Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
cavaricooper

How to CORRECTLY apply future MSFS Patches/Updates?

Recommended Posts

These past 3 times when "patching", I copied off my Community folder so the sim would be default, after reading that was important.  The issue is, as I add to the folder courtesy of our incredible freeware and commercial developers, it will become huge, disorganized and ungainly.  Already, I have hosed my FSDT KEYW and KORD (my fault) requiring a uninstall/reinstall because of this willy-nilly moving.  Is there a way to organize the folder, i,e, \Scenery, \Aircraft, \Utilities etc.?  I want to patch correctly, however, I would like to preserve all my files and mods, without the aforementioned issues.

Hopefully Asobo has a long-term plan, and some of our brighter users have a short term solution.

Much obliged (really, the amount of altruistic content is astounding and faith-restorative)- C


Best-

Carl Avari-Cooper

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I wish there was but anything nested in a folder becomes invisible to the sim. One thing I have found is I can rename things (Except like the Orbx stuff which I got through their external system) so I just started putting labels in front of the names and giving them names I would know so something that I get for fixing water tables may be like blargsnarfs_superduper_waterfixes_anything and I change them to scenery_fix_statewater_heightfix

That at least at a glance lets me know what's what.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hopefully down the line we'll stop seeing major patches in the sim.

Honestly, the best bet is keeping things as vanilla as possible, especially modifying game files.  If their last development roadmap, they mentioned 2 patches in October.  Our modding community is great, but you can't expect a mod from a previous patch to work perfectly after a major patch release (and these patches seem to have a lot of undocumented changes in them).  

I keep a spreadsheet of every mod I install, and I try to avoid most of them.  I move everything except aircraft repaints out of the folder before applying a patch.  I wait for the mod community to update their mod for the new patch (which many of them do very quickly, they are amazing).  

Obviously people are going to modify their Flightsim, but at this very, very early stage, maybe take a step back?  With the sim getting major patches every 2 weeks it seems, you're going to have to keep going through the same process frequently.  


-------------------------

Craig from KBUF

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

To be clear ... one of the issues with the community folder is that mods often overwrite the base code with a nearly identical copy with a few tweaks.  The problem is if a patch then modifies the base code that mod will overwrite it with an older version which may not be compatible with changes elsewhere in the game.

So yes, emptying the community folder is good BUT you should then only put back mods and addons that are known to be compatible with the current patch.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Aye Glenn, but problematic for some other folders (FSDT).  Hence, my continued quest for Asobo to allow for folder tree recognition.

C


Best-

Carl Avari-Cooper

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I only move the "mods" out of the Community folder, any addon airport stay. Then after patch, I reboot PC. Open sim, close it, then add back "mods".


David Murden  MSFS   Fenix A320  PMDG 737 • MG Honda Jet • 414 / TDS 750Xi •  FS-ATC Chatter • FlyingIron Spitfire & ME109G • MG Honda Jet 

 Fenix A320 Walkthrough PDF   Flightsim.to •

DCS  A10c II  F-16c  F/A-18c • F-14 • (Others in hanger) • Supercarrier  Terrains = • Nevada NTTR  Persian Gulf  Syria • Marianas • 

• 10900K@4.9 All Cores HT ON   32GB DDR4  3200MHz RTX 3080  • TM Warthog HOTAS • TM TPR • Corsair Virtuoso XT with Dolby Atmos®  Samsung G7 32" 1440p 240Hz • TrackIR 5 & ProClip

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I would just like the answer to one question.

 

Haven't bought game yet.  If I purchase it tomorrow, will I be downloading the original mid-August 90+ Gb game and THEN have to also patch it with the 3-4 updates so far to get up to speed?

 

Or do current new game buyers get the latest code in the main download (with all patches already implemented)?

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
37 minutes ago, macbrowne said:

Or do current new game buyers get the latest code in the main download (with all patches already implemented)?

This.

I just completed a complete re-install of Windows 10, everything else that goes with it, and Flight Simulator. The FS installation was with current, already patched, code.

...jim

 

  • Like 1

ASUS Prime Z790-E, Intel i9 13900K, 32Gb DDR5 Ram, Nvidia 3090 24Gb, Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB and 1 TB, Samsung Odyssey G9 Ultrawide 49" G-SYNC Monitor.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I did not do anything with my Community folder other than to check and see what the status of the various mods were post-patch before trying to use any of them.  The Community folder itself should not be affected by base game updates.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I really like this little freeware tool to manage the Community folder. You can store your addons in a separate path with nested folders etc. and this tool makes a dynamic link within the Community folder to your addon path. You can delete the dynamic links prior to an update and then select the addons you want to include in the community folder once you determine they are compatible. This tool doesn't check compatibility but it is a nice way to manage the addons in your community folder

 

  • Like 1
  • Upvote 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 10/2/2020 at 7:37 AM, cavaricooper said:

These past 3 times when "patching", I copied off my Community folder so the sim would be default, after reading that was important.  The issue is, as I add to the folder courtesy of our incredible freeware and commercial developers, it will become huge, disorganized and ungainly.  Already, I have hosed my FSDT KEYW and KORD (my fault) requiring a uninstall/reinstall because of this willy-nilly moving.  Is there a way to organize the folder, i,e, \Scenery, \Aircraft, \Utilities etc.?  I want to patch correctly, however, I would like to preserve all my files and mods, without the aforementioned issues.

