FSUIPC or Simconnect? VAFS 5 related question

[SkyGent]

Hi All,

I am having a rough time trying to get VAFS5 to read my location in FSX. The VAFS program reads that FSX is turned on and initially sees my correct geographic location but somehow the link between VAFS-Simconnect-FSX is broken in the preflight screen. I have tinkered with my Norton and tried everything with no firewall on etc. but to no avail. Weirdly enough, VAFS worked randomly for me 3 days ago but I did nothing different. I have no idea if VAFS's problem with discerning my location at the departure airport is related to FSUIPC or the program itself.. I do not know even where to begin in diagnosing and fixing Simconnect so I have turned to this forum hopeful for an answer. I have 3 Simconnect files that I can see.. FSUIPC log says it can see the SP2 Simconnect.. I think that is all proper but unsure. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I should mention that i have had no issues with other 3rd party programs.. i.e. Air Hauler which is able to plot my location without issue. Also using MyTraffic X with no issues noted.

Phil

using Windows 7 with FSX Gold + Acceleration installed

Registered copy of FSUIPC v 4.827

I show 3 separate Simconnect folders installed in my windows directory.. not sure if that is supposed to be the case or not but I believe it corresponds to my upgrading from gold to acceleration judging from the date modified info.

Problem is described in more detail in the thread below:

http://www.myvafinan...-flight-screen/

[Pete Dowson]

I am having a rough time trying to get VAFS5 to read my location in FSX. The VAFS program reads that FSX is turned on and initially sees my correct geographic location but somehow the link between VAFS-Simconnect-FSX is broken in the preflight screen. I have tinkered with my Norton and tried everything with no firewall on etc. but to no avail. Weirdly enough, VAFS worked randomly for me 3 days ago but I did nothing different. I have no idea if VAFS's problem with discerning my location at the departure airport is related to FSUIPC or the program itself.

As far as I can see, looking at the VAFS 5 web-site, it doesn't use FSUIPC. At least I can't find it mentioned there. I think you need to use VAFS 5 support to investigate your problem.

One of the things I do see mentioned on their website is the instruction to run the program "as administrator" all the time. I've no idea why they need this, but if it does use FSUIPC after all then running an FSUIPC application "as administrator" with FS not running "as administrator", or vice versa, will certainly prevent any communication between the two -- Windows prevents programs of different privilege levels sharing data in the manner the FSUIPC interface requires.

I show 3 separate Simconnect folders installed in my windows directory.

That's normal.

I can't really help any further, but I can check that FSUIPC is operating correctly from the FSUIPC4.LOG file which you could paste here -- you'll find it in the FSX Modules folder. Close FSX down first.

Regards

Pete

[SkyGent]

Hi Pete, thanks for fielding my question.. I am particularly grateful as it is only tangentially related to FSUIPC. Below is the log:

********* FSUIPC4, Version 4.827 by Pete Dowson *********

User Name="Phillip S"

User Addr="*****@gmail.com"

FSUIPC4 Key is provided

WIDEFS7 not user registered, or expired

Running inside FSX on Windows 7

Module base=61000000

172 System time = 11/07/2012 17:32:33

172 FLT path = "C:\Users\Phil\Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\"

718 Trying to connect to SimConnect Acc/SP2 Oct07 ...

780 FS path = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\"

1264 LogOptions=00000000 00000001

1264 Wind smoothing fix is fully installed

1264 G3D.DLL fix attempt installed ok

1264 SimConnect_Open succeeded: waiting to check version okay

1264 Trying to use SimConnect Acc/SP2 Oct07

11014 Running in "Microsoft Flight Simulator X", Version: 10.0.61637.0 (SimConnect: 10.0.61259.0)

11014 Initialising SimConnect data requests now

11014 FSUIPC Menu entry added

11061 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\FLIGHTS\OTHER\FLTSIM.FLT

11061 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\Aircreation_582SL\Aircreation_582SL.AIR

