Great start. I'll grab some popcorn, this is promising.

3 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

Ideally when MSFS detects that a new WASM add-on is being compiled for the first time, it should display a message along the line of “preparing (name of add on) for first use - please standby”, but that would be something Asobo would have to add to the sim. I don’t think a 3rd party developer could do it.

With a custom 'en-US.locPak' file in the add-on folder a text line can be added by the 3pd.

@Gerwil,There was mention in the Aerosft thread that they could not add the necessary text message, so it sounds like your correct, and hence the reason i posted it so others would know beforehand.

Edited February 27, 20215 yr by Car147

I'll take a wait and see attitude towards the recompiling. We'll see how much of an inconvenience it really is. I do agree with those who would like a dialogue box or something. There really should be a status bar or something to let the user know that their computer is still processing something. Delivering anything without that is really bad design, IMO.

7 hours ago, Brandon01110 said:

Ok, so sim reinstalls hopefully will be few and far between.  Lets not forget about the warning that this could occur after an update.  Well....you can see where i'm going with this.

I think it is only triggered by an update of the add-on aircraft, not an update of the sim.

I don't care about waiting a few minutes for the translation of C++ to happen.  It would be good if Asobo could make it so the sim "sees" when this routine is happening and displays a simple message saying not to worry and why.  Or even have a very prominent placement on the Marketplace that this will happen the first time you use the plane.

One question though - couldn't Aerosoft do the conversion to WASM code themselves, first?  Is there a reason it needs to happen locally on your machine?

Back in old FS days to boot my PC and then  FS with all Adobe was like 10 minute thing, and I was totally ok with it. 🙂

Really for me is not a big deal. My Civilization 6 stalling on my Mac book pro and I still playing it lol

There really is just a lot of really bad info floating around in this thread, so let me try and fix some misconceptions.

WASM has a "web" connotation by way of the name and its origins, but in the sim (and many other places these days) WASM has nothing to do with the web at all. It's just a way of compiling a language into a platform agnostic intermediate instruction language (think a higher level assembly). This set of instructions can then be either just-in-time compiled (JIT) or ahead-of-time compiled (AOT).

The technology choice for the sim for maximum performance was to AOT compile the WASM into native machine code. So, when you compile your C++ add-on, you get cross platform WASM out. When the plane loads, the WASM is AOT compiled to native binaries for that platform. The issue is not that Aerosoft is failing to compile the WASM, the issue is that the sim needs to compile that WASM to machine code.

You can run WASM in a machine that does JIT as it encounters new bits of execution paths, but in a game context, that can be problematic, because that means pauses while that stuff is compiled in real time while the code is being attempted to be run.

I agree that some user feedback when this long AOT compilation is happening does seem like something that should be addressed.

Finally, to everyone who keeps saying the HTML/JS stack can't support study level aircraft or is too slow, I assure you 100% that is not at all true. Aerosoft just chose to use C++ as I assume that's what they have the most dev experience in. We could build something like a CRJ just fine with the HTML/JS stack (as evidenced by how much of the PL21 we already simulate on the CJ4, which is more complex than the PL4 of the CRJ).

-Matt

Edited February 28, 20215 yr by MattNischan

7 hours ago, MattNischan said:

When the plane loads, the WASM is AOT compiled to native binaries for that platform. The issue is not that Aerosoft is failing to compile the WASM, the issue is that the sim needs to compile that WASM to machine code.

Matt, thanks for a great explanation. Apologies for the dumb question, but what still puzzles me (and I think some others): is there not some way the WASM could be pre-converted to machine code in the install package? Why does that have to happen at run time (with the ensuing PR/support nightmare you see here)?

James

42 minutes ago, honanhal said:

Matt, thanks for a great explanation. Apologies for the dumb question, but what still puzzles me (and I think some others): is there not some way the WASM could be pre-converted to machine code in the install package? Why does that have to happen at run time (with the ensuing PR/support nightmare you see here)?

James

It could be the the code in the compiled files is linked to the specific computer that they are created on for DRM purposes - or based on the specific hardware the computer uses (CPU/GPU etc.)

44 minutes ago, honanhal said:

Matt, thanks for a great explanation. Apologies for the dumb question, but what still puzzles me (and I think some others): is there not some way the WASM could be pre-converted to machine code in the install package? Why does that have to happen at run time (with the ensuing PR/support nightmare you see here)?

James

Avsim is full of drama queens. They are the only ones making a big deal out of this 

On 2/27/2021 at 6:46 AM, Chock said:

Nothing wrong with complaining, as long as it's a reasonably legitimate complaint of course. But I'm inclined to think having to wait a whole ten minutes is hardly the end of the world, we've seen things in the past such as ATC add-ons and such have to scan airport databases and compile stuff which take that kind of time to get themselves sorted out.

Anyway, to help, here are a few things you can do in ten minutes...

Around the house:

Boil two eggs (one at a time).

Outside the house:

Go for a ten minute walk (or a twenty minute walk, if you run).

If you are Carenado:

Thoroughly beta test your new add-on aeroplane.

If you are a youtube 'influencer':

Record, edit, render and upload one of your 'comprehensive' reviews of a new flight sim product.

If you work at Ryanair as cabin crew:

Complete the entire customer service care training programme.

If you are a new pilot for PIA:

Complete the entire flying training syllabus for piloting the Airbus A320.

If you are Boeing:

Write the entire type conversion training syllabus for the MCAS system on the 737 MAX.

If you are Bredok3D:

Make an add-on Boeing 737 MAX.

 

LOL. just had to requote.

1 hour ago, honanhal said:

is there not some way the WASM could be pre-converted to machine code in the install package?

You could, but then it would cease to be cross platform. The idea here is that this code can be AOT compiled for any destination platform architecture.

Practically speaking both PC and XBox are x86, so it would _seem_ to me that both destinations' machine code would be the same, but it's possible that isn't 100% the case.

-Matt

This cross-platform discussion is interesting. I am wondering if it will reach into Linux and the Mac OS?

X-Plane has worked on all 3 three platforms. Why not MSFS?

4 hours ago, devgrp said:

Avsim is full of drama queens. They are the only ones making a big deal out of this 

Look, I don’t think this is the end of the world, but 10 minutes of a program being unresponsive is not normal. Most people would probably think it had crashed and end the process after about 3 minutes, tops...

Aerosoft is smart to get the word out early.