30th June 2021 Developer Q&A: Complete/Quick Summary

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

The 30th June 2021 Developer Q&A is now complete! You can watch the VOD in here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1072488104

This session's focus was on:

• Xbox release
• Sim Update 5
• DirectX 12

And also performance, bugs, the Feedback Snapshot and other general topics including community questions at the end of the session.

Quote

Quick Summary

PC Improvements

Jörg would like to reassure the playerbase that by releasing the simulator on Xbox, they're not dumbing it down, but instead improving it for PC as well. He would also like to note how important the simulator is to the company, since it was shown in the Windows 11 preview.

Sebastian explains that they have rewritten a lot of parts of the engine's architecture to improve CPU performance and reduce memory consumption. He is previewing a New York comparison between Sim Update 4 and Sim Update 5 on his personal developer PC. With the new update, the frame rate is improved from 30-40 to 55-60 FPS, the simulator's RAM consumption has been reduced from 16GB to to 4,7GB, and the GPU is fully used since the CPU is no longer the bottleneck. The stutters are completely gone as well. He notes that they are expecting VR to have similar benefits too.

Regarding tree draw distance, they finally identified and fixed the latitude issue (causing shorter draw distance closer to the poles). It was an easy fix, and performance/memory will not be impacted. With Sim Update 5, you do not see the tree line and any popping/clipping anymore. They would like to thank the community for the feedback posted in the official forums.

The glass cockpits computations have been moved to a separate thread, and they've worked a lot on optimising and threading out the larger airports.

Optimisations have been made to photogrammetry cities to reduce polygon count, which should improve GPU performance.

Feedback Snapshot

The Garmin and autopilot issues are in good hands with Working Title, they will continue to work on the avionics for several months to come.

They fix CTD causes daily, and now they have a better crash report system to help identify them.

Jörg explains that some of the photogrammetry cities (most of which taken from Bing) are 7 years old, but they are looking to refresh them in the future. There is no magic fix, but there is a heavy pursuit towards better data.

For turboprops they have made some small fixes in Sim Update 5 (altitude and speed issues that were supposed to come with Sim Update 4), but more will be coming with later updates.

There is a strike team working on all aspects of the ATC and the approach flyback bug, they're doing good work.

They have 6 World Updates planned for 2022, and they will be updating the USA again with tons of new data published over the last year.

They are hoping "dreadful performance" will be a thing of the past with the next update.

A fix for the mirrored textures is not planned, but the SDK team are planning to expand more on how the new livery painting system works.

They are actively looking into the coastline glitch, they know it's a big deal.

They are constantly working on real-time traffic systems, and they plan to improve the water rendering next year.

The fix for the visible horizon line through terrain is a bit tricky since it's deep into the rendering pipeline.

Reflections look grainy due to the ray-marching algorithm, it will be improved when they implement ray-tracing.

They would like to make it clear that Xbox will be on DirectX 12, but PC will remain on DirectX 11 for now (with all the performance improvements being engine-related). They don't know yet if DirectX 12 will bring tangible improvements to PC, but they are working on that, as well as ray-tracing and advanced DirectX 12 effects.

Helicopters are actively being discussed and they're looking for a good partner. They welcome suggestions from the community, meanwhile they're impressed with the current freeware.

The replay system is nearly done, but the UI/UX needs lots of work to become more user-friendly.

The prototype scenery gateway has been completed, but they think it's related too closely to the SDK, so they are trying to decide who at Asobo (maybe someone new as well) should work on it (instead of hiring an external partner).

They have been doing a good job at resolving missing airports, especially in Germany with the DACH World Update.

There is a cool announcement regarding gliders coming up, they have found a good partner.

They are in constant communications with AIG for offline AI traffic improvements.

Community Questions

The PerformancePLUS build is in many ways similar to the Xbox build, so they will be testing on PC only (because of the long certification process on consoles). It will be released to testers tomorrow, and they've gathered a good selection of aircraft and peripheral experts. They're counting on the community to hammer the build out and give feedback to the team.

The frame rate of the Xbox version will be locked to 30 FPS on standard displays, but if it supports VRR, it can go above that (35-40 FPS). Should be very similar between the Xbox Series X|S. The render resolution on the Series X is native 4K, while on the Series S it's 1080p.

Only the Standard edition will have a physical release for the Xbox, they're being cautious due to COVID-19 affecting physical media. They will evaluate demand for a Premium Deluxe physical edition.

Sim Update 5 and Xbox will have the new effects shown in the latest trailer. The builds will be very similar from now on because of cross-play and cross-save, feature-wise they're going to be identical.

Jörg wouldn't say no to an Xbox One version yet, but they've been partnering with the xCloud team a lot which they feel would be a better solution (especially since it cuts down on install size).

An overhaul of the crosswind component is planned, this is a legacy FSX issue so they need to redo the ground collision system.

