Why are updates always that big? Downloading every time mutliple GB. X-Plane for ex. are much smaller and make sense but this is...

I tend to agree. Way too big for what you get, taking into account the myriad of issues that usually come later like the terrain spikes, the silver coast lines, the flap-lift issue, etc.

Cheers, Ed

That's just how modern multiplayer games are. It's the same with Call of Duty, every few months there's a 20 GB update and it's mandatory, and there's 200 mb updates weekly. It's all built around the expectation you'll have a 8 Megabit+ (and ideally 38+) connection, and if you don't then best hope you're patient!

Part of the reason is because if they change a small thing in one file, they have to send you the whole file. So with fixing the terrain spikes, they may have had to ship out whole terrain meshes for quite large areas. The same with coastlines, they may have to resend all the vector data for entire areas, not just the sections they fixed.

Edited February 24, 20215 yr by ckyliu

18 minutes ago, ckyliu said:

That's just how modern multiplayer games are. It's the same with Call of Duty,

You're probably right, I don't have COD but I do have the bangar racing game called Wreckfest and their updates are pretty big too. Although they're not mandatory, you'd be missing out on all the lovely goodies that are in the update. 😃

1 hour ago, ckyliu said:

Part of the reason is because if they change a small thing in one file, they have to send you the whole file. So with fixing the terrain spikes, they may have had to ship out whole terrain meshes for quite large areas. The same with coastlines, they may have to resend all the vector data for entire areas, not just the sections they fixed.

Sure, but something that shouldn't happen in the first place if no fixes are needed after a major update release.

Cheers, Ed

4 hours ago, Mike44 said:

Why are updates always that big? Downloading every time mutliple GB. X-Plane for ex. are much smaller and make sense but this is...

Because THE WORLD IS BIG

It would be nice to be able to select updates such as particular aircraft. I have no interest in GA aircraft,but they get updated with everything else. 

 

1 hour ago, Jude Bradley said:

It would be nice to be able to select updates such as particular aircraft. I have no interest in GA aircraft,but they get updated with everything else. 

 

Then they would have to know the aircraft each and every user has to get them the  correct update for their aircrafts. Sounds like a real nightmare, 

Edited February 24, 20215 yr by Bobsk8

Why would MS not make updates optional to accommodate those who live in parts of the world where the internet is slow, expensive or volume limited?

Edited February 24, 20215 yr by Afterburner

is because of the bugs

the more bugs the bigger the update

6 hours ago, ckyliu said:

Part of the reason is because if they change a small thing in one file, they have to send you the whole file.

They don't have to.  Binary diffs for patches exist, they have since the DOS days when a new copy of DOS came on several floppy disks but they packaged the entire update on 1 floppy.

It would be interesting to make a copy of the MSFS folder and do a binary diff after the update and see how that compares to what they are sending us.

8 minutes ago, marsman2020 said:

They don't have to.  Binary diffs for patches exist, they have since the DOS days when a new copy of DOS came on several floppy disks but they packaged the entire update on 1 floppy.

It would be interesting to make a copy of the MSFS folder and do a binary diff after the update and see how that compares to what they are sending us.

I just installed the latest update which If I recall was something like 23 GB. The entire FS 2020 size on my SD was about the same, when the update finished, as it was initially. I am assuming that most of the files were overwritten.

Imagine all the folks that purchased the dvd set to avoid big downloads 🧐

A lot of things could go into an update. Updates to terrain mesh, or the underlying base satellite imagery could account for a lot of the 23GB. These would likely overwrite existing files, so the overall size of the total installation would not change much.

1 hour ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Imagine all the folks that purchased the dvd set to avoid big downloads 🧐

Even worse is if one of those discs is damaged and stops working due to a minute scratch or something. There's about ten discs in those physical sets. 

Error Installation Failed, please insert disc 1 and try again. 😟