August 19th, 2021 - Development Update

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

AUGUST 19TH, 2021 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

Posted by: Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Screenshot by MrGoose5897

 

In order to ensure that World Update 6 reaches a very high level of quality, we have decided to move back the release date to September 7th. We are very excited about this update as it features many enhancements to the region, including new aerials and elevation maps, new photogrammetry cities, 4 hand-crafted airports , nearly 100 POIs and new discovery flights, landing challenges, and bush trips. It’s a ton of content and we want to make sure that it will be great. In the meantime, here are some highlights from the World Update 6 release notes:

STABILITY

-Several crashes have been fixed across the title

NAVIGATION

-Fixed ATC radar altitude so the ATC no longer asks you to change your altitude when it is not applicable
-The VFR Map now displays information for latitudes beyond 75 degrees
-New ARINC cycle 2108 is now available

ACTIVITY

-Fixed crash in autosave in bushtrip missions when the user has a non-ASCII name

PLANES

-SR22 performance and fuel consumption has been modified to better match POH
-Gyro Drift is now correctly set when Aircraft Systems assistance preset is set to Easy / Medium / Hard

WORLD

-“Offscreen terrain pre caching” graphics settings has been added (Low, Medium, High and Ultra). If set to Ultra, all the offscreen terrain will be cached at full quality which will reduce FPS drops and LOD popping when panning the camera but may impact overall performance
-Maximum photogrammetry draw distance has been further increased. As a result, photogrammetry of downtown building areas will be visible from farther away
-Cities at night are now more visible on the World map

VR

-The title no longer crashes when quitting the sim in VR
-Various tutorial fixes: briefs and debriefs are properly displayed, players can complete all the objectives in VR now

SDK

-Fixed group displaying issue in the scenery editor
-Projected Mesh not rendered when moving camera or adding new one in the Scenery editor (we force the loading of LOD 0)
-Improved some text rendering for XML gauges
-Plane debug screens now correctly calculate and display GPH/gallon per hour fuel consumptions (DebugAircraftEngines & DebugAircraftTracking)

 

Full release notes will be released with the update on September 7th.

– The MSFS team

 

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
  • The team is on vacation this week.

 

3RD PARTY UPDATE

• As of 08/15, we have now approved 206 (+1) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 115 (+0) have released 518 products on PC (+5) and 73 on Xbox (+8).
• In total, 1,241 products (+17) have already been released in 3rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 363 products (-4) from 3rd party developers are in production (229 announced, 134 unannounced). In total, over 1,604 3rd party products (+13) are either released or are in development.
• Airports:
  • 1013 airports (+8) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 796 airports (+13) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 425 airports (+18) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 106 airports (-5) 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 (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 58 aircraft (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 37 aircraft (+2) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 109 aircraft (+0) 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:
  • 362 sceneries (+5) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 348 sceneries (+4) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 35 sceneries (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 14 sceneries (+1) 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

New and updated Marketplace items will be added tomorrow, August 20th.

 

TWITCH UPDATE

We stream weekly on Twitch.tv/MSFSOfficial!

Join us for a community fly-in to celebrate 1-year of our PC release with a flight to Asobo Studio. Click here for more details.

 

COMMUNITY VIDEO

For the one year anniversary of our launch on PC, we can’t think of a better video to share with you than this documentary about the creation of Microsoft Flight Simulator from Noclip. Go behind the scenes and learn how the teams at Microsoft and Asobo Studio brought together various technologies including Bing Maps, AI machine learning, and Azure Cloud Services to build a faithful 1:1 scale digital replica of our world.

 

FEATURED FREEWARE MOD

As described in the Noclip documentary, in 2015 Microsoft and Asobo collaborated on an augmented reality project for HoloLens where users could virtually visit a few well-known landmarks. Inspired by the success of that project, the team then wondered if they could expand the scope to the entire planet. From that idea, Microsoft Flight Simulator was born. One of the virtual locations created for the HoloLens project was Machu Picchu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located high in the Peruvian Andes. Modder MSFSItalia has created a freeware scenery add-on for Machu Picchu. You can download it from flightsim.to at this link.

 

SCREENSHOTS

This past week our Screenshot Challenge was Highlands! Would you like to see your screenshot featured? Join us in this week’s Screenshot Challenge: Your First Flight.

