FSUIPC Log Interpretation

[Pete Dowson]

30 minutes ago, mwa05 said:

I have MT6 too, and without being too fancy, if you do a flight plan DCT WOL H65 RAZZI Q29 ML and depart Sydney 16L climb to FL320 with AI capped at 75 (or 100, or even greater, I have found it makes no difference on the route) with your slider at 35 (MT6 recommended for real schedules) you should with some certainty be able to reproduce it. Canberra is the airport on route with only a few aircraft on the ground. 

Or DCT DOSEL Y59 TESAT DCT SY depart Melbourne 34, and climb to FL310 you can reproduce with Albury (usually no more than two SAAB340 on the ground).

They may work for a start to save you a bit of time. If I can help in anyway, let me know. 

Actually, I can't really fly there as I need to do it under a debugger, which I only have here, on my development PC. No usable (by me) controls and it is a pain flying with keyboard. But I can slew. It would be better if you could give me a location, please -- Lat / Lon.

The TCAS tables are independent of altitude, so I can just start at Sydney and slew in a direction (would help if you have me that too) towards the Lat/Lon you give me.

Or could I just position the aircraft at Canberra? I can't see what difference it would make ... perhaps you could try that first and let me know.

The reason I need to be able to do it quickly is that I might have to repeat it several times under debugger control till i can see what's going on.

Thanks,

Pete

 

[mwa05]

8 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

Actually, I can't really fly there as I need to do it under a debugger, which I only have here, on my development PC. No usable (by me) controls and it is a pain flying with keyboard. But I can slew. It would be better if you could give me a location, please -- Lat / Lon.

The TCAS tables are independent of altitude, so I can just start at Sydney and slew in a direction (would help if you have me that too) towards the Lat/Lon you give me.

Or could I just position the aircraft at Canberra? I can't see what difference it would make ... perhaps you could try that first and let me know.

The reason I need to be able to do it quickly is that I might have to repeat it several times under debugger control till i can see what's going on.

Okay, I see what you want to do. I will put something together hopefully tomorrow- I have ran out of night!

Cheers,

Mark

[mwa05]

Hi Pete,

Try this from SYD starting position S 33 56.6 E 151 11.0 HDG 223 to S 35 03.3 E 149 57.6.

"It" should occur before S 35 E 149.

A different route from MEL starting position S 37 39.6 E 144 50.5 HDG 043 to S 36 10.9 E 147 04.2.

"It" should occur before S 36 E 147.

Kind regards,

Mark

 

 

 

[Pete Dowson]

6 hours ago, mwa05 said:

Try this from SYD starting position S 33 56.6 E 151 11.0 HDG 223 to S 35 03.3 E 149 57.6.

"It" should occur before S 35 E 149.

A different route from MEL starting position S 37 39.6 E 144 50.5 HDG 043 to S 36 10.9 E 147 04.2.

"It" should occur before S 36 E 147.

Okay, thanks! Might be tomorrow now, though (Monday). Committed to other stuff today.

Pete

 

[mwa05]

7 minutes ago, Pete Dowson said:

Okay, thanks! Might be tomorrow now, though (Monday). Committed to other stuff today.

No problems at all Pete, I am tied up over the next week until Good Friday anyway, so as we say, in your own time!

[Pete Dowson]

On 4/9/2017 at 8:23 AM, Pete Dowson said:

"It" should occur before S 35 E 149.

By the time I got there you are right -- no traffic in the TCAS tables. But I checked, and that was simply because the 100 odd AI traffic I had (counted an displayed by the VAS Display plug-in) were all further away than my TCAS range which I had left on the default of 40nm).

I actually had no ground traffic for quite a while -- since not so meany miles from Melbourne. Slewing backwards to where I started all the traffic gradually reappeared, so this in just a case of out of TCAS range. I'll increase it to 80 nm.

The ground traffic range for inclusion in the TCAS tables is much lower though -- 6 miles when your aircraft is airborne, 3 miles when you are on the ground (actually I think the latter limit applies to airborne traffic too). So I'd need to be within 6 miles of a populated airport to see ground traffic in the FSUIPC tables.

