Pete Dowson

It will only ever not let you do that if it is being used -- i.e. if FS is running. You have to shut down FS first, that is all. you cannot delete a file which is being used by a program at the time. Regards, Pete

First there's cloud turbulence AND wind turbulence, and the random options are separate. Second, as in previous versions of FS, the FSUIPC options only operate on Global weather or weather injected by external programs. I don't know where you are getting your weather from, but most sources of FS weather, other than external programs, will give you localised weather, not global. Even if you set it globally, it gradually becomes localised (see notes on this in the "Important" announcement above). This localisation happens even faster if you have dynamic changes enabled, which it probably is by default. Third, if you are only using FS2004 sources of weather, FSUIPC doesn't touch them now UNLESS you enable this by checking that option on the "Technical" page. This is because otherwise selected local or themed weather always reverts to "user defined" if FSUIPC changes anything. Really, most of the weather options provided by FSUIPC are for use with external weather programs, where they all work well. The exceptions are the three visibility options marked ***, which are implemented rather differently and apply to all weathers. Regards, Pete

That's to do with the FS Multiplayer interface. FSUIPC is not involved in that part at all. I hope someone else can help -- I don't use Squawkbox or Multiplayer, and don't know anything about it. Sorry. When you enter a program registration into the FSUIPC dialogue it is simply added to the FSUIPC.KEY file. Unless you lose or delete that file, it will still be there each time. All FSUIPC does when a program connects to it is look it up in the KEY file. You can actually edit the latter directly, but you must be careful to get the details exactly right. Regards, Pete

Don't set anything at all in FSUIPC's Winds page. That will just confuse you if you don't know how to use FS's Weather dialogues. Make sure nothing is checked in that page. There is nothing there to help you do what you want in any case. FSUIPC does not set any layers, and for FS settings it doesn't even touch them in any case (unless you've selected the change FS weather option in the Technical page, which I wouldn't advise). See if FS Help tells you how to use FS weather dialogues. I must admit I've always found their manual weather layer setting method very confusing -- it's always been so in my opinion. It's not only the wind layers, also clouds and temperature layers. Sometimes you think you've set some layer correctly only to find FS has replaced your carefully selected values with zeroes. I expect there's a method of using the dialogues which works consistently, but, sorry, I am not the one to advise how, as it confuses me too! :( Regards, Pete

No, FSUIPC doesn't have anything at all to do with views. Sorry, you have something else going on there. In fact in an unregistered version really does nothing at all except provide the interface for other programs. Really? What message exactly is that, please? FSUIPC is uninstalled simply by deleting the FSUIPC.DLL file from the FS Modules folder, exactly the reverse of installing it. What exactly can't you do? Sorry, I don't understand. There is nothing magic about FSUIPC installations, it is deliberately kept very very simple. If the DLL is in the modules folder, it is loaded by FS, if it isn't there, then it isn't loaded. You can only change these things when FS isn't running, of course. No, how does FSUIPC know what you've done? Anyway, you don't need to purchase an FSUIPC registration to run the latest version of Radar Contact. FSUIPC is not doing anything at all with FS views -- but maybe the hot keys assigned by Radar Contact are the same keypresses you want to use in your cockpit (Shift+1 2, 3 etc)? You can re-assign keys in Radar Contact. This is not specifically an FSUIPC function, Radar Contact assigns its key presses, the ones you choose through its options, and they would then take precedence over the functions otherwise assigned in FS. Regards, Pete

Yes. It's all in the timing somehow. The change was not a cure, it just lowers the probability a little. Regards, Pete

SoftIce is one tool I use, yes, but I also have to disassemble a lot of the modules and trace through the code by hand. I use the IDA disassembler, one I've had a long time I'm sure there are better ones now, but I have got used to it. There will be SDKs coming out from Microsoft in due course, and certainly some of those can help. Regards, Pete

Do NOT put FSUIPC into OldModules please. What version of FS is it? Please go to Help-About and write down the Version and Build. What other add-in modules are there in the Modules folder? What other programs are running in Windows when you load FS2004? I've not had any other reports like this, so one suspicion is a corrupted DLL file. It may be a good idea to download it again -- or wait till tomorrow when version 3.07 should be available. Regards, Pete

Why not just pay for a User key for FSUIPC, just as you would pay for a compiler or other development tool? I do provide the SDK and full support for free, though I must admit I am a bit late coming out with the FS2004 update for the SDK. Still, if you do have any programming questions fire away. If you then produce an application for distribution, you'd apply for an access key for it then -- not for access on your own system, but on other, unregistered users' systems. You can easily test the program access key system by temporarily removing your FSUIPC.KEY file, making your own FSUIPC unregistered, so there is no preoblem either way. Regards, Pete

