Pete Dowson

Yes, this is quite correct. But you are answering a different question. I actually asked what function you are trying to operate with offset 541C bit 2? It wasn't on your list of things you wanted to do! According to the PM offsets list, bit 2 is used for Boeing ND mode "VOR" (new mode setting), or MAP CTR (old mode setting). Have you changed to Boeing now, not Airbus? If you want continued help you do really need to be clear about what it is you are trying to do, and not only state how you are doing it. Regards Pete

Why did you choose "x4". Which PM option is switched by x4 (i.e. bit 2)? You double each time. This is BINARY, meaning counting in 2's. You surely know DECIMAL, counting in 10's? 1 = 1 10 = 10 100 = 10 x 10 1000 = 10 x 10 x 10 ... 1000000 = 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 Okay so far. you notice how the "bit" (the 1) goes left each time yuou multiply by 10? Well, in binary, it goes left each time you multiply by 2. bit 0 = 1 bit 1 = 2 bit 2 = 4 = 2 x 2 bit 3 = 8 = 2 x 2 x 2 ... bit 7 = 128 = 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 (i.e 7 2's) See? Easy! This is nothing to do with programming, it is simple elementary arithmetic, just basic numbering. It's a lot easier than flying an aircraft, and certainly much much easier than understanding an Airbus! ;-) Pete

It uses the MagVar at the user aircraft. Since the max range for AI is around 60-80nm, or about 1 degree of arc, it will not be far out. I suppose I could read the MadDec BGL (which is merely a complete table of MagVars) and work out the correct value, but it isn't worth it -- the difference would be small, even in areas of maximum change. Regards Pete

I don't know. it depends how their gauges are programmed. I cannot tell in advance, it's a matter of trying. Regards Pete

Windows? In the aircraft or on screen? Aircraft doors are controlled by the Shift+E keystorke followed by the door number, 1-4. The equivalent FS control is Toggle Aircraft Exit. Or you can use FSUIPC offset 3367, but that only handles the main door in FS9 -- up to 8 doors in FSX. Where are you looking? Doesn't "exit" make you think of a door? ;-) Regards Pete

Well, I just read through that whole thread (not seen it before), and most of it of course was really Jim misunderstanding what you wanted -- he was thinking of the "see through" nature of cloud layers unless they are very very thick. But when it seemed he really did understand what you wanted, he then only thought of doing it using cloud graphics, which as he said isn't on. Evidently, at least back then, he didn't realise that the actual visible screen effect can be directly controlled in FS9, through an FSUIPC offset -- the offset FSUIPC uses to achieve the graduated visibility. It is totally independent of clouds and of visibility layers. Unfortunately I cannot do the same in FSX -- I never found a way, and SimConnect certainly doesn't provide that, even though it was promised in my early negotiations with the FS team. Unfortunately a lot of the weather stuff became, er, less than well-developed because the lady who did the Weather module left and I don't think anyone else understood it! Regards Pete

No. Although, as in FSUIPC3, you CAN, if you want, treat the Hat as a set of 8 buttons (one for each direction), if you really want to use it for panning (rather than view direction) you are better off assigning it in the Axis Assignments tab -- to "pan view". This is something which wasn't possible in FSUIPC3 (because it didn't use DirectInput for its axes). The user guide provided with FSUIPC4 does discuss this issue. Regards Pete

Hmm. I've not used FS9 for years, but I seem to recall that ActiveSky did quite a reasonable job. Maybe you have some other options to explore in it? Maybe a question for HiFi Simulation? Possibly it is something which is improved upon in ASA? They obviously won't be adding anything more to AS6.5, but ASA is current and developing. Regards Pete

I understood exactly what you wanted, but there are NO detente facilities for throttles in FSUIPC! And I am certainly not going to add any. However, it doesn't matter because it is perfectly possible with the facilities already provided! As I so carefully explained already (and with all of the details!) you will need to assign the Offset controls as I described, using the range facilities on the right-hand side of the Axis Assignments page. Please also look at the examples (with pictures!) in the user guide. This is nothing whatsoever to do with programming. It is merely assigning specific controls to specific position of the throttle. Pete

The visibility does normally descrease to about zero when actually IN clouds, providing one is not near the edge or top or bottom surface, when it should be translucent. These are graphics effects which are rendered better on some video cards and drivers than others. They can also be affected markedly by different add-on cloud textures. I never heard of any specific problems otherwise with FS9. For FS9 it is certainly possible for an external program to do what you request, but doesn't Active Sky already fix the non-overcast overcast layers quite well? It isn't something I'd want to do at this stage for FS9, nearly 6 years after its release with no reports of any such problems in all that time. And I'm afraid it isn't possible to do it in FSX at all. It does supply the nominal cloudbase altitudes and layer thickness, though both are subject to some deliberate random variation graphically. Additionally the thickness is only nominal because the tops can have all sorts of fancy shapes, not a flat plain at all. Regards Pete

No, that is something being developed in RCV5, as yet unreleased. Alternatively the FollowMe application works very well. Sorry, there is no way I know of automating menu actions. You can have a sequence which opens a menu for you, but then, when it is open, the FS process is in a mode where only the menu dialogue is active and other parts of FS cannot run. Please, either await RCV5 (or submit an application to join the Beta group), or try the FollowMe application -- which much more realistically provides you with a Follow Me vehicle to follow to the Gate or Runway. Regards Pete

I hope Google tranlated this okay: I assume you mean Pete DOWSON. You should really download and install it first, before purchasing it. Much safer that way, to be sure you can use it! I would need to see both the Install log and FSUIPC log files from the FSX Modules folder. Such problems are normally due to Simconnect problems, often arising from attempts to uninstall and reinstall FSX or one of its updates (SP1 or SP2). Sorry, I would need more information about that. What message exactly? Again, Log files would assist -- that is why they are produced. they are always the first thing to look at. They contain all the details. You list a PC configuration at the end of your message. Which PC is that for -- the one where FSUIPC4 installed but didn't show, or the one with the unspecified message referring to a signature? Sorry, you need to give a link. And if the thread was not completed by a final reply announcing success, possibly he didn't reach a solution? Regards Pete

