FSUIPC 3.5.5.6 --> no more text in any message window...?

[martinE]

Greetings,

after updating from FSUIPC (registered) version 3.5.3 to 3.5.5.6, I have the following strange issue:

-- The standard FS9 message window backgrounds are visible

(see the attached screenshot):

- red, lower left (for e.g. "Simulation paused", "Parking Brake")

- red, lower right (for e.g. "Slew")

- green, top margin (for ATIS and ATC text)

-- The new transparent (and nice!) FSUIPC window is also visible (with a bluish background; in the picture it's hard to see, between the radio stack and the overhead panel)

BUT:

-- None of these windows displays any text (not even the default FS9 windows any more).

-- Sometimes I saw at least the ATIS ID (e.g. "PAPA") in the FS9 top message window, but later it disappeared and was never displayed again, even when the spoken text was repeated.

I do not understand very well the two new display option buttons on the "About" tab of the FSUIPC dialog (e.g. the logic by which the lower button is sometimes available and sometimes not), but have tried all permutations without success.

I have also set (in FSUIPC.ini) "WhiteMessages=Yes", ditto to no effect.

Furthermore, I have disabled advdisplay.dll, but that didn't make a difference either.

After going back to FSUIPC 3.5.3 (and re-activating advdisp.dll), I can now see e.g. RadarContact messages again (in the old AdvDisp window, of course), but the text in the default FS9 windows is still missing.

How can that be? Does FSUIPC fiddle with sim1.dll (or wherever it was where those standard messages about Brake, Pause, Slew, etc. live)? How can I get these messages back?

All very strange. What am I missing here??

My graphics card is an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, but I don't think that's an issue: a friend of mine has the same and did not encounter these issues. (It may however be that he runs FSUIPC 3.5.5.3, not 3.5.5.6; could that make a difference? The release notes do talk about checkbox issues on the About tab, but it may be a different matter).

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Martin

[Pete Dowson]

The new transparent (and nice!) FSUIPC window is also visible (with a bluish background; in the picture it's hard to see, between the radio stack and the overhead panel)

That should only appear if there is a multiline message to be shown. What are you running?

None of these windows displays any text (not even the default FS9 windows any more).

Hmmm. I don't know anyway to stop the text being shown. Sorry.

I do not understand very well the two new display option buttons on the "About" tab of the FSUIPC dialog (e.g. the logic by which the lower button is sometimes available and sometimes not)

The lower option is only offered if the FSUIPC window is not required 9i.e. the first option is not checked). that is all. Obviously, if you opt to have the multiline messages all going to the FSUIPC window, there is no need to suppress them in FS because they don't reach FS in any case.

I have also set (in FSUIPC.ini) "WhiteMessages=Yes", ditto to no effect.

If you are registered that option is more easily accessibly in the Miscellaneous options tab, as documented.

Furthermore, I have disabled advdisplay.dll, but that didn't make a difference either.

disabled or removed? Have you tried removing it?

After going back to FSUIPC 3.5.3 (and re-activating advdisp.dll), I can now see e.g. RadarContact messages again (in the old AdvDisp window, of course), but the text in the default FS9 windows is still missing.

How can that be? Does FSUIPC fiddle with sim1.dll (or wherever it was where those standard messages about Brake, Pause, Slew, etc. live)?

No, they are not in SIM1, they are in the LANGUAGE.DLL in the main FS folder -- different language versions of FS have different versions of that DLL.

FSUIPC doesn't touch any messages at all, or any text for that matter. It sounds more likely that you have somehow lost the font which FS uses. I don't know how that can happen. It certainly cannot happen merely by inserting a new version of FSUIPC.

This seems to also be indicated by the fact that AdvDisplay displays the text correctly -- Advdisplay uses normal Windows fonts (and has a font selection dialogue too).

My graphics card is an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, but I don't think that's an issue

No, it isn't. One of my PCs uses a 9800.

Try removing your FS9.CFG file (don't delete it, so you can replace it if it isn't responsible). FS will make a new one. i'm not sure where the fonts are defined, but that would be a god starting point.

Regards,

Pete

[martinE]

Greetings,

many thanks, Pete, for the very impressively prompt reply!

First off, the problem is now solved!

Second off, I don't know why. :-)

Just for the record and those generations coming after us, here is what I did since I had the problem:

• 
  -- checked the FS9 fonts: all there and working.
  -- moved the AdvDisplay files to another folder (before that, I had only renamed advdisplay.dll to advdisplay.Xll);
  -- changed FSUIPC to version 3.5.5.6 again;
  -- started FS9 and found that the standard messages (both "Paused", "Slew", etc. at the bottom, and ATIS etc. at the top) were now all back to normal;
  -- started RadarContact 4 and found that this now shows up as it should, in the new nice transparent FSUIPC window.

