Pete Dowson

Weird. It is very difficult to debug without any suitable input devices. I have to try to devise ways of simulating things by program. All my analogue devices are PFC via serial port and handled directly via my PFC drivers. I might not have time to look at this in sufficient detail for a couple of weeks. I'll have a quick look now for anything obvious, but the code is so simple for the slope application I really can't see how it goes wrong. i have to actually feed the numbers through it at just the right point for it to throw its wobbly. not easy to do. Looking now .. but if you haven't heard back by mid-September, remind me, Pete

No. What do you actually mean be you don't "see" it? Like all the other built-in libraries, it is built in, it is is part if the FSUIPC code. You don't "see" it until you use it! The same library is also built into the current WideClient interim releases. BTW there's no "registered" and "unregistered" version -- the same version simply has the user facilities unlocked by Registration. Pete

Okay. I managed to reproduce it with a software "joystick" with a resolution of 10 units over the 32k range. It looks like my correction to your previously reported problem was not correct, and in fact was responsible for introducing this new problem. Basically the crossover point, pos to neg or vice versa, was one "slope table" division out (512 units) because of a sign error in a remainder. The remainder needs to take the sign of the dividend and it wasn't because I stupidly used "&" instead of "%"! Please try FSUIPC 4.725 and re-check that i haven't reintroduced the original error please. Regards Pete

I'm afraid I don't know VB, and especialy not VB.Net, so I hope someone else can jump in and help you. But i can perhaps offer a little advice to help debug FSUIPC interactions: 1. Use the Logging in FSUIPC to see what your application is actually doing from FSUIPC's point of view. If you avoid running any other FSUIPC applications (to avoid flooding the log with other accesses), then you can log the ipc reads and writes and see exactly what your program is reading and writing, and when! And with FSUIPC4 you can even display the log in real time on a console window if you run FSX in Windowed mode. 2. Double-check the values you are using via FSInterrogate, which can also display them in real time. 3. Use whatever debugger comes with "VB 2010 Express.Net" to trace through your program to see where it is going wrong. One thing which to me looks logically wrong in your program is that this part: If touchrate = 0 Then Else Log.AppendText("Landed " & touchrate & vbNewLine) End If apart from appearing to have an empty statement for a zero touchrate (therefore how is it possible that it is logging 0 as you say?), also appears before you've even checked you have landed, here: Shouldn't you only log the touchdown rate when you've touched down? Regards Pete

The Install log you showed is incomplete. What exactly happened? Have you cut a bit off? I need to see the FSUIPC log file. Have you tried installing the latest FSUIPC3 update from the Download Links subforum? As it notes there in the list of changes: Regards Pete

This is FS's own internal ATC? Sorry, I don't know how to access that. I use Radar Contact for ATC. More realistic in my opinion, at least for IFR and especially airliner flights. Have you considered an alternative to FS's ATC? BTW you were "vincent3105" for your original question, and you've transmogrified into "VincentT" now! Each time you use a different Alias your postings have to be re-approved. It would be better to stick with one, or use your real name. Regards Pete

Sorry, I've never twiddled with those. If I needed to I'd try to find out by trying changes and seeing what happened. Regards Pete

Ah, you are lucky then, avoiding either a forced SP1 update or reinstalling Windows. I still advise you to update to Sp1 then Sp2 as soon as it is practical for yuo to do so. Regards Pete

Er, I don't understand. If the assignments are through FSX, not FSUIPC4, where does the step (delta) question come into it? I'll look at your negative problem later this week, as I'm a bit tied up with other things. I cannot see anything likely in the code, and I have no easy way of testing anything like this as the best resolution input device I have only gives steps of 256, and I suspect it is to do with the granularity of the slopes. There are only 256 points pre-computed on each slope's curve, each interval representing 256 input points, and linear interpolation is used between them. Looking at your log it is probably no coincidence that the crossover point appears to be 256, or at least between 250 and 259: 224376 Axis calibration: Control=65763, Original=-259, Calibrated=-7 224423 Axis calibration: Control=65763, Original=-250, Calibrated=6 I'm going to have to write a software joystick input "device" to fiddle the input figures. If I don't get to it this week, please remind me in the first week of September. (I am on holiday all next week). Regards Pete

You can download and install FSUIPC without any payment. You only need to purchase it if you want to make use of the user facilities. For its main purpose, supporting applications, it is free. I don't know whether the limited upgrade price is still offered by SimMarket. You'd have to check. Either way, I think it was only valid for the first six months after your FSUIPC3 purchase. Originally I think it was intended to be the first six months after FSX's release! Regards Pete

The four numbers in the INI are the same four numbers you "SET" in the calibration, left to right: minimum, low centre, high centre, maximum The centre range in the part between the two centre values. That's why there ARE two centre values you set on screen. Isn't that clear from the documentation? What did you think there were two centre values in the calibration section on screen for? The step by step instructions do tell you to set them both. Without the relevant parts of your INI file to look at I can't really comment on this part. Checking the code, the default is 512, and there's no minimum Delta imposed on axes X Y Z R U V S and T, which are the usual 8 analogue ones. However, but 0 is set for P Q M and N with are POVs ("Points of view"), which either switch in 45 or 90 degree angles or (possibly) every individual degree (though I've never seen any of the latter, it can be done by software). Regards Pete

I haven't seen any more interest in this from the OP, but I've received a similar request from another software developer. It was easy enough to do for two files: runways.txt (the huge logging file), and runways.xml Version 4.50 of MakeRwys is now available in the Download Links subforum with both Country and State information, for new-style BGLs only (not pre-FS9). Regards Pete

