Ground Friction and P3D v4.5

[LecLightning56 33]

Are folks still tweaking the sim1.dll file in order to gain "realistic" ground friction in P3D v4, or are any alleged issues now largely resolved in the latest releases (P3D v4.5 HF2)? I note that Pete Dowson's lua files for friction do not work in P3D v4 and he may not wish to modIfy anything accordingly.

[Bob Scott 7,716]

Pete Dowson has written about this before on his support forum...the previous FSUIPC versions for FSX and 32-bit P3D had to hack into the dll at runtime to change the data in the tables, and the lua used that facility.  Starting with FSUIPC v5 (for P3D v4.x) he's no longer hacking the internals of the sim with FSUIPC; instead he's using LM's expanded Simconnect interface...which is the big reason why FSUIPC doesn't break with every minor P3D update like it used to.  To-date, LM has not exposed the friction table data structures for user access via Simconnect.  So if you want to modify the friction tables in P3D v4.x (which are essentially still the same as those in FSX and all previous versions of P3D) then you will need to alter the tables encoded in sim1.dll yourself. 

 

[Wanthuyr Filho 83]

I'm feeling no need for this anymore. At least the addon aircraft I use currently are properly configured in this regard "from factory".

[LecLightning56 33]

Just loaded the latest sim1.dll file (P3D v4.5 HF2)into Hex Editor Neo and I am getting gobbledygook. I cannot locate where the friction values start. Has anyone actually successfully fixed sim1.dll for the latest LM release?

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

2 hours ago, LecLightning56 said:

Just loaded the latest sim1.dll file (P3D v4.5 HF2)into Hex Editor Neo and I am getting gobbledygook. I cannot locate where the friction values start. Has anyone actually successfully fixed sim1.dll for the latest LM release?

Good luck. Here's a thread at FSDeveloper about this topic in P3d4:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/ground-friction.440265/

There's a bunch of other ground friction threads there also:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/search/352230/?q=sim1.dll&o=date

Herve Sors used to keep track of the ground friction offset location in sim1.dll for use in his utility AFSD, but I'm not sure whether it's been kept up to date for P3d 4.5 HF2. You might want to check with him.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

I think the offset in HF2 is at 00159d24, at least that's what I get in Hex editor Neo.

[Pete Dowson 558]

5 hours ago, Wanthuyr Filho said:

I'm feeling no need for this anymore. At least the addon aircraft I use currently are properly configured in this regard "from factory".

L-M argues that they adjusted them properly in any case and should need no further messing. They say if you find you need to it is to do with some poorly specified aspects of your add-on aircraft.

Personally I've never found any need to make adjustments, but then i've only used a 738 (originally the default from FSX but since I started using ProSim, just its 738), and the JustFlight Piper Arrow III. These are the aircraft suiting my two hardware cockpits.

Pete

 

[LecLightning56 33]

2 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

I think the offset in HF2 is at 00159d24, at least that's what I get in Hex editor Neo.

Thanks for the information. I shall have a look later.

 

1 hour ago, Pete Dowson said:

L-M argues that they adjusted them properly in any case and should need no further messing. They say if you find you need to it is to do with some poorly specified aspects of your add-on aircraft.

Personally I've never found any need to make adjustments, but then i've only used a 738 (originally the default from FSX but since I started using ProSim, just its 738), and the JustFlight Piper Arrow III. These are the aircraft suiting my two hardware cockpits.

Pete

 

As always, Sir, thank for your excellent information and advice on the subject.

[Afterburner 374]

7 hours ago, Pete Dowson said:

L-M argues that they adjusted them properly in any case and should need no further messing. They say if you find you need to it is to do with some poorly specified aspects of your add-on aircraft.

Which P3D version does this adjustment go back to?  I still use v3.4, so I wonder if it was already adjusted for that version.

[Pete Dowson 558]

2 hours ago, Afterburner said:

Which P3D version does this adjustment go back to?  I still use v3.4, so I wonder if it was already adjusted for that version.

I don't know.  It may have been part of the movement from 32- to 64- bit code (so fixed in P3Dv4). And that may have been because proper programmable access to the friction tables was part of the list of requirements I prepared for them when I was planning FSUIPC5 -- the request may have prompted them to look at the values.

OR it may just be that L-M believe they were okay in the first place.

Sorry, I've no way of telling which it might be. I only know that I have never found them to be wrong with the aircraft models I've used.

Pete

 

[LecLightning56 33]

I have now managed to tweak the sim1.dll file successfully for P3D v4.5 HF2 and the results look good for the Aerosoft DHC-6-300. As a number of people have discovered, this can be an awkward customer taxying (particularly if you have Lukla airport selected), and the tweaks made do render the control of this aircraft on the ground much easier. I believe I am correct in saying that Aerosoft do not intend to develop this product any further, including considerations of the ground friction issues with this aircraft.

Thank you all for your inputs and for the benefit of your knowledge and advice. I do hope that LM address any outstanding issues on this subject at some stage if the user community believe that issues do still exist (although the future course of P3D is uncertain).