JULY 27TH, 2023 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

Posted by: Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

This week’s Screenshot Challenge winner is Twitter user CpuGeta486. If you’re interested in participating in our weekly Screenshot Challenges, check out the details in the Community section below!

In case you missed it, we played a pre-recorded Developer video during our Community Fly-In Friday livestream last week. During this segment, we addressed upcoming changes to Microsoft Flight Simulator including an overview of some of the improvements coming with Sim Update 13 and a brief update on the white dot and white avionics border bugs. If you didn’t see the video during the livestream, you can watch it on YouTube here:

This week was a busy one for the Microsoft Flight Simulator team with three new releases! On Monday, we launched Bullseye Landing, a new landing challenge we created in collaboration with Red Bull. In Bullseye Landing, sim pilots can attempt to land a CubCrafters Carbon Cub on the helipad of the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubia just like real Red Bull aerobatic pilot Luke Czepiela of Poland! Bullseye Landing is available now as a free download from the in-sim Marketplace.

On Tuesday, we launched World Update 14: Central Eastern Europe. This free update includes new POIs, TIN cities, bespoke airports, Discovery Flights, Landing Challenges, and Bush Trips for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia. World Update 14 can be downloaded now from the in-sim Marketplace.

Releasing alongside World Update 14 was the latest entry in our Local Legends series of aircraft, the Aero Vodochody Ae-45 and Ae-145. This beautiful twin engine plane from Czechoslovakia made its first flight in 1947. Its unique cockpit design provides pilots with outstanding visibility. Local Legend 11: Aero Vodochody Ae-45 / Ae-145 is available now from the in-sim Marketplace.

– MSFS Team

 

FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

Click here for the web-friendly version of the Feedback Snapshot.

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

Click here for the web-friendly version of the Development Roadmap.

MARKETPLACE BACKLOG

Current Backlog: 356 Total

We are changing our backlog view to reflect testing status for each content type.

BACKLOG: NEW PRODUCTS

	Testing Status
Content Type	Initial Processing and Validation by MS	Handed off to 3P for Functional Testing	Functional Testing in Progress by 3P	Functional Testing Signed off by 3P	Total
Aircraft	22	11	5	2	40
Mission	20	16	8	0	44
Scenery	2	2	4	2	10
Livery	16	10	8	4	38
Airport	38	15	7	6	66
Other	35	12	0	10	57
Total	133	66	32	24	255

 

BACKLOG: UPDATED PRODUCTS

	Testing Status
Content Type	Initial Processing and Validation by MS	Handed off to 3P for Functional Testing	Functional Testing in Progress by 3P	Functional Testing Signed off by 3P	Total
Aircraft	13	14	3	0	30
Mission	0	0	0	0	0
Scenery	4	0	1	0	5
Livery	10	6	4	0	20
Airport	11	19	5	4	39
Other	2	2	3	0	7
Total	40	41	16	4	101

 

SDK UPDATE

WORKING TITLE / MSFS AVIONICS FRAMEWORK

• The latest version of the Avionics Framework is available including NPM packages for AAU_02 updates.
• Check out MSFS Avionics Source Code Mirror to access the latest Avionics Framework source code.
• Find documentation about the avionics framework here: MSFS Avionics Frameworks and Instruments.
• Upcoming framework updates:
  • Adding JSX support for binding an intrinsic element’s style attribute to a SubscribableMap<string, string>.  (AAU_03)
  • Fixing a bug with FSComponent where text and subscribables added directly as children of fragments would not be rendered to the DOM. (AAU_03)
  • Adding new heading sync capability to the framework autopilot to support systems that have an enhanced heading sync function such as the Garmin G3000. (AAU_03)
  • Adding generic payload management interface to the framework. (AAU_03)

 

