August 5th, 2021 - Development Update

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

AUGUST 5TH, 2021 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

Posted by: Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Screenshot by Maniek87PL

 

We would like to announce that our next hotfix, Version 1.18.15.0, will be released within the next few business days. You can read more about the fixes coming as well as other issues we are working on here. To anyone who has reported instances of installation issues, crashes, or other experiences that are inhibiting your ability to enjoy the sim, we apologize and are hard at work gathering data and investigating your reports.

We would also like to welcome Chris “SeedyL” to the Community Team as of this week! He has been an active member of the Microsoft Flight Simulator community over the last year through his Twitch streams with his wife “FactualGull” and their Shiba Inu “Winglet”. He is a long-time flight sim enthusiast and also holds private pilot and glider pilot licenses. 

– The MSFS team

 

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

 

FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

To learn more about Accessibility in Microsoft Flight Simulator, click here.

KEY:

SU = Sim Update (3, 4, etc.)

WU = World Update

ASAP = As Soon as Possible

TBD = To Be Determined

Several Releases = Fixes will come over a series of updates

Ongoing Fixes = An item we will continually be working on

Planned = Scheduled to be worked on

Under Investigation = The team is currently looking into the issue

Not Planned = We will likely not work on this

Started = Work has started on this item

 

SDK UPDATE

• General
  • We are actively monitoring your feedback regarding issues that appeared in the DevMode following the release of SU 5. Once reproduced, these issues are prioritized and assigned to a member of the SDK team.
• Dev Mode

• 1. Pop-up windows now appear even if their associated tool is hidden.
  2. Scenery Editor

• 2. • We fixed the group rendering bug.
     • We are investigating various issues related to Projected Meshes.
  3. Aircraft Editor

• • • We fixed the corruption that could occur within CFG files when saving your project.

• WASM

• 1. We disabled some optimizations (no-signed-zeros, no-honor-infinities, no-honor-nans) initially activated in SU 5 as part of the fast-math option.
  2. We worked on a modified wasi-libc to mitigate the issues introduced by the three optimizations listed above.

 

3RD PARTY UPDATE

• As of August 2nd, we have now approved 205 (+0) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 115 (+0) have released 511 products on PC (+1) and 64 on Xbox (+64).
• In total, 1,212 products (+34) have already been released in 3rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 365 products (+4) from 3rd party developers are in production (231 announced, 134 unannounced). In total, over 1,577 3rd party products (+38) are either released or are in development.
• Airports:
  • 993 airports (+23) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 774 airports (+22) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 407 airports (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 108 airports (+1) beyond the released airports have been announced.
    • 111 airports (+0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
• Aircraft:
  • 190 aircraft (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 58 aircraft (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 35 aircraft (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 109 aircraft (+1) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
    • 23 aircraft (+0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
• Scenery:
  • 355 sceneries (+14) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 341 sceneries (+12) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 34 sceneries (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 14 sceneries (+2) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
• Mission Packs:
  • 39 mission packs (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 39 mission packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 4 mission packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.

 

MARKETPLACE UPDATES

There are no Marketplace updates today.

 

TWITCH UPDATE

We stream weekly on Twitch.tv/MSFSOfficial!

Join us for a community fly-in around the Southwestern United States as we explore Cliff Palace – Mesa Verde, Shiprock, Monument Valley, and more. Click here for more details.

 

COMMUNITY VIDEO

Are you a new flight sim pilot playing with an Xbox controller? Check out this video from YouTuber Squirrel for expert advice on how to improve your landings. With some practice, you’ll soon be “buttering the bread” like a pro pilot!

 

FEATURED FREEWARE MOD

As a follow-up to Friday’s Community Fly-In, we suggest visiting the majestic Grand Canyon. When planning your flight, consider using this freeware add-on from modder JustOkayPilot for Grand Canyon National Park Airport, KGCN.

 

SCREENSHOTS

This past week our Screenshot Challenge was Unique Landscapes! Would you like to see your screenshot featured? Join us in this week’s Screenshot Challenge: Monuments and Statues.

“Diavik Diamond Mine” – Screenshot by YusufWardana

 

“Dubai, UAE” – Screenshot by canuck695

 

“Bush flight” – Screenshot by GamingCat2130

 

“Greece” – Screenshot by gordongreig

 

“Somewhere in Madagascar” – Screenshot by thalixte

 

“Iran” – Screenshot by CD8TLympho1818

 

“Lanzarote, Canary Islands” – Screenshot by Hugothester

 

“Iceland” – Screenshot by SnagglePss68

 

Screenshot by ThrowawayShelf0

 

“South New Zealand” – Screenshot by Ju1ius2416

 

NEXT DEVELOPMENT UPDATE BLOG – August 12th, 2021

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Edited August 5, 2021 by ChaoticBeauty

[okupton 309]

I noticed add Beta version that players can test before patch.  Is this new?

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

Just now, okupton said:

I noticed add Beta version that players can test before patch.  Is this new?

