February 20th, 2020 – Development/Insider Update

[Tuskin38 6,436]

2 minutes ago, marty2756 said:

Did I understand correctly, did they somehow edited manually 37000 airports ? Even with the best tools or pipeline I can't imagine how they can do this.

Well I don't think they mean every airport has the same level detail, I imagine a lot will just have generic buildings placed based on the satellite images.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Tuskin38

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

The ground services improvements are nuts. "Radical overhaul" would be a more appropriate choice of words. This is what I imagined it would feel like in Flight Simulator X only to be somewhat disappointed, but now it's finally here. Airports are alive.

[marty2756 65]

2 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Well I don't think they mean every airport has the same level detail, I imagine a lot will just have generic buildings placed based on the satellite images.

Still, considering only taxiways, removing aircrafts,etc, putting just one hour per airport, you need hundreds of people over years only for this. I must be misunderstanding something..

[Tuskin38 6,436]

1 minute ago, marty2756 said:

Still, considering only taxiways, removing aircrafts,etc, putting just one hour per airport, you need hundreds of people over years only for this. I must be misunderstanding something..

Well they have been working on it for several years.

[Bear242 68]

37K Manually edited airports, wow, this means over time they will keep updating and cover every single airport in the future.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Bear242

[Tuskin38 6,436]

Aw no examples of Canadian airports. Need some Canadian love here haha.

Also I noticed the A320 seems to have a modelled interior. I think? 

[Casualcas 830]

1 minute ago, Bear242 said:

37K Manually edited airports, holy word not allowed, this means over time they will keep updating an cover every single airport in the future.

Along with the SDK scenery tools, it looks like anyone can add more details where you wish, so we'll be helping as well. 

[aleex 551]

I'm going to be the black sheep this time, sorry for those ones who think it's something personal, it isn't.

- I miss the explanation of the difference between photogrammetry airports and "autogen" ones. I mean, both requieres work, but not the same amount of work, or yes, but IDK.

- I miss some more explanation about AI traffic and AI vehicles over the airports (will be set by region, by airport, all the same everywhere?).

- Has they changed the way active runways were handled by FSX? Or we will still see unreal landings?

- 80 airports heavily edited manually. Nice, but I can see a war on the horizon about which airports should be selected (and there we go again to the photogrammetry ones, are those included in those 80 airports or not?).

I mean, It's a HUGE improvement from what we have. This is not about how the sims looks at all. But I miss a longer and deeper discovery video, furthermore after being delayed for a week. 

But hey! MS/AS, if you want to include me on the alpha, I'm glad to discover it by myself! No problem

Edited February 21, 2020 by aleex

[aaronkia 23]

I hope that 787 model in the background is some kind of hint for the future... 😏

[Tuskin38 6,436]

Just now, aleex said:

- 80 airports heavily edited manually. Nice, but I can see a war on the horizon about which airports should be selected (and we go again to the photogrammetry ones, are those included in those 80 airports or not?).

Well they said most popular, maybe they're based of Number of passengers per year or something? Though that wouldn't include tiny mountain airports which they have shown to be custom hm.

[nikita 241]

5 minutes ago, aleex said:

I'm going to be the black sheep this time, sorry for those ones who think it's something personal, it isn't.

- I miss the explanation of the difference between photogrammetry airports and "autogen" ones. I mean, both requieres work, but not the same amount of work, or yes, but IDK.

- I miss some more explanation about AI traffic and AI vehicles over the airports (will be set by region, by airport, all the same everywhere?).

- Has they changed the way active runways were handled by FSX? Or we will still see unreal landings?

- 80 airports heavily edited manually. Nice, but I can see a war on the horizon about which airports should be selected (and we go again to the photogrammetry ones, are those included in those 80 airports or not?).

I mean, It's a HUGE improvement from what we have. This is not about how the sims looks at all. But I miss a longer and deeper discovery video, furthermore after being delayed for a week. 

But hey! MS/AS, if you want to include me on the alpha, I'm glad to discover it by myself! No problem

From my understanding: 80 airports have custom objects, 37k were manually tweaked with standard objects (which sounds insane to me).

 

Edit: if we were to assume a small team of 10 people working purely on this 8 hours a day with an airport being completed in one hour on average, said team would be able to make 37000 airports in 1 year and 2-3 months. Sound plausible now, especially since they have a a team of 100+ people working on the sim (or did they mention 200? I can't recall).

Edited February 21, 2020 by nikita

[BaronKen 144]

Another incredible video with insight into the new sim... fantastic work, I'm just amazed at what I'm seeing.

 

The new DR shows no indication of when there might another wave of testers, which only serves to increase my disappointment at not being included so far. Hope this changes soon, each new update increases my anticipation of wanting to participate that much more...

 

Thanks for the update MS/AS!

[rtodepart 761]

4 minutes ago, nikita said:

From my understanding: 80 airports have custom objects, 37k were manually tweaked with standard objects (which sounds insane to me).

 

Edit: if we were to assume a small team of 10 people working purely on this 8 hours a day with an airport being completed in one hour on average, said team would be able to make 37000 airports in 1 year and 2-3 months. Sound plausible now, especially since they have a a team of 100+ people working on the sim (or did they mention 200? I can't recall).

We also dont know if there was also 3rd party involvement on this that would get things done faster .

[Bear242 68]

Just finished the video

wow

1)They have animated ground crew, OMG. THEY HAVE ANIMATED PEOPLE

2)They got a menu to toggle jetways, request pushback and catering services ( They have replaced GSX addon)

3) Vehicles have headlights at night when moving around the airport

4) WINDSOCK moving according to proper wind direction and speed.

 

I am afraid my body won't get enough sunlight for 3-4 years after sim is released, please place me in a experimentation lab for further studies

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

4 minutes ago, nikita said:

From my understanding: 80 airports have custom objects, 37k were manually tweaked with standard objects (which sounds insane to me).

Edit: if we were to assume a small team of 10 people working purely on this 8 hours a day with an airport being completed in one hour on average, said team would be able to make 37000 airports in 1 year and 2-3 months. Sound plausible now, especially since they have a a team of 100+ people working on the sim (or did they mention 200? I can't recall).

I agree that it sounds quite plausible, considering that a single person at Orbx has manually corrected and upgraded tens of thousands of stock airports over several years, but with older and less efficient tools. Also, stuff like this could have been outsourced to supporting development studios, freeing Asobo for more important tasks.