Pete Dowson

AhWideServer was simply not getting to run for some periods because of FS2004's need for the processor? Here's a list of the AI states which I report. This is from the forthcoming SDK update: 0x80 128 Initialising 0x81 129 Sleeping 0x82 130 Filing flight plan 0x83 131 Obtaining clearance 0x84 132 Pushback (back?) 0x85 133 Pushback (turn?) 0x86 134 Starting up 0x87 135 Preparing to taxi 0x88 136 Taxiing out 0x89 137 Take off (prep/wait?) 0x8A 138 Taking off 0x8B 139 Departing 0x8C 140 Enroute 0x8D 141 In the pattern 0x8E 142 Landing 0x8F 143 Rolling out 0x90 144 Going around 0x91 145 Taxiing in 0x92 146 Shutting down Mind you, I'm not sure you will actually ever see all of them happen. I never have so far. I suspect some of them are transitional and only valid for a very short time. When this is 00 it isn't valid -- this will be true in FS2002, for example. Regards, Pete

Very strange for it to lose the registration. Did you restore an older Registry or something? I'd be interested to know how that happened. Or was the FSUIPC.KEY file deleted accidentally? Anyway, I'm pleased you solved the mystery! Pete

There are lots of reports of such things happening with FS2004 when switching between full screen and windowed, and sometimes minimized and windowed, and they don't need any of my modules present to do this. I suspect there's a bug in FS itself, or some incompatibility with some video drivers/cards. I'd keep an eye on some of the general FS2004 discussion forums if I were you, to see if and when anyone comes up with a solution. Sorry, but I cannot fix things that are not of my doing. Pete

And what do the Logs show? I can't say anything without information, sorry. What was the last version of WideFS you used before 6.02? There's been no change in the Networking part since 5.50 and precious little, only tuning, since the big changes, for performance, in version 5.00. Of course most all the performance tuning has been in the TCP/IP protocol, as this is generally easier to get right in XP systems. Also, have you changed anything else? Are you sure IPX/SPX is working correctly? Are you using Win98 on both server and client? Have you been through ALL the pointers in the WideFS documentation? There's got to be something in your system. The starting point is the content of the Server and Client LOG files. Regards, Pete

Yes. The " New Weather Interface" (NWI) can be used to read and write individual weather stations in FS2004, by ICAO ID. But reading all of them will take a lot of time I suspect, there are thousands -- and you'd need the list. If all you want to do is read the weather files you'd be better off saving a Flight in FS and using the WX file. All the data is in there. If you want to try the NWI in action now, try WeatherSet2, as provided in the FSUIPC 3 Zip. See the little text file for instructions. You can read and modify any specific METAR station using that utility. If you want documentation for programming the NWI in advance of the revised SDK, you'll need to write to me on my email, petedowson@btconnect.com, and I'll send some information. Regards, Pete

As it says in the WideFS documentation "Version 5.50 is the first version that defaults to using TCP/IP instead of IPX/SPX". If you change the Client to use IPX/SPX you need to change the Server too. If they use different protocols they canot talk to each other. Regards, Pete

All the themes have their own weather settings. The visibility is controlled by the values in the theme. That is an option not for weather which is clear, but for the "Clear Weather" button in the FSUIPC About page, or the Clear Weather Hot Key in the HotKeys page, or the Clear Weather commands sent by FS2002-based weather control programs. The word "clear" is the VERB, not the ADJECTIVE. Sorry if it is confusing. As it says in the FSUIPC User Guide, none of the weather facilities apply to FS's local weather settings, only global weather or weather set by external programs. The "themes" represent pre-defined sets of local weather with are loaded into your current location and thereby "localised". They are certainly NOT "global" -- i.e. the same everywhere. In FS2004 the only way to make complete global weather is first to clear it all and make sure dynamics are off. This effectively turns off all themes and downloaded local weather effects. Really, I would simply advise you to use FS weather as it is, or get an external weather program in which case you can play with FSUIPC's weather filters. Regards, Pete

All this means is hat something was going on in FS which prevented WideServer accessing variables in FS for a number of seconds (I cannot remember how many). In order to make sure all the clients are updated when it gets access back again, it restarts its service. This is actually quite quick, but it may result in a jerk in instrumentation. You say this occurred after "reach request to FSUIPC", but you were using FSinterrogate. Can you tell me what you were asking FSInterrogate to do? Something is causing the Server's access to FS to be dirupted. Ouch! That is truly an awful combination. 100Mbps Ethernet is now almost universal, and just as cheap, so why still use 10Mbps? And especialy with TCP/IP which is very inefficient. If you intend to stick to 10Mbps I'd recommend trying IPX/SPX instead. Well the only thing missing is an explanation of what you were asking FSInterrogate to do. By itself it does nothing, not even talk to FS. And what starte was FS2004 itself in, flying, parked, in menus or options, minimised, .. what? Pete

