Load times...

[birdguy 3,943]

I'm a collector.  I want it all.  I want everything that's available installed in my FSX_se.  So much that it was taking 12 minutes for my flight simulator to come up when I clicked on the desktop icon.  My simulator bypasses the startup screen and I load a scenario that puts my Kodiak in a parking spot at my favorite GA airport (Gnoss Field KDVO) ready to get in and start her up.

I'd start the simulator and then load the breakfast dishes into the dish washer, make the beds, and vacuum the living room.  By then the simulator would almost be ready to start flying.

I had every Orbx scenery plus many addons and almost 100 aircraft loaded in the airplanes folder.

I wanted to cut that time in half so I uninstalled everything and started from scratch, loading one scenery or sets of scenery at a time and then checking how long it took to load.  I wanted to cut the loading time to 6 minutes or less.

I don't know how each item adds to the loading time so I started out  with just my Kodiak and the Orbx North American Region sceneries.  The load time was just 1:37.  Here's how it went as I loaded additional sceneries.

North American Regions starts out at 1:37  

All Europe and Oceania Regions - 3:52

Pilot's FS Global 2010 mesh for North America only - 3:52

FTX Global Base - 3:56

Open LC North America - 3:56

Vector - 4:14

Adding all the global airports and sceneries for North America (Bar Harbor, Eagle County, Telluride, Monument Valley, North American Airport Pack, etc) - 4:46

I'm going to leave it that.  It gives me all the Orbx detail for North America plus the  European, and Oceania Regions.

In addition to the Orbx sceneries I also have Aerosoft's Fairbanks and Dutch Harbor as well as FSAddon's Tongass Fjords.  

I have Neilson's world wide shipping ai and MyTraffic Professional.  I set the airline traffic to 25% which gives me plenty of airliners at the gates of KSFO and a reasonable framerate of 18-20 when landing at that airport.

I know little about how all this scenery works and was surprised that Global Base, Open LC, and the mesh added almost no time to startup.  But Vector added almost 20 seconds.  Then all those Global North American sceneries a whopping 32 more seconds. 

All I need now is the discipline to stay where I am right now.  That's going to be the hard part.

Noel

 

[scianoir 610]

I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but, as I understand, addon aircraft do not have any major affect on the initial loading time although they will affect the time it takes for the aircraft selection menu to open if you want to change aircraft.

Like you I am a bit of an addon addict with tons of scenery (and aircraft) but I use a utility called SimStarter NG which I find has helped a lot. This allows me to keep all my scenery installed but by creating various scenery sets, enables me to start with just the scenery I need and this significantly reduces the startup time. 

Bill

[birdguy 3,943]

I've been rethinking this all again Bill.

Why do I have Europe and Oceania installed when 99.99% of my flying is done in North America?  Because I have it is not a good enough answer.

I once flew around Alice Springs because I spent a few months there when I was in the Air Force.

I once flew from Queenstown to Christchurch In New Zealand.

And I circled the Island of Pago Pago the day it was released.

I've flown a few times in Norway because it is my ancestral homeland.  I've not flown anywhere else in Europe.

 I fly almost exclusively in California, Idaho and Alaska.  I've installed them all except Norway because when the dozen or so Norwegian-Americans here in Roswell get together for dinner and celebrate Constitution Day in May I'll hear about some places to fly to.

Which, at the risk of sounding political here, brings me to the question our president asked when the Prime Minister of Norway visited the White House several weeks.  He asked, "Why don't more Norwegians emigrate to the United States?"  My question is why would they want to?

Noel

[Penzoil3 480]

What type of hard drive is this on Noel ? If it is NOT an SSD, you undoubtedly need to defrag the drive. That will cut your load times in half. Basic maintenance. I recommend Ultimate Defrag, thought Windows will work...

http://disktrix.com/

 Sue

[W2DR 1,860]

Hey Noel - I've done more load time studies than I ever thought was possible. My basic conclusion? The problem is the ORBX regions. Like you, I'm down to only loading NA in P3Dv4  as that's where I fly 99% of the time. I also have an FSX installation that has the ORBX Global products with no regions and he load times are fine. All mileage, of course, variable.....Doug

PS: Even though everything is on a SSD it's still a problem. But you're right Sue, a non'SSD defrag is really important. Good to see you again. I miss you and Noel over at ORBX but I understand the situation.........Doug

[scianoir 610]

2 hours ago, birdguy said:

Why do I have Europe and Oceania installed when 99.99% of my flying is done in North America?  Because I have it is not a good enough answer.

It would be logical to uninstall Europe and North America on that basis Noel but I guess, like me, having bought the scenery for whatever reason you don't want to dump it! I too tend to fly most new scenery / airport addons at least once or twice after I install them and may or may not go back to them after that. Like you I do a lot of my flying in regions that I know (Ireland where I was born and learned to fly in real life; the UK where I live now; Europe and the US, much of which I have visited). There are however regions I fly in quite frequently simply because the addon scenery is so good and this would include the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, New Zealand and Australia even though I have never visited them in real life. Yes I should perhaps uninstall some scenery from regions I rarely fly in such as South America (as an addict I have that too!!) but having different scenery sets allows me to keep them all installed but for any given flight I only use the scenery addons I need. That's my solution anyway but the logical answer would probably be to see a reputable addiction psychiatrist!

Bill

[birdguy 3,943]

Bill, I went to see a reputable addiction psychiatrist.  The problem was he was also a flight simmer and that's all we talked about.

Sue, I do the Windows 10 optimization periodically.  My last one (before the one I did after reading your post):

Data (D:)  Hard Disk Drive  2/10/18 7:10PM OK (0% fragmentation)

But I just did another one and no change in load times.

Doug, I miss the Orbx forum too.  But for me without the Pilot's Lounge it would be too sterile.  Where could I post my bird and wildlife pictures and tell jokes and stories?  All Orbx and no play makes Noel a dull boy.

Noel 

 

[W2DR 1,860]

Yours are the greatest stories I've ever read Noel. I just wish I could have known you in person in a former life where we could share a pint of whiskey and talk about the old days.....and swap lies about the women we've known (sorry Sue).........Doug

[stans 703]

Even though my computer is old, I recently moved FSX to a Samsung EVO 850 SSD.  It loads much faster and textures load faster during flight, greatly reducing the blurry textures.

[birdguy 3,943]

Swapping stories is about all I can do anymore Doug.  A wee drap of The Glenlivit can add a little more color to them.  But thanks for the compliment.  I do post one here every once in a while.  AVSIM still tolerates me.

Noel

[Penzoil3 480]

It's OK Doug. My girl friends and I swap stories about the guys. It's a human thing. I appreciate the thought though !

 Sue