Erso, what do you want to do with these PM bits? What exactly do you mean by "assign the throttle levels". Are you simply wanting to assign controls to be sent when the throttle passes through different ranges, on the right-hand side of the assignments? If so, you must note the important text relating to that offset 541C: Knowing that they have to be toggled, all you need to do is assign the FSUIPC control "Offset Dword Togglebits" with offset x541C and the relevant bit in the parameter. However, since the bit numbers are rather high (bits 26-31 are the top 7 bits in the 32-bit DWORD, i.e. x20000000 to x80000000), it would be easier (and more efficient for FSUIPC) to actually use "Offset Byte Togglebits" on the last BYTE. Since there are 4 8-bit bytes in a 32-bit DWORD, add 3 to the offset to get to the last one: offset x541F. Then the bit numbers are as listed but less 24 (3 x 8), i.e. bits 2 to 7. Bit 2 is 2x2 = 4, etc to bit 7 which is 128. Okay? Pete

Not with macros, as they are simply collections of controls -- they cannot read and detect things. You could do it easily with a small Lus plug-in, though I'm not sure what you mean by "loading an aircraft" so I'm not sure how you'd detect that. Perhaps you meant on landing? But then surely you wouldn't want the doors flying open on the runway after touchdown? If you meant something sensible, like doors opening after coming to a standstill, parking brake on and engines stopped, then those conditions can all be detected in a Lua plug in, by reading FSUIPC offsets, and the doors opened by either using the appropriate FS controls or writing to the relevant offset. Lua plug-in details are provided in separate documents within the FSUIPC package, but for offset data you'd need to download the FSUIPC SDK. Ignore the rest of the SDK contents, you just want the table of offsets in the Programmer's document. I'll be happy to answer further specific questions, short of actually doing the work for you! ;-) Regards Pete

I don't know him, but I'm Pete Dowson. Maybe I can help? ;-) No. Regards Pete

There are a number of FS commands to select instruments or views, or display and hide panels. Check these: ADF, COM_RADIO, DME, EGT, NAV_RADIO, PANEL_1 to 9, PANEL_ID_OPEN/CLOSE/TOGGLE, VIEW, XPNDR. I've probably missed some, but scan the list of controls and try things. Regards Pete

Why do you want to edit the INI file when you can use the Options in FS? Go to the Keys or Buttons tab in FSUIPC options, assign whatever it is you want to the FSUIPC control "Offset Word ToggleBits" (for a toggle action -- else use "... SetBits" to switch on and "... ClrBits" to switch off). Enter x0D0C for the Offset, and the value for the bit you want to change as the parameter -- 1 for bit 0, 2 for bit 1etc (2 to the power n for bit n). That's it. Pete

Alternatively, make use of one of your older computer(s) and run the instrumentation separately. There are several packages, from free or nearly so to very expensive, depending on what you want. The payware ones are Sim-Avionics, FlightDeck software and Project Magenta. The free one is/was FreeFDS, though I don't know if that's still going. Someone in another thread here reported finding another free or cheap setbut for GA only I think. I don't recall the name, I'm afraid. Of course if you are into using the virtual cockpits then you don't need any external instrumentation. In that case I'm not sure what "popups" you refer to, but if it is stuff like flight plan, moving map, and so on, there are plenty of external programs you could run on a separate PC. That what I developed WideFS for. ;-) Regards Pete

The FSUIPC key file is only ever in the FS modules folder. If you've deleted it you'll need to restore it from backup, or re-register. You can always retrieve your keys from your SimMarket account. Pete

I don't actually believe that -- it appears to only have a problem when WideServer is enabled, and there's been no changes in the wideServer component since way before 4.2. Just to confirm this, I've found no previous version of FSUIPC which allows UT2 to operate when WideServer is enabled. It appears that either SimConnect is generating a spurious "Quit" notice (to UT2 only), or UT2 is misinterpreting something else as a Quit notice. Since this has only been occurring since the recent UT2 HotFix I think it should be relatively easy for the UT2 folks to nail the issue. I'm trying to help as much as I can. Regards Pete

I don't actually believe that -- it appears to only have a problem when WideServer is enabled, and there's been no changes in the wideServer component since way before 4.2. I'm in touch with their developers, but since it is their program which is terminating without even an error message, there's no way I can actually debug it for them -- unless they provide me their source (ha ha). I'm sure that if they can reproduce it (and they must be able to) they can quickly locate the problem. They can use a debugger to find out where in their programming it goes wrong. Regards Pete

XML Gauges aren't susceptible to the 2mouse macro" technique, as they don't actually have any code as such which can be hooked -- the macro facility relies on finding the tables in the code formed by using the original C/C++ gauges SDK. If it is FSUIPC4 and FSX you are talking about, you might be able to access the "L:vars" in the XML gauges. Lvars are Local gauge variables. Depending on how they are used internally in the gauge you might be able to read them and even write them. Details are provided in the FSUIPC4 Advanced User's Guide. Check the contents list, they are mentioned there. Regards Pete

Good. Hopefully now you will be able to work out others when you need to!? Regards Pete

I'm using Win7 RC 64-bit for everything (though I'm not flying FS9 at present), and as far as I can see there is nothing wrong with it -- better than Vista, and certainly better than WinXP 64-bit, which suffered a dire shortage of drivers in its time. If you have Win7 already installed, just try FS9 on it. I'm sure it will be fine. Regards Pete