3 PC's, 6 Monitors, weather sync?

[Beattle]

Hello all,

I have been using FSUIPC, WideFS, and, Wideview for awhile now, but only under minimums. And have been using the FS9 weather till now. I know not to expect perfect cloud syncs on my client pc's, but like having them at least look the same... meaning, heavy overcast on main pc, and on views, having heavy overcast... not no clouds.

Anyways... I currently installed Activesky5... My setup includes:

1st PC (main) runs fs9 on 2 monitors. 1st monitor runs cockpit. 2nd monitor runs my fsnav, overhead panel, throttle panel etc etc, depending what aircraft I am flying. THis is the wideveiw server, and widefs server

2nd PC (views) 2 Monitors, left front, and right front. Runs fs9, and after reading this forum, is connected online through sb3 for online traffic for vatsim. Wideview client.

3rd PC (laptop) Runs servinfo, and on 2nd monitor, runs SB3, and now active sky. This runs widefs client.

When all are running..... everything is good, except for active sky. The main pc gets the info from active sky, and the textures and such. The wideview client however is not. I will get the fs9 cloud textures at times to match up with my main pc, but for the most part, it is way off.

Is there a way for the client pc to read the textures from the laptop active sky the same way the main pc does? Are there settings I should be using?

I don't have widefs running on the second PC... and not sure I can under server or client.

Any help on this would be great..

Jason

[Pete Dowson]

When all are running..... everything is good, except for active sky. The main pc gets the info from active sky, and the textures and such. The wideview client however is not. I will get the fs9 cloud textures at times to match up with my main pc, but for the most part, it is way off.

Is there a way for the client pc to read the textures from the laptop active sky the same way the main pc does? Are there settings I should be using?

This is more a question for the WidevieW forum really.

There will be considerable difficculties getting weather to match exactly across clients in the way you wish. This wasn't really a problem in FS2002 and before, but in FS2004 all weather is "local". I really don't know how WidevieW deals with that, buty if it still operates as it used to in FS2002 and before, reading weather at the aircraft and setting it as "global" in the clients, then it will rarely correctly match the detailed weather AS is going to be setting individually, for all of the WX stations around you.

One way for WidevieW to try to do that is to read weather at all the weather stations around you, as you fly, and copy them in the clients. To be accurate it would need to do this at about the same time as AS updates the server (i.e. just after). But I think there is a danger that this sort of process might create quite a load on all of the FS installations. It is something worth asking in the WidevieW forum, though.

Another way would be for ActiveSky to supply the identical weather inputs on each of your clients too. That's quite a job though -- AS would need its own Network routines and client program running on each client. You'd then need to be able to tell WidevieW not to try copying the weather at all.

Maybe suggestions to both WidevieW and ActiveSky developers?

Regards,

Pete

[Beattle]

Hola Pete!

Thanks for your post. I have actually posted everywhere.. including the Wideview forum, ActiveSky forum.. and any other forum that I thought might help. :)

I have been through the WideFS manual. Since the second pc (views) is running wideview client and nothing else... Is there no way to get this pc to run widefs either in server mode.. or client mode, to read the same information on my laptop, which is sending information to my main pc? Or is this what wideview is for? AS needs widefs to work.... since 2nd pc does not have it installed, it doesn't get sent. If I can get the laptop to send the same information to the 2nd PC as well as the main pc, through the activeradar dll active sky uses.. this could work... I think... I don't know.. I know nothing about programing. I am not worried about system usage on my laptop... thats what it is there for, to take away anthing that can lag the main fs9 systems. I guess the other thing, if this is possible, is to get active sky's program to be able to send to more then one directory at the same time.. if that is possible. All three computers are networked very well, and read each others drives very quickly.. so hoping maybe an idea might come out of this.

The closest thing Ihave been able to do, to get the closest cloud formations... and I know I will not get exact cloud formations on main and views pc's. Is to set my wideview to refresh every minute.. and my active sky to refresh every 5 minutes. This works in a way... but cloud textures sometimes match, sometimes they don't. But cloud position will be there.

Again Pete, thanks for the reply.

Jason

[Pete Dowson]

Since the second pc (views) is running wideview client and nothing else...

Not FSUIPC? Doesn't WidevieW use FSUIPC these days?

Is there no way to get this pc to run widefs either in server mode.. or client mode, to read the same information on my laptop, which is sending information to my main pc? Or is this what wideview is for?

That's exactly what WidevieW is for, yes.

A WideFS server could also be run in that PC, and you could have two copies of ActiveSky, one sending to one server and the other sending to the other. Each would need to be on a different PC unless you used the facility in WideClient for different Class Names -- but then you'd need to get the AS folks to allow the class name to be specified, or even to run one copy to send to both the standard FSUIPC classname and the additional one or two WideClient ones simultaneously.

