Programing Mouse Macros

[Gnacino]

Hi,

I have been trying to program some mouse macros for my Captain Sim 757 so that I can use some buttons and switches on my Goflight EFIS. I am going thru the Addon menu in FSX. When I go to "Buttons & Switches" tab, I select "start Macro", and then I put a name for my macro, CS757", hit okay, and I get a message, Saving and/or reloading FSUIPC. Please wait"

It is now 12:44am my time now and I have been waiting for at least thirty minutes and the message just stays there. I have tried it several times with the same result. I checked the modules folder in FSX to see if it created a folder named CS767.MCRO. No such folder.

I have your latest registered FSUIPC and FSX with SP 1 & 2. I am running Vista 32bits with all updates installed.

If I press okay when the message is on, I try some mouse clicks all around the panel and I get no green or red window. Going back to the FSUIPC, the "End Macros" is still there. Did I miss something?

Thanks,

Gnacino

[Pete Dowson]

I have been trying to program some mouse macros for my Captain Sim 757 so that I can use some buttons and switches on my Goflight EFIS. I am going thru the Addon menu in FSX. When I go to "Buttons & Switches" tab, I select "start Macro", and then I put a name for my macro, CS757", hit okay, and I get a message, Saving and/or reloading FSUIPC. Please wait"

It is now 12:44am my time now and I have been waiting for at least thirty minutes and the message just stays there.

Sounds like an old bug where the window was simply not being cleared. You should be able to simply click anywhere else it will go away. This was fixed some time ago. It didn't happen on many systems, being very timing and video driver dependent.

I have tried it several times with the same result. I checked the modules folder in FSX to see if it created a folder named CS767.MCRO. No such folder.

Good, because it should never create any folders. It would create a file by that sort of name, but only when you've finished adding macros. Initially there are none to be written.

I have your latest registered FSUIPC and FSX with SP 1 & 2. I am running Vista 32bits with all updates installed.

By the "latest" do you really mean 4.664? You should really always state version numbers, please. Folks have said "latest" and been using very old versions -- the "latest" they happen to have seen. Please do visit the Download Links subforum when you are in any doubt.

If I press okay when the message is on, I try some mouse clicks all around the panel and I get no green or red window.

I expect that aircraft is not written in C/C++ using the standard Microsoft gauge library. Only those have the internal structures which allow this type of mouse hooking.

Many new aircraft for FSX are written using XML, like the default ones. Such aircraft are not susceptible to the mouse macro system. They may be using Local Variables though (L:Vars) and quite often those can be programmed.

Going back to the FSUIPC, the "End Macros" is still there. Did I miss something?

The "End Macro" option must stay available until you press it to end the macro creation phase. That's what it is for! It is then that the macro file is wrtten. Please do read a little more of the documentation.

[LATER]

I just checked in the User Contributions sub-forum, where these is a thread listing non-compatible aircraft for mouse macros, and this appears in that list, at the head:

- 757 Captain (Captain Sim): For FS2004/FSX

Regards

Pete

[Gnacino]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for your speedy reply. I have version 4.6a. From your web site, it looks like that is the latest version. I don't see a 4.66.

As for the programing the macros, are you saying that when I get the window that says "Please wait...", just click somewhere else and proceed to the next step?

Don't understand why Captain Sim would write programs for AC don't can't utilize FSUIPC to the fullest. It's not like Captain Sim is a "Mickey Mouse" company. It is a very complicated ac and people that buy this are always looking to get even more realistic. I have the Level d, and that seems to be compliant. Anyways, I should be complaining about this on their forum.

Thanks Pete,

Gnacino

[Pete Dowson]

Thanks for your speedy reply. I have version 4.6a. From your web site, it looks like that is the latest version. I don't see a 4.66.

As I pointed out, updates are provided in the Download Links subforum here. I don't actaully have a website. Enrico Schiratti maintains a web page with my last official documented releases -- that would be 4.60a -- but updates are provided here, where I have access. That's where you'll find 4.664 and lots of other goodies.

As for the programing the macros, are you saying that when I get the window that says "Please wait...", just click somewhere else and proceed to the next step?

When that problem occurred, which wasn't often, yes, that was the work-around. But it shouldn't happen in any case in the recent updates. Let me know if it does.

Don't understand why Captain Sim would write programs for AC don't can't utilize FSUIPC to the fullest. It's not like Captain Sim is a "Mickey Mouse" company.

I don't think many companies target their productions to use FSUIPC. Why should they? That doesn't make them a "mickey mouse" company. For FSX I don't think any aircraft specifically uses FSUIPC -- FSUIPC is for compatibility. most use SimConnect these days if they need to do anything outside of the normal FS-supported aircraft interface.

Thje mouse macro facility in FSUIPC is a "hack" -- it works by doing actual code jumps into specific places in the aircraft code. It in no way relies on anyone writing the aircraft to be so "hacked", but it does rely on a now almost defunct way of writing gauges -- the C/C++ Gauge library of FS8 and FS9, which is also supported in FSX but is almost supplanted by construction of gauges using XML.

Even Microsoft did not use their own SDK for writing the default FS gauges -- almost nothing in any of the default FS9 or FSX aircraft is susceptible to this technique.

Regards

Pete