I know it will seem strange to you what I tell you but after having lost an entire afternoon rehearsing I can say that in the Community folder I had only three things:
FBW A320 0_6_1
An EasyJet livery for FBW
AI traffic with IVAO MTL models
and the SIM kept going to CTD until
I verified that the Sim does NOT go to CTD when:
I only have IVAO-MTL models
I only have IVAO-MTL + FWB A320
I only have FBW A320 + EasyJet livery
If I put all three things together the SIM goes into CTD.
As a last test I put the models IVAO-MTL + FWB A320 + a different Easyjet livery of another author and the SIM worked ok.
I don’t know what else to say except that what we put in the Community is the main cause of problems even when it doesn’t seem possible to us, I hope I was useful
What I find unfortunate is that there are very simple solutions to help customers self-resolve this kind of issues, and the same solutions can also help Asobo finding out solutions. It is not as if no one knew nor asked:
Of course this would be a very useful thing.
Another useful thing would be the ability to run the SIM in DEBUG mode to see what happens during startup.
Indeed.
Having one folder for mods is actually quite user friendly and being able to define the drive/location of that folder makes life even easier.
I have no problems with the way this is implemented in FS2020
The root cause was the mods. I put an airport mod in (freeware), it was so badly done it made the game run at about 2fps. Removed it, problem solved. Given the issues Asobo has making this sim run smoothly just with their own stuff, asking them to take into account the work from the modders will just make everything worse, not better.
Addons have been around since the old days of MFS. Being used to FSX I can say they missed a lot of stuff that is not that difficult to integrate. MSFS stunts people because of its graphics, but it is not a ground breaking sim if you ask me. Good graphics are just expected in modern videogames, so I can only infer most MSFS user are not used to the current gaming industry. Also addons have been the main market for flight sims for years. MSFS even implemented a marketplace just to sell you 3rd party stuff, so it would be expected that they take that into consideration.
What you are asking is not possible. The mods in use were just free downloads, they were not in the market place. I’m not sure what the mod count is right now for FS2020 but Flightsim.TO has over 13,000. Asking Asobo or Microsoft to check those out or take them into consideration when coding updates is not only unreasonable. it’s technically impossible.
It could well be that supporting a comprehensive DEBUG mode, would further slow down the sim, which would not be a popular thing for many – but
Maybe “some of” the Beta Testers could be supplied with a Beta Tester’s version of the sim that DID contain debug overhead, so they, or their systems, could automatically report back “meaningful” debug information, direct to MS/ASOBO.
It would be useful to have it as an option if you discovered a repeatable problem, to get more information for a Zendesk ticket. Only turn it on when necessary, like the dev. mode.
Ideally it would be enabled via a command line switch, so it could trap sim startup issues.
I do run mods but am very selective. Too many are pushing out buggy/poorly built mods that cause problems because they can. Asobo hasn’t helped anything by certain programming practices.
One dev recently found that livery names aren’t specific to each aircraft when he named a Coast Guard livery the same on two different aircraft mods. Users with both planes found aircraft would disappear if they had that livery and someone was in the other plane with the other (identically-named) livery.
Unfortunately there seem to be more and more ways mods can go wrong and even grief others in the sim.
I am not using any modes at all. NONE… I would prefer to wait until MSFS has all the intended functions of the sim working correctly before experimenting with Addons that may disrupt or crash my sim.
And… This is important. According to a Zenddesk Statement:
• Your Xbox Live and device data may be accessed by the mod’s creator. Your personal data may also be exposed.
My personal data may be exposed ? I have no doubt there will be unscrupulous addon vendors that will use this as an opportunity to push bad code and maybe even maleware onto our systems.
You all missing out! I have over 300 mods and my sim don’t crash. As long as you know what you are doing and not just dropping them in the community folder, you should be fine.
I do carefully select them and always make sure that folders etc are name correctly to avoid conflicts. If I don’t like it because lack of quality etc. I just delete it.
It shows what has been known from the start: the way the community folder works is total rubbish and it will lead to huge problems in the future. I mean, seriously? sorting addons by the number of z in front of the name to make sure they load after another addon?! what the heck
When I talk about a start in DEBUG mode, obviously I mean a mode that can be activated as the “Developer mode”, therefore it can only be activated if requested by the user!
As in this Forum I continue to read posts from users who complain about constant CTDs and almost always vent their disappointment on ASOBO / Microsoft and / or on the quality of MSFS, I simply wanted to point out that in most cases the problem is related to various MODs that are collected around and of which nothing is known of the quality with which they are made.