This is a very important announcement for all of you that are less than happy that Pete Dowson has made FSUIPC payware.
There is a FREEWARE alternative, its called FDSConnection and is available at http://www.flightdecksoftware.com

Ozzy

BUT, will the current FSUIPC dependant software be compatible without being updated?

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That was on of my first thoughts also.

Silly question from a newbee, but what does this FSUIPC-thingie do exactly.

I've heard a lot about it, so i am curious.


Thanx

It allows other programs to communicate with FS. So things like having a fighter plane with a working radar that shows the position of other aircraft, or arrestor cables on your carriers, that kind of thing.

Ozzy

I've just downloaded fsconnection and put the file .dll in the modules folder of fs2004, but I can't make it work!The modules tab that appear with fsuipc  when you press alt in the game doesn´t appear, is this supposed to happen?And how can I make it work with arrestor cables?thks

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This new DLL does not have all the options FSUIPC had. It is just what it is, a dynamic link. FSUIPC had extra stuff added to it, so that means that that it wont show up like FSUIPC does

There is still a freeware version of FSUIPC available but with a restricted range of features, but hey guys, let's be fair. Peter Dowson whom I might add I have never met or communicated with in any form, has become the interface provider for every payware add-on. It is not unreasonable that he should seek some return for his service to the FS community which I think took him for granted and for a ride. From Australia Peter D I salute you and happily pay.

I agree with the fact that it's not fair to make an addon which is demanded by 90% of all addon stuff suddenly payware in such a way that none of those addons works until you pay for it

Testing by me gives the following conclusion: it lives happily together with FSUIPC on the same install, no conflicts seen yet

-on the soapbox- 

Hummmmmm........ let's be a little more precise when discussing Peter Dowson's original release of FSUIPC....pre fs2004 ..... before we criticize him too much for now wanting some bucks for his work.

If you look at earlier pre-fs2004 documents from that nice little program...... it WAS released for use without prior payment..... but it was ALSO mentioned he would not refuse voluntary "donations" for his efforts  .  To me that was a way of him being very nice to the flight sim community about the release of this awesome utility.... and believing that the community, when it saw what his programming efforts would actually allow, would turn around and reward his skills and hard work with something more than a cursory "thanks".

As I understand it...... he got almost no donations.  But if you read the various flight sim boards......... it seemed that just about EVERYONE was using it and simply raving about it.  (And rightly so.)  I don't know about you........ but that response would leave a bad taste in my mouth.

So the flight sim community grabbed and gobbled up his program...... built a TON of uses for it....... and never really acknowledged it to him in a tangible way.  It sort of became a "given" in life...... death, taxes, and FSUIPC.  That, to me, seems like the FS community in general kinda' took advantage of his generosity in releasing it as a "donations accepted" piece of software in the first place.

Maybe it was a naieve and stupid "marketing move" on his part...... maybe it should have been shareware right from the start.  Possibly he confused the "donations accepted" approach with the "shareware" approach.... thinking that they would be similar in their final effect.  He just was generous enough to not put some crippled features into it or put an expiration on it.

Why he might expect that people would voluntarily donate money is a bit beyond me.  After all, we are in a world where the ripping off of music downloads, copying and "cracking" software, and the like seem to be accepted as "normal" and almost considerd an "inalienable right".

He's not now asking hundreds of dollars for it!  It is a limited interest piece of software.... a small market when looked at in the "bigger picture" of offerings like Flight Sim itself.  Of COURSE it is going to be a bit expensive when compared to the sim itself.  $25 is not really that much money these days, at least in the USA.  (Burger flippers here in NH get about $9 an hour. Car mechanics get $50 an hour.  Lawyers get $200 an hour.  And we don't want to even talk about the highest paid profession in the world...... plumbers  .) 

I knew that once FSUIPC went payware that someone would do another version of something like it for free.  That's just the nature of this kind of thing.

But that fact does not make up for the fact that for YEARS a lot of flight sim users and other software developers DEPENDED on his base efforts to make many add ons work at all.  And now that he is asking for a little more in the way of real compensation....... he is getting kinda' "turned on" because of that.

