Keto Ketchup

I believe my VPN has a presence in Sweden.. Maybe I'll give that a try later (and yes, my VPN provides way more than 3mb/s). Though it may not matter, as the updater probably knows I'm American and picks from an American list of servers. If I have time I guess I'll have to try to see if there are some settings somewhere I can tweak. Maybe I can force the updater to use a different server, one that's less busy. Downloading files at a reasonable, reliable speed should not require a doctorate and a fistful of Valium...

By everything I mean everything MSFS - the main program and all my addons. I am not reinstalling Windows, because I have it configured exactly the way I want it and it runs fine, darn close to perfect actually, and no other program gives me trouble. I see no need to amputate an arm because of a splinter. If it comes to that, I'll just cut off the finger (that is, MSFS).

What kind of limitation? It's not bandwidth, as all my Steam downloads are a rock solid multiple of this. And while the updater is downloading, I can watch a 4K video on my TV (same internet) no problem. The only limitation I can imagine is a geographic one, where there might be some very specific weak link / bottleneck between my ISP and the server. It feels like there is an bandwidth limiter being implemented by the updater itself, which is why I'm asking if there is a setting somewhere to override this. If you're getting 250 download speeds, then it can't be a server issue.

A couple of updates ago, the updater broke my install and I had to wipe everything and start over. I waited until this latest update to do that. Now I'm trying to download 120 GB of data, and it is literally going to take me WEEKS at this rate. I have two specific problems: The download speeds are incredibly slow. I'm getting around 3 Mbits/s - THREE. This is a fraction of my internet bandwidth, but that's the speed the updater is running at. Is there a setting to change this, or is this a limitation of the servers? The updater constantly hangs / crashes. I try to run the updater overnight, only to wake up and find that the updater has frozen early on. Killing it and restarting picks up where the downloads left off, but I'm not going to make any progress at all if I have to do this every other hour. I've tried all sorts of things to fix this - run as administrator, run with no other windows open, etc. Any ideas? Even if the updater was running at my full internet speed, updating MSFS is a real PITA, because every update is bigger than most full games that I own. What really boils my goose is that I bought this on Steam, and Steam's updater is top-notch, an absolute joy to use, but of course MSFS doesn't use Steam for updates, except to update the updater.. Anyway, as you can tell I'm mighty grouchy about this. Add to the fact that MSFS updater requires so much GPU & CPU to download files (thus costing electricity), and it almost makes me want to say "screw it". If anyone can talk me off the ledge, I'd appreciate it!

At the risk of asking a dumb question, are these updates mandatory? Can I defer the latest update to a later time if I just want to go flying today? Perhaps via some command-line switch or secret keypress?

Thanks for the info. With the update being 77 GB (what the heck?) I'm tempted to just uninstall and reinstall, since some of the proposed fixes look to be a big hassle. I sure do wish FS2020 would just update using Steam like all my other games. I never have problems with Steam updates. If I do uninstall, where can I find my settings and control binds so I can back these up first?

I haven't played in a few months, so I think I fell behind a couple of updates. I went recently went to launch FS2020, and it says I have 77 GB of updates to download, which feels like redownloading the game from scratch. Thing is, I think I may actually have to do this (uninstall and reinstall from scratch), because the update is stuck in an eternal loop of redownloading the same file over and over again, never progressing. Anyone else run into this problem? Did you have to uninstall and reinstall from scratch, or is there another solution? I must confess that I find this very frustrating. These updates are HUGE, and my internet is not fast. It literally takes DAYS for me to download FS2020 from scratch, though a 77gb "update" would also take days. I thought I bought a finished product.. I'll be honest, if I have to uninstall and reinstall to get FS2020 working again, I'm tempted to stop after uninstalling. Please tell me that there is an end in sight to this update nightmare!

I've read somewhere that Microsoft doesn't allow PC games to look too much better than XBox games for games that are released on both platforms. This sounds silly to me, but it's a theory that's out there. Maybe it's an XBox Live thing? Tomb Raider looks markedly better on PC than console (though it looks pretty good on console as well), so who knows. 🤷‍♂️

WHY?????? I bought this on Steam to avoid hassle like this.... If this is true (and something new), then words can't describe how much I really hate Microsoft at this moment. UPDATE - Nevermind, I was finally able to log in. But I still hate Microsoft.

I'm very interested in this topic. I haven't had snow yet, but it won't be long now! Now are you talking about snow falling from the sky, snow on the ground, or both?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is the case, because I really don't want have to import Google or Apple aerial photography to make my region passable. Speaking of, I swear there was a time when Bing actually had good aerial photography for my area, better than Google's. Could it be that by "updating" the map in recent years they actually downgraded it for my area? Is there a way to pull up older photography in Bing Maps? I'm talking the actual maps.bing.com, not the flight sim. Of course, it could just be confusion on my part - it would have been a few years ago when I thought Bing was better. Regardless, hopefully Bing Maps is seen by Microsoft in a new light now that they have Flight Simulator, and thus hopefully it will get more attention.

Where I live, Apple Maps actually wins the day for best aerial photography and photogrammetry. I remember when Apple Maps was the underdog that nobody took seriously, now it's pretty amazing (at least in my neck of the woods).

