September 24th, 2020 - Development Update

[tweekz 2,165]

1 hour ago, abrams_tank said:

Hmm, am I reading this same chart differently?  I don't see anything on this chart that says "patch."  May I ask how you came to the conclusion that there are 2 patches a month?

From my understanding, "Update" for Microsoft/Asobo's terminology for MSFS means an update of their progress.  There is a green "Update 2 (9/15)" for September 10th. But as we know, no patch was released on September 10th.  So according to this chart, the green "Update" can't be a patch.

They are listed together with blog updates. But each green update is referenced with the corresponding patch date in brackets -> 9/1, 9/15, 9/29. Although the 1st and 15th are one day off, but I guess it's close enough. Maybe some internal thing.

So we can assign a patch to each green update.

Also, updates mean patches in the feedback snapshot ("fixed in update 3 / Japan", "improved in update 2").

Update 3 is accompanied by "World Update I: Japan / Update 3".

Launch is green as well.

So it seems those updates reference (planned) releases.

Edited September 25, 2020 by tweekz

[Will Fly For Cheese 1,710]

1 hour ago, crimplene said:

As I said: This is not how it works. You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but very clearly you have no clue how software development works. The scenery team most likely have not the skills to work on AP bugs or similar stuff. They work on scenery and are experts in this field. Imagine you pull the designers in a car factory into fuel injection problems. Would that help? Of course not. So: Of course there can be scenery updates. Updating the scenery has no impact on how long it needs to fix other bugs.

I really prefer scenery updates NOW, while the other team is working hard on fixing AP or G1000 bugs.

Thank you for entitling me to my opinion. That is most gracious of you. I've worked in software dev for over fifteen years and I know a good deal about delegating people/ teams to task-in-hand, roll-out management...on-going scrutiny. . .oh, forget it. I couldn't be bothered.

[Paraffin 2,197]

6 hours ago, Moria15 said:

DX12 is NOT a panacea and in most cases will introduce a crippling series of bugs during introduction.

This is why they should (IMO) be releasing a public opt-in Beta version for things like DX12 testing, alongside the current official version. Like X-Plane does, and like many games do through the Steam properties menu.

It avoids unexpected problems in the official release, and it's easy to revert to the current official release if something breaks in the Beta. When Laminar converted XP11 from OpenGL to Vulkan/Metal for the graphics API, they had a public opt-in Beta for many months to gather feedback from both users and 3rd party plugin developers, before finally releasing the official version.

If Asobo continues this process of bi-monthly (?) patches in the official release version of MSFS, using the entire user base to "test" the sim, it could be a disaster rolling out something like DX12. 

 

5 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

DX12 will be great for people with 3090. 3080 20GB etc . DX12 will be a nightmare for anyone with less than 20GB VRAM......

Why would that be the case? I play AAA games that run in DX12 with just 6 GB VRAM on my GTX 1660 Ti card, and they run just fine in 1920x1200 resolution.

Are you referring to people trying to run MSFS on 4k monitors, or would the extra VRAM be due to add-ons being inefficient in GPU memory use?

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Paraffin

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

6 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

and they run just fine in 1920x1200 resolution.

Are you referring to people trying to run MSFS on 4k monitors, or would the extra VRAM be due to add-ons being inefficient in GPU memory use?

 

I'm talking about people running at 2k and especially 4k, of which there will be more and more of...

[Tinribs 52]

8 hours ago, Tinribs said:

I would think with the G2 releasing next month. VR might be in Octobers update. 

Spoke to soon! Maybe VR end of November? Or even end of December.

 

Following is straight from the horses mouth (HP).

We are excited to see the positive reaction and strong demand for the HP Reverb G2 virtual reality headset, created in collaboration with industry leaders Valve and Microsoft. The HP Reverb G2 is the world’s highest resolution VR headset among major vendors¹, delivering cutting-edge optics, inside-out tracking, spatial 3D audio, natural gestures, long-wearing comfort, and plug and play support for Windows Mixed Reality and SteamVR. This year, we have seen that the time is now for VR and the HP Reverb G2 brings high-quality VR with more immersion for gamers, interactive experiences for creators, increased engagement for collaboration, and higher retention rates for education and training.

The HP VR team is eager to get the Reverb G2 into the hands and onto the heads of customers who pre-ordered a device. We’ve been thrilled to see the community’s excitement and enthusiasm for the headset. To date, 20+ countries around the world have participated in pre-orders and we are appreciative of our Channel Partners who helped make pre-orders possible for so many customers. The excitement generated by journalists and content creators who previewed the HP Reverb G2 via early access only makes us more excited to bring it to the masses.  

 

Now, the news many of you have been anticipating:

• Customers who have already pre-ordered the HP Reverb can expect to receive their shipments this fall, starting in early November 2020. Pre-orders are expected to be prioritized for the time/date the order was made to our channel partners.
• Demand has been high so all pre-orders made starting today, September 24 will start arriving to customers from channel partners in early December.   

 

After all the testing in our labs and by our VR team at home, these are some of the elements we are most excited about you trying out:

• 2160x2160 per eye panel resolution
• Render resolution and graphics powered by PC GPUs
• Superb Valve optics
• Industry leading audio designed by Valve
• Enhanced ergonomics
• Upcoming VR support for Microsoft Flight Simulator

 

A few updates we have made to the product since we first announced Reverb G2:

• We have updated the lenses to reduce the Fresnel ring reflections and improve clarity.
• The menu button on the controllers is now domed so you can distinguish between the Windows and Menu buttons by touch.
• In addition to the full size to mini display port adapter, a USB-C® to USB-A adapter will be included in every box.
• Our Engineers found an opportunity to lower persistence without lowering brightness and this required higher power draw, so the HP Reverb G2 will require the adapter to be plugged into the wall.  

