Pete Dowson

Okay, that's a relief then. I'm wondering if there's some sort of odd timing conflict going on during loading. Do you run FS with the initial selection menu coming up first, or have you set the "Show opening screen" parameter to 0 in your FS9 CFG file? If you haven't, would you like to try that for me? The FS9.CFG file is in C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\FS9 You can edit it with Notepad or any editor. In the [sTARTUP] section, find SHOW_OPENING_SCREEN=1 and change it to 0. See if that helps. Let me know. Another thing you can do is to change the delay in FSUIPC's start-up. Add a line: InitDelay= 10 to the [General] section of FSUIPC.INI, before running FS. The default is 3 seconds, 10 would be 10 seconds. You can delay its startup by up to 30 seconds, so experiment with that. Finally, when you do get the window coming up saying FS has crashed, can you click wherever it says to look at more details. The module name and address might be useful. It isn't actually crashing in FSUIPC, otherwise this would be trapped and recorded in the FSUIPC LOG file -- this is a precaution I've been taking for a while now. Regards, Pete

The "slight" stutter may be unavoidable. I don't see any here, but then I never run FSMeteo on-line - I like short hops, no flights more than 1-2 hours -- so a pre-download is all I need. The weather you get is usually a few hours old in any case. However, folks using the FS on-line weather update facilities say they get noticeable stutters and jerks when it updates too. I don't know if they are comparable, but it sounds likely. To be honest, until a couple of weeks before FS2004 was released I was actually on the point of ditching all weather control features for FS2004 altogether, because any slight change to any weather aspect was causing 1-2 seconds pauses in FS, not your nice "slight stutters", so I was very pleased when, by trial and error, I managed to almost eliminate them. If you have any of those horrid 2D clouds the problem is exacerbated -- see the "Important Notes" at the end of the FSUIPC User Guide. Try with 100% 3D clouds only. I also think Marc's working on improvements to FSMeteo at present, so there could be solutions that way too. In version 3.05 of FSUIPC, forthcoming, I provide facilites for weather programs to set weather for a number of stations in a sort of "pending" mode, then activate them. This should at least give you only one stutter instead of a load of small ones. Regards, Pete

Ugh. Of course you could disabled them and instal a PCI card. But that's annoying. I don't know much, but I do know that until I got an arrangement whereby the Network card had its own separate IRQ I had loads of weird problems. Sharing an IRQ with the video card seems to be the worst possible scenario. Is the video on-board too? If you cannot change things and the only symptom is a crash on termination I'd be inclined to leave it be, quite honestly. It's a nightmare world sorting those sorts of conflicts out. Regards, Pete

No. That's it. As I say, until it is registered it does almost nothing. It certainly doesn't do anything for a while anyway. Does it get as far as making an FSUIPC.INI and FSUIPC.LOG file at all? If so, can I see them please? Pete

It isn't my website, as is made clear there, it is Enrico Schiratti's. Anyway, I was not sayting it was corrupted on the site, only that possibly your copy might be corrupted somehow and you should try again. Regards, Pete

What frame rates are there? Are you limiting the FS frame rate enough? Maybe the network is set up for half duplux operation not full duplex? There should be no reason at all why lots of data going one way should stop anything going the other. It should be symmetric, even if the loading isn't. Unless you've set "TCPcoalesce=Yes" in the INI files there should be no coalescing. Yes, if "TCPcoalesce=No", which it is by default. Now you're out of my depth again, sorry. Regards, Pete

It will be deriving it from other indications. I don't know what. All my aircraft books say is that this indicator means "a system annunciator has come on". So presumably you need to check these "annunciators" (other indicators), and if any are on, set the Master Caution too. On the real 737 there's 6 annunciator lights for each of Captain and 1st Officer, classifying problems as "FLT CONT", "ELEC", "IRS", "APU", "FUEL" and "OVHT/DET" for Captain, and "ANTI ICE", "ENG", "HYD", "OVERHEAD", "DOORS" and "AIR COND" for the 1st Officer. In the books each of those breaks down into a list of possible conditions. If you are programming this for a specific aircraft then you need to choose your specific panel and see what's being simulated and what is not, and derive all this stuff appropriately. For well programmed panels you'll no doubt need the aircraft operating manual to get it right. Regards, Pete

What simulates this "master caution"? I think you will need to work out that yourself. Presumably it is a result of analysing lots of different things. FSUIPC is not a simulator, it only provides access to things that are simulated. If "master caution" is not simulated, and it doesn't appear to be, you will have to derive it yourself. Regards, Pete

330A has always been read-only. The FSUIPC Library writes it's version number there deliberately just so I get a log entry to see which library version it is. 03EC is 1004, version 1.004. Check the same logging on FS2002 and FS2004, it is no different, even FS2000. Regards, Pete