THIRD PARTY UPDATE

• As of 07/24, we have now approved 215 (+0) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 196 (+0) have released 2,458 products on PC (+34) and 2,167 on Xbox (+33).
• In total, 3,421products(+47) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 735 products (+4) from 3^rd party developers are in production (356 announced, 379 unannounced). In total, over 4,153 3^rd party products (+48) have either been released or are in development.
• Airports:
  • 2,059 airports (+17) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 1,825 airports (+18) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 1,302 airports (+24) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 125 airports (-2) beyond the released airports have been announced.
    • 109 airports (+1) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
• Aircraft:
  • 634 aircraft (+8) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 270 aircraft (+3) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 205 aircraft (+4) have been released in the in-sim PC marketplace.
    • 186 aircraft (+2) have been released in the in-sim Xbox marketplace.
    • 208 aircraft (-2) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
    • 156 aircraft (+7) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
• Scenery:
  • 945 scenery packs (+3) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 914 scenery packs (+11) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 472 scenery packs (+12) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 21 scenery packs (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
    • 10 scenery packs (-8) are not announced but the dev let us know that scenery is in production
• Mission Packs:
  • 192 mission packs (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 176 mission packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 115 mission packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.
    • 19 mission packs (+3) are not announced, but the dev let us know that they are in production.
• Livery Packs:
  • 288 livery packs (+20) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 211 livery packs (+16) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 205 livery packs (+14) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 1 livery pack (+0) beyond the released scenery has been announced.
    • 76 livery packs (+5) are not announced, but the dev let us know that scenery is in production.
• Ships & Watercraft:
  • 35 ships & watercraft (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 25 ships & watercraft (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 19 ships & watercraft (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 1 ships & watercraft (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
    • 9 ships & watercraft (+0) are not announced, but dev let us know that scenery is in production

 

COMMUNITY FLY-IN

This week is EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, the world’s largest fly-in and gathering of aviation enthusiasts! In celebration of this event, our Community Fly-In this week will be a cross country trip from Meigs Field to KOSH.

Our flight plan will be of a slightly shorter duration than normal this week so we can take in the sights of Oshkosh and enjoy watching sim pilots land at what is temporarily the world’s busiest airport.

Event details are available here. All are welcome to participate!

COMMUNITY VIDEO

The Microsoft Flight Simulator team has been enjoying watching players from the community attempt the new Bullseye Landing challenge this week. Japanese YouTuber RyotaSim documented his journey from multiple failed attempts to a successful landing with this video. Please note that the narration is in Japanese, but subtitles in multiple languages including English, German, Chinese, and Korean can be enabled.

SCREENSHOT CHALLENGE

You can submit your screenshot via Twitter with #MSFSchallenge or the Weekly Forum Post! This week’s screenshot challenge: Central Eastern Europe

This past week’s Screenshot Challenge was “Bush Flying“!

Weekly Screenshot Challenge Winner: CpuGeta486 (Twitter)

Screenshot by 2525ARW (Twitter)

Screenshot by AlphaSierra5534 (Forum)

Screenshot by AN2Felllla (Forum)

Screenshot by EejayX (Forum)

Screenshot by HeKa48 (Forum)

Screenshot by iNeedKelp (Forum)

Screenshot by MihamaBlend (Twitter)

Screenshot by ukaka5656 (Twitter)

Screenshot by ZILLNIAZI17 (Forum)

Screenshot by zkd0s (Forum)

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NEXT DEVELOPMENT BLOG UPDATE – August 3rd, 2023

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Edited July 28, 20232 yr by David Mills

If you look carefully at this week's Screenshot Challenge winners, you'll see something very strange indeed! In more than half of the screen captures, the trees shown are not the current trees found within MSFS. Also, in two of the captures, there is seasonal color variation, also not a current feature of MSFS. These particular screen captures look far more like the default scenery shown for MSFS2024 than the default scenery in MSFS2020. If a beta has been released for MSFS2024, it has been a successfully guarded secret. I'd like to hear speculation here.

3 minutes ago, David Mills said:

. Also, in two of the captures, there is seasonal color variation, also not a current feature of MSFS.

Probably just using season addons.

If it was 2024 the trees would be 3D.

Edited July 28, 20232 yr by Tuskin38

6 hours ago, David Mills said:

..."and a brief update on the white dot and white avionics border bugs"...

..."which we didn't apologise for because saying 'sorry' for including game affecting issues in a public build after failing to deal with them during beta isn't in our vocabulary"

I mean yep it's great they're taking months to work on basic mouse related issues, but a simple slice of an apology goes a long way. Your team made yet another regression Jorg, open your eyes.

Edited July 28, 20232 yr by MarcG

Interesting, they still show the bug counter from July 20th, not the actual one from July 27th. If I would not know it better, I would say they are on an agenda here, because now snow coverage would have made it on this list thanks to some votes in the last week. 

