DECEMBER 17TH, 2020 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

POSTED BY: MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR TEAM

Screenshot by YusufWardana

 

To wrap up the year with a ribbon, we present to you our final Feature Discovery series episode of the season featuring information on VR (see below)! VR drops this coming Tuesday, December 22nd, with Sim Update 2. We are looking forward to this release and might even have a few surprises coming your way! Stay tuned next Tuesday for the release notes and more. As this is our final, official development update of the year, we wish you the happiest of holidays. Keep flying, pilots!

Here are some of the most recent statistics:

–MSFS TEAM-

 

FEATURE DISCOVERY SERIES EP. #9 – VR

 

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

Click here for the web-friendly version.

 

FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

Click here for the web-friendly version.

 

SDK UPDATE

• DevMode:
  • Now that we announced the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox for Summer 2021, work on GDI+ is focused on allowing the legacy XML gauges system to work on Xbox.
  • The new console is almost ready to go. The last details are currently being tested and this rework will be available in a near-future release.
  • A new airport lights system is available in the Scenery Editor. It is currently in the testing stage and will be delivered in a near-future update.
  • As usual, the team is working on improving the overall stability of the DevMode at the same time, giving special focus to the Project Editor, the Scenery Editor, and the Aircraft Editor. The community’s feedback continues to be helpful in identifying & fixing bugs and thus making the tools better.
• WebAssembly:
  • We modified the WASM loading sequence so that a flight cannot start before all WASM gauges are initialized.
  • We fixed a clipping issue when using the GDI+ layer.

 

THIRD PARTY UPDATE

• In the 4 months since launch, we have approved almost 100 3rd party development teams to the Partner Program and they have released over 300 products on the platform to date. Several hundred more aircraft, airports and other add-ons have either been announced or are in production. All this is a great validation to the SDK team and we can’t wait to see all the amazing add-ons the third party community will develop in 2021!
  • Airports:
    • 273 airports (+15 from last week) have been released for the platform so far.
    • 90 airports (+5 from last week) are already in our in-sim store.
    • 57 airports (+12 from last week), beyond the released airports, have been announced.
    • 116 airports (-1 from last week) are not announced but are in development based on information from 3rd parties.
    • In total 446 airports are either already released or are in active production.
  • Aircraft:
    • 12 aircraft (+0 from last week) have been released for the platform so far.
    • 6 aircraft (+0 from last week) are already in our in-sim store.
    • 60 aircraft (+3 from last week), beyond the released airplanes, have been announced.
    • 20 aircraft (+0 from last week) are not announced but are in development based on information from 3rd parties.
      • So overall, 92 aircraft are either released or are in production.
      • Asobo continues to help Aerosoft finish the CRJ and we look forward to the aircraft in the near future.
  • Scenery:
    • 46 scenery add-ons (+6 from last week) have been released for the platform so far.
    • 10 scenery add-ons (+1 from last week) are already in our in-sim store.
    • 4 scenery add-ons (+1 from last week) have been announced.

We continue to have very fruitful conversations with Working Title and are also in contact with Fly By Wire and several other teams that are pushing hard to enhance several of the launch planes. We aim to have more great news ins this area in early 2021!

 

MARKETPLACE UPDATE

On Tuesday we released 6 new products in our Marketplace and introduced 1 additional partner (Vidan Design).

6 NEW PRODUCTS

2 products have also been updated:

2 UPDATED PRODUCTS

 

TWITCH SCHEDULE 

Join us for the Grand Canyon Razor Run! Your hosts will include Jayne, Simtom, and Chewwy94. We will feature 8 racers but everyone is welcome to participate in the race officially or unofficially! Click here for details.

That will be our last stream for the year. We look forward to more fun with you on Twitch in the new year!

If you are interested in giving a guided tour or joining us on stream, please send a DM to jummivana in the forums! Thank you!

 

HAPPY WRIGHT BROTHERS DAY!

Today marks the anniversary of a very special event. On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made their first successful flight session using the Flyer.

This motorized aircraft took-off and landed for the first time more than a century ago in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Few people witnessed this achievement, but some pictures immortalized this moment.

 

 

Several attempts were needed days before for the Flyer to finally lift off the ground and fly 37 meters in 12 seconds without losing control. While creating the Flyer, the Wright brothers showed their ingenuity on many levels. Current aircraft are still using some of same principles of flight as the Flyer.