As they say, those variables give you the pitch and bank values. YOU just have to work out what this means in terms of the graphics, as I described. If you are not going to use what FS is giving you, how will you do it? I don't understand why you wouldn't want to use the values in 2EE8 and 2EF0. What are you misunderstanding here? I was trying to help as you said you didn't know what the values were. I was trying to help you use them, not ignore them!! Use the Monitoring facilities on the FSUIPC Logging page to display the contents of those two values on screen whilst watching the behaviour of the FD bars in the cockpit gauges. Then you will understand, I'm sure. Pete

And all the others are okay? Are you using the latest WideClient in that PC? Double check this. I've never heard of PM components "losing" their registration numbers. You need to report that to the PM support folks, as it must be a bug. Anyway, you can close PM components by pressing "Q" on the keyboard (Ctrl Q for the CDU). Do you do that instead? If that doesn't work, it sounds like something has hung. Possibly an Open GL problem? Either way I think you need to sort it out with PM support. Regards, Pete

Sorry, no. I am not an aircraft engineer, just a computer programer. There is nothing in FS that I know of which tells you exactly where to position the FD bars or chevron in tems of pixels. This would be very dependent on the type of AI and the graphics used therein, wouldn't it? The pitch one should be easy as the AI is usually scaled in degrees up and down. You'll need to scale the up and down movement of the bar to match the pitch difference provided by FS. The -25 to +25 sounds correct for the bank indication -- these represent the normal bank limits in degrees for an autopilot controlled turn, so the FD will indicate only between those limits too. If you are using a chevron you would tilt it that much. If bars, then the vertical bar would be positioned such that the line from the aircraft to the crossing point makes that angle with the vertical. Really if you are trying to program aeronautical instrumentation you need to get some reference material so you know how they work. Regards, Pete

Are you talking about purchasing a key through SimMarket, or applying for a free one, by virtue of previous donations, to me? In the former case, if you've not heard within the stipulated 24 hours for Delivery, please report this as a problem to SimMarket. There's an address (maybe even a button?) for this supplied. In the latter case, if you sent me the email more than about 10 hours ago, please give me more details so I can search the many hundreds of emails I've received this week to see if I've missed you. I need name and email address. Pete

If you want to show fuel remaining in weight terms rather than capacity, the current pounds-per-gallon is available at 0AF4. I assume this changes with altitude -- as pressure changes the relationship between capacity and weight changes. Now, in FS2002 there is a short cut to getting the remaining fuel weight. (I only just thought of this :) ). The total current loaded weight is available at 30C0 and the zero fuel weight (ZFW) is at 3BFC. Since FS2002 never allows any passenger or freight to be included (folks fiddle it using fuel I think), you can get the fuel weight as the difference. At present this probably won't work on FS2004. I am not sure yet (I've not yet got that far), but I don't think the loaded weight and the ZFW are yet obtained. I might be wrong, it is worth a look, but I've a feeling they were amongst the things I didn't find in time for the FS2004 release and have left to find over the next few days or weeks or months or .... Regards, Pete

No, it has never been like that. FS95, FS98, FS2000, FS2002, FS2004 ... No, that is certainly the way to do it. The information you see is the raw information from FS. There is a way inside FS to get the total fuel, but it involves calling a procedure which does exactly what you have to do. You might think it would be best to have FS do all the work so you have less to do, but think again. FSUIPC has to maintain the values frequently, if not on every FS frame then at least every so many frames, otherwise things get noticeably jerky on external fuel gauges. It wouldn't be so bad if it only had to do this when an external program actually wanted to read it, but it cannot afford to be so lazy. The external program might be running on a Networked PC via WideFS. The WideFS system depends upon getting changes sent out automatically for any data each client has expressed an interest in. This is how WideFS manages to maintain the FS frame rate on every client PC. So, it turns out that rather than force FSUIPC to calculate this for you, or possibly ask FS to calculate it for you, it is more efficient for the external application to do it. This allows the FS process to remain efficient and puts the extra work in a separate process, as and when it needs to do it. I do hope that is clear. There are quite a few other instances like this. BTW there are 11 possible tanks these days, not just 7 -- see the extra ones at offsets 1244-1260. Regards, Pete

No, not yet. When I've finished catching up making all the things that were accessible in FS2002 also accessible in FS2004, I shall start looking at new things for addition in FS2004. But it is nowhere near that stage yet. Sorry. Pete

Searching nowah, yes. Humble apologies. Key for FSUIPC is on its way. You should have complained several days ago! I have been so busy this last 6 days, I could not believe it. I may have missed some others, but I hope they will write. With 200-300 emails per day plus the forum plus the programming to do I have been going dizzy! It is easing off a bit now. I hope to start on the SDK update tomorrow. And I must get my hair cut! Regards, Pete

