Pete Dowson

Can you tell me how to do that? The parameters in the PFD.INI totally confuse me I'm afraid. These are the only relevant ones I can find. What should I do with them? Quality=Lo PolySmooth=Off SmoothLineWidth=1 PolyDither=Off BitmapSmooth=Off FontFactor=1 NavFontFactor=1 FontQuality=0 What's the best things to set here? Bear in mind I am running this on an Athlon 700MHz. Three copies of PFD.EXE are running simultaneously, each with a graphics frame rate of 33. WideClient tends to keep to the FS frame rate with no problem, but I am getting some jerky behaviour on ONE of the PFD displays at a time -- I think there are problems with them all trying to get WideClient's attention at the same time. I'm working on optimising just the WideClient timeslicing at present, I'm sure I can sort it with some small timing changes. The service from WideServer is not at all jerky and only one of three PFD instances act jerkily at a time. Whilst I have your attention, could you help with another matter entirely, please? In order to run the Parhelia I have had to upgrade from Win98SE to WinXP Home -- Matrox don't provide Parhelia drivers for Win98. But now I cannot access files/folders on that PC on my Network. I don't understand what is going on. I've been through all the File Sharing stuff on it. I thought XP would operate the LAN okay -- the other two copies of XP I have running are fine and I cannot see any difference in any of the settings. It took me all day yesterday and I got no where. WideFs is okay, it's just the file sharing. Thanks, Pete

Sorry, there is no setting nor facility in FSUIPC to lie about your position to anything. FSUIPC does not touch, interfere with or otherwise mutilate positional information. It only provides a window to where FS deposits it. It sounds like something is going wrong on the Squawkbox or Multiplayer side of things -- in fact doesn't SB deliver MP data through the Internet, not data read from FSUIPC? Multiplayer is nothing to do with FSUIPC and vice versa. Maybe in transferring things over you got Squawkbox using an older MP protocol (I believe it changed in FS2002?). Regards, Pete

They're respectable enough -- not as fast as the nVidia Ti 4600 I was using before, but then with that I only had a resolution of 1280 x 1024. P4 2.4GHz with 512Mb memory. I've just acquired a 256Mb version, which I've used to replace the 128Mb version, and it is now driving 3 18" TFTs. I'm preparing for FS9 which will support the 3840 x 1024 resolution I can now handle! I've moved the older 128Mb Parhelia to another PC where it is driving the three small 15" TFTs, with separate Project Magenta instrument panels on each. This is possible with the Parhelia -- it is the first consumer card to support multiple accelerated OpenGL windows. By doing this I've freed up two old delapidated PCs which were helping (poorly) with the PM instruments. Yes, you could say I'm happy with the card. One day soon I shall be happy with the drivers too! Regards, Pete

You've got some really weird serious problem there. I've never seen Winsock respond like that. Maybe you have a corrupted copy of WideFS? If not I can only suggest going into the Device Manager, deleting your Network Adapter cards, and letting Windows re-install everything from scratch. There really isn't anything in WideFS to go wrong. It is simple code, copied direct from Microsoft examples, and has been working now for nearly 6 years. In all that time I have never once seen this error response. Sorry I cannot be of much help. I really don't know that much about Networks, so I always re-install when I get a problem, and if that doesn't work I go get a new Network card. Regards, Pete

I've not programmed any support for a PIC757. In fact I didn't even know there was one. Can you clarify? If you check my documentation, and the labelling on thebuttons in the PFC options, it all deals only with the PIC767. If you really mean the Wilco PIC767, then I would have difficulty now checking this again as I don't have it installed. Ever since the developers were very rude and refused to add programming facilities for external hardware I de-installed the panel altogether. I only re-installed it the once to hack into their 1.3 modifications to provide better A/P control. Are you saying that the 767PIC has two different heading bugs and that they can sometimes disagree with each other? Are you running Project Magenta at the same time as 767PIC? If so then PM takes precedence. I cannot control both at the same time. You need to modify 767PIC to allow PM's A/P to take over. Be aware that if you terminated PM's MCP "untidily" (for instance, if it was running on a WideClient and you terminated the client program first) then PFC.DLL will still think the PM A/P is running -- the flags telling it so won't have been cleared. [Later] I've re-installed the 767PIC cockpit to re-test, and, provided the APS.DLL is in the Modules folder, and PM is not running, the A/P controls on the PFC equipment work fine. It sounds like you have a bad installation of the 1.3 767PIC. The APS.DLL I am using is dated 20th July 2002 and is Version 1.2.4.0 according to its right-click version info. Try re-installing as I just did. Regards, Pete

Okayin that case they know how to display windows on top of a full screen FS. Others can find out too. (Can they let me know how when they do, please?) But FS9maybe that's another matter. I wonder what they will do then? Regards, Pete

I think you'd find the FSInterrogate display MUCH more useful and informative if you loaded the FSUIPC.FSI file I provide with it, in the SDK. This has all of the values in the tables in the Programmers Guide pre-defined so that the display becomes much more meaningful. Is is VERY disheartening to see you ignoring all this work!! Please go and do all that research again using the proper definition files provided, then come back if you still don't understand. The OMI values are used in many cockpit situations perfectly. I have them here both on the PFC avionics and on the flightLink KR-1. There is no problem with them. PLEASE go find the FSUIPC.FSI file supplied specifically for use with FSInterrogate, load it up and look again. NEVER EVER try to interpret a 16 bit value as 32-bit or Float64. you are only confusing yourself more and more! Pete

I have no idea what is going on there. Certainly there is no wind change which will be synchronised with your banking. It sounds like something is seriously wrong with the aircraft modelling, but I am not an expert in that area. I've never heard of this phenomenon occurring anywhere else -- maybe others can chime in and help here. Regards, Pete

Sorry, what does "down the image of scenery and cockpit ..." mean? What program are you running under Wideclient? What are you expecting to happen? As it says in the documentation, WideFS links FS Application Programs to FS across a Network link. It extends the FSUIPC interface for application programs from the FS computer across to the client computers. You still need to run the application program which use FSUIPC on the clients. WideFS cannot actually guess what you want to do and find and run the programs for you! Please re-read the documentation supplied with WideFS. I fear you have misunderstood something. You certainly don't need to tell the Server what IP address it is -- the Server does not need to connect to the Server, it is already there! How come the Server IP address has changed? There can only be one server. You can't have two with different IP addresses! Anyway, your logs show everything is working. now all you need to do is run whatever program you installed WideFS for. What image? What happens on the client depends upon what program you run there. I don't know what image you are expecting. Regards, Pete

Are you getting the variables through the panels interface, as Token Variables? That is what FSLook does. The values at FSUIPC offsets 2F28 and 2F30 should be the same -- they are mapped to the same place -- but I don't know that they work. Those values are in the second table in the Programmers Guide, the one I cannot easily support. If you are writing a gauge for a panel, you need to use the gauge facilities. If you say that the mapping of the Concorde parts to those IPC offsets doesn't work in FS2002 (which is contrary to what I was told at one time), then I will have to change the "Ok" column for FS2002 to "No". I really still don't know what you are doing. for FS gauges you should be able to get all you need from the gauges interface to PANELS.DLL. Are you using FSUIPC interface from a gauge? If so, why? Pete

What 32 bit and Float64 parameters? The Marker values in the IPC interface are as documented, 16-bit (short or WORD) values at 0BAC, 0BAE and 0BB0, respectively. In fact you only need read one byte (8 bits) for each, at 0BAC, 0BAE and 0BB0, as it is that which will be non-zero for "true". It sounds as if you are misinterpreting the FSInterrogate display completely. Please check the documentation and use the appropriate columns for the different values. You are making it MUCH more cdomplicated that it really is. Effectively only one bit will be changing, forget all that 32-bit and Floating point nonsense. It isn't applicable. If yur FSInterrogate display is showing these columns then you are not loading the FSUIPC FSI file into it to define the vlaues correctly. Regards, Pete

