FS2Crew Weekend Update for June 5th 2021:

We had a busy, busy week.  No rest for the wicked at Team FS2Crew 😉

FBW A32NX Project:

I hate to say it, but we're delaying it one more week...  I can hear the wails and the moaning and groaning from here...

Mais pourquoi, Mssr?

Well, we've discovered it is in fact technically possible to display a custom icon in the MSFS Toolbar. 

We don't recall seeing it documented anywhere in the MSFS SDKs, but it's obviously possible because someone did it.  And we like it...  A lot.

So we're going to try do it ourselves.  

We'll try for a week, if we can't do it, it's no big deal.  We'll just go ahead and release FS2Crew FBW A32NX and work on it more later.  I don't want to delay the FBW anymore.  Our loyal users have waited too long already.

If we can get our icon in the toolbar,  it would be really cool, and worth the extra 5  days wait.  So cross your fingers!

The goal is to allow you to open FS2Crew for the FBW A32NX via the MSFS toolbar rather than having to manually start it externally, since it is, after all, an external exe.

Now, you're probably asking, "Well, can you build a panel inside MSFS, so it would be like the old FS2Crew's from FSX/P3D?"

The answer to that right now is simply 'no', unless something radically changes in MSFS, which is unlikely.

MSFS is very, very restrictive on what you can run "inside" of it.  To run programs inside MSFS, you're essentially limited to HTML/Javascript and you're hands are pretty tied.  For aircraft it's not really a big issue, but for what FS2Crew does, it is a big issue.  

You'll never get speech recognition running inside of it... and speech recognition is a big, big part of what FS2Crew is all about.

Same thing for running multi threads, which FS2Crew relies on heavily.  Unless something has changed, Javascript and HTML don't really support multi threading as far I know.

So long and short of it is:  Unless something radically changes at MSFS, all FS2Crew's due to their complexity and need for speech recognition and multi threading will need to be external .exe's.

However, we're ***hoping*** that we can trigger our external exe's from an icon in the toolbar simply because it would be really cool and it could make your life a tiny bit easier and make the world a better place.

Maybe can do it.  Maybe we can't.  But the inquiring minds on the FS2Crew dev team need to know.  This is the kind of stuff that keeps us up at night.  Some people get excited by politics or pro sports.  We get excited by the toolbar in MSFS.  Pray for us... 😉


PBE V2.1 Update:

Same thing as for the FBW above.

However, we want to point out that Pushback Express is currently inop with the FBW A32NX (assuming you're using the latest development version).

This is because in the latest FBW dev version, they changed the parking brake logic.  The parking brake in the FBW now uses a custom variable to read its position rather than the stock variable from the SDK.

It was an easy fix, but we just want to double check the MSFS toolbar icon before we release it because we really, really like that toolbar.

Other than that, the V2.1 PBE update is a big one.  Coolest new feature is multi-language "voice command assist" and the much sharper UI.  It's part of our new "Bye Bye Manuals" program at FS2Crew where all information needed is dynamically presented on screen.  Hopefully you'll never need to open another PDF again.

And we can also now make the tug 'hold' at the aircraft prior to pushback, which makes it a bit more realistic than what we had before.


PMDG 777 for P3D v4/5 Update:

A couple little bugs were recently discovered.  A big shout out to the users who brought them to my attention.

The bugs have been fixed.

If you want to test the fix, send me a support ticket via: www.fs2crew.com

We'd like another set of eyes on it prior to making the update live.


Have a nice weekend!

And apologies in advance for the rather long winded ramble 🙂

 

Edited June 5, 20214 yr by byork

Looking forward to it - am planning on picking up A320 and PBE when these updates are ready

1 minute ago, maxpax444 said:

Looking forward to it - am planning on picking up A320 and PBE when these updates are ready

Cool 😉  The PBE update is quite good... and the new MSFS FS2Crew FBW version is really good, too.

I think I'm going to give out a 50 percent discount on the FBW version.  Sure, maybe we won't make money with such a huge discount.... but I really want as many people as possible to see our new system.  It's very different from the old stuff.

No worries Bryan, it’ll be cool if it can be open from inside the sim, saves having another external program open. I swear sometimes flight sim is about seeing how many programs you can open to make it as realistic as possible haha

12 minutes ago, EasternT3 said:

No worries Bryan, it’ll be cool if it can be open from inside the sim, saves having another external program open. I swear sometimes flight sim is about seeing how many programs you can open to make it as realistic as possible haha

Exactly... and we like innovating... just for the sake innovating.

MSFS is like a big new toy for us to take apart 😉

Looking forward to the updates, Bryan. 👍 😁
Great news about the 50% discount you're considering for the FBW version, too.

My 2p worth on the in-sim tool bar ... I think I'd actually prefer it still a separate exe as I like to have the PBE/FC windows on my second monitor!

Cheers,
Mike

Hi Mike,

We're still trying to make it work.

It would still be the exact same thing.  The icon in the tool bar (assuming we can make it work) would just trigger our EXE rather than requiring you to load it manually.

As I said in the first post, it would not  be technically impossible to run something as complex as FS2Crew in Javascript / HTML "inside" MSFS, since we require external access to the Windows API... speech recognition, multi threading, etc.

Asobo is doing a brilliant job with MSFS and its getting better everyday, but from a technical point of view, MSFS is extraordinarily restrictive on what you can run "inside" of it.

For airplanes, it's generally okay, but for what we do, it's just not technically possible.

That's why FS2Crew has to run externally now, unlike our old FSX/P3D programs which ran "inside" the sim via gauges.

 

Edited June 9, 20214 yr by byork

Thanks Bryan - that sounds good then; best of both worlds.

Looking forward to it. 👍