Possibly in SU 13 (September)

 

 

Yes, this will be super.

This is great. I don’t know how much time I spend trying to find relevant scenery and airport updates for where I’m flying on flightsim.to. It would be so much better if you knew all the latest scenery mods were essentially “included” in the sim.

The only issue is that it sounds like it only supports built-in objects which I gather means contributors won’t be able to add custom modelled POIs or buildings? That would be a bummer.

Is this really coming in September? If so, by the time MSFS 2024 lands, the database of third party improvements should be pretty compelling. 

Edited August 15, 20232 yr by Virtual-Chris

Maybe most the "moderators" may be volunteers working for free. Otherwise, I don't see how Asobo can afford to have a staff of moderators checking thousands of little changes every month. Like removing a few trees or ghost images of planes on the ground.

On the other hand, if the moderators are volunteers, then they can't be all talking to each other and there will be conflicts. One guy adding attractive trees and one guy removing trees as obstacles. 

2 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

 

The only issue is that it sounds like it only supports built-in objects which I gather means contributors won’t be able to add custom modelled POIs or buildings? That would be a bummer.

Pretty sure that's how it works in XPLANE as well, and the airports in that are pretty good. Generally I've been more impressed with XP default airports over MSFS default (with exception of those that are "high detail")...

 

G

I am not a developer, but I am glad they are protecting 3rd party developers by locking it down to include in-sim assets only.

It will also keep the file sizes down. Imaging if every airport in the world had unique graphic files.

12 minutes ago, espent said:

I am not a developer, but I am glad they are protecting 3rd party developers by locking it down to include in-sim assets only.

It will also keep the file sizes down. Imaging if every airport in the world had unique graphic files.

I'm not sure I understand how locking out custom assets protects 3rd party developers?

The problem with not supporting unique graphics assets, is that the value of this solutions is extremely limited.  It means we still need to juggle massive freeware and payware scenery libraries manually.  For example, if I'm flying to Vancouver, I need to go to Flightsim.to and download several scenery items to fix the airport lighting, bridges, port, marinas, etc... and all of those include custom graphics. Why can't these freeware scenery items be embedded in the sim?  It wouldn't be hurting anyone. Payware scenery could still exist alongside this.

And data set sizes would increase but no worse than it is today with scenery files... and assets would presumably only be loaded when needed.

They at least need a way for new assets to be added to the sim. For example, if someone builds a good container crane, or high voltage tower, that should become a standard asset that could be used by any 3rd party scenery developer to add to their updates to the sim scenery.

Edited August 15, 20232 yr by Virtual-Chris

Even using the available assets this will be a huge improvement. If nothing else, just getting those blue lights out of the middle of taxiways! I did over 100 airports in X-Plane and plan to do the same in MSFS. I literally went to Wikipedia and found a list of all the airports in my state and started doing them and checking off the list. If only a handful of people are interested and do this imagine how much better the default airports would be. Looking forward to this finally becoming a reality and hope it runs as smoothly as it does in XP.

Hopefully when this is implemented it's well thought out/designed so there are no conflicts with adjacent or nearby scenery etc.