JULY 9TH, 2020 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

[Arwen 289]

14 minutes ago, Mengy said:

See, THIS is the kind of video I've been wanting to see from Microsoft for the past few months!!!!!  Do they just hate bush flying?  Show us some bush flying already!!!!  😁

I was planning to submit my video to the official forums, but it is wayyyy too large. So I made a much shorter video of just a landing on a remote dirt strip in the Idaho mountains this morning, but it is still way to big. [We are restricted to a very small file size]; perhaps I can find a video compression tool and try again, I'm just afraid that the quallity will be pretty bad compared to my 1440x2560 captured video.  I did submit screenshots of this flight (and other bush flying ones), but I never seem to win the screeshot lottery.

[Wewk584 137]

I appreciate all the winks also.. I think asobo/ms knew 100% compliance  was a big ask. They just dont want video/screen shots out there  that they dont get approval on.... or just total mouth diarrhea causing other people to form opinions too early .  And I'm sure they read more than just ChaoticBeauty 's posts. I think if the 'winking' got too loud and loose they might <cough> and point at the NDA if they thought they had too. 

 

[Wewk584 137]

3 hours ago, Arwen said:

I was planning to submit my video to the official forums, but it is wayyyy too large. So I made a much shorter video of just a landing on a remote dirt strip in the Idaho mountains this morning, but it is still way to big. [We are restricted to a very small file size]; perhaps I can find a video compression tool and try again, I'm just afraid that the quallity will be pretty bad compared to my 1440x2560 captured video.  I did submit screenshots of this flight (and other bush flying ones), but I never seem to win the screeshot lottery.

It would be great if the video makes it in next week!

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

4 hours ago, Arwen said:

I was planning to submit my video to the official forums, but it is wayyyy too large. So I made a much shorter video of just a landing on a remote dirt strip in the Idaho mountains this morning, but it is still way to big. [We are restricted to a very small file size]; perhaps I can find a video compression tool and try again, I'm just afraid that the quallity will be pretty bad compared to my 1440x2560 captured video.  I did submit screenshots of this flight (and other bush flying ones), but I never seem to win the screeshot lottery.

I recommend using an application like StaxRip or HandBrake to transcode the video. How long is it? 2Mbps should give you 20 seconds of video while staying within the 5MB limit. Use x264 (I'm not sure if their video player can support a newer codec), two-pass encoding (for a strict file size), 8-bit colour depth (again for compatibility), and I would recommend the Slow preset with a maximum of 720p resolution. Also make sure to heavily compress or remove the audio file (I guess sound isn't as important in this case) to give the video more headroom.

Edited July 12, 2020 by ChaoticBeauty

[Mengy 814]

6 hours ago, Arwen said:

I was planning to submit my video to the official forums, but it is wayyyy too large. So I made a much shorter video of just a landing on a remote dirt strip in the Idaho mountains this morning, but it is still way to big. [We are restricted to a very small file size]; perhaps I can find a video compression tool and try again, I'm just afraid that the quallity will be pretty bad compared to my 1440x2560 captured video.  I did submit screenshots of this flight (and other bush flying ones), but I never seem to win the screeshot lottery.

Man, just imagine the flight sim media we will be creating and enjoying after release.  It's going to be an incredible thing of beauty.

[Arwen 289]

6 hours ago, Wewk584 said:

It would be great if the video makes it in next week!

I'm going to submit what I can for a video, but Abslo has to select it.

6 hours ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

I recommend using an application like StaxRip or HandBrake to transcode the video. How long is it? 2Mbps should give you 20 seconds of video while staying within the 5MB limit. Use x264 (I'm not sure if their video player can support a newer codec), two-pass encoding (for a strict file size), 8-bit colour depth (again for compatibility), and I would recommend the Slow preset with a maximum of 720p resolution. Also make sure to heavily compress or remove the audio file (I guess sound isn't as important in this case) to give the video more headroom.

I downloaded Handbrake an will give it a go in a day or so.

[canadiantree 233]

3 hours ago, Arwen said:

I'm going to submit what I can for a video, but Abslo has to select it.

I downloaded Handbrake an will give it a go in a day or so.

