Getting Flight Simulator local time

[_Jens_]

Hello!

I'm working with MS Flight Simulator 2002 and FSUIPC 3.3.0.0 under Windows XP. I want to get the local time of the Flight Simulator in msec. Unfortunately FSUIPC just offers the possibility of getting the local time in hours, minutes and seconds. How can I get this time more excectly?

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot!

[Pete Dowson]

I want to get the local time of the Flight Simulator in msec. Unfortunately FSUIPC just offers the possibility of getting the local time in hours, minutes and seconds. How can I get this time more excectly?

As far as I know FS doesn't maintain any simulated time in milliseconds, sorry. Why would you want this? If you are merely needing to timestamp something, to show the order of things and time between them, try the millisecond counter in offset 3378. This is the one I use in my Log files. It shows the number of milliseconds since FSUIPC was loaded (which is a little after FS starts of course).

Actually, you could work out simulated time using that value, by noting it when the simulated second changes. But you'd need to scale it by the sim rate if that ever changes, and discount time in menus, time paused, etc etc. It's pretty horrendous.

FS does also maintain its own "tick count" at offset 0310, but this is approximate, is only updated every 55 mSecs or so, and would still not reflect sim rate, pausing and so on.

Regards,

Pete

[_Jens_]

First of all thank you for answering my questions so quickly.

Why would you want this?

When I was playing with the Flight Simulator I noticed a kind of time lag. I pressed the P key on my keyboard to set the Flight Simulator on Pause, but the vertical speed display (and only this display) didn't stop immediately.

Is that normal?

I had the idea to measure this time lag if it existed.

To do this I want to read the local time directly after I press the P key and some seconds after that. If there is a difference between this two Measurements I know that there is a time lag.

The problem is that I can't read the milliseconds of the local time and so it's not possible to proof the time lag.

Perhaps you have any ideas how I can measure the time lag in a better way?

Thanks a lot,

Jens

[Pete Dowson]

When I was playing with the Flight Simulator I noticed a kind of time lag. I pressed the P key on my keyboard to set the Flight Simulator on Pause, but the vertical speed display (and only this display) didn't stop immediately. Is that normal?

No idea. It probably depends how the gauge is written. I don't know much about them I'm afraid.

I had the idea to measure this time lag if it existed.

To do this I want to read the local time directly after I press the P key and some seconds after that. If there is a difference between this two Measurements I know that there is a time lag.

I'm afraid that there will be milliseconds between pushing the P key and everything pausing in any case, and if you are also reading things through FSUIPC there will be milliseconds there too -- process switching (twice), message processing, and so on.

And in any case, if there were a millisecond local time count, how would you know that this was being stopped at the same time as the last time your VSI adjusted itself? It might be stopping before or after that.

Perhaps you have any ideas how I can measure the time lag in a better way?

Since the only evidence you have of a so-called "time lag" is the movement of a needle on one gauge, only (?), I can't see how you can do it programmatically at all. You'd have to use a stop watch, or if your reactions are not quick enough, make a high speed film of you pressing P and the VSI needle still moving, then count the frames on the film.

I really don't see the point though, I must admit.

Regards,

Pete