Third party freeware addon management software solution

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1

Already freeware is popping up here, there and everywhere. What we need is an ORBX style freeware hub that accomplishes the following goals:

  1. Provides a centralized hub for creators to upload and maintain their freeware scenery and airplanes.
  2. Allows creators to update their software, for users to see the updates available and download them.
  3. Provides a place for users to browse addons and aircraft, categorized and organized (by plane type, by country, continent, etc).
  4. Provide a rating or comment system to allow feedback for creators.

Does anyone know of a pre-made generic software solution for doing this already? Something we could adapt? Or is someone willing to make this happen?

2

This is the closest thing that I’ve found so far. Haven’t tried it myself yet.

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3

I have wrote on another post about adds-on management, that I am using Windows before there was Windows Installer, and I am wattling that there will be a build-in installer.
I have no issue with third-party, just to have good TCE ( Total Customer Experience), a build-in installer is needed :pray:t2:

4

This solution is halfway there - the problem is there is no common repository that is connected to a one click installed with intelligent updates. I think that is what we really need here.

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5

I agree with this 110% Atm we have a lot of amazing people working in the community creating / learning and flying. It would be awesome to have one centralized hub to show off this work.

6

there is x-plane.org :innocent: :stuck_out_tongue: :smile:

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For freeware I don’t see Microsoft/Asobo setting something up for freeware.

I do see the possibility that the community will built something similar to www.x-plane.org for MSFS that can be the de-facto repository for MSFS freeware.

I though I saw a thread on https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftFlightSim/ where someone was trying to catalog freeware. But that is not going to scale.

10

I actually Would love to see an official hub for freeware on the main menu so we’d have a marketplace and a in game community hub because as a pc user I’m watching the Xbox community closely and they don’t have a way to access freeware yet

11

Dear KayakSailor4, I hope you use your right to vote on the post :wink:

12

There is this one: MSFS Community Downloader » Microsoft Flight Simulator but it’s very limited in the nr of addons supported.

Ideally flightsim.to would create their own tool (so they could add ads to it or whatever to earn something). The whole point here is it should be automatic and update in the background (as an option). All the linker tools are fine, but the don’t check for updates themselves which is kind of the whole point.

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13

I already did

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14

flightsim.to is about as close as you’re going to get. There has never and will probably never be a central repository for MS Flight Sims. At least with flightsim.to half of what most people want is there and versions tracked (if you have an account) so that you know if there are updates, etc.

15

The world out side this software is … what it is :wink:
I don’t want to see the on-going message remove your mods as it could be the reason for the CTD.
Most of issues are SDK issues, therefore the manufacture should take care, not drop the blame, that is another game :stuck_out_tongue:

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18

As the MSFS community comes into their 4th year of operation, there are hundreds of mods from a variety of sources.

It is becoming a problem for people with a lot of mods to find out which mods have updates. Some devs post in the forums, others on their discords, others via email. It’s very easy to miss updates. It’s easy to forget you have something installed. And improperly updating your mods is a common cause of bugs and CTDs, so it’s important for users to install the latest updates.

The focus so far has been on tools like MSFS Addons Linker and simstaller, which are invaluable for managing collections of mods and their dependencies. But we are missing a crucial piece of the puzzle: a central way for devs to announce an update so that users can easily find it.

REQUIREMENT:

  • a way for users to scan their currently installed mods and determine if there are availble updates.

  • [OPTIONAL] allow users to automatically install updates

EXISTING INSTALL TOOLS:

  • MSFS Addons Linker
  • simstaller

APPROACHES:

There are at least two example approaches I can think of.

in a “DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM” model, each developer agrees to provide a simple update feed (perhaps implemented as an RSS feed which is supported by many blog platforms). Then existing install tools might integrate the capability for users to add a feed when they install a mod. This would allow the install tool to reach out to read the feeds for update notifications.

in a “CENTRAL SERVER” model, a cloud based app can store update information for all published mods. Devs would be responsible for signing up for this app, identifying their mods and then adding versions when they provide updates. Users could then login to this server and fetch the latest versions for their mods. The existing install tools could also use the central server as a source of information to easily tell the user which of their currently installed mods have updates available.

The community seems to have a lot of interest in a solution to the problem of finding updates in a timely way. Improperly updated mods still cause a lot of issues in the sim (including CTDs), so this is becoming more than just a time-saver feature… it’s a quality of sim issue.

There is a possibility that either of these solutions could be MSFS sponsored, or community sponsored. Commercial or open-source.

Thanks to Alyson Johnson for providing the high-level requirements and her stream for discussing it.

Vote if you think this is important. Thanks!

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19

Hello all,
We have moved this topic out of the Wishlist as the wishlist is for 1st party requests.

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