Apart from VFS locking that limits users from accessing any texture files at all, we are presented with a new limitation: monolithic aircraft compiled in FS24 are incompatible with liveries compiled externally from the aircraft SimObject package.
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FS20 aircraft converted to FS24 (eg. Recompiled for FS24): liveries created for FS20 are completely incompatible due to different texture formats (DDS vs the new KTX2). Alrcraft loads fully pink (texture missing). All liveries need to be recompiled for FS24, which is fine and understandable, except….
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Liveries compiled in FS24 (eg. KTX2 instead of DDS) for monolithic FS24 aircraft do not work!:
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Using FS20 Livery sample, modify fallbacks for specific FS24 aircraft, add textures in PNG and compile with FS24: error on compilation (Simobject is missing aircraft.cfg despite having one)
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Add liveries to aircraft package, compile, and extract the compiled liveries to create a new package, reconstructing the layout.json for the liveries only: package compiles correctly, but loading into MSFS Fails - all liveries included in aircraft base package are gone from fs24. New liveries (external pack) are now selectable, but completely unusable due to missing textures (pink materials)
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Create packs fully manually by manually generating KTX2 files and generating layout.json (technique used by most freeware devs): same issues as #2
This issue essentially breaks ALL fs20 aircraft going through conversion to FS24, and having a major effect in the freeware community. Most of these aircraft will not be converted to modular due to the amount of work required.
We need proper “native FS24 monolithic” support in FS24 or otherwise the vast majority of 3rd party content won’t be fully supported!