On 11/16/2022 at 8:30 PM, bvdboomen said:

When making a symbolic link to an add-on outside the community folder. Windows is actually fooling MSFS which thinks the add-on is in fact in the community folder. So the effect of loading times is exactly the same.

Indeed, but in AL you can with one click disable add-ons, scenery and so on that you do not need in your next flight.

7 hours ago, kiek said:

Indeed, but in AL you can with one click disable add-ons, scenery and so on that you do not need in your next flight.

Yes, you're right. I was responding because some think that, when placing only links in de community folder (manually or via AL), the sim will load faster.

15 hours ago, St Mawgan said:

I have literally no idea what you are talking about! 

He is simply pointing out that moving links in and out of Community is easier, quicker, and safer than moving large numbers of entire files. Not complicated.

46 minutes ago, cobalt said:

He is simply pointing out that moving links in and out of Community is easier, quicker, and safer than moving large numbers of entire files. Not complicated.

But who would move large numbers of entire files in and out? The division here is between people who have moved them all out of the Community folder and use AL and those who keep the Community folder as it is. The argument is whether it makes any difference to performance or stability. My position is that it does not. The division is also between those who seem to know what they are going to fly and where they are going to fly it before starting MSFS and those, like me who have no clue and change their minds often in one session. 

17 hours ago, St Mawgan said:

I have literally no idea what you are talking about! 

That's a shame. You're missing out on a very useful add-on. Oh well.

1 hour ago, cobalt said:

He is simply pointing out that moving links in and out of Community is easier, quicker, and safer than moving large numbers of entire files. Not complicated.

Thank you.😊

57 minutes ago, St Mawgan said:

But who would move large numbers of entire files in and out? The division here is between people who have moved them all out of the Community folder and use AL and those who keep the Community folder as it is. The argument is whether it makes any difference to performance or stability. My position is that it does not. The division is also between those who seem to know what they are going to fly and where they are going to fly it before starting MSFS and those, like me who have no clue and change their minds often in one session. 

It's been said several times in this thread: Addon Linker has nothing to do with stability or performance.It is a tool designed to facilitate the handling of addon files in MSFS, and is interest mainly to those who have large numbers of addons. For some folks, though not everyone, it is indispensable. I don't know how to make this any clearer.

56 minutes ago, St Mawgan said:

But who would move large numbers of entire files in and out? The division here is between people who have moved them all out of the Community folder and use AL and those who keep the Community folder as it is. The argument is whether it makes any difference to performance or stability. My position is that it does not. The division is also between those who seem to know what they are going to fly and where they are going to fly it before starting MSFS and those, like me who have no clue and change their minds often in one session. 

I change my mind sometimes too, but I've a reasonable idea where I almost certainly won't fly during a session (for example New Zealand, Australia, Africa or Central America) so I can at least not activate those regions along with any aircraft types I am reasonably certain not to be flying.

If you're totally unsure where or what you'll be flying in a session, you'd need everything you have active before starting the sim so there'd be no point adding or subtracting from Community by either method.

On the other hand, if you're copying things into Community manually, then realising you want something else active, you'd have to close the sim anyway to do so. Might as well be using the quicker option of AddonsLinker to make the changes.

Sorry if you have no idea what I'm talking about again!😂

7 hours ago, St Mawgan said:

The division here is between people who have moved them all out of the Community folder and use AL and those who keep the Community folder as it is. The argument is whether it makes any difference to performance or stability. My position is that it does not.

This may also depend on how many addons you have downloaded.. Hard to compare when some folks have hundreds of addons, few of which they actually use in any one flight, or any one session.

I have over 105 GB of addons in my addons folder, but only a handful active at any one time.

Is it OK to dump 105 GB of addons into my Community folder.. some of which are known to conflict.. probably not..

I enjoy flying the continual production of new Addons especially on Flightsim.to website and especially the Bush Strips

I fly them then delete them  from my Community folder but keep them in a MSFS  Addons folder

I have a favourite or two that I come back to and fly again and again

Its an easy if a little time consuming process-and probably no easy way round this as it is the price I pay for such a continual cornucopia of new Addons 

xxd09

9 minutes ago, xxd09 said:

time consuming process-and probably no easy way round this

Would you believe there is an easy way round it? Yes, the very same Addons Linker we've been harping on about!😉

7 hours ago, 109Sqn said:

If you're totally unsure where or what you'll be flying in a session, you'd need everything you have active before starting the sim so there'd be no point adding or subtracting from Community by either method.

On the other hand, if you're copying things into Community manually, then realising you want something else active, you'd have to close the sim anyway to do so. Might as well be using the quicker option of AddonsLinker to make the changes.

Sorry if you have no idea what I'm talking about again!😂

But I don't move anything out of the Community folder!  Anything I buy or download is installed there and unless it needs tweaking or is bad enough to delete, it stays there. I have never, ever had a conflict. I see no point in running a third party program in anticipation of having a problem I have never had. This sounds more like superstition than logic. 

Reminds me of the old FSX days when I used ORBX regions. We had to select a region first with FTX Central in which we would like to fly. If we changed our minds, we had to close the sim and select another region. Boy, were we glad that ORBX found a solution with the lclookup that we never had to switch regions again but that all scenery was fully loaded. We could seamlessly fly any place we would like without shutting down the sim first.

I would like to see Asobo/MS making the community folder less prone to CTD's and long loading times. I'm not disapproving AL here. Just a share on how I would like the community folder to be.

10 hours ago, St Mawgan said:

But I don't move anything out of the Community folder!  Anything I buy or download is installed there and unless it needs tweaking or is bad enough to delete, it stays there. I have never, ever had a conflict. I see no point in running a third party program in anticipation of having a problem I have never had. This sounds more like superstition than logic. 

Well, if you're happy enough keeping everything in the Community folder all the time and have it being loaded even when not required for a session, that's absolutely fine, especially if you have a relatively small number of addons. But for those who have a large number of addons which aren't used every session, it makes perfect sense to limit what gets loaded. Certainly more logic than superstition in that case, believe me (or not!😉).

In the end, nobody needs Addons Linker, maybe not everyone gets a significant benefit from it, but many do. Each to their own (which is usually a good way to say we've both made our point and aren't going to reach a total agreement, if any at all!😄).

1 hour ago, 109Sqn said:

Well, if you're happy enough keeping everything in the Community folder all the time and have it being loaded even when not required for a session, that's absolutely fine, especially if you have a relatively small number of addons. But for those who have a large number of addons which aren't used every session, it makes perfect sense to limit what gets loaded. Certainly more logic than superstition in that case, believe me (or not!😉).

In the end, nobody needs Addons Linker, maybe not everyone gets a significant benefit from it, but many do. Each to their own (which is usually a good way to say we've both made our point and aren't going to reach a total agreement, if any at all!😄).

Just for the record: this is essentially the same message that's been repeated and over in this thread. Hopefully we can bring this to a close.Thanks!

Edited November 20, 20223 yr by cobalt