Connecting P3D and MSFS in same computer

[xmitr]

Hello, new to JoinFS. Looks like a promising program!
As the subject line says, I am running both Prepar3D v5 and MSFS2020 at the same time in my computer. Is it possible to join them in a JoinFS session? I have worked through the online manual but need guidance.

With multiple screens, two yokes and throttle quadrants it actually works quite well. My grandchildren love to play on the system and can each fly a plane at the same time, but it would be fun if they could see each other.

Regards
Don

[Peter]

Hi Don,

That's an interesting one. Not heard anyone ask about that before. It may work. Obviously you install both P3D and FS2020 version of JoinFS so that's not a problem.

The first part would be to get each version of JoinFS to connect correctly to the corresponding simulator. If you are lucky this may work out of the box. To test if it is working at all you will need to open the monitor window in JoinFS and see which simulator each version of JoinFS has connected to. What you may find it that they connect to the wrong simulator. (Both simulators use the SimConnect interface by the way). However it may be possible to configure SimConnect for each version using the files SimConnect.xml or SimConnect.cfg. It might be just one of those files that your need, but if you search online for those files it should tell you how to configure SimConnect manually. You will probably have to put a SimConnect.cfg into the same exe folders as JoinFS and edit them to correspond to each simulator.

The second part is getting the two versions of JoinFS to connect to each other. This is certainly doable. All you need to do is change the port number in the JoinFS settings for one of them. For example, 6113. Then to connect them together simply create a session on one side and join '127.0.0.1:6113' on the other. Both the network buttons should be green at that point.

Let us know how you get on.

Peter

[xmitr]

Hi Peter
I am having difficulty getting both the P3D and MSFS versions of JoinFS to open at the same time. Sometimes I was able to open them both together but I don't know what I did to do that. I also tried various ways to get the two to connect but without success. It seems only one Simulator button and Network button will turn green.

I noticed in the Monitor that indeed the wrong simulator was sometimes being referenced. There were messages about opening both concurrently not being allowed. There were also some messages that the incorrect version of Simconnect was being loaded.

Since this is all on the same computer and I am not going out the modem then should an address such as 127.0.0.1 or opening a port be necessary?

Thanks
Don

[Peter]

You don't need to open any router ports if this is all on your one machine. The address 127.0.0.1 is the IP address of your machine. Therefore if you want to connect to your own machine then enter 127.0.0.1 in the join address. But you can't use the same port for two different applications on the same machine. This is why you need to open the JoinFS settings on one of the JoinFS instances and change the port number to 6113.

JoinFS-P3D on 6112 (default)
JoinFS-FS2020 on 6113 (set in the JoinFS settings)

Then you can either create a session on JoinFS-P3D and join '127.0.0.1' from JoinFS-FS2020, or you can create a session on JoinFS-FS2020 and join '127.0.0.1:6113' from JoinFS-P3D. It doesn't matter which way you do this, the end result will be the same. Both network buttons should be green at that point.

Peter

[xmitr]

Hi Peter
With your lucid explanations so far I've been able to connect both instances of JoinFS to each other but both are referencing the same simulator, MSFS. All the Simulator and Network buttons are green. With only one simulator running JoinFS connects to the correct simulator but with both simulators running JoinFS-FSX connects to MSFS.

I found a Simconnect.cfg file in the P3D SDK which has this content:

; Example SimConnect client configurations

[SimConnect]
Protocol=Auto
Address=
Port=
MaxReceiveSize=
DisableNagle=

[SimConnect.1]
Protocol=Pipe
Address=.

[SimConnect.2]
Protocol=Ipv6
Address=::1

[SimConnect.3]
Protocol=Ipv4
Address=127.0.0.1

[SimConnect.4]
Protocol=Pipe
Address=<remote computer address or name here>
Port=<remote computer pipe name (matches Port name given in SimConnect.xml)>

[SimConnect.5]
Protocol=IPv6
Address=<remote computer address or name here>
Port=<remote computer port number here>

[SimConnect.6]
Protocol=IPv4
Address=<remote computer address or name here>
Port=<remote computer port number here>

I copied the file into the JoinFS folders, deleted all the content and used the [SimConnect.6] section then saved as SimConnect.cfg.
For JoinFS-FSX I replaced [SimConnect.6] with:
SimConnect.dll
Protocol=IPv4
Address=127.0.0.1
Port=6112

For JoinFS-FS2020 I replaced [SimConnect.6] with:
SimConnect.dll
Protocol=IPv4
Address=127.0.0.1
Port=6113

I'm probably way off the right procedure and it didn't work, but not being familiar with SimConnect that's about as far as I could go.

Regards
Don

[Peter]

In terms of connecting to the simulator you've got the wrong end of the stick. Think of the simulator and network connections as completely separate, like two different pipes. One pipe goes from the JoinFS instance to the simulator, and the other pipe goes to another JoinFS instance anywhere in the world, or as in your case, another instance on the same computer.

The ports 6112 and 6113 that you are using are purely for the JoinFS network connection. These have nothing to do with the simulator.

The cfg files are for the connection to the simulator. These have nothing to do with the JoinFS network on ports 6112, 6113.

I think you are on the right track putting the cfg files in the JoinFS folders. It's just that you want the connection going to the correct simulator.

Having just had a quick look online I think you may also need two simconnect.xml files. These files need to go in your simulator folders. Configure them to use different port numbers, for example 7800 and 7801. And then use those port numbers in your existing cfg files.

So to summarize, xml files go in the simulator folder to tell SimConnect which port to open. Then cfg files go in the JoinFS folder (as you have already done) which tell SimConnect which port to connect to.

Peter