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Nick Dobda

Losing Clickspots

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I've had this issue before. Clickspots start to act funny... then they work and stop working randomly... then they stop working altogether. This happens over the span of about an hour.

 

Some background, I am aware of the viewpoint behind the seat issue that is notorious for clickspots vanishing. I have been running EZDOK for about a month now with no issues. I have not changed any viewpoints in the last month, this problem just started tonight on this particular flight. By the end of the flight, clickspots and all buttons were essentially not usable.

 

I remember having this issue in the past, but suspected a fix and tried it, and the problem went away. I was wondering if my theory has any weight or not.

When the problem first arose a few months back, it was on my round the country flight. Each night I would save at the conclusion of the past flight, then start up the next night on where I left off. At one point this clickspot issue thing popped up. I thought maybe there was some sort of error that has accumulated, so one night i loaded up fresh where I left off... that is loading from the root menu by picking the airport and a new gate, then loading a new NGX fresh. The problem went away.

 

When you load up from where you left off, the oil and hydraulic fluid slowly go down. When you load up from where you left off (by a saved flight) the oil and hydraulic quantities are the same as when you left off. IF you load up from the FSX root menu, the oil and hydraulic quantities reset.

 

I guessed that since those oil and hydraulic quantities are being carried over, there must be some behind the scenes things being carried over as well. Im guessing that some sort of something eventually snowballs and the clickspots stop working.

 

 

To run some tests, I saved the flight as the problem was happening. I closed FXS, then restarted.. and loaded up from where I left off. The problem persisted.

 

I then shut down fsx, restarted and loaded from the root menu back at the original airport (new oil and hydraulic quantities) and the problem was gone (at least it didn't resurface in the 5 mins I clicked around the cockpit).

 

My question is... what is going on there? Am I right that picking up where I left off from a saved flight carries information over that over time may become corrupt, and that re-loading from the root menu is like a fresh start?

 

I really hope tomorrow I can re-do the flight fresh from the root menu all the issues will be gone.

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It could be to do with the panel state, but if it was I would expect to appear at the beginning of the flight, when the aircraft is loaded. It's more likely to be due to Ezdok, or rather the way FSX affects it. The viewpoint moves with heading and aircraft latitude due to an FSX bug. So if your heading changes during the flight, or you are flying generally towards the equator, the viewpoint may move aft, enough to put it inside the pilot seat and prevent clickspots working.

 

You mentioned it happened to you during a tour, so you will gave been flying on various headings.

 

As a test, try this. At the most southerly* airport you used on your tour, taxi or slew to various headings: 360, 045, 090, 135, 180. At each heading check to see if the clickspots work. If they always work then the problem may be to do with the panel state.

 

[* if you were flying in the Southern Hemisphere then choose the most northerly airport]


ki9cAAb.jpg

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Thank you for the advice. I was flying Chicago Midway to Green Bay last night. I knew about the pilot seat issue, so I moved the viewpoint all around and the problem persisted. I have 8 points of view setup, and the clickspots weren't working for any of them. For example, I'd shift from the captains seat to the lower OH panel (eyepoint is mid cockpit) and none of the buttons would work. Sometimes, the clickspots would start working for a click or two, then stop working again. 

 

What happens with the panel state to cause the problem? Is it just an accumulation of information that eventually leads to the problem? Would re-loading a fresh panel state stop the problem if it happens in the future you think?

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Panel states based on the previous flight can become corrupt and cause problems. If they do it's best to start again from a PMDG default state.

 

I usually use a default state, but I've had random occasions where the VC clickspots ceased to work. Reloading FSX fixed things, so I put it down to a bad load, something not being initialised properly.


ki9cAAb.jpg

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I found that reloading FSX (with the same panel state) started the buttons to work again too, but stop working again fairly quickly. If the panel state is corrupt though, the problem would come back. 

