Pete Dowson

If you are building an OHP, what is this about "toggle popup the ohp"? How do you toggle popup a hardware ohp? If you are talking about some add-on aircraft panel you do really need to say so, as so far all this is really very confusing. Even if you are talking about an add-on FS panel, surely you wouldn't use its ohp once you have built your own? If you are a Project Magenta user, there are both seat belt and no smoking sign switch controls accessible through FSUIPC. All they do, of course, is trigger that nice dong sound so familiar to air travellers -- but only if you also run PM sounds. Oh, and the state of the signs is noted on the EICAS if you have it in the correct mode. When pmSystems is released, it will have a programmable OHP, and you will be able to interface your hardware OHP to its implementation, giving you all the correct interlocks and so on. Regards, Pete

No, I'm afraid I can't. I don't deal with registrations. But I understand that you can retrieve your key by going to http://www.simmarket.com and opening your account there. Best make a backup or hard copy next time! Regards, Pete

That is because FSUIPC runs in FS and provides an interface to FS, and FS does not implement seat belt signs. Or no smoking signs for that matter. Regards, Pete

Well, the error number is described as meaning "The requested service provider could not be loaded or initialized." according to the MSDN reference. What that really means I've no idea I'm afraid. The "socket()" call is the first one used in trying to setup the service. The call I use is: socket(AF_NS, SOCK_SEQPACKET, NSPROTO_SPX); for IPX/SPX or socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0); for TCP/IP. Hope that helps you. I really have no idea I'm afraid. Most all the code I use for Network stuff is lifted straight out of Microsoft examples. I don't necessarily understand it -- and expecialy not some of those obscure error descriptions. Sorry. Regards, Pete

Have you set the reverser (Joystick options)? If the button in the Reverser section says "Reset", click it so that it changes back to "Set". Then FSUIPC leaves the mixture alone. Alternatively perhaps you have used some other of the options in the Joysticks section, to calibrate or map the mixture controls, and haven't calibrated correctly. If you have got the joysticks section in a mess just either delete trhe FSUIPC.INI file and start again, or edit it -- find the Joysticks section and delete it entirely. Regards, Pete

Isn't that a standard feature of FS as it is? It always used to be -- you could opt to have is setting "flight" time (i.e. as saved in the flight you load) or as current local time as on your PC. Certainly the default way I have FS set up here seems to do that. I've just loaded up FS, it got to its initial "create a flight" menu and the "Selected time and season" entry is automatically preset to today at the time on my PC. I've just checked the Options - Settings - General, there's a Time option for "System Time" or "Flight Time". Maybe you have Flight Time set? Regards, Pete

Yes, but not the same time -- the same difference in time. Basically it makes sure the seconds match, the rest follows. It is to stop FS saying say 3 hours have passed when your watch says otherwise. What does that mean? Sorry, I don't understand the question. Regards, Pete

Sorry. I'd love to be able to provide such information, but I've never found it. I'd need to spend a lot more time hacking into modules of FS with which I am currently completely unfamiliar, and I really haven't had such amounts of free time to do this. Regards, Pete

Ah, I see! I used the tools provided in WinXP, somewhere (don't remember where) to move it. That presumably why I din't have any problem. Thanks! Regards, Pete

FS2004 canot be 'split' between two or more PCs. It won't even use two processors on one PC! Please read some of the documentation for WideFS. Just the first few paragraphs will tell you what it is for. You should really have done that before you paid for it, it would have saved you some money. All WideFS provides is a Network extension of the FSUIPC interface, so that programs which interface to FS through FSUIPC can be run on other PCs. Regards, Pete

No, it can'twhat was more likely is that the key really was invalid. It is easy to mix up 1's and I's, O's and 0's, and I've even known folks to mix up 2's and Z's. Best to cut-and-paste to avoid these mishaps. Anyway, I'm glad you got it sorted eventually. Regards, Pete

Oh, I doubt it. Most sim cockpit enthusiasts spend most of their time tweaking! You get very critical, so each time you start a flight you see something else that, well, may be a little better ifetc. :wink: Regards, Pete

"Found" my forum? It is referred to on the first page of the FSUIPC User Guide, on the main options screen in FS, on the Schiratti download page, and many other areas. What do you mean "put "2.3" afterwards? Where do you do that? I think you misunderstand something. As you will see from the Freeware Keys list: The program name is "Squawkbox". That's all that is needed entering, plus the Key of course. The Product and Company names are there so you can check the Version Information in the program -- right click on Squawkbox in Explorer, select Properties-version. I'm not surprised you get this if you entered the program name wrong -- you can see it there -- Client Application: "squawkbox". The name is "squawkbox"!! Nothing's changed in this, it's always been that way. You are getting yourself mixed up for some strange reason. Regards, Pete

Well, it would take me a long time to get used to programming like that. I'm used to looking at big chunks of code and visualising what they are doing. I'd make too many terrible mistakes that way. Thanks for the idea though. I manage okay at present. just need to take lots of long breaks. I'm just not used to not programming solid all hours. :) Regards, Pete

