I Don't Use Rolling Cache Anymore

Thanks for the explanation!

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I believe it entirely depends on the speed of your internet connection whether it is of use or not.
I am blessed with a fast fibre connection so I have switched it off. Having said that, leaving it on , for me, doesnt make much difference.

I always thought that Rolling Cache was most useful if you flew at the same part of the world. But we never got a definite explanation about how big that area was, or what exactly is stored in the cache (satellite images, elevation data, rendered scenery, all of the above?). I don’t know how much “area” 8 GB or 16 GB of cache can cover, or how much use it has if you fly long haul. Since I always like to fly at different parts of the world, quite randomly in fact, I never knew for sure if having a cache on was actually useful. I know that in the beginning, switching it off resulted in lower framerate, which I considered to be an effect of the sim having to constantly stream and that caused stutters. But honestly, it could’ve been caused by anything else, the sim being so unstable on Xbox in the first years.

I also don’t know why it switches off on its own nowadays. If it didn’t, I would still probably have it on, but seeing how the sim performs the same without it, I don’t bother anymore. That said, I never really knew if it was ever truly beneficial for me (thankfully I have a fast internet connection). :man_shrugging:

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I’ve checked this out already using the manual cache, the whole of Madrid photogrammetry is little more than 6gb.

PS. I also found that the manual cache only works in offline mode, it’s a case of either or the rolling cache and not combined.

Rolling cache holds more than you think. And, if you use one or more home airports that will certainly stay in the cache. As a test, I put a 16gb rolling cache ALONE on an SSD partition. Made it easy to see how much was being read/written because it was the only file on the drive. On a flight from KLGA to KMSY which is over 1000 miles, about 85% of the bytes accessed were read from the cache.

I’ve never seen any objective data showing the RC hurts performance or needs to be cleared so I’ve just left mine except when trying to test as above. Further, not using a cache or repeatedly deleting and recreating the cache file will certainly cut the life of your SSD.

Seems like there is this “must clear the cache” sentiment but not much data backing the need. And, Asobo is clear the community files should be disabled after an update but I’ve never seen them say anything like that for the cache.

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It’s still advisable because the update may have tweaked the way scenery is presented to e.g DirectX, sometimes even the most tiny insignificant change can cause headaches

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Why would not using the rolling cache cut the life of the SSD, isn’t having it disabled reducing the read/write process.

IMO that is going to be debatable because MSFS makes extensive use of the Windows page file and really only Microsoft and Asobo engineers can tell us. All I can assume is that the more Vram you have the less essential the need.

… which totally voids the whole purpose of a persisted cache.

But whatever.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

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Who says it is advisable?

Fundamentally, the very purpose of a cache is to check for differences between the source data and the target data and update the target if the source data is newer or different.

There should be no reason for wiping the entire cache file.

Sim updates are pretty major, I’m not suggesting you clear the cache every time you fly.

“But whatever”

Two reasons:

  1. If people delete the entire cache and then recreate it, they are writing out a giant file each time they do it.

  2. If people don’t use the cache at all, the system is writing the data it streams from the internet instead of reading data that might be in the cache. It is not like everything you are downloading is used in the sim without being written out to disk. Pretty easy to see in the write logs.

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I am just wondering why people think the cache ever needs to be cleared. It has become part of the FS folklore without much data.

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Not so much folklore as it has actually worked for plenty of folk … it’s still quite possible for data to be corrupted even in vram (especially if overclocked).

I used IMDisk to create a 16GB RAM Drive (I have 64GB,) and point the rolling cache at it. It automatically creates an image file on my hard drive synced to the RAM Drive folder when the system is restarted. There’s a button that synchronizes the image file back to the RAM Drive before I start MSFS. (I haven’t figured out how to do that automatically, so it is an extra step.)

I’ll take RAM speed over internet speed all day, every day.

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Corrupted? Plenty of people don’t seem to understand what the cache is for or how it works too. Been a lot of testing of items that improve FS performance (hardware, LOD, pop outs, complex airports, AI traffic) which have included numbers showing the benefits. Really nothing on clearing the cache though.

Likely a placebo effect or maybe a result restarting the sim to clear the cache. Might get a better connection.

I prefer not to upload an image to ram … without choosing to MSFS reloads a clean default 8gb cache into the temp folder after not finding one there.

I use IMDISK as well. Great little piece of software. I have tried the same and agree it makes a difference — especially if you don’t reboot frequently.

I have seen it mooted by the mods on here as well as by plenty of PC geeks. The fact is that cleaning the cache has worked in particular cases and it costs nothing but a write to disk.

Placebo effect. No data.

And, FWIW, I am kind of a PC geek.

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