So, basically "I didn't change a thing" (famous last words of the user :-)) but it all healed itself.

I can only offer three possible explanations, take your pick:

1. The one thing I did change was moving away the AdvDisp files -- but is renaming a *.DLL to .XLL really not sufficient to put it put of business?

Or did the advdisplay.ini (which I had not renamed) perhaps interfere while still in the Modules folder?

or

2. Rebooting the whole machine (which I hadn't tried before) did the trick, for some reason or other. Doesn't make much sense to me, but hey, this is MS culture -- if in doubt, reboot; if still in doubt, re-install Windows. :-)

Or maybe the box, same as me, just needed a good night's sleep?

or

3. FSUIPC (or XP, or FS9) got scared when realizing that The Master himself, here on the forum, was already taking an interest in my troubles, immediately after my call for help. So it decided to better pull itself together right now, not to incur the Master's Wrath. :-)

Thanks again for the quick help. This kind of fast response, even if not containing a direct solution, is always very important to keep one's courage up, and thus to keep one going!

Cheers,

Martin

[Pete Dowson]

First off, the problem is now solved!

Good.

Second off, I don't know why. :-)

Ah ...

-- moved the AdvDisplay files to another folder (before that, I had only renamed advdisplay.dll to advdisplay.Xll);

I think (but I am not 100%) that FS only looks for files with DLL types, so that shouldn't have made any difference. However, I could be wrong.

That said, the new FSUIPC facilities are designed (and tested) to cooperate with AdvDisplay, so either way this wouldn't explain it.

I can only offer three possible explanations, take your pick:

1. The one thing I did change was moving away the AdvDisp files -- but is renaming a *.DLL to .XLL really not sufficient to put it put of business?

Or did the advdisplay.ini (which I had not renamed) perhaps interfere while still in the Modules folder?

I don't believe it can be that one.

2. Rebooting the whole machine (which I hadn't tried before) did the trick, for some reason or other. Doesn't make much sense to me, but hey, this is MS culture -- if in doubt, reboot; if still in doubt, re-install Windows. :-)

Or maybe the box, same as me, just needed a good night's sleep?

That is actually the most likely. Some glitch at some crucial stage somehow caused the needed Font not to be correctly loaded, even though it must have been marked as such 9else it would have been loaded again on the next FS restart).

Were there any crashes of any program, whether FS related or not, in the same session before FS exhibited the problem first? I know it isn't (shouldn't be) often necessary these days to re-boot after a crash (WinXP supposedly being so bullet-proof), but I remember you'd really dare not continue without re-booting after anything crashed in good old Win95/98/Me days. There was simply too much likelihood of something being screwed up.

3. FSUIPC (or XP, or FS9) got scared when realizing that The Master himself, here on the forum, was already taking an interest in my troubles, immediately after my call for help. So it decided to better pull itself together right now, not to incur the Master's Wrath. :-)

:wink:

Regards,

Pete

[martinE]

I think (but I am not 100%) that FS only looks for files with DLL types, so that shouldn't have made any difference.

Well, MS tradition seems indeed to be to rely on file extensions to identify file types, even in cases where the rest of the world uses MIME types, etc. So, changing the extension should make the file (functionally) invisible. But who knows...

That said, the new FSUIPC facilities are designed (and tested) to cooperate with AdvDisplay, so either way this wouldn't explain it.

Obviously, I should have cross-checked, by re-introducing AdvDisplay again, now that everything works; and I will do that -- but not right now, first need to drum up the courage to possibly break things again :-) .

2. Rebooting the whole machine (which I hadn't tried before) did the trick, for some reason or other.

That is actually the most likely.

Yes, I think so, too. I hadn't had any conspicuous crashes, but when running FS9 and RC4, my machine (2.6 GHz, 768 MB RAM) is already teetering on the brink of its performance all the time, and that can sometimes lead to problems even though nothing really crashes.

In my view, no one ever knows what "state" an XP box really is in at any given time; there are nowadays too many unknowns and contingencies involved. Plus the basic problem of "accumulative garbage suffocation" (over session time, and also over computer lifetime).

Most of the time XP admittedly handles it all very well, but if not, you're out of luck and rebooting (or re-installing Windows :-)) is your only resort indeed.

In that sense, the greater stability (against crashing) of XP over earlier Windowses is indeed a mixed blessing: It "hangs in there" forever while perhaps letting go and making a fresh start would be the better way :-).

Thanks again for the quick help!

And Happy Holidays!

Cheers,

Martin