"Legacy"? Is C and C++ relegated to a "legacy" category now? Most all of FS2004 is written in C++ (some parts are C and ASM leftovers, but very little now). And pretty much all of Windows is too. How can all these modern modules be classed as "legacy"? Regards, Pete

It sounds like you have not calibrated the normal (forward thrust) throttle well enough to ensure that it is truly stable at idle (zero) when pulled right back. That's always been the reason so far when folks have had such problems. Yes, this is because FS is, at intervals, seeing a forward thrust value from your main throttle -- it is probably jittering slightly. Calibrate it with a decent null zone in FS, or more accurately in FSUIPC. When brought back to idle the reading for the 'ouput' in FSUIPC must be zero, every time. Push it back and forth. If you ever see an output other than zero when it is pulled back, you need to allow more of a dead zone. These things vary somewhat with humidity and temperature, so what works now might not work in six months. Check it now and then or make a significant null zone. You cannot engage reverse thrust without the main throttle being in idle. It is this way on the real thing too (though there is a mechanical interlock there as well). Regards, Pete

Yes, but the frames are short and your network should very easily cope. Take a look sometime at the Project Magenta web site http://www.projectmmagenta.com and the many multi-PC cockpits using WideFS with full instrumentation for, in many cases, pilot and co-pilot -- no instruments on the FS PC at all. My own setup is like that. Also see the Jet Cockpit made by PFC (http://www.flypfc.com) -- that uses 6 PCs linked by WideFs and PM. Of course it helps if your Network is 100 mbps or more, not the outdated 10 mbps type. And if you have more than 2 PCs, a switch rather than a hub. But such network gear is cheap these days -- even switches can now be had for the same price as a hub. Regards, Pete

Well done! All this complication and obscure inefficient-looking code does make me wonder -- why choose C#? It seems to have the worst of VB and C++ with none of the flexibility and power of the latter or ease of the former. Regards, Pete

No holidays planned yet. Need to get my eyes working properly first -- I'm committed to regular attendances at the hospital at present. My left eye (operated on 2 weeks ago) is okay at present, but the first one done (6 weeks ago), the right one, still is unable to focus and has a smaller image. Seems this isn't the brain getting confused as they first though, but a swelling at the back of the eye. I'm on medication for that now. The only problem with all this is that my time in front of a PC (or reading for that matter) is limited. I'm keeping up with support messages and emails, but I'm not doing any new programming at present. So that's a holiday of sorts, I suppose. :lol: :wink: Regards, Pete

Ah, I'm afraid I would be stuck even before you! But: "Marshal.ReadInt64" will presumably read an 8-byte (64-bit) integer. Can you use casts in C#? If so just copy the int64 you read into a double using an explicit cast. Regards, Pete

That's more than me! :wink: If C# supports the double type, why can't you use that directly, like the other numerical types? Can't you add a further 'overload' (whatever that is, forgive my ignorance)? Regards, Pete

500 msecs is very slow. I wouldn't worry about that. If that is adequate for your purposes, stick to it. There are programs looping every 20-50 mSecs which seem to run fine without noticeable impact. If you are running your program on the same PC as FS you are more likely to affect its performance by hogging the processor for your own purposes than by giving it control via FSUIPC_Process. If you run your program on a Client PC under WideFS, your Process calls aren't actually relayed to FS at all except once for each new location read, though of course all the writes are forwarded. Once WideServer knows you are reading a location it sends it out on every single change. For locations changing on every FS frame (and there are many), that should be the rate the memory in WideClient is updated -- even if you only read it at 2 fps. Regards, Pete

That's probably not the horizon -- it may be the dark band above the horizon which I think was deliberately put there by MS to represent the normal surface murk. Except it doesn't look too good. Check -- look for a sunset or sunrise. If you can see the sun through it, that's what it is. Limit the maximum visibility to mask it. The other possibility it a difference between the maximum scenery drawing range and the visibility - I think there are sliders in FS to fix that. Check the FS FAQ's in other forums hereabouts. Regards, Pete

For 3 minutes!? Phew!. I cannot imagine what would be 'held off' for that long. Certainly with 1Gb memory it shouldn't really be down to the memory getting tidied up. Yes, try that. The slow down (not the speed up) could possibly be due to the message queue getting heavily laden with panel commands. The advanced panels in these add-ons seem to do a lot of that. Microsoft's recommendation is to fly with it set to "unlimited" and observe your average frame rate, with the sort of aircraft and scenery you normally use. Then set the slider a bit below that value. This helps the sim keep 'up' to that rate, therefore making it smoother, and also allows more time for other things to happen rather than it spending all of its time only re-drawing scenery -- for instance, the AI traffic may get more attention, things like that. However, there are some different recommendations. For instance, the UK VFR scenery is said to run best with the slider set to unlimited, otherwise I think it implies that the "fuzzy" look appears more regularly. If you use my WideFS I recommend setting it low enough for WideServer to operate smoothly in relation to the frame rates expected on the Client PCs. Also, I expect the limiter would also come in useful for those trying to use FS to play back flights from external applications. Regards, Pete

Yes, as you will see when you read the Access Registration document. However, I didn't realise you hadn't even started yet. You can certainly delay the access key part until much later. You do not need a Key to test your program with a registered copy of FSUIPC. Regards Pete