August 3, 2023 MSFS Development Update

[David Mills 4,134]

AUGUST 3RD, 2023 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

Posted by: Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

This week’s Screenshot Challenge winner is Twitter user 2525ARW, taken flying above the Assumption of Maria Church in Slovenia. If you’re interested in participating in our weekly Screenshot Challenges, check out the details in the Community section below!

The development team is currently hard at work preparing the first beta build of Sim Update 13 (SU_13), the next major release for Microsoft Flight Simulator. If you were enrolled in previous public tests and didn’t manually opt-out, the SU_13 beta build will be automatically installed for you as soon as it is available. If you did not take part in previous betas but would like to help test SU_13, we will provide instructions on how to join the beta when the public testing period begins.

Recently, we have seen some questions from players asking about the status of the Scenery Gateway System, which the Development Roadmap stated would be released with World Update XIV last week. Unfortunately, this did not happen. The Scenery Gateway is currently undergoing accessibility and privacy requirement reviews, and while we were hopeful these reviews would be complete in time for a launch with World Update XIV, they remain ongoing. We are currently targeting the Scenery Gateway System to release alongside the launch of Sim Update 13 in September, although this may change depending on how the accessibility and privacy reviews progress.

Yesterday, the Xbox team announced the lineup of titles that will be appearing at gamescom, the world’s largest gaming event, in Cologne, Germany from August 24-27. Attendees at gamescom will have the opportunity of hands-on experience with the latest content coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator! If you’re attending gamescom, be sure to stop by the Xbox booth in Hall 8 of the Koelnmesse, North entrance and say hello to the team!

For gamescom attendees and those who will be in or near the Cologne area on August 26, we are hosting a small community event for Microsoft Flight Simulator fans. Space will be limited, so please complete this form to express your interest in attending this event!

Finally, to third party developers, you may have noticed that the DevSupport forum migrated to a new software platform today. The web address remains unchanged, and you should have received an email advising you how to login to the new platform.

– MSFS Team

 

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	1	2	36
Mission	14	24	8	0	46
Scenery	0	1	3	0	4
Livery	24	8	6	0	38
Airport	39	14	7	0	60
Other	40	12	0	0	52
Total	139	70	25	2	236

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	28	9	4	0	41
Mission	0	0	0	0	0
Scenery	9	1	1	0	11
Livery	6	4	0	0	10
Airport	17	16	8	0	41
Other	2	0	1	0	3
Total	62	30	14	0	106

SDK & THIRD PARTY UPDATES

The SDK and Third Party Updates will return in a future Development Update blog.

 

COMMUNITY FLY-IN

Last week we released World Update XIV: Central Eastern Europe! To celebrate the release of this new World Update, our Community Fly-In event this week will be a trip along Croatia’s beautiful Dalmatian Coast!

Our flight will depart from LDRI and see us fly on a generally southbound heading to the cities of Split and Dubrovnik. Along the way, we will pass several of the new POIs introduced with World Update 14 including Nehaj Fortress, Stari Maslenicki, Krka Bridge, St. Nicholas’s Fortress, Fortress Kamerlengo, Star Village Mosor, Stolac Fortress, and more!

For the best experience, make sure you have installed WU14 from the in-sim Marketplace prior to this event.

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

COMMUNITY VIDEO

Princess Juliana International Airport (TNCM) in Sint Maarten remains a very popular destination for beachgoing tourists, planespotters, and sim pilots alike. So popular is this airport among aviation enthusiasts that the Microsoft Flight Simulator team added an updated bespoke version of TNCM as part of last year’s 40th Anniversary Edition release.

Recently on YouTube, Alpha Originals re-created a real-world flight to Princess Juliana: a seven-hour voyage in a KLM Boeing 747-8 from Amsterdam. You can watch a highlight reel showing the best parts of this flight in our featured Community Video this week. Check it out!

 

SCREENSHOT CHALLENGE

You can submit your screenshot via Twitter with #MSFSchallenge or the Weekly Forum Post! This week’s screenshot challenge: Circles, Squares, and Triangles

This past week’s Screenshot Challenge was “Central Eastern Europe“!

Weekly Screenshot Challenge Winner: 2525ARW (Twitter)

Screenshot by CpuGeta486 (Twitter)

Screenshot by DrCsany (Forum)

Screenshot by ExplorerJB (Forum)

Screenshot by HolmesCZ6127 (Forum)

Screenshot by iNeedKelp (Forum)

Screenshot by IronWings_VP (Twitter)

Screenshot by IsakWold (Forum)

Screenshot by KotetuP (Twitter)

Screenshot by ukaka5656 (Twitter)

Screenshot by ZILLNIAZI17 (Forum)

---

NEXT DEVELOPMENT BLOG UPDATE – August 10th, 2023

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Edited August 3 by David Mills

[polosim 663]

A few minutes ago I thought: "Today is Thursday again, will we have good news in the development update this week?" GAMESCOM 2023, noted. 
Thanks @David Mills , As always, doing a great job bringing the news to this forum.