There are moments in this "game" that put a smile on my face like no other game / sim I've ever experienced. I can't even quantify it - it just makes me happy. Of course this means that bugs are even more annoying, like how Miss Universe feels when she gets a pimple on her nose, so I do understand why some people are salty. If somebody scratches my old 10 year old SUV, it's no big deal, but if I find a scratch on my brand new Tesla Roadster (in my dreams), I'm going to be irate! But yeah, to the OP, it's the smile-inducing-can't-explain-magic that I love 💗

I haven't flown hardly at all since the last update because the lightning everywhere just ruins it for me. I've also "moved" down south, because my home region looks rubbish thanks to bad aerial photography, and the lack of seasons is starting to kick in as my real world enters autumn and the FS remains in eternal summer. And then there's the recent graphic quality nerfs.. So for me, I'm basically tabling the sim until the next update, hoping it fixes enough annoyances and "nerfs" (which I read are unintentional) to bring me back in again. If the next update is disappointing, then I'll wait for the next next update, rinse and repeat. FWIW, I'm not a diehard "flight sim only" guy - I play lots of video games, so I've got plenty of other titles to entertain me while MFS cooks in the oven. And unless Asobo really screws it up with future updates, I'll never uninstall it, because it offers an amazing surreal experience like no other game / sim in my collection.

The "intentional" part is definitely speculative, but the change in graphic quality isn't. I've seen it myself, as have others. I bring it up in this thread based on comments about water quality being "nerfed". I'm not super-salty about it, because even "nerfed", this flight sim is still years ahead of any other sim I've used, but I do get disappointed when I see "super incredible amazing" downgraded to just "pretty amazing". But I'm a bit of a "graphics snob" with an eye for minute details, so I often see things other people don't (drives my wife nuts, LOL).

I'm missing seasons, as it's autumn where I live now, and yet MFS is stuck in eternal summer. Even the snow option doesn't give me a proper winter, because it's just snow on top of green grass and trees full of leaves. What's worse is that MFS is in summer-mode, yet my Bing Map aerial photography was taken in spring, so the lakes and rivers are half-frozen and there is piles of snow in the fields that have been tinted with fake green, along with fake green roads. It actually looks pretty rubbish to be honest. Because of this, I'm flying in mostly southern states these days, but that robs me of the fun of flying over familiar territory. 😞

Of the concerns listed, my biggest concern is that Asobo is nerfing graphics quality to make this sim run better on lower-spec platforms at higher settings, which I feel is a very bad decision. I've seen it on my own rig, where now I can run with ultra settings and still get good performance (I used to have to use mostly High settings to maintain 30 fps), but I'm no longer seeing ultra quality graphics. I'd much rather be forced to use high or even medium settings and have the option to run truly ultra settings at a lower framerate (or upgraded hardware) if I choose. I don't know if this is a side-effect of getting MFS ready for XBox, or if it's unintended, but it's definitely the wrong direction to take the sim. Heck, add a "really low" graphics setting if you have to, but don't make Ultra the new Medium just to make me feel better about my non-ultra hardware. I really hate seeing a game / sim I bought get downgraded with each update.

I don't own any hardware, but if the sim does even just one airplane well, that's good enough for me personally. If I could afford a plane IRL, it would likely be a humble Cessna. I am frustrated with other issues, however - broken scenery, lightning everywhere, etc (we all know the list). I keep my fingers crossed that all of these things will be fixed eventually.

Sometimes it helps. I'm not talking about actual whining, but posting a "Is anyone else seeing this?" thread regarding new issues is helpful to me. In one case it led to an answer (the problem is a bug, but there was a work-around), and in another case it at least let me know that I wasn't alone and that many people were experiencing the same problem. Now if I were to post a rage-quit thread in all caps afterwards, well that would be kinda silly IMO (though I might tweet Asobo directly and let them know of my displeasure).

Ahh, so this isn't the paid weather mod? I might be confusing it with the other one. If it's free and easy to install (and safe), I am willing to give it a try sometime.

I tried to find lightning in the FX folder, but no joy. I did find contrails, which is interesting... I haven't given up trying to turn off lightning just yet.

I probably should clarify what I mean about dynamic weather. If I'm flying in clear skies IRL to a region under cloud cover, I'll see those clouds on the horizon and they'll slowly "grow and fill" my view as I fly towards them. MFS does a very impressive job with this. What I don't want is to be flying in clear skies and then all of the sudden have clouds materialize in front of me, which I have to assume is the effect we get when manually setting the weather conditions, even if it's an app doing that setting. I'd much rather keep MFS's live weather and just turn off lightning. I've not given up hope that there's a setting somewhere to do this, or perhaps I could just delete (ie - move to a backup folder) the FX files for lightning.

The problem with this is it sets a "universal" weather. It is very common for weather to be radically different from where I live and an hour flight in any direction, and this transition from one type of weather (say overcast) to another (say clear skies) is what makes live weather such an amazing experience to me personally. Now like I said in my previous post, if I can just turn lightning off via a cfg file, that would be great. I'd rather live with thunderclouds absent of lightning than clear skies full of lightning.

You and I obviously live in different economic strata. I haven't spent $100 on a meal since, well, EVER, and if I did and it was subpar, I certainly would let somebody know about it. Maybe if your Ferrari constantly broke down on the side of the road, you'd feel a little more empathy for those who get frustrated with the bugs in what might be an expensive game to them. BTW, threads that rage against people raging are somewhat hypocritical, are they not? You seem more upset that are people are upset (and you have zero money invested in my happiness) than you are with the bugs that upset them, bugs in a product you did invest in. That's cool, whatever trips your trigger! 😉