Initial loading time question

  • I reinstalled my entire PC and so also AFS2 and this gave me the opportunity to test the initial loading time (going from desktop to the menu).

    The loading time going from the menu to the cockpit depends on where you position your plane: the default AFS2 location takes some 3 seconds to load while an airport near New York or Miami takes some 30 seconds. This is obvious. What does surprise me though is that the initial loading time gets a lot longer depending on the scenery you have installed.

    Take note: all my tests were done with a hard reset of the computer in between!

    - Going from desktop to menu with all IPACS DLC installed takes 11 seconds.

    - Going from desktop to menu with True Earth Netherlands added takes 26 seconds... and that is with my plane still in the default USA location...!

    What's happening here? Why does the loading time gets more than doubled when TE NL is installed but you aren't even near it yet? As a test I moved the Orbx folder to another location and... loading times were back to 11 again! What happens if more TE sceneries will be added... will loading times get even higher?

    Isn't there something to be gained here by somehow NOT loading whatever gets loaded when you start AFS2...? Why does AFS2 apparently load something from TE even if you are not planning to fly over there?

    BTW As a bonus I was also able to test if the Duchess increased loading times (as I though it did): it didn't! :)

    I will do some more testing because lately, before my reinstall, loading AFS2 took minutes instead of seconds... As if things get slower over time. So I will now load the Duchess in Amsterdam and then relocate back to the US and see what difference it all makes.

  • Don't know but maybe it does not load but it already takes time to check all these addons and before reading the content Aerofly does not know if it is near your location. I noticed this too and I wonder why sceneries are distributed so much:

    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator\scenery\places (main scenery USA, CH)

    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator\addons\scenery (ORBX)

    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator AddOns\scenery (ORBX)

    - C:\Users\PC\Documents\Aerofly FS 2\scenery\places (own scenery)

    Regards,

    Thomas

    i7-14700KF @ 5.6 GHz, Geforce RTX 4090, 32MB RAM, 1TB SSD M.2, 1TB SSD M.2, 2TB SSD M.2, 32" Monitor 4K, Pimax Crystal

    Edited 2 times, last by TomB (April 20, 2019 at 2:47 PM).

  • Don't know but maybe it does not load but it already takes time to check all these addons and before reading the content Aerofly does not know if it is near your location. I noticed this too and I wonder why sceneries are distributed so much:

    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator\scenery\places (main scenery USA, CH)

    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator\addons\scenery (ORBX)

    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator AddOns\scenery (ORBX)

    - C:\Users\PC\Documents\Aerofly FS 2\scenery\places (own scenery)

    Coincidentally , regarding this, I had just done a post yesterday expressing concern about growing disorganization in the scenery directories .

    Devons rig

    Intel Core i5-13600K - Core i5 13th Gen 14-Core (6P+8E) @ 5.5Ghz / G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB RAM DDR5 6000 / GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070Ti GAMING OC 12G / Sound Blaster Z / Oculus Quest 2 VR Headset / Klipsch® Promedia 2.1 Computer Speakers / ASUS ROG SWIFT PG279Q ‑ 27" IPS LED Monitor ‑ QHD / 6x Samsung SSD/NVME's various sizes / Windows 11 Pro 64-bit / GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX LGA 1700 ATX Motherboard DDR5

  • Don't know but maybe it does not load but it already takes time to check all these addons and before reading the content Aerofly does not know if it is near your location. I noticed this too and I wonder why sceneries are distributed so much:

    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator\scenery\places (main scenery USA, CH)

    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator\addons\scenery (ORBX)

    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator AddOns\scenery (ORBX)

    - C:\Users\PC\Documents\Aerofly FS 2\scenery\places (own scenery)

    The odd distribution mainly is Orbx fault imho... I can understand IPACS installing its default and DLC into the sim itself and it's also a good idea to let users install addons in the Documents folder. However, Orbx creating and installing a folder of its own in the Steam directory is imho an absolute no go. Orbx somehow doesn't like rules and regulations: they also refuse to conform to the new P3D installation rules. Too bad. They should install their stuff into the Documents folder also or maybe, perhaps, in the main AFS2 folder, like IPACS does, but NOT in a folder of their own! It's totally unnecessary and only confuses things.

  • Aerofly already allows a user to change the location of the scenery folder...

    Or the entire documents folder can be moved.

    Or a symbolic link to a different location could be created.