Or you can run an ActiveSky in each PC running FS, no WideFS involved, just AS talking to FS via FSUIPC, locally.

Whether this would keep them synchronised better or worse than WidevieW I couldn't say.

AS needs widefs to work

No, that's wrong. It just needs the FSUIPC interface, whether locally in the FS PC or remotely through WideClient. It is WideClient, not WideServer, to which it interfaces on a remote PC.

.... since 2nd pc does not have it installed, it doesn't get sent. If I can get the laptop to send the same information to the 2nd PC as well as the main pc, through the activeradar dll active sky uses.. this could work.

Well, of course, ActiveSky could be changed to do all sorts of things, if the authors so desired. But so could WidevieW which already includes the networking software. You just need to be able to persuade the authors of the justice of your cause, or bribe them with lots of loot, perhaps? :wink:

The closest thing Ihave been able to do, to get the closest cloud formations... and I know I will not get exact cloud formations on main and views pc's. Is to set my wideview to refresh every minute.. and my active sky to refresh every 5 minutes.

Why not more often? Having WidevieW only update every minute doesn't sound very good.

Regards,

Pete

[Beattle]

Thanks Pete,

Not FSUIPC? Doesn't WidevieW use FSUIPC these days?

Whoops.. Yes, the 2nd PC that is my views is running FSUIPC, the latest version as well as my Main PC. I didn't add it as I thought it would have been a given. :)

That's exactly what WidevieW is for, yes.

A WideFS server could also be run in that PC, and you could have two copies of ActiveSky, one sending to one server and the other sending to the other. Each would need to be on a different PC unless you used the facility in WideClient for different Class Names -- but then you'd need to get the AS folks to allow the class name to be specified, or even to run one copy to send to both the standard FSUIPC classname and the additional one or two WideClient ones simultaneously.

Or you can run an ActiveSky in each PC running FS, no WideFS involved, just AS talking to FS via FSUIPC, locally.

Whether this would keep them synchronised better or worse than WidevieW I couldn't say.

Ok, I have tried running AS on both PC's but don't like how it works. It also kills the juice in my 2nd PC.

Thinking of your other suggestion... Looking at the config settings.. and since AS is running to my main PC through the client.. is it possible to add the IP address of my 2nd PC which I install wideFS server on? I see a ClassInstance=0 in the settings.. is this what you mean by the class name? I have no problem emailing AS to add some programing for us multiple PC users, as we are paying customers too, but I don't expect it. The AS program runs the weather through the activeradar.dll in the main pc. IF I can get the 2nd PC now running wideFS in server mode to read the Client as well.. I don't know much about programming, so don't much about it.

Why not more often? Having WidevieW only update every minute doesn't sound very good.

AS refresh is capped at every 5 minutes or higher. Wideview I am not sure of and will look into. I have posted on the wideview forum.. and was told that unlike my laptop and my main pc, which sends the texture info over to themain pc... wideview does not send the textures over.

I have also noticed. After all computers are running and synced...I will sit at the gate for about a half hour doing preflight. After about an Hour and a half to 2 hours in the air... the weather seems to start matching more. In one case.. the clouds matched 90% exactly on both pc's. I am doing some more flights to test this out.

Again, thanks Pete for the help.

Jason

[Pete Dowson]

Looking at the config settings.. and since AS is running to my main PC through the client.. is it possible to add the IP address of my 2nd PC which I install wideFS server on?

Sorry, I don't understand. Add the IP address to where, what?

Each WideClient only deals with one Server. It can't answer to two masters. Who would it believe for downloaded data? How would it know who to ask for what?

I see a ClassInstance=0 in the settings.. is this what you mean by the class name?

Yes. If you set that non-zero then Wideclient will run on a PC with FS or other WideClients already running. It can then be configured to talk to a different server.

The problem then is that the application program won't interface to it unless it is changed to find the different Class name -- and that's in the library folks usually use, so it means them getting inside the source (which is provided too, however).

I have no problem emailing AS to add some programing for us multiple PC users, as we are paying customers too, but I don't expect it.

It wouldn't be a completely trivial task for them to undertake, and they would (probably quite rightly) ask why WidevieW isn't handling it better. After all, as I said before, it is really its job.

The AS program runs the weather through the activeradar.dll in the main pc.

"Runs the weather through ..."? I don't think that is relevant -- it isn't the data that FS needs. That goes through FSUIPC, not ActiveRadar.

wideview does not send the textures over.

Of course not. Cloud textures have always been held in the textures folder in FS. It is only ASV which recently started doing that. I don't think there's anything else that'll handle textures -- I thought it was the actual weather you were concerned with. If it is only the textures, turn the texture part of ASV off.

Regards

Pete