Today when I fired up MSFS 2024, I could not believe how crappy everything looked.  I checked my graphic settings and literally overnight all of them were changed from either ULTRA or HIGH to LOW.  Everything was changed including anti-aliasing and every level of detail setting.

What caused this and has it ever happened to you?  How do I prevent this in the future?

Additionally, I'm getting a constant message while flying saying... "Error accessing Live Air Traffic Data".  Does that have something to do with the wifi connection or is there something going on with the sim?

Thanks. 

You wouldn't happen to have installed the new Nvidia app or have it opened, which then 'optimized' your settings?

Have you per chance used the Auto FPS app? I’ve seen this happening after using it and the app not resetting everything back to my original settings after closing it.

Re. the error accessing live traffic - I’ve only had that happen once, and after restart it disappeared 🤷‍♂️.

8 minutes ago, spilok said:

What caused this and has it ever happened to you?  How do I prevent this in the future?

Additionally, I'm getting a constant message while flying saying... "Error accessing Live Air Traffic Data".  Does that have something to do with the wifi connection or is there something going on with the sim?

locate your Usercfg.opt file and back that up, that's the graphics file that perhaps got changed by something on your end.

That (annoying) Error message pop up is server related and widely known to be a nuisance, nothing you can do about it.        

26 minutes ago, Sethos said:

You wouldn't happen to have installed the new Nvidia app or have it opened, which then 'optimized' your settings?

I did use DDU yesterday and updated my video driver.  I see that there was a choice to install the new Nvidia app, and I let it install, BUT I did not in any way use the app or change any settings.  However, that was the only thing I did yesterday that makes some sense concerning this huge settings change. 

Thanks.  I'm assuming that may be the culprit.

Edited December 22, 20241 yr by spilok

4 minutes ago, spilok said:

I did use DDU yesterday and updated my video driver.  I see that there was a choice to install the new Nvidia app, and I let it install, BUT I did not in any way use the app or change any settings.  However, that was the only thing I did yesterday that makes some sense concerning this huge settings change. 

Thanks.  I'm assuming that may be the culprit.

The Nvidia app by default has settings that allow it to change your games settings. I do not presently own an Nvidia Card so i do not remember the name of the setting you have to turn off but it someone can tell you what it is then just turn that driver setting off. I dont know why Nvidia thought it was a good idea to reach in and change peoples game settings by default but apparently there's not enough push back to the practice so here we are.

11 minutes ago, spilok said:

I did use DDU yesterday and updated my video driver.  I see that there was a choice to install the new Nvidia app, and I let it install, BUT I did not in any way use the app or change any settings.  However, that was the only thing I did yesterday that makes some sense concerning this huge settings change. 

Thanks.  I'm assuming that may be the culprit.

Just make sure you open it up and disable that functionality, if that is indeed the problem, so it doesn't decide to hijack your settings again. During installation of the app, it goes through some choices and optimization is default ticked, so that catches some people out. 

23 hours ago, Sethos said:

Just make sure you open it up and disable that functionality, if that is indeed the problem, so it doesn't decide to hijack your settings again. During installation of the app, it goes through some choices and optimization is default ticked, so that catches some people out. 

I reinstalled the latest video driver and DID NOT check the box for installing the Nvidia App.

On 12/22/2024 at 6:16 PM, Sethos said:

You wouldn't happen to have installed the new Nvidia app or have it opened, which then 'optimized' your settings?

This!
What a word not allowed program.