Subotai

Hey jd, this looks very interesting, I have not heard of it before. Reading the review however it appears as if it has exactly that problem, that it doesn't integrate with the FS ATC. I will read some more reviews and maybe give it a closer look sometimes. Unfortunately though it is not an option to address my ATC parking issue as I wouldn't want to require users of my upcoming Add-On to als have Radar Contact. Matthias

Guilty as charged. I am just using a printout of the programmer manual. Great, that's pretty good already. I guess in case of the second door you would ideally also need a flag that indicates the existence of such door, as I noticed not all planes support it. Ok, I pretty much expected that answer. I think if we ever get access to ATC in general, it would open an immense potential for all kinds of add-ons. Thanks, Pete ! P.S.: The earlier 'Save Flight' change integrated great, just as I hoped it would. :D Matthias

Hi Pete, here is a couple of "out there" questions. No worries if that is not possible/too much hassle, but I thought I'd ask. 1) I would like to know the status of the aircraft exits (Shift-E, 1, 2 - I think there are no more than two !?), which ones are available and their open/closed status. 2) Upon landing a plane, exiting the runway and contacting ground ATC, I get assigned a parking/ramp/gate space to taxi to. Is there any way to modify this via FSUIPC and force ATC to assign me a parking spot that I patch in beforehand somehow ? I know, especially the second one sounds nuts :roll:, but I thought I'd ask. Thanks, Matthias

Pete, you rule ! I didn't expect such a quick solution at all. An email is on the way. Thanks a lot, Matthias

Great ! The 'save' change would be fantastic and would streamline the whole thing so much. Using the loaded filename area is just fine with me. I assume there will always be a few seconds window to read it before it gets replaced. I guess the only issue may be compatibility with projects that already use that facility as it is. Thanks, Matthias

Hi Pete, thanks for the response. 1) I am working on an addon that tracks specific information during a users flight. I would like to save my addon data automatically when the user saves his current flight. So when the user reloads the flight at some other point in time I could also get my addon data/state back automatically as well. As it stands I have only the option of an autosave at certain intervals or the need for the user to do an additional save of my plugin data within my plugins interface. 2) 32FC: That's exactly what I was looking for, so I only need to read that WORD regularly and read the name and other details as needed. 3) No problem, I was just wondering. 4) I guess it is a bug then. Sorry, I don't have a program to give you for testing but you can easily reproduce it with FSInterrogate. There is no rush at all, I'm still ways away from finishing. Matthias

Hi Pete, I have a few SDK questions: 1) Is there any way to reliable know when a player has saved the current flight ? I have looked into offset 3F02 and 3F04 but those only get updated on flight load, not save. I think I remember seeing something that I can find out the last selected menu but I won't know if the menu action was actually performed or not. Ideally I need to know when a flight got saved and the new saved flight name. 2) What is the most reliable way to check if the user changed the plane ? Right now I use offset 3D00 (aircraft name) and compare it with the previous one all the time until it changes. This seems to work fine, I'm just wondering if there is a more elegant solution. 3) While in the menu or during game load the payload station count (13FC) is set to 0. Is that intentional ? 4) When writing 0xFF000800 to 0x32F0 in order to disable the Aircraft menu, it also disables the World menu. The same is true for bit 12 and 13. Is that a bug or intentional or am I doing something wrong ? Thanks for your help ! Matthias

Great, I'm glad this mystery is solved or I would have forever thought you look like Enrico Schiratti. :lol:

Thanks, Pete. Sorry about asking so many questions :oops:. I did read most of the docs but as I am new to FSUIPC I just wanted to confirm some of the details. I just bought my copy at SimMarket and I am now waiting for my registration code. Thanks again, Sub