It would be a pretty sad state of affairs if, now that there might be a new free "version" of FSUIPC, the FS community totally turned their backs on Pete Dowson's prior efforts and ignored the contribution that he has made to the field simply because he is trying to make a day's pay. 

If this happens...... shame on us.


If he is guilty of anything.... it is of being naieve... not greedy.

best,

...............john


PS:  If you are destitute and eating out of McDonald's dumpsters..... or a kid living on a small allowance....... hey...... I am all for freeware.  But if you're not truly hurtin' and it is that you simply do not want to pay if you can get it for free..... that's a tad different.

-off the soapbox-

John, I agree with part of what you said.

IMO, Pete should atleast allow freeware designers to use FSUIPC, and charge the payware designers

Michael, Thanks for the input, but I believe the one big question is will this dll allow current programs like FSsound carpet or any other FSUIPC dependent program to work?

Michael,

Hi.  Welcome to SimV.

I just wanted to make very clear here that I have absolutely no issue with your development of an alternative to FSUIPC.  Way to go!  Wish I had the programming skills anymore (mine mainly go back to COBOL, Fortan, and BASIC    ).  As I said in the post above..... and in posts from months ago..... I expected that when Pete Dowson went the "payware" route that someone would soon do that.

No reason someone shouldn't do that if they want to.  And you did..... and it sounds like are the first.  Congratulations.  Your efforts... like his before you.... should be lauded as significant contributions to the flight simulation field.  Doing this kind of intensive, nit-picking, skilled work totally for free is a pretty special thing.

What I do feel kinda' bad about is the way that he has often been "reviled" for deciding to charge for his new efforts.  The reaction seems to run from mild "distaste" to outright "hatred".  It is very sad to see.... and I sincerely hope that in the future if and when you decide to make some sort of changes in what you are doing....... like maybe finally quit doing it at all, if nothing else.... that you don't recieve the same kind of "barbs".

I just followed the link on your post to your website.  Nice setup.  I noticed that you have a Paypal "Donations" button on your website.  So in a sense you are in the same place he was for a long time with regard to that whole idea  .  It will be interesting to see how many donations you ever get to kinda' compare your experience to his.

Your "glass cockpit" stuff looks very nice too.  I am working on setting up a simulated cockpit right now.  (See the thread "Homebrew Cockpits" in the General Forum section here........ I just posted a bunch of new construction pictures there today.)

best,

.....................john

hi, I agree that  pete did a fantastic job the past few years, and still does, but I've just spend around 500€ in new hardware to have fs2k4 running smooth!I don't have the luxury of having to pay another 20€ or so for every program and addon that there is!now is fsuipc, after that will be some nice plane and panel, and so on!I think the idea of a flight comunity is to help each other!If pete and other people (I'm talking mostly about pete because his program made us dependant !) want to be paid, why don't they try to reach an agreement with mmicrosoft, so that fsuipc would be a default fs application? I'll probably have to buy it because I love carrier opperations, and the version of arrcab that I have was still freeware, but it doesn't work in fs2k4, at least I can't make it work with fsdconnection! I still have fs2k2 installed in my computer simply to have carrier ops!For now, thats the way it will be!
P.S. Is just me, or the water effects in fs2k2 were far superior  to the ones in fs2k4?

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Because Microsoft would try to pay Pete next to nothing.... take it or leave it.   

I am sure that Microsoft itself could develop this capability in the software if they wanted to.  No one knows the code better  .

This really is very simple when you cut to the chase...... if you want FSUIPC for the new stuff... you pay for it.  If you want FSDConnect.... you download it and it is free.  If something does not work with one or the other...... you decide how much you want it....and then you get the other one.  Or you don;t use the thing that doesn't work.

best,

...................john

HI again all,
Just a small misunderstanding I'd like to correct: Some people seem to think that by installing FDSConnection, all programs currently using FSUIPC will now automatically use FDSConnection. This is not the case, I could have written it that way (by giving the hidden FDSConnection window, the external programs communiate with, the same name as FSUIPC's). That would have been "going way over the line". Again, I do not have anything against Peter, I just did it so there would still be a freeware alternative for freeware developers. Programs that currently use need to be adapted by the developers in order to be comatible with FDSConnection. I've written FDSConnection in such a way though that the adaptation required is very easy and just a matter of replacing a few function calls. This way developers can make there products compatible with both FDSConnection & FSUIPC with very little effort.
regards,
Michael De Feyter
Flight Deck Software
www.flightdecksoftware.com

Sure, Pete Dawson's decision needs to be respected, but we still have the freedom to disagree.

