Yes, definitely.
How about Alt-F4? Drops you right to desktop
Unfortunately MSFS tries to start in Safe Mode if you exit quickly. It thinks it may have crashed.
Developers, itâs not rocket science to add a âI really want to exit nowâ button OR a quick shutdown command.
A quick shutdown command allows vital info to be updated/saved like the logbook or modified flight plan. Otherwise the X button or Alt+F4 leaves the system in an unknown state.
As a retired Windows developer, Iâm fairly sure the equivalent of the classic Windows File Š Exit command would work quickly. Logbook updates would take milliseconds, same for flight plans and cache files. The bigger slice of time is Windows releasing virtual memory.
Also traditionally the X button or Alt+F4 command was redirected to File Š Exit, which has worked smoothly for decades.
At the moment I kill MSFS with one click or zap it with Task Manager. Itâs the quickest way to get a full reboot. I find it very frustrating how long MSFS takes to slow down, compared to older Windows programs running on slower computers.
Has anyone considered there maybe a reason it was designed this way?
Someone already made the valid concern that if exited anywhere apart from the main menu, logbook etc may not be updated.
Perhaps during than âunloadâ delay it is clearing out cache files or similar things, so even if the option to exit directly from the cockpit (as DCS allows) did exist donât expect it to necessarily be quicker time wiseâŠmaybe itâll show a âplease wait why we clear upâ type message (I think steam also shows something like that).
This, and concerns about data corruption when not allowed to properly shut down are why I would rather have an exit to desktop option in the pause menu. Got my vote.
[Boss] âWhat is that thing on your desk that kind of looks like a steering wheel?â
[Me] âItâs a new kind of mousewheel.â
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I think the best template to follow is that of Microsoft Word and other classic Windows programs from the mid 90s onwards.
Clicking X, Alt+F4 triggered File Exit, that performed a quick shut down prompting the user to save any modified data if required.
Asobo can do that by capturing the WM_CLOSE messages in the main window and triggering a safe shutdown.
Then add a button to do the same (for both Xbox+PC) and for good measure a Windows key binding, like Alt+Q
The âare you sureâ dialog seems redundant.
That would be a no brainer with any pure simulator like XP or P3D. MSFS however has become a multiplayer game that provides community challenges and achievements. When you close the flight it is supposed to save all that stuff into the cloud. I agree that it takes long to do that but frankly this whole UI is not very efficient anyway. It probably loads the main menu the same way how it loads a flight as a new part of the game. Just check the hardware impact while youâre in the menu. A kill-switch would disturb and prevent this process and all the data would be lost. I and maybe you donât care about all that gameplay content but others do. If you really wanna leave it quickly just use the windows shortcuts Alt F4 or ctrl shift delete and accept that it will ask you to start in save mode the next time. If you use the short start method this question will appear quite quickly and you can still go a make coffee while the actual game starts.
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Saving that multi player data in the cloud is on the critical list of actions to be executed during shutdown.
Developers will know that list better than users like us. Once the decision is made to add a âquickâ shutdown I have confidence the developers will get it right.
Whether you want an accurate flight simulator or an entertaining game affects expectations about shutdown. There will be a clash between Xbox and PC.
To be honest I havenât a clue how Xbox saves game data. We know the hard limit on local storage generates collateral problems.