Arwen, what is the reason for restricting file size so much? It's just mind boggling to me in 2020, even the photos could be at least at a resolution of 1440p... If you're going to promote an upcoming product, whty not give it all you've got...

[Dominique_K 10,149]

1 hour ago, canadiantree said:

Arwen, what is the reason for restricting file size so much? It's just mind boggling to me in 2020, even the photos could be at least at a resolution of 1440p... If you're going to promote an upcoming product, whty not give it all you've got...

They have had a superb grand plan for their PR but the amateurish way they manage the nuts and bolts never ceases to amaze me (and worries me)...  It took months for them to use YouTube, remember these extra short clips which took an eternity to download early on,  and still they don't make the most of it for the alpha testers. Same for Twitter and Instagram. The Discord server was set up by users as I understand.

 

[pmb 5,137]

22 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

The Discord server was set up by users as I understand.

The Discord server is an official one, as stated here

https://discord.com/channels/646017020412035082/672957753173475358

There are a number of official MS representatives around (like FS Captain Joe who has access to the tester database to check permissions for the closed areas, or Jayne Ivana who's an official MS community manager, and more).

On the other hand, I agree there are a numer of nasty problems. One are those access issues to the Insider login for half of a year now, for some. Add the official open fora coming "Soon" for more than a year now. 

Kind regards, Michael

[Dominique_K 10,149]

2 minutes ago, pmb said:

The Discord server is an official one, as stated here

https://discord.com/channels/646017020412035082/672957753173475358

There are a number of official MS representatives around (like FS Captain Joe who has access to the tester database to check permissions for the closed areas, or Jayne Ivana who's an official MS community manager, and more).

On the other hand, I agree there are a numer of nasty problems. One are those access issues to the Insider login for half of a year now, for some. Add the official open fora coming "Soon" for more than a year now. 

Kind regards, Michael

I am not a Discord user but from what I understand from the June 30th update is that the server was set up first by alpha users and branded as MS official afterwards.  

Punda, once a casual Alpha member but now full on moderator, took it upon himself several months ago to build a community for Microsoft Flight Simulator on Discord. He envisioned it as a great place for simmers to learn and fly together and invited the community to join. Punda grew it from the ground up, until it was a vibrant corner of the internet for flight simmers of all backgrounds to unite. His passion led to what is now the Official Microsoft Flight Simulator Discord server!

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

2 hours ago, canadiantree said:

Arwen, what is the reason for restricting file size so much? It's just mind boggling to me in 2020, even the photos could be at least at a resolution of 1440p... If you're going to promote an upcoming product, whty not give it all you've got...

The official forum has a file size limit on uploads, as explained by HiFlyer in another thread. Based on recent videos from the development updates, I believe the limit is 5MB.

[Kopteeni 819]

8 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

The official forum has a file size limit on uploads, as explained by HiFlyer in another thread. Based on recent videos from the development updates, I believe the limit is 5MB.

Sounds like an issue a 15 year old pc enthusiast who´s excited to have just set up his first internet forum would have.

[pmb 5,137]

41 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

I am not a Discord user but from what I understand from the June 30th update is that the server was set up first by alpha users and branded as MS official afterwards.  

Yes, this is correct. Anyway, with a lot of noise about pizza and stuff it's not a substitute for official fora. 

Kind regards, Michael

[Dominique_K 10,149]

12 minutes ago, pmb said:

  a lot of noise about pizza and stuff  

Why am I not surprised ?   But, I should maybe go there, not for FS20 mind you, but I am right now on Amazon selecting a pizza oven stone, they may help 😄 ! 

 

[ap1 16]

It’s looking pretty good in my opinion.  The team appears to be fixing many bugs which is very good.  My main question is will we have the B737 or even the B737 max?  I think this has been answered before and my understanding is that PMDG is developing a 737 for FS2020.  As far as I can tell there won’t be a default 737 but obliviously there will be a default A320 neo which is also a good aircraft.  It also looks like the A320 will be pretty realistic for default with the FMS including the LNAV and VNAV functions.  And of course SIDS and STARS are included with updated NavData for free I think.