Thanks Lee! Pete

Sorry, either I'm confused or you are? :) You can still dock to a panel part. That's the "dock" option in the drop down menu you get when right-clicking. There's also a "lock" option, which locks it instead, to a fixed position irrespective of panel. If you dock it to a panel, it saves the details in the PANEL.CFG file, in its own section. That will contain the name of the panel part it is docked to (which you can edit if you like). It will disappear when that panel part is not on screen and reappear when it returns. Maybe you are talking about a different option? The main change was that the docking position isn't now relative to the panel bitmap position, it is a screen postion now. The "docking" merely associates it with a panel part for the purposes of displaying it and hiding it. The alternative way of using it is to "lock" it in position instead, then hide it and show it by assigning a hot key for this in FSUIPC's Hot Keys page. Hope this helps, Pete

Yes. Use the exact same details for both. You have to enter the registration on them both. I don't really like the system of one copy purchased, one copy used. As far as I'm concerned, if you paid for it you can use it on all your PCs. Pete

Yes, WidevieW links together computers all running FS. It is like multiplayer, but a bit more efficient for multiple views rather than multiple flyers. Well, of course, the problem is that any real time moving display from FS is taking most of the power. The FS in the second PC still has to simulate most things, it is only relieved of the actual flight calculations by having WidevieW control the positioning of the user aircraft. Everything else, the scenery, the weather, the aircraft rendering, all in 3D and in motion, still needs similar processor and video power. No. WideFS is for linking external FS applications to the single FS PC across a network. I am not aware of any external application for FS which will display your scenery and aircraft in motion in real time. Only FS itself does that, and in fact it uses most of its code explicitly to do that! Regards, Pete

You can use FSInterrogate by P.Liljendal. If you have not registered your copy of FSUIPC you can register this program instead, access key is 161C 7AUZ D1BV Also, and possibly more conveniently, you can use the new Monitoring facilities in FSUIPC. Go to the Logging page, look on the right-hand side. I find the "Adv Display" facility very useful -- this refers to the FS on-screen display window which used to be for Adventure texts. You don't need AdvDisplay installed for this. The documentation explains the Monitor facilities (see the Advanced Users guide). Regards, Pete

The values in 0BDC, 0BE0 and 0BE4 all continue to act in the range 0-16384 as they used to, so I don't think there's any problem. However, I have just noticed that the 65536 bit is set in the 32-bit 0BDC field (i.e. as if it is another field, which it may well be -- perhaps what we thought of as a 32-bit value was in fact two 16 bit values all along?). I don't know whether that is significant of anything. I'll make a note to check it out when I'm updating the SDK. I've not reached that bit of the table yet . If you discover anything before me, please let me know! Regards, Pete

There are flight director pitch and bank values, readable at 2EE8 and 2EF0. Please check the FSUIPC SDK Programmers Guide. I don't know yet whether these work in FS2004. If not, let me know and I'll look for them. Pete

As far as the access key is concerned, it doesn't have to be built into the program so they don't even need to update the program -- assuming it needs no update anyway for FS2004. Keys can be published for the user to enter manually into FSUIPC. The program name and key so entered get remembered in the FSUIPC.KEY file. This is what we've done with Squawkbox 2.3, which is no longer maintained or developed. I will publish lists of the free access keys as this trend develops. In version 3.03 of FSUIPC I've extended this method of application registration to GAUges and add-in DLLs too -- previously there was no alternative but for them to be changed. Regards, Pete

Not quite correct, no. Access to FSUIPC by applications is indeed by agreement with myself in this version. I don't see why commercial companies and shareware authors should make money from selling their programs which depend upon FSUIPC whilst I have to support them and develop the interface to FS for free. That represents by far the most time I spend on the program, and it is a full time job and has been for four years. The agreements I reach are not expensive for them, and have to be agreed as fair on both sides. It really is not a "big deal". For applications which are either free, or not earning any money because they are not maintained or developed or supported any more, I provide free access keys. Naturally, if FSUIPC could determine which applications you pay for and which you don't, it could give free access to the free ones automatically, but this is way beyond any known technology today . So, they all need access keys -- unless the use registers his copy of FSUIPC, which gives him a bypass for this as a sort of bonus (though he is really paying for the additional user facilities in FSUIPC). I am allocating keys to free programs as I am asked. For those disowned neglected programs I can publish the keys, here and in later editions of my documentation. But I cannot make these keys without requests for those programs to be accredited, accompanied by certain items of information which I use to make the keys. Think of it another way: it is now a few days after the official publication date of FS2004. If I had not made FSUIPC work on FS2004, how many of those programs would already be working on FS2004 in any case? After a new release of FS there is always a period of "catching up" for the add-on market. Please do not be quite so impatient. Even if you did register your copy of FSUIPC, there is no guarantee that the add-ons you wish to use wil run correctly on FS2004 in any case. Not yet. They may need me to do more work inside FSUIPC to find more of the variables, or they may use aspects of FS which are nothing to do with FSUIPC but which also change from version to version. FS2004 versions will no doubt appear in good time. Regards, Pete