v0.5.4.1 MSFS Widget and UI Improvements

[ResetXPDR]

MSFS Compatibility: 1.39.12.0, 1.8.16.0, 1.9.12.0.
MSFS Widget Version: 1.2.1

Release notes for 0.5.4.1

This major release introduces the new MSFS In-Game Toolbar Widget and local webserver, adds a native Dark Mode theme with title bar and window-handling enhancements, delivers a comprehensive UI layout and text scaling redesign for seamless high-DPI and accessibility scaling, expands RTSS Dynamic Frame Generation support with post-FG targeting, introduces intelligent deferred auto-updating to prevent in-flight update interruptions, adds custom Community folder and Addons Linker management to the installer, and delivers broad stability, SimConnect, and diagnostic improvements.

Please review the updated readme here, which provides a detailed description of the app, installation, features and settings, before asking any questions or raising any issues about the app.

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MSFS In-Game Widget & Local Webserver

• MSFS In-Game Toolbar Widget (v1.2.1):
  • Added an in-game toolbar widget providing real-time access to connection status, app status, live sim telemetry, active flight profile selection, in-session reset controls, and a Dark Mode toggle directly inside the simulator.
  • Features two-way live synchronization with the desktop app for flight profile switching, in-session resets, theme palette matching, and title bar states.
  • Added the ability to hide or restore the in-game widget title bar by double-clicking anywhere on the widget window or header, displaying the application title and active version numbers alongside the close button when collapsed.
  • Fluid, responsive UI scaling that dynamically adapts text, spacing, and controls as the in-game panel is resized.
  • Added a Widget connection status indicator to the desktop Connection Status panel (green when active, red when closed), dynamically shown only when the widget is installed for the active simulator.
  • Added a one-time onboarding prompt on startup after updating to v0.5.4.0, introducing the new in-game widget and offering to automatically launch the installer to deploy it to the Community folder.
• Embedded Local Webserver:
  • Integrated a lightweight, reliable local webserver running on port 54321 while AutoFPS is active, serving the live telemetry widget to any local web browser or networked device at http://localhost:54321/.

Dark Mode & Window Customisation

• Added a Dark Mode option to the app settings, toggleable via the checkbox in the General settings panel.
• Added the ability to hide or show the main app window title bar via right-click context menu or by double-clicking the title bar.
• Added whole-window dragging, allowing you to left-click and drag the app window from anywhere on its body, not just the title bar.
• Refined app exit confirmation so the prompt is only shown when clicking the window close [X] button, streamlining intentional exits via the app window context menu, Taskbar "Close window", System Tray, or Alt + F4 without prompting.
• Added new right-click context menu options:
  • Minimize Window: Minimises the application window to the taskbar or tray.
  • Exit Immediately: Closes the application without requiring confirmation dialogs.
  • Close to Tray: Sends the app window to the system tray. Only shown if the "Close to Tray" option was chosen during installation.
  • Hide/Show Title Bar: Toggles title bar visibility.
• Refined UI layout by placing Dark Mode on the General panel alongside On top, moving Log+ to the second row beside Expert, and shortening "Expert Options" to "Expert" for improved panel balance.
• Removed dotted focus outline on checkboxes when clicked for a cleaner visual appearance in Dark Mode.

UI Layout & Windows Text Scaling Redesign

• Redesigned the application window layout to dynamically adapt to Windows text scaling and custom DPI settings, resolving panel overlapping and ensuring group box borders close cleanly under all scaling configurations.
• Replaced fixed-width UI elements with elastic minimum-width controls, allowing text boxes and buttons (such as Reset and Spike Record) to automatically adjust for larger font sizes without text truncation.
• Standardised outer window frame margins to provide balanced, symmetrical spacing around all group boxes across all view modes (Minimal, Medium, and Full).
• Improved status line text sizing so it scales proportionally with Windows text settings and evaluates individual line lengths accurately for multi-line status messages, preventing premature font shrinking.

RTSS Dynamic Frame Generation & Performance Enhancements

• Removed the restriction preventing RTSS from being used as the FPS source for Dynamic FG, allowing the Dynamic FG Target FPS to be set as a post-FG value.
• Added real-time calculation and status-line display of the active frame generation multiplier when Dynamic FG is active with RTSS as the FPS source.
• Disabled TLOD automation when Dynamic FG is enabled and RTSS is the FPS source, as base (pre-FG) frametimes cannot be reliably determined in this specific configuration.
• Refined real frame-time detection using log-transformed clustering to prevent severe freeze spikes from corrupting frame generation detection and causing false fallbacks.
• Improved periodic spike detection by isolating true frame times from frame generation artifacts and adding stricter early-exit logic (<5s elapsed and <90% buffer fullness).
• Capped auto-derived dynamic FG multipliers to the 1×–6× range for both manual and auto FG modes.

