WideFS or Simconnect Direct Link

[Bman.]

Afternoon all-

I finally bit the bullet and hooked up with FSUIPC & WideFS combo. Sweet! The real reason I broke down and got it was because on one free application that I wanted to run on my laptop (FSBlackBox) I need to invest the time to learn all the benefits of the full blown version of FSUIPC. I have been simming for decades and feel like I have been missing out what it has to offer.

Any rate, my question. Some of the other apps I run on the laptop include FSMap, PlanG, REX Engine, FSInn and BlockBox. All of the other apps have some version of a simconnect.cfg file that I marry up with the information I have setup in the simconnect.xml. Everything works great. The only program that didn't have such an option was this Blackbox so that ultimately brought me to FSUIPC + WIdeFS.

The setup went after spending about 5 minutes in the manual. I went just for the direct IP connect connection by adding the Protocol=TCP and ServerIPAddr= information in the [config] section.

My questions - is there any benefit to running all of my other application through WideFS connection or just keep them direct with a simconnect.cfg/.xml link? One benefit it that I wouldn't have to manage each of those connection profiles separate. If you get WideFS to connect, they should theoretically all connect without having to mess with simmconnet any longer.. correct?

Second question - If I do have the WideFS started which way are my apps connecting? Will the applications connect through WideFS or through the simconnect information I have set up in each independent program?

Thanks!

Bman.

[Pete Dowson]

My questions - is there any benefit to running all of my other application through WideFS connection or just keep them direct with a simconnect.cfg/.xml link?

Generally there's no choice. Before FSX there was only WideFS offering such facilities, apart from one or two programs which had their own networking built in. FSX introduced SimConnect as the new interface into FS for applications -- FSUIPC uses it, in fact.

The main use of FSUIPC + WideFS in FSX is for compatibility with all those add-ons written for FS9 and before. Many (but not all, because FS9 is still so popular) new programs are written to interface directly to SimConnect instead of to FSUIPC.

Regards

Pete

[Bman.]

I see - I am with it now. I think the key is that all of my newer apps have a "connect" button which obviously kicks in the specific simconnect function. Where as the older apps I use really just look for a running FS application somewhere.

Thanks for help and looking forward to utilizing all the features of FSUIPC.

Benjamin.