This morning, I (re-)discovered a problem that may affect everything that is inside the MSFS Community folder;
scenery files,
aircraft model files,
texture files, actually everything that is accompanied by a
*.json file which registrates the content for use in MSFS.
A simple sample for a user of
MSFS Microsoft Store version with
Community folder at the default location:
C:\Users\heini\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\Packages\Community\AI Traffic\SimObjects\Airplanes\AIGAIM_AIG_B757-200WL_PW\texture.ABR-ASL Airlines Ireland_PW PCF White opb ASL Airlines Belgium\AIG_B752_PW_L.PNG.DDS
This path contains 258 characters and thus exceeds the limit of 255 / 256 characters when long paths are not enabled on the Windows 10 system. The path length into the Community folder already has 108, the folder of the paint 53 characters. The paint cannot be registered successfully in the aircraft.cfg. In some other cases, model and or texture folder had content that cannot be recognized by MSFS since the path name length of the *.json file exceded the character limit.
Some
scenery designers /
modelers /
painters use long or even very long file names and or folder names for their contribution to the community. I even found a texture folder containing a comma in the name.
Actually, the problem has been known for a while now, but some people - like me until today - may not be fully aware of it and the consequences.
The point is: long paths were not enabled on my Windows 10 system by default, I had to dive into the registry to enable the use of long paths:
HowToGeek - How to Make Windows 10 Accept File Paths Over 260 CharactersAutoDesk - How to change the default 256 character path limitation (MAX_PATH) in Windows 10Doing it via Group Policy Editor is not available on Windows 10 Home, btw.
I set a recovery point before changing the registry entry and rebooted the computer. After enabling long paths, everything could be installed correctly.
