Jump to content

Does Community Folder Content Affect Load Time?


Recommended Posts

IOW, will MSFS take longer to load if there's a lot of add-ons in your Community folder?

 

It took me over 14 minutes to get to the Welcome screen today. OK, that's more than twice the usual. But still . . . .

 

Oh, BTW, I haven't put a lot of stuff in Community all of a sudden.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

The easy answer to your question is yes.

 

If you continue to add/insert files into the Community Folder load times will increase. This perpetuates with each file you add.

 

I recommend a MASTER COPY of the Community Folder somewhere else on the computer from which you can pull only the files relevant to your current flight, such as airports, planes, etc. This will minimize loading times due to Community Folder content congestion.

 

As Asobo updates Microsoft Flight Simulator, the downloaded files in the Community Folder MAY have to be updated, as well, to continue to work and not stall loading into the sim.

Timberleaf

Win 10 | Area 51 R5 | i7 9800x 4.5 GHz | RTX 2080 8GB | 32GB 2666Mhz DDR4 | HP Envy 34c

"One woman's chop is another man's turbulence"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Windows 10 Pro, 32 gigs DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GForce RTX 3070, Intel I7 10700 running at 3.8, with Noctua NH-L9x65, Premium Low-Profile CPU Cooler-HP Reverb G2 for Virtual Reality
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the Community Folder is saved to your C drive (have no idea if mine is, lol), then a lot of people would want those files usually moved somewhere else. A number of people use C drive for JUST the OS
Windows 10 Pro, 32 gigs DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GForce RTX 3070, Intel I7 10700 running at 3.8, with Noctua NH-L9x65, Premium Low-Profile CPU Cooler-HP Reverb G2 for Virtual Reality
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

 

 

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

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i dont agree

 

the first time you make changes to community, be it adding more gigabites in addons or deleting, the game will take longer reading the new indexes, much like Scenery Library in FSX, but from the second time onwards, the loading time is unchanged, be it Community full of addons or empty

 

This fools many...they base themselves by the first measure of loading msfs after some change, read in Avsim an experienced user made a time test

Each time he added more sceneries to community (gb) the loading time increased,

of course!! he kept changing the scenery library (or other) incrementally

 

but anyway, live and be happy with your theory,

I have Community full of addons and virtually same loading time

as the first day in July 2020

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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?

 

 

Yes, I did it now as I write, excluded everything from Community (20 GB) and double clicked the msfs icon at:

 

18:31 local time (21:31zulu)

18:35 it was checking for updates

18:36 France and netherlands addon splash

18:39 New Activities Splash screen, finally at

18:40 it loaded, total time 9 minutes with empty Community

 

Quit back to desktop, copied back the 20gig (took 14 minutes to copy back the 20gb into community) and fired up msfs at:

 

18:55 fired msfs

18:58 checking for updates

18:59 second Paris Splash screen

19:00 Netherlands screen

19:00 New Activities

19:02 Main menu opens, total time 7 minutes with Community 20gb

 

I regret we didnt bet money on this with an international jury as mediators., would be rich by now

 

case closed

 

 

 

i have an i5 7400 3ghz ssd drive, medium rig...at

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

Link to comment
Share on other sites

the explanation as to why sometimes you feel takes longer has to do with Microsoft

This is Windows...it runs dozens of programs in the background (despite priorities) when and how Bill pleases of which you dont have full control

 

So sometimes a windows update or xbox live is going on that slows the sim to activate and carry on...so the blue bar goes slower because other apps in your pc are accessing microsoft server, this is just one reason, there are more, bandwith oscilations, etc, addons that use ip, multiple displays, ebags, hardware inputs, many many, who knows...only each user knows whats running in his machine

Edited by Kapitan

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

 

Thanks David for that link.

I was not aware of this and had been using ModMan to place addons to the community folder.

John

Gigabyte Z390 UD Intel Core i7-9700K 3.60 Ghz Dual 16Gb DDR4 2666

Gigabyte RTX2060 OC 6GB 2 X 256MB SSD drives 1 X 500GB HDD

Windows 10 64bit Home Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I decided to do my own "test"

 

I have Chrome running with 8 windows open, 3 spreadhseets going, XM radio in the background.

 

It took from start to the selection screen 2 minutes 9 seconds.

 

I use MSFS Add on to select what add on's I want loading. Does it help? Not sure, but I personally feel it does, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside :D

Windows 10 Pro, 32 gigs DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GForce RTX 3070, Intel I7 10700 running at 3.8, with Noctua NH-L9x65, Premium Low-Profile CPU Cooler-HP Reverb G2 for Virtual Reality
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I decided to do my own "test"

 

I have Chrome running with 8 windows open, 3 spreadhseets going, XM radio in the background.

 

It took from start to the selection screen 2 minutes 9 seconds.

 

I use MSFS Add on to select what add on's I want loading. Does it help? Not sure, but I personally feel it does, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside :D

 

the absolute time depends on your rig

Mine is i5 on a sata C

Many people have fast load times

The relevant issue is differential time, with empty Community and loaded with many addons

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting thread. I always thought that a big community folder would slow down loading times, but it seems I may have been wrong. I will do some experimentation.

 

It would be nice if the sim could read a folder or two deep in the community folder really.

Ryzen 5800X3D, Nvidia 3080 - 32 Gig DDR4 RAM, 1TB & 2 TB NVME drives - Windows 11 64 bit MSFS 2020 Premium Deluxe Edition Resolution 2560 x 1440 (32 inch curved monitor)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting thread. I always thought that a big community folder would slow down loading times, but it seems I may have been wrong. I will do some experimentation.

 

It would be nice if the sim could read a folder or two deep in the community folder really.

 

Just do it! do the test

yes it will take an hour of your time

but do it! dont go by what others say

 

I did mine, and its perfectly clear the time was not only unchanged, but shorter with a comunity with many addons

 

Come on!

if it were true that community affects time, the more you put in community the longer it would take,

we know kids out there have tons in Community

they should take hours to start the sim!????

 

ridiculous

The sim roughly takes an average time between 2 and 7 minutes depending on your rig, not on how much you have in community

 

but enough talking

 

Facts Mr Watson, facts!

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

 

Haven't played with it myself yet, but from reading it here and elsewhere, I do have to wonder if the bigger factors aren't number and type of add-ons vs simple number of gigabytes. A simple test of removing everything from the community folder and adding it back wouldn't necessarily account for this at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

 

Perhaps it takes more time to load a 3-4 gig scenery file rather then an 800KB file?

 

Just a guess :)

 

 

Edit-691 add ons?? Wow!!! That is a lot of add ons :)

Windows 10 Pro, 32 gigs DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GForce RTX 3070, Intel I7 10700 running at 3.8, with Noctua NH-L9x65, Premium Low-Profile CPU Cooler-HP Reverb G2 for Virtual Reality
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...