Funky D

No issues here other than a few Edge settings that reset to default. For folks that regularly install the preview updates at the end of every month, this update likely won't do much of anything... it's just enabling all of the "gradual rollout" features that were introduced over the past year such as the new Start menu, ability to move the taskbar, and a bunch of file explorer improvements to name a few.

Not necessarily. The power supply in my system went bad and MSFS was the only program that had any issues. MSFS indeed will show hardware faults that other programs will not, as it stresses PC's more than most programs out there. If it's so well known, then certainly AI has the solution and is not just hallucinating based on what a few people wrote in threads like these? Not trying to be snarky, but all the troubleshooting steps in this thread are valid and would help to narrow down the issue. This could be caused by a driver or other software issue, but it could also be caused by faulty hardware or a BIOS setting that doesn't work with your combination of hardware. But sorting through driver issues is going to require using DDU, a Windows issue requires running the DISM and SFC commands to ensure there is no system corruption, and hardware/BIOS issues will require more in depth stress testing and a willingness to test different settings in the BIOS. If you're not comfortable with some of these steps, it's probably best to reach out to your computer vendor and lean on them to troubleshoot.

This will happen if you put your community folder inside your MSFS folder. For instance, if you install MSFS to D:\MSFS2024 and then point the community folder to D:\MSFS2024\Community, it will be wiped out if you uninstall and reinstall the sim. I'm not sure if this was always the case or if a recent SU changed things around. For the example above, the safest option would be to point the community folder to D:\MSFS2024Community. I found this out when uninstalling/reinstalling just last week, but I use the marketplace for everything so the only thing wiped out were temporary caches. At any rate, glad you were able to get back up and running! A good warning as well for anyone using "cleaner" software... it can often do more harm than good.

I assume that 10-year number is based on the length of the initial contract between Asobo and Microsoft (Asobo is not a MS subsidiary like some of MS's other game devs).

Since your bindings are already messed up, you may want to try clearing out your cloud data. This is basically the nuclear option though, it will delete all controller profiles, settings, and logbook data that is saved in the cloud, so if some of your profiles/controls are working fine you may want to try something like a clean reinstall first. https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409228619538-How-to-delete-a-cloud-save-on-PC-to-fix-some-loading-issues-or-reset-the-logbook You can use this utility to backup and restore profiles, but be sure to read the readme as it's not super straightforward (you need to recreate empty profiles with the same names in order to restore, IIRC). https://flightsim.to/addon/81388/msfs-control-profile-backuptool

Right... taking off, turning on autopilot at 500ft, twisting knobs the entire flight, and then turning off autopilot at 500ft during your approach, now THAT is the exciting stuff. I'd rather fly a high-performance plane at its limit, thank you very much. But all the magenta line followers out there, continue having fun being virtual bus drivers. This update doesn't take anything away from you.

Seasons are all handled by the sim in the 2024 version, so just one addon to keep track of. Not sure about the rebate, might be tied to whatever store you bought the 2020 version from.

I wonder how much of the weather is processed locally vs server side, and if Asobo is getting pressure from MS to limit server usage to make way for more AI. Honestly, with the current uncertainty behind the Xbox platform as a whole, I am less worried about what possible improvements may be shelved for MSFS 2028 and more worried about whether we'll have ANY version of MSFS 5 years from now.

I am inclined to believe the theory in this post, which most here probably forgot (I know I did): https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/701366-sim-update-7-beta-is-available/page/9/#findComment-5826980 Asobo had grand plans for weather, and it they were all shelved when injecting METAR data into the weather engine broke everything.

And that is the core issue: why optimize for systems that people can no longer afford? They are likely focusing on performance not only for the consoles, but also for anyone buying a new computer these days. They aren't going to be able to bring in any new users if the new computers being purchased can't run the sim. Looking at what is readily available a Best Buy, <$2000 will get you 16-32GB of RAM and 8-12GB of VRAM. We are seeing memory downgrades in all hardware, from phones to laptops to gaming desktops. I've said before, these settings should be adjustable for users with top end hardware, but it makes sense that they are optimizing for the lower end, because that is all that is somewhat affordable these days. We also have the Steam Machine release imminent: 16GB of RAM and 8GB of VRAM. It's going to be hugely popular, and it will likely bring MSFS to its knees.

I don't even think this is a result of the word you alluded to, since the change isn't deliberate... Bandwidth and storage isn't free, and what was once somebody's hobby ends up becoming a full-time job. The site admins get more desperate to not only get the site to pay for itself but also to make money to reimburse their own time spent maintaining the site. It's also likely they spent a good chunk of their own money creating and maintaining the site before it was popular enough to survive off ad revenue alone. When the company behind the product goes public (or is trying to go public) and has shareholders to bribe... that is when things really go down the toilet, as the goal becomes extracting as much profit out of the product as possible. FS.to doesn't seem to be resorting to full greed mode, but only the site admins know the financial situation they're in. Competition is good though, and I hope hangar addons can keep up once their site becomes popular and hosting costs start going through the roof.

Bijan also has years of updates behind their product at this point. Nothing against BB, but we don't exactly know what their track record will be with this product in the future. We do know that Bijan has been receptive to tweaks of certain areas over the years, down to individual airports (or even individual trees like we see in LA along the beach), so I think that should be factored in when you look at the cost differences. I use and have enjoyed Bijan's enhanced seasons, but sometimes I turn it off for troubleshooting and then forget to turn it on and stick with the default for a few months. Just like that video shows, it's all highly dependent of the area you fly in.

No one seems to correlate that prior to these LOD complaints, everyone was complaining about stuttering on short final. I am not a dev, but I would guess (and I vaguely remember Asobo mentioning) that prior to the update that introduced the landing gear culling, a lot of objects didn't have LOD's assigned and that tanked the performance of the sim when all those objects had to load at once during short final. The LOD of the landing gear is probably tied to the same LOD of other small objects that most people do not care about seeing from hundreds of feet away. Hopefully Asobo introduces additional LOD sliders so people can crank these settings if their hardware allows. What doesn't make sense to me is completely redesigning the LOD system just to pacify a handful of people who get triggered by not seeing a landing gear of a plane across the tarmac. The 2020 LOD system definitely wasn't the way to go, since devs abused it by setting large LOD's for small objects to ensure they appeared at distance, and that is a great way to get unpredictable performance issues. This is why I don't use any 2020 airports or scenery in 2024...

My apologies, I was going off of memory as I was fairly certain this was working just like 2020 as I previously had crash detection enabled in 2024, but I just tested now and it indeed puts you back in the air. Looks like there was an old feature request related to this on the official forums that was closed due to not enough upvotes. Now that I think of it, I think I was stuck in a loop when I had the window of the CAS Cub open and that is when I disabled crash detection. That said, I don't think this was done intentionally to dumb down the sim. The description for crash detection mentions the flight will end after a crash, so this is likely a bug related to how crashes during career mode will put you back on track instead of ending the mission. The feature request may have gotten some traction if the topic was created as a bug stating crash detection doesn't work as described in free flight.

This is an important distinction, because we have that slider and most aircraft devs recommend settings it to medium (or sometimes even low). We definitely have dangerous weather when it is set to realistic! It's also dependent on the aircraft you are flying and how that aircraft interprets the turbulence data. I'd argue the real ask isn't for dangerous weather... it's for a more realistic "realistic" preset that punishes you in storms but doesn't give you windsheer on short final for no reason whatever, other than the sim possibly transitioning between the Meteoblue data and the local METARs.