6 hours ago, David Mills said:

If you look carefully at this week's Screenshot Challenge winners, you'll see something very strange indeed! In more than half of the screen captures, the trees shown are not the current trees found within MSFS. Also, in two of the captures, there is seasonal color variation, also not a current feature of MSFS. These particular screen captures look far more like the default scenery shown for MSFS2024 than the default scenery in MSFS2020. If a beta has been released for MSFS2024, it has been a successfully guarded secret. I'd like to hear speculation here.

I noticed some of the trees do look great (The picture with the Comanche for example), but this can be achieved by current means in MSFS2020, including the seasonal changes, by using packs such as Bijans tree pack and REX AccuSeason (Which I use). 

One of the main benefits to me from AccuSeason is that you can shrink the trees down to 75%, a sizing issue which Asobo have acknowledged and said will be dealt with in MSFS2024.

43 minutes ago, bobcat999 said:

shrink the trees down to 75%, a sizing issue which Asobo have acknowledged

must be a climate change thing. like they did during the MSFS beta after many complaints they acknowledged it and finally replied "we cut the grass". imagine the work load, world wide. temporarily they had 200 people working on MSFS cutting the grass alone.

48 minutes ago, bobcat999 said:

  you can shrink the trees down to 75%, a sizing issue which Asobo have acknowledged and said will be dealt with in MSFS2024.

and they did nothing ? Is it so complicated ? 

1 hour ago, Dominique_K said:

and they did nothing ? Is it so complicated ? 

In FSX, there was a freeware download to clear trees within a given distance of the ends of runways, globally I think. 

This is one of my pet annoyances in MSFS.  Sometimes the trees are so tall at the end of the runways they actually obscure the piano keys on approach. 
The REX AccuSeason 75% scaling trick does help, but it still isn't perfect. 

Still so many basics to get right.  Glad they are looking at airport approach lighting at least, but maybe they could come up with a global tree exclusion at the ends of the runways as well.
And stop the runway / taxiway signs popping into view.  They could at least push the pop-up out to twice the distance.  I can't see it affecting performance that much if they did, even on the beloved Xbox! 

It wouldn't hurt to give DX12 a quick update as well, now that a lot of people need to use it to get frame generation on the 40xx series cards.
It's a shame Steve isn't still around.  He would have cured the missing runway / taxi tile thing within a week with his DX fixer program.  
The work he did on FSX DirectX issues which MicroSoft left unfinished was amazing for one man.

Edited July 28, 20232 yr by bobcat999

21 minutes ago, bobcat999 said:

 

This is one of my pet annoyances in MSFS. 

They are on a strategy to constantly feed us wit new stuff, sometimes (not always) half baked, and mostly forget about them. The sim core is wonderful and has been significantly improved since release  (except for the scenery) but so many little things are aggravating. 

My personal pet peeve is the overexposed imagery looking out of the cockpit 🙂. 

21 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

the overexposed imagery looking out of the cockpit

and the overexposed cockpit inside while flying through the clouds.

One of the upcoming updates that called my attention was the work, by the WT team, on the piston / reciprocating engine models... I really hope they finally address the historical "Leaning Bug" !!!

I honestly am not sure it was present before that but the first time I noticed it was in FS5.0a, one of the best releases of FS5, around 1993.

The bug manifests itself by an initial increase in Fuel Flow as you start leaning, and it grows with pressure altitude. Above 4000' it is more than obvious - you can see the FF initially increasing and only after a while, as you lean further, starting to decrease... The higher you are, the longer the growth in FF before it starts decreasing, as it should right from the start.

More sophisticated aircraft and developers found ways around it, starting with gauge programming, but if the native reciprocating model is used then it always affects aircraft performance.

Edited July 28, 20232 yr by jcomm

6 minutes ago, jcomm said:

One of the upcoming updates that called my attention was the work, by the WT team, on the piston / reciprocating engine models... I really hope they finally address the historical "Leaning Bug" !!!

Yes, mixture definitely needs looking at.  Also, they have the A2A pad to use as a benchmark now on 'per cylinder' simulation.  Here's hoping!  

Joking of course, but WT like to dig deep, so you never know.

Edited July 28, 20232 yr by bobcat999