Registering an application with an access key allows that application to use the interface through FSUIPC into Flight Sim. The User Facilities in FSUIPC are optional and purchased with a User registration at SimMarket. This is explained in the documentation. Regards, Pete

The FS PC is a 3.2GHz P4 on an MSI 875P mobo with 2 x 512 Mb PC3200 memory sticks running dual channelled (so giving double speed -- 800 MHz, same a Rambus 800's). I run FS2004 plus the Project Magenta MCP and SimKits TRClink on that PC. FS2004 is only displaying the outside view -- no panel at all. I currently run it at 2400 x 600 x 32, with the zoom set at 0.50. All the FS options are turned up to maximum, but I am using Chris Wiliiis's faster clouds. The frame rate limiter is set to 20 fps which is high enough for me and ensures a good smooth operation of the client WideFS PCs running Project Magenta gauges and CDU. The only times frame rates dip below that maximum are at detailed airports where it might go down to about 12 fps in heavy weather conditions. The Parhelia isn't the prime choice for performance, and I wouldn't advise it for panels, but if you can set up a system with it only driving the outside view in three screen stretched mode, then in my opinion it is a superb choice and once you fly with that wide view you won't want to go back! Hope this helps. Regards, Pete

I really don't know. It's certainly something which is affected by timing. I got no such problems at all until upgrading from a 2.4GHz P4 to a 3.2 GHz P4. Then I found a situation in FS2004 where I could reproduce it at will -- this is the one I describe in one of my Announcements above. After many experiments I managed to "fix" that one, at least on my setup -- several small changes to three of my modules, and my particular "black screen" is fixed, just provided I don't have the Lago DLL ViMaCore2004 installed. But all these changes meant was that some installed DLLs then contributed less time, some microseconds, maybe as much as milliseconds, to the processing of messages in FS. There is no logical reason why changing that time should really fix anything. It doesn't seem to make any sense. In my example, the problem only happened if FS lost focus to another process first. Why should that make any difference? It's really weird. As it happens, I can still get them, just not in the same way. It must be something between FS and DX9, or maybe DX9 and video drivers - but the latter seems less likely as it happens with Matrox, nVidia and ATI. Maybe it is in that area, and there's a common misunderstanding among them all of something in the DX specification? I don't know. It isn't my area of expertise I'm afraid, and really I wouldn't know how to go about finding out. But my suspicions still fall strongly on DX9. You say there's somewhere where Microsoft list such problems in programs. Could you point me there, please? I'd be interested to read more. BTW the black screen things I get aren't actually hangs -- pressing ALT brings up the FS menu and if I go to the Options-Settings-Display Harware tab and change something, it all comes back and you can continue. Some folks do, however, get real hangs, or even a complete CTD (crash to desktop -- no messages, no nothing, FS just disappears!). Sorry, that about sums up all I know and theorise. Regards, Pete

The free registration for Squawkbox allows it to access FS through FSUIPC. The other facilities you ask about are the User facilities in FSUIPC, over and above the interface for applications like Squawkbox, and, yes, you would need to obtain a user registration from SimMarket for those. Regards, Pete

I assume you mean FSUIPC? What is the actual symptom -- is there a message, or what? What happens? Which version of FSUIPC are you trying to use in FS2004? To find the version, right click on the DLL, choose Properties then Version. For FS2004 you need version 3.00 or later. The current version is 3.06 and hopefully 3.07 will be released tomorrow. I hope you don't mean in "[OldModules]"! Please do not ever add any of my FS modules to that section in the CFG file. If FS says the module is not correct, then believe it. All my modules need changing for each new version of FS, you cannot use older ones, and only the older ones will cause FS to produce that message. Regards, Pete

Okay, thanks -- but I managed to muck it up for FS2002 and before, so 2.122 is now out -- see different thread. Ah well, all's well that ends well! :o Regards, Pete

Version 2.122 is just released. DLL only appended to this message. Regards, Pete AdvDisplay2122.zip

I'm sorry, the FSUIPC implementation doesn't provide support for the SYSKEYDOWN message. Did you try sending a WM_KEYDOWN with the VK_MENU virtual key code? I don't actually send WM_ messages at all internaly -- that doesn't actually work properly, it doesn't generate correct sequences that are recognised by applications. I use the "SendInput" API in Windows, which only provides KEYDOWN and KEYUP emulation. Can you tell me a bit more about what you are trying to do? You do realize I suppose that once the menu is opened FSUIPC is no longer able to do very much? Why would you want to open an FS menu from another program? In Version 3.07 of FSUIPC, which I am hoping to release tomorrow, I provide new facilties for "imaginary" joystick buttons to be operated through the FSUIPC interface. These aren't buttons to be seen by FS, but to be programmed in FSUIPC's buttons pages. Maybe something there will be more suitable? I can provide details, in advance of the SDK, if this is of interest. Regards, Pete