Pete, I integrated FSUIPC into my FS 9 DLL module. FSUIPC_Open2(), read and process calls all run without errors. However the result for any value I try to read is 0. I assume the reason is that my FSUIPC version is not registered. Is that so ? If so, should I buy myself a personal key and use that for development or is there a special developer key I can use until my project is completed ? At this point in time I don't really have any use for the features of the registered version. (It's not that I have a problem buying my own registration, I just like to clarify so I understand what's going on). I assume if I have a fully registered version I don't need to do the write to 0x8001 and should get the values I need. Is that correct ? Once my project turns into something I would like to release, I will get a code for my application. (I understand that we will have to find an agreement, depending on if this is going to be freeware or not, in order to get the key). Once I have my key I will code it into my module by writing it to the 0x8001 offset. Does that mean the user won't have to type it in then or is that still necessary ? How does FSUIPC know this key and application combination is ok and return the correct data ? Do you have to release a new version of FSUIPC with the codes embedded in order for it to work or is it somehow calculated from the module name ? If so, couldn't I just fake it out by pretending my module is Squawkbox or AFCAD or something else that's free ? Sorry if this has been asked before but I'm a little confused about this. Thanks, Sub

http://www.schiratti.com/tidbits.html Edit: I believe I am beginning to understand the website a bit better and I think this is actually a picture of Enrico Schiratti. :lol: These were the golden times when one programmer alone could make an outstanding application or game. Now it takes like a team of 30 or more. Are you serious ? Looks like I stepped into the realm of a legend here. :D I've been working with 3D Studio Max for a long time and used to have a dongle for it, but now we use a network license. Sub

Hmmm, maybe it's not your picture then !? The website is a bit confusing. I am always surprised about how people like you do this kind of work for free so consistently. I released a freeware program a few years ago and it was fun to get the feedback and all but in the end I wish I would have charged for it, even if it was just a couple of bucks. If you work as a contractor you might look differently at this but as an employee of a big corporation I sometimes think maybe it could have been the start of a small business. But instead I still work for others. So I wouldn't do that again. Thanks for all the info. I'm looking forward to working with FSUIPC. Sub

Hey Pete, thanks for the quick and detailed reply. I really appreciate it. Wow, you are really old school ;), I didn't realize this. The picture in 'tidbits' must be quite outdated. I asked my question because I have a few ideas for add-on products, which wouldn't be possible without the information provided by FSUIPC, at least not with the currently available 2002 SDKs. I've been programming since the mid 80s (and also Flightsimming with the first Microsoft Flightsimulator on an IBM PC). I'm currently stuck in the American corporate meat grinder and work for one of the leading video game publishers in the US as a programmer slave. :( I haven't been simming for a while and got back into it with FS9. I was surprised when I saw how huge the following has become and how many companies offer payware add-on products (with some vast differences in quality). Anyway, I'd like to create a small module myself. I already have the DLL module running within FS9 and it is currently using the FS NetPipes. Unfortunately due to my full time job my time is extremely limited so progress is slow. I noticed the limited info I got out of FS and was hoping I could gather a subset of the info FSUIPC provides by myself somehow. But I have neither time nor patience to reverse engineer that thing. I was kinda afraid I get this answer from you regarding 'reverse engineering' which will make integration of FSUIPC into my module my next goal. That is where I have another question though. Strictly speaking 'reverse engineering' is illegal as stated in the FS9 EULA. Is that not an issue here and if not, why ? Obviously Microsoft is aware of you and your products but considering the fact that FSUIPC is no longer free other add-on developers who not dare to 'reverse engineer' FS are at a disadvantage. Keep up the good work ! It's great you spend so much time on this and are dedicated to providing us with this tool. Hopefully someday I'll integrate FSUIPC into a payware module of mine and we'll be business partners. Sub

I have been browsing through the FS 2002 SDK, FSUIPC user and SDK docs and have a question. How was it possible to develop FSUIPC ? It appears there is not enough documentation from Microsoft in order to enable someone without additional knowledge to develop a plug-in like FSUIPC. The only ways I can imagine this is possible is by either reverse engineering the Flight Simulator or by using Microsoft internal documentation and header files. It appears FSUIPC has some kind of monopoly in terms of providing the FS internal data. Many external developers are dependent on it or their products would not be possible. So my question is, how was it possible to develop FSUIPC ? What is the source of information that made it possible to provide its functionality ? Thanks