Features Microsoft Flight Simulator’s installation process is the worst thing ever designed by a human.

Full-screen installer that plays music and runs forever? Oh man, that reminds me of Final Fantasy 7. Churning away at the CD-ROM drive, hammering away at the hard disk drive, playing a MIDI from the game proper on endless loop the entire time.

(It was 1998, and I didn't own a Playstation. I DID own a Windows 95 PC, though! I also didn't own a 3D accelerator, but I DID have a software rendering option.)

 

That's what bugged me - I spent an hour or two arsing around (Xbox Game Pass version) trying to make it do its thing - But only when the install went to the default location did it actually work.

I also found that the game automatically windowed when it had to do the download of the data - Although the fact that that data is individual files as mentioned elsewhere is.. Ludicrous. Based on my connection utilisation I wasn't seeing anywhere near what my line is capable of and I can only presume it's because of that weird content install system.

 

I think, like others have mentioned, that this is because of the way the download happens. Rather than download a single massive file and then extracting it all at the end, it downloads small chunks individually and then expands each one before moving onto the next download. If you look at a network monitor, it's not actually downloading anything while it's extracting the files - which, I guess, is why it takes longer than your broadband speed would suggest.

To me, it seems like it's the most inefficient way of downloading a title - even if they really need to extract as they go along, surely it would be better to split the job into two tasks: one task to download constantly and one task to expand each file as it becomes available.

I really, really wish I'd have known about this before

In better news, my version does at least start and I can play, but my lowly 1060 means that everything is rendered in UglyVision

 

One thing that strikes me is Red Dead + CoD + Flight Sim = ~440GB. Unless you have very deep pockets, if games keep heading in this direction, we're all going back to hard drives (or at least accessorising with more of them).

 

Also. Eartrumpet.

Love that application.

 

The worst thing is that when I try to play any other game program at the same time as that download, any left mouse button click inside the other game would cause a damned browser tab to open because of that Microsoft web link in the download window even if the download window is minimized! What in the actual & $#@ prompted the geniuses that designed that crap to do it!?

 

@liratheal

You change your install directory's in the Windows 10 Settings, prior to starting the first download !

You can choose an endless amount of different drives to install too, but yeah, blame the game, when it's your basic non-knowledge about your OS !


If anyone can't download it at a time, when they don't need their computer, then get a cheap 2nd screen and move the installer / game so long over there !

 

That reads like a fanboy defence of bad design to me.

If you install the game to a non-default drive (which is an option, obviously) then the default behaviour of the game throws it's rattle out of the pram. It's not just me that's experienced this.

As evidenced by the hundreds and hundreds of search results discussing issues with this games install and download process.

 

Designed by,...... a human? Are you sure? I’m not convinced; it’s more like all the installation procedures for everything designed since 1980, were piled up in a warehouse, scattered by the jet blast from the engines of an A380, lightly peppered with catnip, ungathered and shredded by 12 blind cats on heat, before being placed into a polythene bag, before being thrown at a Software Engineer who’s instructions were to “...take this bag of chaffing bull$hit, horses’ hoof clippings, moon dust, two carrots and some Swiss cheese, pad it out, polish it up, make it less intuitive and more time consuming, then compile it into something far worse and infuriating than reading this comment.

Non-knowledge? (Post above somewhere) Non-knowledge.... nope, and in a rant to someone else as well. If you’re going to start a battle of wits, at least arm yourself with something before letting rip.

 

Choosing the install location exactly once directly in the game installation itself has been an industry standard "feature" for decades, if MS thinks it is acceptable to mess up stuff that even ancient games like Everquest or Unreal Tournament managed just fine you absolutely can't blame that on the user.

 

I've never seen an article draw in so many new members to the forum. -Such passion!
There may be some truth to the rumor that Microsoft's current programmers mostly use 'copy', 'paste', and 'delete'.

 

Lot of trolls turning up on this one, aren't there?

This game has a horrible install process. Four or five times I tried to install it and it failed every time except the last. It just didn't download anything at all, even if I left it alone literally all day. It was only when tried the last ditch attempt of uninstalling and reinstalling the installer (there's something I never thought I'd have to say) that it deigned me fit to receive any downloads at all.

And seriously? One file at a time for ~110GB? What kind of ridiculous design decision is that?! Download managers in the 90s when we were all on dialup could handle resuming large downloads, so you'd think that a premium £60 game in 2020 would have a decent system for handling large downloads. I mean, it's not as if internet connections for computers have been available for a good 25-30 years or anything.

Loading games from tape on my Amstrad CPC 464 was a more pleasant experience than trying to install Flight Sim 2020.

 

I invested a nice amount of money on internet cable 250Mb link and a decent PC, but still had, as everyone, problems to download such gargantual amount of data... Even after this experience, I expected a bit more precision in landmarks that a standard city have, better in older versions than is now... For instance, in Rio de Janeiro, we have a bridge Called Rio-Niteroi that is 8.7 Miles long... I wonder, what a US citizen say if Golden Gate Bridge was represented in a straight line, with NO DETAILS at all? Considering the fact that ALL older versions have more accuracy.

 

Oh great and wise sage, please tell us where this option resides.

Not that it makes this any less of a trainwreck, but ... I'd like to change it so that in the future software goes where it belongs.
Since APPARENTLY the way that has been standard since PC-DOS 2.0 has been thrown out without telling anyone.

Mostly, I'd wonder idly why it didn't look like it does in the movies. Maybe have a laugh at California's expense. I certainly wouldn't be upset.

 

This thread has been a very entertaining read. If only for the defending done by obvious troll/fanboi accounts.

I probably won't buy this game before 2021, simply because it seems to have quite a few issues right now. Which is, btw, quite understandable for a game of this complexity. Still, the 'design' of the installer reeks of MS trying to re-invent the wheel once again.... and failing hard once again.

 

@perplekks45 - THAT'S IT! That's why the last version of Windows burned so much... The smug arrogance of all the update presentation/messages.

 

Here's an idea, when a company releases a game put it all on blue-rays and limit the downloading to a minimum. Its the same on xbox, a 3 hour wait for uploads and installs before you get to play a game. it really needs sorting out.

 

I don't have an optical drive and I'm not buying one just to install a game

 

128GB USB 3.0 flash drives cost what, $2.50 wholesale? I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to offload the vast majority of the data on to installation media like that then have the game download only what's new/missing.

 

Guess what they did instead?

They put it on 10 DVDs:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Flight-Simulator-2020-Premium/dp/B08D193VQT

Which makes zero sense as for £145 they could have easily put it on a USB stick (which is an option they are clearly aware of as you can buy Windows 10 on one).