Jetguy87

This is a question I've long had and researched to no avail, so am now asking here in the hopes of an answer (or at least, the one I'm looking for). I've been flight simming for over 25 years, but always remained a relatively casual simmer. I was part of the public beta for MSFS 2020 and played it nonstop since release. I preordered MSFS 2024 as soon as it was possible to do so, but like many here, was let down by the state of its release and held off on migrating fully. Now with some time having passed since SU4 and the major performance issues ironed out, I'm more inclined to do so, but there are a couple things still holding me off, and the main one is the flight planning process. In short, I find the flight planner in 2024, either in-sim or web-based, way too involved and cumbersome. I really appreciate the process in 2020 -- pick a departure and destination, and select direct, VFR, or IFR (high or low altitude), which then feeds straight into the sim with no trouble. I recognize that 2024 is more realistic, with its options for waypoints, fuel/load, etc. But even with the autoroute option in the web-based planner and importing into the EFB, I still haven't been able to set up a flight in an easy and intuitive way, and perform it in-sim. This has held me off from migrating to -- or even using in any real way -- MSFS 2024. And it's not that I don't want to. So, my question here is simple: is there any way that I can set up or use 2020-style flight planning in 2024? Like I said, I haven't found anything, but am hoping that someone here can help. Thank you!

Thank you for trying! The issue isn't that contrails are not appearing; it's that there are very thin, gray lines emanating as part of the contrails. It's hard to see on some of my images (I suspect due to png compression), but most visible on the lower time compression ones. I believe that it is a rendering/graphics issue, rather than a contrail generation or weather issue.

Thanks. I have tried renaming the Community folder to rule out any mods -- confirming that this does not resolve the issue.

Thanks! I don't think that's it, though -- these have looked like this in a variety of conditions (altitude, weather, aircraft). And the thin, gray appearance is too blocky or artifact-like to be intentional; doesn't look realistic or anything like the actual, other in-game contrails.

I have been flying MSFS 2020 for years, with no major issues (save for the occasional ones that are resolved (or started) by Sim Updates -- looking at you, SU16 and blurry ground textures...). Recently, I was doing a flight with time compression on, and noticed that my contrails were super gray and thin. Although going down to normal time compression made it better, the thin gray line was still there. I've attached screenshots to this post from a test flight today, with the subtitles showing the time compression. Clearly, it's an issue no matter what rate the sim is running at. And, screenshots at the end, from flights I did earlier in October 2025, do not show the issue. I have not changed any graphics settings or updated my video drivers in-between when this wasn't an issue and when it started. Any idea what the issue is here, or how to fix? Thanks in advance! Normal time compression: 2x time compression: 4x time compression: How my contrails used to look:

Having the same issue on my end. Did you guys figure this out? Anyone else having the same problem? Haven't touched MSFS 2024 for a long time, waiting for SU1 -- only to have this happen.

Thank you!! I had seen the comparison with the RDPresets, but not this one. Very helpful.

Any thoughts on if I have the RedWing LSGG, whether this is worth the upgrade? I am pretty happy with RedWing, but if this is a significant upgrade in quality (without a decline in performance), then I'd be willing to go for it -- the videos look pretty great, and LSGG was my home base for a few years.

Thanks, Gerald -- my rig is not overclocked; it seems that it is add-ons, and if these issues arise again, I'll troubleshoot accordingly and reinstall FSX-SE if need be.

Thank you both -- I will definitely look into my backup options!

Many thanks, Jim and Ray. I had a chance to run some further tests, and it's all resolved, but rather strange as to how I got there... As noted above, I first wanted to try reinstalling the Addon Manager before trying to disable MyTraffic X, just to get the order of rewriting the dll.xml. So I deleted the dll.xml, but then when I fired up the installer for Addon Manager, it said that I didn't have FSX-SE installed (all sims were grayed out), which led me to think it was strange, so I went to the folder (AppData/Roaming/Microsoft) where the FSX folder was supposed to be -- but the FSX folder was gone! This all seemed quite strange, and I had no idea how it had happened -- maybe I had deleted the folder instead of just deleting dll.xml? In any event, I had already emptied out my Recycle Bin, so I was in double trouble. I then decided to run a System Restore to an earlier date, and voila, the FSX folder was back. But it was mostly empty. So I ran FSX-SE once, and it built the directory. Then, I installed the Addon Manager anew. But the new dll.xml that it generated was empty, which meant that the addons that had been missing earlier (AccuFeel, the buildings at LSGG, etc.) were gone again. So I got creative, and pasted in the entries from the old dll.xml into the new one. I felt like it wouldn't help much, and surely enough, FSX was still crashing. BUT -- it was a different kind of CTD: rather than an ntdll.dll fatal error in the same geographical location (as described in the earlier posts to this thread), the sim started hanging as soon as I engaged time compression (after I had reached cruising altitude, etc.). And when I checked the System Viewer, the reason was that the application had stopped communicating with Windows (I'm typing this up on a different computer, so I do not have the log offhand). Then, due to timing constraints, I had to take a few days away and got back to it tonight. I started by deactivating MTX in the Scenery Library, and surely enough, the flight went off without a hitch. But then, I figured I would check, for comprehensiveness' sake, what would happen when I turned MTX back on. And much to my surprise, everything worked! Traffic was on, no ntdll.dll crash, no hanging, and time compression worked! So I'm truly flabbergasted. My guess is that, in turning MTX on and off, maybe that fixed whatever error was lurking under the hood. I know I should just be happy with the fact that it works (and I am!), but do you, or anyone else here, know how these problems might have gotten fixed? ("problems," given that there were different kinds of crashes, linked to different events, and different points in the same flight.) I'm anxious that one of these -- or a similar type of CTD issue will pop up again... but for know, am just knocking on wood and hoping that this'll run well for a while...

