Offsets

[MSS]

:oops:I am a NB to all this programming and info thats available.Frankly everything just confuses me.

I can program offsets for my buttons in FSUIPC,but i dont know how to program Magenta offsets for glass cockpit on a client.

Do i use the keysend facility in FSUIPC ?,and what is the format then in the wideclient.ini when the keysend had been received by the client.

Hope someone out there can help

[Pete Dowson]

:

i dont know how to program Magenta offsets for glass cockpit on a client.

Do i use the keysend facility in FSUIPC ?,and what is the format then in the wideclient.ini when the keysend had been received by the client.

It depends what you want to do. For most of the controls a pilot would have over his glass cockpit there are PM controls which are programmable directly in the drop-down lists of FS controls in the Buttons and Keys options pages in FSUIPC. There's an almost complete list in the FSUIPC Advanced User's Guide. For some of the controls there are parameters needed, and the complete list of those is best obtained from the PM documentation website -- the PM FSUIPC offsets document is the one.

You'd only need to think about using KeySend if you want specifically to send keystrokes to the individual glass cockpit modules on their PC. But why would you want to do that?

This sort of question is best asked over in the PM support forum/newsgroup, as you will get help from many others who've done all this stuff before.

Regards,

Pete

[MSS]

Hi Pete

Its true that the offsets can be programmed via FSUIPC,but its for the server.If all my add ons are running on different computors using Widefs,i cannot use the drop down list in FSUIPC.How would i then send a command to trigger an offset in a client on a network?

Regards

Jean

[Pete Dowson]

Its true that the offsets can be programmed via FSUIPC,but its for the server.If all my add ons are running on different computors using Widefs,i cannot use the drop down list in FSUIPC.How would i then send a command to trigger an offset in a client on a network?

The PM offsets are being used by ALL of its modules, no matter where they are. Hardly anyone has them all running on the FS PC. They are all designed to be run on Clients! That's how they communicate, via FSUIPC, and that's how they obey instructions.

You seem to have missed the whole point of WideFS -- it is precisely the because of the sharing of the offset data amongst all Clients that it is being used. What else did you think it was for? The KeySend stuff are just part of some additional frills for programs not using FSUIPC offsets for control!

Regards,

Pete

[MSS]

Hi Pete

Forgive my ignorance,so what youre saying is whatever i program as an offset in FSUIPC,should affect or apply to all of the clients ,if i have Widefs installed.Is that it?

[bennubird]

Can someone point me to step by step instructions for setting offsets. I would like to set the various lights (beacon, nav, and taxi) to joystick buttons but I don't know how.

Thanks!

Charles

[Pete Dowson]

Forgive my ignorance,so what youre saying is whatever i program as an offset in FSUIPC,should affect or apply to all of the clients ,if i have Widefs installed.Is that it?

Basically, yes. In fact it only affects those Clients that actually care about the offsets you are changing, because WideServer only sends updates to those clients who are interested in those offsets (to save time and bandwidth).

Please, please, take a little time to read at least the introductory sections of the WideFS documentation. You seem to have missed the whole purpose of WideFS, and that is to extend the FSUIPC interface to all client PCs. The FSUIPC interface IS the reading and writing of "offsets". That's all there is. :shock:

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Can someone point me to step by step instructions for setting offsets. I would like to set the various lights (beacon, nav, and taxi) to joystick buttons but I don't know how.

Just use the FS controls for those things. Program them in FS, even. You don't need FSUIPC to program standard FS controls. Check FS's Options-Controls-Assignments.

If you want to use FSUIPC, check the drop down list in the Buttons page for the same FS controls.

Inside the FSUIPC.ZIP package there's a list of all the FS controls in FS. Why do you want to start messing with 'offsets'?

Regards,

Pete

[bennubird]

"Why do you want to start messing with 'offsets'?"

Because I don't know what I'm talking about! :? A poster suggested using Offsets to program controls in FS9.

Pete,

A poster pointed me to the list of controls on your site and I downloaded them. The poster explained that I can use the controls from your list by inserting them in the appropriate section in my FS9 config file. I checked and can see the joystick assignments in the config file. My plan was to assign the various lights to buttons on my throttle quad by copying and pasting them from your list into the throttle quad section of the FS9 config file.

