jase439

Interesting thought. I have the limiter set at 30 - but could easily stand to bring it down to 20. Thanks for the insightful feedback.\ J PS. Out of curiosity, what is the IPC mechanism between an app and FSUIPC. Is it socket based, named pipes, or just plugging data into a memory mapped file which FSUIPC periodically polls?

Just a curious observation on the alleged FSUIPC stuttering that many (including myself) observe when receiving weather updates from a 3rd party app. Even with the fix that was provided in 3.08, the stuttering is still fairly aggregious if and only if I the 3rd party app is running concurrently on the *same* system as FS. If the updates come over the wire via WideFS, however, the wx updates are as smooth as a hot knife through butter. I wonder if the stuttering has anything to do with FSUIPC at all. Perhaps it has more to do with running FSUIPC-enabled apps locally on the same host as flight simulator can rob the sim of precious CPU resources as those apps work in the background. Or maybe the blocking/signaling of synchronization objects between applications and FSUIPC are more disruptive to the sim simply blocking on a socket. That, or WideFS uses the NWI interfaces "more correctly/efficiently" (when acting as a proxy to these apps) than the apps do themselves. I don't know how these two mechanisms might differ, but it's verifiably clear that apps interfacing through WideFS cause little, if any, disruption to the sim as opposed to those apps who interface through the NWI directly. Any other WideFS users noticed this?

I sent mail to Marc Philibert regarding your idea of having taxi wind implemented by a third party FSUIPC client. He seemed quite receptive to the idea. Maybe you guys can come up with a viable "3rd party" solution? On a tangential note, if I could get you in touch with a developer from the MS flight sim team, would that be at all meaningful? I have some "ins" with a few people in the gaming division. I'm not sure how much they'd be able to help, but likely the FS boys are intimately familiar with your work. They might be amenable to disclosing certain facets of the engine under the right terms. Shoot me an e-mail at jase439@nospam.excite.com (minus the nospam) if you're interested.

Hey Pete, In an earlier thread it sounded as though you were on the trail of getting a viable solution up and working for Taxi Wind, except for a problem you were having when the aircraft started moving and the sim started scribbling over your wind data. Is it still your plan to continue looking into this in the near future? Cheers, J

Sorry if I had you going down the wrong track. I saw the "clear all weather requested" in the log and assumed it conincided with the phenomenon since a visual clearing of the weather is what I experienced in the sim, when in fact it looks to be as you say, a clearing of the cloud layers. In this case, the only thing it looks like I'm left with is the high cirrus. Thanks for looking into this and posting a workaround. J

