This Update Has Been a Total Disaster!

I've added to a few other threads here, but might as well start my own.

Before the update, I was having plenty of CTD problems, but I was still able to enjoy the sim, once I accepted there were some things it would not do (e.g., load Vienna airport, any Alaska airport except Anchorage, etc.). As soon as I did the update, the sim was unusable. Totally.

Two major and constant problems:

1. "Freezes": that is, the screen freezes, and often the mouse cursor disappears, too. This happens at the Home screen, in the air, on the runway, utterly unpredictably. The good news is that it eventually unfreezes (at least so far), but this alone makes the sim unusable. I had never before seen this phenomenon in MSFS, or in its precursors, FSX and P3D.

2. CTDs. You might think these are related to denseness of scenery or something, but now they occur with regularity, and even on the runway in broad daylight. Every flight I've tried has terminated in a CTD!

In case you're wondering, I cleaned out my Community folder before I updated, so please don't tell me the problem is with add-ons. Also, on advice of 2 people on this forum yesterday (after my earlier complaint about the update), I uninstalled MSFS and did a clean reinstall from the store (took about 7 hours). After I rebooted and loaded MSFS this morning, it was just as bad as before the reinstall.

This update -- if not the entire enterprise – is a hot mess! My sense is that filing with Zendesk is a waste of time, and will result only in the robot's instructions to do stuff unrelated to the underlying outrage that has been foisted on us all.

I've been told my PC should be able to run this puppy, with sliders reasonably set, My specs:

i7-8700 3.7 GHz

GeForce GTX 1070 Ti; 8GB onboard

AORUS Z370 Gaming 5 LGA 1151 ATX motherboard

16GB RAM

2 TB hard drive

27” MSI gaming monitor

After reinstalling during last night, I have spent today experimenting with addons and various settings etc... although most of my time had been sat waiting for the load screen to move! I’ve had a few CTD’s but the most annoying thing is the long pauses. You can’t even force the sim to quit when this happens because the mouse disappears. Fortunately it unfreezes eventually as you say.

Apparently there’s a hotfix being released tomorrow. Let’s hope it does fix things.

Regards

Steve

Go on Mark, you know you want to. You might even get it for a special price :)

Regards

Steve

Go on Mark, you know you want to. You might even get it for a special price :)

 

Regards

Steve

Steve,

Atm they would need to put money in my account.

Think I'll wait a little longer.

After reinstalling during last night, I have spent today experimenting with addons and various settings etc... although most of my time had been sat waiting for the load screen to move! I’ve had a few CTD’s but the most annoying thing is the long pauses. You can’t even force the sim to quit when this happens because the mouse disappears. Fortunately it unfreezes eventually as you say.

 

Apparently there’s a hotfix being released tomorrow. Let’s hope it does fix things.

 

Regards

Steve

Steve,

I know you are a faithful contributor here, and I am pleased to hear that I am no worse off than you. Let's hope there's a "hotfix," although I suspect it will make things worse.

Update on my own situation: Incredibly (!), having lost all hope, I just flew from BIRK to BIKR (that's Iceland) into the midnight sun. No CTD! Freeze on runway, but that unfroze in due course. Then I went to Main Menu, and loaded KPGA, set to KLAS. Two freeze/unfreezes until I saved the .FLT and shut down. Still, that's better than CTDs.

And yet, another grumbling comment. The famed Horseshoe Bend west of KPGA used to look pretty good in MSFS. It is now completely corrupted, and the surrounding terrain has these queer orange blotches on the escarpments. They were not there before. Go figure.

Finally: what's with these blue highlights on the panel? As I've said in another post, Why oh why can't they leave the well enough alone? I suspect I can learn to live with the blue knobs, but I also strongly suspect that every time they introduce such an unnecessary tweak, they compromise something important. Hence this disaster of an update.

Mac6737

Hi Mac, you can read the hotfix release notes here...

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/blog-july-29th-2021-development-update/43004

We can only hope it fixes things. They’ve clearly been busy trying to sort it anyway. As for the annoying blue highlighting... go into the general options..click on the accessibility tab... & change “cockpit interaction system” from Lock to “Legacy” – that will fix it.

I don’t know why they had to mess with it in the first place, but I think it’s for the Xbox users.

Regards

Steve

Finally: what's with these blue highlights on the panel? As I've said in another post, Why oh why can't they leave the well enough alone? I suspect I can learn to live with the blue knobs, but I also strongly suspect that every time they introduce such an unnecessary tweak, they compromise something important. Hence this disaster of an update.

 

Mac6737

Easy to turn this "Feature" off. Why they made it default to irritate unsuspecting peeps I don't know

Easy to turn this "Feature" off. Why they made it default to irritate unsuspecting peeps I don't know

 

The unsuspecting peeps are the ones who never read the release notes and just jump right in, then complain that everything's broken. All the changes are explained in the release notes here:

https://www.flightsimulator.com/microsoft-flight-simulator-available-today-on-xbox-series-xs-and-xbox-game-pass/

Even more importantly, all of the known issues are explained here:

https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360016027399-KNOWN-ISSUES-Last-update-July-13-2021-

Why oh why can't flight simmers look before they leap?

