NEW TO MSFS

[mikeymike 360]

Hey guys I am in P3d atm but am wanting to try msfs as I have additional m2 ssd 

my question once installed do all the addons scenery aircraft landmarks tow packages etc etc just go into the community folder and that’s it?

cheers 

mike 

[environmental_ice 238]

yes straight to the community folder

[mikeymike 360]

3 minutes ago, environmental_ice said:

yes straight to the community folder

Thank you 

one more question any folders in c drive ? 

[environmental_ice 238]

I think it might depend on how you installed it. I chose to install the sim on my D drive as I have almost 2TB of space. It hasn't been an issue for me

[wim123 761]

if you are new i would first check if it runs properly, vanilla, before you put stuff in the community folder.

[pmb 5,137]

6 minutes ago, mikeymike said:

Thank you 

one more question any folders in c drive ? 

Also depends on if you have a MS Store or Steam installation. For a MS Store installation, I think the base 4 GB files MUST go to the C drive. Main content to be installed from within the sim can go anywhere.

I have a Steam setup and all Steam games are on a drive different from C, including the MSFS base files. Again, I have the main content (plus the Community folder) in yet another drive (all SSDs). 

I suggest the Scenery linker (flightsim.to) for managing the Community folder, otherwise your loading times will grow exponentially.

Kind regards, Michael

[mikeymike 360]

3 minutes ago, pmb said:

Also depends on if you have a MS Store or Steam installation. For a MS Store installation, I think the base 4 GB files MUST go to the C drive. Main content to be installed from within the sim can go anywhere.

I have a Steam setup and all Steam games are on a drive different from C, including the MSFS base files. Again, I have the main content (plus the Community folder) in yet another drive (all SSDs). 

I suggest the Scenery linker (flightsim.to) for managing the Community folder, otherwise your loading times will grow exponentially.

Kind regards, Michael

Interesting I guess I’ll have to watch a few YouTube videos if any .

thanks

mike

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

12 minutes ago, pmb said:

For a MS Store installation, I think the base 4 GB files MUST go to the C drive.

No, the C drive has only about 2 MB on it, the rest is linked to the drive where you choose to install MSFS.

Agree that the MSFS Addons Linker is the way to go for addons 😉

Edited June 17, 2021 by Bert Pieke

[mikeymike 360]

Perfect. Thank you all

[Chock 17,769]

1 hour ago, mikeymike said:

my question once installed do all the addons scenery aircraft landmarks tow packages etc etc just go into the community folder and that’s it?

cheers 

mike 

Nope. There are two locations for add-ons (I'm referring to the MS store version here, not the Steam version).

Official add-ons from the MSFS marketplace install into the Official folder the address of which is along the lines of:

F:\WpSystem\S-1-5-21-2323705056-408888195-2989242969-1000\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_7wekyb3d7bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Official\OneStore

Others, such as freebie add-ons and most payware add-ons you buy from the developer's website rather than the in-game MSFS store go to:

F:\WpSystem\S-1-5-21-2323705056-408888195-2989242969-1000\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_7wekyb3d7bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Community

Whether in the Community folder or the Official folder, they essentially work pretty much the same in spite of this different location, although you will tend to find that ones going into the Community folder tend to be more accessible to modders, for example, with a visible Aircraft config file, whereas ones in the Official folder tend to have hidden Aircraft config files.

The updates and patches just update the sim with no need to point anywhere manually, it's a fully automated process which triggers when you start the sim if an update is available which is mandatory, although sometimes you also have to go to the MS Store and patch it there before the sim patch will trigger. Official add-ons from the MSFS however, do have to be updated manually if a patch is available, but this is simply a case of doing this in the sim, so again not manual moving of files is required, you just tick the update from a list and hit a 'download/install' button.

It's all fairly intuitively numpty-proof for the most part.

Edited June 17, 2021 by Chock

[RaptyrOne 1,405]

5 minutes ago, Chock said:

F:\WpSystem\S-1-5-21-2323705056-408888195-2989242969-1000\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_7wekyb3d7bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Official\OneStore

I think the liquor store was selling everything at half price on the day they came up with this folder name/structure.

Do yourself a favour and set a custom path. Something simple like D:\MSFS.

Edited June 17, 2021 by RaptyrOne

[Chock 17,769]

1 minute ago, RaptyrOne said:

I think the liquor store was selling everything at half price on the day they came up with this folder name/structure.

Yup, I'm pretty sure nuclear missile launch codes have less file name encryption than that. 🚀

[bean_sprout 1,201]

15 minutes ago, Chock said:

Nope. There are two locations for add-ons (I'm referring to the MS store version here, not the Steam version).

Official add-ons from the MSFS marketplace install into the Official folder the address of which is along the lines of:

F:\WpSystem\S-1-5-21-2323705056-408888195-2989242969-1000\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_7wekyb3d7bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Official\OneStore

Others, such as freebie add-ons and most payware add-ons you buy from the developer's website rather than the in-game MSFS store go to:

F:\WpSystem\S-1-5-21-2323705056-408888195-2989242969-1000\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_7wekyb3d7bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Community

Whether in the Community folder or the Official folder, they essentially work pretty much the same in spite of this different location, although you will tend to find that ones going into the Community folder tend to be more accessible to modders, for example, with a visible Aircraft config file, whereas ones in the Official folder tend to have hidden Aircraft config files.

The updates and patches just update the sim with no need to point anywhere manually, it's a fully automated process which triggers when you start the sim if an update is available which is mandatory, although sometimes you also have to go to the MS Store and patch it there before the sim patch will trigger. Official add-ons from the MSFS however, do have to be updated manually if a patch is available, but this is simply a case of doing this in the sim, so again not manual moving of files is required, you just tick the update from a list and hit a 'download/install' button.

It's all fairly intuitively numpty-proof for the most part.

For my own sanity I  install  (MS Store version) MSFS assets on the PC to c:/fs2020 and make a subfolder /cache for the roaming cache.

Regards 

bs

Edited June 17, 2021 by bean_sprout

[pmb 5,137]

1 hour ago, Bert Pieke said:

No, the C drive has only about 2 MB on it, the rest is linked to the drive where you choose to install MSFS.

Agree that the MSFS Addons Linker is the way to go for addons 😉

Really? Thanks for correcting. I'm on Steam and the base files under /Steamapps are 1.5 GB, thus I thought this would be the same for the (hidden) MS Store directory. Obvioulsy it isn't.

Kind regards, Michael

 

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

1 hour ago, pmb said:

I thought this would be the same for the (hidden) MS Store directory.

MS installs it into the Appdata\Local\Packages directory, and on my system, it takes up 2.21 MB.