cobalt

To quote from your earlier post: "... many of the addons are using conjecture rather than documented knowledge to fabricate their addon ... Many of these addons will cause you immense grief if you don't know what you are doing." Both of these are baseless statements. What evidence do you have that addon designers are using "conjecture" or that they "cause immense grief"? Files placed in Community cannot affect the basic installation of MSFS, even if they are badly designed or don't work. Before giving advice to others, know what you are talking about.

You are correct that some add-ons may become obsolete and need to be removed -- indeed I have done this. But the OP was claiming that add-ons in general are bad news and should be avoided, which is ridiculous.

Regarding the need to empty your Community folder before MSFS mandatory updates: IF you use an add-on linker that places only links to add-on files, and not the files per se, in Community, then you do NOT need to empty Community, because in that case it always contains only links; the actual files are stored in another folder and cannot be affected by an update.

The White House IS small, in real life. It is correctly modeled in MSFS, as are the Washington Monument. Lincoln Memorial, Capitol Building, and many other DC buildings -- IF you have a properly updated MSFS (the earlier DC scenery was corrected in one of the updates). This issue has already been discussed in an earlier thread.

Glen, I am going to try to say this in as inoffensive way possible.

You don't strike me as the kind of guy who has mastered his computer. You also don't strike me as a person who takes direction very well.

If my assessment is correct, you are just asking for trouble to start putting addons into FS2020. The sim is still being substantially revised on a frequent basis, and many of the addons are using conjecture rather than documented knowledge to fabricate their addon. The SDK isn't even complete yet. Many of these addons will cause you immense grief if you don't know what you are doing, and clean your community folder before each update. I don't have any addons at this point. I am not saying they can't be deployed successfully, but I am warning you that you will become one of those chronic disgruntled if you don't know what you are doing.

I think you would be far better served, to master and enjoy the stock aircraft and scenery, until a more final SDK is finished. At some point, it will become possible to add addons with little problem, but I don't think we are there yet for folks like yourself! You were warned!!

 

Absolute nonsense. I have hundreds of add-ons, managed via Addon Manager, which places only links to addon files, rather than the files themselves, in Community. For me, MSFS is much enhanced with these add-ons, and has never run better. At least in regard to scenery, I have yet to hear of an example of an addon that has caused anyone trouble. The above-quoted post is uninformed rubbish.

I am pretty sure that an earlier update to MSFS fixed the Washington DC scenery, including the Wash. Monument and the Capitol building, so that you do not need any add-ons. In fact I have deleted the payware addon for DC that I had installed. If your MSFS is up to date, D.C. should be fine.

 

Just checked to be sure. This is correct, for the main DC landmarks including those mentioned. For some others, e.g. the Jefferson Memorial, you do need one of the freeware or payware add-ons such as those referred to in earlier posts.

Yes, this is an important point that is missed by a lot of users.

Exactly. This is the reason it is not a good idea.

3952 hours and counting, going back to 1994. I keep my own logbook -- much simpler.

Well, of course there are many factors that affect loading times. I assume that this thread is a discussion of the effect of having a lot of add-ons in Community on load timeswith all other factors held constant. For a system as complex as MSFS, this is really the only rational way to deal with this issue. As I described earlier, for me the effect is huge and dramatic, with a heavily loaded Community folder slowing load times to a crawl, and others on this and other MSFS forums have seen the same thing (I don't know about facebook).

BTW, regarding "all those kids with mods installed": Some of us kids are so old, we have kids that aren't kids any more!

It is understandable that you would ascribe your good performance of MSFS to the absence of add-ons. The only problem with this is, I know of very few, if any, problems that have been encountered with MSFS that have been traced to add-ons. Personally I have nearly 700 addons, used as needed for particular flights via Addon-Manager, and I have never yet had a single problem caused by a mod. In several cases I have had issues that were eliminated by MSFS updates; in others, it was simply something I was doing wrong -- but never, so far anyway, has an addon been the culprit. Just reporting.

Yes, of course: the bigger the file (and the more of them), the longer it takes to load. This is my point, in fact.

 

I do have a ton of addons, but as you will see from my post, I use only a few in any given flying session -- that's the beauty of using an addon manager. Typically my load time for MSFS is 2-3 minutes.

Not sure I follow you -- Gigabytes vs. number/type of addons? Regardless, the bottom line is: more stuff in Community equals longer load times -- by a LOT if you have a ton of addons (as I have demonstrated); less stuff equals shorter load times. Nothing new here, as most msfs users have discovered this for themselves.

