but I can't currently, over on the MSFS forums it's very clear GSX does cause CTDs.
There's only some anecdotal evidence about GSX being the "cause".
I don't know if he's using SU9 or the SU10 beta but, during the SU10 Beta, many release notes clearly stated lots of CTDs which DID happened with SU9 (so, clearly, before GSX came out) are supposed to be fixed. SU10 has been delayed because Microsoft wants to work more on DX12 stability. So, while GSX per-se, cannot crash the sim, it's possible that calling heavily into Simconnect with lots of features that, before all our feedback to Asobo, DIDN'T EVEN WORK, AT ALL, before, so I'm open to the possibility we might awoke some seldomly used call or feature that might still have issue IN THE SIM itself.
An example is the new Attached object feature. It's incredibly convenient to use, because it allows lots of efficiency and modularity, since objects can contain other objects and so on, very easily, and without requiring any call every frame to keep the objects attached to each other, with better performances, less stuttering and with all the attached object always perfectly in sync. We used it a lot, for the baggage cart, the passengers in the bus, all drivers, the rotating lights, the towbars, etc.
This feature was added during SU9 Beta, so it's very recent, and I don't know if there are many add-on that use it. And, during SU9 Beta, it was very unstable, with lots of CTDs when LOD with attached objects switched fast with the camera. Most of those have been fixed in time for the official SU9 but, perhaps something so cutting edge might still have some issues, but how could we renounce to such useful feature ? When you are Deboarding/Boarding passenger and Luggage, using the large Bus, there might be up to 45 people attached to the Bus, 11 bags for each carts, 3 carts per wagon and two loaders, you could have an extra 66 attached luggages, in addition to the other objects like drivers, vehicles, etc. If we didn't used that feature, we would have to send hundreds of calls *per frame* just to keep the things attached to each other, it would have been a stutter mess, so we would had to drastically cut down on the people/baggage density. Instead, the attachments is handled entirely by the simulator, with no commands required on our side, so the passenger Bus can go away full and remain smooth. So, maybe we took a risk using a brand new feature that hasn't been tested much but, without it, the program would be way less attractive and way more clunky. If there's a problem in the SDK that risk a CTD, it WILL eventually fixed, sooner or later, it's not as if we are for the quick money, we plan to improve GSX for the next 10 years.
The keyboard handling is a mess in the MSFS SDK, there are still issues and errors for no reasons, plus the inability to intercept a key from the sim, which makes the interface clunkier than it should be.
And clearly, we have lots of objects with lots of different textures, and while GSX might not be able to crash the sim, it IS possible that some less than stable DX12 handling might be stressed more with so many different objects.
What worries me more, are his comments about the procedural aspect. Something that puzzles me is the complain about how the Pushback operator is too slow, but the suggestion to add extra 10 minutes between the arrival of the crew and the passengers. Sure, it's realistic but, how the "normal" user would react to 10 minutes of nothing ? Most users take less than 10 minutes in TOTAL to complete the whole flight preparations. There must be some compromise between absolute realism and playability.
One must understand the premise how this kind of product evolves. We HAD to redo the graphic first, and it took A LOT OF WORK, we were on the verge of burning out, I didn't had a vacation in more than a year, and haven't stopped working, not even in weekends, and I still haven't gone to sleep since the day BEFORE release ( so I'm approaching 48 hours of being awake, that's why I'm probably babbling ), and during those 2 years MSFS came out, we had to keep pushing SOME scenery at the same time, otherwise we would have gone bankrupt already, if we had to survive with the leftover sales from P3D.
Because users TALK about realism and procedures, but when they SEE the graphic, they open their wallets. If this wasn't true, we would all still using P3D today, because as far the SDK and flexibility is concerned, it's WAY ahead than MSFS. Sure, MSFS has many new features, everything you do looks good, but the SDK, when pure programming is concerned, is only marginally better than FSX, with even few things missing.
Speaking about procedures, we really would appreciate some help, because while we think to be fine when programming, modeling, animating and texturing is concerned, some more expertise in real world procedures is always welcome. Yes, lots of the other services are "the same" compared to P3D, but the Pushback has been changed quite a bit, some of the changes were made even fairly recently, like the fact that now the first thing being done is inserting the bypass pin before doing anything, because somebody pointed out to us it was a big no-no as it was before. So no, not the same.
We know the Towbar should stay separate from the Truck and be attached later, that's why we jumped on the Attach point feature as soon as we could, even it it MIGHT be risky, but the towbar now is already separate, we placed many towbars in random places close to the jetway to populate the airport a bit, but also to show the Towbar is ready to be treated separately, because it's already a separate object, so we'll eventually get there.
