In FS2020 there was an incredibly useful function in developer mode. You could pause the sim, open various config files to edit them, go back to the sim and re-load/re-sync the aircraft so you could see your edits without having to exit the sim, restart it then reload the aircraft.

FS2024 SDK appears to have removed the reload function. This now means every single edit will take 10+ minutes to see while you quit then restart the entire sim and reload the aircraft, whereas with reload/re-sync your edits could be seen almost instantly. When I used to create stuff for FSX, P3D and FS2020 they all had a quick reload function. When you consider that the average mod typically might take anything up to several hundred edits, you can imagine the enormous time lost. My Bonanza mod for FS2020 took hundreds - even maybe a couple of thousand edits. It will be similar for livery creators and possibly addon developers.

I cannot understand why Asobo have removed this function. It will be a huge stumbling block for modders and creators. If you are a supporter of mods or indeed third party work please let your views be known to Asobo. Thank you.

Edited December 13, 20241 yr by robert young

Maybe you'd like to post this in https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/ also? I didn't find a related 'bug report' overthere...

37 minutes ago, MaGer1965 said:

Maybe you'd like to post this in https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/ also? I didn't find a related 'bug report' overthere...

Actually there are many posts there already which discuss the closing down of access for modders and other developers through encryption and other methods. It seems to a lot of people there that MS/Asobo have at least for the time being all but shut down access to important tools unless you are an "approved" developer, whatever that means.

50 minutes ago, robert young said:

I cannot understand why Asobo have removed this function. It will be a huge stumbling block for modders and creators. If you are a supporter of mods or indeed third party work please let your views be known to Asobo. Thank you.

Agreed, this was a very important feature - which makes me think that there must have been a reason for its removal.

Hopefully it's just temporary while they iron out the major bugs. We *cannot* afford to lose the talents of people like you Robert, and so many others that make this thing as successful as it was. I know nothing about modding the sim and would be afraid to try, but so much appreciate all of the time and work people like you put into the series. I can think of so many others the same (scenery devs, repainters, etc.) going back so many years...

I hope it's not true, but it *feels* like MS are starting to strangle the freeware market again. If that is the case, it goes without saying but I'll say it anyway, they are only setting the series up for failure.

2 hours ago, KERNEL32 said:

they are only setting the series up for failure

I can't see there being another instalment frankly. I'd wager a small amount that the sim will be put on ice in 2 or 3 years when future investment returns are bleak leaving thousands with a sim that might not even work without free servers. Crippling lack of support for 3rd party creator tools will doom the product. 

Is there any guarantee in the EULA for several years of server hosting for example? There has to some legal difficulty in supplying an online sim which dissolves into nothing at some point. Which it WILL do when the servers quit for good IF the switch has not been coded beforehand for offline access and encryption removed. 

Yes, a bleak opinion but the gaming development market is like that sadly. 

4 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

I can't see there being another instalment frankly. I'd wager a small amount that the sim will be put on ice in 2 or 3 years when future investment returns are bleak leaving thousands with a sim that might not even work without free servers. Crippling lack of support for 3rd party creator tools will doom the product. 

Do you have any evidence for your claims, besides the tea leaves you are reading?

Yeah It's all been going downhill since 1983...

Anyway back on topic, the reload function is tremendously useful, have used it many many time myself for my humble mods, and it's very difficult to believe that even internal development at Asobo isn't impacted without it unless it's being stripped out for the Prod build.  Has anyone started a topic at the official forum about brining it back, that we can go add our votes on?

 

My "guess" is this is also tied to Marketplace availability, library and their compatibility checks for 2020 content and they have disabled it until the sim is more stable "with" add-ons.  I personally and it may have been an assumption on my part was led to believe that all of these compatibility checks were done based on their messaging prior to launch... 

 

Edited December 13, 20241 yr by psolk

1 minute ago, psolk said:

My "guess" is this is also tied to Marketplace availability, library and their compatibility checks for 2020 content and they have disabled it until the sim is more stable "with" add-ons.

 

Yes it would be great to have the marketplace back to manage the stuff from the GUI.

24 minutes ago, psolk said:

My "guess" is this is also tied to Marketplace availability, library and their compatibility checks for 2020 content and they have disabled it until the sim is more stable "with" add-ons.  I personally and it may have been an assumption on my part was led to believe that all of these compatibility checks were done based on their messaging prior to launch... 

 

That could very well be the reason.

Just wish that Asobo/MS would communicate all this to its customers/modders/developers instead of letting it be a surprise. 🙂 

 

31 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

I can't see there being another instalment frankly. I'd wager a small amount that the sim will be put on ice in 2 or 3 years when future investment returns are bleak leaving thousands with a sim that might not even work without free servers. Crippling lack of support for 3rd party creator tools will doom the product.........

26 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

Do you have any evidence for your claims, besides the tea leaves you are reading?

 

It's as reasonable a supposition as the optimistic claims about the future regularly made by the usual group of MS supporters on Avsim, also without hard evidence.

Microsoft is not a benevolent institution or charity. The only important consideration is return on capital. The main returns come early in the product cycle, but expenditure continues with support and development costs. As Asobo has expanded, those costs have risen. 2024 has not gone smoothly and this may impact sales if current users go back to 2020 and would be buyers hear of problems. The X Box generation not only has has a very short attention span, but is very communicative about any games issues. Ongoing costs will become the major issue for MS. Server capacity appears to be based on 'average demand' and it's all too clear it cannot cope with any peaks in useage. It's unlikely to improve much because that means further costs for the future at a time when returns start to diminish.

Back to Robert's original post, it does look like MS and Asobo are adopting a bunker mentality with this sim which goes beyond contractual limitations.

Keep supporting x****e in case we need a fall-back....

44 minutes ago, Biggles2010 said:

 

It's as reasonable a supposition as the optimistic claims about the future regularly made by the usual group of MS supporters on Avsim, also without hard evidence.

Microsoft is not a benevolent institution or charity. The only important consideration is return on capital. The main returns come early in the product cycle, but expenditure continues with support and development costs. As Asobo has expanded, those costs have risen. 2024 has not gone smoothly and this may impact sales if current users go back to 2020 and would be buyers hear of problems. The X Box generation not only has has a very short attention span, but is very communicative about any games issues. Ongoing costs will become the major issue for MS. Server capacity appears to be based on 'average demand' and it's all too clear it cannot cope with any peaks in useage. It's unlikely to improve much because that means further costs for the future at a time when returns start to diminish.

More baseless speculation, littered with youtube level "Introduction to Business Economics.

The local shops are running out of tea leaves.

I am not sure why we're talking about econ right now.

We were discussing modders/developers and Asobo/MS not making it easier for them to mod the planes etc.

Why do so many people dive into other topics so fast?