Good Bye 2020...

[RXP 2,338]

Hi,

Let’s face it, 2020 started pretty well. It was as if “What a Wonderfull World” was playing in a loop for all simmers: XP11.50 beta with Vulkan integration was promising, Prepar3d v5 was in good tracks for its release during Spring and MFS open alpha was just started and the world was about to flying it early on.

But it was too good to be true…

At the same time, at least in the western world, we vaguely heard about a virus spreading in China and some of the drastic confinement measures they were taking place over there. Most news I probably was listening back then were more or less saying this is probably the only country were the population can be locked down this way and although this is an extreme measure, it must have had some merits nonetheless when comparing the situation now and then. It didn’t take long for most countries to being hit with lock downs or curfews anyhow.

Schools closing, shops closing, keeping social distances and confinement, became (and still are) the main preoccupations everyday in our life and in the news. I don’t know for you but I was personally quite affected with all this. My family is blessed and none of us has got the virus yet. This is a daily fight though: paying attention to what you’re touching, what you’re handed, what to sanitize. In addition I can’t help being preoccupied with the idea our kids could get infected at school and get sick, let alone spreading the virus to the whole family. This is distressful at times.

Fast forward a little bit to the summer and the official MFS release bringing a new horizon to our hobby and passion. There is no denying the new simulator has been attracting a lot of people and attention. I’ve been evaluating the simulator development possibilities since late 2019 but I’ve also caught myself enjoying casual flying with it too. The modern rendering engine is refreshing and there are some nice ideas in this simulator. But this release wasn’t without any impact to Reality XP’s activity and this has disrupted my initial plans throughout 2020 and especially during the last months of last year.

I’ve been in contact very early on with the team with the understanding they’ll have broad and open interactions with some of the most renown and long time add-ons developers. It turns out the SDK is not radically changing the way to do add-ons: besides the visible tip of the iceberg which are gauges and EFIS, now done in Javascript, the SDK architecture and guiding principles are still the same as FSX with the same limitations, and brand new ones. I was maybe naively believing they’d brought some of us early in order to help them getting a clear and broad picture of how we’re doing our add-ons and what we would need so that they build a different and modern gauges and system SDK. Of course for everything non-gauge, the MFS SDK has a lot of novelties and great ideas. But as of today, it is still unclear to me what direction they’ll take the gauges and system SDK. Their priority for the time being seems to be helping a few vendors shipping airport or airliner products first and this is probably what is best to do right now for the franchise and our hobby, and we’ll see how we can help and contribute once they’ll have more time with us.

The Last months of 2020 were terrible for me when combining the time and effort into MFS and the continued impact of the pandemic on the family members morale, with the added school at home pressure. I needed to take a giant step back and re-assess what it is I’m doing, what it is RXP is doing, what could the future look like and what do I need to do for it and I had no other choice, how unfortunate it was, than taking a break from my daily RXP routine to recenter on myself and my family strengths. I’m not confortable saying so but this situation overall has been affecting me in ways I didn’t thought possible. I can’t say whether it was a way to run from a depressing reality, or just me having had enough with all this pressure and simply burning out, but the truth is that I found myself slowly but surely falling into a form of procrastination without even realizing it. I’m glad I’m turning this page over.

Good bye 2020… Welcome 2021!

Although from a pandemic perspective I believe the first 6 months will be like 2020 and there is nothing to rejoice about, I sincerely hope they’ll speed up vaccination and that we’ll resume our activities, both personal and professional. I’ve no doubt we’ll get there and hopefully our hobby is making us exploring new horizons and pushing the boundaries of our confined lives every day.

Although it is unclear to me whether MFS will be the next simulation platform for simmers, I know it is not ready for RXP yet and our customers are expecting more for Prepar3d and X-Plane from us. I’ll make sure we’re delivering throughout 2021 and I’ll try to help making it a great year for our hobby, along with my fellow 3rd party developers contributing to your enjoyment every day.

I thank you for your enduring support and dedication, this means a lot to me!

 

[kleistad 3]

Thank you for the update, hope 2021 will treat you and the entire world better than 2020 did

[Chock 17,769]

This year is literally the only year in history where hindsight genuinely was 2020 vision. 🤣

[Adrian123 1,015]

2 hours ago, RXP said:

I’m not confortable saying so but this situation overall has been affecting me in ways I didn’t thought possible. I can’t say whether it was a way to run from a depressing reality, or just me having had enough with all this pressure and simply burning out,

I believe many of us feel this way. Me included! Your honest is refreshing.

Edited January 30, 2021 by Adrian123

[Silicus 881]

I feel far to many are winning about the current situation  - a real first world problem.

If you or any of your family members are not effected by the pandemic health wise I think you have a lot to be thankful for. We have jobs, shelter, food, peace, health, infrastructure etc. And most first world countries take good care of you, if you don't have a job right now.

Yes, we are limited in our movement and somehow it feels we have less freedom. But this is time limited.

It will be over in a whiff.  

I am using this time time to learn new things, building a full size cockpit, volunteering, helping others and always having the glass half full. It is all in your mind.

You can dwell on all the bad things, or you can focus on positive things. It is all a perspective.

Regarding MSFS it seems there are two sides. One side is complaining/waiting/are impatient about the SDK and its current state of MSFS, the others are going full steam ahead and coming up with incredible products, many even freeware.... So it can not be that bad and it isn't.

Just my 2 cents Canadian. 

[Adrian123 1,015]

20 minutes ago, Silicus said:

I feel far to many are winning about the current situation

Well aren't you special?

[CrazierChief 1]

On 1/30/2021 at 3:06 PM, RXP said:

Although it is unclear to me whether MFS will be the next simulation platform for simmers, I know it is not ready for RXP yet and our customers are expecting more for Prepar3d and X-Plane from us. I’ll make sure we’re delivering throughout 2021 and I’ll try to help making it a great year for our hobby, along with my fellow 3rd party developers contributing to your enjoyment every day.

What, msfs 2020 not ready for RXP, what nonsense is that???, if my option is flying p3d or xp with rxp or msfs without, im going msfs in an instance, so have fun with the sims you support, im sure default gps in msfs will be as good if not better, what then ???

i have bought rxp 750,650,530,430 for xp, and i think 530 for p3d but i have moved on. very dissapointed to hear that support for msfs is a long way off if ever. 

Edited February 22, 2021 by RXP