'd need to get in touch with PFC. Regards, Pete