Auto-Update System

• Smart Deferred Auto-Updates:
  • When an update contains an in-game widget update and MSFS is currently running, AutoFPS automatically defers the installation until MSFS has closed, preventing flight interruptions and file-lock errors.
  • Added a live status message indicator showing when an update is deferred and waiting for MSFS to exit.
  • Added an exit confirmation advisory when manually closing AutoFPS while a deferred update is waiting for MSFS to close, with the option to keep AutoFPS running.
  • Added an advisory prompt when auto-exiting after a flight session if a deferred update is pending, advising to run AutoFPS once with MSFS closed to complete the update.
  • Integrated deferred update execution across all exit paths, including simulator shutdown, system tray exit, and auto-exit after flight sessions.
  • Added guided prompts for mandatory and compatibility updates that include widget changes, advising that MSFS must be closed before proceeding or allowing the update to be cancelled.
  • Maintained immediate, seamless auto-updates for app-only releases that do not require an in-game widget update.
• Added a startup status message indicating when the app has just auto-updated, which automatically clears once the first flight session starts.
• Update notification links for test versions now navigate directly to the specific release page.
• Added support for auto-updating directly from a release version to experimental builds when the Exp+ update channel is selected.

Installer & Community Folder Management

• Custom Community Folder Support:
  • Added dedicated UI buttons allowing users to select custom Community folder locations for MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 (ideal for Addons Linker or custom drive setups).
  • Added right-click shortcut on the Community folder buttons to quickly reset paths back to auto-detected simulator defaults, complete with confirmation dialogs and dynamic [Default] / [Custom] tooltip indicators.
  • Added symbolic link detection in the default Community folder during in-game widget and MobiFlight WASM installations, safely removing leftover physical folders when using a custom location while preserving Addons Linker links.
  • The installer now automatically remembers and logs custom Community folder paths across all subsequent updates.
  • Updated both the MobiFlight WASM module and In-Game Widget installation routines to deploy directly to the chosen custom Community folder paths.
• Installer Improvements:
  • Moved the simulator running check to the very start of the installation process to prevent partial/half-updated installations.
  • Redesigned installer options layout into a balanced two-column view with a horizontal Auto-Start selection.
  • The installer now automatically hides the options panel after clicking Install/Update to prevent accidental setting changes while the installation is underway.
  • Added automatic closing of open Release Notes Notepad windows before updating to release file locks on the application directory.
  • Added creation of an installation log file (Install.log) in the app root directory recording all installer actions, detected simulators, selected options, active command-line arguments, and privilege status.
  • Clarified administrator privilege advisory dialogs to explain inherited elevation and added privilege status reporting to the install log.
  • Ensured that downgrading AutoFPS will always install the exact matching, compatible in-game widget version.

General Improvements & Fixes

• Updated bundled SimConnect libraries to the latest MSFS 2024 SDK version (v1.7.4), confirmed working seamlessly across both MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024.
• Added startup verification of installed in-game widget versions, logging detected versions and alerting the user if an outdated widget is found in the Community folder.
• Fixed an issue where the initial TLOD range sometimes displayed incorrectly on startup before the active range was detected.
• Fixed an issue where TLOD would not reduce in accordance with the altitude schedule during descent when VRAM+ Hold was active.
• Corrected Night÷2 checkbox tooltip to clarify that it halves TLOD Max at night without disabling TLOD Extra.
• Disabled redundant failure logging for individual CPU core performance counters when global logging is sufficient.
• Removed duplicate logging of periodic spike statistics.

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This discussion was created from the release v0.5.4.0 MSFS Widget and UI Improvements.

[jerryyyyy]

For the record here is a flight with 5.4. Happily I have received the insert for my R eye in the Q3. This was adjusted for near vision in my cataract surgery but the Q3 works with far vision. Anyway now all is crisp. Do not see a reason to consider Crystal Light.

MSFS_AutoFPS20260921.log

[WebMaximus]

Great to have the widget in the in-game panel but I don't see it updating the sim values unless I first open the desktop app to show the values. It seems to me the widget won't update the values by itself but instead show you what the values were last time you opened the desktop app.

Isn't the widget supposed to update the values on its own or maybe I'm missing something?

[ResetXPDR]

@WebMaximus , I have tested this out on both my systems now and I am very confident that the widget not updating fix and new context menu items both work, so unless I hear back from you shortly, I will probably go ahead and formally release this as a 0.5.4.1 hotfix version so that less users will have to update to it than if I leave it any longer.