 

For consumer and commercial customers who are interested in learning more or pre-ordering the Reverb G2, we encourage you to check out HP.com/Reverb or SteamVR. To learn more about how HP is innovating for enterprises and developers, please join us at the VR/AR Global Summit on September 30, 2020. We are excited to have the HP Reverb G2 in your hands and to hear about your virtual reality experiences and adventures.

[kaosfere 3,115]

9 hours ago, crimplene said:

This is not how it works. The scenery team is not programming the autopilot or the G1000.

THIS.   Thank you.   Companies can do multiple things at once, especially when it comes to different areas requiring high skill.  The amount of people who think you can just move workloads around on demand on technical teams always bemuses me.    It's like saying, "This hospital could do more brain surgeries it they took all the heart surgeons and made them do brain surgery."   Sure, you might get some outcome, and probably a better one than if you asked a random dope off the street to do it.  But I wouldn't want to trust my brain to a heart surgeon.  Or my heart to a brain surgeon.

Edited September 25, 2020 by kaosfere

[kaosfere 3,115]

7 hours ago, Will Fly For Cheese said:

Everyone should be on the case with the faults.

OK, cool.  So I'll sign you up for brain surgery by heart surgeon.  You're too impatient to wait for the expert you need to do the job right, but I'm sure it'll all work out fine in the end.  A surgeon is a surgeon, right?

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

14 minutes ago, Tinribs said:

2160x2160 per eye panel resolution

Gotta be 3090 territory surely....

[abrams_tank 7,424]

1 hour ago, tweekz said:

They are listed together with blog updates. But each green update is referenced with the corresponding patch date in brackets -> 9/1, 9/15, 9/29. Although the 1st and 15th are one day off, but I guess it's close enough. Maybe some internal thing.

So we can assign a patch to each green update.

Also, updates mean patches in the feedback snapshot ("fixed in update 3 / Japan", "improved in update 2").

Update 3 is accompanied by "World Update I: Japan / Update 3".

Launch is green as well.

So it seems those updates reference (planned) releases.

I think you're right.  "Update 2 (9/15)" is off by one day but that should be patch 1.8.3.0.  If we account for the green "Update" being 1 day off, then ithe green "Update" lines up with the first and second patch release, plus the upcoming Japan patch release.

So that chart from Asobo is implying there will be 2 patches every month, for the next several months.

Edited September 25, 2020 by abrams_tank

[Tom_L 533]

Does anybody remember the September 3th development update? I wonder how MS/ASOBO are keeping track of the issues to fix: Whereas the issue "A320 swaying left and right" has made it into the Top-Bugs list on Sept. 24th. with 200 votes and was in the list on Sept 3rd as well, the issue "Turboprop engine logic issues" was in the Sept. 3rd. Top-Bugs list and isn't mentioned any more, despite having 329 votes as I'm writing this. Maybe the Turboprop issue is solved? I am more than curious for next week!

[tweekz 2,165]

6 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

So that chart from Asobo is implying there will be 2 patches every month, for the next several months.

Yeah, that's how I would interprete that.

A green update refers to a patch. Although it's not bound to that exact date of the blog update. It's around that time frame.

[Tinribs 52]

41 minutes ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Gotta be 3090 territory surely....

Well. All this was on the drawing board well before the 30xxx series was invented.

[ronh99 14]

And this makes their communication even more confusing.

patches and updates and world update, meaningful updates, simulation Updates and rollouts ....

 

"As we’ve always said, our launch in August was just the beginning. Our goal is to provide you with a meaningful update to the sim every month. In addition to increasing the visual detail of the planet with future World Updates, we also plan to add Simulation Updates every 2-3 months that will further enhance the overall sim experience. On top of that, we are developing some exciting paid DLC that we plan to rollout over the coming months and years, and we will share more information in the future. "

so patches every 2-3 months not bi monthly?  Or is a simulation update a content update.  What the heck is a meaningful update?

Edited September 25, 2020 by ronh99

[sanh 823]

51 minutes ago, ronh99 said:

 

so patches every 2-3 months not bi monthly?  Or is a simulation update a content update.  What the heck is a meaningful update?

I think when they say a meaningful update every month they mean it will be one of World Update or Major Sim updates. But each of these update types will be spaced out 2-3 months apart. So it won't be world update in month 1 and world update in month 2. I think they will end up doing 2 updates per month. One will be the meaningful update i mention above and the other a patch to fix bugs or paid DLC. I probably confused you even more!

Edited September 25, 2020 by sanh

[SlowFlyer 78]

I am going to be very optimistic and take the term "meaningful" to be a deliberate term they chose to use based on it's real definition and not based on a "marketing" term. 

I like the synonyms for meaningful: significant, important, consequential, worthwhile 🙂 

 

They could be using "meaningful" as marketing term, but i don't want to think that 🙂 Although they could have give more insight to the terms they are using.

----------

1. having meaning.

   "meaningful elements in a language" · 

   [more]

   synonyms:

   significant · relevant · important · consequential · material · telling · pithy · weighty · valid · worthwhile · purposeful