I'm seriuosly considering Prepar3D but am somewhat confused on the integration of simconnect. I was reading the p3d forum on the issue but still questioning its usage as its very important in my sim network. Can it be used as in FSX for remotly communicating with programs such as ASE and FSCommander.? Brings up another point. What about FSUIPC and WideFS? Never mind on the WideFS, just checked Pete's website. excellent! Dang, gotta buy a liscence for it thats 3 liscences for FSUIPC or maybe not!

 

Thank you Kindly

I use a number of programs across my network (REX, Super Traffic Board, Plan-G etc.) using Simconnect to P3D on the host and no problems of any kind so far. Been using it with P3D for 5 months now.

While SimConnect is a minefield of lost Sunday afternoons trying to get it to work, when it does, its a neat CPU cycle way of spreading the load and display of information.

 

The insight I personally gained, that was never clarified on the extensive online guides, is that different applications require different versions of SimConnect. This is fine as they (Gold, SP1 etc) seem to all work fine concurrently. So while Plan G works fine on Prepar3D's Simconnect Saitek panels requires the SP1a version which then nicely interconnects ASE. Side-by-side installations means there is no problem with this.

 

The duplication does not extend to the three files that need to be doted around the installation directories i.e. they do not not need to be replicated for each SimConnect installation, nor does more than one port need to be opened.

 

Plan-G to me has been the easiest to get working. As a free (and truly wonderful app) I would start there as test of your Prepar3D simconnect. If this works then all your file sharing and config files etc are in place and you can build out other apps safe in the knowledge that issues should not lie with SimConnect itself.

 

To keep things simple I have avoided using FSUIPC and WideFS concurrently. It took me so long to get these three applications working I was not prepared to risk any conflicts! However only one licence is required per SERVER (i.e. where Prepar3D runs) with each CLIENT (i.e. slave PC/laptop) not needing a licence. Though WideFS is a separate application requiring again purchase. So to my maths I can not sum your requirements to three FSUIPC licences - which helps on the costs!

 

One final note that I have not seen in the online materials is that the default SimConnect.xml in Prepar3D (at least) which everyone recommends to be used as your base configuration is written NOT TO WORK!

 

E.g.

<!-- Example Local IPv4 Server Configuration-->

<SimConnect.Comm>

<Disabled>True</Disabled>

 

"Disabled TRUE" will thus disable your SimConnect, in this case IPv4 connection! Programmers - why do they do this to us! You need to replace the TRUE with FALSE (and avoid a Sunday afternoon of hair pulling!).

 

Good luck!