Not 3 3D views. It is is one 3D view at 0.50 (some prefer 0.30) zoom, spread across three monitors as 1920 x 480. In CFS3 and the forthcoming FS9 the resolution will be able to be increased, but FS2002 is limited to 2048 max in any dimension because it uses DX7 which had that limitation. Such a low resolution is no good for FS panels, but I don't use any FS panels -- I am, today, fitting a Parhelia to a second PC to allow me to have three monitors showing Project Magenta instrumentation (currently on two monitors on separate PCs. Scenery is actually pretty good in any case at the low resolution, and the view across three monitor widths is very impressive. The Parhelia drivers still have problems. I don't get any hangs now with either the 042 or 043 build drivers, but there are some artefacts and flashing and lost textures with either version. I know Matrox are aware of these problems and I expect improved drivers to arrive in due course. I also expect FS9, when it arrives, to have less of a problem in all these areas --- some of the problems are undoubtedly due to the DX7 use in FS2002. I also use the display with Grand Prix 4 and that runs fine in 3072 x 768 resolution and is spectacular. I will be trying it in 3840 x 1024 resolution when I upgrade to 18" TFT screens (currently using 15"). Regards, Pete

I've not looked at any variety of Direct3D. I don't know if you can actually "share" full screen mode with some other process or thread. I know you can with DirectSound, but that wasn't easy either (Esound actually uses DirectSound). Maybe there's a way -- but it is certainly something I won't have time to look at till I've sorted all the main things out. If you do find a way, please keep us informed! Regards, Pete

I'm afraid I can't help with Visual Basic, but I can say that you should be checking your results with FSInterrogate, to see how long the Inner Marker is actually flagged as being received. I've found that such signals tend to be very short-lived indeed. To start with there aren't actually many runways equipped with them these days, and secondly they are usually almost on or very near the runway threshold. By then you are so low that the passage through the "cone" of radio reception is very short indeed. Maybe you have nothing wrong -- certainly if your code is working for the other Markers, it seems unlikely to be broken in this one instance. Regards, Pete

FSUIPC doesn't "run in FS main Windows". I don't know Squawkbox. The only program I've written whch does display a window obver FS windows is AdvDisplay, and even that is not possible in full screen mode on some video cards -- the way it is going, it won't be possible on any video cards in full screen mode in future. The only way to guarantee space on the FS window looks likely to be via Gauge programming. If all you want to do is display a window in front of FS's window, use the "Foreground" or "topmost" type styles. But you have to run FS in Windowed mode. FSUIPC provides a facility to add an entry to the Modules menu entry and detect when it is used, even across a Network via WideFS. It is described in the FSUIPC SDK. There is no specific method for doing this, it is not documented. You have to hack into FS to find such things out. Why would you want to? It won't help display windows over FS. I suggest you look at making a Gauge. Regards, Pete

Hi Jose, I hope someone else can jump in and help you because I really have no idea at all what you are talking about. Sorry. Regards, Pete

FSUIPC runs inside the Flight Sim process, so there is no way you can get "direct" access -- such is impossible between two separate processes. The IPC of FSUIPC stands for "Inter-Process Communication", and such exchange is its main purpose. Full documentation on linking up to it by IPC is provided in the FSUIPC SDK. Regards, Pete

It has been requested for FSUIPC, and it could be done, but it is a lot of work and I really cannot consider adding any new facilities at all now till after I've got FS9 sorted out and it is released. It is far too much to do in any case and the earlier release FS9 date of July 2003 has rather taken me aback. Please ask again later in the year, perhaps nearer Christmas. Meanwhile, if you refer to the Advanced Users guide for FSUIPC you will find some instructions for programming buttons differently according to the state of other buttons, or even flags which can be set by buttons or even keypresses. You can do almost what you want with all that, though it isn't necessarily easy -- nor can it currently be made automatic. You'd have to have buttons or keys pressed to select different assignment sets. >> I have the CH Cloche (as many of you all), and wish to replace the mixture/propeller control with slat brakes when passing from propeller plane to jet plane. << Ah, that's rather different -- assigning axes to different axis inputs according to aircraft type isn't something I'd thought of (except I did do it via EPIC card programming long ago). This again is a new facility and not one currently possible I'm afraid. Ask me again much later in the year. Sorry about this, but your timing is not good -- FS9 preparation is going to take all my waking hours. Regards, Pete

