Pete Dowson

Sorry, my French is no good at all. I am 60 now and haven't used any French since I left school. I hope someone here can explain in French how to get FSUIPC options on screen, where you can then just press the "Register" button and enter the registration details. Pete

No, not FSUIPC. It looks like you are not using a version of FDC that provides the appropriate access key. Please send this log to Dave, and tell him mexactly what version you are using. I'm sure he can sort it out. He did sort all this out back a month ago as far as I know. Regards, Pete

Said what was on the SimMarket page? Sorry, I'm evidently confused. The SimMarket page does contain a link to Enrico Schiratti's site, where you can download my modules, as always. Is that what you mean? ErI certainly don't understand that. How could they have YOUR personal access keys for my modules up on a private website, for your eyes only, before you have paid for them. Or even after, come to that. I am evidently misunderstanding something quite fundamental here. Can you explain, please? Regards, Pete

Best to start by creating some simple ones yourself. Clear all weather (including dynamics -- you can do this in FSUIPC), and set a single weather scenario for all stations (i.e. global weather). By changing one thing at a time and observing the difference in the saved WX file you should be able to decode things pretty quickly. Hint -- many values are in 32-bit "float" format, not integers. Once you've got one global station worked out with all its ramifications then extending this to a list of those for Metar stations should be easy enough. FS2004's format is different to FS2002's. There's some sort of extra header which I don't understand, and they now put the ICAO code in each entry. Previously they used an index into the ICAO lists in the Weather folder. If you do get stuck write to my email address and I'll try to help, though I don't deal with WX files directly. Regards, Pete

As with any order, you get a receipt for your order/payment, and when that goes through they process the order and send the "goods". In this case the "goods" are another email with your keys. As they say in the DELIVERY section at the top, they undertake to do this within 24 hours. If you don't get them in that time, report it as a problem to the problem email address. Pete

Just to be sure it isn't FSUIPC just temporarily reset the Flaps calibration there and operate them purely through the FS assignment. If that works, re-calibrate in FSUIPC. I assume you are using FSUIPC 3.03? I don't suppose that installing the PMDG737 overwrote your FSUIPC INI file, did it? You could also try, temporarily, removing PMDGoptions.DLL from the Modules folder, and checking the default aircraft again. Just in case it is somehow interfering. Otherwise I really have no idea. What else have you changed since it worked okay? Pete

Guess what the Magnetic Variation is at KSEA? All written METAR wind information is in degrees TRUE, not Magnetic. Pete

Hey John, wasn't it you that told be the &H8001 had to be &H8001&, according to some VB book? On the "chr(0) part, doesn't VB have strings ending with a zero? If not, if they are like the original MSBasic of old pre-war PCs (), isn't there a length byte at the beginning that needs deleting somehow? Pete

Either the dynamics in FS2004 are not turned off, or this is wind variance enabled. Check the METARs for the nearby stations. Are you EXACTLY at a METAR station? If not, then FS2004 will be interpolating between many nearby ones. If, by chance, either the winds are very different in different neighbouring stations, or, just possibly, the times of the different METAR reading obtained by FSMeteo are wildly different, then this could easily happen. FSMeteo 6 is setting not THE weather at the aircraft, but the weather at sepcific stations all around you, progressively further away. You can check the weather AT the aircraft using my own WeatherSet2. That utility can also read he weatyher at each individual weather station. Check things that way. If you want to revert to have only one world-wide weather being changed asyou fly, as in previous versions of FS, then I'm sure you can do this -- either by reverting to an earlier version of FSmeteo or, probably, by parameter settings in FSMeteo 6. (I'm not sure about the latter, you'd need to check). But I think you'd be missing a lot. In summary, what FSUIPC can do, on behalf of weather programs, is set theweather appertaining to specific fixed places, known as weather stations. What then happens between those is up to FS2004. Not sure what you mean here. FSUIPC's weather filters only apply to global weather set through FS itself, which is actually quite difficult to do. You first would need to clear all weather completely (FSUIPC's hot key or button would do this), then set the weather explicitly to be applied to all stations. If you set local weather, FSUIPC stays out of the way. Pete