One thing this shows me is that there are no airports which are likely to have any traffic within 6nm of your chosen destination, so i assume you have some small addon one which houses a few AI traffic usually?

On 4/9/2017 at 8:23 AM, Pete Dowson said:

"It" should occur before S 36 E 147.

I then tried the second route to see if that would generate what you found to be the 'critical' condition -- some airborne AND a very few Ground AI.

Same again. by the time I got to your destination position there are 25 aircraft in total being tracked, of which 17 were near enough and aircraft to still be in the TCAS tables and still being updated. No ground traffic within 6 nm. 

So, I looked at the FSX map and saw that the nearest default airport was YCRG on a heading of about 135, so I changed headings for that. When I got near enough, at last! Hurrah! One ground aircraft appeared. A GA planned to go from YCRG to YDPO. I passed over the airport and was still receiving both airborne (by now down to 11) and ground updates (the one and only till 6 miles passed).

Conclusion

I cannot find anything wrong. I certainly can't reproduce what you say occurs. I didn't fly, but I did restrict the slewing speed to 160 near start and end and a max of 400 in between (to speed the tests up).

I suspect what you are seeing is just TCAS table limits on distance, but in that case traffic should start to be reported again when there are some in range. So that would be a puzzle.

To deal with the former I might add the distance to the nearest actual detected aircraft on ground or in air, as received from SimConnect, to the title bar of TrafficLook. That would show even if none were in rage and so in the TCAS tables. Whether it shows the nearest Ground or the nearest Airborne one would depend on the mode you run TrafficLook in.

If it is indeed a problem with SimConnect unilaterally ending supply of AI Traffic data to FSUIPC (but not other of its Clients), then I can only think that it is either some corrupted function of your specific FS installation, or some sort of problem resulting only from your specific combination of add-ons. If so I don't see how I can really fix it, or even get to the bottom of it unless you can find it by a process of elimination or reinstallation.

One thing you could try which I hadn't suggested before is to toggle the traffic off and back on -- there's an FSUIPC control you can assign to button or keypress

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

On 3/27/2017 at 11:50 PM, mwa05 said:

The reason I ask is on every flight (FSX Acceleration) on Windows 10 Pro, using AS16 and either RC4 or PF3, I have AI Chatter on Clearance Delivery, Ground, Tower and Departures, and when handed over to Centre/Control, I may get one or two AI Chatter calls and then that is it, all the way through to destination, with plenty of AI Traffic around me including approaches into busy terminal areas. I will never hear anything again from half way through climb all the way to touch down at the other end, which can be a simple Melbourne to Sydney or

I reproduce this from your first report in this thread because that certainly is very different from your later reports, such as 

On 4/7/2017 at 1:21 PM, mwa05 said:

I flew MEL-SYD; I actually saw on TCAS the traffic disappear where the issue normally happens after I leave the depature airport reality bubble. I checked the AI and there was about 5 airborne and one static on the ground.

Noe, what is it you think is the airport "reality bubble"?  Since the airport is only relevant for ground traffic, the TCAS limit is 6 miles, but that isn't the same. And then there was this:

On 4/6/2017 at 11:02 PM, mwa05 said:

on the two occasions that I have managed to do a full flight from a SYD to MEL or MEL to SYD and AI Chatter did not break, it appears that when I left the departure airport reality bubble (where there is a lot of AI) and the AI goes from say 85 to 11 (or 14 or pick a relatively modest number) then if all of that traffic is airborne (as opposed to one or two being on the ground static at say Albury or Canberra) then it works through to destination.

So, what range would the various airports around the route have been from you?  The FS "bubble" in which scenery and AI are generated is about 80 nm. The "airport reality bubble" you mentioned may be the visualisation range, which I don't know by I think is something between 10 and 20 miles. Any airport within 80 nm capable of having MyTraffic aircraft should be getting them populated, though with your traffic settings set low I suppose that might not be so.

I did have the FS traffic slider set to 100% for airlines, but only 16% for GA. After I modify TrafficLook, I'm going to try your test "flights" (test slews here) once more but with both set to 30%, as I think you said yours were?

Pete

 

[Pete Dowson]

Final message from me for now. Hope you read the previous two as well.