Can confirm. It definitely seems tied to the wind smoothing. Everything as normal with the wind smoothing disabled. Here is the log output from beginning to end which shows the error. You can see where the clouds get cleared after the aircraft rotates. Most odd. -=-=- Module base=00ED0000 ClassOptions: UIPCMAIN=FF7F, FS98MAIN=FF7F, FS2KMAIN=FF5E WeatherOptions(Orig)=601C7F09[601C7F09] InitDelay: 3 seconds 5344 System time = 20:33:45 5344 *VIS* SM: Min=0.00, MaxRny=20.00, MaxOvc=20.00, MaxCld=20.00, MaxClr=60.00, Upper=80.00, FT: LwrAlt=6000, UppAlt=25000 Internal Debug Code 255 5360 D:\Program Files\FS2004\ 6656 FLIGHTS\OTHER\FLTSIM.flt 6688 AIRCRAFT\c172\Cessna172SP.air 8375 System time = 20:33:48, FS2004 time = 20:33:47 (03:33Z) 8500 Advanced Weather Interface Enabled 8641 FS98 Pressure=1013.2 mb 8641 FS98 Vis: range=150sm, (raw value=15000) 8641 FS98 CurrTemp at PlaneAlt=429: 15C 8750 >Change: FS98 Vis: range=150sm, (raw value=15000) 8750 >Change: FS98 Dewpoint Control: disabled 8750 >Change: FS98 Precip Control: disabled 8750 >Change: Pressure=1013.1 mb (Target is 0.0) 8750 >Change: surface wind: to alt=3232ft AGL, dir=0T, vel=0.0, gust=0.0, turb=0, shear=0, var=0.0, AMSL=3611 8750 >Change: wind layer 0: to alt=6562ft AMSL, dir=270T, vel=20.0, gust=0.0, turb=0, shear=0, var=0.0 8750 >Change: wind layer 1: to alt=19685ft AMSL, dir=270T, vel=25.0, gust=0.0, turb=0, shear=0, var=0.0 8750 >Change: Visibility[0]: range=unlimited, from=-1476ft, to=8524ft 8750 >Change: Cloud[0]: type=9, from 5741ft to 6726ft (+/- 100ft), cover=2, turb=0, topshape=0 8750 >Change: Precip=0, base=-1476ft, rate=2, icing=0 8750 >Change: Cloud[1]: type=1, from 39370ft to 40190ft (+/- 100ft), cover=6, turb=0, topshape=0 8750 >Change: Precip=0, base=-1476ft, rate=2, icing=0 8750 >Change: Temperature[0]: alt=0ft, Day=15.0 C, NightVar=3.0 C, DewPt=5.0 C 8750 Results: Visibility[0]: range=20.0sm (32187m), from=-1476ft, to=8524ft 8750 Results: FS98 Wind0: ground (0ft) to 3612ft AGL, dir 0M, vel 0, gust 0, turb 0 8750 Results: FS98 Wind1: 3612ft to 6561ft AMSL, dir=270T, vel 20, gust 0, turb 0 8750 Results: FS98 Wind2: 6561ft to 19685ft AMSL, dir=270T, vel 25, gust 0, turb 0 8750 Results: FS98 Vis: range=20sm, (raw value=2000) 8750 Results: FS98 Cloud1: type=9, from 5741ft to 6725ft (+/- 98ft), cover 2, turb 0, ice 0 8750 Results: FS98 Cloud2: type=1, from 39370ft to 40190ft (+/- 98ft), cover 6, turb 0, ice 0 8750 Results: FS98 Temp0: to 0ft, Day 15.0C, NightVar 3.0C 12344 C:\Documents and Settings\Jason\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files\UI generated flight.flt 12531 Clear All Weather requested: external weather discarded 13422 >Change: FS98 Pressure=0.0 mb 13422 >Change: FS98 Vis: range=0sm, (raw value=0) 13422 >Change: FS98 Dewpoint Control: 0.0C 13422 >Change: FS98 Precip Control: None, Intensity=0 28203 >Change: wind layer 0: to alt=6991ft AMSL, dir=270T, vel=20.0, gust=0.0, turb=0, shear=0, var=0.0 28203 >Change: wind layer 1: to alt=20114ft AMSL, dir=270T, vel=25.0, gust=0.0, turb=0, shear=0, var=0.0 28203 >Change: Visibility[0]: range=unlimited, from=-1047ft, to=8953ft 28203 >Change: Cloud[0]: type=9, from 6170ft to 7155ft (+/- 100ft), cover=2, turb=0, topshape=0 28203 >Change: Precip=0, base=-1047ft, rate=2, icing=0 28203 >Change: Cloud[1]: type=1, from 39799ft to 40619ft (+/- 100ft), cover=6, turb=0, topshape=0 28203 >Change: Precip=0, base=-1047ft, rate=2, icing=0 28203 Results: Visibility[0]: range=20.0sm (32187m), from=-1047ft, to=8953ft 28203 Results: FS98 Wind1: 3661ft to 6991ft AMSL, dir=270T, vel 20, gust 0, turb 0 28203 Results: FS98 Wind2: 6991ft to 20114ft AMSL, dir=270T, vel 25, gust 0, turb 0 28203 Results: FS98 Cloud1: type=9, from 6171ft to 7155ft (+/- 98ft), cover 2, turb 0, ice 0 28203 Results: FS98 Cloud2: type=1, from 39799ft to 40620ft (+/- 98ft), cover 6, turb 0, ice 0 28203 Results: FS98 CurrTemp at PlaneAlt=429: 8C 29219 Results: FS98 CurrTemp at PlaneAlt=429: 11C 30203 Results: FS98 CurrTemp at PlaneAlt=429: 13C 31313 Results: FS98 CurrTemp at PlaneAlt=429: 14C ********* ADDED BY JASE439 - WENT AIRBORNE HERE ******** 80375 >Change: Cloud[0]: type=1, from 39799ft to 40619ft (+/- 100ft), cover=6, turb=0, topshape=0 80375 >Change: Precip=0, base=-1047ft, rate=2, icing=0 80375 >Change: Cloud[1]: remainder cleared 80375 Results: FS98 Cloud1: type=1, from 39799ft to 40620ft (+/- 98ft), cover 6, turb 0, ice 0 80375 Results: FS98 Cloud2: type=0, from 0ft to 0ft (+/- 0ft), cover 0, turb 0, ice 0 92750 Results: FS98 CurrTemp at PlaneAlt=531: 14C

