2025.09.02 - v1.5.27.0 - File refreshes on each SU3 launch
Back in the first FS2024 release(s) there was an obvious problem, that many resources have been downloaded over and over again, even when they did not chance. Some of them have been easy to identify because they actually have been written into the regular filesystem.
For details feel free to read this old post:
During the March Dev Stream event Asobo did mention that they have fixed some bugs where already cached data was re-downloaded. I did not check SU2 but my Process Monitor recordings for SU3 do confirm that.
- The number of files which get written during a launch (and entire flight) is really small.
- Back in 2024-12 it was over 300 files.
- The overwhelming majority of writes goes into the RC.
However, there are now two (new) types of interesting entries …
Avatar image redrawing
A number of writes are made to the folder:
.. \LocalState\nene nui\SR-LIVE\PLAYER_AVATAR\
To some degree that is nice and good … because until SU3 my avatar had the habit of “getting lost” and trying to find out how to get those pre-rendered images back into the menu screens of the sim was a puzzle.
With SU3 so far my avatar never “got lost”.
But why is the sim re-rendering the same images over and over again even when I made zero changes to the avatar settings? Shouldn’t a simple check if those files exist on the local drive (and e.g. match a cached file hash) be good enough?
Perhaps this is a “marketing” related requirement, to prevent users from painting their own avatars?
This clearly has no significant performance or RC implications … and I clearly prefer a visible avatar in the menu screens over no avatar … but I still find it noticable.
Automatic package updates?
What really caught my attention have been entries of this kind:
..\StreamedPackages\fs24-asobo-event-rescuechallenge\content\minimal.fsarchive
On 50% of the sim launches there are one or a few updates to content in the StreamedPackages folder! And this is not related to me making new purchases in the marketplace.
This is good.
I think I remember that people have been asking on the Dev Stream(s) why “streamed” packages only get updated together with the sim updates … and not more frequently. After all, a main idea of “streamed” packages is that content can and will always be updated on demand.
I think that the answer usually was that proper compatibility testing requires a lot of time and so release schedules get aligned.
However, technically the mechanism for continuous updates seems to be in place in SU3 … and it is being used already. Maybe it was added long ago, but I did not recognize it back then.
Major package updates might still be restricted to major sim release cycles. But that is not a technical restriction but really looks rather like a QA, or management, or compatibility related restriction.
To summarize this post with good news:
- The unnecessary file downloads on sim launch have been fixed
- … most likely already in SU2.
- The pre-rendered avatar images for the menues get recreated on each launch.
- This seems somewhat useless … but clearly does not hurt performance.
- FS2024 does update “streamed” packages when needed automatically on each launch
- … and this looks like a solid and efficient implementation.
P.S: I use the word “streaming” only because this is how Asobo does name the packages in their UI and presentations … but at a technical level I still do not consider that to be “real” streaming … it is rather an ad-hoc on demand download with different forms of caching.