fsuipc with no loading visibility

[dan4010]

in fs9, when i add fsuipc 3.48, everything seems normal. i register fsmetar and when i run it, every aspect of weather loads except visibility. i get the current clouds, rain, pressure, winds, etc, just no visiblity change. ive even tried registering fsuipc and this did not help.

[Pete Dowson]

in fs9, when i add fsuipc 3.48, everything seems normal. i register fsmetar and when i run it, every aspect of weather loads except visibility. i get the current clouds, rain, pressure, winds, etc, just no visiblity change. ive even tried registering fsuipc and this did not help.

Sounds like it could be some video card problem. Have you tried setting different visibilities in FS's dialogues? Otherwise maybe it's an FSMetar problem?

Try enabling FSUIPC's weather logging (Logging page, left hand side). Then run FSMetar and see what visibility it should be setting, then check the FSUIPC.LOG file, see what is actually happening.

Please give specific examples if you need to come back. Especially, how you are determining the visibility in FS (i.e. are you measuring it by seeing how far you can see, or looking it up someplace?)

There's a little utility in with FSUIPC called WeatherSet2. Use that to display the settings, at the aircraft and/or at different ICAO Wx stations. You can also set the weather directly, at any ICAO station, from there.

I don't know FSMetar at all by the way. Does it set different weather at each Wx station (like FSMeteo and ActiveSky) or only try to set one global weather. The latter method worked well in FS2002 and FS2000 but isn't so good in FS2004.

Regards,

Pete

[dan4010]

im not sure if it is a video card problem. the visibility worked with fsmetar at one time. it my have something to do with the configuration settings in fsuipc. i noticed once, when i was trying to fix the probelm, that when i pasted the fsuipc.cfg file somewhere, started fs9 with only the fsuipc.dll in modules, visibility was back to normal in the game, even with real world weather. i replaced the .cfg file with the previous one and the visibility became inop again. ive tried placing just the .dll file in modules, runing fs9, registering fsmetar, and the visibility becomes inop. when this happens, it effects all visibility options in fs9. even when i am not running fsmetar, visibility is inop during real world weather, fogged in, etc. this may have originally occured when i assigned the mixture axis on my ch products yoke to act as thrust reverser. are files effected at all i fs9 when settings are configured in fsuipc?

fsmetar displays weather for each wx station, like activesky, except that weather at distant stations is visible like default real world weather, instead of the entire sky having the weather of the current station you are flying over.

fsmetar displays the current metar of the station you are at. that is where i am getting my visibility from. the metar will read 10sm visibility, and fs9 will display 20+sm.

[Pete Dowson]

im not sure if it is a video card problem. the visibility worked with fsmetar at one time. it my have something to do with the configuration settings in fsuipc.

But you said "ive even tried registering fsuipc and this did not help". With an unregistered FSUIPC install you don't get to set any visbility options in FSUIPC.

i noticed once, when i was trying to fix the probelm, that when i pasted the fsuipc.cfg file somewhere, started fs9 with only the fsuipc.dll in modules, visibility was back to normal in the game, even with real world weather. i replaced the .cfg file with the previous one and the visibility became inop again.

So, you've set some visibility options which prevent the values FSMetar wants to set from activating. For example, you may have the minimum set to something quite large -- default for minimum visbility is 0 (i.e. very very thick fog!).

If you go to the visibility options in FSUIPC (in your registered FSUIPC) you can check all this. Or just press the "default weather" button on the front page.

ive tried placing just the .dll file in modules, runing fs9, registering fsmetar, and the visibility becomes inop

Two things make no sense there. First, if you've registered FSUIPc you don't ever need to register any applications at all. It will make no difference.

Second, this contradicts what you said above -- that when you removed the FSUIPC.INI file it was okay, then not again when you put the old one back. Here you say that it still occurs with no previous FSUIPC.INI file (i.e. just default options).

All that is happening if you delete the FSUIPC.INI file, or take it out of the Modules folder, is that FSUIPC starts with defaults for everything and makes an INI file accordingly.

You can compare that with your one to see what options you've changed.

this may have originally occured when i assigned the mixture axis on my ch products yoke to act as thrust reverser. are files effected at all i fs9 when settings are configured in fsuipc?

No. FSUIPC never changes any files outside its little set -- FSUIPC.INI, FSUIPC.LOG, FSUIPC.KEY.

fsmetar displays weather for each wx station, like activesky, except that weather at distant stations is visible like default real world weather, instead of the entire sky having the weather of the current station you are flying over.

ActiveSky and FSMeteo set local weather too, and it is visible, but they do smooth the transitions a little.

fsmetar displays the current metar of the station you are at. that is where i am getting my visibility from. the metar will read 10sm visibility, and fs9 will display 20+sm.

Well, I was asking where IN FS you were reading the visibility. you don't say. Also I suggested trying WeatherSet2 to read all the weather.

Anyway, I think perhaps you are misunderstanding something fundamental. A METAR which states "10SM" (in the USA) or "9999" in Europe mean, respectively, "10 miles or more" or "10 kms or more". They do NOT mean the visibility is dead on 10 miles or 10 kms. If FSUIPC was to take that literally, you'd never get more than 10 miles no matter what -- excepting those few WX stations which are not automated and have human estimates for vis (in which case more than 10SM can be reported).

This is all explained in the deocumentation. The option which does it is "Extend max METAR vis", and most weather programs enable it by defalut even if you don't.

Regards,

Pete

[dan4010]

my mistake may be that i am registering fsmetar every time i install fsuipc from scratch and then register fsuipc. i will try registering fsuipc first and then run fsmetar. i had forgotten that these programs work with a registered version of fsuipc and don't need to be registered themselves.

p.s. i appoligize if i frustrated you when i accidentally contradicted myself. i am very knowledgable when it comes to computers and i usually can figure things out. newbie to the forums. i appreciate your help.

[Pete Dowson]

my mistake may be that i am registering fsmetar every time i install fsuipc from scratch and then register fsuipc. i will try registering fsuipc first and then run fsmetar. i had forgotten that these programs work with a registered version of fsuipc and don't need to be registered themselves.

None of that makes any difference to the visibility. The application registration is just ignored once you register FSUIPC.

Also, you only need to register FSUIPC once -- deleting the FSUIPC.KEY file is competely unnecessary, as is "reinstalling FSUIPC from scratch". The only file affecting how the options are set is the FSUIPC.INI file.

So, are you certain you are not simply misunderstanding what the Metar visibility means in terms of actual visibility (bearing in mind what I said?).

Unfortunately, you've given no examples of discrepancies, nor have you actually said how you are measuring the visibility in FS, so it is really impossible for me to help further at present. Let me know.

Regards

Pete