OK, I did the test and here are the results:

 

Empty Community folder: 2 min 35 seconds (to appearance of welcome screen).

 

Community folder with links to a small number of add-on files (planes, scenery fixes, etc.), which I selected using Add-on Manager (note: this great app places links to files -- not the files themselves -- in Community): 3 min 35 seconds.

 

Finally, the big one: with links to all 691 of my addon files loaded in Community: 1 hour 16 minutes and counting! I got tired of waiting.

 

To use a word seen recently in this thread, ridiculous indeed.

The only Community folder read by MSFS is the one in Packages.

You are not wrong. This topic has been discussed at length in this and other forums, and until this thread came along there was general agreement that a heavily loaded Community folder slows loading time considerably. That has certainly been my own experience.

Are you flying bush trips? You lose points anytime you click the GPS map to get the plane back on track.

 

No need to do this, ever. You can keep track of your location with LittleNavMap or an equivalent app, with no penalty.

The freeware Grumman Goose is an amazing float plane (technically an amphibian).

Thanks, but I actually know all that. I won't argue any more, but possibly some others will weigh in on this. Happy flying!

OK, your experience and mine differ. My report below was not based on a single observation (i.e. loading "for the first time"), but on many different tests. Moreover, I am an experienced flight simmer (30+ years) and have been using MSFS since it first appeared last September. I think this is a case where theory, however logical it may appear, must yield to experiment. And based what I have learned from earlier posts on this topic, my experience is typical. The fact is that having a lot of stuff in Community leads to long load times, whereas an empty Community folder is just the opposite. Have you actually tried this yourself?

May I disagree with ALL of you?

 

I say Community folder affects loading times very little, you should test it yourselves.

 

Have tested with empty or full Community folder several times and the loading lapses are random maybe depending on other things you did before in your PC, loaded programs still there etc. In fact some loading times were shorter with a full Community folder so it doesnt make sense

 

From computer logic side it also doesnt make sense. The Community folder is there so the sim will look at it AFTER you have chosen to load a scenario. With aircraft yes, it looks and loads in the Hangar whatever aircraft you have in Community but its not a killer, it just reads your thumbnail planes, it doesnt "load" them. With sceneries it will only look at Community once you choose that area to fly. Same as utilities. The logic is it will load as needed.

 

David I also found the LInker complicated, nuisance to use, its easier just to put files in another dir and move them whenever wish to use it

I maybe wrong, someone need to do clinical tests and debugging steps to time the effects of community in loading

 

I HAVE tested it, and you are wrong. When I load a lot of detailed add-on scenery into Community, the load time is considerably increased. As an extreme test, I loaded all of my addons into Community, and MSFS was still loading after 10 minutes! On the other hand, if I start MSFS with an empty Community folder, the load time is generally less than a minute. QED, as my high school math teacher used to say. (I think that stands for quod erat demonstrandum, i.e., that which was to be proved)

Here we go again. This thread repeats a pattern seen over and over, in which a serious discussion of issues in MSFS is hijacked by a particular individual with no actual experience in running the program, who makes ridiculous unsubstantiated charges -- e.g., that others are saying that MSFS has no problems (I have never once heard anyone say this) and -- worst of all -- is unfailingly negative. I am not aware that this person has ever made a single positive contribution to this or any other forum. Indeed the inevitable result in most of the discussions he infects is that it is terminated. Frankly, I am thoroughly fed up.

Don't hold your breath.

I dont see how that's a space saver. The files are saved somwhere

 

Correct, but they will be saved on a a different drive, rather than on the one where MSFS is. That's the important thing.

The post by the OP is an important one, which simmers who are having chronic problems loading or running MSFS need to read. Some folks are annoyed to be told that others are not experiencing the same problem and that therefore the issue cannot be intrinsic to MSFS. It must be local, and the solution is to be found in their computer hardware or settings. Understandable that message this is often not well received, but it is reality.

There are also programs made to turn off (without deleting) files in your Community folder. I use MSFS Addons Linker (https://www.flightsim.to/file/1572/msfs-addons-linker)

 

it is free and allows me to turn off whichever files, such as scenery I don't want to load up. Great way to organize and keep the load times down.

 

A little clarification here. MSFS Addons Linker does not "turn off" files in Community. What it does, is allows you to select which scenery addons you want for a particular flying session, and then places links to those files (not the actual files) in Community. Bottom line: no actual scenery files go into Community, which is a huge space-saver and greatly reduces load times in cases where many scenery addons are selected.