just install everything on ssd
I had to admire your persistence and that you succeeded in smashing your load times but I must admit that I was wondering if updating might be a problem? ⊠At least Iâm happy you found a workaround. 
I donât believe I have a solve for your question, but related to it, here is a topic about this you might want to check out to see if you agree with:
I think my favorite part of reading this thread was the number of times someone posted,
âjust install everything on ssdâ!
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Actually my favorite part is your post, because the OP is clearly stating he is devising a methodology for which he/she splits the files on 2 drives, because there isnât enough space on his SSDâŠ
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Howâs that going to work with DX12 and direct storage when we get it?
@DensestSnail693
This is not about direct storage and it has nothing to do with it. It is about loading lots of community add-ons faster and smarter thanks to:
- Reducing the number of IOCTL (1 per archive, instead of thousands per add-on)
- Having all files and their sizes already catalogued per archive (it is more or less a table of entry in the .zip or .7z header)
- Saving hard drive space with efficient compression of the files which are taking the most space in add-ons (textures and CGL) while uncompressing comes for free (spare CPU core wonât spend more than a dozen or so % for decompressing)
Now if direct storage is preventing compressing files, because of the requirement to direct access the content (uncompressed), well nothing prevents anyone having such hardware compatible with direct storage (not mainstream) to waste 10x more space to store add-ons and filling NVME with the hope (or measurement) it is actually loading faster⊠But for most other users not having the compatible hardware, or wanting to store more add-ons and have FS2020 starting up and loading faster, you would just have to .zip/.7z your add-on.
That is what made me laugh too. Even put it in the title. Some just canât resist.
Some are talking of using the rolling cache and manual cache to decrease loading times, which they do, but not by a massive amount in my experience.
The manual cache no longer works on the latest sim update and I disabled my rolling cache when I realised how much it was caning my shiny new 1TB M.2 drive. Yes the load time is a little slower, but my drive will last a lot longer and I have no caches to empty and rebuild every time there is an update.
If you have a very slow internet connection then maintaining caches may be more important for you.
The manual cache still works but only if you enter options from the main page
Long story short I think the solution I posted here is fine and itâs only additional stuffs that I was testing but didnât post yet in the solution that might interfere with the update process.
There is indeed an additional optimization that I never posted in this solution, only started to discuss it in the FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS section: additional symmlinks on singular files. I only tried that on my PC to see what would happen because I had a feeling this could be problematic with updates. That was just before the 1.19.9.0 update.
1.20.6.0 installed in 3 or four passes only, much better than the 60 or more passes, starting and restarting the game for 1.19.9.0. After that I did also need more than one pass to successfully install certain updates on the world updates 1 to 5 packages. But nothing too bad.
Note that I didnât touch anything since before the 1.19.9.0 update, and I didnât have a problem with the update before where I implemented the solution but I didnât yet implement this additional test on single files symlinks. So I conclude the symmlinks on folders are fine, which is what is in the solution, but perhaps the symmlinks on singular files, which are not in the solution posted here, are maybe screwing something up during the update (if so, that would be when unpacking a downloaded package or right after). Anyways this test of adding those symmlinks on singular files did not decrease the loading time very much. So I give up on this additional test on single files symmlinks: not worth the trouble.
Just the folders symmlinks seem enough and without causing problems with updates. Which is whatâs in the solution, no more, no less.
On a side note, I have started installing many mods on Cyberpunk 2077 using the application vortex from nexusmods.com, and i noticed it also relies on symmlinks. So I am wondering if perhaps itâs possible to use vortex in order to simplify the installation of this solution (probably not, but thatâs just an idea I wanted to throw in the air).
EDIT: This is now explained in the opening post under FURTHER IMPROVEMENTS in paragraph:
ALREADY TRIED AND GIVEN UP
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Thank you for this link, thatâs very interesting indeed!
I have so many things to say about the manual cache. but thatâs another can of worms.
Broken again I think as PG doesnât load when offline with rolling cache turned off.
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