FO atc call isn´t "heard" by PF3 too many times

[BerndB 349]

Hi Gerald,

i´am writing these words down, because i can´t believe MCE will not be the same as it was before the PF3 major update this year. 

Before the PF3 Team provided it´s last major update MCE+PF3 worked perfectly together for me. But after the update this is not the case anymore. Well, after several small hotfixes by PF3 and MCE it´s better, but there are still some major issues.

1. the most anoying issue is the ATC call by FO seems not been "heard" by PF3. This happens on almost every flight at least once. It doesn´t matter at which phase of flight, though it happens with departure, Centers and Approach. Sometimes it takes 2nd contact by FO after "Traffic at FL blabla...squawking 1234, contact blabla on 123.45" only, but many times my FO need to repeat the contact for 4, 5, 6 times. 

2. Since the Update of PF3 my FO doesn´t respond to traffic announcements by atc anymore. Before he readback like, "Thank you for trafficinformation, thats very helpfull" but nowadays he keeps silent. Always.

3. When MCE starts, and it doesn´t matter if i start MCE via the windows shortcut in the task, or via the MCE menue within P3D, My SIM shows the informations text of P3D in the upper left corner in red about lat and long and my speed. But i have switched off all text messages within P3D. This info text comes up only with the start of MCE and can´t be switched off. I don´t want to see this bloody text in my window.

4. At the same time, just a millisecond after MCE is up and running, my GSX window seems to be called by MCE for some reason, and pops up. 

You know, i´am using P3D 5.2 HF1, + GSX + PF3 + MCE. Maybe there is a relation between those issues above by interfering keystrokes or something. Of course i have already changed the PF3 keys to the F1 to F12 keys to prevent from interfering with the GSX key combos.

I just want to have MCE and PF3 acting as before all that came up. That´s my wish for Christmas 😔 

[FS++ 708]

14 hours ago, BerndB said:

Hi Gerald,

i´am writing these words down, because i can´t believe MCE will not be the same as it was before the PF3 major update this year. 

Before the PF3 Team provided it´s last major update MCE+PF3 worked perfectly together for me. But after the update this is not the case anymore. Well, after several small hotfixes by PF3 and MCE it´s better, but there are still some major issues.

1. the most anoying issue is the ATC call by FO seems not been "heard" by PF3. This happens on almost every flight at least once. It doesn´t matter at which phase of flight, though it happens with departure, Centers and Approach. Sometimes it takes 2nd contact by FO after "Traffic at FL blabla...squawking 1234, contact blabla on 123.45" only, but many times my FO need to repeat the contact for 4, 5, 6 times. 

2. Since the Update of PF3 my FO doesn´t respond to traffic announcements by atc anymore. Before he readback like, "Thank you for trafficinformation, thats very helpfull" but nowadays he keeps silent. Always.

3. When MCE starts, and it doesn´t matter if i start MCE via the windows shortcut in the task, or via the MCE menue within P3D, My SIM shows the informations text of P3D in the upper left corner in red about lat and long and my speed. But i have switched off all text messages within P3D. This info text comes up only with the start of MCE and can´t be switched off. I don´t want to see this bloody text in my window.

4. At the same time, just a millisecond after MCE is up and running, my GSX window seems to be called by MCE for some reason, and pops up. 

You know, i´am using P3D 5.2 HF1, + GSX + PF3 + MCE. Maybe there is a relation between those issues above by interfering keystrokes or something. Of course i have already changed the PF3 keys to the F1 to F12 keys to prevent from interfering with the GSX key combos.

I just want to have MCE and PF3 acting as before all that came up. That´s my wish for Christmas 😔 

Could be to do with mishandling F1, F2, F3 etc.. key assuignmnets on the MCE side. Pleas send your "pf3.ini" file to support so it can be tested with your exact hotkeys.

3. It is normal for MCE to display text after it completes the startup process. It is meant to display "Please wait while looking for aircraft changes", then "Ready to go" when it is ready to take speech.

It's too technical to explain, the text is meant to be shown in "text info" FPS mode (where you normally see the FPS and other data).

It assumes nothing is showing initially, does twice shift+Z to get to FPS display and replaces the text with whatever it needs to display, spoken command or message. then reverts back to whatever the display info was in.

It is the most efficient way, as the spoken commands are shown immediately, as opposed to the green bar messages where they are queued, not to mention a small performance hit while the green bar is displaying something (2D window on top of 3D scenery, whareas the info display is text within the 3D scenery).

In MSFS, it's done differently.

What you experienced can happen when the flight you started already has the text info ON, like displaying coordinates or something.

Eventually, right-click anywhere in MCE user interface and select "Recover text display" and follow instructions. After that it will be in synch for the rest of the flight. When you save a flight, rtry to emember to do Shif+z to remove all info before saving.

4. This is also normal, as MCE needs to double check youre using GSX (some people may prefer AES), therefore automatically triggers the window in order to check it out.

