Jetguy87

Thanks -- so I understand this to mean that the resolution changes can be applied to the default map, without having to use Apple, Google, or one of the Bing updates. My suspicion is that it was a deliberate downgrade. I am also skeptical that they will ever fix it, especially for those of us still actively using 2020.

One thing that's not clear to me, before I take the plunge and install this mod -- can the ground detail be made higher with the default MSFS 2020 map? I have no interest in trying other map sources, but given the unlikelihood at this point of Asobo ever fixing the SU16 texture downgrade, am interested in getting back the detail that we've lost.

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.