So I’m curious on how the game manages mods in the Community folder and what mod management practice is recommended by the Asobo devs regarding the Community folder. Because after several years, it’s not going to be uncommon to have dozens if not hundreds of mods in the Community folder over the 10 year life of this game.
Assuming all my mods are up to date and not causing errors, is it better to:
(1)
Keep all mods in the Community folder? I know this increases initial game startup loading time, but will a larger quantity of mods slowly start to degrade in-game performance over time? Particularly mods that have universal effects like weather, “active” scenery (like birds, traffic, or seasonal foliage), etc.
(2)
Is it better to keep all mods in a separate folder and only put localized mods that are specific for your current flight parameters in the Community folder? This method would require you to restart the game anytime you want to swap out mods.
(3)
Are mods that aren’t local to your current flight completely “off” and not using any resources?
Firstly, it will not degrade performance over time. That said, continuing to add more to the community folder will continue to increase loading time on sim startup indefinitely with no cap, so this becomes a personal thing at that point for the individual to decide if they value the extra minutes. I personally keep it in community and load the sim while I’m having food or something lol.
And fwiw, it is not the number of mods that increases loading time, it’s the number of files. The sim indexes every file on startup, including every individual file in community. That means that a person with 5 mods each containing 600 files would load slower than a person with 20 mods each containing 10 files, as an example. Traffic addons significantly add to load times for this reason.
This is again an individual basis question, but in my opinion and probably the majority of the community, no - it’s better to keep it in the cf and keep a cf backup somewhere. The only thing that would change is sim startup time on launch with fewer files to index, so again if a couple minutes really matter it’s an individual choice I suppose. Most just leave them there OR use a mod manager to disable them before launching the sim. There are many available out there.
Yes. This is why, for example, arriving at an airport with a lot of scenery mods can suddenly put a strain on performance in some circumstances as the sim is now loading them and rendering them in the world.
Yes, the above is currently what I’m thinking as well. I don’t mind the longer startup load time, like you I just browse YT or something while it’s loading.
Just curious if that’s how it actually works or if Asobo has a different system that may have workarounds or nuances regarding 3rd party mods that may affect performance more than others that we may not be aware of.