PFC.dll for PFC digital system

[THibben]

Peter,

I have downloaded and installed the latest dll from the PFC website which installs the PFC and FSUIPC dll's. FSUIPC has been registered.

Without the dll's installed in FS2004 the frame rates are good at approx 20 fps on the ground with high settings. As soon as I installed the dll's the fps dropped to under 10. When attempting to bring up the PFC setup page it barely loads. I am able to set up the com port and generate the PFC.ini and set up yoke buttons okay. The throttle will come up but is very slow but the yoke set up does not come up properly. It starts to come up over the existing panel then locks up the computer and I have to do a CTRL Alt Del to get out of it. When flying, the yoke, throttles and pedals all work but the system is very slow.

The system works great in FS2002 with the 3.0 dll.

My system is an Intel P4 3.0 G CPU 1G ddr ram, Intel 865 perl 800 fsb mobo and a Radeon 9800 128m video card.

I would appreciate some help. Thanks for all you have done for the FS community.

Tom Hibben

THibben@prodigy.net

[Pete Dowson]

I have downloaded and installed the latest dll from the PFC website which installs the PFC and FSUIPC dll's. FSUIPC has been registered.

Actually, it does not need registration to run PFC. When you say "latest", the PFC website is usually well behing the Schiratti site. Can you check the VERSION numbers against those details in the "supported versions" announcements at the top of this forum, please.

As soon as I installed the dll's the fps dropped to under 10. When attempting to bring up the PFC setup page it barely loads. I am able to set up the com port and generate the PFC.ini and set up yoke buttons okay. The throttle will come up but is very slow but the yoke set up does not come up properly. It starts to come up over the existing panel then locks up the computer and I have to do a CTRL Alt Del to get out of it. When flying, the yoke, throttles and pedals all work but the system is very slow.

Sounds very strange. I've not heard of anything like that before. The PFC driver is hardly changed for FS2004. Is everything okay with just FSUIPC installed, no PFC.DLL?

The system works great in FS2002 with the 3.0 dll.

If you had all the PFC stuff working well in FS2002, why not just copy over your FSUIPC.INI and PFC.INI files to the FS2004 Modules folder. This will ensure everything is configured the same -- you really don't want to go re-calibrating all the PFC stuff again if you had it right.

My system is an Intel P4 3.0 G CPU 1G ddr ram, Intel 865 perl 800 fsb mobo and a Radeon 9800 128m video card.

Sounds good -- though I have heard of folks complaining about stutters with the Radeon drivers. The 9800 gives better frame rates than the nVidia cards, but isn't as smooth, apparently. Certainly I would have hoped a P4 3.0 with that card and that much memory to give better than 20 fps. Have you got a frame rate limit set (in Options-Settings-Display-Hardware). If not, try setting one a little lower that the fps you are seeing, if you have, try adjusting it.

The fact that you seem to be saying that the frame rate drop was noticeable BEFORE PFC even had a COM port assigned is really surprising. It doesn't actually do anything until it has a COM port. The usual reason for sluggish behaviour is the *wrong* COM port, as virtualy every call on the equipment times out somewhere deep in Windows. Can you re-confirm that this is really what you meant?

Pete

[THibben]

Pete,

Thanks for the reply. The versions of the dll's are:

Fs2004: FSUIPC 3.0.1.0 PFC 1.5.5.0

Fs2002: FSUIPC 3.0.0.0 PFC 1.5.5.0

Once again, with these installed I get 28-29 on FS2002 (set at 30)

and 8-9 on FS2004 (set at 20). I removed the PFC.dll and the fps went up to 14-15. I then removed the FSUIPC.dll and there was no additional change. I copied the dll's from FS2002 to FS2004 and it mad no difference. Still in the 8-9 range.

Once again, when briging up the PFC menu, it takes a long time to load and if I select the flight controls panel it only partially loads and locks up the program. Have to ctrl-alt-del out of it.

I am going to contact MS and see why the fps are so much lower on Fs2004. Regarding the com port I don't think I meant to say it was slow before it was selected. The com port connection must be right since it is working fine on Fs2002.

Thanks for you help.

