About the Sim Update 5

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About the Sim Update 5

Postby Daube » Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:35 am

Hi all,

The Sim Update 5 has been released yesterday.
For Steam users, you first need to download a first update from Steam, size is 350 MB.
Then you launch the sim, and it will download the actual Sim Update. The size varies depending on which version of the sim you have (standard, premium etc...).
I have the standard version and the Sim Update 5 size was 40 GB.

The servers are currently overloaded a bit, so I would recommend you to wait a day or two before trying to update, if you're not in a hurry.

Also, keep in mind that after installing that SimUpdate 5, you will need to go into the content manager in the sim, and download some updated versions of the previous "World Updates" (Japan, UK, US etc...) that you might have installed in the past. These updates are approx 5~6 GB in size each.

From my side I was lucky and the install went well without problems.
I could test the sim yesterday to see the results. I had to re-adjust a few of my settings. My controller settings were kind of default so no issues for me, but I know some simmers had to re-configure their axis settings in the sim.
For info, my computer is equipped with an Intel i7 8700k coupled with an NVidia GTX 1070-ti, running on Windows 10.

In 2D mode, I have quite a nice FPS improvement. Around my local airport LFMN, I used to get around 40 to 45 FPS in average. I'm not getting number close to 60 FPS.
In VR my FPS gain was smaller. My video card is too old for a miracle on that side. Nevertheless I did get additional smoothness that allowed me to increase the render scale a little bit.

A quick summary of the various info I collected on other forums, from user feedbacks:
- It is STRONGLY recommended to empty your "Community" folder before applying the Sim Update 5. Changes brought by that update are too deep and many addons are totally incompatible. This could even prevent the sim from loading. You'll have to wait for these addons to be officially updated by their creators for SU5 compatibility.
- The Live AI traffic is currently causing crashes to desktop (CTD) for many users. It is recommended to leave the AI traffic OFF.
- The sim now 'unloads" the ground objects which are not on screen, and needs to reload them when they come in the screen. That means that when panning the view very fast, some popping of ground objects can happen. On my computer this is quite limited and hard to spot (and not visible at all in VR) , but for some users this is very annoying.
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby pete » Wed Jul 28, 2021 8:07 am

I still don't get why they make you update before being able to fly. Certainly puts me off. Update in the GD background while you can still 'fly'

Where's the logic there? What other software outfit makes you download huge files before you can use it? I do not have one. :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. – Leonardo da Vinci
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby Tiger1962 » Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:06 am

pete wrote:I still don't get why they make you update before being able to fly.


It's an online game/sim, all the data is held on servers and not on your disk drive, that's why everyone has to be on the same version - they can't hold different data for different users on different servers, it would cost each user thousands to maintain.
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby Daube » Wed Jul 28, 2021 11:09 am

Indeed, as an "online" application, in order to communicate with the servers properly, the sim needs to be up to date, in a shape that is expected by the servers.
Else the sim might not be able to connect to the online architecture, or might not be able to communicate with it, or process the data that is sent by the servers.
It *IS* frustrating when you have to update instead of flying, yes, especially for those of us who have a slow or metered connection.
Fortunately, updates don't happen each week :)
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby Daube » Fri Jul 30, 2021 7:26 am

After several complaints about instability and other problems, Asobo will release a hotfix later today to get rid of the various problems that appeared with SU5.
Hopefully it will be a small patch :)
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby Daube » Mon Aug 02, 2021 4:23 am

The hotfix was indeed very small, just a few kilobytes, so nothing to fear.

I have made a few test flights to check the new behavior of the sim.
Unfortunately, I have finally encountered the main source of complaints from the new update: the new "popping" technique is triggering severe stutters when a very complex piece of scenery comes into the field of view.

Best example: I have installed the freeware "Nice" addon, which adds a photogrammetric version of my hometown into the sim.
When the city if out of my field of view all is fine and performance is smooth.
When I turn my head toward the city, I get SEVERE stutters for a second or two, then performance goes back to normal.
If I turn my head again to look away from the city, all is fine, but each time I turn the head again to view the city, I get the same stutters again and again, each and every time.