No worries. Glad to hear I'm not chasing a phantom spectre that lives only in my machine. I was really starting to scratch my head on this one. I can confirm this behavior is new to 3.05. I tried rolling back to 3.04 and while the weather is set to "user-defined", the weather settings are preserved (whether on or off the ground). Thanks for the support. J

Hi, Pete. Please note my follow up post (#2). It really seems to have nothing to do with saved flights. None of the 3 conditions mentioned in the manual are true in my case: Something happens the moment my wheels leave the ground that triggers the "clear weather" event - or at least causes FSUIPC to believe the event was triggered. When I'm on the ground, everything is as I would expect. It's not clear to me why FS would be clearing the weather immediately after takeoff. I've never observed this behavior before. As I mentioned, no external weather programs are running - just FS. Thanks, J

Actually, after more testing, the problem seems unrelated to restoring a saved game. I can recreate the problem this way: Start FS2004 From the create flight menu, select KSLC Select the Fair Weather Theme (if not already selected) Click Fly Now Notice (via visual inspection of the sky) that the Fair Weather Theme is indeed active Go to Weather... and confirm that Fair Weather Theme is still active (it should be). Take off The moment the wheels leave the ground, the sky is cleared Go to Weather... User-Defined Theme is now selected; all weather has been purged.

I just installed FSUIPC 3.05. I've noticed that when I restore a saved flight, FSUIPC clears the existing weather. If I attempt to reset the weather (i.e. enable the Fair Weather Theme), FSUIPC keeps clearing it away. When I start a new flight, however, FSUIPC leaves the weather theme untouched. No external weather programs or WideFS was running at the time. Allow changes to FS own weather is "unchecked" Clear weather stops dynamics is "checked" Here's the log output: FSUIPC Key is provided WideFS Key is provided Module base=00C00000 ClassOptions: UIPCMAIN=FF7F, FS98MAIN=FF7F, FS2KMAIN=FF5E WeatherOptions(Orig)=601C7709[601C7709] InitDelay: 3 seconds 19281 System time = 14:23:24 Internal Debug Code 255 19281 D:\Program Files\FS2004\ 21343 FLIGHTS\OTHER\FLTSIM.flt 21375 AIRCRAFT\c172\Cessna172SP.air 23625 System time = 14:23:29, FS2004 time = 14:23:27 (21:23Z) 161953 C:\Documents and Settings\Jason\My Documents\Flight Simulator Files\Enroute.flt 161984 AIRCRAFT\c182\Cessna182S.air 162234 Clear All Weather requested: external weather discarded 162875 Advanced Weather Interface Enabled 323656 WeatherOptions set, now 601C7709 (timer=0) 442343 FS98 Pressure=1013.1 mb 442343 FS98 Wind0: ground (4251ft) to 3228ft AGL, dir 0M, vel 0, gust 0, turb 0 442343 FS98 Wind1: 7480ft to 10810ft AMSL, dir=270T, vel 20, gust 0, turb 0 442343 FS98 Wind2: 10810ft to 23933ft AMSL, dir=270T, vel 25, gust 0, turb 0 442343 FS98 Vis: range=20sm, (raw value=2000) 442343 FS98 Cloud1: type=1, from 43618ft to 44438ft (+/- 98ft), cover 6, turb 0, ice 0 442343 FS98 Temp0: to 4251ft, Day 15.0C, NightVar 3.0C 442343 FS98 CurrTemp at PlaneAlt=7001: 10C [Log closed by user request, and continued in new file] 450890 System time = 14:30:36, FS2004 time = 01:33:02 (07:33Z) 450890 *** FSUIPC log file being closed Memory managed: 3 Allocs, 7180 Freed ********* FSUIPC Log file closed **** Thanks for any help. J

I would like to see taxi-wind make a return whether in FSUIPC or FSMeteo. The friction modelling is improved in 2K4, but lighter GA craft are still, IMO, uncontrollable in even a gentle crosswind - especially for those of us without rudder pedals who have to "twist" the flightstick to yaw. While I understand the technical challenges, I was disappointed to see this feature removed from FSUIPC 3.