There was one other logging option which does log EVERY update received from SimConnect. I only just re-found it (there's a lot of technical debugging options which have been added over the (many) years, and never removed).

The one I gave you earlier was just logging newly added aircraft. The one for ALL changes received is:

Debug=Please
LogExtras=x40000

Be warned though. This will produce HUGE logs. Best not to enable it till you get well away from busy airports but are still getting a few update. To enable it in the Sim, leave the "Debug=Please" set in the INI file, but not the LogExtras= line. Then, to turn it on, go to FSUIPC options, Logging tab, and enter 262144 in the Extras edit box, near bottom left. (262144 is the same as x40000 but in decimal because that edit box won't accept hex). Disable it after the problem makes itself obvious by changing that back to 0.

I won't have updates for FSUIPC or TrafficLook to provide the range of the nearest Ground & Airborne aircraft till near the weekend, but this is okay for you because you said you'd have no time before then.

Pete

 

[mwa05]

Thanks Pete, I have read all three posts. And thank you for checking all of this.

My first post is accurate and the subsequent posts really were attempts to give more information as we were trying to get on the same page and they inevitably could have become unhelpful.

The behaviour (as opposed to what is happening technically) is consistent and - 

5 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

If it is indeed a problem with SimConnect unilaterally ending supply of AI Traffic data to FSUIPC (but not other of its Clients), then I can only think that it is either some corrupted function of your specific FS installation, or some sort of problem resulting only from your specific combination of add-ons. If so I don't see how I can really fix it, or even get to the bottom of it unless you can find it by a process of elimination or reinstallation.

... maybe the nub of the matter. But the what is quite confounding as there is not much to eliminate, AS16 is the only application running apart from the ATC add on (RC4 or PF3) and I only have MT6a and FTX AI installed, with only one active at anyone point in time and the result with both is the same. And I only have my origin and destination airport active in scenery editor (thus all others are default). MS ATC works, so there is a solution right there that I may just have to live with.

I don't have any other traffic bgl's active. Some airports I have come with their own AI but I have deactivated them by using the bgl search tool in MT6a.

Add on airplanes are PMDG 737, 747, 777, FSLabs A320, iFly 737, AS A318-21, Majestic Q400 and Ant's Winjeel. Apart from the Winjeel (I have never tried) the outcome is the same with all of them.

I have another PC which still has FSX installed, with all of my previous add ons and set up (that my wife now uses and all the Sim stuff is on its own drive and is all protected) and it happens on that PC as well.

So, it maybe something I have done to both or both have whatever "it" is on it. As I pretty much replicated my set up from my 2011 PC to my 2016 PC I built last year.

Given the old PC has 4 times more on it than my new one, it narrows the possibilities so any eliminating and reinstalling I will do on the old one as I am not too fussed about "stuffing" that one up as it is ostensibly retired. All I need to do is plug in the joystick and load the latest FSUIPC on it.

4 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

Debug=Please
LogExtras=x40000

Be warned though. This will produce HUGE logs. Best not to enable it till you get well away from busy airports but are still getting a few update. To enable it in the Sim, leave the "Debug=Please" set in the INI file, but not the LogExtras= line. Then, to turn it on, go to FSUIPC options, Logging tab, and enter 262144 in the Extras edit box, near bottom left. (262144 is the same as x40000 but in decimal because that edit box won't accept hex). Disable it after the problem makes itself obvious by changing that back to 0.

I will do. I am away until Friday (iPad's are handy as I sit in a cafe having breakfast) so I will do that over the weekend (on the "in service" PC) and see where that takes us.

Thanks again.

Mark

[mwa05]

Hi Pete, Happy Easter.

On the flight back to Sydney yesterday I had several hours to devote thought time to this problem and I also re-read this entire post from beginning to end and the biggest hint came from me.

It is possible that I have solved the problem. Last night I completed a successful flight; like I have never had before, using RC4.

The clue was "I pretty much replicated my set up from my 2011 PC to my 2016 PC I built last year" and "it happens on that PC as well" (but I was oblivious to the problem until recently) and I thought back to how I installed FSUIPC on the new build. I copied and pasted a lot of my set up entries. 