58329 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\C208B\Cessna208B.AIR

83601 Weather Mode now = Real World

489999 Sim stopped: average frame rate for last 325 secs = 19.5 fps

619433 Sim stopped: average frame rate for last 126 secs = 11.1 fps

637374 System time = 11/07/2012 17:43:10

637374 *** FSUIPC log file being closed

Average frame rate for running time of 457 secs = 17.1 fps

G3D fix: Passes 18736, Null pointers 0, Bad pointers 0, Separate instances 0

Memory managed: 4 Allocs, 4 Freed

********* FSUIPC Log file closed ***********

This is probably a dumb question, but is there a place to go to tell FSUIPC to run as administrator separate from telling FSX to run as administrator? I dont see an exe file for FSUIPC so I dont know where I would set that.

Also, found this at the bottom of the "Configurations Settings" file:

[Window.VAFS Message:]

Docked=322, 3273, 3536, 722

I can't make heads or tails of that but it looked VAFS-related

Edited July 11, 2012 by SkyGent

[Pete Dowson]

Below is the log:

That's fine, nothing wrong with FSUIPC's operation.

This is probably a dumb question, but is there a place to go to tell FSUIPC to run as administrator separate from telling FSX to run as administrator? I dont see an exe file for FSUIPC so I dont know where I would set that.

FSUIPX is a module of FSX, it runs as part of FSX. you can't have different parts of a single program or process running at different privilage levels. You run FSX "as administrator" or you don't.

Also, found this at the bottom of the "Configurations Settings" file:

Whose "Configurations Settings" file? You need the filename. FSX has many such files, like FSX.CFG. FSUIPC's is called FSUIPC4.INI.

[Window.VAFS Message:]

Docked=322, 3273, 3536, 722

I can't make heads or tails of that but it looked VAFS-related

Looks like it uses FSX windows -- that's just the pixel position and size. without knowing the file it is in I can't help further. What's the date on the file? If you cannot run the program now, that's presumably an old relic or when you could run it?

Pete

[SkyGent]

It is from the FSUIPC4 configuration file (FSUIPC4.ini) within the modules folder in the FSX directory. File is dated today 11 July. The VAFS program itself runs fine and initially communicates well with FSX via FSUIPC but just prior to the flight tracking portion of VAFS it loses the ability to read my geographical location in game.

[Pete Dowson]

It is from the FSUIPC4 configuration file (FSUIPC4.ini) within the modules folder in the FSX directory. File is dated today 11 July. The VAFS program itself runs fine and initially communicates well with FSX via FSUIPC but just prior to the flight tracking portion of VAFS it loses the ability to read my geographical location in game.

It sounds like it certainly is usng FSUIPC, and creating a display window via FSUIPC too. This must mean it isn't a problem of privilege levels, or it would not be able to link up in the first place. But as to why it then fails I couldn't say -- FSUIPC is running okay according to that log.

You do really need VAFS 5 support for this. I'm afraid I cannot debug other folks' programs, and especially ones I do not even use.

Regards

Pete

[SkyGent]

Fair enough Pete, definitely looks like it is a VAFS issue as you say. I have been over on their forums and even had a Teamviewer session with the developer of the VAFS software all to no avail, looks like this is one issue where there may be no answer! Thanks for taking the time to help me out all the same.

[Pete Dowson]

Fair enough Pete, definitely looks like it is a VAFS issue as you say. I have been over on their forums and even had a Teamviewer session with the developer of the VAFS software all to no avail, looks like this is one issue where there may be no answer! Thanks for taking the time to help me out all the same.

One thing you can do, which their support should really have thought of, is to enable ipc Read logging in the Logging tab of FSUIPC. Make sure you are using no other FSUIPC-interfacing applications, so that all the logging is related to VAFS 5. Then you or they can see what it is actually reading, or even whether it is reading anything, from FSUIPC.

I can help them work out what is going on but they'd need to look at it first because they should know what the program is doing. I wouldn't be able to tell if it was reading what it wanted or not since I wouldn't know what it wanted.

Regards

Pete