 Screenshot by SnagglePss68

 

Screenshot by RaptorX6935

 

Screenshot by Quinnlann

 

Screenshot by zerch00

 

Screenshot by sehnsedahamses

 

Screenshot by gopensgo291

 

Screenshot by Vikii89

 

Screenshot by Palemka

 

Screenshot by Filippo20032222

 

 Screenshot by CuzDawg3

 

NEXT DEVELOPMENT UPDATE BLOG – August 26th, 2021

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Edited August 19, 2021 by ChaoticBeauty

[pmb 5,138]

Add Beta Version Players Can Enable Before Patch - started!

Kind regards, Michael

[abrams_tank 7,490]

4 minutes ago, pmb said:

Add Beta Version Players Can Enable Before Patch - started!

Kind regards, Michael

It’s about time they implemented an “opt in” beta!  This should help them find bugs and get more feedback from the community before a patch goes live.

Also, I liked that they pushed back the update to September 7th.  We just want a stable update.

[Tuskin38 6,686]

This delay explains why the next Q&A is September 8th

[Bert Pieke 7,594]

Pretty amazing screenshots...  🙂

[ADamiani 470]

15 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

Posted by: Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

In order to ensure that World Update 6 reaches a very high level of quality, we have decided to move back the release date to September 7th.

Great. I already like this.

 

15 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

 

STABILITY

-Several crashes have been fixed across the title

This is strange. Instabilities were supposed to be simmers' fault.

Turns out the title is actually responsible for several crashes. Go figure!

15 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

WORLD

-“Offscreen terrain pre caching” graphics settings has been added (Low, Medium, High and Ultra). If set to Ultra, all the offscreen terrain will be cached at full quality which will reduce FPS drops and LOD popping when panning the camera but may impact overall performance

Lovely. Exactly what we were asking for.

15 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

-Maximum photogrammetry draw distance has been further increased. As a result, photogrammetry of downtown building areas will be visible from farther away

Great. Hopefully with some slider to set, for the benefit of those without a 3090 (like me:-))

Looks pretty good to me 🙂

A.

[Dominique_K 10,152]

A WU and a SU in September ? Are they running amok 🤣? 

And what about the « little » things, like the overbearing toolbar which doesn't want to hide anymore  or the repetitive lightnings ?  
 

[pmb 5,138]

“Offscreen terrain pre caching” is a bit unclear to me. Obviously, this refers to looking around. However, I doubt they will pre-cache scenery in Africa while I'm flying in Germany, although formally it's offscreen as well. 

Kind regards, Michael

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

3 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

A WU and a SU in September ? Are they running amok 🤣? 

And what about the « little » things, like the overbearing toolbar which doesn't want to hide anymore  or the repetitive lightnings ?  
 

Or the rubbish AA in VR with awful shimmering. 

[SAPilot 213]

2 minutes ago, pmb said:

“Offscreen terrain pre caching” is a bit unclear to me. Obviously, this refers to looking around. However, I doubt they will pre-cache scenery in Africa while I'm flying in Germany, although formally it's offscreen as well. 

Kind regards, Michael

Don't think so. Probably a certain radius around your current position and a little beyond the horizon .. Just guessing here now ..

[GeoSkyman 59]

What about popping up textures and every time you pan the camera drop in FPS? What about sim friezes and lots of stutters? Are the mentioned anything about?

[Dominique_K 10,152]

Just now, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Or the rubbish AA in VR with awful shimmering. 

Shimmering too indeed and not only in VR ! Not a flight without  some detestable shimmering over small towns in the distance.  

[pstrub 998]

1 minute ago, georgiosgiannoukos said:

What about popping up textures and every time you pan the camera drop in FPS?

That's what “Offscreen terrain pre caching”  is about, as far as I understand it.

 

[abrams_tank 7,490]

3 minutes ago, georgiosgiannoukos said:

What about popping up textures and every time you pan the camera drop in FPS?

They literally address that in the Development update today. Read more carefully.

[Maxis 1,889]

Well the screenshots look ok.

Glad to see that the draw distance is getting extended and the ATC altitude issue is getting fixed. Also glad to see the ability to increase the off screen terrain pre cache. 

I guess ill keep toiling with the FBW a320 and fly in between flight levels (to keep atc happy) at night till this WU drops.

Also looking forward for the onslaught of people who are going to complain about performance deg when they try to max out that terrain pre cache slider.

Edited August 19, 2021 by Maxis