[BerndB 349]

6 hours ago, FS++ said:

Could be to do with mishandling F1, F2, F3 etc.. key assuignmnets on the MCE side. Pleas send your "pf3.ini" file to support so it can be tested with your exact hotkeys.

3. It is normal for MCE to display text after it completes the startup process. It is meant to display "Please wait while looking for aircraft changes", then "Ready to go" when it is ready to take speech.

It's too technical to explain, the text is meant to be shown in "text info" FPS mode (where you normally see the FPS and other data).

It assumes nothing is showing initially, does twice shift+Z to get to FPS display and replaces the text with whatever it needs to display, spoken command or message. then reverts back to whatever the display info was in.

It is the most efficient way, as the spoken commands are shown immediately, as opposed to the green bar messages where they are queued, not to mention a small performance hit while the green bar is displaying something (2D window on top of 3D scenery, whareas the info display is text within the 3D scenery).

In MSFS, it's done differently.

What you experienced can happen when the flight you started already has the text info ON, like displaying coordinates or something.

Eventually, right-click anywhere in MCE user interface and select "Recover text display" and follow instructions. After that it will be in synch for the rest of the flight. When you save a flight, rtry to emember to do Shif+z to remove all info before saving.

4. This is also normal, as MCE needs to double check youre using GSX (some people may prefer AES), therefore automatically triggers the window in order to check it out.

Thank you, Gerald that you´ll have a look into it. I´ve sent you my PF3.INI and also the PF3_MCE.Ini, just in case it helps. 

add. No. 3 i think i understand. Before i have disabled all text messages in P3D i usually got those MCE text like "please wait..." and "ready to go". Those are not shown anymore but instead the lateral position data are shown. I will check what you suggest and let you know. 

add. No. 4 That´s good to know that this is normal. Because on top of GSX i´am also running a lua script which automates and times all GSX actions. This scipt starts with P3D and start the automation once you´ve set the parking brake. I thought that MCE was interfere with this script, but as this is normal i´am chilled now on this point.

By the way: my fsinsider build is 2.8.4.3 and mce.exe is 2.9.3.9

Cheers

Edited November 30, 2021 by BerndB

[BerndB 349]

On 11/30/2021 at 8:38 PM, BerndB said:

Thank you, Gerald that you´ll have a look into it. I´ve sent you my PF3.INI and also the PF3_MCE.Ini, just in case it helps. 

add. No. 3 i think i understand. Before i have disabled all text messages in P3D i usually got those MCE text like "please wait..." and "ready to go". Those are not shown anymore but instead the lateral position data are shown. I will check what you suggest and let you know. 

add. No. 4 That´s good to know that this is normal. Because on top of GSX i´am also running a lua script which automates and times all GSX actions. This scipt starts with P3D and start the automation once you´ve set the parking brake. I thought that MCE was interfere with this script, but as this is normal i´am chilled now on this point.

By the way: my fsinsider build is 2.8.4.3 and mce.exe is 2.9.3.9

Cheers

Gerald, just a short update on my further findings.

I´ve updated MCE with the latest patch to work with the latest version of PF3. unfortunately this hasn´t resolved all the issues i have, but i have figured out something else. Regarding to my Issue No. 1, where the FO can´t be "heard" by atc, i have noticed, that it works well, only if the remote apps of PF3 are NOT running at the same time.

Generally i have the suspicion that this issue is based on a kind of problem whilst the COM frequency is set by the FO. In 9 out of 10 cases where it happens, that the FO changed the COM and calls the initial contact but won´t get heard, it´s solved if i choose the correct frequency again by myself in the SIM. I usually have the remote desktop app of PF3 open on a networked computer, and is can see that the COM freq seems normally changed by the FO, but it seems something isn´t. Now on the last 10 legs, i´ve left the remote app stayed OFF and everything worked much better. On these 10 legs i have just one incident, where ATC haven´t noticed the initial contact by MCE FO. I assume, that there is some kind of interfering if the remote apps of PF3 are running beside MCE.

May it can give a hint what could cause it.

[FS++ 708]

3 hours ago, BerndB said:

Gerald, just a short update on my further findings.

I´ve updated MCE with the latest patch to work with the latest version of PF3. unfortunately this hasn´t resolved all the issues i have, but i have figured out something else. Regarding to my Issue No. 1, where the FO can´t be "heard" by atc, i have noticed, that it works well, only if the remote apps of PF3 are NOT running at the same time.

Generally i have the suspicion that this issue is based on a kind of problem whilst the COM frequency is set by the FO. In 9 out of 10 cases where it happens, that the FO changed the COM and calls the initial contact but won´t get heard, it´s solved if i choose the correct frequency again by myself in the SIM. I usually have the remote desktop app of PF3 open on a networked computer, and is can see that the COM freq seems normally changed by the FO, but it seems something isn´t. Now on the last 10 legs, i´ve left the remote app stayed OFF and everything worked much better. On these 10 legs i have just one incident, where ATC haven´t noticed the initial contact by MCE FO. I assume, that there is some kind of interfering if the remote apps of PF3 are running beside MCE.

