OnCourse Software

FWIW I just wanted to let you know that I see this error about not enough hot-key slots when trying to connect to MSFS2020 pretty much daily. Seems to happen after I've done several flights using PF3, closing and re-opening both the sim and PF3 throughout the day.

Eventually after several flights, when I launch PF3 and try to connect it to the sim I get the error about not enough hot-key slots available, restart the sim and try again.

Problem is that restarting the sim doesn't correct the problem, but I have always been able to correct the problem and get PF3 connected to the sim again if I reboot my machine and relaunch everything after I get the hot-key error.

Anyway, just letting you know I've seen at least this issue about the hot-key slots like the OP mentioned. When I see it again, I'll try to collect my logs and toss them up here to see if you see anything helpful in the logs.

Thanks!

'Not enough Hotkey slots' is NOT a problem but the result of a previous issue where the hotkeys in use were not cleared.

Hotkey slots are provided by FSUIPC and there are a total of only 56 slots, which are shared between whatever addon programs may use them. Therefore addon programs have to determine which slots are free and available for use. This is done by flagging them within FSUIPC so other programs don't attempt to use the same slot. If PF3 crashes, or is killed via Task manager, before being able to clear the hotkey flags then they will remain tagged as being 'in use'. As an easy example, let's say PF3 uses 30 slots.... if it crashes those 30 slots will remain flagged as being in use, therefore there would only be 26 free slots remaining which would not be enough for PF3 to run and so you would received the 'not enough hotkey' message.

dmarch wrote: *

Sun Mar 06, 2022 1:31 pm

'Not enough Hotkey slots' is NOT a problem but the result of a previous issue where the hotkeys in use were not cleared.

Hotkey slots are provided by FSUIPC and there are a total of only 56 slots, which are shared between whatever addon programs may use them. Therefore addon programs have to determine which slots are free and available for use. This is done by flagging them within FSUIPC so other programs don't attempt to use the same slot. If PF3 crashes, or is killed via Task manager, before being able to clear the hotkey flags then they will remain tagged as being 'in use'. As an easy example, let's say PF3 uses 30 slots.... if it crashes those 30 slots will remain flagged as being in use, therefore there would only be 26 free slots remaining which would not be enough for PF3 to run and so you would received the 'not enough hotkey' message.

Very nice! Thanks for clarifying how these hot-key slots are allocated.

I wonder if this is my problem:

Sometimes when exiting PF3 I was simply clicking the system "close" button on the top-right of the PF3 title-bar rather than clicking the "Disconnect from FS" button, then exiting using the normal "Exit button in your dialog UI. I have noticed today when I did that (closing with the system close button on the title-bar), the main PF3 dialog closes, but the special "Caption" and "ATC history" windows remained open. I'm guessing when closing the PF3 window this way, it doesn't do a full shutdown of your app correctly and leaves those hotkeys allocated to you in FSUIPC (just as you mentioned).

I'll be more mindful of shutting down using your "Disconnect" and "Exit" buttons and I'm sure that will take care of my problem.

Not a big deal, but perhaps a nice enhancement would be to watch for that system-close notification that comes when someone clicks the system close button on the title-bar and automatically disconnect and exit correctly, for yahoos like me that don't want to push two buttons to exit... haha.

Thanks Dave.

Thanks for the feedback... it certainly should close gracefully no matter how you do it so yes, I will check that out. Thank you