[David Mills 4,134]

I read with great fascination Asobo's comments about the upcoming Gamescom 2023 in late August! It seems Asobo will be showcasing the upcoming new features to "Microsoft Flight Simulator." They didn't specifically say MSFS2024, but I assume that's what they mean. So @lwt1971, we might be getting that new information very soon!

[cmpbellsjc 2,943]

@David Mills Thanks for the update. It’s pined 🌲

[AnkH 2,033]

Where is the lifetime bug list and wishlist in this update?

[bobcat999 7,644]

1 hour ago, AnkH said:

Where is the lifetime bug list and wishlist in this update?

It is being reformatted to carry it over to MSFS2024 - no big deal!  

[SamYeager 244]

8 hours ago, David Mills said:

I read with great fascination Asobo's comments about the upcoming Gamescom 2023 in late August! It seems Asobo will be showcasing the upcoming new features to "Microsoft Flight Simulator." They didn't specifically say MSFS2024, but I assume that's what they mean. 

I must admit I just assumed that meant they would be showing a version with Sim 13 included but maybe you're correct.

[lwt1971 5,831]

11 hours ago, David Mills said:

I read with great fascination Asobo's comments about the upcoming Gamescom 2023 in late August! It seems Asobo will be showcasing the upcoming new features to "Microsoft Flight Simulator." They didn't specifically say MSFS2024, but I assume that's what they mean. So @lwt1971, we might be getting that new information very soon!

Hopefully!, On that last dev video update Jorg mentioned something coming around the Gamescom timeframe that he is "very happy" about. Maybe it's something for v2020, but surely they can at least drop another trailer for v2024 🙂
 

Edited August 4 by lwt1971

[pstrub 967]

On 8/4/2023 at 2:16 PM, lwt1971 said:

On that last dev video update Jorg mentioned something coming around the Gamescom timeframe that he is "very happy" about.

Maybe it's the announcement that MSFS 2024 is coming for Christmas 2023 😂

TBH, based on the remarks they made so far, I have to admit this is pretty far fetched and I suppose we have to wait at least till summer 2024.

On the other hand, FS98 was released in 1997, FS2000 in 1999, FS2002 in 2001 and FS2004 in 2003... 

Edited August 7 by pstrub

[bobcat999 7,644]

56 minutes ago, pstrub said:

Maybe the announcement that MSFS 2024 is coming for Christmas 2023 😂

...

On the other hand, FS98 was released in 1997, FS2000 in 1999, FS2002 in 2001 and FS2004 in 2003... 

You may joke, but looking at the announcement video, it seemed fairly well complete at a graphical level, and maybe most of the background code is from MSFS2020 anyway, (might just require a few tweaks), so I think there is actually a chance of seeing it this year if things are going well.

Plus the fact that MSFS2020 is carrying a certain amount of baggage with it now, and they seem to be finding it hard to fix or don't want to waste the effort on.
I expect MSFS2024 to be fully DX12 from the start, so that should take care of that part!  

Edited August 7 by bobcat999

[pstrub 967]

55 minutes ago, bobcat999 said:

You may joke, but looking at the announcement video, it seemed fairly well complete at a graphical level, and maybe most of the background code is from MSFS2020 anyway, (might just require a few tweaks), so I think there is actually a chance of seeing it this year if things are going well.

Plus the fact that MSFS2020 is carrying a certain amount of baggage with it now they they seem to be finding hard to fix or don't want to waste the effort on.
I expect MSFS2024 to be fully DX12 from the start, so that should take care of that part!  

Looking at the videos, it certainly seems like MSFS2024 isn't that far from release - but we had the same impression graphically when MSFS2020 was first announced in June 2019 😂. Admittedly, I'm convinced that the foundation for FS2024 is a lot more solid now than it was for FS2020 at release, but we all know how long it takes to fix the last 20% of issues after things look pretty good already.

My impression that it might not release before mid 2024 is mostly based on some details Jörg and Seb said in various videos, plus reading between the lines. I can't point my finger to anything specific, but my feeling is that mid 2024 is the timeframe they were hinting at. But who knows, their vagueness about the release date might be deliberate so they can still surprise us - by releasing earlier than expected (or later 😆)

Anyway, I wasn't entirely joking, but I wasn't really serious either. A 2023 release doesn't look impossible to me, but at this point it's probably more wishful thinking than anything else.

Edited August 7 by pstrub

[Tuskin38 5,831]

Well the 2024 trailer said at the end that it's coming next year. Not when next year, just next year.

Edited August 8 by Tuskin38

[MarcG 2,460]

The later in 2024 the better, gives them more time to iron out bugs & issues before release <he says expectantly>

[pstrub 967]

8 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

Well the 2024 trailer said at the end that it's coming next year. Not when next year, just next year.

ahhh thanks! That's where my feeling came from 😉