[ResetXPDR]

FYI, v0.5.4.1 has now been formally released, which should resolve your reported issue. Thanks for letting me know about it!

[WebMaximus]

Just to confirm also on my side, it's now working like a charm 🙂

Thanks for addressing it so quickly!

[jerryyyyy]

Hi,
Did not think I was having any issues but took a glance at the log after a long helicopter flight and saw spikes. I did not notice anything operationally. But a FYI.
JY

MSFS_AutoFPS20260922.log

[ResetXPDR]

Hi, Did not think I was having any issues but took a glance at the log after a long helicopter flight and saw spikes. I did not notice anything operationally. But a FYI. JY

MSFS_AutoFPS20260922.log

It was only a few single spikes and would not have been really noticeable, so the app took no action, which is correct.

[WebMaximus]

One thing I noticed today was how the widget reported both MSFS, SimConnect and Session as not connected. Even when MSFS was up and running with a flight loaded.

When I checked the AutoFPS app in the System Tray, it looked good and everything was reported as connected as expected except for the widget. When I opened the widget, that part switched to green as well, reported as connected and the widget was now showing everything as connected as well as the values for FPS etc.

So, not sure if this was a one-time-only type of issue because can't recall seeing it before but looks like I had to open the app from the System Tray once to have the widget wake up and realize it was connected and to start showing data.

[ResetXPDR]

I haven't put the latest version up for normal download yet. You can get it in this thread if you want but it only affects those using close to system tray, which I don't think you do, so no urgency for you to update to this one

[jerryyyyy]

I got that that was the issue and I tried it and it seems to work OK moving back and forth to the system tray, etc...

[ResetXPDR]

Sorry, I didn't see that you had already updated as I was out and about and could not easily read attachments.

This thing to check with this new version is when you start AutoFPS with it already minimised to the system tray from the last time you ran it, the widget should work without having make the app visible first.

[WebMaximus]

Success 👍

This is what I see now when first opening the widget right after loading a flight and without having first restored the AutoFPS window minimized to the System Tray.

Great work and have an even greater weekend!

[ResetXPDR]

Excellent! I'm glad it was such an easy fix.

[jerryyyyy]

Also works for me. Here is a long flight followed by a runway test like the above. Indeed have a good weekend.

MSFS_AutoFPS20260925.log

[ResetXPDR]

Thanks @WebMaximus and @jerryyyyy for the confirmation that 0.5.4.2-RC1 is working as it should with the sys tray minimised on startup. I have gone ahead and released it as the same RC version number on github, meaning you two don't have to update to it, for others to access if desired.

FYI, I am considering some minor enhancements to the widget, such as symbols currently excluded from the TLOD/OLOD data (eg up/down, locked, upper/lower limit) which I had to exclude from initial release because the available widget fonts could not draw those symbols. Also, MAYBE a hotkey toggle of the window too if I can work out how to do it and it can be disabled by default so as not to potentially conflict with other MSFS hotkeys.

If I do this, the test version will roll from 0.5.4.2-RC to 0.5.5.0-test ie. 0.5.4.2 will skip the formal release process because, as mentioned before, I do not want to have another app update so soon for the many who are not impacted by the sys tray issue anyway. The auto-updater can handle such an unusual version jump, so you will not be left stranded.

[WebMaximus]

Sounds like a good plan and no pressure, only if/when you can.

Just having the widget is already awesome!

[ResetXPDR]

@WebMaximus , as requested. Please give it a go and let me know how you go in that new discussion thread for the new test version.

[WebMaximus]

@WebMaximus , as requested. Please give it a go and let me know how you go in that discussion thread.

That's awesome, will give it a try later today!

[WebMaximus]

Just tried it out and works like a charm :-)

Thanks so much for adding this, makes quickly checking AutoFPS when in VR so easy.

Brilliant!!

[ResetXPDR]

I am glad you like it and that it works to your liking. Enjoy!

[jerryyyyy]

Hi,
For some reason I am not seeing the line of CPU data. I have MSI etc running. Am I missing something obvious?
Cheers,
JY

[ResetXPDR]

The log will say why. In any case, with Windows being Windows, sometimes data is just not available until the next boot.

[jerryyyyy]

Well rebooted and same thing. I see nothing obvious in the log. W11 has gone to a new version maybe?

MSFS_AutoFPS20260930.log

[ResetXPDR]

It's because Log+is unchecked. Recheck it and your CPU data will be back.

[jerryyyyy]

Thanks, Duhhhh.

I think when we were working the CPU concept we decided it was really that Top2 Cores that were taking the bulk of the CPU load, I recall. I still eyeball these things and the VR at the high settings does use up both CPU and GPU. It does vary enormously with the content visualzed.