Say I develop a freeware program that everyone loves, and then designers use it for their own developments. Before long, the whole community is dependant on it

Then, without warning I start charging a lot of money for it. Now the community who used it for everything, is left without it, and a LOT of freeware programs are useless. Now you tell me what's fair. Now if I had told everyone to start off what my plans are, maybe then people wouldn't have been as mad at me.

I agree that somehow Peter Dowson should be rewarded somehow for what he as been doing for the community the last years BUT, if Peter's module had been payware from the start, I guarantee you that most freeware FS addons today would not use FSUIPC, they would all have had their own interface towards FS or maybe other free alternatives would have existed. Anyway, it is true that in the ideal world microsoft should be the one to provide us with an interface towards their product. While developing FDSConnection I noticed that there are so many variables out there somewhere in the FS9 memory space that are unknown, not used or simplified in order to be compatible with FS98/FSUIPC. If MS would have provided us a descent SDK from the start, all this messing around with shared memory hidden windows atoms and so on, just to get a variable out of FS would not have been necesary. I hope that one day MS will do some efford for us as well.
regards,
Michael De Feyter
Flight Deck Software
www.flightdecksoftware.com

If an author of fiction wrote excellent short stories and published them on a website and we could read them for free went on to publish a novel we (the public) would pay.  We would acknowledge the time and effort that went into the writing of the book and pay the author its due.  A freeware version of the program still exists but for the new sim the author has chosen to charge us for his time and effort.  So pay the man.

Will

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Slimcooper, sorry if I disagree.  That is like saying the man should've decided for a careerpath from birth, to me.

Now we all know, during our lives we may change careers or jobs many times over. You never know up front what life brings you, so I personally think, the timing to start delivering payware at the outcome of FS2004 and the new FSUIPC version is quite correct. After all, the (old) freeware package didn't stop functioning, right? The conditions under which it operates haven't changed, it just doesn't work with the new flightsim...

Developers!!!   Please let us know.  Thank You!!!
Best,

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What's FSUIPC???????????

Hi Mike,

I think this thread will pretty much explain all sides and aspects of FSUIPC. 

Best,


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Aw, for crying out loud!  This is the so called land of freedom and opportunity.  None of us "depend" on Pete's work! We can still breath without it. Stop your griping and donate some of your own time and creativity before condemning the man for charging a reasonable fee for his services.  If you're sitting in front of a pc playing fs9, then you're not starving! Sheez!

Hi Ozzy,

    What is exactly an FSUIPC payware?

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j_g_parker   wrote this earlier in this thread.   i haven't heard any one else even mention this.   
  if this is true..........i can see no reason why this thread even exsists.     i currently don't use fsuipc,  but recently downloaded roger wilco(  for free )  and i'm personally going to pay the man.       
    but if it is true........ that the free version of pete's program has all the functionality needed to run the add-on's   that are "dependent" on fsuipc,  then those of us in this community that persecute pete for selling the extra's should have a hard time looking in a mirror.

Can anyone please tell me how to get the radar scope to "scope" in the F16? I've tried the replacement program for FSUIPC but am unable to even tell if it is running. Thanks for any possible help. 

It's dirty business.

You don't release a program for free, then realize it's a hit so you start charging for it.

If you're going to be a commercial developer, you're going to have to take the wins with the losses.  Release it payware from day one.  If it fails, so be it.  That's called risk, and it's an inherent part of any business.

Shame on Pete Dowson for not having the courage to take such a risk.

Hi,

Maybe this is old news...........

Found a discussion that Pete is using to assist simmers use the free version of FSUIPC.

http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=10812&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start...

I only use FSUIPC for AFCAD, so didnt dig in to far, but appears he is providing keys for many freeware addons, both new and old.. Quote:


Might be worth a read.

Cheers,
Dave