Hmmm. there's certainly something VERY odd going on there. Apart from the fact that it is evident from the log that the copy of FSUIPC is registered, and so the "not accredited" message shouldn't occur even if the FSMeteo was not accredited (which I think it is), the fact that something caused FSUIPC/FS to spend nearly 84 seconds processing one message is astonishing! Something is really screwing up there, and at present I really do have no idea what it would be. I suspect something is seriously trampling over something else inside FS. Can you tell me if there are any other add-ins (extra DLLs) in your FS? Are you using a standard default aircraft or an add-on? Could you go into the Logging page of FSUIPC, and enable IPC read and write logging. Then just start up FSMeteo and let it run to the point where you know it isn't going to work. then shut it and FS down, ZIP up the FSUIPC.LOG file from the Modules folder, and send it to me at petedowson@btconnect.com. Thanks. Pete

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean at all. How do you "tell WinXP what to do", when, how, what? All Wideclient does when it gets the closedown signal from the Server is send the system closedown request to Windows. After that everything is completely out of its hands. I have one PC which never closes down completely, it only goes to the point where Windows says "it is now safe to switch off" or similar. Is this what you mean? If most of your PCs shut down okay and one doesn't, then the only way realy is to find out why -- what is the difference? Pete

I could only do this for global weather, not for the normal FS local weather. i.e. as in previous versions. So it would apply, for instance to the use of FSMeteo 5 to FS2004 but not FSMeteo 6, which sets local weather. Somehow I think it would not get much use, due to the tremendous improvement in the weather setups you will get with local weather. The problem is that when all the different local metar stations are set with their own specific local winds, it is not possible really to keep track of which ones should be set to 1 knot and which not, even if I knew them all (which I don't). If I am setting local weather on behalf of an external program I can replace all of the surface winds by 1 knot winds, but not restore them after -- the data storage and checking mechanism would be a nightmare. It would really be far easier for the external program do handle it instead. In fact, have you asked Marc or Damian for this? I think that would be better, I really do. Regards, Pete

Odd that most all the programming queries come from VB programmers. Is it just because there are more, or is VB really as bad a language as it seems from my point of view? As far as I understand it, &H8001 when used in a 32-bit variable situation will be sign-extended, coming over as FFFF8001, NOT 00008001! FSUIPC uses a lot of those high bits as flags for one thing or another (see the AWI for instance), and the only sense it can make is the offset 8F8001, which, I think is actually a way of getting to someplace somewhere in one of FS's modules. I don't know VB, and I really don't want to know VB as it seems astonishingly bad from where I sit, but I am informed that appending a '&' character stops a sign extension, so "&H8001&" should work. I would also think that &H00008001 should work, and also the decimal 32769. But don't take my word for any of this, go look it up in your VB books please. Regards, Pete

Sorry. It's a long complex story, to do with the differences in the C libraries used by FS and those provided with MSVC++. It seems that the treatment of non-ACII alphabetic character, as for instance one in your surname, is different. The problem arises that the DEBUG libraries for MCVC++ treat these in the same way as the ones used by FS2004, but the normal run-time libraries don't. So all the testing on the registration system worked fine. Then, of course, after release, the problems started. I fixed the Key generator first, then FSUIPC to make sure (that was 3.01). But keys generated before that change can cause problems on the later FSUIPC versions. It's a case of two differences versus two differences. There are several combinations. Anyway, please just write to me on petedowson@btconnect.com with your original email from SimMarket appended and I'll fix you up with a replacement key. Okay? Pete

No, and no. Please treat yourself to the proper released version of FS. I'm sure that now FS2004 is out you will be able to pick up the boxed version of FS2002 very cheaply. Pete

Oh, I see, It has an FSUIPC driver program, it does not connect direct to a USB or Game port? sorry, I didn't know that. In that case it is presumably driving the thorttle by writing directly into FS through FSUIPC. Possibly, but if so it would not be possible to get around that. All FSUIPc is doing is passing on the throttle commands as it is told to. I must admit to hardly ever using replay mode at all. I do use PFC COM port connected throttles which work through FSUIPC too, so I can try what you are doing, but it really sounds as if you probably need to check the folks who wrote the program you are using. Regards, Pete