 

The Flyer can be seen at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

 

Happy Wright Brothers Day from the Microsoft Flight Simulator Team.

 

MORE AMAZING SCREENSHOTS FROM THE COMMUNITY

Screenshot by Hester40MT

 

Screenshot by LK2PRGM

 

Screenshot by simtom2

 

Screenshot by simtom2

 

Screenshot by tomlaut1980

 

Screenshot by Sottomayor3823

 

Screenshot by AgateEvening937

 

Screenshot by DiligentBus5836

 

Screenshot by chaoshamste

 

Screenshot by Breezewind77

 

NEXT DEVELOPMENT UPDATE BLOG – 1.07

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Edited December 17, 20205 yr by ChaoticBeauty

Bring back clouds Previous to Update 5 - Fixed - Sim Update II - hit my eyes.

Thanks and kind regards, Michael

I'm guessing people know by now what the suprise is... It's a really cool one! 🙂

3 minutes ago, pmb said:

Bring back clouds Previous to Update 5 - Fixed - Sim Update II - hit my eyes.

I saw that too! If it's fixed indeed, I will be so happy!

Early 🌲 for the update today.

7 minutes ago, pmb said:

Bring back clouds Previous to Update 5 - Fixed - Sim Update II - hit my eyes.

Just in time for VR too Michael! 👍

25 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

We continue to have very fruitful conversations with Working Title and are also in contact with Fly By Wire and several other teams that are pushing hard to enhance several of the launch planes. We aim to have more great news ins this area in early 2021!

Just want to point this out because it's quite huge, especially if they make these enhancements available in the content manager, or even backport them to the default planes.

Is VR really that jerky - or is the video quality lacking or something?

 

8 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

Just want to point this out because it's quite huge, especially if they make these enhancements available in the content manager, or even backport them to the default planes.

That was my thinking as well. If these developers are providing there efforts for free then why not open an engagement with Microsoft and allow everybody in. Exciting stuff.

I've always cautioned a full study sim experience for the masses so long as the aircraft remains accessible I.e. shortcuts etc so making this available as a free update on the store much like Aerosoft's Paderborn airport sounds like a sensible choice.

I do wonder if there is more to it than that though... 🤔

 

Edited December 17, 20205 yr by dtrjones

I am curious about FlyByWire and WorkingTitle news, can you guys give us some hints or you guys under NDA? 😅

So, I've never experienced VR. To those that have...is it as jerky as that video appears? Also...how it the FOV? Typical human FOV is around 170-ish degrees. Anything close to that with VR?

The carrot is always just out of reach with this sim, which isn't a bad thing as the devs are continually adding extra features, just what the community is asking for, eventually we'll have that fully mature sim that we all crave for, thanks for your hard work Asobo/Microsoft, and Merry Christmas to them and their families, and a better New Year than the one we've just had for all of us.

15 minutes ago, snglecoil said:

So, I've never experienced VR. To those that have...is it as jerky as that video appears? Also...how it the FOV? Typical human FOV is around 170-ish degrees. Anything close to that with VR?

I'm watching the video now but what I do know is the video capture/mirror bares no relation to what you experience in the headset.

To avoid motion sickness you need pretty high fps - in X-Plane it means hitting a solid 45fps where SteamVR motion smoothing can double to 90fps which is the standard of most VR headsets refresh rate.

For MSFS using a technology called OpenXR you can actually manufacture a 'third frame' so theoretically to hit 90fps the sim only needs to render 30fps allbeit at your headsets native resolution per eye but how well that works I can't tell you.

Edited December 17, 20205 yr by dtrjones

6 minutes ago, dtrjones said:

I'm watching the video now but what I do know is the video capture/mirror bares no relation to what you experience in the headset.

To avoid motion sickness you need pretty high fps - in X-Plane it means hitting a solid 45fps where SteamVR motion smoothing can double to 90fps which is the standard of most VR headsets refresh rate.

For MSFS using a technology called OpenXR you can actually manufacture a 'third frame' so theoretically to hit 90fps the sim only needs to render 30fps allbeit at your headsets native resolution per eye but how well that works I can't tell you.

We'll find out soon enough, but as a simmer who has just upgraded to a 4k monitor, I'll not be going VR anytime soon, maybe late next year??

29 minutes ago, snglecoil said:

So, I've never experienced VR. To those that have...is it as jerky as that video appears? Also...how it the FOV? Typical human FOV is around 170-ish degrees. Anything close to that with VR?

Not just me then