So, having placed the dll.xml file back in the directory, the sim crashes at exactly the same spot. I'll try deleting it and letting the Addon Manager write a new one (in the correct order as advised by Mike above), but short of that I'm guessing that the only real solution here is a total reinstall. Jim -- would the MyTraffic 5.4b install fix a problem with the dll.xml, or are these two different issues, in your mind?

Thanks so much, Mike, Dave and Jim. Jim -- I have tried the MyTraffic fix (by going back to the 2012 schedules, which I understand is functionally equivalent to 5.4b), to no avail. In order to try everything before a complete reinstall, I started out by following Mike's advice above: reinstalling the FSDT Addon Manager and removing the dll.xml file as instructed, and then ran the same flight. It seems to have done the trick -- I was able to complete the flight with no crashes! However, there is now a new problem -- the Addon Manager has disappeared from my drop-down menu, along with other addons (FSUIPC, AccuFeel, etc.), and AccuFeel, for example, appears to have been disabled -- the effects are gone. I checked the correct folder, and it appears that dll.xml has not been rebuilt. However, I am wary of simply popping it back in there, given the earlier problems. To make matters worse, the buildings in my only FSDT addon (LSGG) have disappeared. Any idea how to fix these new problems? Can I just simply place the dll.xml file back in there? EDIT and UPDATE: I popped the dll.xml back in and surely enough, the above problems were resolved. I haven't been able to run a test of the same flight that kept crashing but will do so when I get a moment. I did notice that the xml.dll has been updated (byt date and time) since I installed the new addon manager.

Hi all, Long-time lurker, second-time poster. For the past year or so, I've been having regular CTDs of my FSX-SE install, usually fatal errors, and most often citing NTDLL.DLL as the faulty module (others, though not as frequent, have included terrain.dll, g3d.dll, etc.). I've been able to resolve them on specific recurring flights (e.g., where the crash would happen at a certain point on the same flight and the same aircraft) through various means, including (but not limited to): Switching from FSX to FSX-SE; Deleting my fsx.cfg, rewriting it and then changing certain key settings (e.g., display, wideview, and others) back to where they were, but leaving everything else the same; and Reverting to the 2012 schedule in MyTraffic X (MTX) 5.4c (after reading that this could be an issue in the AVSIM CTD guide). Each of these has fixed the problem temporarily before it rears its ugly head again. Most recently, I did the MTX fix above after continually getting crashes in the same place on a KDCA-KORD flight using a freeware 737-700. But when I wanted to do a KDCA-KMVY flight on the JF XP 800A this weeked, the sim consistently crashes at about the same point (right after I reach cruising altitude, and just about to cross the MD-DE border). I tried deleting and rewriting the fsx.cfg this morning, but even that didn't fix it (I've been able to replicate this crash four times, both before and after the attempted cfg fix). My specs are below: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6 Ghz 16G RAM NVidia Geforce GTX 970 (344.16 drivers) WIN 7 64 Bit SP1 FSX-SE is installed on a 100 GB SSD, but with all addons is taking up almost the entire disk. The install includes: REX Essential Plus Overdrive FTX Global + Vectors MyTrafficX 5.4c (running Autumn 2012 schedule; see above) Various payware and freeware aircraft and sceneries. I've had a look at the CTD Guide and searched these forums, but none of the fixes I've tried seem to work. It looks like my returns and possible fixes are dwindling, so here I am... anyone have any pointers on what's going on and how I can resolve this? I really just want to enjoy my sim and don't have hours upon end to explore these issues. Here's the most recent crashlog: Many thanks in advance to the much more experienced and smarter FSX wizards here who might be able to take a look and advise! A lot of drinks are on me if you are able to get my sim running... J.

Hi all -- Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. After years of tweaking and sticking with FS9 because I didn't have a decent-enough system to run FSX, I've finally invested in a new desktop and am now getting up to speed. I'm going through sceneries and am looking to get a decent one for NYC, as I like to do both VFR and IFR flights into the surrounding airports. I used to run the FS9 Aerosoft Manhattan, and found it really good, but for FSX, I can't decide between Aerosoft Manhattan X and the Drzewiecki Design NYC X. I know the basic differences between them and the pros and cons (just Manhattan versus all boroughs, LOD differences in the buildings, performance issues, etc.), but just can't seem to make up my mind. I tried the DD NYC demo and thought it looked awful, and a lot of the screenshots of DD - even running on full - look off because of the LOD scaling on the buildings. I'm also looking for something that has the WTC as-is today, which as I understand, Aerosoft doesn't. On top of everything, I know that they're both system hogs, but I can't imagine that they're equally taxing... So, I figured I would turn to here and ask -- do people have any thoughts or recommendations on which one to spring for? Any insight, especially regarding performance, is most appreciated. Specs below: FSX (MS, not SE) Core i7 4790 16GB RAM Geforce GTX 790 Happy to provide any more info as necessary. Thanks in advance! J.