Easy to turn this "Feature" off. Why they made it default to irritate unsuspecting peeps I don't know

 

The unsuspecting peeps are the ones who never read the release notes and just jump right in, then complain that everything's broken. All the changes are explained in the release notes here:

https://www.flightsimulator.com/microsoft-flight-simulator-available-today-on-xbox-series-xs-and-xbox-game-pass/

Even more importantly, all of the known issues are explained here:

https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360016027399-KNOWN-ISSUES-Last-update-July-13-2021-

Why oh why can't flight simmers look before they leap?

Of course, of course--the problem is with us the community of users--not with the company that has strung us along for a year before release to almost a year after release with promises to deliver something it knows it doesn't have---a usable sim.

 

We have, in this "update" what we have always gotten-- a huge downgrade in graphics quality which is touted as a "performance enhancement"

 

And please, I know that there are those for whom this is "good enough" or those that are sure it will be fixed one day (based on what evidence-certainly not history) There are even those who say "It is only one year after release how dare we expect it to function as a flight simulator."

 

I would just point out to them that they have their standards and we have ours.

Of course, of course--the problem is with us the community of users--not with the company that has strung us along for a year before release to almost a year after release with promises to deliver something it knows it doesn't have---a usable sim.

Which they advise us of with every update in the Release Notes.

And please, I know that there are those for whom this is "good enough" or those that are sure it will be fixed one day (based on what evidence-certainly not history)

Evidently, Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios have repeatedly stated that MSFS will continue to be developed by Asobo Game Studios for the next 10 years.

I would just point out to them that they have their standards and we have ours.

And stamping your foot is going to impress who, exactly?

Which they advise us of with every update in the Release Notes.

 

 

 

Evidently, Microsoft and Xbox Game Studios have repeatedly stated that MSFS will continue to be developed by Asobo Game Studios for the next 10 years.

 

 

 

And stamping your foot is going to impress who, exactly?

I don't consider this question of standards to be "foot stamping." In fact, I think it has been the over-arching (and unacknowledged) subject of debate since the beginning. It is exactly the context in which these differences of opinion can be understood IMO. After each update we are simply told to lower our expectations yet again. Is this good for the community of users?

After each update we are simply told to lower our expectations yet again. Is this good for the community of users?

For those who perceive that they must lower their expectations, yes.

They are most likely to be the ones who have no concept of the processes involved and feel entitled to a finished product from the start when they were clearly told (as we all were) that the product would be in development for the next 10 years.

For those who perceive that they must lower their expectations, yes.

They are most likely to be the ones who have no concept of the processes involved and feel entitled to a finished product from the start when they were clearly told (as we all were) that the product would be in development for the next 10 years.

Were we really told not to expect a finished product (i.e.one usable for more than 5 minutes without a CTD) until 10 years had passed? If so, I must have missed it. Nine more years of frustration, misrepresentations, broken add-ons, degradation of the one distinguishing thing that would have made this sim worth considering--graphics?

Nine more years of:

-graphics degradation being "sold" as "performance enhancements"

- being advised to "disable this--turn this feature off",

-Advice not to look left or right while flying

I think this reinforces my original point: If we continue to say we are content with this process--that it's OK with us--we are sure to get nothing other than more of it.

I sometimes feel as if I have bought a shiny new car with a promise that "the wheels will be available in a few years." Perhaps you have a point; I should have read the fine print.

Perhaps you have a point; I should have read the fine print.

Well, it wasn't exactly fine print and still isn't, they put it all on the landing page of the flightsimulator.com website and update it every week, but yes this IS what we all paid for.

It's a LONG time since we had an actively supported Microsoft Flight Simulator, and I can understand that it takes some getting used to, but these monthly updates are FREE unlike the annual or bi-annual updates from Laminar Research or Lockheed-Martin which can also cause major problems from time to time.

Glad you're good with it, brother.

BTW it is a lifelong dream of mine to visit Yorkshire. The many films and videos made there reveal a most beautiful place!

OK, at this point in time some folks justifiably regard the latest MSFS update as a disaster, while others think it is fabulous. To some degree, this seems to happen after every update, though in this case the comments appear more extreme -- as in "TOTAL disaster" -- even if the trolls are discounted. I personally have had a foot in both camps. I spent over two frustrating days trying to get the update installed, with the process stalling over and over as files tried repeatedly to load but without success; each time that happened, I re-started and it resumed, only to stall again.Note: this was with an empty Community folder; no addons. The last straw was when the upload reached 99% and stalled with only a couple of MB remaining-- at that point my wife heard language she had never heard me use before! The solution, finally, was to go into OneStore and delete the last couple of update folders, forcing them to reload. That did the trick and the sim was able to start.