Hopefully Asobo has a long-term plan, and some of our brighter users have a short term solution.

Much obliged (really, the amount of altruistic content is astounding and faith-restorative)- C

When you move everything out delete your 'contents.xml' file and upon restart FS2020 will build a new one.  When you place the files back in the 'Common' folder and do the same again.  The 'Contents.xml' will build a new one.  FS2020 does the best job in organizing MOD's itself.  This is how we got FSDT's Key West to work properly.

On another note, so far any updates have not touched the community folder.

Contents.xml Location:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache 

Edited by Dillon

FS2020 

Alienware Aurora R11 10th Gen Intel Core i7 10700F - Windows 11 Home 32GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB DLSS 3 - HP Reverb G2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 hours ago, macbrowne said:

I would just like the answer to one question.

 

Haven't bought game yet.  If I purchase it tomorrow, will I be downloading the original mid-August 90+ Gb game and THEN have to also patch it with the 3-4 updates so far to get up to speed?

 

Or do current new game buyers get the latest code in the main download (with all patches already implemented)?

 

You'll get the latest code.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

3 patches applied w/o doing anything special and all's well.  I have to wonder if all of the background tweaking and modding isn't already part of the problem.  I went to the MS forum to add a simple request to re-ad the ability to change directions when pushback is triggered w/ a button press.  A kind soul offered up an add-on to do this complete w/ an OSD.  I'd much rather have the wishlist request acted on rather than depend on background mods to change things.  I have to think anything made for the console world can be screwed up by background mods, so I'll patiently wait and see how things improve over time, stock.

Oh, and deleting then rebuilding the rolling cache did restore some LOD degradation that happened after patch 3, but that again is an in-sim action versus a mod to fix something.

Edited by Noel
  • Upvote 1

Noel

System:  9900K@5.0gHz@1.23v all cores, MSI MPG Z390M GAMING EDGE AC, Noctua NH-D15S w/ steady supply of 40-60F ambient air intake, Corsair Vengeance 32Gb LPX 3200mHz DDR4, Sabrent NVMe 2Tb x 2, RTX 4090 FE, Corsair RM 850W PSU, Win10 Pro, LG Ultra Curved Gsync Ultimate 3440x1440, TCA Boeing Edition Yoke & TQ, Cessna Trim Wheel, RTSS Framerate Limiter w/ Edge Sync for near zero Frametime Variance achieving ultra-fluid animation at lower frame rates.

Aircraft used in A Pilot's Life V2:  PMDG 738, Aerosoft CRJ700, FBW A320NX, WT 787X

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have exactly the opposite experience. All 3 times I have had to uninstall and reinstall 100+g of data. I get notification of ujpdate, go to store and download stub but when back in sim - nothing happens - no auto update.

Very frustrating.


 

RIG#1 - 7700K 5.0g ROG X270F 3600 15-15-15 - EVGA RTX 3090 1000W PSU 1- 850G EVO SSD, 2-256G OCZ SSD, 1TB,HAF942-H100 Water W1064Pro
40" 4K Monitor 3840x2160 - AS16, ASCA, GEP3D, UTX, Toposim, ORBX Regions, TrackIR
RIG#2 - 3770K 4.7g Asus Z77 1600 7-8-7 GTX1080ti DH14 850W 2-1TB WD HDD,1tb VRap, Armor+ W10 Pro 2 - HannsG 28" Monitors
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
59 minutes ago, Noel said:

3 patches applied w/o doing anything special and all's well.  I have to wonder if all of the background tweaking and modding isn't already part of the problem.  I went to the MS forum to add a simple request to re-ad the ability to change directions when pushback is triggered w/ a button press.  A kind soul offered up an add-on to do this complete w/ an OSD.  I'd much rather have the wishlist request acted on rather than depend on background mods to change things.  I have to think anything made for the console world can be screwed up by background mods, so I'll patiently wait and see how things improve over time, stock.

Oh, and deleting then rebuilding the rolling cache did restore some LOD degradation that happened after patch 3, but that again is an in-sim action versus a mod to fix something.

This is a good way to look at it.  Our modding community is amazing, but with major patches hitting regularly, you can't possibly expect those mods to work after a big update.  The patches do introduce bugs without the mods, but throwing mods on top of it just makes it hard to diagnose.  

The thing people don't always get is that a mod is a modified default file.  Asobo might update that same file with a new patch.  So, how's that mod going to work?  It might undo the fix Asobo put in, or worse.  Give our great modding community a day or two and most of the popular mods get tested and updated if needed (which is great).  

For every mod out there I just move them out before the patch and put them back in once they are tested and updated as needed.  Our modding community is amazing and I know at least for the mods I use, there were updates within a day or much less in many cases.  


-------------------------

Craig from KBUF

Share this post


Link to post
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
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...