I had 11.41 running well, but I installed a separate copy of 11.5 and I liked it, so I updated my main copy to the latest beta. When I started the sim, it was literally a slide show, with pauses of up to a minute each time the displayed frame changed, and it also took up to a minute for the menu bar to appear when I moved my mouse into the appropriate position. So I rolled back to 11.41, but the slide show was still the same. However, when I brought up a menu to try with different display settings, I could see around the edges of the menu that the sim display itself was running smoothly (I use TrackIR, so I could see the image changing as I moved my head). I've tried Laminar Research support, but it just puts up a standardised reply, which is totally irrelevant to my case. Can anyone suggest what might be the problem here?

Thank you. I had no idea that Laminar advised the exact opposite. Sheesh!

 From the Laminar site:

Updating via the Laminar Research Installer

"To update X-Plane, do the following:

Launch the copy of X-Plane that you wish to update. If there is a newer version available, the sim will automatically provide you the choice to install it.

Click “Quit & Update Now” and it will automatically download the latest version of the installer.

Click “Quit & Update Now” a second time to launch the installer.

Click Continue for the program to begin scanning your X-Plane directory. This allows it to determine which files need to be updated.

Assuming there is enough disk space to download the required updates, click Continue to begin the installation.

The installation files will be downloaded and installed. When the installation finishes, you’re ready to fly."

Edited May 6, 20206 yr by Muklum
Added information

Update: The problem was fixed if I removed Xsaitekpanels from the plugins folder, and returned when Xsaitekpanels was reinstalled in the folder. Allowing Xsaitekpanels to rebuild its ini file didn't help. Placing Xsaitekpanels in the plugins folder of my clean 11.5 installation resulted in the same slide show, so I can only conclude that there's something going wrong between 11.5 and Xsaitekpanels, but I can't see why the problem was carried back into 11.41 when I rolled back. Anyway, I'll just have to manage without Xsaitekpanels for now.

Further update: The sim (both 11.41 and 11.5) is OK if the plugins folder contains BOTH Xsaitekpanels and FlyWithLua. The FlyWithLua folder had apparently been removed during the update to 11.5, and naturally it was still missing when I rolled back to 11.41. However, an earlier backup of 11.41 without FlyWithLua gives perfectly smooth flight, so there's still a mystery somewhere, but that doesn't worry me as long as I can now use Xsaitekpanels and have a smooth sim experience.

Thanks for the follow-up post. This could be helpful for others in the future!

Regards,

Sylvain

Yeah, and please discard that perfectly useless post by Fizelle, whoever the personality behind the tag is...

Some people really like being helpful, don't they?

Sylle and jcomm,

Thanks - I was a bit worried that maybe asking for advice was no longer allowed on this forum.

Laminar generally advises that a separate copy of X-Plane is to be created for testing beta updates as to not mess up your latest release-grade one. The installer, however, allows going back and forth between the two.

Creating a second install is as easy as creating an empty folder, copying the "Global Scenery" folder (or a directory junction to the one in your release-grade copy), the default aircraft folders and the installer EXE file into it and then use the installer's "Install a second copy of X-Plane" function, pointing it to your newly created folder.
Just make sure you test a beta from the ground up, i.e. do a first run without add-ons and then adding them back one by one or according to pubished compatibility lists.

With some smart directory junction usage, you can even avoid a good amount of file duplication and disk space usage.

I generally have three copies on my computers. Latest release, beta with add-ons and a bare-bone beta for benchmarking with varying degrees of shared folders.

I did test the beta on a separate copy, and since I knew that the installer would allow me to roll back, I THEN updated my main copy. What surprised me, and prompted me to ask for advice, was the fact that the "misbehaviour" of the updated main copy was still present when I returned to 11.41, though there had been no problem before the update  to 11.5. However, it would certainly have been wiser to make a backup of my main installation before updating, and I'll do just that in the future.

In the past, deleting preferences (mind your custom control profiles!) and the shader cache usually cured performance issues after an up-/downgrade.

Yes, that was the first thing I tried, but it didn't make any difference. The only solution I could find, as I reported above, was to have both Xsaitekpanels and FlyWithLua in the plugins folder (or to remove Xsaitekpanels altogether). I still can't explain why my older backup copy of 11.41 can manage without FlyWithLua but my rolled-back main installation can't, but that doesn't worry me (apart from curiosity), since I now have a sim that performs well.