Okay, I've added the new Lua function ipc.testbuttonflag(joystick, button) where the parameters are the same as for ipc.testbutton, but the resuilt is true or false depending on the state of the flag, not the button. This is included in FSUIPC versions 3.997m and 4.724, being uploaded as I write this. Regards Pete

I thought that was the only cockpit you got with the PMDG 737NGX? If not, surely no one is using the 2D one? Mouse Macros have to be specifically made for each version of each cockpit, because they depend upon finding the actual place in the Gauge code to be called when used. Even a small update by the originator can render them useless, necessitating a remake. They are a type of "hack" into the code in the gauges. Pete

Okay. This shows lots of things: 1. FSUIPC is loading and running okay. 2. Your FSX installation appears to be in a complete mess. It is the base version (60905) yet you have SimConnect from SP1 still installed. The two cannot work together. 3. FSUIPC4 closed normally, after a 48 second session. So FSUIPC is nothing to do with your "FSX closing". If FSX is closing by itself it is nothing to do with FSUIPC itself but due to your installation corruption. I think you need to at least install SP1. If you don't do that the only solution will be to reformat the disk, reinstall Windows then FSX. I will investigate whether it is possible for me to make FSUIPC4 select a specific SimConnect version to order, so you can tell it to only use the base version of SimConnect, but I'm not sure this would fix your problem in any case. [LATER] Download this FSUIPC 4.723, put the enclosed DLL into your FSX Modules folder, edit the FSUIPC4.INI file and add this line to the [General] section: UseSimConnect=Orig then try running FSX. Show me the Log file. It might work, or it might not. I really can't tell -- the Microsoft side-by-side system is really complex. I can't test if it works properly here without trying to uninstall SP1 and SP2 and last time I did that it cost me a week's work reinstalling Windows and all my development tools! It is explained in the FAQ subforum. But I don't need one now in any case -- as I said , that would only be needed if FSUIPC was not working and making its own log. Regards Pete

I can't reproduce that nor see how it can happen. And I'm sorry, but your "png"s are way too small for me to see. Rather than taking pictures why not just state the numbers? The "centre" is a range between two values, not "at -512". If the range is set at -512 to 0 then what you say happens is exactly right, as designed. 3. On my aileron axis, the minimum step of 16 that I set in the INI seems to be ignored and defaults to 512 Most hardware axes cannot give very small increments. For example my PFC throttle quadrant axes only have an output value from - to 127. This is scaled up by the driver to get the -16k to +16k standard range, so the minimum increment is 256. some axes are 'better' some worse. And they can vary on the same device. For instance on the Microsoft Sidewinder's the throttle wheel has much less resolution than the aileron/elevator axes. If you want to see the raw hardware inputs you have to set RAW mode. This stops the Windows scaling. However, all axes on a single joystick have to be RAW or scaled. Windows doesn't allow different axes on the same joystick to be read in different modes. However, this seems to be fine on the elevator axis, so I'm not sure if it has something to do with the center, since with a center 0 it loads correctly. You showed the calibrations from the INI but I would need the slope settings and the Assignments (Axes settings) too. [LATER] BTW if you use one of the latest interim FSUIPC4 update (see Download Links subforum), and add Debug=Please LogExtras=9 into the [General] section of the INI file before loading FS, then it will log the pre-calibration and post-calibration values. You'll get big logs but perhaps you can cut to the parts showing what problem(s) you seem to identify. I'm afraid there's no similar facility in FSUIPC3. Regards Pete

But you said "with AS v6.5 too"? Could it be video settings, in the video driver or in FSX? Display / Weather? Settings like cloud quality and distance affect these things too. Sorry, I don't understand this bit. Regards Pete

The actual error is really in the weather graphics implementation in FS, the way they tried to bland or morph the changes. It was the same in FS9, and in ESP. I don't know if Lockheed-Martin have yet fixed it in Prepar3D. I'm pretty sure that the answer will be in technique -- but ActiveSky did a *lot* of work on this Check ASE. Regards Pete

Good question. A well known FSX (and FS9 before it) phenomenon. It can also happen with FS's own downloaded weather. You could try asking the ActiveSky folks, but I expect they regard it as a trade secret. They seem to have managed to pretty much eliminate it in ASE. Still occurs occasionally. I think they try to set the weather stations ahead of the aircraft so the local ones don't change so much whilst you are near them. But I'm not sure. You could try weather logging to see what happens, but it produces a lot of data to wade through! ;-) Have you tried setting the weather as "Pending" and then activating it when you've set enough surrounding weather stations? Or using the NWF_SECONDS flag and the "seconds" value to get the weather morphed in more slowly? Pete

For future reference, if you set ShortAircraftNameOk=Substring as I suggested, that could have been just: [Profile.PMDG MD-11] 1=PMDG MD-11 and covered all liveries in one blow. Regards Pete

Have you got some question? I don't see one in your message. Regards Pete

Hmmm. That doesn't sound like a SimConnect / FSUIPC4 loading problem. Is an FSUIPC4.LOG file generated? If so show it to me. If not create a Simconnect log and show me that. Instructions are here: Logging SimConnect Pete

The SimConnect problem was much worse in the original FSX release. What does it say when it closes? Pete

Please see this thread in the FAQ subforum. Pete

Did you test the Macro and see it work, as documented (i.e. use the TAB key)? Did you actually assign any buttons or switches to the macros? you don't say what your "profile" includes. I'm afraid I cannot support Saitek devices, so I can't advise specifically on them. Just on the assignment of buttons seen in FSUIPC. Regards Pete