This transformed my experience from a disaster to almost unimaginable joy. I am seeing performance unlike anything I've had up to now in MSFS (and light years beyond any earlier sim). With pretty nearly all settings at ultra, numerous addons, real weather, live real-world traffic, Bing data on, and the frame rate limit at 60, I am seeing absolutely smooth flying with 50-60 FPS (occasionally dropping into the 40s) in the TBM930 everywhere I fly, including some of the most scenery-dense areas such as London, New York, LA, Washington DC, and other places notorious as frame rate killers. The graphics look terrific. It is hard to believe I am not dreaming.

That said, it is really unfortunate that so many people are having problems, and I hope that most of these will soon be resolved -- hopefully with the soon-to-be-released patch --so that everyone can enjoy this incredible simulator.

Alienware Aurora R11, Intel® Core™ i7-10700F, GeForce TX2080 Super.

It’s a lifelong dream of mine to leave Yorkshire LOL

Seriously though, yes it does have some nice places. I regularly visit the Yorkshire dales.. quite stunning.

Regards

Steve

Why oh why can't flight simmers look before they leap?

 

Tiger, if you're talking to me, the meat of my lengthy post was hardly blue knobs that I didn't know how to disable. The problem, as I said, is that I no longer have a playable flight simulator. Nothing in the 2 links you include is responsive to that signal fact.

 

Others, apparently, have not suffered such total malfunction, and maybe these latest problems will be fixed in time. But I don't think you can chide people for "leaping without looking" when they accept a mandatory update to a program for which they paid $119 or so.

 

Maybe Asobo should look before they release!

Maybe Asobo should look before they release!

Amen to that! I hope the Hotfix works for you.

Why oh why can't flight simmers look before they leap?

Don't know how you did that Mac, but that was Tim's quote, not mine!

Tiger, if you're talking to me, the meat of my lengthy post was hardly blue knobs that I didn't know how to disable. The problem, as I said, is that I no longer have a playable flight simulator. Nothing in the 2 links you include is responsive to that signal fact.

 

Others, apparently, have not suffered such total malfunction, and maybe these latest problems will be fixed in time. But I don't think you can chide people for "leaping without looking" when they accept a mandatory update to a program for which they paid $119 or so.

 

Maybe Asobo should look before they release!

Glad you got the blue knobs sorted out.

OK, at this point in time some folks justifiably regard the latest MSFS update as a disaster, while others think it is fabulous. To some degree, this seems to happen after every update, though in this case the comments appear more extreme -- as in "TOTAL disaster" -- even if the trolls are discounted. I personally have had a foot in both camps. I spent over two frustrating days trying to get the update installed, with the process stalling over and over as files tried repeatedly to load but without success; each time that happened, I re-started and it resumed, only to stall again.Note: this was with an empty Community folder; no addons. The last straw was when the upload reached 99% and stalled with only a couple of MB remaining-- at that point my wife heard language she had never heard me use before! The solution, finally, was to go into OneStore and delete the last couple of update folders, forcing them to reload. That did the trick and the sim was able to start.

 

This transformed my experience from a disaster to almost unimaginable joy. I am seeing performance unlike anything I've had up to now in MSFS (and light years beyond any earlier sim). With pretty nearly all settings at ultra, numerous addons, real weather, live real-world traffic, Bing data on, and the frame rate limit at 60, I am seeing absolutely smooth flying with 50-60 FPS (occasionally dropping into the 40s) in the TBM930 everywhere I fly, including some of the most scenery-dense areas such as London, New York, LA, Washington DC, and other places notorious as frame rate killers. The graphics look terrific. It is hard to believe I am not dreaming.

 

That said, it is really unfortunate that so many people are having problems, and I hope that most of these will soon be resolved -- hopefully with the soon-to-be-released patch --so that everyone can enjoy this incredible simulator.

 

Alienware Aurora R11, Intel® Core™ i7-10700F, GeForce TX2080 Super.

I flew over New York last week (SU4) using the Icon plane, took a tour round the surrounding area and landed on the water close to the Statue of Liberty. I was getting a nice smooth 35 fps with very little stutter and the photogrammetry scenery looked superb.

Tried the same trip today with the Icon and it looks just awful, most of the buildings are popping into view as I look around and look nowhere near as good as before.

The draw distance is now hopeless (I have every setting I can set to high or ultra apart from Render at 100) and flying NW over the East river with central park in front of me I can just see a desert with no buildings rendering past the Hudson river. Last week I had buildings out to the horizon.

London is just as bad, looks like a desert, anything over 2 miles away is replace by a sandy flat landscape into which scenery magically appears as you get closer.

So for me SU5 = 5 more fps but totally immersion breaking scenery redrawing with lower quality textures and over exposed whiteout clouds.

Are you seeing buildings out to the horizon and not popping in and out of existence when you fly over New York and London?

I haven't changed my Medium graphics settings since the update/hotfix (and a Windows preview update which "fixes" gameplay apparently) and yes I'm getting higher FPS in some places but not all, and I'm seeing objects like wind turbines popping in but not buildings or trees.

Maybe it's worth lowering the graphics settings one notch for test purposes?

I also have MSFS on Xbox Series X and that's full autogen from horizon to horizon with no popping at all - yes I smell a rat here too and all we can do is get onto the official forums and play hell about it.