I posted this question in the FSX area ( http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...g_id=5130&page= ) but then it occurred to me: with all the add-ons for FS2004 out there, perhaps such a thing already exits?Does anybody know about any FS2004 add-ons that install on more than 1 PC and utilize in some fashion CPU power of a PC other than the one on which the "main" FS2004 runs? An AI traffic program perhaps that off-loads all the work involved in computing AI traffic and then passes that data over a network connection back to a component running within the "main" FS2004 for it to handle including thus obtained results in the simulation?Doesn't have to be AI traffic. This was just the first thing that come to mind. I'm curious if anything exits that allows for some aspect of the simulation to be distributed across additional computers.Thank you,Michael

Hi,About the closest thing we have is WideFS and FSUIPC which allows 3rd party applications to run over a network. Nothing internal to FS04 can be distributed.Hope this helps,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development TeamActive Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter

Thanks for the info Jim. Now I have to do some searches to find out what products use these interfaces and if any of them would be useful ;-)Thanks,Michael

MichaelThere is one other program that I think you may want to look at. This is WideView which, when used with FSUIPC provides the opportunity to display left and right cockpit views on additional machines over a LAN. Have a look at www.widev.it/for info. I can highly recommend it.Bud

>About the closest thing we have is WideFS and FSUIPC which>allows 3rd party applications to run over a network. Nothing>internal to FS04 can be distributed.I think Jim downplays what is already possible in the distributed FS environment.Pete Dowson's WideFS (which requires FSUIPC) distributes and allows writes to many of the FS internals over a network. And there are already a significant number of programs which will run distributed from the network, such as Project Magenta, ActiveSky, FlightDeck Companion, and Radar Contact among others.WideFS allows distributed (and therefore external) processes to see and control weather, traffic, hundreds of aircraft/sim parameters and control settings, ATC, etc etc.An external AI environment like what you describe is, in theory, possible using WideFS/FSUIPC, much the same as it is possible to inject traffic from the VATSIM virtual ATC universe into FS using Squawkbox and FSUIPC. An interesting idea.CheersBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300Santiago de Chile

>Pete Dowson's WideFS (which requires FSUIPC) distributes and>allows writes to many of the FS internals over a network.Which exact FS "internals" can be run today over the network? I think Jim is correct that there are none unless we are missing something.Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_744F.jpghttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

Hi Bob,Can you show me a stock FS04 installation where ANY part of it can be run from a networked machine?Hope this helps,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development TeamActive Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter

>Which exact FS "internals" can be run today over the network?>I think Jim is correct that there are none unless we are>missing something.Please read what I wrote...that WideFS "distributes and allows writes to many of the FS internals." Data can be extracted from and injected into the stock FS internal data structures used by modules running on the host machine, allowing distributed processes to interpose themselves into FS.RegardsBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300Santiago de Chile

>Can you show me a stock FS04 installation where ANY part of it>can be run from a networked machine?A stock FS04 installation? Certainly not, as even FSUIPC is not included in a stock installation of MSFS. But what you wrote was "Nothing internal to FS04 can be distributed." The internal data structures in FS certainly can be, and are, distributed to/from other processes across a network via WideFS.Also, using WideView, a main 3D window can be displayed on a networked machine using an essentially complete environment distributed (replicated) with data structure interchange between instances of FS running on multiple machines.At any rate, the original post asked if we knew of any FS2004 add-ons that distribute CPU workload to secondary PCs...the answer is clearly yes. Using Squawkbox and AVC on a secondary PC allows me to shift a significant audio processing workload off of the main PC, for example. Using the Project Magenta CDU shifts FMS database and navigation workload to a secondary PC. Using WideView shifts video processing workload for additional 3D views to a secondary PC. RegardsBob ScottATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-V L-300Santiago de Chile

Thanks Bob! You just proved that my first response was right on.Hope this helps,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development TeamActive Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter

True enough Jim, but don't you agree that Bob's point is also well taken and helpful if the original poster's intent was to understand whether some of the drain on the CPU can be off loaded? I run AS6 & Flightkeeper using WideFS on a second computer to squeeze a little bit more breathing room for my main computer. When I get Radar Contact I will run it on the second computer as well.

>if the original poster's intent was>to understand whether some of the drain>on the CPU can be off loadedNo need to guess ;-) I can just tell you what my original intent was.I was curious if there was any way to make FS2004 more immerive and realistic without putting any (or at least not much) additional strain on my main FS2004 machine. This is was the reason why I asked questions in this thread (though before that I originally wondered if any sort of distribution of work across multiple computers would be built right into FSX; as I mentioned in my first post in this thread; link to FSX-related post provided).This thread has answered my question 100%. Radar Contact, Active Sky, SquawkBox and MANY other programs exist that do just that. I found long list of "Software using FSUIPC" on this page: http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html I am personally not interested in technicalities of what is internal versus not quite internal versus completely external when it comes to tasks that can be accomplished on other computers and than handed back to my main FS2004 PC - probably because I am not in the least familiar with FS2004 architecture and so I don't have adequate appreciation of such nuances.But I'm glad to have found out that somebody has implemented the idea of having additional programs running on independent computers co-operate with the main sim PC for a richer experience without over-burdening the already stretched (at least in my case) main FS2004 PC.Thanks again,Michael

Hi,Sure thing! It gets a bit hard when 2 valid questions get posted on very similiar topics in 2 different forums, but the answers are completely different.Hope this helps,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development TeamActive Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter