26th May 2021 Developer Q&A: Begins at 10:30 AM PST

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

Today's Developer Q&A is scheduled to begin at 10:30 AM PST, or 40 minutes from now. Prepare yourselves!

This Q&A session will feature:

• Sim Update 4 discussion
• Working Title update
• World Update 5 discussion
• A few surprises
• Feedback Snapshot discussion
• Live Q&A section

Jayne's agenda features the pre-selected questions that will be asked (along with live questions from chat): https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/dev-q-a-5-26-21-agenda/405053

The stream will be available to watch at: twitch.tv/msfsofficial

Quote

Quick Summary

Sim Update 4

In Sim Update 4, seven planes had adverse yaw, twitchiness and precision fixes. Sim Update 5 will bring similar improvements to all default planes. You will also be able to tweak adverse yaw parameters.

Icing conditions were improved using charts from national institutions to tone it down and make it more accurate.

There were more turboprop improvements in Sim Update 4 than initially planned, but this is only the first iteration and there is still much to be done, ground physics being one of them.

A slide was shown featuring the ATC phraseology improvements for Sim Update 4, more will be made in future updates.

There were some errors and inaccuracies regarding pressure/temperature, some were fixed in Sim Update 4 (but not documented in release notes) and more fixes are coming in the next few months.

The approach flyback bug was fixed in some conditions, but Working Title identified a few other, more complicated situations which requires some refactoring of the systems to completely fix it.

Regarding tree improvements, they went back to footage of the pre-order trailer and used that as reference to rework the tree draw distance after tweaking the size of different species. They will expand the possible tree draw distance once they optimise the engine more.

They are working on the prioritisation of bug fixes and feature updates, they feel that the voting system is not the greatest solution.

 

Working Title

Sim Update 4 is the first patch featuring improvements from the Working Title team, some of the things being the integration of FAA navigation data and the SimConnect traffic.

Right now they're working on the G1000 NXi, and an early-access version will be made available in early June on the Marketplace.

Included improvements: procedure turns, DME arcs, RF legs, holds, manual terminations, coupled VNAV and full RNAV simulations.

 

World Update 5

Jörg would like to thank the Sim Update 4 testers for their valuable help, and he says that World Update 5 is doing great.

Several new POIs from different countries were demonstrated, and Gaya have also sent screenshots from their handmade airports: EKRN, ESSA, EFVA, ENSB.

Asobo are making BIIS Isafjordur. New mesh (up to 2m) and aerial imagery will be included as well.

 

Partner Announcements

World Update 5 will feature the first work from a new partner, Perfect Flight.

William from FlyByWire was featured on stream. The A32NX will be added to the Marketplace tomorrow, and it will work on the Xbox as well.

In the future, custom FlyByWire systems and hydraulic simulations are coming, and they are collaborating with Working Title on a new flight manager.

Charts, panel states, cold and dark, turnaround state, new approach types and lots of other stuff are also coming.

The Marketplace version will be the stable one, and they are looking to create a regular update schedule with smaller bug fixes too.

They've got lots of talented people working on the flight model, and they're looking to take advantage of upcoming SDK features.

 

New Asobo plane announcement

Aviat Huskey A-1C. It will probably be released in August.

The flight model will be on the same level as the other default propeller planes, and it will benefit from improvements based on feedback from the community.

 

Feedback Snapshot

The replay system is continuing to be improved, it's out of prototype but the UI is a bit raw at the moment, so the next step is to make it more user-friendly.

Jörg is pleased with some of the new feedback on the scenery gateway system (provided by eight people), they're thinking of creating it using internal Asobo systems to help with Xbox compatibility.

Despite the VR section not being updated, they discussed this yesterday and they have plans to make it great by the end of the year.

 

Q&A section and extra discussion

They have found a partner with insight regarding gliders, and they might be announced in the next Q&A.

They are still evaluating potential partners for helicopters, but they are impressed with the freeware so far.

Jörg is talking about improving the traffic with unique models, while Martial says they're continuing to work through licensing issues.

They have good relations with 18 out of the top 25 plane manufacturers.

They want to celebrate community liveries, and they will be featured on a future trailer.

They have talked more with AIG now and relayed most of their feedback directly to the team.

Asobo are investigating the issue of mountains looking rounded.

They're working to improve the conversion of mesh data into the simulator, but they think that the morphing is caused by the the temporal anti-aliasing rather than the mesh.

They're aware of the photogrammetry bridge overhangs, and they're working on a new system to prevent this from happening.

So far they do not have an AI model to create water masks, but they're looking for some new ways to generate shallow water, like using bathymetry data. They are already approximating the water colour from the existing imagery.

Jörg intervenes to say that they are aware of the issues affecting the Premium Deluxe planes, they are not abandoned and there are constant discussions on how to improve them.

They want to add the ability to disable the logbook pop-up while shutting off the engines, it might come in 2021.

They are still working on integrating Navblue charts, this is very important to them.

A standalone FPS counter could come one day, but it needs some new code.

ICAO phraseology for regions where it applies to is in the pipeline. Jörg says there is still a lot to be done to move away from the legacy FSX system, especially the audio.

The ATIS reporting incorrect cloud conditions should be fixed in Sim Update 5. They would like to thank the community for their feedback.

They are investigating performance issues around some larger airports, like KJFK.

The glass cockpits will be threaded out with the DirectX 12 update, and they are expecting good but not dramatic improvements over the next few patches.

Schedules for custom offline traffic is something they'll address in a future Q&A session, they are working with AIG on this.

Historical weather is a difficult thing to implement and it depends on Meteoblue data. They are continuing to discuss this though, and need feedback from the community.

They are fixing CTDs all the time, and they're making an effort to track the causes more accurately. It is a very high priority.

The 20:00Z live weather bug is being investigated, some fixes have already been pushed.

Cloud simulation is continuing to be optimised, which will allow for higher detail and more cloud types to be implemented.

They are looking to streamline their testing process, because even a small fix needs lots of testing and certification.

Over the next few weeks they will discuss opening up an Xbox beta, the new DirectX 12 engine will probably be tested on the PC first.

 

Edited May 26, 2021 by ChaoticBeauty

[Amon1973 1,421]

Thanks CB noticed this was still be streamed on official MSFS forum, Stream starts at 6:30 PM for those who live in the UK.

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

Can someone keep us updated here with what happens? I am unable to watch it. 

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

17 minutes ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Can someone keep us updated here with what happens? I am unable to watch it. 

I'm buffering too much to hear everything, but here's a quick summary of what they said about Sim Update 4 (if some things are wrong then please correct me). I'll post more summaries during the stream if I can.

Quote

In Sim Update 4, seven planes had adverse yaw, twitchiness and precision fixes. Sim Update 5 will bring similar improvements to all default planes. You will also be able to tweak adverse yaw parameters.

Icing conditions were improved using charts from national institutions to tone it down and make it more accurate.

There were more turboprop improvements in Sim Update 4 than initially planned, but this is only the first iteration and there is still much to be done, ground physics being one of them.

A slide was shown featuring the ATC phraseology improvements for Sim Update 4, more will be made in future updates.

There were some errors and inaccuracies regarding pressure/temperatures, some were fixed in Sim Update 4 (but not documented in release notes) and more fixes are coming in the next few months.

The approach flyback bug was fixed in some conditions, but Working Title identified a few other, more complicated situations which requires some refactoring of the systems to completely fix it.

Regarding tree improvements, they went back to footage of the pre-order trailer and used that as reference to rework the tree draw distance after tweaking the size of different species. They will expand the possible tree draw distance once they optimise the engine more.

They are working on the prioritisation of bug fixes and feature updates, they feel that the voting system is not the greatest solution.

 

[MarcG 2,891]

3 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

they feel that the voting system is not the greatest solution.

Hallelujah, only been telling them that since day one, good to see they've finally seen sense.

[RaptyrOne 1,398]

4 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

they feel that the voting system is not the greatest solution.

Finally common sense prevails!

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

Sim Update 4 is the first patch featuring improvements from the Working Title team, some of the things being the integration of FAA navigation data and the SimConnect traffic.

Right now they're working on the G1000 NXi, and an early-access version will be made available in early June. One of the additions is the DME arc.

Jörg would like to thank the Sim Update 4 testers for their valuable help, and he says that World Update 5 is doing great. Several new POIs from different countries are being demonstrated, and Gaya have also sent screenshots from their handmade airports: EKRN, ESSA, EFVA, ENSB. Asobo are making BIIS Isafjordur. New mesh (up to 2m) and aerial imagery as well.

World Update 5 will feature the first work from a new partner, Perfect Flight.

Edited May 26, 2021 by ChaoticBeauty

[Flyfaster_MTN002 412]

Go Working Title! 🙂

[Tuskin38 6,435]

FBW A320 will be in the marketplace starting tomorrow, stable branch version.

Edited May 26, 2021 by Tuskin38

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

William from FlyByWire is now featured on stream. The A32NX will be featured on the Marketplace tomorrow, and it will work on the Xbox as well.

In the future, custom FlyByWire systems and hydraulic simulations are coming, and they are collaborating with Working Title on a new flight manager. Charts, panel states, cold and dark, turnaround state, new approach types and lots of other stuff (that I don't know about, sorry) are also coming.

The Marketplace version will be the stable one, and they are looking to create a regular update schedule with smaller bug fixes too. They've got lots of talented people working on the flight model, and they're looking to take advantage of new SDK features.

--------------------

New Asobo plane incoming, Aviat Huskey A-1C. It will be released in August maybe. The flight model will be on the same level as the other default propeller planes, and it will benefit from improvements based on the feedback of the community.

--------------------

The replay system is continuing to be improved, it's out of prototype but the UI is a bit raw at the moment, so the next step is to make it more user-friendly.

Jörg is pleased with some of the new feedback on the scenery gateway system (provided by eight people more specifically), they're thinking of creating it using internal Asobo systems to help with Xbox compatibility.

He is also talking again about the Feedback Snapshot, he says that despite the VR section not being updated, they discussed this yesterday and they have plans to make it great by the end of the year.

They have found a partner with insight regarding gliders, and they might be announced in the next Q&A. They are still evaluating potential partners for helicopters, but they are impressed with the freeware helicopters so far.

Edited May 26, 2021 by ChaoticBeauty

[ca_metal 2,015]

5 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

New Asobo plane incoming, Aviat Huskey A-1C. It will be released in August maybe.

Nice aircraft, but I'm more excited about their ATR, though.

[Shack95 2,658]

4 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

New Asobo plane incoming, Aviat Huskey A-1C. It will be released in August maybe.

Neumann hinted at some new feature coming with the plane. Proper water physics, wakes etc?

[enright 496]

17 minutes ago, Flyfaster_MTN002 said:

Go Working Title! 🙂

It's absurd how smart and talented the teams at both WT and FBW are. Listening to any of their team members speak on live streams is always impressive - how can anyone know THAT much about aircraft systems - especially when this was a side project for most of them. Kudos to Asobo for fully embracing these teams and helping them to take their projects to the next level.

[ca_metal 2,015]

Just now, Shack95 said:

Neumann hinted at some new feature coming with the plane. Proper water physics, wakes etc?

Hopefully. It would make a lot of sense.

[ca_metal 2,015]

1 minute ago, enright said:

It's absurd how smart and talented the teams at both WT and FBW are. Listening to any of their team members speak on live streams is always impressive - how can anyone know THAT much about aircraft systems - especially when this was a side project for most of them. Kudos to Asobo for fully embracing these teams and helping them to take their projects to the next level.

That's the crazy thing about hobbies. Sometimes the hobbyists go really deep on the subjects they like.