Using the first principle of fixing FSX, delete your .cfg and let it build a new one, I deleted (removed and stored) the FSUIPC ini and let it build a new one and I reset everything back up using the control panel. And flew. 

I have only done the one flight but the "critical" moment did not occur and AI remained known to FSUIPC all flight, and thus to RC4 and thus, chatter to gate. The traffic listed in TrafficLook was the same as in the Sim.

I have not done a comparison yet between the ini files to see what was different thus what may have been causing it but I will do, and of course, do some more flying but I wanted to let you know up front what has happened.

I will report back some more after doing a bit more flying. ??

Kind regards,

Mark

[Pete Dowson]

5 minutes ago, mwa05 said:

I have not done a comparison yet between the ini files to see what was different thus what may have been causing it but I will do, and of course, do some more flying but I wanted to let you know up front what has happened.

I will report back some more after doing a bit more flying. ??

Okay, thanks. I too would like to know the difference.

Pete

 

[mwa05]

Hi Pete,

Definatively, deleting the ini and rebuilding a new one, and resetting everything back up through the interface has solved the problem, as I have also done it on the old retired from simming PC and it is "fixed" now too. Everything works as it should; and works like it never has for at least 6 years on two different installations.

I have listed the differences between the ini files below; from reading the manuals regarding each entry I can't see why any of these would stop the client.

The old ini value is on the left and the new (default) value is to the right of the /. All other values are the same in both.

FixControlAccel=Yes/No
FixMachSpeedBug=Yes/No
NewDeleteVehicleForAES=Yes/No
TurbulenceRate=0.5,2.5 /1.0,5.0
TurbulenceDivisor=40,40,80,80/20,20,40,40
WindSmoothness=1/2
MagicBattery=Yes/No
RudderSpikeRemoval=Yes/No
ElevatorSpikeRemoval=Yes/No
AileronSpikeRemoval=Yes/No
TimeForSelect=0/4
TimeForLuaClosing=1/2
ConsoleWindow=130,130,1123,649/No such entry in new ini

[AutoSave]
Interval=10/60
Files=1/10
But not enabled in either

[WideServer]
WideFSEnabled=No/Yes

[Monitor]
Only in old ini but nothing underneath it.

What I have not done is a one by one elimination (using the old no longer in flight sim service PC) but first, if I get time later today, I may put its old ini back in and see if "it" is back and reverse engineer from there.

I would like to get to the bottom of it, but I'm so pleased that everything is now working as it was meant to.

I'll let you know how I get on. 

Kind regards,

Mark

[Pete Dowson]

5 hours ago, mwa05 said:

I have listed the differences between the ini files below; from reading the manuals regarding each entry I can't see why any of these would stop the client

That was good of you. I was just going to use a Comparison program I have.

5 hours ago, mwa05 said:

I can't see why any of these would stop the client.

I agree, none of those are involved is anything at all related.

5 hours ago, mwa05 said:

I'll let you know how I get on. 

Thank you.

Pete

 

[mwa05]

Hi Pete,

Just a quick report to close this off to finality.

I cannot recreate my own issue even by swapping the old ini back in.

Something got corrupted on my old PC which found its way into the new build (by copy and paste) but rebuilding the ini on both has fixed the issue on both, but I cannot narrow it down. As I said above, straight out placing the old ini back in (in the old PC) does not bring the critical moment back. Rebuilding the ini seems to have "cleared" it on going (despite putting the original back in to force the issue).

If somebody in the future ever comes along and says my AI stops talking on climb and never comes back, just tell them to rebuild the ini to start with... that was the magic key. Now I can't for the life of me, repeat it. I get "Opened separate AI Traffic client okay" all the time. He was always missing in the log pre ini rebuild.

Thank you for your kind assistance and patience.

Kind regards,

Mark

[Pete Dowson]

22 minutes ago, mwa05 said:

If somebody in the future ever comes along and says my AI stops talking on climb and never comes back, just tell them to rebuild the ini to start with... that was the magic key. Now I can't for the life of me, repeat it. I get "Opened separate AI Traffic client okay" all the time. He was always missing in the log pre ini rebuild.

Okay. Thank you. Shame we couldn't get to the bottom of it.

Pete