MSFS 2020 is Heartbreaking!

It took me several dozen attempts to complete LFBD to KSEA because of the repeated CTDs over the Atlantic. The one time I made it to KSEA and on short final, a few feet above the runway, the screen went black, sim crashed, and I was staring at my Xbox desktop jaw agape in disbelief.

Finally got FFM after using the eurofighter on an unconventional route. Haven’t attempted the route since SU6 so maybe it’s better now.

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So to add insult to injury, I figure I’ll just “cheese” Frequent Flyer Miles by setting up the 747, get to cruise FL, set autopilot and jack the sim rate to max.

Even at max sim rate it takes a significant amount of time to make the flight to KSEA.

I return the sim rate to normal and allow the AI Pilot to take control on approach only to watch him come in hot with no landing gear extended and crash.

SMH

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I didn’t even get time to deactivate it. It crashed the instant I unpaused.

If I pause on PC the elevator trim is completely down and throttles are at idle when I unpause which leads to my plane going straight down towards the ground. My trick is to activate autopilot every time I need to pause. You will still need to push the throttle forward after unpausing but at least the plane doesn’t fall from the sky.

I’ve had this problem since release but I guess it takes more than a year to fix this problem…

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One possible “work around” is to turn off AP just before you pause, and then turn it back on again, just after you Un-pause.

The issue is cause bu the Auto-pilot not pausing when the plane pauses, and then, when trying to control a paused Plane, its internal values running to limits.

This will defiantly also happen with Active Pause !!

See here for how to actually pause without causing a lot of the issues that Active Pause brings - in summary, never use active pause. Not sure that would have helped you here though as, for me, if my xbox controller goes to sleep the sim doesn’t pause - I am on PC though and this may be something xbox does.

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You are talking about live pause? It is designed to be this way, the position of the AC freezes but the simulation keeps running. So if thrust was too low to maintain current AOA/airpseed, under live pause the AC will eventually stall whilst paused, as soon as you unpause the condition will be displayed

It really is a stupid feature IMHO, whenever I pause the sim I always use escape

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Good points. I use Active Pause a fair amount for short breaks but always make sure I’ve got the throttle set to stabilize airspeed (especially on a jet like the CRJ that doesn’t have autothrottles). If you leave it with speed increasing, you could likely overspeed the jet as soon as you return, same with speed decreasing, where you will immediately drop out of the sky upon return. Otherwise, I just ESC.

In my opinion Live pause is another example of some features not being fully fleshed out and logical conclusions about their function reached when the development discussions took place. To have been a fly on the wall when those meetings occurred! It should have been obvious that pause should literally pause the whole simulation as far as the actual flight is concerned, even if all the other live features such as time, weather and traffic continue running in the background.

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Regarding the two pause options, has anyone tested whether hitting the Esc key really does pause all simulation elements other than MP?

For example, if set up the weather to have something obvious, like high winds so I can clearly observe clouds moving around. If I hit active pause, my plane stops moving, but nothing else does. AI/Live/MP continue on their way as will the clouds IIRC.

If I instead hit the Esc key, and wait 10 minutes, when I un-pause will I see the clouds as they were at the time I paused, or will I see the cloud formations change because 10 minutes have elapsed?

I’ve used active pause many times, but only for quite short periods of time, maybe to line up a photo, that kind of thing, and I’m usually flying with the AP off. I think I only ever had a single instance where the plane had suddenly nosed downwards, but I forget the reason for it as it was probably last year.

Fuel burn still continues.

Even when pressing Esc?

And the performance loss is so bad , long flights are no fun.

I only fly GA, and I think my longest flights have been around the 4-5 hour mark. From the screenshots I have seen almost everyone experiencing that issue have been in an airliner, but I think there might have been one user in a TBM that had it.

I’ve never seen it myself.

I’m not sure about anyone else, but when I hit ESC I’m definitely getting an “Active Pause” instead of a hard pause. I can see my plane dancing around behind the menu.

It looks to me like the active pause merely removes position changes from the step calculation. It does not appear to remove any other forces acting on the plane. Since those forces are still being applied to the plane’s attitude while being held in a single position, the forces add up and can lead to outrageous effects on the airframe. I’ve had a plane crash WHILE IN active pause.

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Hmm, really? I’ll need to check again, but I remember using ESC to get to the controls/assistance/etc screen on an approach, and my plane didn’t smack into the ground 10 minutes later when resumed.

ESC is a ‘hard’ pause. Active pause is something else, but I see that some are questioning which type of pause the ESC key initiates.

Just disable the crash detection and overstress damage detection in the options. These two functions never worked properly so there is no reason whatsover to keep them activated.

You’ll know when you have crashed the aircraft, because, well, you’ll see it touch the ground and tumble in an unplanned manner. And if you fly your aircraft realistically you never should come even close to overstressing them.

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I find it funny to consider it “completely broken” cause you can’t fly it unrealistically to get a made up achievement. But that’s just me… Also just press Esc don’t use active pause.

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