I'm not sure I can do that. It is much easier for them to fix the voltage themselves. Why should PMDG aircraft be special, what about those with the default 737, 777? What about all the other aircraft? I really do not want to erode the difference between a full user copy of FSUIPC and the plain interface facility which is all any application should need. I provide the tools, the SDK, and good technical support to all accredited application developers, and still I am asked to give facilities away to get their program to work for them? There's really something there that doesn't add up. Sorry. Regards, Pete

Sorry, I haven't got SB and don't know VATSIM. If the key published already for SB doesn't work, then you must be using a different version of SB because nothing else has changed. I am perfectly willing to issue free keys to all freeware, but I cannot do that without knowing anything about them. Really, someone in authority in either SB or VATSIM should apply for the Key, supplying all the needed details, and publish it for all VATSIM and/or SB users. Have you looked? Perhaps they have done this already, in fact? Otherwise, why not use the version of SB for which folks have already obtained a key? Regards, Pete

Sorry, that only means there's something else wrong which doesn't show up until the loading of FSUIPC changes the memory layout, or possibly some other action. The only other possibility is that your copy of FSUIPC is corrupted, so you could try getting another copy. Maybe it's some other application which interferes with applications like FS. Known culprits are RoboForm and WindowBlinds, but there are probably others. I've not known them to actually crash FS, but it is certainly possible. Try closing down every other process or add-on before running FS. None of them do its performance any good in any way. I recommend "EndItAll", a little freeware program which helps get rid of things. There are thousands of users with FSUIPC installed already, and never once in the 4 year history of FSUIPC has there been one single error which has the effect you describe. What else can I say? The module doesn't even do anything if you've not registered it and haven't got any applications or other add-ins which use it. If it is crashing so early, with nothing going on, then it probably can't even add its Menu entry, which could certainly point to something like WindowBlinds. Regards, Pete

Sorry, I don't know. That is certainly nothing to do with FSUIPC. If it won't fix by updating video drivers, then report it to MS. Regards, Pete

Ernothing returns a DECIMAL number as such. Everything is in binary in any case. All you needed to do was test for each bit in turn. The bits are simple "flags". So, if the value of 0D0C is in an integer variable called nLights you can test for Strobes, say, by seeing if nLights AND 16 is non-zero (replace "AND" by whatever is used in your programming language for logical AND). The value 16 arises from the value of bit 4 (2 to the power 4 = 16). Here are the values to save you calculating them: 0 value 1 Navgation 1 value 2 Beacon 2 value 4 Landing 3 value 8 Taxi 4 value 16 Strobes 5 value 32 Instruments 6 value 64 Recognition 7 value 128 Wing 8 value 256 Logo 9 value 512 Cabin The last one is new in FS2004. Pete

Sorry to hear about your woes. Would you now recommend Athlon's as the more likely power house for FS then? What you've said has made me very nervous about getting Intel for my next big upgrade, which I was hoping to do in September. Can you clarify which chipset your mobo uses? Do you know if the problem is specifically processor -- could it be different with different chipsets (i.e. motherboards)? Regards, Pete

It's a well known problem with DX9 and some video drivers. It is not caused by FSUIPC or any other add-in, but it is exacerbated by other processes running in the background, particularly Windows add-ons such as RoboForm (sp ?) and WindowBlinds, apparently. First try closing down all non-essential processes before running FS. But I think you may find the only answer is going to be in different video drivers. The black screen problems were know throughout FS2004 testing, always occurring when swtiching between full screen and windowed, or between minimised and windowed, and were solved almost every time by video driver updates. They've never been specifically connected with any add-in, let alone FSUIPC, but obviously you are more likely to be switching back and forth when running IPC application programs. I think I'm going to have to add this to my list of potential lies about FSUIPC :? There are other threads here with the same questions and answers, already. Also see the FS2004 forum. Regards, Pete

For any panel which "does its own thing" in terms of autopilot, or any other functions really, you could only deal with it through FSUIPC if the authors have provided an interface through FSUIPC offsets. They are perfectly entitled to do this -- I can allocate offsets on request. Many panels do in fact use some FSUIPC offsets, but generally for their own internal communications. To get details of any such interfaces you would need to apply to the panel makers. In the case of Project Magenta, for example, the full FSUIPC-usable interface for all aspects of PM interaction and control is published in a downloadable document on the PM site. You need to check for such with other panel makers. Regards, Pete

Have you actually tried doing this? Have you set more than 1 vis layer? FS has had the structures for multiple vis layers since FS2000, but it never uses them, and whenever I've attempted to use them it has always caused problems. If you have managed to create weather with multiple layers to do what you say, please send me a FLT+WX to look at. Anyway, FSUIPC really can't do much at all with FS's own localised weather, only global weather and weather fed in from external programs. I simply have not been able to locate the structures relevant to the weather at the aircraft when using localised weather. Regards, Pete

