I can see in the Development Roadmap that it has an SDK Update entry in Mid. April. Does that mean the SDK won't be availabe to developers until after at least mid April?

Asobo is developing a whole new sim and creates the tools it needs along the way. It would make sense that the SDK be ready when the sim is almost done. Then they have to package it. 

I just expected it to be released to developers way before release of the sim, so they have a chance to start converting or developing addons to be ready at the time of release.

Mid April will be way before the release of the sim. No one seriously thinks this will be released this side of Christmas, not if they know anything about big software development.

35 minutes ago, Bottle said:

Mid April will be way before the release of the sim. No one seriously thinks this will be released this side of Christmas, not if they know anything about big software development.

Actually, most have said this year.  That's why people keep calling it 2020

 

3 hours ago, jlund said:

I can see in the Development Roadmap that it has an SDK Update entry in Mid. April. Does that mean the SDK won't be availabe to developers until after at least mid April?

This was discussed before. I am almost certain now freeware developers like me will have access to the SDK when the simulator is released or during Beta if lucky...

The SDK now is being accessed by commercial addon groups MS call partners.

Edited March 5, 20206 yr by Claviateur

59 minutes ago, Claviateur said:

The SDK now is being accessed by commercial addon groups MS call partners.

I've been saying this all along.  A preliminary form of the SDK had to exist before anything was created for the sim.  It was the documentation they needed to make the sim.  It's actually part of the design documentation.  There is good reason to believe some outside developers have had access to that preliminary SDK for quite some time.

It would not surprise me if the first third party offerings were available at the same time or shortly after official release of MSFS.

Hook

1 hour ago, LHookins said:

I've been saying this all along.  A preliminary form of the SDK had to exist before anything was created for the sim.  It was the documentation they needed to make the sim.  It's actually part of the design documentation.  There is good reason to believe some outside developers have had access to that preliminary SDK for quite some time.

It would not surprise me if the first third party offerings were available at the same time or shortly after official release of MSFS.

Hook

Yes for sure, this is a natural and logical business mutual interest between MS and commercial developers... Having extra commercial content available shortly after the sim is out make the fans of a specific commercial addon or addon group adopt the new simulator easier... 

Who knows, maybe MSFS will feature aircraft and scenery created by these commercial groups as part of the license or available with a different license price etc.

But hopefully people who devoted long hours developing free content and extending the life of previous MSFS versions, since years now, will one day be able to create and  share their work with the users who can't afford to pay extra money on addons...

3 hours ago, Claviateur said:

But hopefully people who devoted long hours developing free content and extending the life of previous MSFS versions, since years now, will one day be able to create and  share their work with the users who can't afford to pay extra money on addons...

Considering the effort we experienced till now, I'd be surprised if not. That's the way to make the sim popular. Fill it with content! No matter if it's your own your someone elses. It will draw people towards MSFS and make them spend more money ingame. Classic win-win.

Edited March 5, 20206 yr by tweekz

On 3/5/2020 at 5:01 PM, Claviateur said:

 share their work with the users who can't afford to pay extra money on addons...

It is not only a question of money.

There are many airfields, buildings, POI, etc. which will not be there or will need to be corrected. I doubt that all the dirt strips in the world will be in the new sim or all the quaint airport terminals or the steeple of my village etc.  That there won’t be trees at the wrong places/wrong height on final and so on on and so forth. The user base for them might be small for a market but is here.

Let me add that designing stuff has been an integral part of simming for a long time now. Some have made a business of it and I am glad they have. Many more like me had just fun doodling stuff and I firmly want to continue. This is an integral part of simming.

We need tools and not tools which requires a Ph.D. in C++. Asobo may do a mistake in working with commercial devs only. We need the IS3, the ADE, the SbuilderX of the new age in an user friendly and integrated toolset. I am even ready to pay extra for a polished software of that kind.

 

On 3/7/2020 at 8:52 AM, domkle said:

We need the IS3, the ADE, the SbuilderX of the new age in an user friendly and integrated toolset. I am even ready to pay extra for a polished software of that kind.

 

+1

I expect and advanced and fluid SDK.