Which is the best and most reliable REPLAY software?

I think that the official replay functions is still a few months away at least and I would really like to watch the replay of my landings from different views. I don’t mind spending money for a reliable third party software that does not crash the sim or ruin the sim in any way.

Which is the best pay ware software to watch replays on MSFS 2020?

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Hello,
I put your question in Third Party Addon Discussion > Tools & Utilities.

Hi ! I m developer of FlightControlReplay( payware tool) . I m only tell you to watch YouTube video and creators post you found in this section or in announcements post . There you find all information about features and how it works ! :sunglasses:

About your need of see replay in different views , you can see this and more you can also trigger automatic camera change choosing at which time you want a camera change (choosing also camera type and name ).

Adding to that you can also trigger automatic smart cam change using keyboard shortcut .

In simmarket network is the best sold addon in the tools category for msfs and for p3d .

In the service update 4 there will be enhancements asobo side that will improve the experience FCR side

Check this out :slight_smile:

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Salty replay.
Free and works really well

Should be nice to have your great addon in the in-game market for best visibility

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Thank you so much !! I applied the marketplace request ! I m waiting Asobo and Microsoft admit me and you ll have Flightcontrolreplay also in in-game marketplace ! :sunglasses:

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As far as payware is concerned there is probably not much choice.

But to add a few open source contestants into the field, in alphabetical order:

Which one is „best“ is in the eye of the beholder. But given that you can try them for free it is easy to figure it out, based on your personal needs and expectations.

Also note that some of them are rather new (2 months) and in active development, so features might be coming in the near future.

Disclaimer: I am the author of one of them :slight_smile:

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Personally I use flight recorder, simple, free, works well.

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I’ve had good results with FlightControlReplay. I did a lengthy review here, although there have been a couple of updates since which have brought further improvements

Not tried the others, but this one works really well for me

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Guys, I stay in a remote area and my internet connection is really slow. I don’t want to ruin my simulator in any way. Are all the replay software safe to use? Is there as chance that the copy of MSFS thats is installed will be modified and ruined in any way?

I’ve had absolutely no issues. FlightControlReplay is a separate programme - it reads data from the sim to record and sends data to the sim to replay - so shouldn’t affect your sim installation in anyway

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OK. I will go and purchase your replay software. You are assuring me that my copy of MSFS will not be affected right? I am very scared of doing that 180 GB download as my internet connection is really slow.

No one - not even me - can give you a „safe to use“ guarantee. Now theoretically you could study the source code of all the open source variants, but even if you wouldn‘t find deliberate harmful source code there would still be no guarantee, as the compilers that we use might be „tempered with“ (and maliciously generate „backdoors“ for someone else to exploit), the binaries that are distributed via flightsim.to (or github.com) could be exchanged etc. etc.

But that‘s probably not what you were asking anyway :wink:

However to add to this topic: I guarantee a „no harm intended!“ - but this being the Internet my statement is worth as much as any other statement that the Internet has ever made (so basically two cents :wink: )

But seriously, you were probably asking whether any of the replay tools can damage your FS 2020 installation, and as far as the open source variants are concerned (of which I studied the source code, and am even exchanging ideas and improvements with one of the authors) I can clearly say: „They are safe to use!“

Why? First, they all install in separate directories (not in the community folder, but really „anywhere“ on your storage medium).

Second, they do not mess around with any existing installation files in your FS 2020 installation directory.

Third, they only communicate via the official SimConnect API - an „application programming interface“ introduced back in the days of FSX. That API essentially lets third party apps to „read and write so-called simulation variables“ (plus some „event handling“), and that‘s basically what makes a „flight recorder“: record a selection of those simulation variables (position, velocity, gear up/down…) and then „play it back“.

That said, it is (rather easily) possible for such a „SimConnect client“ to „crash the flight simulator“ (the SimConnect „server“), by sending invalid requests (e.g. some number which is „out of the expected range“ or does not represent a valid number at all etc.)

That should not happen (it would be a „client-side bug“), but that‘s kind of the worst that you could expect. Simply restart the simulator, inform the author of the tool and/or use a different tool :wink:

And lastly none of those applications require „administrator rights“ (unless you want to copy them into a folder only writeable by an administrator, e.g. c:/Program Files/). For sure they do not require administrator rights for running them! It is always very suspicious if an application requires administrator rights at runtime for no obvious reasons.

Most (or all) of those points also apply to other replay applications, but when in doubt: ask the respective author.

I hope that helps somewhat to assess the „damage potential“ :wink:

Yes (I talk for Flightcontrolreplay but I m also sure for all other replay tool ) . This is a separated exe and don’t affect any msfs files . All data are stored in files inside recorder folder or where you choose .

I like the sky dolly replay tool, but haven’t tried the others.

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Thankyou for taking out your time for such a detailed reply. This was really helpful. :raised_hands: I am going to purchase the Flight Control Replay right away

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Well, this is somewhat ironic, but I am glad that I could help someone else to make some money :wink:

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I just bought and used flight control replay. I think it is just awesome. This is a must have ad on for all those pilots who wish to relive their perfect landings in the gorgeous world of MSFS.

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Okay, this is now going to be extremely off-topic, but let me still illustrate this point here, to show that I “did not simply make this up”.

Just in these days the following news hit the IT newstickers about how many end users were affected by the “XCodeGhost” , e.g. here:

https://9to5mac.com/2021/05/07/emails-reveal-128-million-ios-users-were-affected-by-xcodeghost-malware/

“XcodeGhost” is (was) a modified Xcode developer tool. Xcode is mostly (exclusively) used for macOS and especially also iOS development. A group of people modifed this tool to generate malicious code, and distributed their evil Xcode variant via their own websites.

“But why oh why would a developer download an official Xcode tool from a site other than developers.apple.com!” you might - rightfully so - object. Well, apparently the internet bandwidth to/from the USA for many developers - especially in Asia - is not that great, so they downloaded it from a location with a higher bandwidth:

“Several developers downloaded the infected Xcode because Apple’s servers were slow, so they looked for alternative download links.”

And so they ended up with a malicious Xcode version, aka “XcodeGhost”, and their compiled applications had evil code™ (“malware”) inside them.

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I just landed at the Maderia Airport (LPMA) on the FBW A32NX and it was a beautiful experience watching the replay on Flight Control Replay.

I made my girlfriend watch the gorgeous replay in 4K for half an hour on a loop :slight_smile: Finally someone can appreciate my flying skills.

As a real life Captain this is an invaluable tool to view your replays to improve landing techniques and also to simply enjoy the gorgeous world created by the MSFS 2020 team. The absolute must have for MSFS.

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