Tom Hibben

[Pete Dowson]

Fs2004: FSUIPC 3.0.1.0 PFC 1.5.5.0

Fs2002: FSUIPC 3.0.0.0 PFC 1.5.5.0

That's both the same then, the only differences betwee FSUIPC 3.01 and 3.00 are in the Registration.

Once again, with these installed I get 28-29 on FS2002 (set at 30)

and 8-9 on FS2004 (set at 20). I removed the PFC.dll and the fps went up to 14-15. I then removed the FSUIPC.dll and there was no additional change.

So it is indicating a problem with PFC, or possibly only with the COM port when FS2004 is running. How weird. I measure absolutely no difference here with PFC installed or removed.

It is sounding more and more like some sort of resource problem associated with the COM port. Why it should affect FS2004 and not FS2002 I don't know.

But, wait, we don't KNOW that it isn't affecting FS2002, do we? Try this, just to check. Change FS2002's frame rate limit to, say 40. Check the achieved fps in a known situation. Now close it, remove PFC.DLL and load it again. Re-check the fps. Any difference?

If there's no difference in FS2002 then I'm a bit at a loss I'm afraid. I can't think of anything in FS2004 which should be interfering with the PFC operations. There has certainly been lots of testing on FS2004 and PFC equipment -- apart from my own system there are quite a few in the FS Beta group.

One thing to check, anyway, as a matter of course -- make sure the COM port IRQ isn't shared with anything else. Oh, and try another COM port if you have one.

I copied the dll's from FS2002 to FS2004 and it mad no difference.

I'm not surprised. PFC 1.55 = PFC 1.55 and the difference in FSUIPC 3.00 and 3.01 doesn't matter once you've registered.

Didn't you copy the FSUIPC.INI and PFC.INI files over from FS2002, as I suggested? At least it would save you re-calibrating everything.

Once again, when briging up the PFC menu, it takes a long time to load and if I select the flight controls panel it only partially loads and locks up the program. Have to ctrl-alt-del out of it.

Sounds definitely like some sort of COM port screw up, though I've never heard of one so bad before.

I am going to contact MS and see why the fps are so much lower on Fs2004.

If you have everything full on, FS2004 is bound to be much slower than FS2002. There's a lot more in it. The clouds especialy take a toll, but there 3000% better. The autogen is more varied and denser. You can easily get comparable rates to FS2002, but you have to make compromises. It is always like this on each new version.

Regards,

Pete

[THibben]

Pete,

I did copy the ini's fromFs2002 also.

MS was no help. they have no idea why it would be running slower except for the latest drivers. Which I have for mobo and video card. They also suggested that memory may be a problem so I swapped out half of it at a time with no change.

One thing I haven't been able to determine is whether Fs2004 is typically slow when bringing up menu items. For me it takes up to 30 sec to bring up a menu item.

I will also try your suggested checks for the com port.

Thanks for your help,

Tom Hibben

[Pete Dowson]

One thing I haven't been able to determine is whether Fs2004 is typically slow when bringing up menu items. For me it takes up to 30 sec to bring up a menu item.

Ouch! Big ouch! There is something really wrong there!

I would first suspect video drivers, then sound. See if upgrading (or even downgrading) video drivers helps.

Pete

[THibben]

Hi Pete,

Just thought I would give you an update. It appears this is probably not a pfc or fsuipc dll problem. I have updated all drivers for mobo,sound and video and the problem still exists. I have talked with Intel and gone over the mobo and they assure me it is running correctly and all drivers are okay. Talked with ATI about the video card and it is working correctly. Ran the 3D Mark test and had a 3D marks score of 5523 which ATI said was outstanding. It doesn't matter whether FS2004 has sliders to the right or to the left the frames are still aroun 9-10. I disconnected the PFC system from the serial port and the frames stayed the same. MS still insists it is not their problem but I am waiting a call from a 2nd level tech.

Thanks again

Tom Hibben

[Pete Dowson]

Just thought I would give you an update.It doesn't matter whether FS2004 has sliders to the right or to the left the frames are still aroun 9-10.

Well that is REALLY weird. I do hope you get to the bottom of it. Please keep us posted, I am very curious.

Regards,

Pete