 

If you are confident that the panel itself can become corrupt and that losing clickspots is one such corruption, I think you're right reloading a fresh panel state would fix the problem. 

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I don't know how many times I've installed simmconnect,but it seems to fix it.


Jude Bradley
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Nick,

The problem you are experiencing sounds exactly like the issue I was posting about yesterday (Topic called Mouse weirdness)  I've yet to find a fix, it is intermittent so it makes it really hard to fault find.  Saving the flight completely exiting fsx then restarting fsx and reloading the saved flight tends to fix for me at least temporarily.   At a bit of a loss  so If you find a cause or solution please let me know.

 

Thanks

Andy


Andy Mahaffey

lntel  i7 6700k Skylake​ (watercooled)

​8GB RAM

NVIDIA GTX 960 Graphics

​Win 10, FSX -SE (with CH Pedals and Saitek Proflight Yoke)

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I've the same problem, it started about some months ago, I've also written to PMDG Support, but there is no fix.

 

I think is a problem with FSX:SE (latest Update to prevent mouse frame drop) or the problem came with Windows 10.

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I suspect it has to do with the panel accumulating a bug. If I load up a fresh panel state and it works then problem solved. Ill post back when I get a chance to fly again.

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I reloaded fresh at the gate and everything was smooth as silk.

 

I think the problem is an accumulation of something in the panel state that over time makes clickspots stop working. It might have been in my head, but things seemed clearer, frame rates seemed higher, everything worked really well once I reloaded fresh.

 

What I mean by reloading fresh - Do not load a previous flight. Start at a new airport, and load a new NGX at the gate. I think this might refresh the panel state and give you a clean start.

 

Perhaps just loading a new panel state would work if you were experiencing the issue. If someone wants to test it. I overwrote my problem flight so I can't test it.

 

From now on I will not be continuing panel states between flights. I will start fresh everytime and probably never see the problem again.

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I think I've got this in P3Dv3.1

 

The autobrake, recall, master caution, fire warning buttons + more have no click spot. Other things like the gear lever works.

Maybe this will trigger something with the devs.

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I always use the C&D default panel state from PMDG.  The problem starts this summer when I switched from Win 7 to Win 10 and from FSX:SP2 to FSX:SE.

 

Sometimes when I switch the views with EZDOK, some buttons are working again, bust just only for seconds. I have to use the 2D Panels instead.

 

The MD11 and 777 don't have this problem in my system.

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Sometimes when I switch the views with EZDOK, some buttons are working again, bust just only for seconds. I have to use the 2D Panels instead.

 

Something to make EZDOK aware of.


Kyle Rodgers

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On the subject of running panel states over multiple sessions and the possibility of some sort of error accumulation-

 

I've noticed that over time, the temperature knobs get pretty far out of whack to try and maintain 20 degrees throughout the cabin. Especially in northern climates over the winter here, they programmed in the temp in the forward cabin to drop when the doors are open. So during loading I'll bump up the temp knobs to maintain about 20 throughout the cabin. When the doors close and so forth I'll have to turn the knobs back down to maintain 20.

 

Over time, The knobs are in really extreme positions to maintain 20 even when conditions should be steady and normal, like cruise. When I started fresh last night, the knobs were all in the 12 o'clock position and maintaining 20 when the doors were shut. On the last flight when things were going whacky the forward cabin would be at 9 oclock, mid at 11 oclock, and rear might be 2 oclock and the temps would read near 20 in all cabin areas. It just seems that maybe in the background something isn't getting carried over between sessions, or some data gets slightly off after every session, and that over time those slight losses accumulate and eventually fail the click spots.

 

Also, when I originally had this problem (losing clickspots over a touring flight [that is, re-loading the flight where I left off the night before]) I would eventually arrive in this same situation where things started to get whacky and click spots not working, and this was before I had EZDok. I think changing views gives the panel a kick to make the buttons start working, and it's not ezdok itself, but the changing of the views that does it. Just my hunch though.

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