Oh, this is getting daft! There's no change to that bit. I only moved the part which reads the INI file. The stuff which does the menu is related to the FS window subclassing, which is the same as it was in 2.12. I simply cannot get it NOT to add itself to the Modules menu here, and, as the code is the same I've no idea what's happened in your system. Can you give me any clues please? Show me the INI file, maybe it is related to that? What's your operating system, version of FS? Any other add-in modules installed at all? I'll fix it as soon as I can understand it. Pete

Found it! Sorry, it was a total blunder. I should have caught it before it went out -- what I thought was a simple change (avoiding the delay in subclassing the FS window, to try to reduce the probability of black screen problems) turned out to have nasty reprecussions. It actually stopped “Locked” settings from being remembered, and even prevented docking for panels in which it was not already docked! Do NOT use 2.12 at all! Apologies for this mishap. I am releasing version 2.121 now, and attach a copy of the DLL only for your use. Thanks for reporting this so promptly! Regards, Pete AdvDisplay2121.zip

I only ever managed to make it happen if I changed focus away from FS, as I thought I mentioned originally. Just switching back and forth never created the black screen for me in any case. Are you sure they are truly lock-ups, by the way? Every single time, for me, pressing ALT wuold get me to the menu, and using the Options-Settings-Display Hardware dialogue to change some display setting always got things going again. These black screens are evidently some quirk in the video driver, DX9 or FS, not actually displaying things, whilst elsewhere in FS it thinks things are okay. In your test did you ensure that the "InitDelay=0" line was truly in the [General] section of the FSUIPC.INI, not merely added to the end of the file, and that your FSUIPC is registered? Did you remove AdvDisplay, PFC, ViMaCore2004, if you have them? Were there any other add-in DLLs present? So far, the majority of responses have shown a definite advantage for the earlier subclassing, so I'll probably make it default this way in 3.07. I have already released versions of AdvDisplay and PFC with this changed in any case. There's no way I can truly eliminate the problem, as I have proven here -- even if FSUIPC does nothing at all, the error can still occur. It can even occur with no add-ins. All I can do is try to make it less probable. Regards, Pete

Well, you didn't look far enough. Check this: ... coincidentally, in the same forum you posted your question! If you'd just perused the titles you'd have found it easy enough! I tried the suggestions and they work well for me! No idea, but all that is beyond me. Sounds like the sort of thing FSAssist used to do -- you need to suggest it to the clever folks at Lago I think! Regards, Pete

I hope someone else here can help, because I really have no idea. As far as I knew, to FS an axis was an axis, which was an axis. Which one it was shouldn't matter. You've assigned it, it provides values, so that's that. Why should it care which axis it was originally? The only significant change between FS2000 and FS2002, which really made all this stuff rather more complicated than it used to be, was the changeover, in FS, to using DirectInput, rather than the good old reliable Windows joystick interface. This sort of thing makes me even more determined to provide some sort of direct Windows API joystick interface with full calibration and response curve programming. I've wanted to add this to FSUIPC for a long time. It is on the cards, but it is a fairly big project -- I'll get to it, but it may be early 2004. Regards, Pete

I assume it is WideClient.EXE you are running on the client, as there is no WideFS.exe. What FSUIPC application are you wishing to run there? FSNav is not an FSUIPC application but an entirely independent FS add-in. It makes itself part of FS, there is no separate program to run, it runs only in FS. To run it press F9 on the FS PC. If you want to run something similar to FSNav but on a separate computer, try Nav3 by Ted Wright (sorry, can't find a URL just now). This will work through WideFS. Regards, Pete

No, sorry. The interface changed. Only WideFS version 6 works with FSUIPC 3. You need to register WideFS for this, but it doesn't need a registered FSUIPC. Regards, Pete

That's because by the time the key is released both PFC and FSUIPC aren't running -- opening a menu basically suspends everything else. Once you get into the Planning menu don't you need to use the keyboard in any case? If so, then surely pressing "P" first wouldn't be so bad. If you want to get the button to do it you'll have to program multiple key operations on the Press, not separate them with Press and Release. That should ensure they keystrokes all get sent before the menu is opened. To do that you have to edit the FSUIPC.INI file, as discussed in the FSUIPC Advanced Users Guide. If it's a menu-accessible dialogue then, no, I shouldn't think so. All of FS's dialogue windows are modal. Even the map, which is daft when you think about it. Regards, Pete