I just starting thinking about the way FSUIPC currently communicates with FS, all versions.

 

Even though the architecture with FLIGHT has changed from that of FS, I would think in theory, a new FSUIPC could be created that uncovers the memory locations for peeking/poking just like FSUIPC does now with FSX. Surely someone could expose the proper offsets and be able to build addons for FLIGHT just like is being done today with the legacy of FS.

 

Any ideas? Pete Dowson, if you're there would you like to chime in?

Without an SDK, I don't think anyone will be doing anything with Flight in the near future.

Pete Dowson has no interest in Flight and is very interested in P3D as the future platform for serious simulation.

 

Interesting to note, that the MS Dev who "invented" FSUIPC rejoined the aces just before they disbanded and is now one of the main devs on MS Flight.

 

Fred.

Without an SDK, I don't think anyone will be doing anything with Flight in the near future.

Pete Dowson has no interest in Flight and is very interested in P3D as the future platform for serious simulation.

 

Interesting to note, that the MS Dev who "invented" FSUIPC rejoined the aces just before they disbanded and is now one of the main devs on MS Flight.

 

Fred.

Hmm..that's interesting about the developer.

 

I thought FSUIPC, or something like it, "might" be a way to tap into FLIGHT while its running. Based on my understanding of how FSUIPS works with FS, it would not require an SDK from MS to make it happen. It would take someone with some high level programming skill to unlock the memory locations where FLIGHT is storing data etc., and manipulating those by poking values into them that result in a change while the game is running. Fundamentally, that is where FSUIPC got its start.

 

I don't think Pete is the kind of programmer (if one at all) to really dig deep into the cyberworld of FLIGHT, but then again, neither am I. :-) I'm just thinking out loud here.

I am not sure Adam is working with the Flight Team now. As for looking the memory map when Flight is running that is, of course, possible. There are tools out there that can read the memory of any running application and also techniques to identify what memory location does what. Someone has already done it to a limited degree with Flight - how would you surmise GMap for Flight works?

 

The real question is how useful that might be at this point and whether anyone thinks it worth doing. Most folks out there right now are probably looking for new content. Being able to read values and perhaps even changing them won't deliver that of course.

 

OK - got caught out by not being able to edit again. I mentioned reading data. Brad is, of course, correct in that it might be possible to poke data that could change some things in Flight while it is running.

I'm sure we're a long way from doing much with that idea. I wasn't aware of the GMAP thing; thanks for mentioning it. I'll have to check it out.

Hi Folks

 

I may be wrong, but IIRC -

 

- FSUIPC for FS9 was the last version to use memory locations and offsets.

 

- FSUIPC for all FSX versions and derivatives, instead uses the SimConnect/SimVar API.

 

re: GMap, Plan-G, etc

AFAIK certainly for FSX, these also use the SimConnect/SimVar API.

 

Just a guess -

The SimConnect/SimVar API is probably still available in FLIGHT,

but it might possibly utilise some different SimVar names.

 

HTH

ATB

Paul

Hey, you're right! I forgot about the fact Simconnect.dll was introduced in FSX. (I think it was created to compete with FSUIPC! IMHO). I may have to play around with it myself.

Thanks for reminding me! I did some contract work recently where I created an app to playback historical taxiway traffic, so the user can watch from the tower.

I was going to use FSUIPC, but the latency was so bad, I tossed the idea of FSUIPC and went right for using the Simconnect.dll directly.

Hey, you're right! I forgot about the fact Simconnect.dll was introduced in FSX. (I think it was created to compete with FSUIPC! IMHO).

 

More to complement FSUIPC, not compete. In fact, Pete attented DevCon #1 in Redmond, WA along with about 200+ others of us from the payware and freeware community. That was during the "Golden Years" of MS-ACES/FS Developer relations... <sigh>

 

For FSX, Pete began with SimConnect, but ultimately fell back to using offsets for those things that the SimConnect API did not expose...

Hi Folks

 

For FSX, Pete began with SimConnect,

but ultimately fell back to using offsets for those things that the SimConnect API did not expose...

Cheers for the clarification Bill.

 

ATB

Paul

My understanding is that FSUIPC was developed with the knowledgeand support of Microsoft. It was based on FS6IPC by Adam Szofran of Microsoft.

 

I suggest it would be a major task to extract the "offsets" and their meaning from Flight. Just look ast the FSUIPC list of offsets to see the magnitude of the task.

 

It would, also, be a breach of the EULA if done without permission.

My understanding is that FSUIPC was developed with the knowledgeand support of Microsoft. It was based on FS6IPC by Adam Szofran of Microsoft.

 

Your understanding is one-hundred percent correct, Gerry. One clue that the offsets haven't changed much -if any- is that GMap is able to obtain the few needed bytes of data directly from Flight without resorting to any reverse-engineering at all...

I asked the GMap guys today about their Android app becoming compatible with Flight. They are working on it, though, due to the undocumented nature of what they're dealing with, it may be some time before they get things sorted out. If ever.

 

But still, a moving map GPS on my tablet, right between my stick and throttle is something to dream about. :)

Yes, it would be nice to have the Android app version working with Flight, although the PC version works well enough for the time being, provided you don't mind using full-screen windowed mode and a 2nd monitor... :Nerd:

One clue that the offsets haven't changed much -if any- is that GMap is able to obtain the few needed bytes of data directly from Flight without resorting to any reverse-engineering at all...

 

That's interesting. I'd always undersood that the underlying locations of the data within FS changed between various releases of FS but that FSIUPC hid those changesf from its users. That is, the mapping between FSUIPC offsets and FS memory changed and ceased to be strictly "offsets" in FS.

That's interesting. I'd always undersood that the underlying locations of the data within FS changed between various releases of FS but that FSIUPC hid those changesf from its users. That is, the mapping between FSUIPC offsets and FS memory changed and ceased to be strictly "offsets" in FS.

That is quite correct. Pete had to spend quite a bit of time on just that. But, it appears that at least the latitude and longitude "offsets" are the same in both FSX and Flight. Possibly it's just serendipitous... :Thinking: