How do I reduce the load times?

[Phantoms 800]

2 hours ago, DJJose said:

I have never had to defrag or optimize my SSDs with Win 10. But I also have my flightsim in a separate SSD.

It is probably done for you on a schedule. You could try opening the Defrag and Optimize window above and it will tell you the last date something was optimized.

1 hour ago, zalox said:

Back to topic, did you use the trick to load without the opening cinematics? It saves some seconds...

What was the command to add to the launch file for that?

 

[SierraHotel 982]

21 hours ago, Manny said:

My loading time of the sim from start to setup has gone from 10 minutes to 20 min now. I've been adding freewares so that is probably the cause.

7:43 start finished at 7:53 = 10 minutes
9:25 start finished at 9:45 = 20 minutes

I've disabled many of the freewares using the linker.

Is there no other way than disabling all the freewares and paywares and enabling them just when I want to fly there?

Maybe I should not use all those amazing freeware cities and wait for ASOBO to update since they load dynamically unlike paywares and Freewares..

I thought maybe Once I load the fsim, I should not close my PC from the evening. I have tried it..but it doesnwork since MSFS freezes the next morning I just leave it as is. I have to load the sim at least once a day. It doesn't stay live overnight. Anyone managed to leave it overnight and were able to use the sim?

Payware. It doesn't include Orbx or FSDT since they are already linked and I don't use this tool to mess with those. 🙂

Freeware

I have stopped using the addon sceneries for this very reason, and to be honest, I'm happy to wait for Asobo and Blackshark to update each country in turn.

[pmb 5,137]

I really would suggest doing as some suggested earlier, i.e. going through the linker entries and examining sizes. I reckognized I was using a Liveries Mega Pack adding a fat 40 (forty!) GB.

I am more and more inclined to get rid of freeware at least, which is a pity given the work going into it by the designers, including some fine pearls.

Kind regards, Michael

[zalox 54]

1 hour ago, Phantoms said:

It is probably done for you on a schedule. You could try opening the Defrag and Optimize window above and it will tell you the last date something was optimized.

What was the command to add to the launch file for that?

 

To launch faster try run this:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App -FastLaunch

Make a shortcut in Desktop and run it.

[Manny 1,293]

5 hours ago, Fielder said:

Well Manny pulled the plug on all our hopes :). 2 minutes no Community. 20 minutes with Community loaded. Looks like we can't have it all !!

 

Its not either all are on or all are off (no  freeware). I just reduced the 20 minutes to load to 4 minutes. Empty Community 3 min + 1 min for addons (freeware) after removing the baggage.. either too big a folder or too many files. I have most of my freeware in the community for the price of 1 additional min. I am good! 🙂

Bottom line with this experiment.:

Don't be afraid of pay ware or free wares in community.  If you like something add it and try  it out, and see if you like it. if you do add it and make sure you have the Linker tool. so you could uncheck and maybe remove it permanently if its a dog.

Once in a while time your load.. if it gets over 4-5 minutes. Sort the addons within in the linker by folder size (each folder with its addon) and uncheck the big folders and then sort by number of files in folder (for each addons) and uncheck those top few and then try reloading until you get back to your 4-5 minutes. Keep all the low cost ones uncheck/or delete the pigs.

My final list of free wares (47) and pay ware (21) in my Community folder for the price of adding 1 minute to my load. And I still have the others if I need it.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Manny

[RobJC 2,069]

My startup time from clicking the desktop icon to getting to the main menu is 2 minutes and 40 seconds. 

[andy1252 3,866]

I've probably got already well over 100 addon airports/scenery packs, maybe a couple of hundred. I don't know, I haven't counted. I use the addons linker because my system would be unusable without it.

I have my MSFS world organised into about 25 regions (i.e. my addons are listed in 25 regional folders), and some of those are subdivided, e.g. I currently have just one region for Africa, one for South America, but Western Europe is a region (folder) with subfolders for Scandinavia, France, Spain etc (organised by ICAO groupings). I also have a "global" folder for things like the Global Ships Ai traffic, US elevation fixes etc. I totally only enable regions, or even specific airports/cities, I plan to visit in a session. I'm hoping that eventually we'll be able to dynamically activate/deactivate scenery packages in the sim in the same way as P3D, but until then I'll live with a (quicker) restart if I want to change scenery.

I found without this, my load times were approaching 25 minutes.

The real killers, in my experience, are the freeware photogrammetry cities and towns that are built using Google Earth models. It's not the pure size of the addons that will kill you, it's the number of files. Some of these photogrammetry packages can hold up to 40,000 files. If I'm using any one of those, I try VERY hard not to load any other addon scenery, unless it's an associated airport.

I still get load times of typically a few minutes, but then I'm running everything at ultra or higher on 4k. All my MSFS stuff is on plain SSD (PCI, not M2).

For me, MSFS would be almost unworkable without the addons linker and a very strict set of controls as to how I install scenery.

Oh, and I also modify any symlinks/junctions for the likes of Orbx products to place them in my own folder setup, and anything I install from the MS Store I move out of the Official packages folder into my own folders and symlink into the Community folder instead (which works fine).

Took me a while to get this all set up, and installing anything new involves maybe a few steps extra (unencrypting folders etc), but once you get set up and get in the habit, it makes like a lot easier.

 

[pmb 5,137]

I like a lot of things about MSFS, but have already kissed goodbe my hope for a more streamlined administration over Prepar3d.

Kind regards, Michael

[Manny 1,293]

5 hours ago, RobJC said:

My startup time from clicking the desktop icon to getting to the main menu is 2 minutes and 40 seconds. 

For 1 extra minute you could have  free wares (47) and pay ware (21).

[fppilot 4,371]

18 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

My community folder is completely empty before every flight. I decide where I want to fly and which plane to use and then move the appropriate mods into the community folder. After the flight is done, I move the mods back out into a separate folder.

+1

I have done this type of management with scenery in FSX and perhaps even all the way back to FS9 with SceneryConfigEditor.  It was/is especially important when using photo real sceneries.

[Phantoms 800]

10 hours ago, zalox said:

To launch faster try run this:

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App -FastLaunch

Make a shortcut in Desktop and run it.

-Fastlaunch, That was it. In Steam you can add launch parameters to any program by right clicking the program/game in your Steam library and selecting properties. Under General there will be a area for Launch Options.

 

 

You don't have to make any changes to the desktop icon. Whenever you launch the game, whether from the desktop icon or Steam itself, it will launch with those parameters.

[zalox 54]

For the Store version I use, you need to modify existing o creating a new shortcut.

[Gerwil 177]

Hi, I see some of you have a folder Payware in the linker app. How does this work? Did you move the Store bought scenery's from Official folder to somewhere else and linked that back into Community?

[Manny 1,293]

4 hours ago, Gerwil said:

Hi, I see some of you have a folder Payware in the linker app. How does this work? Did you move the Store bought scenery's from Official folder to somewhere else and linked that back into Community?

Good observation and YES. You got it.

Any payware, I install in the default which is always "community" folder (with the exception of Orbx and FSDT) after Installing. I go tp Community folder and cut that new installed folder and paste it within the subfolders where I have Payware folder created within COMMUNITY_FILES and Paste.

Then I use the linker tool to create a link from here to the community folder.

If I have to reinstall, I unlink, then install the payware, delete the old folder within "Payware" sub folder and repeat the cut/paste and then link again.

Hope that makes sense

FSDT and ORBX has a library (Folder you had selected at the first install and it links those location folders to the community. Since they are already doing that. I leave those two alone and don't mess with it.

Edited December 26, 2020 by Manny

[Gerwil 177]

10 hours ago, Manny said:

Good observation and YES. You got it.

Any payware, I install in the default which is always "community" folder (with the exception of Orbx and FSDT) after Installing. I go tp Community folder and cut that new installed folder and paste it within the subfolders where I have Payware folder created within COMMUNITY_FILES and Paste.

Then I use the linker tool to create a link from here to the community folder.

If I have to reinstall, I unlink, then install the payware, delete the old folder within "Payware" sub folder and repeat the cut/paste and then link again.

Hope that makes sense

FSDT and ORBX has a library (Folder you had selected at the first install and it links those location folders to the community. Since they are already doing that. I leave those two alone and don't mess with it.

Thanks Manny, all clear. I think I'll just have to just try it with a single scenery from the Ms Store how this will work out. But I guess the Content Manager won't be happy about it, if it works at all. Copying a scenery from Official/OneStore folder to My Addons, then deleting the scenery in content manager and lastly, link it back in with AddonsLinker...

Edit: Nevermind, I just read that Andy1252 did this already and it seems to work.

Edited December 26, 2020 by Gerwil