Perhaps we will all have noticed that the Community folder is becoming loaded with scenery, airport additions and liveries, etc. This giving an increased loading time - mine currently is 15 minutes to the Press any button to continue!

I have two questions:

1/ Is it possible to have subfolders in the Community folder for example, scenery for a particular area,  or a town or airport - allowing MSFS to function as it should taking items from the subfolders?

2/ when MSFS is running, is it possible to add in/take out items in the Community folder without it affecting the running of MSFS (will it populate/depopulate as necessary?

With no management system in place for MSFS, like with FSX as an example, it is going to be before long 30 minutes plus to load!

Food for thought!

Martin

Hello,

You should try this addon.
I do use it : easy, fast, simple ...

I need to wait  2'50" to start flying. (25" to the Press any button to continue! )
I use an Nvme M2 disc !

23 minutes ago, sauviat said:

Perhaps we will all have noticed that the Community folder is becoming loaded with scenery, airport additions and liveries, etc. This giving an increased loading time - mine currently is 15 minutes to the Press any button to continue!

I have two questions:

1/ Is it possible to have subfolders in the Community folder for example, scenery for a particular area,  or a town or airport - allowing MSFS to function as it should taking items from the subfolders?

2/ when MSFS is running, is it possible to add in/take out items in the Community folder without it affecting the running of MSFS (will it populate/depopulate as necessary?

With no management system in place for MSFS, like with FSX as an example, it is going to be before long 30 minutes plus to load!

Food for thought!

Martin

Hi;

As I experienced; without using any additional organizer add-on;

1-Sub folders are not working under Community folder. You can just sort folders with prefixes such as airport, scenery, utility, fix, etc.

2-No, while sim is loaded, removing or adding folders under Communty is not good to do. Sim will fail by removing or sim willnor recognise by adding .

I can just suggest to make another folder in the same drive, that you can move the folders that you are not currently interested, to the new "DO NOT LOAD" folder. This move will be very fast as they are in the same drive and your Community folder will be lighter.

Happy flying.

Edited October 18, 20205 yr by kt069

I agree. This is a a big issue.

I can't imagine that MS/AS intends to leave the community folder operating in this manner long term. To me, it feels like a placeholder. I hope I'm right. When I look at my other sims, I can easily see 5,000+ paints (including AI), and several hundred scenery entries. Also, like usual, we have a situation where developers are not using a common naming convention for their folders, so it can be difficult to to scan the community folder to see what is in there.

Any news about Simstarter for MSFS?

@ctdlg yes that interests me and will look in greater depth tomorrow.

@kt069 Have looked at this, but when you have scenery makers that have many separate folders when one will do, I now have hundreds of folders to deal with!

I'll look at everything tomorrow when I am able to fit it in to my day.

Martin

11 minutes ago, sauviat said:

This giving an increased loading time - mine currently is 15 minutes to the Press any button to continue!

I am storing my add on folders on a separate data drive and only bringing over the Community folder those that I need or want for the day's flying.  I am keeping the drzewieckidesign-washingtonliteairports scenery in place as it is in my local flying area.  I am keeping the Robert Young Bonanza G36 Turbo mod as I am flying it often now.  I am keeping the Working Title G1000 mod in place as I use it in three aircraft I am flying often, the G36, G58 Baron, and DA62.  I have a DA62 livery pack in place.  That is it.  

1 TB SSD  w/ 100 MBPS internet speed.
00:40 to first splash screen (seconds) 
01:05 to Press any Key
Another 02:05 to Welcome screen

01:35 from World screen to Ready to Fly with the KA350 and loading a flight plan from Indianapolis to Baltimore.

 

 

 

@fppilot I am only able to get 25 MBPS so no other option there:(

@duckbilled Have not looked at Simstarter for MSFS.

Martin

30 minutes ago, ctdlg said:

Hello,

You should try this addon.
I do use it : easy, fast, simple ...

I need to wait  2'50" to start flying. (25" to the Press any button to continue! )
I use an Nvme M2 disc !

Yes, I use this addon and it is great. For Sauviat. the answer to both questions is no. You cannot have subfolders in Community, and any changes you make there (adding or removing files) require exiting MSFS and restarting.

You can use subfolders with the addon https://flightsim.to/file/1572/msfs-addons-linker

My cities are in a cities folder
My planes are in a planes folder
My misc tolls are in a misc folder.
My airports are in an airport folder
All of them somewhere on an ssd ! not in the community folder ...

Mfs addons linker will enable/disable them using symlinks (no need to copy/remove files in the community folder)

Bad-T could explain you much better than I !

@cobalt Thanks for clarification, I will be looking at that addon tomorrow and will report afterwards.

Martin

27 minutes ago, fppilot said:

I am storing my add on folders on a separate data drive and only bringing over the Community folder those that I need or want for the day's flying.  I am keeping the drzewieckidesign-washingtonliteairports scenery in place as it is in my local flying area.  I am keeping the Robert Young Bonanza G36 Turbo mod as I am flying it often now.  I am keeping the Working Title G1000 mod in place as I use it in three aircraft I am flying often, the G36, G58 Baron, and DA62.  I have a DA62 livery pack in place.  That is it.  

1 TB SSD  w/ 100 MBPS internet speed.
00:40 to first splash screen (seconds) 
01:05 to Press any Key
Another 02:05 to Welcome screen

01:35 from World screen to Ready to Fly with the KA350 and loading a flight plan from Indianapolis to Baltimore.

 

 

 

I've considered storing things outside of MSFS, and just bringing over what I need, but it is super challenging to figure out what all of the paints are based on the folder names. It looks like you can't simply rename the folders, because the json files reference the folder names. To me, it looks like you have to edit the json files if you want to edit the folder name making in very cumbersome to keep things organized. Of course, some painters use more intuitive folder names than others. They should include the aircraft, airline, and variation ("ASOBO_A320Neo_United_Retro", for example).

27 minutes ago, sauviat said:

@duckbilled Have not looked at Simstarter for MSFS.

Martin

I'm not sure if they are developing one for MSFS. I hope so.

Another option, is Lorby creating an addon manager for MSFS?

58 minutes ago, duckbilled said:

It looks like you can't simply rename the folders, because the json files reference the folder names.

You can't change the name of anything within the mod directory without needing to generate a new layout file.   But you can rename the mod directory itself all you want.   Still no subdirectories in the community folder though.   Use MSFS Addon Linker, it's fabulous.

Have followed the video, but he seems to have started with his addons already enabled. When I select Enable all addons it does not populate the left hamd side, although the community folder is showing all the files, etc.

What have I missed?

Martin

Hello Martin, i sent you a little private msg if you need more help.

From reading your message it seems you are doing it the wrong way, you should put your manually downloaded addons in your selected addon folder (LEFT) and then, when you enable, it will create the links on the community folder (RIGHT).

Maybe try with a single addon to start with, remove it from the community folder and place it in the addons folder, it will help you understand how it works.

Edited October 18, 20205 yr by Bad_T

@Bad_T Hi, I found that I did do the right thing, but pressed the wrong refresh link!

I have placed all that was in my Community folder in the MSFS Addons - which is what I did not do initially. I am now at the stage where on the LH side I have the folders and no red markings. On the RH side, I now have it all green and ticks in the Is Link:)

 

Now going to see what happens!

Martin