Problem with AdvDisp

[Badger]

Pete,

Can you take a look at AdvDisp 2.123.

I don't know if its a problem with my system or something that happened after the FS upgrade to 9.1.

Anyway if I start from a clean boot and go into flightsim, create a flight and select an aircraft etc etc I end up sitting at the gate. I then select to show AdvDisp and dock it. Now I select hide when empty. It disappears.

All good to this point. I start Radar Contact and it displays in AdvDisp. Still good.

Now I reselect my aircraft (the same one as a test) AdvDisp does not show up any more....it should be docked on panel one and its not there.

If I use the menu to undock it, it re-appears.

I first noticed something wrong, when I resumed a flight I had saved with RC. As soon as RC re-loaded the flight, AdvDisp wouldn't be there and my main panel kept flashing on and off at regular intervals. I closed AdvDisp and reopened it (rather than undock) and then re-positioned it so I could see the RC menus.

At that point a different part of my panel started to flash. In this case panel 5 of the default 737. I closed the panel and AdvDisp disappeared too. This put me on to AdvDisp as a possible problem.

Since then I've noticed that re-loading the plane made AdvDisp disappear.

Is it a problem with AdvDisp after the upgrade or a graphics driver thing on my PC? As I said its fine if I don't use RC to re-load a flight or crash the plane and force a re-load that way. ie. If I load up and load RC and fly from A to B without re-loading the plane for any reason (crash etc) the problem doesn't show up. I hope you can follow my explanation.

[Pete Dowson]

Now I reselect my aircraft (the same one as a test) AdvDisp does not show up any more....it should be docked on panel one and its not there.

What panel part is it docked to? Is the name for it correct in the [AdvDisplay] section of the PANEL.CFG file? There are some advanced panels which AdvDisplay has difficulty docking to automatically -- with those you can either try doing it manually (by editing the CFG file), or just use "Lock" instead of "Dock" and the FSUIPC hot key to hide and re-display is when you want to.

... and my main panel kept flashing on and off at regular intervals.

You main panel flashes on and off??? Phew. That's a serious problem!!

Do you have "render to texture" set in the Options-Settings-Hardware-Display options? If so turn it off. That's the only "feature" I know of that can cause panel flashing.

This put me on to AdvDisp as a possible problem.

No, it sounds rather like you have a problem which also affects AdvDisplay. There's been no change to anything in AdvDisplay in well over a year and it seems to work perfectly here [bUT! Now see next message!]. I know of no change in FS9.1 which would upset it, and least not program-wise.

Try windowed mode instead of full screen. Does that make a difference? Have you changed any of your video settings? Maybe the FS9.1 update, which included a revised "Display.cfg" file I think, upset some of the settings FS is using for your particular display -- during testing one such problem was discovered in its Matrox Parhelia settings, fixed before release.

If you tell me exactly what your video card is I should be able to compare the Display.cfg entries before and after FS9.1 -- I have a "virgin" FS9.0 installation still, for base testing.

Regards,

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Okay, I was wrong.

I don't get flashing panels, but I am losing the docked AdvDisplay window when reloading the aircraft.

That's very strange. I don't understand what has changed there.

It isn't anything to do with having RC running or "hide when empty", and the FSUIPC Hotkey doesn't bring it back either.

Evidently something HAS changed in FS9.1 which affects AdvDisplay. Terribly sorry. I'll get onto this right away. But it may be next week some time before I have a solution. We have guests over the weekend.

Regards,

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Evidently something HAS changed in FS9.1 which affects AdvDisplay.

On further testing, I don't think it is a change in 9.1. As far as I can see, AdvDisplay has NEVER been able to detect a reload of the same panel -- it works perfectly well if you change to another aircraft then back again!

Checking the code, I think it has always been like this, for years! Strange that no one has reported it before!

Anyway, I think I should be able to fix it fairly quickly. If not soon it will be Monday.

Either way, I am sure it isn't anything to do with flashing panel parts. That may be what brought your attention to the disappearing AdvDisplay window, but I'm sure it isn't related. Basically, what is happening in my DLL after the panel is reloaded is that all of the Window handles that AdvDisplay knows are different and it then simple isn't aware of anything it needs to do. So it does nothing! I need to find a way to detect a panel reload and treat it like a new panel.

Regards,

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Anyway, I think I should be able to fix it fairly quickly. If not soon it will be Monday.

It's fixed. Version 2.13 is being released later today.

Regards,

Pete

[Badger]

Pete,

You are fantastic, what else can I say.

I'll download the new version and do some more tests, to try and find a reason for my flashing panels.

I'm using a new ATI RADEON X800 PCIe 128Mb card, supplied by DELL with an SE badge. I know that SE cards have had problems in the past, but I wasn't able to change it, before my system was shipped.

I'll do some more work and try to really lock down where the problem is coming from.

It will be a bit later though, I have to download wedding photo's from last night first. Thanks again Pete for a brilliant response.

[Badger]

Pete,

I've gone to download the new version of AdvDisp, which has been change on the opening screen, but when I open the ZIP the file version still reads as 2.123

Is this correct?

[Pete Dowson]

Pete,

I've gone to download the new version of AdvDisp, which has been change on the opening screen, but when I open the ZIP the file version still reads as 2.123

Is this correct?

No, it is not. I've just downloaded it to check and it is fine. Please read the notes at the top of that web page, especially the bit in red saying:

If you download a version which is not the same as displayed on this page, *please* empty your browser's cache or make sure you have specified the right download folder, thank you. Also try pressing Ctrl-F5 which should force a direct reload of the page in case your ISP is caching any links on this page

This happens to a few folks every single time a new version of anything is uploaded, and may simply indicate that your ISP is configured incorrectly and doesn't update its cache when file dates change. If so, then apart from complaining to your IPS and/or waiting a few more days the only other thing I know is to change ISPs.

Regards,

Pete