What's new in 1.1:

• Fixed multiplayer connect window sometimes not appearing correctly.
• Fixed chat window sometimes not appearing correctly.

What's new in 1.0:

• No expiration date.
• Better handling of weather from FSHost.
• Better handling of other players' planes.  New high resolution timer for plane updates will hopefully make other aircraft move more smoothly.  You can now change the update time on the Options window.  Feel free to post about your experiences with it in the forums.
• Added info about PostcardWare.  More info available under the Help menu inside the program.

What's new in 1.0 beta 6:

• New method for displaying remote aircraft.  I'm trying something new in this version, and I'd appreciate any feedback from you guys.  This version uses a different method for displaying the other aircraft in your session, and this allows a few more visual items on the remote aircraft to work:
  • Gear
  • Flaps
  • Elevators
  • Ailerons
  • Lights
  • Smoke
  • Door 1 (or canopy)
  Unfortunately the following are still not working though:
  • Rudder
  • Airplane propellers (always spin)
  • Helicopter rotors (never spin)
  This may also affect how the remote aircraft look while they're flying.  I'm still seeing some stuttering occasionally, but I'd be interested in hearing about whether the general smoothness seems any better or worse than previous versions.  (Note that you should be on the ground and not moving when watching someone else's aircraft moving, or you'll see excessive forward-backward stuttering caused by an optical illusion that happens when both you and the other player are moving.)
• Added ability to hide a remote player's aircraft.  Right-click a player's name or use the Player menu.  The player's aircraft will be hidden for the remainder of the time that it's connected to the session.  Unhide the player using the same method.
• Added clickable URLs in the chat window.  Note that this feature is disabled by default.  To enable it, see the Options window (Edit / Options, or press Ctrl+O).  Clicking a URL in the chat window causes the default web browser to jump to the web page.
• Fixed the Enter key not switching focus from FSX to the chat window.  When pressing the Enter key in the FSX, sometimes the chat window would just flash in the taskbar and not get focus, which meant that keypresses still went to the FSX window.
• Fixed server names and descriptions getting out of order in the multiplayer connect window.
• Fixed FSX crashing when FSHostClient is started before add-on programs such as GoFlight's module support software.

What's new in 1.0 beta 5:

• Added ability to mute a player's chat messages.  Right-click a player's name or use the Player menu in the main FSHostClient window to mute a player.  When a muted player sends a chat message, it is not displayed in the chat window.
• Change a player's aircraft.  The program now scans all aircraft subdirectories listed in "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX\fsx.cfg".  This should help with 3rd-party aircraft.  The window listing all available aircraft also now has a checkbox to show or hide non-aircraft objects like animals, boats, and vehicles.  (there are few things more fun than seeing an elephant or a giant cruise ship take off down the runway and up into the sky :-)
• Fixed problem of not sending local FSX plane's data (gear, flaps, elevator, rudder, ailerons, engines) to remote players immediately after connecting.
• Fixed observers.  When connecting to an FSHost session as an observer, your plane will be invisible to other players, but FSHost will still know your status.  When other players connect to the session as an observer, they will be invisible to you.  This is the same behavior as in FS2002 and FS2004.
• Fixed "SimConnectErrors lock timeout" errors.  Hopefully.

What's new in 1.0 beta 4:

• Weather from FSHost.  The weather is now changed in FSX when it's set by an FSHost server.  There are a couple of small problems in FSX that I hope Microsoft will eventually fix, such as some of the turbulence and upper wind direction values not being correct, but mostly it's working now.  Email me if you need details.
• Change a player's aircraft.  Right-click a player's name and select "Change player's aircraft" to display a list of all known aircraft in FSX.  Then select a new aircraft, and the player is reloaded with it.  When FSHostClient is first started, it scans the "SimObjects\Airplanes" and "SimObjects\Rotorcraft" subdirectories under the main FSX directory to find aircraft config files, and then lets you choose a new aircraft from that list.  If you install a new aircraft for FSX, restart FSHostClient to get it to re-scan the files.
• Fixed gear and smoke sometimes not appearing,  just after connecting to a session.
• Changed the multiplayer connect window to not clear an existing password from the box if a valid password is already entered.

What's new in 1.0 beta 3:

• Chat window improvements:
  • Includes the player list.
  • Private messages to one or more players.  You can send private messages to anyone, including FSHost, FSX players, or players using FS2002/4, but players using FS2002/4 do not have the ability to send a private message back to you.
  • Allows right-click on player names to jump to their location.  (similar to right-clicking a player's name in the main window, or selecting a name and using the Player menu)
  • Shows your name in purple, other players' names in blue, the host's name in green and private message text in red.
  • Is resizable.
  • Position and size are remembered.
  • No longer causes the main window to come forward.
  • New options added to control what happens after sending or receiving a message (see options below).
• Automatic TeamSpeak channel changing, linked to Com frequency.  When you change the active Com frequency in the aircraft, the TeamSpeak channel is automatically changed to the matching channel. For example, if you tune Com 1 to frequency 123.45, and you have Com 1 set as the active Com channel, and the TeamSpeak server you're connected to has a channel with a name beginning with 123.45 (i.e. "123.45 - Tower") then TeamSpeak will be changed to that channel automatically. The same thing happens when you switch the active channel in the aircraft between Com 1 and Com 2. You can enable this in the new Options window (see below).  It is disabled by default.
• Options window (click the Edit menu and select Options, or just click Ctrl+O) with the following options:
  • Hide chat window after sending msg.
  • Set focus to FSX after sending msg.
  • Show chat window after receiving msg.
  • Show chat window after receiving private msg.
  • Enable/disable debug messages, debug errors, and chat msgs.
  • Enable/disable automatic TeamSpeak channel changing.
• Multiplayer connect window improvements:
  • All sessions on the host's IP address are displayed.
  • Double-clicking the session name connects to the session.
• Aircraft mapping and default aircraft model.  Open the new "planes.txt" file in the FSHostClient directory with Notepad for info on how to specify which plane should be shown in FSX when another player is flying an aircraft that you don't have.  For example, if someone is flying a "My Fancy 737" and you don't have that model, you can display them with the normal 737 instead.  You can also control which plane is used when all else fails -- normally it's the green and white Cessna.  The "planes.txt" file is automatically reloaded by FSHostClient once a minute, and a normal log message is displayed when this is done.
• Smoke trails are visible between FSX players.  Try flying the Extra and turning on the smoke switch.  Very cool.  (not supported by FS2002/4)
• Door 1 (or canopy) opening or closing is visible between FSX players.  (not supported by FS2002/4)
• Ailerons, flaps, elevator, rudder, gear, (some) lights, and engines.  All items work when an FS2002/4 player views an FSX player, but only flaps, gear, and some lights work when an FSX player views an FS2002/4 player.  See note on download page about things not supported by FSX.
• Fixed problem with FSX players sometimes not visible to other FSX players.
• Fixed FS2002/4 players with helicopters always appearing as a Cessna in FSX. Note that the player's name will not appear above the helicopter. Rotor blade will also not turn, and it will look very silly while flying. See note on download page about things not supported by FSX.

What's new in 1.0 beta 2:

• Fixed problem with remote FSX planes sometimes not being visible.

• Fixed problem with FSHost and FSHostSpy not showing the FSX plane's ground speed and "Flying" status correctly.

• Fixed chat window not scrolling to bottom after being restored from a minimized state.

• Added version check on program startup.

• Window size and position are saved.

• Player name, IP address, and port are saved.

• Cleaned up multiplayer connect window.

• Cleaned up a few log messages.

What's new in 1.0 beta 1:

• Connect FSX to an FSHost server.  There are two ways to do this.  In FSX, start a flight so you're in a plane, then click the Add-ons menu, select FSHostClient, and then "Multiplayer Connect".  Or if you want to connect before starting a flight, use the FSHostClient window and click the Multiplayer menu, and select "Connect to session" (or just click Ctrl-M).  To disconnect from within FSX, click the Add-ons menu, select FSHostClient, and then "Multiplayer Disconnect".  Or in FSHostClient, click the Multiplayer menu and select "Disconnect from session" (or just click Ctrl-D).  Works with existing FSHost servers, no upgrade is currently required for FSHost, although a new FSHost will be available later to take advantage of new features in FSX and FSHostClient.

• All players can see each other.  FS2002, FS2004, and FSX players can all connect together in the same session and see each other.  FS2002 players will appear with an @ sign in front of their names.  FS2004 players will appear with their normal names.  Future versions of FSHostClient may show FS2004 players differently as well.

• A basic chat window with colored text.  In FSX, you can open the chat window by either pressing the Enter key or by clicking the Add-ons menu and selecting "FSHostClient" and then "Chat Window".  If you have the FSHostClient window open, you can either press Ctrl-W or click the Multiplayer menu and select "Chat Window".  You can send and receive messages to and from all other players, as well as interact with the FSHost server (?hop, +fp, etc.).  Future FSHostClient versions will have more information in the chat window such as the list of players in the session, and possibly the ability to send private messages to other FSX users.  For now, refer to the FSHostClient window to see the other player names.

• Aircraft changes.  When you change your aircraft in FSX, other players will see the change.  And when they change their aircraft, you'll see their change also.

• Default aircraft model.  If another player is using an aircraft that you don't have, you'll see them in a Cessna.  Previous Flight Simulator versions always showed these "unknown planes" in whatever aircraft you were currently flying -- so if you were flying a 737, all unknown planes appeared as a 737.  But in FSX, you'll always see them as a Cessna.  Future versions of FSHostClient will have more options for how to deal with this problem, including the ability to specify which default aircraft to use and the ability to map certain unknown aircraft to known aircraft in FSX.

• Player list.  The FSHostClient window shows the list of players in the sesson.  FSX makes players visible if they're within 10nm of your aircraft, so FSHostClient marks the player with "Visible" when they're inside this range.  Note: you may want to adjust which information is shown above remote players' planes.  To do this in FSX, click the Options menu, select Settings, then Display, then click the Traffic tab.  You can turn information on and off in the "Aircraft labels" section on the right.  Be sure to turn on "Tail number", in order to see the other players' names.

• Jump to another player's location.  In the FSHostClient window, right-click a player's name in the list and select "Jump to player's location". Your FSX plane will be moved to the same location as the selected player. Note: you may want to put your plane in pause (press P) or slew mode (press Y) first, especially if you normally have FSX set to crash on contact with other players, since your plane will be in exactly the same location.  Future FSHostClient versions may have the ability to jump to a nearby location instead.

• Log messages.  Right now the program shows lots of debug messages.  If something goes wrong, you can copy and paste the messages into an email to me.  In case you're interested, the color coding goes like this:  Normal=black, Errors=red, Debug=green, Debug-Errors=pink, Chat=blue.