MS/Asobo....PLEASE STOP the mandatory updates!

My sim worked just fine before this fiasco… we do not need mandatory updates, let US choose…PLEASE!

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Fully agree.

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It’s technically not possible.

*** edit ***

I was wrong… It’s technically possible but not as economical for them. They won’t even separate PC from Xbox as you saw with SU5. So making updates optional will probably remain a pipe dream.

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That will NEVER happen with the current platform. Every single user must run the same version of code. Either you make it through the “Checking for Updates” screen or you don’t get to run the app, it’s as simple as that.

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It sounds as if asking “Why can’t I run it on my Windows 95? Windows 10 breaks everything for me! I want to stay with Windows 95 without any OS update”.

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The difference between democratic and dictatorship :rofl::crazy_face:

Maybe it is more, “I will wait and see if it is stable and usable before I update”. I don’t know, maybe I am crazy.

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The point is - it is not how are things work on a technical level. And the question should be more of a “Can you invest more time and effort to deliver the quality updates while making sure it doesn’t downgrade anything and is as stable as possible?”.

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I agree that it is what it is. But still, one can dream. And I totally agree, that is the question.

No.
It’s a historic masterwork of art in progress.

There was a time when MS was not going to ever make a Flight Sim again.

Shhh.
Now go make sure EVERYTHING is updated and reboot a few times and expect some more crashes for awhile. I was crashing every 5 -15 minutes all day. Sometimes it would load up and then crash. It’s starting to stay stable now for last several hours.

  • Windows updates
  • Video Card updates (AMD did just theirs for the 27th)
    -MS Store Apps: X-Box

I figured as much, still mentioning something like that has the very real possibility to derail the topic, which would likely lead to its closure, and thus the end of a potentially useful discussion.

Now back to the topic of forced updates :slight_smile:

I can only imagine how annoying it must be to find you have to install a mandatory update, an update that breaks your simulator, beit due to a code defect or new conflicts it creates with your favrioute mods. Unfortunatly that is the nature of this type of platform. MSFS is akin to an MMORPG.

There are some technical ways they could give you more flexibility around updates. For example, they could have three release channels:

  • Dev - Effectively the channel we pre-release testers get access to before updates
  • Stable/Release - The channel most users are on
  • Legacy/Deprecated - the previous update

As they are getting ready to release a new major update, say SU6, they could release builds to patches to Dev, until they are happy to push it to Stable. This is what effectively happened yesterday. What would be new here, is that the old stable build (i.e. the one you were all on three days ago), would be pushed to the legacy branch and when you started launching the sim it would give you the option to update.

If you choose not to, your hand would eventually be forced when the next major update happened, as your legacy channel would be replaced by the new old stable build (in this case SU5).

Alternatively, they could allow you not to update, but then cut you off from cloud services (Bing, photogrammetry, AI Traffic, Weather, ATC comms, and multiplayer etc). Basically, they disable your cloud access until you are on the stable build, that way they don’t have to handle API versioning, and potentially additional servers if the specs change too much.

But even if either of those options or an equivalent was offered, it wouldn’t suit everyone’s needs, and it would create more headaches for Asobo as developers, and Microsoft as publishers, so I also understand why they have stayed away from such a release cycle…

Anyway, enough rambling from me. For those of you who are having stability issues at the moment, please do the usual things to reduce the risk you’ll have issues. Clear out your community folder, and apply updates when mod developers release them, check your drivers and firmware are up to date, etc.

Best of luck.

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Sorry to be so blunt, but sometimes it’s the only way to get the message across, particularly after so much discussion on the subject. Asking for no updates is quite implausible and naive. That’s not how the development cycle works. So let’s not waste everybody’s time.

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Yes… on the real subject of forced updates… this update unfortunately caused a major fatal flaw in my registry and after trying to repair it… I was forced to wipe my computer completely clean and start fresh with a recovery DVD…. Followed all the guidelines… nothing in the community folder… not sure… oh well… clean computer now

Ouch, I’m sorry to hear you’ve had such a messy outcome. But as you said, at least you do have a nice clean computer :slight_smile:

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May be extremely difficult because of the online scenery. If it were like FSX or X-Plane, entirely offline (except for license checks) then that would be practical, but if something changes in the structure of the online data, then it won’t work without the updates.

Having said that I hope the next phase will be a proper bug fixing / make operational one. Not more new features.

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To be fair, they could always disable all of the cloud-based features for people who want to stay behind the release build, but I doubt those people would be overly happy, even if it was 100% their choice.

Now that they are (I’m hoping) finished with porting the sim to Xbox, most of the DX12 work, and so on, I’m hoping a large portion of the workforce who were wroking on Xbox can start working on bugs.

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After 3 days of trying everything I know ( and nothing worked), it seems that I am not the only one with the 'Gaming Services" issue…this is from the Zendesk FAQ’s… it is the exact problem I am having… if it works I will report back…well, after another 12 cups of high test coffee!!!

https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4402187356690-Redirected-to-the-Microsoft-Store-page-for-Gaming-Services-or-Error-0x80073D26-or-Error-0x00000001-when-you-try-to-install-update-or-launch-MSFS

The issue is, ASOBO have been forced to works on XBOX from Microsoft manager, that start from GUI,constant change on base rendering\graphics to fit inferior platform. Asobo have nothing to do on timeframe update, amount of update and future, it’s all Microsoft decide and control it. That would probably stop from now xbox is released, go vote here “Separate versions for PC and XBOX

Ps: Asobo have little to 0 permission to post in public in most case, especially not on various forum.

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I dont believe it would be technical impossible, as beta testers allready running a different version than the rest of us, and as far as i know the online features work for them.

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the focus of this update is getting it on xbox…so i think thats why they didnt look properly
at pc this time.
i am pretty sure they will carry on improvements for pc laters.
but, i am liking the update, just a few fixes and it will be great