Sorry, that's one of my failings, keeping track of changes in the SDK. You see there are so many, but many so trivial -- minor clarifications, often, to entries in the table, sometimes additional discoveries of options or locations, added to the list. If there are changes or improvements to the different language parts then you'd tell by the date on them -- these arise occasionally from the other contributors. Otherwise MAJOR additions or changes will be due to major additions to FSUIPC, and these will be listed in the FSUIPC History document (part of the FSUIPC ZIP). I think the last major addition was for the TCAS table for ground AI traffic. Regards, Pete

What's "R/W" stand for in this context please? I don't understand. Have you checked the Log files to see what is happening? If the connection is made okay without changing anything in the firewall I would guess it is okay. Surely the firewall only applies to an external connection, i.e. the Internet? Ahis "R/W" Roger Wilco, by any chance? If so, what "connectivity" are you talking about? Where does WideFS come in? If you mean R/W connecting to the Internet, then obviously you really want to run R/W on whichever PC has the Internet connection, so WideFS is not really anything to do with it, is it? Sorry, I've no idea. More information needed. Else it is all guess work. Regards, Pete

This is 100% still going to be the fact that the UseTCPIP parameter is not set correctly. To start with, if you give the same of the Server, it will be logged and the IP address it finds will also be logged. It looks very much as if the copy of WideClient you are running is NOT reading the copy of the WideClient.ini file you are showing us --- there is simply no other explanation. Please be absolutely sure that the correct Wideclient.exe you are running and the WideClient.ini file you are editing, both reside in the same folder, and that you are running that EXE from that folder with it set as the current folder. Best that you use Windows Explorer and search for all things "WideClient.*" as it does really sound like you have things very mixed up there. We are running clean out of alternative explanations. A TCP/IP configured WideClient which has been given the Server name will have a log starting off like this (after the title): Date (dmy): 16/03/03, Time 19:10:21.625: Client name is NEWLEFT 329 Attempting to connect now 375 Trying TCP/IP host "OFFCENTRE" ... 375Okay, IP Address = 192.168.0.8 Even if it didn't get as far as the "Okay" here it would still list the server name you gave. Regards, Pete

And the WideServer.Log and WideClient.Log files too -- if there are any problems seen by either program the details will be in those files. Regards, Pete

Unless you've somehow got a corrupted copy, I really don't think it can possibly be an FSUIPC problem. Changing the module is merely changing the order in which all the modules are loaded in the Modules folder, and therefore causing a slightly different memory arrangement. It sounds like something is going wrong in any case, but not always in such a way as you get a crash. ATC.DLL is not anywhere near anything that FSUIPC has anything to do with in any case, and the changes from 2.972 to 2.975 are trivial. Possibilities are sound card problem, Traffic BGL or AFCAD problems (have you added any aircports or AI traffic stuff at all?). If you are using Win95 or 98 or even ME, you can, if you like, try to get a DrWatson dump and I'll take a look. Please see the "If FS crashes ..." section of the FSUIPC User Guide. With Win2000 and XP I'm afraid the dumps are pretty useless to me. You should know that I get the odd report that version x crashes FS whilst version x-1 does not EVERY SINGLE TIME I make a new release. In the 40-odd months it has been continually updated there's been only about one of these which turned out to be an FSUIPC problem (two counting the recent one where I fogot about FS98 in one release, and FSUIPC tried to do FS2002 things on that simulator which a nasty result!). Not long ago I went through an extensive (and intensive) exchange with one user who swore blind that the only thing he changed was FSUIPC -- until after over a week of this he suddenly realised he'd also installed a new aircraft or something too. when he de-installed that his problems disappeared! I'm not saying this applies to you, but it is nonetheless wise to consider everything when faced with problems. Regards, Pete

Okay. In the Server INI you have: UseTCPIP=Yes but in the Client INI you have: UseTCPIP=Yes ServerIPAddr=192.168.0.1 UseTCPIP=No I expect the second copy of "UseTCPIP" will win over the first! Rather than use an IPAddr you may find it easier to use the ServerName, unless it is hard to spell correctly! Regards, Pete