They are currently working on the teased big weather update, since they are covering the entire planet they are having some problems translating the METAR data, so they are doing that via Meteoblue. They plan to push a fix that reduces these inaccuracies soon, and overall work on more precise translation of the raw data into the weather engine. Jörg intervenes to say that they have roadmaps for even bigger improvements that will blow people away, but it's more of a 2022 thing.

Currently, vertical wind simulation is limited but they will be working on that later. They will continue work with their new glider partner.

They are confident that the Marketplace will be identical between the PC and Xbox versions, and are hoping developers won't hesitate to make their add-ons compatible with the Xbox.

Post-Xbox release, their priority will be to fix bugs, but there are some other things they have not announced yet. They are taking VR seriously, and they're going to double down on it this year. They have dedicated programmers working again on it, and the Feedback Snapshot will reflect that very soon.

They introduced a new traffic/multiplayer system recently, and when looking at the variety of traffic and liveries there are memory concerns, but there will be adjustable options for users depending on their setup.

The installation manager/launch client can already be pre-downloaded on the Xbox, but the content will have to wait until launch day to be downloaded.

The controller settings will not be updated for the Xbox release, but it will have some new assistance settings to soften the input (not for the PC version, as it's only an easier way to adjust the sensitivity curves). They would like to note that keyboard and mouse, as well as hardware made for the Xbox One, will be supported on the Xbox Series X|S version. More supported controllers are on the way.

The Top Gun: Maverick expansion will be releasing along with the movie, and they have a good partnership with Paramount and the movie studio, but they don't want to spoil anything yet.

The simulator already has a TAAU implementation, they don't think that solutions like AMD's FSR and NVIDIA's DLSS offer a great visual improvement, but they're looking at them.

Free content on the Marketplace, like the A32NX, will be available on the Xbox version as well. They have scaled their team up a lot in order to support all the third-party content, but they need more time to look into implementing more freeware.

For the DACH World Update, they will be using the Switzerland data that was released for free by the government, and for Austria they've covered almost all the states with new aerial imagery and mesh data.

They are talking all the time to governments and geographical institutes in order to secure better data for World Updates. Jörg welcomes anyone that has hold of better data to contact him (recently he was contacted by someone with great knowledge of Iceland, and they were connected directly to the Bing team). They are dedicated to making the world as good as it can be.

The next Q&A should take place about a week after the Xbox launch. Jörg encourages the PerformancePLUS participants to test out the build as much as possible. A special anniversary stream is planned for August.

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by ChaoticBeauty

[pstrub 998]

60 fps on a 2060 super in NYC with 4k 40% renderscale 😯

Tree distance reduction at high latitudes fixed!

Edited June 30, 2021 by pstrub

[737_800 434]

I am feeling so happy about this simulator and especially the competence of the whole Asobo team!

[JBDB-MD80 1,473]

Of coarse after the performance improvement updates the second question is about trees. Jeezus. Whats with the fetish?

[Jean-Paul 167]

Tree LOD has been fixed in the next update!

Edited June 30, 2021 by Jean-Paul

[Bobsk8 12,735]

Just now, jbdbow1970 said:

Of coarse after the performance improvement updates the second question is about trees. Jeezus. Whats with the fetish?

Don't forget the Petunias. 😉 

[rka 916]

5 minutes ago, pstrub said:

60 fps on a 2060 super in NYC with 4k 40% renderscale 😯

 Awesome. He went from 40 to 60, that's +50%

Edited June 30, 2021 by rka

[pstrub 998]

1 minute ago, rka said:

30% frame increase.

more, if I saw it correctly. Seb started at around 35 fps, lots of stutters, and now 55-60 fps with sim update 5, practically stutter free.

 

[RustyFlyer 182]

5 minutes ago, jbdbow1970 said:

Of coarse after the performance improvement updates the second question is about trees. Jeezus. Whats with the fetish?

Of coarse or of fine?

[Tuskin38 6,520]

It was a photogrammetry city too which is pretty intensive, so the FPS will probably be higher in other areas.

[regis9 4,014]

Thanks for posting the summary @ChaoticBeauty!

[liamp51 541]

The performance news is FANTASTIC! Even a 5 fps bump would make a huge difference. I'm also very glad they fixed the tree draw distance - it as a small but very noticeable bug. The guys and gals at ASOBO are killing it!

Edited June 30, 2021 by liamp51

[Tuskin38 6,520]

Another USA World Update sometime next year, they've gotten new imagery since the first one.

[Der Zeitgeist 1,575]

8 minutes ago, jbdbow1970 said:

Of coarse after the performance improvement updates the second question is about trees. Jeezus. Whats with the fetish?

You'll have to try it. 😋

[rka 916]

The performance improvement is on DX11. Oooooof