No. You just run FS, go to the FSUIPC options and enter the details. That's it -- oh, except it won't actually take effect until you close FS and run it again. Regards, Pete

Can you be a bit more precise here, please. Where is this appearing and what exactly does it say (title and text)? FSMeteo 6 does not even need FSUIPC registration as far as I know, as it is accredited and has its own key. If there are problems with FSMeteo itself you need to get them sorted with Marc. If you do have a problem with FSUIPC 3.03 I need to see the FSUIPC.LOG please. Pete

Of course not. I know you weren't blaming FSUIPC, do not worry. I am just as concerned as you are -- there are Beta testers of FS2004 who are also having similar problems, and not with add-ons either. I think it likely that add-ons exacerbate the problem, especially as you are then more likely to keep switching video modes. So far it looks like some incompatibility some place between some video drivers and DirectX. It may be worth trying different drivers, and/or applying the DX9b updateI've not got that yet, but I've not heard of any problems with it. Regards, Pete

A Beta version of FS2002? I would have thought that should have expired years ago. FSUIPC will not work with Beta versions of FS2002 nor FS2004. There are far too many differences between the Beta and the final release. In any case you should not be still using a Beta now that the proper release is available (and has been for FS2002 for nearly two years!). Pete

Have you downloaded the FS2004 compatible version? Please see the list of supported version numbers in the announcement at the top of this forum, and also go to http://www.schiratti.com/dowson page and see that all of my modules had to be updated for FS2004 and that they were all made available before FS2004 was released. GPSout does not and never has put any entries into FS's menu system. It just works quietly in the background. But please NEVER just copy a module from FS2002 to FS2004 expecting it to work. I'm surprised it didn't crash FS2004. Regards, Pete

Linked in what way? You need to say what you've got FSUIPC configured to do for your throttle. Unless you've told it to do something, it will not do anything. Sorry, there's nothing I can do with recordings and replays. FSUIPC can only manipulate the input from your joysticks/throttles (if told to), and these aren't, or at least, shouldn't, be used duing any replay. If they are being used it is an FS bug and should be reported to MS, though it doesn't sound that serious that they'd be bothered too much I'm afraid. And what about if you don't use FSUIPC for the reverser, as I assume you are doing (but you don't say)? Perhaps it would help me understand if you explained just HOW you are using FSUIPC in this matter, and what happens if you DON'T. It really sounds as if FS would prefer you to park your throttle in idle and leave it there during replays? Have you tried that? Regards, Pete

Only if you want it to close too. Sorry, I've no idea. If something is causing something to hang on that PC then Wideclient won't be able to close the client programs and so can't close the system. It will be doing exactly the same on that PC as on all the others. Do the PM modules close properly with "Q"? Does WideClient close when you click its "close" button? Does WideCliemt close the PM modules when you close wideclient, or have you not told it to? Perhaps that is it -- perhaps the PM modules intercept the closedown from Windows and refuse it unless they've been told to close down first. What does PM support say? Pete

I don't even think it needs another program in the background. I think it is only related to the changing of video modes. Of course you ARE more likely to be changing modes if you are trying to access other programs. From one report I've seen recently, a user was okay with an older Ti200 video card using nVidia 44.67 drivers, then upgraded to a Ti-4800. Since then, trying to run FS9 in anything but windowed mode causes the screen to turn black. Worse, in his case trying to change to full screen mode whilst it is running is causing a crash and reboot! For this problem, it has been suggested that the nVidia 45.20 drivers are better (http://www.guru3d.com), and also, another suggested that the DirectX 9b update fixes it. Others say that any OLD drivers fix it too (e.g. 28.xx or 30.xx series). Seems like there are some things to try, all video related. Regards, Pete

At present I don't know where to find that information, but I will have a look when I get time. I don't think Rudolfo will want to share his findings. The problem then will be to find room to add extra information without (a) reducing severely the number of entries in the table, and (b) rendering many programs unusable by a change in format. Although I do provide structure size and so forth, I'm sure a number of programs do not use this in calculating access. Maybe a separate table elsewhere for additional information would work, but designing something easy to access is difficult. Anyway, I shall add it to my list of things to look at. Regards, Pete