I have tons of add-ons, specially scenery ones. Many of them are freeware or payware purchased in external sites but I still have a lot of airports bought through the in-game Marketplace.
The management of the first ones is quite easy using Add-On Linker tool, I simply add or remove the scenery I need prior a given flight.
However with the content in the Official folder is not that easy. I tried to use AddOn Linker, but if I simply remove the content I don’t need for a fly, the installer detects it at loading and tries to download and install all the files. Another posibility would be the in-game Content Manager, but again this is not very tedious as scenery, missions, aircraft and liveries are mixed altogether forming a huge amount of items to manage.
I move them all to same folder as downloaded mods and use an add on manager ive never had it try to re download anything. the only downside to doing this is that you don’t know when something gets updated. i wish they had an updated category in the MP…
oh wait hang on
when you say official content do you mean market place purchases or things like handmade airports that come with world updates as these WILL try to re download themselves unless you delete them in content manager
What would actually be the benefit of „managing“ your addons? Is there a performance improvement in game when you have less active addons, or is it simply to reduce the initial loading times?
Loading times don’t bother me, but if it really affects ingame performance I need to organize it better
I don’t use Addon Linker, and I have all world updates, and marketplace freeware installed. I have quite a bit of payware / freeware installed as well (total install base is 1.2TB).
I just let it all load and run, takes about 4-5 minutes for the sim to start and weather my community folder is full or empty, the frames and smoothness are roughly the same.
Obviously this all comes down to preference and system capability but for me, until it changes, I just let it fly.
you dont really, not in any official manner at least (i mean you can install or un-install them from the Content Manager but thats it)
as SecretFarmerGal suggests they will work from the Community folder or thru the AddonLinker (i suggest copying them out then Removing them from CM, now you could treat them like any Commubnity mod) but i dont really suggest that, as mentioned you get no notice of updates this way
there are probably several wishlist items about the ability to hide Marketplace addons and other features that would make it better, but i think the devs have been too busy on other stuff to address this
personally i kinda stopped using the Marketplace for this very reason, the lack of features
imo its mostly for xbox that has no other means to get addons in the game
I am using Add On Linker, but copy out airports from Official OneStore folder (yes they can be moved elsewhere) then linked back in to community. Only downside is that when there is an update available you won’t be notified in updates section in the content manager.
So I have one Add On directory C:\FS_Add_Ons where I put most things (freeware, external purchased payware and marketplace payware) and I use Add On linker to link it back in to Commmunity as and when I need it. It works well apart from managing updates which is up to me to monitor manually (for the marketplace addons at least). I usually do this by watching the weekly emails we get about marketplace updates, but I could easily miss one or two updates this way.
I would love a disable feature rather than uninstall/install in content manager. It surely wouldn’t be hard for them to implement. Not every one of us has 1GB broadband. (I only have 3% of that speed right now)
Addon Linker has an Option “Enable Link Creation in Official Folder” under the “Advanced” tab. I don’t use it myself as I only have few Marketplace addons, but this might do the job.
According to the description, it doesn’t prevent re-downloading, though, as far as I understand.
I tried it, but as soon as you remove any content, the sim detects it at startup and tries to download and install. For being useful, there should be a file telling the sim what to load and what don’t and so that Addon Linker could update every time you remove/add any addon.
So, from what I’ve read there are no means at the moment to easy manage content purchased through the Marketplace. Disappointing. I like buying through the Marketplace but if Asobo doesn’t improve the Content Manager I think I will start moving to external solutions (which also use to provide faster updating when necessary).
