Pete Dowson

Yes Yes Well, that should be okayprovided Lua file 2 is declared correctly in the INI file. I'll do some tests here. doesn't the FSUIPC log file show anything if you enable Button/Key logging? Really, it would be tidier for you to put the other macro actions in the Lua file and assign to the Lua file instead of the Macro. That way it becomes independent of where the Lua file entry is in the INI file list, and is a neater approach in any case. [LATER] Ughbug! I've found out why the Lua file isn't called from a Macro. It actually tries to use entry 0 in the LuaFiles list, and logs a failure to load file ".lua". I'll fix this now, watch for another update in the Announcement. Regards Pete

Phew! You are missing it? I don't know how it could escape! ;-) Does it not contain a paragraph, in the section I referred you to, beginning Surely that is also in your copy? As it says, FSUIPC will automatically load Lua files with the given filenames. You have several choices. First, please note that the term "pre-loaded" merely means "loaded before" -- i.e. loaded before the event which you are using to trigger the actions they specify. Preloading is NOT the same as "automatically loading", which I think is perhaps where you are getting mixed up? There are several ways of "pre-loading": 1. You can assign a button or keypress to the Lua file, and use that to pre-load it. This would be a user-controlled pre-loading. 2. As 1 but make your assigned button an "initial button" which is automatically triggered. This initial button facility is an old one in FSUIPC, and is described in the Advanced Users guide. 3. You can name your Lua file "ipcinit.lua" or "ipcready.lua" (the latter is safer usually), as documented in the part of the PDF you appear to be missing. 4. You can leave your file named as it is now, and create an "ipcready" or "ipcinit" file which simply loads all the Lua files you want running. That used to involve writing strings to offset 0x0D70, but the latest FSUIPC interim releases (4.505 and 3.905) make that easier by the addition of the new: ipc.macro() library function, which can load macros or Lua programs by name. Okay? Please do take another look, as I'm sure that section of the PDF can't have gone missing! :-( Regards Pete

here is a part of your landing.lua Yes, that is a specific example of using Events. That is, I think, the only one with such an example -- and rather the most complex one to look at to start with. There are much simpler ones. The use of Events to drive actions needs local functions defining, because the Event needs to know what function to call. In your case all you are trying to do is make a sequence of actions when your Lua program is run -- and it is run when you press the button which is assigned, in the Buttons assignments, to make it run. You have no need to go into complex arrangements with events and functions. No, there is no use of Events or local functions there. There's an example of a simple loop, that is all. Ah, okay. I hope you make good progress with it, now, then. Regards Pete

Okay, can you tell me how you arrived at the misconceptions and I'll try to improve the documentation. The two threads started today about the Lua facilities are actually the very first feedback I've received since adding them six months or more ago. If possible I'd like to try to make things clearer, but I'm rather at a loss to understand how you arrived at where you were. No questions are senseless -- and the only stupid questions are those which go unasked, so what exactly do you mean? I've been asking for feedback, it has been a long time coming though. And really but i do need folks to actually read what I provide first, else it isn't really feedback on what i provide, is it?. Sorry, I don't understand this part at all? Can you explain please? Regards Pete

Erwhat do you mean? You don't need to install anything other than FSUIPC -- it has a built-in Lua interpreter. Why are you referring to this 5.1.4 -- are you planning to program Lua into one of your own applications? If you are thinking of using the Lua plug-ins facilities in FSUIPC, you need nothing extra but a text editor to create the little Lua files. The only reason I provide a link to the Lua site is to show you where to get Lua language documentation from - or you can order the books from any bookshop or Amazon. Did you not even bother to look at the examples i supply and try them, in order to get the hang of it? Do I waste my time on these things? :-( If you put the lines into a local function, you need to add code to actually CALL that function. There is no need for the trrivial task you are trying to do. Delete the function line and the "end" at the end. You just want the statements in between! If you'd bothered to look at some of the simple examples supplied, you would have seen howe much easier it is thn you seem to be making it. It is NOT "programming" for simple tihngs, just a list of things you are asking FSUIPC to do! Regards Pete

Well, that line on its own does nothing. You need the function BrakeApplied for it to call on your stated event. Why "research the forum" when it is all written in the documents in the Lua package, or installed in your FS modules folder (for FSX)? Please look at the document which actually describes the FSUIPC Lua provisions, the one entitled "FSUIPC Lua Plug-Ins". It is explained in the section "What is provided in FSUIPC for Lua programming". The document isn't all that big, you should be able to find such information easily! Regards Pete

