OCTOBER 8TH, 2020 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

POSTED BY: MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR TEAM

Screenshot by c0mmanderkiller

 

Our dev team has been hard at work fixing bugs and implementing updates, and we are ready to bring you Update #4 next week! As stated in our recent live Dev Q&A, we are listening to all our communities (lookin’ at you Avsim, Reddit, Discord, Forums) and hope to provide a better cadence and more transparency in our work. You can now expect more frequent updates to our Feedback Snapshot and Development Roadmap, as we continue to tweak the information we provide on bugs, feature requests, and more. Thank you for your support as we move forward!

– MSFS TEAM

 

VR CLOSED BETA UPDATE

It’s been a week since we opened sign up for VR Closed Beta and have received many eager applicants. Thank you for expressing interest in testing VR with us! We are currently evaluating the specs and making decisions at this time. We will provide another update here once emails have been sent out to participating testers.

 

PARTNERSHIP SERIES UPDATE – INTRODUCING AEROSOFT

 

PATCH NOTE HIGHLIGHTS

 The Patch is set to release October 13th. Here is a brief overview of what’s coming. Full patch notes will be posted once the patch is live.

• Bug fixes (VFR Map, Avionics black screen, etc.)
• Navigation data updates
• UI updates
• Aerodynamics updates
• Activity updates
• Marketplace updates
• World updates

 

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP 

 

FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

With the Feedback Snapshot ever-evolving based on your feedback, we have added two new columns. The first column shows the status of the top bug/feature. The second column shows when it is planned to be released. Here are some terms defined:

 

• NOT STARTED – We have not started to investigate this issue yet.
• FIXED – This issue is fixed and ready to be implemented in an upcoming patch.
• WIP – This issue is a Work In Progress. This means the development team is actively working on fixing or building the bug/feature.
• UPDATE #X – The bug/issue will be released to the public in that patch version number.
• BACKLOG – A database of items we plan to work on in the future.
• TO BE INVESTIGATED – Work is needed on our end but we are planning on triaging the issue.
• STARTED – Work has already begun and we are looking at the issue.
• UNDER INVESTIGATION – Actively being triaged by the development team.

 

SDK UPDATE

The SDK team continues to improve many areas of the SDK based on input from the developer community. Recent work focused on:

DevMode Progress:

• Project Editor:
  • • We are working on the Project Editor to facilitate Package exporting for community and marketplace targets. A package validation process is also being added to this new publish process, with user-facing error feedback.
    • Besides improvements on the Project Editor, we are also working on the Console window to improve its ergonomics and add features which should help better understand what is going on in the sim.
• Aircraft Editor:
  • • The tool keeps on being improved thanks to community feedbacks and bug report, which are systematically taken into account and most of the time addressed straight away.
• Scenery Editor:
  • • General stability improvements.
• Nodal Visual System:
  • • We keep making progress on the new nodal visual effects system, which should be ready for production soon.

WebAssembly:

• We continue to work on improving debugging information and iteration times.
•  We are further extending the GDI+ compatibility layer

We are fixing the external FsPackageTool for users of the Steam version of the game.

•  We updated and fixed part of the documentation.
•  We updated the AirportVehicleSample.

 

3RD PARTY UPDATE

Our Marketplace Partner Program has seen over 1000 applications already and well over 200 of these are known pay-ware companies. Over 50 partners have already been approved and have either released content or are about to release content to the marketplace! With over three dozen airports and aircraft published in the first 6 weeks since the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator, the quality of the creations and the incredible enthusiasm of the creator community continue to exceed all our expectations. Dozens of new aircraft have been announced already and nearly 100 airports are in various stages of production and we can wait to try them all out in the sim soon!

 

MARKETPLACE UPDATE

We have 5 new products releasing to the Marketplace today:

5 NEW PRODUCTS

MORE AMAZING SCREENSHOTS FROM THE COMMUNITY

Screenshot by Theduck38

 

Screenshot by KerionZoldik

 

Screenshot by YaSnAviation

 

Screenshot by CuzDawg3

 

Screenshot by ElNinoDelAvion

 

Screenshot by Theduck38

 

Screenshot by Mariangello

 

Screenshot by Mariangello

 

NEXT UPDATE – 10.15

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Edited October 8, 20205 yr by ChaoticBeauty

Fantastic - they're very serious about their commitment to this Sim.

I for one, am glad to see this.

They're in this for the long haul and it's all going to be okay.

One thing I really love - the Screenshots are beginning to look not as good as my own visual experiences in Sim. 

Well done Chaotic. . .as ever - you've been with this us from the start.

Throw that man a Pine Tree!

 

Edited October 8, 20205 yr by Will Fly For Cheese

Just four more days for the dreaded black avionics and CTDs to be banished! New Feedback Snapshot is looking sleek and very informative on their progress too.

Major sim-breaking bugs pegged to Update 9, or pegged to "Backlog".

Come back in a year when this word not allowed is either done, or MS has defunded the whole thing and word not allowedcanned it like they did with MS Flight

They are looking at us here with Avsim drama episodes 👀

You may have noticed that there are many issues that are not started.  These represent to me things that are are not fixed to issues that will be fixed.  We are on the right path IMO.

Cheers

bs

Edited October 8, 20205 yr by bean_sprout

Updates 5 and 9 should be the Simulation Updates I think. First one will be late October, and the second one in December maybe.

Going in the right path IMO as well . 
Good things are coming....

And NOW lets see the “OMG IM DONE WITH THIS SIM” comments and threads coming up between today and the 13th .....

 

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 20205 yr by rtodepart

So, all the LOD issues that started with the last patch are in the "not started" group? Why can't they just revert to the earlier LOD code they broke with that patch?

Yeah, I know, software doesn't always work that way. It's still frustrating. I have no interest in flying the sim right now until the LOD issues are fixed. I hate pop-in. 

P.S. that doesn't mean "I'm done with this sim." But they need to fix this.

Edited October 8, 20205 yr by Paraffin

Fantastic update. 

Asobo, please look at the current water as well, it is not as pretty anymore as it was in the beginning, less reflective, less crisp, flat. 

These guays are great. I've never seen a comparable feedback snapshot in any of the flightsims I know.

Kind regards, Michael

LOD fix is not included with this patch?.. Oh well then i still have a reduced interest in using this thing. Will keep waiting till they fix it.

12 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

we are listening to all our communities (lookin’ at you Avsim, Reddit, Discord, Forums) and hope to provide a better cadence and more transparency in our work

Glad to read that. Thanks MS

Seems unbelievable that *most* of the top issues haven't even been *started* ?!  wow what a bummer. This list is pretty depressing 😞

Also ironic that they continue with all these screen shots, when really wouldn't videos be more appropriate? We don't fly photos we fly in motion....

Edited October 8, 20205 yr by Flyfaster

I'd like to be able to finish my bush flight that they broke with 1.9.3.  Looks like I'll be waiting a while.