experiences with wideview settings?

[stabell]

I have only one network card in each PC, and there is both TCPIP and
"NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBios compatible..." ticked on each card.
However, both PC's are connected to a router, maybe I should have a dedicated network card and cable for the IPX-stuff.
Do you have your computers connected to a swithc, perhaps?

[stabell]

I have now connected the two computers together through a network switch, using TCPIP (because I cannot get IPX to work) just to be sure that the problem is not internet traffic using the bandwith, etc.
It stutters like a nightmare, and I think I have tried every possible WideView settings, I have locked both computers to 31 FPS, both computers run smooth as silk, separately.. But with wideview, it is not good at all.
The client is hovering a couple of meters in the air, so the landing gear problem shuld be solved.
Whn connected, the client seems to be running smooth for a second, then a little pause of about 1/10th of a second, and then it is "huurying up" to catch up. So there is a terrible stutter every second or so.
So if you have Wideview, and the client(s) are smooth as silk, and haven't changed any setting, or done something odd/smart with your network, I guess you can not help me
But if you hvae encountered stutters, and found a sollution, please tell me.
(the new version with the smooting function didn't have any impact on the problem)

XP and FSX.

[MartinK]

Hi Stabell,

If both your machines are running smoothly by themselves then you may suspect a networking issue.
Check your network switch for any (TCP) traffic with WidevieW switched off. If any one of the LEDs on the box is blinking in a rapid fashion something is generating havy network traffic but WidevieW is not causing it.
If there is traffic going on and you then switch the WidevieW server side to on you should see havy blinking (almost solid on) on the LEDs.
What brand or model switch are you using?

If there is already (havy) traffic going through the switch without WidevieW being active you may suspect some spy software or something else.
It that case I would suggest you have your PC checked by some spyeraser program first.

Again, with WidevieW off, both PCs connected to the switch and no other applications running on either PC there should be little or no traffic going on on your network. If there is however then WidevieW could be suffering from that. Although the WidevieW manual says WidevieW would benefit from running over the IPX protocol I am running it over TCP on the same switch that is also connected to my ADSL router and I am having no problems at all.

IPX on XP should be working ok. If you can't get it work I would suggest to delete the IPX protocol from the adapter and the reinstall it.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Martin

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

hi stabell.........
martin is right. from your earlier descriptions of your issue, my opinion is that both machines are running well because of the fps returns when they are 'standalone'. another clue pointing to the network is that you say it stutters and then tries to hurry to catch up. this suggests that there is congestion on the connection because simply put what wideview does is update position/altitude and pitch/roll information from the server to the client in real time.
i have to agree with martin that there is something eating up the network capacity and then your wideview packets are having to wait their turn to be sent, hence the stuttering.
i know it can be a real b**lache when you have an issue like this, but we are all here to help if we can.
good luck and i also agree to try to re-install the IPX protocol if you can.
have a great evening and hope you get it working......
ciao ... ian

[stabell]

Hi, network/homepilot-guys!
I have investigated the matter further, and maybe this may be caused by something else..
Let me think this through:
WideView is a slew based system.
I notice that if I am standing still at a runway (no wideview started) and press "y" (starting slew mode), the plane will go like mad somewhere, due to a not-perfectly-nullzoned joystick. So if I use the joystick to slew back to the airport, so to speak, the plane can then stand still in slew mode - the joystick is now perfectly nullzone'd.
Then I press "y", and the plane will sink some inches down on the gear, and rest.
So I press "y" again, and the plane goes off like a rocket again!

This results in the following interresting observation:
I start both the server and the client, taxiing slowly forward.
Stuttering motion once a second on the vclient.
Then I press "y" on the client.
For a split second the client is off to the moon, but it reaches only some feet away before WideView TURNS SLEW BACK ON.
Now the interresting bit: Wideview now works smoothly! For about two seconds
When in slew, without WideView started,
if I get the plane to stand still, by pressing NUM5 (reset), it is possible to get the plane to move slowly to the side by pressing the arrow keys once.
This means that with WideView running, I can see that the smoothness can be better, or much worse by pressing these arrows...
It is like there is a permanent slew setting that is not centered, it is not directly "connected" to the normal joystick setting?

On the client I have no joystiock, so there is nothing to "center" there.
But the server is probably the problem, it doesn't seem to help just to calibrate the joystick, because "slew" has an own calibration somewhere..

Just thinking loud here.
Maybe you pro's have the key to this puzzle

[AndyT]

Ummm.... dont use slew?

