I purchased MSFS last week and have set about adding some of the fantastic free addon scenery areas. Only to find that my sim is not virtually unplayable as it takes 20 minutes to even load. Admittedly, I do have the scenery stored on a HDD, as I do plan to change PC at some point and use M.2 nvme drives, but even so, I I thought FS9 was slow but this is ridiculous!

Luckily I added them using the linker system so I have been able to deselect area, but every time I make a change, it then seems to take just as long to load - perhaps the game is indexing the sceneries each time.

What is frustrating it that I cannot tell if it is certain addons that are causing the delay or the combined total, as there is no information.

I could try manual tests, by selecting an area at a time, but as it seems to take just as long to load after each change of scenery, I am never going to get around to playing the game at this rate!

When I get a new sim, I run it without any add ons for a week or two to make sure it is stable, and then add things a few at a time. Actually, with MSFS 2020, I have only added one scenery and 4 aircraft and two mods, and that is after flying almost 400 hours since Feb 1. I would suggest renaming your community folder which disables it, and if everything works normally, then add a few things at a time. BTW if you have MSFS installed an a harddrive rather than an SSD, it will take a long time to load. 20 minutes sounds way too long, however. 

 

Edited July 12, 20214 yr by Bobsk8

16 minutes ago, chickster25 said:

I purchased MSFS last week and have set about adding some of the fantastic free addon scenery areas. Only to find that my sim is not virtually unplayable as it takes 20 minutes to even load.

You should quickly consider the excellent freeware Addons Linker app for MSFS.  It allows you to organize your library of MSFS addons away from your MSFS community folder.  From there you use the Addons Linker to position only those addons you will be actually utilizing during an MSFS session. That greatly minimizes system loading and system load when flying. 

When you select addons to use via Addons Linker the app then writes into the MSFS Community folder Windows shortcuts or links to those addons you have currently selected.  For me it is a no-brainer must-have app.

Even with addon linker (I run a lot of addons) and a SSD...it's easily 8-10 minutes from double clicking the exe shortcut to in the sim for me.

10 minutes ago, fppilot said:

You should quickly consider the excellent freeware Addons Linker app for MSFS.  It allows you to organize your library of MSFS addons away from your MSFS community folder.  From there you use the Addons Linker to position only those addons you will be actually utilizing during an MSFS session. That greatly minimizes system loading and system load when flying. 

When you select addons to use via Addons Linker the app then writes into the MSFS Community folder Windows shortcuts or links to those addons you have currently selected.  For me it is a no-brainer must-have app.

Does the tool allow to select new airports while msfs is running? Does MSFS recognize that, or is a msfs restart necessary?

It's the number of files being loaded by an addon that causes the problem. If you're using the Addons Linker there is an option ("options", "Disable File Stats" checkbox) to allow it to report the size of each addon and the number of files it has. Probably best not to leave this unchecked as it just transfers the start up delay to the Addons Linker as well, but turning it on will allow you to see the number of files in your addons.

An alternate, and more efficient trick to show you the same info is to install Wiztree - a freebie space monitor pgm. It'll report on the number of files in each directory on a selected drive but does it quicker that the addons linker.

Any sort of scenery using Google earth type PG models is deadly in terms of load times - some of these addons have over a million files. (and anyway, most look like rubbish IMO)

Just now, 737_800 said:

Does the tool allow to select new airports while msfs is running? Does MSFS recognize that, or is a msfs restart necessary?

Can't do that, unfortunately. MSFS doesn't have that capability.

2 minutes ago, 737_800 said:

Does the tool allow to select new airports while msfs is running? Does MSFS recognize that, or is a msfs restart necessary?

No. Not while MSFS is running.  However you select as many airports and other addons as you wish for a session.  So if you are planning (4) flights you can put everything you need in place for those flights.  Scenery, Airports, aircraft liveries, aircraft mods, avionics mods, etc.  And you do not put in place the potentially 100's of others you know you will not be using.

7 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

Can't do that, unfortunately. MSFS doesn't have that capability.

Is there a chance ASOBO could implement that in the future? FSX could handle that, which was quite cool.

Blessed are those who are happy w/ default MSFS.  I'm blessed 

Just now, Noel said:

Blessed are those who are happy w/ default MSFS.  I'm blessed 

I'm with you. These add ons sound like a nightmare going someplace to happen. 😉

42 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

Even with addon linker (I run a lot of addons) and a SSD...it's easily 8-10 minutes from double clicking the exe shortcut to in the sim for me.

I have my programs on HDD and it also takes about 8 minutes to load. So perhaps there is not much between SSD and HDD. I accept the system build could have an effect. 20 minutes is way too long.

I am with Bobsk8, I have four liveries, one airport and the FBW airbus in my community folder. Otherwise I have no other mods/tools. The more that is added the more that can go wrong🙂

Edited July 12, 20214 yr by Andy675

43 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

It's the number of files being loaded by an addon that causes the problem. If you're using the Addons Linker there is an option ("options", "Disable File Stats" checkbox) to allow it to report the size of each addon and the number of files it has. Probably best not to leave this unchecked as it just transfers the start up delay to the Addons Linker as well, but turning it on will allow you to see the number of files in your addons.

An alternate, and more efficient trick to show you the same info is to install Wiztree - a freebie space monitor pgm. It'll report on the number of files in each directory on a selected drive but does it quicker that the addons linker.

Any sort of scenery using Google earth type PG models is deadly in terms of load times - some of these addons have over a million files. (and anyway, most look like rubbish IMO)

Thanks Andy, I am using the Addon Linker but will have a look at this option.

 

If MSFS is indexing everytime the scenery is changed then that is going to be an issue, unless you are flying in the same area a number of times. IT would be utopia if it could tell us how long (on average) how long each addon would take to load, so we can weed out the problematic ones from the small or effecient ones.

6 minutes ago, chickster25 said:

It'll report on the number of files in each directory on a selected drive but does it quicker that the addons linker.

 

6 minutes ago, chickster25 said:

Thanks Andy, I am using the Addon Linker but will have a look at this option.

Understand WixTree only shows you folder and filesizes for any folder structure on your PC.  It has no MSFS specific function.  It is a general system tool for your computer file management.

2 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

Even with addon linker (I run a lot of addons) and a SSD...it's easily 8-10 minutes from double clicking the exe shortcut to in the sim for me.

This has always been the case for me.  At one time I suggested some type of loading screen that comes up when you click the .exe.  Unfortunately that idea was not well received on this forum (to say the least).  Instead I am looking at my desktop for 10 minutes wondering if anything is going on.