expanding fsx library

[fsc_ba]

Now I am starting to add additional scenery and aircraft I was wondering does this have an affect on the load time of fsx or would it be better to put all additional scenery add ins and aircraft add ons on a separate drive I read here some time ago about the use of pointing to another drive away from fsx main directory but I am not sure how this works my main concern is to keep the load time of fsx to a minimum

[evm]

Basically, for the startup time it doesn't matter where you put it. The more stuff you add, the longer the loading times will get. On my old system, if I activated all addon sceneries and aircraft at the same time, the time to get from doubleclick to the cockpit amounted to 10-15 minutes.

 

You won't notice a few more airports or aircraft. But adding something like a full WOAI complement, MyTraffic 6, or MegaSceneryEarth packages with added autogen, then you will have to wait.

 

But when you are constantly streaming large chunks of data, like photoreal sceneries over high definition mesh, then the access times to the disk become a factor, and I found it beneficial to spread the sim out over three different drives (all SSD) connected to two different controllers.

[mrzippy]

I agree with evm! Basically, the more you have active (aircraft and scenery), the longer the load time. I have at lest 50+ aircraft that I like, but don't fly that often. They reside in a "Hangar" folder inside the Sim. I can add them back to the Airplanes folder at any time. Sceneries added to the Library that aren't used often can be unchecked when not in use.

 

The use of another drive would be for keeping the main drive from filling up.

[mallcott]

Another one who shares the hangar approach with Zippy.

 

I ONLY load `immediate` addon aircraft alongside the default. And regularly purge paints and models I'm not actually flying - just move them into a temporary folder called `Hangar` on another drive and you ensure that FSX does not read them on startup - otherwise it WILL.

NB: Do NOT remove default anything. You save NOTHING.

 

I also do the same with scenery, even to overwriting the stupid, stupid FTX system of having EVERYTHING active at the same time - I use SceneryConfigEditor to disable unwanted airports, regions and mesh for areas I don't need for that sim session. Their `FTX Central`approach is a constant pain in the arse as it would have Australia and AI `live` while I'm flying in France. Ludicrous!

 

It's my sim to decide what loads and what doesn't. This should be your approach too. Don't install unnecessary addons, don't keep `necessary` addons that you find you don't use (that's a biggie) and delete, uncheck or move anything not needed.

 

On my rig the largest contributor to slowdowns and lag on startup is mesh, then scenery and then aircraft and sundry addons. I ALWAYS have mesh loaded as an addon scenry as it's the only way to have control - FSX automatically picks up on the highest res mesh so only if its unchecked is it unread - and thus not contributing to startup time.

[llivaudais]

sometimes zippy and I think alike...

 

The more extra scenery and simobjects (aircraft/boats) you have the longer it will take the sim to load. I keep only (relatively) active aircraft in the sim; the rest (over 400) reside in a separate Hangar folder that is not referred to by FSX at all. I only have about 40 active addon planes; I can copy one of those infrequently used AC from storage and into the game in just a few moments if I find that I want to use it.

 

 

Since FSX is the only sim version that defines the sim objects locations in the fsx.cfg you can place aircraft as well as scenery anywhere you want. The side effect of this means you can choose to keep your default simobjects folders in their original "clean" condition and place all addons in separate folders as I do.

 

My FSX.cfg contains a couple of extra lines that keep my addons apart from the default...

 

SimObjectPaths.6=G:\AI_Boats

SimObjectPaths.7=G:\AI_Aircraft

SimObjectPaths.8=G:\Addon_Aircraft

 

The 400+ inactive planes are on another drive completely.

Keeping addons separate is only for my peace of mind; if I'm doing a bit of moving airplanes around, there will almost inevitably be an occasional "ooops". I only copy from storage to active - not move; if I accidently delete the wrong addon, no problem, the original is still in the storage location and I never mess with the default folders at all.

 

You can ADD aircraft to the sim anytime and the additional AC will be available immediately you open the add aircraft menu - you do NOT need to shut down to add planes.

 

I keep my terrain mesh, my Orbx and default scenery for the world always active; my photoscenery or custom airports I turn on/off as needed

 

Just my 2¢ worth...

 

Loyd

[bmatt569]

This is an extremely interesting thread, to me at least! It begs a few questions from Technologically Challeneged Bill.

 

I like the idea of a "hanger" folder. It seems logical that if you have a separate folder that has ALL of your aircraft in it and you only have a very few that actually show up in FSX it will load faster. So, do you just have this "Hanger" folder somewhere on, say, your C: drive? Some of the planes I have have .exe files that load them into FSX. others have instructions to, move this file here and that file there, etc. Loyd, how do you make your's work to add a plane "on the fly" so to speak?

If I can get you guys to answer these questions I'll chew on them a while and see if I can get more organized like you guys.

 

Take good care,

 

Bill

[evm]

Hi Bill,

 

there are a few solutions to this. Probably the best one is to organize your aircraft into several folders (I am sorting them by developer and complexity). These folders you can activate and deactivate through several means.

 

1. SimStarter. There still is the freeware version available, and it makes organizing several SimObjects folders and different scenery sets very easy. Basically, you define "profiles", so only those objects and settings and tweaks are active that you need for a particular flight.

 

2. Batch command files and symlinks. This is a lot trickier to set up an not for the faint of heart.

 

I am using a combination of both. The SimStarter profile triggers a batch file that sets a symlink to point at the desired aircraft folder. By using this I make sure that only those aircraft are visible to the sim that I need, same for sceneries. Stuff the sim can't even see will not slow it down...

[il88pp]

bmatt,

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?277587-Is-there-a-utility-for-choosing-aircraft-folders-to-be-active-inactive&p=1846693#post1846693

[mrzippy]

I try to keep my FSX as simple as possible. I have a shortcut on my desktop for my Main FSX folder. I created a folder inside of that labeled Hangar. That's where I stuff all of the aircraft I like but don't fly that often. It usually takes about 5 seconds to either copy/cut and paste them into the Airplanes folder to fly them.