Connecting Mobiflight to MSFS2020 from a remote PC

It is possible to run MobiFlight on a different PC than the one running the MSFS2020 simulator. This can be achieved by establishing a remote IPv4 communication channel between both PCs using Simconnect.

The following steps have to be performed:

• Install the WASM module on the PC running MSFS2020
• Allow remote access to SimConnect on your PC running MSFS2020
• Provide a specific client configuration on the remote PC where MobiFlight is installed
• Trick MobiFlight on the remote PC with a running "flightsimulator.exe" process

So here are the detailed instructions for these steps:

On the PC running MSFS2020

1. Download MobiFlight and copy the installer to a directory of your choice

2. Run the installer, MobiFlight will start

3. Make sure to install the WASM Module when you get prompted, or use the "Extras" menu to do so

4. Navigate to the folder where Simconnect.xml is installed

   • if you are running the MS Store version of MSFS2020: This file is located in the folder

     C:\Users<user_name>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache.

   • if you are running the Steam version, the file will be located in

     C:\Users<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator

5. Edit the file named Simconnect.xml

   There are three Simconnect.Comm sections in this file. Select the one that says <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol> and now change the <Scope> from local to global

   

6. Save this file and restart MSFS2020.

On the PC running Mobiflight remotely

1. Create a file in the Mobiflight installation folder and call it SimConnect.cfg
2. inside the file add this

   [SimConnect]
   Protocol=Ipv4
   Port=500
   Address=192.168.1.10
   

   Note the Address is the IP address of the PC running the simulator. The port number should be open in the Windows Firewall config.
3. Because MobiFlight detects the simulator by checking to see if there is a running process called flightsimulator.exe on the same PC, we need to trick MobiFlight by having such named process running. You can rename any .exe-file for this, for this example we used a file called hwinfo.exe (https://www.hwinfo.com/download/), which is a hardware inspector, download it, install it and rename hwinfo.exe to flightsimulator.exe
4. Run this flightsimulator.exe file, it will minimize to the tray.
5. Start Mobiflight. You should be able to see the Simconnect indicator with green checkmark.

Troubleshooting

• MobiFlight is not responsive - this indicates that it cannot establish a connection to the MSFS2020 PC. Make sure you used the correct IP and port in the SimConnect.cfg and that your PCs can talk to each other on the network (check your firewall settings)
• MobiFlight doesn't detect the sim running - Make sure have started a "fake" flightsimulator.exe as described above so that MobiFlight can find a running process with that name.
• MobiFlight shows SimConnect established, but not connected to the WASM module - Make sure you have actually installed the MobiFlight WASM module to the community folder on the MSFS2020 PC

Additional information

For more information see the following links:

https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/Programming_Tools/SimConnect/SimConnect_CFG_Definition.htm

https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/Programming_Tools/SimConnect/SimConnect_XML_Definition.htm