It is not new, this request has been on the Feedback Snapshot for a very long while (maybe since October 2020). Since the France/Benelux World Update they've been letting in players into the beta builds (via a first-come-first-served system), and I presume this request will be complete when they create an opt-in beta branch.

[scotchegg 4,186]

3 minutes ago, okupton said:

I noticed add Beta version that players can test before patch.  Is this new?

Flagged as 'started' as well!

[okupton 309]

2 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

It is not new, this request has been on the Feedback Snapshot for a very long while (maybe since October 2020). Since the France/Benelux World Update they've been letting in players into the beta builds (via a first-come-first-served system), and I presume this request will be complete when they create an opt-in beta branch.

Got it.  I read it as they would be giving the option to update the sim for a time period vs mandatory updates, but I made that up apparently! 

[737_800 434]

They say in on of the Screenshots: "Intermitting Performance Spikes / Manipulators fixed in SU5". However I got this issues within SU5, do they mean this fix is coming with with the second hotfix?

[abrams_tank 7,419]

The hotfix is coming in "the next few business days"  Well, I guess it won't be today, Friday, if they word it that way.  Looks like Monday is more likely.

Edit: It could still be today. Jayne clarified in the official MSFS forums:

Quote

Still could be tomorrow, just didn’t have the exact timing yet!

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/official-discussion-august-5th-2021-development-update/436714/5

Edited August 6, 2021 by abrams_tank

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

🌲🌲🌲

[MikeyOnTheFlightDeck 193]

The fact that the updates and hotfixes are being rolled out progressively appears a pragmatic approach. Hopefully this will provide better awareness of the bugs that need fixing. My fingers are crossed as I’ve shelved MSFS until such time as it’s better again. 

[steve310002 1,198]

7 hours ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

will be released within the next few business days.

They had said Friday or Monday for the hotfix. The release date now appears to be more general. So in that case it could be next Tuesday or Wednesday as the weekend of course doesn't count as business days.

I would assume that they would know by now whether or not the hotfix would be released today, Friday, as was indicated on Wednesday this week as one of two possible days it might be released. Why not say then in the update 'early next week' or Monday or Tuesday next week instead of making us wonder is Friday still a possibility as had been said before? Based on everything we've seen before with Asobo's communications, I suppose we can forget about Friday being the hotfix release day then.

Communications 101, Asobo. It honestly makes me wonder at this stage how no one working there hasn't figured out the value and importance of clear communication especially when a considerable number of customers are waiting on the hotfix. 

Edited August 6, 2021 by steve310002

[Espana Pete 357]

I see that the Shiba Inu “Winglet” has been welcomed to the Community Team as of this week! 

A distinguishing characteristic of the breed is the so-called "shiba scream". When sufficiently provoked or unhappy, the dog will produce a loud, high-pitched scream.

Should feel at home here then!

[sanh 823]

1 hour ago, steve310002 said:

Communications 101, Asobo. It honestly makes me wonder at this stage how no one working there hasn't figured out the value and importance of clear communication especially when a considerable number of customers are waiting on the hotfix. 

Its difficult to do that. Perhaps they have tested and found no issues and plan to release today as planned and they go ahead and announce this. I guess that's the clear communication you want?

Then last minute they find a major bug and have to delay the release. Remember this is a patch put together quickly in a few days so it's always possible. Imagine the uproar it would cause. "Asobo lied to us! They said it was going to be Friday! How can we rely on them when they keep breaking promises!"

These are the responses they got when they last pulled a release.

So I think Asobo are doing the right thing. Never commit to a date unless you really have to!

Edited August 6, 2021 by sanh

[steve310002 1,198]

6 minutes ago, sanh said:

Never commit to a date unless you really have to!

Then don't say Friday or Monday on Wednesday, and then on Thursday night say 'in the next few business days' ignoring the fact that the afformentioned Friday is only a few hours away from when the communications update was released.

Look I can obviously deal with waiting; what I don't particularly like is poor communications and setting false expectations.

 

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

4 hours ago, 737_800 said:

They say in on of the Screenshots: "Intermitting Performance Spikes / Manipulators fixed in SU5". However I got this issues within SU5, do they mean this fix is coming with with the second hotfix?

That thread hasn't been active in months I think. If Sim Update 5 brought the issue back, a new thread should be created.

1 hour ago, steve310002 said:

They had said Friday or Monday for the hotfix. The release date now appears to be more general. So in that case it could be next Tuesday or Wednesday as the weekend of course doesn't count as business days.

As noted above, Jayne said it could still be today but she didn't have a definitive day yet. It's a rather complex hotfix compared to previous ones so perhaps it's taking a bit longer to complete than expected.

Also I suspect they specifically said "business days" in order to make it clear that it won't be released during the weekend if not today. In the official forums there are people demanding Asobo to work over the weekend to fix the issues.

[Espana Pete 357]

37 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

In the official forums there are people demanding Asobo to work over the weekend to fix the issues.

sacré bleu!