You seem to be suggesting that I can find the same list in FSUIPC in your pull down list under button assignments. Are all the Controls found in your downloadable list also in that pull-down list in FSUIPC?

Thanks!

Charles

[Pete Dowson]

Because I don't know what I'm talking about! :? A poster suggested using Offsets to program controls in FS9.

For things that FS9 provides controls for you have no need to get into such complexities, you just use the controls.

The first place to check is FS itself. Go to Options-Controls-Assignments. That's where all the more common FS controls are, provided there by MS themselves for you to assign to buttons or keys.

If what you want isn't there, check the drop-sown list in the Buttons or Keys pages of FSUIPC options. They list all of the FS controls actually defined in FS's own CONTROLS.DLL, so the list varies automatically between FS2000 to FS2004.

Not all of those controls work, though. MS seem to have left them listed in CONTROLS.DLL even when they've broken them or taken the code out. But it's worth a try. For obvious ones like light switches they should all by either in the FS assignments list, or in the full Controls list.

The FSUIPC controls list also includes a lot of additional controls implemented in FSUIPC instead. A list of those appears in the Advanced User's document. There's a lot for Project Magenta, but many others besides. The FSUIPC User document does mention most of them too.

The offset control facilities are just a subset of those added FSUIPC controls. Those come in useful when there's nothing else which will do what you want. Particular applications for those include interfacing to add-on panels and applications which use FSUIPC offsets for control (pmSystems is one such), and doing clever programming tricks with more advanced button or key assignments in FSUIPC -- examples of this are packaged with my GFdisplay program.

A poster pointed me to the list of controls on your site and I downloaded them.

Hmmm. You have a very old version of FSUIPC then? For quite a few releases of FSUIPC now, the FSUIPC.ZIP has contained the full list of FS2004 controls. Didn't you notice it?

The poster explained that I can use the controls from your list by inserting them in the appropriate section in my FS9 config file.

Well, yes, but that's exactly what FS itself does for you in any case when you use its Options-Controls-Assignments dialogues. Have you looked at those?

Since FS2002, I think many, if not all, of the controls not assignable in the FS Assignments dialogue have also not worked when you put them into the FS CFG file directly -- FS removes them for you! This wasn't the case for versions before FS2002, and in fact some of my documentation about editing the CFG file is rather limited when it comes to recent versions of FS.

However, you can assign any of the listed controls, and more, as I've just said, in FSUIPC.

My plan was to assign the various lights to buttons on my throttle quad by copying and pasting them from your list into the throttle quad section of the FS9 config file.

So, why the talk about "offsets"? :?

Anyway, I think you will find it a lot easier to use the facilities FS and FSUIPC provide, especially if you try using controls which FS subsequently removes from the CFG file. :wink:

You seem to be suggesting that I can find the same list in FSUIPC in your pull down list under button assignments. Are all the Controls found in your downloadable list also in that pull-down list in FSUIPC?

Yes, of course. And more, all of the added FSUIPC ones. And of course that 'downloadable list' is included in the FSUIPC.ZIP in any case. :o

Regards,

Pete

[bennubird]

Pete,

This whole exercise is about assigning the nav, beacon, logo, and taxi lights to the throttle quad. I have FSUIPC 3.45. I did not see these controls in the pull down list in FSUIPC 3.45. I will check again when I get back home. If they are not there what are my options?

Thanks!

Charles

[Pete Dowson]

This whole exercise is about assigning the nav, beacon, logo, and taxi lights to the throttle quad. I have FSUIPC 3.45. I did not see these controls in the pull down list in FSUIPC 3.45. I will check again when I get back home. If they are not there what are my options?

First, please update to 3.47. Version 3.45 is no longer supported. It was replaced yesterday. :wink:

They are all in the list. Have you not even looked through? I think they are all named "Toggle xxxx lights" or similar.

Anyway, I provided the List in document form in the ZIP so you could use Search. The names aren't always obvious -- I don't choose the names, they are the FS names from CONTROLS.DLL.

Search for 'Light' in the document and you'll find those and more.

Pete

[bennubird]

I was able to set the controls using FSUIPC 3.47. All of the necessary controls are there to set Nav, Beacon, Recognition, Logo, and Taxi lights.

I hope this helps someone else looking to assign those lights.

Charles