Jamie Fox

The message you got telling you to download FSUIPC should have been fixed provided that you have successfully entered the Squawkbox key. If you're having trouble connecting to VATSIM, you probably need to update the ipaddr.txt file in your Squawkbox folder with the latest server list. You can do this using ServInfo, or manually by editing the file with the information available on the VATSIM 'Who's online' page, which is linked to from the VATSIM home page. To view aircraft in a radar format (ie for controlling not flying), you need ASRC.

The FSUIPC offsets quoted by Joel are for implementation in SB3, which has not been released yet. They won't work in older versions of Squawkbox.

Are you using IPX or TCP/IP? Are you specifying your server by ServerName or ServerIP? If you post your WideClient.ini and WideServer.ini files it will be easier to diagnose the problem.

Not quite. In the UK the requirement is that all IFR flights in controlled (class A-E) airspace must file a flight plan. In uncontrolled airspace (F/G) a flight plan is not required, although you need to file one in class F if you wish to participate in the advisory service. If you'd rather talk to a real person, and the ultimate in 'ATC voice activation', you might want to look at VATSIM instead. It won't cost you anything either.

AVC is the 'new' Roger Wilco on VATSIM (it is Roger Wilco compatible). TeamSpeak is a different program entirely, which I understand IVAO have now moved to. TeamSpeak do not, as far as I know, provide an interface for controlling the PTT. However, I found a way of doing this, the details of which I have now sent to Pete.

Really? I find myself making errors every tenth line or so, and spend about 3/4 of my programming time correcting errors! I'm really too young to claim any kind of old-age excuse, so your years of experience must count for something. What's the secret? I don't understand how you can say this immediately after saying "I code quite fast." I'm still not convinced. Pete Dowson is actually a pseudonym for a team of 3 programmers, at least 5 support staff, and a tea lady. :)

This isn't really relevant to this forum, but as you've asked here I'm sure the answer might be found useful for others. The only link between Pete Dowson's FS modules and VATSIM is that Squawkbox uses FSUIPC to interface with FS. You need the following programs: 1. FSUIPC (Pete Dowson's module). This will be installed by Squawkbox but it's a good idea to make sure you have the latest version, which you can download from http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html. Put the DLL in the 'modules' folder of FS. Most of FSUIPC's development affects newer versions of FS; FS98 is very old now, and you probably won't notice much difference using any version of FSUIPC, or its predecessor, FS6IPC. 2. Squawkbox. Squawkbox is the program that actually connects you to VATSIM, sends and receives data from the network, and also controls your multiplayer environment so you can see other aircraft. http://ftp.avsim.com/library/sendfile.php?DownloadID=13142 (you may have to copy this URL manually into your address bar) 3. Roger Wilco, for voice communication (optional, but very highly recommended as essential!). You're probably best off with the older version Mk1c for lots of reasons, which you can get from http://www.vatsim-uk.org in the downloads section. 4. SBRelay (for FS2004 only). http://www.chocolatesoftware.com. There's a good tutorial on how to set up Squawkbox at http://www.fspilotguy.tk. This is written for FS2004, so here are the differences you need to know: a) You don't need HostSB.dll or SBHost.exe. YYou therefore don't need to edit the CFG file either. You just run Squawkbox.exe directly, and it will display within your FS window. This applies to FS2000 and FS98. b) You don't need to use SBRelay at all. Instead of using FS to join a session, you need to 'host' one within Flight Sim. The procedure for connecting Squawkbox to the multiplayer session is essentially the same. c) FS98 and FS2000 will run OK with earlier versions of DirectX, so don't worry about this.

The correct key is LWVQ 7I2V 9GPB Your version is two characters out (the first character, and the 'I' rather than '1' in the second group). No wonder it's not working! Follow the instructions carefully and you'll have no problems.

Assuming you're trying to run Squawkbox (you didn't say) then you need to enter the Squawkbox key by clicking Modules...FSUIPC, Register an application program (not register FSUIPC itself!), the application name is 'Squawkbox' (without the '.exe') and the key is as written at the beginning of this thread.

You need to register Squawkbox with FSUIPC, using the key in the freeware keys thread above.

Click 'Back' and count 12 lines up.

It does sound like you're using Squawkbox. You need to ensure FSUIPC is installed, the Squawkbox key is set up (Modules...FSUIPC...Register and Application, the key itself is in the Freeware Keys thread), and for FS2004, you need to use SBRelay (http://www.chocolatesoftware.com)

There is presently no equivalent to the 'RWon' and 'RWoff' controls. You can do it by mapping a keypress on the keysend parameters though, but I've found this only works intermittently.

Nothing to do with FSUIPC, or any of other of Peter's modules, by the sound of it. I haven't ever used the instructor facilities in FS2004, but assuming they are unchanged from FS2002, the system uses a multiplayer session to pass information from student to instructor and vice versa. ATC (and AI traffic) is automatically disabled when a multiplayer session in progress (for obvious reasons in the case of a standard MP session).

