Common Information

Wednesday, February 11, 2004
For the newest online version of this document, go to www.schiratti.com/docs

Please send an e-mail (support@projectmagenta.com) with your unanswered questions or any hints you think may be useful to others. Thank you.

Index

FSUIPC and WideFS (connection to FS)
Codes and Registration
Simulator/Network
Shared Folder/NetDir
Multi-monitor Setup

FSUIPC and WideFS

Project Magenta software uses FSUIPC and WideFS (both written by Peter Dowson) to comminicate with Flight Simulator. The very latest versions of this software can be found here: www.schiratti.com/dowson

FSUIPC (always required)
Is a module (FS DLL) which allows programs external to Flight Simulator to connect to and communicate with Microsoft Flight Simulator. It is required in order to allow Project Magenta software to work as intended.

WideFS (Network Users)
Wide FS, consisting of WideServer (FS DLL) and WideClient (Client application) is a system that allows programs to connect to FS across a network, without the need of installing FS on every single PC. This software requires FSUIPC.DLL to be installed as well.

If you need any assistance, please contact support@projectmagenta.com

Codes and Registration

Although they aren't popular at all, even with ourselves, we have opted for a unique PC-specific registration key. We are sorry that it causes an inconvenience, but it does help us to feel a little bit more protected when we take these precautions.

When the full version of the program starts, you will see this screen:

In this case, the Computer ID is DHWRMY.

Once you have sent your e-mail with your own Computer ID you will receive the following reply:

Codes for Machine DHWRMY

Glass Cockpit Activation Code

KSJHBE30

(Verified GC Options: PFD FD ND 4 Engine)

The Registration Key you would need to enter in this case is KSJHBE30. Once the correct code is entered, it will be saved and the program will operate normally.

In our example the code has been confirmed for the options PFD, FD, ND and 4 Engine. Please verify that these are the options you ordered. Should you receive a new code because you have ordered new options, then delete the file PFD.KEY from the directory the software was installed in.

Should the program, for any reason, ask for a new code, because the Computer ID has changes, please just write an e-mail requesting a new code.

 

Simulator/Network

The speed and versatility of the Project Magenta software is significantly enhanced by running on two or more networked computers. Once several  computers are networked the primary application on each computer can be run in accelerated OpenGL, and without switching tasks between the simulator and the panel components if they were running on the same computer, even with multiple displays.

The network is the best and strongly suggested way to run our current software to its full potential !

Networking can be as simple or as complex as one chooses! For our software we use Peter Dowson’s WideFS, running over an IPX/SPX connection. Note : Check the latest version of WideFS, available HERE for compatibility with Win-2000.

There is a wide variety of networking hardware solutions, from the USB connection to a single Interlink cable, but the most standard and widely used is via an internal ISA/PCI network adapter. For current PFD operation network cards working to a speed of 10mbs is sufficient. Most cards nowadays are 10/100base compatible and automatically switch between these two data rates. So, if you wanted to run your system using a 10base hub these cards would be fine. For even more speed a 100base hub can be purchased, however, at present you are then paying for speed not necessarily required by PFD software and WideFS.

PCI network cards offer easier set-up because of their better plug & play compatibility with Windows 98. Sometimes if the cards are not fully plug and Play conflicts can arise with interrupts on other devices and can result in having to manually configure devices.

For two PC operation, FS2000 on one and PFD on the second you could opt for two PCI network cards joined by a cross-over network cable. You could always buy a hub at a later date enabling further PC’s to be networked to your main server PC (usually the one running FS2000). This was, all PC’s are connected to the hub giving great possibilities to enhance your cockpit!

Once the network card and its drivers are installed, we need to get the network ready to use PFD ! Open the Control Panel and double-click on the Network applet icon to get to the Network Properties window as shown below :

There are several key components to a network besides the hardware connection represented by your network card : the client which is the software used to share and link resources between the network computers, the protocol which is the language used to communicate over the network (IPX/SPX for WideFS, TCP/IP for internet...) and some services to enable sharing resources, remote control, etc...

For the PFD software to run properly, first part is to get the network ready for it, then we will have a close look at our own software parameters, one step at a time please !

Important

To eliminate the possibility of any Network ‘breakdowns’ or other related problems of a network. When connecting your PC’s together first make sure they are all running the same version of Windows 98. Our support team have picked up problems when mixing for example: Windows98SE with Windows98 OS.

In the windows 98 control panel you will find a icon named Network. Click on this and open it.

You need to install the following components, or check they are configured as followed  : 
Client for Microsoft Networks
IPX/SPX-compatible protocol
File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks

Let's have a look at some of their parameters : 

The network adapter must be linked to the IPX/SPX protocol, and others if you require them for other applications, this is checked by looking at the Bindings tab of the card properties as shown below :

You also need to check that the protocol is correctly linked to the client and the file and printer sharing service :

Then you need to tell what to do to the file and printer sharing service : enable access to the files, and to your printer if you have one on the PC you are working on and want to share it...

Note : If your PC is also used to connect to the Internet, I advise you for security reasons to NOT bind the TCP/IP protocol to the sharing service that you may have added for using the PFD software, as pictured below (of course do not do that if you use that protocol to share resources on your home network...)

The other tabs in the Network Properties window are the Identification of your computer on the network :

The computer name must be unique and will identify your PC (take a note of it for further reference used in the PFD software parameters) whilst all your computers on the network used for PFD must share the same Workgroup. The description can be used as a reminder for indicating who is who and who does what ("P200-CDU/MCP" or "PIII500-FS2000" etc...)