I tend to fly 737 or 757. I like short hops. But I've never noticed suden changes yet. Perhaps I've been lucky in flying through areas with either many WX stations with relatively compatible weather settings, or maybe just not enough weather stations close enough to cause a problem. I have, however, often noticed clouds in the distance whilst it is blue sky around, and the weather noticeably gets worse as approaching the cloudy area. This seems quite realistic to me. I think FSMeteo populates weather stations to a distance of about 100 miles from the aircraft. Perhaps you have the weather distance set too short in the FS Options-Settings-Display Weather tab? I now fly with all those sliders set to maximum, but I am limiting the visibility itself using new facilities in FSUIPC which will be incorporated in version 3.05. This helps a bit with frame rates, contrary to my expectations. I'm wondering if FS2004 has problems with conflicting weather at nearby stations altogether, not just the odd wind fluctuations I've seen? If so then the same should be seen with FS's own weather downloads. Possibly, sometimes, the METARs for neighbouring weather stations are actually for different times of the day, hence the differences. If so, then I really think the only long term answer would probably be for (optional?) massaging of the so-called "real" weather data to make neighbouring weather stations more compatible. Maybe that should be suggested to Marc and Damian? I really can't think of an alternative and would really rather not have to revert to the global weather solution. Regards, Pete

I think by default FSMeteo 6 sets localised weather, not global, so the smoothing as you fly is performed not by FSmeteo but by FS2004 itself. I've never actually seen winds pressure and clouds all suddenly change like you say, so I don't really understand how that is happening to you. The advantages of using FS's local weather system rather than the global system as enforced in FS2002 and before is exactly that the weather is local, you can see it in the distance and you can approach it then be enmeshed in it. It is quite a lot better in terms of realism. There seems to be a bug in FS2004's interpolation of winds when there are a few close weather stations with conflicting wind reports, resulting in wild swings in wind direction. This can occur with FS's own downloads as well and is completely independent of anything FSUIPC or FSmeteo can do. I'm not sure what the answer there is. If you prefer global orld-wide weather control from FSMeteo, as in FS2002 and before, I think you'll find that option is still there, but in my opinion it wastes a lot of the benefits of FS2004's improved weather engine. It is neither possible, nor should it be necessary, for FSUIPC to smooth local weather. All FSMeteo is doing is populating the weather stations with weather data, just as FS itself does when downloading real weather. Then, as you fly, it is completely FS's job to interpolate between the different nearby weather stations. It does this reasonably well a lot of the time, but does seem to have problems sometimes when there are conflicts. Regards, Pete

Ah, all that patch does is enable axis assignments for almost any control (and vice versa for that matter). With quite a list of axes now in FS I didn't think it would be necessary to update it, but I expect I can when I get some time. I'm afraid I'm off sick at present and dare not do anything so intricate, I shall probably make a right mess of it. Meanwhile, can't you find enough axes that you are otherwise not using, to assign to in the FS assignments dialogue? I wouldn't have thought you were using them all? Then you just need to find the numbers for them so you can edit them into FSUIPC.INI for the "B" control set. If the numbers aren't obvious from my current controls lists (for FS2000, FS2002), you can derive them by assigning keystrokes to them in FSUIPC "Keys" and seeing what number appears in the FSUIPC INI file. I am making a note here to do an update both to the controls patch program and to the Controls List. It's just that there's so much to do I can't do it all at once! Regards, Pete

Yes, it's quite a well known problem, and is primarily related to DX9 and your video drivers. It is not specifically caused by FSUIPC or any add-on, but by the switching between modes. There are a couple of other add-ons for Windows that also exacerbate this. Windowblinds is one, and the other is RoboForm. There may be others. Try closing down any non-essential background task before starting up FS2004. However, the main remedy appears to be in finding video drivers that work. You might like to check Katy Pluta's FS2004 FAQ on the FS2004 Forum here in SimFlight. Regards, Pete

That was only ever time, no date. I've not got that far checking things yet. It is quite likely that FS2004 doesn't bother to provide that anywhere accessible now. I think it was a surprise when found before. I'll see what I can do, but meanwhile of course you always have the standard Zulu and Local time (and date) values at 0238-0240. I think they'd be more efficient in any case. Pete

I've not had any other such reports. Sounds like some problem either with your network drivers, or possibly something else interacting with WideServer? If you've no other add-ons or add-ins running when it occurs, the main suspicion falls on the network card drivers or the card itself. Check also that it isn't sharing an IRQ with anything else. And try re-installing it and its drivers. If you have another, try a swap, maybe into a different PCI slot. Since no errors are seen by WideServer it seems likely that things at a lower level, i.e. in the drivers or card, are getting snarled up. Regards, Pete

There's only all the stuff ATC knows, at offsets 3130-3160. I've not checked yet whether they work in FS2004, but they will when I get to them. Pete