May it can give a hint what could cause it.

Not aware of the PF3 remote app at all.

Just kep in mind, when you transmit or FO does, the result is a hotkey that is sent to the main sim window.

If any other external app window takes the focus, the sim may not receive the key combo

 

[BerndB 349]

On 12/29/2021 at 7:08 PM, FS++ said:

Not aware of the PF3 remote app at all.

Those are the Remote PF3-Desktop and Remote Radio Stack. I used to run the Remote Desktop on a networked PC (not on the Main PC where PF3 is running), and if this Desktop is active it seems it´s interfere with MCE.

On 12/29/2021 at 7:08 PM, FS++ said:

If any other external app window takes the focus, the sim may not receive the key combo

It seems not an issue of lost focus of the SIM. If the hotkey sent by MCE isn´t recognised i have tried to klick into the SIM Window, but after another try by MCE and another etc. this didn´t solved the problem. But if i tune manually again the right COM frequency, this solves it immediately and the Hotkey is recognised. I think there is an issue of the Frequency tuning between MCE an PF3. This has started first with the Majorupdate of PF3 at the Beginning of this year. Before there was never an issue like this. I think it´s something basically has changed with that PF3 update.

Also since then the FO doesn´t respond anymore to the traffic advisories as he did before. It came all with the bloody new "Feature" of PF3 where it´s introduced this "...Traffic at FLblablabla squawking blablabla..." for which wasn´t a really need as MCE never missed a call before. It has made it worse imho.

[FS++ 708]

On 12/30/2021 at 7:12 PM, BerndB said:

Those are the Remote PF3-Desktop and Remote Radio Stack. I used to run the Remote Desktop on a networked PC (not on the Main PC where PF3 is running), and if this Desktop is active it seems it´s interfere with MCE.

It seems not an issue of lost focus of the SIM. If the hotkey sent by MCE isn´t recognised i have tried to klick into the SIM Window, but after another try by MCE and another etc. this didn´t solved the problem. But if i tune manually again the right COM frequency, this solves it immediately and the Hotkey is recognised. I think there is an issue of the Frequency tuning between MCE an PF3. This has started first with the Majorupdate of PF3 at the Beginning of this year. Before there was never an issue like this. I think it´s something basically has changed with that PF3 update.

Also since then the FO doesn´t respond anymore to the traffic advisories as he did before. It came all with the bloody new "Feature" of PF3 where it´s introduced this "...Traffic at FLblablabla squawking blablabla..." for which wasn´t a really need as MCE never missed a call before. It has made it worse imho.

Really not sure what we can do on our end.

Only scenario that is well tested is both PF3 and MCE running on same machine.

When you run PF3 from another networked machine you have to ensure the hotkeys captured in the sim can be remotely seen by PF3, that means looking into FSUIPC - wideFs (or whatever else is used to make it run through the network) combo

[BerndB 349]

1 hour ago, FS++ said:

Really not sure what we can do on our end.

Only scenario that is well tested is both PF3 and MCE running on same machine.

When you run PF3 from another networked machine you have to ensure the hotkeys captured in the sim can be remotely seen by PF3, that means looking into FSUIPC - wideFs (or whatever else is used to make it run through the network) combo

I´am NOT running PF3 on a network PC. PF3 and MCE ARE running on the same machine, since the first days.🧐

[FS++ 708]

On 12/30/2021 at 7:12 PM, BerndB said:

Those are the Remote PF3-Desktop and Remote Radio Stack. I used to run the Remote Desktop on a networked PC (not on the Main PC where PF3 is running), and if this Desktop is active it seems it´s interfere with MCE.

It seems not an issue of lost focus of the SIM. If the hotkey sent by MCE isn´t recognised i have tried to klick into the SIM Window, but after another try by MCE and another etc. this didn´t solved the problem. But if i tune manually again the right COM frequency, this solves it immediately and the Hotkey is recognised. I think there is an issue of the Frequency tuning between MCE an PF3. This has started first with the Majorupdate of PF3 at the Beginning of this year. Before there was never an issue like this. I think it´s something basically has changed with that PF3 update.

Also since then the FO doesn´t respond anymore to the traffic advisories as he did before. It came all with the bloody new "Feature" of PF3 where it´s introduced this "...Traffic at FLblablabla squawking blablabla..." for which wasn´t a really need as MCE never missed a call before. It has made it worse imho.

The "remote" thing led me to think that.

It's possible you have installed MSFS (even though you don't use it), then at some point in PF3 updates you agreed for the latter to use the most recent data from MSFS causing frequencies to be out of sync.

I suggest you run "makeRunways.exe" in P3D and update PF3 datavase. In that case, I see no reason why MCE FO wouldn't dial the correct frequency that shows up in "Clearance.log"