[stabell]

Well, WideView IS using slew to work

[XOrionFE]

On the network side there is no reason that I can think of for anyone to run IPX anymore. IP is far more efficient as IPX is a broadcast protocol and very chatty.

That said, I cannot see how anyone could have issues with either in a peer to peer enviroment with the type of stuff we push through our systems. Especially using 100mb cards and certainly shouldnt have a problem if you have gigabyte cards. I have seen SQL servers on some of my customer networks that are getting pounded by thousands of transactions from users that rarely go above 20-30% utilization when using gigabyte card on a good switch.

What I have seen is many times there is a speed/duplex mismatch between a network card (NIC) and the switch it is attached to. If you have two computers connected directly I suggest you go into your NIC configuration and set both to use max matchable speed (ie- 100 mb or 1 gig) and also set the duplex to full (note that many gigabyte nics may not allow you to set duplex to full because they only work at full duplex). The main point is to make sure you are getting the max potential out of the card. If for some reason you are in Auto mode and getting Half Duplex then that is a real killer.

It also helps if able to use a managable swtich between clients becuase it will allow you to also select speed and duplex of a port. You can also see if there are collisions or crc errors occurring on a port in most managable switches which will help you identify if there is a problem.

Again, I think it highly unlikely for anyone using gigabyte for sure to be overwhelming the capacity in our enviroments.

Finally, this may have been said but ensure you do not have Windows firewall enabled and blocking traffic between your pcs.

Hope this helps

[MartinK]

Hi St

I had to read your latest msg a few times before I really understood what is happening but here are some of my thougths:

- I am assuming it is not a networking issue and you have checked for any
other havy network traffice with WidevieW off.
- Next, in your latest msg you are mentioning the following:
I notice that if I am standing still at a runway (no wideview started)
and press "y" (starting slew mode), the plane will go like mad somewhere,
due to a not-perfectly-nullzoned joystick. So if I use the joystick to slew
back to the airport, so to speak, the plane can then stand still in slew
mode - the joystick is now perfectly nullzone'd.

My questions here are:
1) is this done on your server or your client? If it is on your server, then
why are you doing so? There is no need to press 'Y' on neither the client
or the server; WidevieW will handle that for you (on the client) where
and when applicable.
2) how can you nullzone a joystick by using the stick to slew your aircraft
back to where you want it?
If you are using a joystick I would suggest you calibrate it first in the
correct way such that when you put your plane on the runway and
you switch the joystick on it doesn't take off in all unwanted directions.
3) have you made any changes to any of the .cfg files, like eg. fs9.cfg
panel.cfg or aircraft.cfg and if so, what are those changes and why
did you made them?

Again, if you put your plane on the server side on the tarmack regardless whether the joystick is on or off it shouldnot take off by itself under any circumstance.

Also, from my experience the correct way to start a WidevieW client is to start your server side first by putting your plane in the position you want, start WidevieW by using the switch on the WV panel (you can see WV is working through the LEDs on your switch) and no movement should take place up to this point.

Next you start your client side by putting the plane (preferably the same one as on the server) somewhere (not necessarily the same Lat/Lon as is the case on the server) and start WV, again using the on/off swithc on the WV panel. If the client aircraft is in the same position as the one on the server, again nothing should happen until you start playing around with the throtlle on the server side. If however, the client aircraft is in a different (Lat/Lon) position compared to the server one then you should see immediate movement on the client aircraft to catch up on the Lat/Lon (and actually Altitude) position as is being transmitted to it constantly by the server.

If you see any other behaviour then described above some configuration somewhere is seriously meshed up and unless you know where you have made changed over time the only way to get out of this is to re-install WV and/or FS.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Martin

[stabell]

Hi there, captain!
The reason for doing this test, was to try to narrow down the problems I have with WV.
I thought that if going to Slew mode means that the plane is not standing still, I thought that this would "compete" with WV's update on position.
And I found that in the Control section, Joystick, there is also a slew department, and there were several settings assigned (by default?),
like moving the mouse puts the plane forward, etc.
But by taking away all these, the plane, both server and client, is standing still in slew mode.

But this did not solve the WV problems, I'm affraid, so now I am onto the network settings again.

So now I am hoping to read something like "before I had stutter problems with WV, but that was solved when I did this...

XOrion: I will tke a look at the network settings, that might be the problem.
Sounds like you know a lot about network!
Thank you all for help!