And finally the Access control tab should be set for share-level access control if you don't require another type of access control on your network :

 

Once all these settings are done, Windows 98 will need to reboot, then we will dig in some parameters more proprietary to the PFD software, after enabling the sharing of the resources on your network. To keep things straight enable a full sharing of all the drives on which FS2000, WideFS and the PFD programs are running, on all your computers. You can of course personalize your sharing options the way you prefer or feel secure with. Double-click on the My Computer icon on the desktop, right-click on a drive and reach the sharing tab in the device properties window :

 

Well done, the network is now ready ! Let's investigate the mandatory PFD parameter that you will find in all the ini files of all your PFD programs : the netdir !!!

In order for the PFD programs to communicate together you will have to choose or create a folder on one of your networked machines, folder that will become the netdir. We suggest creating a PFDData directory in the root of the drive of whichever system is running FS (i.e. usually your 'Server')

Then you will have to enter the netdir address, which is the same for every ini file, in the mcp.ini, cdu.ini and all pfd.ini like that : NetDir=\\Computer Name\drive\folder name

As an example, FS2000 is installed and running on a computer called GameBox and has a directory created in the root of the D: drive called PFDData, so we have NetDir=\\GameBox\D\PFDData. Another example : a folder named FSData created in the C:\PFD folder of the machine "Simulator" would have this parameter : NetDir=\\Simulator\C\PFD\FSData. Note that it is very important that this folder is shared with full access.

Last but not least, we'd like to suggest some parameter values specific to PFD in the WideFS ini files. Please also review Pete Dowson's documentation as well which is very complete for the other parameters and their values.
In WideServer.ini set the AutoUpdateTime parameter in the [Config] section to 10, and the TranslateFS2000 parameter in the [User] section to Yes if you are flying with FS2000.
In all WideClient.ini set the Timeout parameter in the [Config] section to 0

 

Shared Folders/NetDir

The Flight Management Computer Software (CDU/MCDU) generates files for the other software such as the Glass Cockpits, MCP/FCU and other utilities. Although a lot of the data is shared via offsets, we still need a common location on the network where these files can be saved and read.

Create or choose any folder you wish to use for this by right-clicking on the folder, then select the File Sharing tab. After that you enter a name and check "Allow Read/Write access" or "Allow these files to be changed".

For instance, if you are sharing the CDU folder on the computer called FMCPC over the network and you want the folder C:\CDU\NETDIR to be shared, you can either share the entire C drive, the entire CDU folder or just the NETDIR folder. Although the folder name is specified on a local machine as C:\FOLDERNAME when you are sharing it across the network it should look something like this:

NetDir=\\FMCPC\C\CDU\NETDIR (if you shared the entire C DRIVE)
NetDir=\\FMCPC\CDU\NETDIR (if you shared the CDU folder)
NetDir=\\FMCPC\NETDIR (if you shared the NETDIR folder as NETDIR)

So the convention is \\Computername\[Drive]\Foldername

The current versions of our software do not require entering a special NetDir folder in all of the INI files as we used to have in the past. Thus you only need to specify this entry in the CDU.INI or MCDU.INI file.

In the Boeing-Type CDU you can also create it automatically by pressing INIT/REF, INDEX, MAINT, NETDIR and selecting the LSK of where you want the NetDri folder to be created.

In the Airbus-Type MCDU the menu is under MCDU MENU, MAINT, NETDIR.

 

Multi-monitor Setup

One of the little known features of Windows 98 is the ability to easily attach and use two or more monitors as a seamless integration of the desktop. This feature is also supported by Windows 2000.

When running two or more monitors, one screen is chosen as the primary monitor and houses the Windows Taskbar and the desktop icons, the other(s) become an extension of the desktop and can be used to display additional windows.

There is a severe limitation as far as our programs are concerned : on a multi-monitor system Windows 98 disables OpenGL acceleration. Windows 2000 support it if the video card drivers do. Therefore it is strongly suggested to use a multi-monitor setup for our displays that do not need an accelerated OpenGL, such as the MCP, the CDU or even the EICAS. The PFD/ND requires an accelerated OpenGL to be displayed with sufficient frame rates and would be better run on its own networked system.

Another limitation of a multi-display environment with DirectX is that you get a full acceleration in full -screen mode on all displays, but only on the primary display in windowed mode.

First requirement to setup a multi-display system is the Operating System, as we saw : Windows 98 or Windows 2000 (Note : Be sure top check the release documentation with the latest version of WideFS before trying to use this utility with Windows 2000).

You then need of course several monitors, and either a video adapter supporting two displays as the Matrox G400 Dual-Head, or several video cards. The video cards must be AGP or PCI, not ISA, and their drivers compatible with the multi-monitor option, check with the card manufacturer.

If your PC has an AGP slot check the BIOS and update it if necessary to be able to choose which card is used as primary : AGP or PCI. If you only use PCI cards the primary will be the first one initialized by the BIOS, switch the adapters between slots to pick up your choice with Windows 98. Windows 2000 let you choose which PCI video card is the primary one.

Once the additional card is physically installed in your computer, and don't forget to plug the monitor to it, you should get the message in the image below on your secondary monitor :

Then install the drivers for your secondary video card and reboot, then check via the Device Manager in the System properties that your hardware is correctly configured. The example below shows you two monitors plugged into a Matrox G400 with dual-head capabilities.

Open the Display Properties and go the Settings tab to enable the desktop on the additional monitor(s) and choose your settings with screen resolutions, color depths and refresh rates. It is useful to note that the monitors can be placed in any physical position desired simply by dragging and dropping the monitors in the window shown below. In this way one might run two monitors vertically, the top one showing the outside view in FS98 and the lower the PFD.

 

Additional information is available from the links below :

Windows 98 multi-monitor hardware compatibility list (quite out of date)

RealTimeSoft Multi-Monitor Resources where you will find a regularly updated database of compatible video adapters and drivers as well as an extensive FAQ about multiple monitors under Windows 98 and Windows 2000.