FSUIPC & VB: Checking weather settings

[Raymond van Laake]

Hi Pete, others,

I'm writing adventure software in Visual Basic and I want to make sure that the pilots don't change any weather settings, for example set a convenient tailwind.

I imagine that I setup a situation in FS9, and then read all the weather settings, and store these in the VB-code.

Then when a pilot flies, every minute or so the weather settings are read, and compared to the values stored in the VB-code.

Last year I made this, but unfortunately the weather settings that were read during the flight usually differed from those stored in the VB-code; as if they changed during the flight by themselves.

Does any VB programmer have such a routine that does work well?

Thanks,

Ray

[Frank.O]

Hi Ray,

Last year I made this, but unfortunately the weather settings that were read during the flight usually differed from those stored in the VB-code; as if they changed during the flight by themselves.

that is exactly what happens in FS9. The weather changes on it's own even if you have set the weather dynamics to "none".

That's all because of the new weather engine.

I'm not a programmer but I think that nothing can be done about it. The only thing I could think of is to reload the same weather settings every now and then but I beleive this would introduce some disadvantages (regarding smoothing options and such).

Regards,

Frank

[Pete Dowson]

I'm writing adventure software in Visual Basic and I want to make sure that the pilots don't change any weather settings, for example set a convenient tailwind.

For FS2004 the only way you can be certain of the wind affecting the aircraft is by waiting for FSUIPC version 3.30 and using a new facility there to directly control the wind at the aircraft (only). This isn't an aspect of the Weather as controlled by WEATHER.DLL, but an override in the actual simulation engine, and so isn't readable in the normal weather structures.

For all versions of FS you can read the "Ambient Wind" value at the aircraft, however -- this is listed in one of the offsets and has been maintained by FSUIPC through all FS versions. At least with that you can monitor the wind and find out if your pilots are 'cheating'. However, until FSUIPC 3.30 you don't have precise control over that -- you would just have to "disqualify" him or do something nasty to his aircraft! :twisted:

Regards,

Pete

[Raymond van Laake]

Hi Pete,

Just saw the specs for fsuipc 3.30... looks great! Since my race isn't due until September 20th, and reading 3.30 will arrive soon, I'll wait for that version.

Great job, as usual!

Thanks,

Ray