That is quite a negative effect of the performance improvements Asobo has implemented within the SimUpdate 5, unfortunately :/

In additional to that, there is a topic in another forum stating that the graphic settings of the sim are not properly applied.
For example, one user had his clouds set to ULTRA, but they were not looking good.
Then he modified the setting back to MEDIUM, applied the change, then switched immediately back to ULTRA and applied settings again.
His clouds were now looking good.
I believe the problem has been reported on the official forums.
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby papituwall » Wed Aug 04, 2021 2:30 am

The WU5 and its pretended performance improvements has generated a controversy because of the graphics have been reduced in quality it seems in order to be on line with Xbox version.
People that have invested in powerful PC's are complaining but people with medium-low PC' can be happy if in the future MSFS keeps this settings.
In my case with a "High-end" PC (according to default settings) I see less memory consumption and approaching to cities I can see the buildings loading that was not te case before.
Regarding FPS I keep limited in Nvidia at 30FPS and Vsync Off in the program. Then my GPU is at about 57ºC, if i set FPS to unlimited i get 45FPS but the GPU reaches 82ºC and really I don´t see any improvement.
The problem is that in spite of this lowered quality, the sim is in general looking better than the other sims.
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby Daube » Wed Aug 04, 2021 3:58 am

For the buildings that you see appearing, there are two distinct cases:

1- You see them appearing while flying straight toward them: the LOD setting for the terrain or objects is too low. You can increase that setting to 200 in the sim, or you can edit the UserOpt.cfg file to set it even higher (some set it to 500, which correspond to a value of 5.00 in the CFG file). You will see the terrain/objects appearing from much further away. There is a cost in performance, but it's not as high as you might expect, and you'll have to find your best balance for your computer. Be aware that increasing that setting will also increase the initial loading time, and that setting will be lost as soon as you'll modify anything in the graphic settings of the sim (exactly like the LOD_RADIUS back in FSX days, for example :) ).

2- You see them appearing when you are panning your head toward them: that's the result of the "performance improvements" they implemented in SU5, and unfortunately there's nothing we can do about it... excepted complaining about it in their official forum, and up-voting the corresponding issue topic, if any :(
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby Daube » Wed Aug 04, 2021 3:13 pm

A bit of good news for a change :)
The devs have posted a message on the official forums to tell they recognized many of the bugs that the community has been complaining about since the release of the Sim Update 5.
They announced a new hotfix would come soon, and some additional bug fixes would also be released within the next World Update, end of August.
The bugs they mentioned included the washed out colors or over-exposed whites, the blurry ground textures at high altitude, and the ATC not recognizing the plane altitude properly.
They also stated that list was incomplete and additional bugs will be fixed.
Let's see how it goes this time... :roll:
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby papituwall » Thu Aug 05, 2021 1:42 am

Thanks Daube, my buildings case is 1, but I don't want to modify cfg's. I'll wait for next updates.
I'm more focused in the VC and Logitech panels than to "spotting" and detected this problem showing MSFS in his City to a friend.
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby EVVFCX » Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:48 am

Well after to being offline without internet for a few weeks because of moving home, I did the update last night, why couldn't they just do the update as before from within the sim instead of having to goto the microsoft store?
Today I've started the sim and it's lost all my flight records, it's as tho I have never ran it so thanks Asobo/microsoft, an update that wipes out what you have done so far.

regards

Steve
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So far my number of landings either passenger or pilot equal my number of takeoffs.

FSX Gold Acc, P3D V4, FS2020
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby Daube » Sat Aug 07, 2021 9:39 am

And as if it was not bad enough, today yet another hotfix was released :D
The new hotfix is only downloaded from the MS Store or from Steam, no downloads after launching the sim.
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby cevans » Sun Aug 08, 2021 12:33 pm

Daube wrote:And as if it was not bad enough, today yet another hotfix was released :D
The new hotfix is only downloaded from the MS Store or from Steam, no downloads after launching the sim.


Maybe they are starting to learn the way it should be done .. :roll:
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Re: About the Sim Update 5

Postby EVVFCX » Fri Aug 27, 2021 6:42 pm

Hi All,

Just in case this has been missed by others, I did the updateof course but didn't time to fly, loaded fs2020 and the update via the store only updates the basic version, if you have delux/premium version the update from the store does not update them as well.
After having updated all the versions I have, the flight log is back.

regards


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So far my number of landings either passenger or pilot equal my number of takeoffs.

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