The offset 04F4 is dealt with by the drop-down FSUIPC control called "PM GC controls (by param)", or very similar. It is one of the additions listed in the Advanced Users guide. Why are you looking in the SDK? That is for programmers. You say you are not a programmer, so why look there? It is the parameter, so it goes in the box where is clearly says "parameter". I don't understand why this isn't obvious? If you go out of your way to make it more complicated, by choosing to use Hexadecimal offsets like x04F4, instead of the additional PM control names especially provided and documented for you, then you would expect the parameters to also be presented in hexadecimal. The values x0086 and x0087 are 134 and 135 in decimal. According to the PM documentation those operate the First Officer's side, not the Captain's side (it says "Add 100 for First Officer") -- so they are obviously 34 and 35 but with the 100 added. Regards Pete

No, but it would be easy to do with a Lua plug-in --just three lines, by the sound of it. You could call it "programming", but it is a lot easier than messing with some of the Button 'programming' tricks. Something like ipc.writeUB(, ) ipc.sleep(5000) ipc.writeUB(, ) Save that as, say, "MyLight.lua", and assign the switch to "lua mylight" in the drop-down. Regards Pete

There's no difference between "free" and "paid for" (really "unregistered" and "registered", respectively), except accessibility to options. Yes, that's what I assumed. If this "mode switch" on the Saitek does change the button numbers it submits, then that is done already -- unless that makes button numbers in execess of 31 (or 32 if you count from 1). FSUIPC uses the interface in Windows which only supports 32 buttons per device. DirectInput can accept up to 64. If the mode switch is merely another button, or selection of buttons, then you can still do the same thing but then it involves "conditionals" in FSUIPC -- programmed only in the INI file, by editing. This is described in the Advanced Users guide. Erthe mouse macro facilities do extend what can be done with FSUIPC, but you seem to have made a big jump somewhere here. The assorted FS autopilot values, the ones you mention, can be changed by standard controls, assignable directly in FSUIPC. The "mouse macros" tend only to be needed for add-on aircraft which ignore the FS values and do their own thing. I don't have a "route". At least nothing you'd recognise. i use Project Magenta, no add-on panels, no default panels, just 8 networked PCs. Regards Pete

None of those are simulated in FS 2004 as far as I know. Do you know different? Because FSUIPC can only present information actually present in FS. Of course. It does say that, and the title is "FSUIPC4 ...". The overhead in the default 737 for FS2004? The so-called "overhead" only contains 6 toggle switches, a simplified fuel switch (for crossfeed only), and two incorrect starter switches. Where are you looking? Add-on aircraft, like those from PMDG, may implement the other systems more adequately, but their values are not necessarily accessible, and certainly not identifiable, to FSUIPC. Regards Pete

I couldn't esily find what you are trying to say in the above mishmash. I've extracted this bit, though: If the buttons work, they work. If you Airbus doesn't work, there's something set in FS which is preventing it, or, more likely perhaps, considering the airbus is a fly-by-Wire aircraft, you have it in a mode where direct trimming by hand is not allowed. Since the PFC controls are only doing the same sort of thing as you would do by using the keyboard -- i.e. incrementing or decrementing the trim value (the elevator trim is 1 and 7 on the number Pad) -- why not check that method too? Regards Pete

Hmm. I'll have a look -- but i don't think the changes i made can have influenced that. The randomisation of variance and turbulence would still be, er, randomised. Maybe it's related to the accuracy (or rather inaccuracy) of the FS timer value I'm using now (probably only updated once per Frame), compared to the Windows tick time. I doubt it but I'll look anyway. Yes. I don't take facilities out. Well, not often! . I just haven't documented it yet because I was waiting for your feedback. I'll add the documentation for it to the next update. Regards Pete

You can use all three with or without FSUIPC. Like FSUIPC, FS supports whatever game controls are connected and recognised in Windows. FSUIPC is not a joystick or game device controller, it merely uses Windows the same as FS does. Regards Pete

Which version of FS? Before FSX none of these were simulated as far as I can tell. In FSX the others are hardly simulated. There's no readout of the APU EGT nor fuel temperature supplied. I can't see any mention of "duct pressure" -- is there another name for that? But in FSUIPC4, as documented in the SDK, all the pressurisation values are included -- didn't you do a search? Offsets 0318-0328. Pete

Probably not, depending upon whether the buttons looks like different buttons in different "shift states". FSUIPC reads buttons from Windows, so it gets them via the drivers you have installed. If Windows "Game Controllers" can recognise them all separately, then so can FSUIPC -- up to 32 buttons per joystick. Two answers to that part: 1. As above, if they look like different buttons, and fall into to first 32, yes, because they look distinct. OR 2. FSUIPC does allow any amount of complex button functionality, by either the use of "conditional" actions -- actions dependent upon other buttons, or flags set/cleared by other buttons, or even upon values read from FS (representing states like "on ground" or "over 50 knots" etc). On top of this you can have buttons instigating execution of little Plug-In sequences programmed in "Lua" (a popular game parameter programming language). But all of the things you can do in (2) are relatively complex, and done by editing files with parameters or program lines, not from simple assignment as in (1). I don't know the Saitek programming software, so i couldn't say whether ambitious use of FSUIPC would be more or less of a nightmare. But you can do all sorts of clever things with Lua plug-ins if that is what you want to do. However, that said, I'm not aware of any normal controls which will automatically set specific autopilot and autothrottle values -- normally you would either use a rotary dial (inc one way, dec the other), or a button or lever to increment and decrement, same as on the keyboard. Why not download and install FSUIPC in any case and peruse the documentation. I'm sorry, you can't actually try the things you mention before purchase, but you can most certainly read all about them and make up your own mind whether it looks scarey or not. Maybe you can then ask more constructive questions afterwards? Regards Pete

