My fears for the future

[antonvs 76]

What Asobo and their partner’s have produced in MFS2020 is just astronomical after what I have seen with a day’s exposure to the sim, but I have grave fears for the future due, not to sim but the way it is being handled in Windows by Microsoft and the archaic way the program is installed on our PC’s. There are so many threads already of people struggling with the results of these installation issues. This thread is a good example:

And there are many more, I’m sure others must be worried as well. And it is such a shame that such a brilliant product is pulled down because of its installation process. Don’t get me wrong, I want this to succeed as much as anyone else but I am beginning to feel all the constraints and lack of official support is going to spoil it for me. What has mostly sent me down this road is the lack of setup documentation and then no access to the MFS forums today. It seems to me that they have focussed so much on delivering the product on time without sufficient resourses to cover user support.

I hope I’m wrong. 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by antonvs

[Lenny777 299]

I'm not worried about it. Just the usual as you stated archaic and inflexible install process. I should bloody well get to install it on the drive of my choice. So I pre paid for the deluxe which installed a basic file. I then moved the app to a new M.2 drive I purchased. Today was install time. I aimed it where I had moved the app and sure enough it wouldn't install. I then had to go back to where on the C drive MS wanted it. Thankfully my windows install is on an SSD 1 TB drive and went there without a problem because what MS insists on it gets. I want to put this on the M.2 drive though!! Any solutions would be welcome.

[AnkH 2,233]

Had no issues at all installing it on the drive I wanted, works perfectly...

[G-RFRY 1,708]

One thing that will be hard for some is you do not have access to all the files and folders, like on other sims FSX,P3D ,XPlane .

[Paladin2005 421]

The installation and the hidden files and folders is the reason not to buy it in the MS store.

Always prefer a Steam solution...

[Lenny777 299]

9 minutes ago, AnkH said:

Had no issues at all installing it on the drive I wanted, works perfectly...

Thanks for your advice in advance. Doesn't really help when this claim is made and no instruction is provided.

[JRBarrett 3,038]

2 minutes ago, G-RFRY said:

One thing that will be hard for some is you do not have access to all the files and folders, like on other sims FSX,P3D ,XPlane .

The core sim executable and associated support files in the protected WindowsApps folder are not things which end users would have need to access. The folder is protected because changing anything in there could easily break the sim installation. 

The content folder however if freely accessible to anyone. All aircraft, scenery, config files etc. live there.

The content folder will contain a sub folder called “official” where all the MS content is stored, and one called “community”, which (I assume) is where 3PD content will go.

[Sethos 4,299]

I've seen a lot of people now run into UWP's insane workings, just as I predicted. Locked folders, problem moving content, it's placing random folders on multiple drives making it a confusing spectacle for some. However, this only goes for the core files and the launcher itself, which is a small part of the game. Once people have come to terms with UWP, have gotten over the slow and frozen downloads due to overloaded CDNs, plus worked out the various errors that you see in new games, it should be smooth(er) sailing.

The actual sim content, which is what you place and download in the launcher, is not UWP and it comes in a sensible package formatting, that separates official and third party content, plus all content have their own little ecosystem, so you don't have to deal with all the file overriding and dropping into a huge, convoluted main folder of a billion files. It actually looks to be a really pleasant approach in terms of modding and installing third party content, plus its own internal package manager for everything.

So regardless of the early teething issues, it looks like we're in for a much, much better user experience for the actual content itself. 

[arsenal82 120]

6 minutes ago, JRBarrett said:

The core sim executable and associated support files in the protected WindowsApps folder are not things which end users would have need to access. The folder is protected because changing anything in there could easily break the sim installation. 

The content folder however if freely accessible to anyone. All aircraft, scenery, config files etc. live there.

The content folder will contain a sub folder called “official” where all the MS content is stored, and one called “community”, which (I assume) is where 3PD content will go.

that is that

now to real business;  do anybody have a clue how to save a flight and load it at next sim start up ?

Edited August 18, 2020 by arsenal82

[antonvs 76]

Yes, most of my concerns are not so much with the initial install, but what happens in the future when we are trying to keep it going. Some have said that they are happy that they don’t have to spend all their potential flying time worrying about having to tweek, but then I think that the structure of this release is going too far the other way. For example, will we really be happy to not have the wonderful contribution of Freeware like we are so used to. Folks are still hoping the SDK will cater for this (at it may well) but the bigger issue will be how will this content be handled, from what I have seen after a few hours studying the file structure, I can’t see any easy options.

ChaoticBeauty elsewhere said,

“After the glowing critic reviews this isn't a good look for the simulator. They really should have ensured that the client wasn't half-baked before release, and perhaps simulate a launch situation with the Closed Beta.“

This also sums up my feelings.

Edited August 18, 2020 by antonvs

[RobotRock 118]

I don’t think this will be an issue for the masses.

[AnkH 2,233]

16 minutes ago, Lenny777 said:

Thanks for your advice in advance. Doesn't really help when this claim is made and no instruction is provided.

What should I tell you? That I was able to tell MSFS the drive and folder I wanted to install to when running the setup the first time?

[sd_flyer 6,032]

You can install MSFS in any folder of your choosing in the very beginning. And after that everything intuitively easy to read and see. During alpha process some folks  discovered upcoming airplanes but just browsing folders 🙂

[2reds2whites 827]

How are people complaining about file structure when the sim has been out for less than 24 hours? How could anyone possibly get to grips with any new release within less than a day?

[djbully 210]

No issues like this for the Steam version. Installed to my F: drive (F for Flight SIM!!!)   😎