    Devons rig

    Intel Core i5-13600K - Core i5 13th Gen 14-Core (6P+8E) @ 5.5Ghz / G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB RAM DDR5 6000 / GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070Ti GAMING OC 12G / Sound Blaster Z / Oculus Quest 2 VR Headset / Klipsch® Promedia 2.1 Computer Speakers / ASUS ROG SWIFT PG279Q ‑ 27" IPS LED Monitor ‑ QHD / 6x Samsung SSD/NVME's various sizes / Windows 11 Pro 64-bit / GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX LGA 1700 ATX Motherboard DDR5

  • J van E,

    Posting your Duchess bugs here is not going to necessarily get any results from the Developers.

    I suggest you compile your bug list along with any suggestions, wishes, and desires and open a support request at Just Flight. You could also post your questions and comments in the Duchess section at the Just Flight forum.

    Regards,

    Ray

  • J van E,

    Posting your Duchess bugs here is not going to necessarily get any results from the Developers.

    I suggest you compile your bug list along with any suggestions, wishes, and desires and open a support request at Just Flight. You could also post your questions and comments in the Duchess section at the Just Flight forum.

    Regards,

    Ray

    I already did that (got two support tickets running right now), even before posting it here. I am mainly posting it here so other users may know these are bugs and/or to confirm them. ;) BTW Posting on their forum isn't very useful: they even posted themselves they aren't really monitoring their own forum. Support tickets are the way to go.

    EDIT

    BTW Did you accidenly post this about the Duchess bugs here...? Because I mention them in the other topic...?

  • Initial loading time ( to main menu ) depends on the number of airports ( TSC files ). So the more airports are installed, the longer the loading time. A SSD helps in this case.

    Okay, interesting, good to know. But er... do you really mean AIRPORTS TSC files or ALL TSC files? It seems a bit odd that the few airports that TrueEarth NL brings more than doubles the initial loading time...? With default and all DLC from IPACS I must have a few hundred airports at least; seems odd that some 40 airports suddenly more than double the initial loading time? When I search for ALL TSC files though I find around 426 in the AFS2 folder and around 277 in Orbx's folder. Not all TSC files are airports, so it seems: even cities and hangars are. Seems Orbx is using a LOT MORE TSC files than IPACS does? Hence the far longer loading times with TE NL: a small country but with a lot of TSC files. ;)

    This will also mean that with a few TE regions installed plus some more IPACS DLC we will be looking at loading times that really takes a few minutes...

    Edited once, last by J van E (April 20, 2019 at 7:01 PM).

  • I already did that (got two support tickets running right now), even before posting it here. I am mainly posting it here so other users may know these are bugs and/or to confirm them. ;) BTW Posting on their forum isn't very useful: they even posted themselves they aren't really monitoring their own forum. Support tickets are the way to go.

    EDIT

    BTW Did you accidenly post this about the Duchess bugs here...? Because I mention them in the other topic...?

    The lack JF response over the Easter Holiday weekend is probably normal. I would expect a slew of responses as early as Tuesday of next week. Yes, I saw you are here so I posted for you to see it.


    Ray

  • J van E wrote: This will also mean that with a few TE regions installed plus some more IPACS DLC we will be looking at loading times that really takes a few minutes...

    No, this is simply not true. With all TSC files installed, our loading time is roughly 5-10 seconds. So it must be something else on your system. Again SSD vs HD makes a huge difference here and unfortunately Windows Defender sometimes slows down file accesses as well.

    However, we have no control over user TSC files, so we can't say if they did something that causes this big delay.

  • Interesting, could very well be my system, I seriously didn't consider that option...!

    So I'd like to ask other users how their loading times are with and without TrueEarth Netherlands installed. Restart your pc and check how long it takes from starting the sim to the menu. To test without TE simply move the Orbx folder temporarily in another location. (Moving it back will 'install' it again.) Again, between each test you have to restart the PC otherwise the cache will be loaded.

    I am very curious how other user's loading times are!

    BTW I am using SSD's already, I said goodbye to HD's 5 years ago. ;) And I don't use user addons or self made stuff, only IPACS, Orbx and Just Flight.

    EDIT

    I will also chech Defender's settings. And with 'all TSC files' do you mean Orbx's too? With IPACS only my loading time is also around 10.

    Victory! I excluded AFS2 from Defender and YES, initial loading time instantly dropped from 26 to 10! I checked this twice, so with and without exclusion, and restarted the PC between each test. With Defender loading time 26, without Defender 10. Both with TE NL!

    I thought I excluded AFS2 in the past already but I certainly didn’t do so after my recent PC reinstall. Great! Tomorrow (don’t have time anymore today) I will check and see if Defender also was the cause for my screen tearing problem...!

    Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

    Edited once, last by J van E (April 20, 2019 at 10:48 PM).