FSUIPC - Qs About Lvars and Offsets

[activex]

All,

1) What is the range of free offsets (user defined offsets) I can use to map my lvars to user offsets? I don't want to use reserved offsets.

2) When I launch FSUIPC, under add-ons => WASM menu most of the options (List Lvars, List Hvars, ...) are disabled. Only option that's enabled is to enable/disable WASM. What does this mean? Is this functionality only for licensed versions of FSUIPC??

3) When selecting the data type (size) for the offset, do I use the size as defined by the author of the aircraft or is it sufficient to select a size large enough to store the value and make sure that when I write/read the offset I call the appropriate function for the defined size?

[John Dowson]

6 minutes ago, activex said:

1) What is the range of free offsets (user defined offsets) I can use to map my lvars to user offsets? I don't want to use reserved offsets.

Look at the FSUIPC Offset status document, or better, in the offset status spreadsheet provided for MSFS/FSUIPC7 (included in the zip download, but not installed in your documents folder*). If you search for 'Free for general use', you will find:
  0x66C0 - 64 bytes
  0xA000 - 512 bytes
I am looking into making more space available for user offsets.

* The offset status spreadsheet is a supplement to the offset status document, as I have not had time to update this yet. I am planning on updating this shortly. For now, best to use the spreadsheet which contains the latest info and is continually updated (v26 now) and consult the offset status documentation for the description only.

15 minutes ago, activex said:

2) When I launch FSUIPC, under add-ons => WASM menu most of the options (List Lvars, List Hvars, ...) are disabled. Only option that's enabled is to enable/disable WASM. What does this mean? Is this functionality only for licensed versions of FSUIPC??

No. You have to enable to use, and the other menu entries are only available once the info on available lvars/hvars has been received from the FSUIPC WASM module installed in the sim. This usually occurs several seconds (or longer, depending on configuration parameters in the WASM that can be tuned) once you have loaded an aircraft and are out of the menus and loaded and ready-to-go.

John
  

[activex]

Quote

Look at the FSUIPC Offset status document, or better, in the offset status spreadsheet provided for MSFS/FSUIPC7 

Sorry, can't find it. Only thing I found by that name is offsetStatus-v0.25 and by looking into archive I can't find any files with offsets or spreadsheet , I just see bunch of xml files.

Can you also comment on my 3rd question I added. Here it is:

3) When selecting the data type (size) for the offset, do I use the size as defined by the author of the aircraft or is it sufficient to select a size large enough to store the value and make sure that when I write/read the offset I call the appropriate function for the defined size?

 

[John Dowson]

8 hours ago, activex said:

Sorry, can't find it. Only thing I found by that name is offsetStatus-v0.25 and by looking into archive I can't find any files with offsets or spreadsheet , I just see bunch of xml files.

Yes, thats the latest released one, not v25 - I update the version locally when released, so I'm on v0.26. Sorry about that.
 

8 hours ago, activex said:

Can you also comment on my 3rd question I added. Here it is:

Yes, sorry - missed that for some reason...

8 hours ago, activex said:

3) When selecting the data type (size) for the offset, do I use the size as defined by the author of the aircraft or is it sufficient to select a size large enough to store the value and make sure that when I write/read the offset I call the appropriate function for the defined size?

Internally, all lvars are stored as 8 bytes.  You can define the type/size as needed to hold the values that you want to use and FSUIPC will convert/cast to that size/type. Makes sense to use the size defined by the lvar I guess, but if its,say, a flag (0/1) and is defined as an int, you are better off just using a byte. As you say, the main thing os to make sure that you are reading the offset with the appropriate size/type function for the defined size/type.

[activex]

Quote

Yes, thats the latest released one, not v25 - I update the version locally when released, so I'm on v0.26. Sorry about that.

That's fine, but what I am trying to say there's no documentation (ie no file) in that archive for documentation of unused (free) offsets.

[John Dowson]

25 minutes ago, activex said:

That's fine, but what I am trying to say there's no documentation (ie no file) in that archive for documentation of unused (free) offsets.

Sorry, I don't understand... Look at that spreadsheet on lines 1545 (0x66C0) and 1589 (0xA000), both documented as 'Free for general use'.
I've attached it, in-case you are looking at the wrong file.

John

offsetStatus-v0.25.ods

[activex]

I am so confused .... What spreadsheet? The archive doesn't contain any spreadsheets. When you say "spreadsheet", what exactly are you referring to? Can you tell me exactly the file name you referring to or attach that file please?

The attached ods file, is that the spreadsheet? If yes, how do I open it??????? I see this file as an archive with bunch of folders and xml files.

[John Dowson]

3 minutes ago, activex said:

I am so confused .... What spreadsheet? The archive doesn't contain any spreadsheets. When you say "spreadsheet", what exactly are you referring to? Can you tell me exactly the file name you referring to or attach that file please?

I attached it in my previous comment!

The spreadsheet is included in the zip file, it is not installed into your FSUIPC7 documents folder.

[activex]

I do not see it, in the attached archive. What is the exact file name in the archive I am looking for? This archive contains folders and xml files only. I did not see any spreadsheets? 

[John Dowson]

4 minutes ago, activex said:

I do not see it, in the attached archive.

I attached the spreadsheet not an archive! Its a .ods file - an Open Document Spreadsheet. You can open it with OpenOffice (Calc) or Excel.

[activex]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Windows guys usually use Excel software ... I don't use ODS and I cannot possibly know every ext, thanks for your clarification.

I have to see if I can open this in some online tool, I don't want to install OpenOffice. I wish this would be PDF.

Interestingly, I thought you were referring to this file as zip archive and so I opened it as that in Winrar, and was looking inside it for a spreadsheet. Looks likes .obs stores its content in zip archive format using bunch of xml files/folders.

 

 

[John Dowson]

7 minutes ago, activex said:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Windows guys usually use Excel software ... I don't use ODS and I cannot possibly know every ext, thanks for your clarification.

Excel can read/write ODS files. I don't have an Excel license, and I generally prefer to use/support Open Software rather than payware.

And I'm a unix/linux/ultrix/maxOS guy really - only been developing in Windows for 3 years now, since I rook over FSUIPC dev & support from Pete.

Note that this is a temporary document, to be used as a supplement to the Offset Status pdf. I am planning on merging them to generate a new document when I get time, hopefully this month....

7 minutes ago, activex said:

I thought you were referring to this file as zip archive

No, I said it was contained in the zip archive you downloaded, i.e. in the FSUIPC7.zip or Install_FSUIPC7.zip, depending upon where you downloaded it from.

Sorry about the confusion!

[activex]

No worries, everything got cleared up.