Tough to find MSFS Core Program Discussions

Lately, almost , invariably, I open a thread concerning a topic I am interested in and find it is a discussion of the benefits or flaws of another MSFS Addon. It is becoming more and more difficult to find discussions revolving around fixes and enhancements to the CORE MSFS program. I have always wished the Addons, freeware, payware and commercial ware had a separate folder so that those that want to discuss trouble, flaws, bugs, etc. involving the CORE MSFS Program would not have to wade through countless discussions only to find out that the problem being discussed had an addon link to something outside of the core MS program…
Addons are terrific but I really wish those discussions could be separated from the pure core discussions.

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There is an inherent problem with trying to separate the add-on conversations. Although I completely agree with you, the issue is that far too many users attribute the problems they face to the base sim, without first removing any adds. When trying to solve problems, we are constantly trying to educate users to eliminate outside interference as a culprit. Sadly many assume that means aircraft downloads, scenery adds or liveries only. There are a BUNCH of other helper apps, sdk interface apps, weather adds etc. that end up causing the crashes, etal.

While I feel your pain, I expect it is going to only get worse as more and more “mods” are released and people not familiar with the modding process assume that the mod worked before so how can it be causing a crash now. We will see it every time there is an update to the base. It will become impossible to help many users because you will have to prod and pry to get the adds eliminated before base sim issues can be isolated and solved.

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Great comment and I agree with you… It will get worse

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Especially as MSFS relies more and more on outside developers to fix all their missing and/or broken features.

One of my biggest pet peeves – and I assure you, I have many, so it’s quite an accomplishment to make it anywhere near the top:

“It worked before, so it should still work!”

No, it shouldn’t. We want Asobo adding new stuff, fixing old stuff, and in general changing things in each and every update, patch, hot fix, etc. That’s going to break workarounds (mods), third-party aircraft that have unofficial hacks, and likely anything that messes around with the official config files. Which in turn may break the sim’s update and installation capability.

Breaking unofficial things is not Asobo’s fault BUT…

A key programming concept – say in object-oriented programming – is clearly defined interfaces with exception handling. The object (or class) “contract” is that the interface will always be supported. You may add new things or deprecate old things in favor of a new way, but code written against it will work for many years.

On a bigger scale but similar in concept, there is the SDK with clearly defined interfaces and exception handling, and the same “contract”. This is Asobo’s current problem. Until they provide that stable SDK and the functional support underneath, third parties have to hack their way toward solutions. If they were using a stable SDK instead, their stuff wouldn’t break with every update.

I’m thinking we’ll probably have a pretty decent, stable SDK within a year or so – functionally capable of supporting everything third parties are having to hack today.

Fingers crossed!

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Hi All.

I have tagged this topic with the #forum-feedback tag, this will generate a notification for some members of the moderator team so they will see this topic.

I cannot say anything specific at the moment, except that this is an issue we are acutely aware of and I suspect it will be discussed in our next moderator meeting. Sorry I cannot provide a better answer at this time.

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This will always be a never-ending issue. Unfortunately, we (the more experienced users) will have to continue to educate new users as time goes on.

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I was really hoping that by “we” you meant the Moderators. :grin:

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Oh, we do :slight_smile:

But there is no harm in regular users pointing out the importance of removing mods, so long as it is done in a respectful way. I see plenty of people do this.

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Just a rib shot, Nyx. :wink:
“We” know you folks are doing a good job.
Just get’s old, “crashes now and I haven’t changed anything…(oh, except for that livery pack)”.

Here’s hoping…

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:rofl: :rofl: .

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