Buttons are only "captured" in FSUIPC in any case, the same, presumably, as FS2Crew would be doing. Why would it think they don't exist? Sorry, that doesn't make any sense. There's no "hex code" passed, and where would it come from and go to? There are two ways of getting button presses in Windows -- direct using the Windows "joy" API, which is what FSUIPC uses, and DirectInput (part of DX) which FS and most newer programs use. There are no facilities in FSUIPC for it to emulate real joystick buttons through Windows I'm afraid -- you need a real USB or GamePOrt device for that. If your buttons are on a standard joystick recognised by FS and Windows, then the question you need to ask (of FS2Crew) is why their program can't see them. How is it looking for them? Regards Pete

Oh dear. :-( When you click the Add-Ons then FSUIPC, the main tab, the one that tells you about FSUIPC, with the version number on, the one actually labelled "About", is also the one with the Window options! If you look carefully in the FSX Modules folder you will find a User guide PDF. It has been provided especially to help you in the unusual circumstances that you cannot see the options in front of you. Please look at that. It has documentation for this stuff, even with pictures showing the different Tab pages and describing options such as the one you seem to be blind to. There's even a Contents page, listing "Message Window Options" amongst its subjects, along with a page number to go to! Regards Pete

Aha! So, you've sorted it -- 4 lines = 1000, just what you wanted, no? Regards Pete

Registration is not actually necessary for the option you want -- it is on the first FSUIPC option tab you see when you go to the FSUIPC options via the Add-Ons menu. Regards Pete

Versdion 4.50 is the oldest currently supported version. Hmmm. No idea what that is, then. What changed two months ago? You need to track that down. this is enabling turbulence in FSX, or in FSUIPC? Have you tried disabling turbulence in FSUIPC? There are two turbulence sources -- cloud and wind. You might want to disable both. Normal turbulence effects should not screw up any of those things except when they are fairly extreme -- even real aircraft don't react kindly to extreme turbulence. You'd need to fly above or below such regions. Regards Pete

Two points there: 1. Advdisplay doesn't run on a client -- it's a DLL which used to be supported, but only on the FS PC, in the Modules folder. maybe you are thinking of "ShowText", the little display program provided inside the Advdisplay ZIP file? 2. AdvDisplay itself is not supported any more. For displays on the FS window you use the built-in window facilities provided via FSUIPC. "Latest version" is almost meaningless. Please ALWAYS quote version numbers. I've had folks say "latest" and they were using a year-old version -- the "latest one they'd seen"! You surely don't have Advdisplay.DLL installed in any case? It doesn't work on FSX. If you mean the FSUIPC window, it's one of the options on the FSUIPC first option screen, the one also showing the VERSION NUMBER! ;-) The window control facilities are explained near the front of the FSUIPC User Guide. Please peruse that some time, it does explain all of FSUIPC's options. Regards Pete

Instead of, what, 500 were you expecting? Okay. sounds like they've implemented control acceleration, same as FS does if you hold a switch with a mouse instead of just clicking it. I assume you've mis-typed that. you mean 300 feet each time? 5 x 300? Why not simply reduce the number of entries proportionally? If you are getting 1500 and want 1000, reduce to 2/3rds. Of course 1000 isn't a multiple of 300 so you'd have to use 3 to get close then use your 100 dial. This is on FSX, isn't it? You might want to investigate the new facilities in FSUIPC for manipulating gauges using "L:vars" (Local gauge named variables). You never know, PMDG might be using those to deal with the altitude on their MCP? Pete

No, that can only appear if you go to the Add-Ons menu and select FSUIPC. It IS running! Else you'd not be able to get the Menu!!!! you are posting in an Announcement. Please, if you have any more questions, post in the main forum. I'm locking this one now. I obviously forgot to do it before. Pete

sorry, I don't understand what you are trying to say. If the SimConnect variables which FSUIPC reads are changed, then SimConnect will notify those and the values will be readable. You would apply to me in writing, by email, but such codes are not needed any more, so don't bother. Pete

You'd need to ask PMDG. They do have a support forum I think? I expect the PMDG programs talk to each other. If they do this using "L:variables" (FS Local Gauge named variables) then you may be able to identify them and influence them using the new Lvar facilities offered in the latest version (4.50) of FSUIPC4. Regards Pete