Time of day related slowdowns...and related odditites

[Grumpster 4]

I have noticed that for several months now, I can use the sim during the day (9am to 3pm MST) reliably, with excellent load times, weather, quick snapping scenery etc.  However, in the evening (Americas), it slows to a crawl.  For instance my experience tonight was a quick load of the app, but when I went to world view, no weather populated at all - just a blue green shiny.  I knew instantly (9:00pm Saturday evening atm) that the sim was unusable.  What happens is that, well since weather won't load, I know that the 'go to cockpit' move will yield a paaaainfullllly slow load, that will eventually pop up 'internet data too slow, turn photogrammetry off? (yes/ignore).  If you choose ignore, it takes you to the cockpit, but regardless of your photogrammetry choice, the world remains an extremely low res bowl of porridge.

I have posted this problem on Zendesk support forum, have received replies that include turning off and on ONLINE FUNCTIONALITY in settings.  Works for about 10% of the time and that was back in 2021.  It no longer has any effect.

Note that over the past few months, Every time this happens, I fire up speedtest.net and consistently get 250-300 Mbps, with 41 ms ping.  Pretty snappy internet on this end. 

Associated behaviours include button-overs lag by 1.5 seconds, and often the mouse target box is 50 or so pixels ABOVE the tip of the pointer arrow.

This is not a bitching post.  Nor a bug report.  Nor really a 'what do YOU do to fix this' thread.  I am seeking any others who have experienced this to weigh in.  I have a working thesis that involves server overload from Microsoft servers during peak hours.  Basically a streaming bottleneck at the source.

Victim of it's own success. 

 

[Sky_Pilot071 579]

Moral of the story is don't expect the online MSFS experience to be perfect 24/7.

sp

[andy1252 3,784]

Definitely get server-related issues here in the UK over the weekend evenings. Which I guess is prime time here. I've learned to not fly much in those time slots. That's ok, I'm a retired old f*rt and can (and do) use the sim anytime I like.

Perceived wisdom over here is to switch away from the default server to something else (far east or similar) but every time I've remembered to try this the option seems to be greyed out for me, and I've not followed that up yet.

[wim123 758]

in your evening, maybe europe gets online and yes possibly some overload somewhere.

i have none of that. in europe, ping around 20.

[JRBarrett 3,049]

2 hours ago, andy1252 said:

Perceived wisdom over here is to switch away from the default server to something else (far east or similar) but every time I've remembered to try this the option seems to be greyed out for me, and I've not followed that up yet.

The server drop-down box is only for multiplayer. If you are not using MP, the selection menu will be greyed out.

An end-user has no control whatsoever over which servers MSFS connects to for streaming scenery, photogrammetry, live weather or ATC/live traffic. MSFS chooses  those based on unknown factors - The geographical location of your internet gateway undoubtedly plays a role, as well as (probably) current server load.

Probably the only direct control you could have over which servers MSFS connects to would be to use a VPN, which would make your internet gateway appear to be in a different geographic location than it actually is.

[andy1252 3,784]

2 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

The server drop-down box is only for multiplayer. If you are not using MP, the selection menu will be greyed out.

Ah, didn't know that. Thanks for that, Jim. I don't do MP, don't want anybody else in my private universe! <grin> (and wasn't that a great song?)

[Biggles2010 342]

In the UK there is a general problem of poor internet performance. Outside larger towns there is still very limited fibre coverage, with most users having to rely on the copper wire telephone network for at least part of their connection to the exchanges. The problem is made worse by ISPs selectively throttling services. Of course they always deny doing so, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that it happens, even at times when bandwidth demand should not be too high. Unfortunately It's very difficult to prove. In this area, the recognised speedtest sites always produce the full rated speeds, whereas all other download sources show less than 20% of that speed, regardless of server capacity or likely demand.

[willy647 193]

Flow from //42 allows you to change servers, even when not using multi player.

[Grumpster 4]

12 hours ago, willy647 said:

Flow from //42 allows you to change servers, even when not using multi player.

Hmmm what is 'Flow from //42'?  If it can help alleviate bottlenecks then it may be a workaround....

[willy647 193]

1 hour ago, Grumpster said:

Hmmm what is 'Flow from //42'?  If it can help alleviate bottlenecks then it may be a workaround....

 

Get it here

https://orbxdirect.com/product/p42-flow

 

[NovemberUniform 156]

On 3/19/2023 at 4:36 AM, Grumpster said:

I am seeking any others who have experienced this to weigh in.

You can definitely feel when there is prime time on the servers (in a negative way). It's the worst on weekends and when there are updates of any kind for the sim. Actually it would be clever to use a server location that is against the trend of your own local region, to spread the load.

15 hours ago, willy647 said:

Flow from //42 allows you to change servers, even when not using multi player.

Will have a look. Thanks. 

[cianpars 1,164]

21 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

The server drop-down box is only for multiplayer. If you are not using MP, the selection menu will be greyed out.

An end-user has no control whatsoever over which servers MSFS connects to for streaming scenery, photogrammetry, live weather or ATC/live traffic. MSFS chooses  those based on unknown factors - The geographical location of your internet gateway undoubtedly plays a role, as well as (probably) current server load.

Probably the only direct control you could have over which servers MSFS connects to would be to use a VPN, which would make your internet gateway appear to be in a different geographic location than it actually is.

Mine is certainly not greyed out and I don't use multiplayer or ever have multiplayer switched on.