Split Installation and Modules on different SSD's

[Butcher868]

Any Plans for this?
Many more big Maps and not enough space on one SSD.
I think it would help, if we could split DCS on different drives.

Edited May 7, 2024 by Butcher868

[Hiob]

There are makeshift ways around this, but I would agree, that it would be good to have the possibilty in the options to move certain parts of the game (maps) to different locations.

DCS is appoaching the 1 TB mark very fast now. (Afghanistan and half a dozend new models right ahead, on top of the ~600-700 GB it already is)

[scoobie]

Speaking of which... I'm thinking of splitting the DCS installation across 2 physical drives by means of symbolic links, but here's the trouble - my "spare" drive is an HDD, not exactly a speed demon. I'm worried about the potential impact on performance. Which directories should be my first choice for moving onto the slower drive? Terrains, aircraft modules, missions/campaigns, or... what? I don't know how hard DCS is sucking data from particular folders when I'm flying

Does anybody have experience in this?

[Hiob]

9 minutes ago, scoobie said:

Speaking of which... I'm thinking of splitting the DCS installation across 2 physical drives by means of symbolic links, but here's the trouble - my "spare" drive is an HDD, not exactly a speed demon. I'm worried about the potential impact on performance. Which directories should be my first choice for moving onto the slower drive? Terrains, aircraft modules, missions/campaigns, or... what? I don't know how hard DCS is sucking data from particular folders when I'm flying

Does anybody have experience in this?

The terrains need to ne constantly streamed as you are flying. So I certainly wouldn't place them on a slow drive. 

But regardless   - a HDD is a very, very bad idea for DCS. The load times will kill you. 

When you have no other choice, ok. But even a basic sata SSD would be a big upgrade.

[scoobie]

Yeah, I know, early on I had my DCS on the HDD and yes - that was a VERY bad idea
Then I bought an SSD (SATA) and magic happened. But now this SSD (1 TB) is gradually getting full. I mean it's about 65-70% full, but you need some free space on SSD for wear leveling, it's not too smart to stuff it to the brim, that's why I started thinking about moving selected parts of DCS back to the old HDD (in anticipation of new maps and modules).

Thanks for the clue - keep the maps on SSD. Will do!

[Butcher868]

Am 6.5.2024 um 11:03 schrieb Hiob:

There are makeshift ways around this, but I would agree, that it would be good to have the possibilty in the options to move certain parts of the game (maps) to different locations.

DCS is appoaching the 1 TB mark very fast now. (Afghanistan and half a dozend new models right ahead, on top of the ~600-700 GB it already is)

Yeah you can do it with symlinks, but its a (in german) Bastellösung. That means its a cheap craft solution, wich is not offical supportet and that can cause problems.
I think you know what I mean. Other platforms support this. And I think ED could do this quite easy in DCS, its not High End Wish in my opinion. Or not?

Edited May 14, 2024 by Butcher868

[Tippis]

To be fair, if DCS doesn't “support” directory links and — especially — junctions, it is just flat out incompatible with Windows and needs to be removed from the platform until that programming error is fixed.

[Rudel_chw]

44 minutes ago, Tippis said:

if DCS doesn't “support” directory links and — especially — junctions

 

DCS does not need specific support for this, as it is handled at the OS level and transparent to the application. I use junctions all the time and have not noticed any issue with DCS.

[Tippis]

1 hour ago, Rudel_chw said:

 

DCS does not need specific support for this, as it is handled at the OS level and transparent to the application. I use junctions all the time and have not noticed any issue with DCS.

Precisely.

Hence the quotation marks. If anything, you'd have to go through a lot of effort to detect that your standard file system calls are handled through some kind if links, and then deliberately put something to fail the call if this is the case. So it's not really a case of DCS supporting these kinds of neat redirects, but rather that if it didn't do so, it would pretty much be a case of ED wilfully sabotaging their own code. Short of that, it's just inherently supported by virtue of being a functional Windows program.