I tried to register on the TeamSpeak forum about a week ago, but the activation email never arrived, and still isn't, even with 'forgot password' retries. As I said before, using KEYDOWN and UP messages didn't work. I also tried manipulating the menu with WM_COMMAND, but the options aren't there for wahltho is trying to do (it's enough for what I'm trying to do though). "Windows message spy" has got me a whole lot of what I'm looking for, so I'll have a go and see how I get on. I've also emailed the people at TeamSpeak.

The TeamSpeak SDK is something I've been looking into recently as well (for a mostly-unrelated purpose). As of about 7 days ago (I haven't checked since) the TS Client SDK does not include any facility for controlling the PTT. Its functionality is limited to more basic things like connecting to servers and switching channels. Does anyone know of any free software that can monitor the windows messages going to and from a particular window? I've tried sending WM_KEYDOWN and KEYUP messages to TS but it doesn't seem to willing to respond to that.

Make sure you have both the gateway and DNS set on all client machines. Try opening a command prompt and using the 'ping' command to ping your own computer '127.0.0.1', and also all your network PCs '192.168.0.x'. Then try pinging the IP address of something on the Internet, and then try with a domain name rather than IP address (preferably for the same server). That'll help you distinguish if your problem is with DNS or the Internet connection itself. Hope that helps; I'm afraid I'm not expert on the subject.

It shouldn't. Make sure you have assigned 192.168.0.1 to the ICS host machine (the one that's connected to the Internet), and 192.168.0.x to all the others (ensuring of course that's it's unique). You'll also have fewer problems if you make sure that the host is running Windows XP. On the clients, you need to enter 192.168.0.1 as the default gateway and also as the DNS server (without the latter DNS won't work!)

Surely this requires at least two calls to FSUIPC_Process: one for NW_DYNAMICS, and one for NW_CLEAR. Or does NW_CLEAR look at dynamics too?

Could this be done by writing to (0xC800, 2) and (0xC80C, 2) (in a single _Process()) rather than filling the bits inbetween on the struct? If I wanted to not change the whole weather, but just one part (eg temperature) I couldn't do this by just writing 0s to everything else, and sending just the temperature, because this would clear everything else? To change just temperature, I'd have to read the entire structure, change the temperature, then write it all back. Correct? If this is indeed the case then it does make perfect sense, I don't know what I was thinking of before! Just to verify I've got this all write: CLEAR and ACTIVATE can be used by writing 2 bytes to 0xC800, and nothing else. DYNAMICS can be used by writing 2 bytes to 0xC800 and 2 bytes for the dynamics to 0xC80c. SET(_PENDING) and SETEXACT(_PENDING) need the full set of details so should be written as 1024 bytes to 0xC800, using the supplied NewWeather struct. I think it all makes sense now!

Thanks for the in-depth documentation on the structure and usage of FSUIPC's NWI. A few questions though: The documentation for Area 2 (Weather Setting Area) states that "when setting weather you set it ALL. In other words, you supply every aspect of the weather." Does this apply when using the commands for which (presumably) weather data is not really relevant: NW_CLEAR, NW_DYNAMICS, NW_ACTIVATE Can these commands simply be used by writing to 2 bytes at offset 0xC800 or do they need to be sent alongside an entire weather structure? With the other 4 commands (NW_SET, NW_SETEXACT, NW_SET_PENDING, and NEW_SETEXACT_PENDING) it makes sense to write the whole weather structure though. By the way, I can only count seven commands rather than eight as documented? Secondly, what is to be done when not wanting to use a particular part of a structure? For example, the NewWeather.NewWind.SpeedFract parameter I might not want to use (obviously the instance of the struct would have a different name); will it be ignored if I set it to 0? Leaving any part of the struct uninitialised would presumably be very unpredictable! What are unused parts to be set to?

While I'm on the subject of the SDK, in case there are any other developers like me who get unduly concerned about 'what's new' from one release to the next, these are the changes in the C version, the result of several 'FC' commands!: FSUIPC_User.h: #define SIM_FS2K4 7 added. FSUIPC_User.lib: unchanged UIPCHello: pFS[] extended to include FS2004, and pFS>=6 becomes pFS>=7 accordingly. A section added in the middle to demonstrate writing an accredited FSUIPC key at startup. Resource files now included too.

I stopped short of a proper explanation because, to be honest, I only have this information third-hand and haven't looked up any of the documentation for it. Whatever it does, this is the kind of circumstance where it seem to have some kind of effect :)

Pete, The SDK appears to contain two versions of the SDK documentation: "New Weather Interface for FS2004.zip", and an older version from August called "FSUIPC NWI.zip". Was this intentional?

Did you try CTRL+F5? I'm informed that this will force a reload of the cache at the ISP, thus absolutely 'properly' refreshing the page from the source. I only ever had this problem on my ISP with a web page once, but in that instance it was very useful!