November 2, 2023 MSFS Development Update

[David Mills 4,774]

NOVEMBER 2ND 2023, DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

Posted by: Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

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

We started the week by launching a pre-release test build (1.35.13.0) of the upcoming Sim Update 14. If you’d like to read a list of the bug fixes and other improvements in this build, please see our forum post here.

Thank you to all the volunteer community members who have enrolled in the beta and helped identify bugs and issues! If you would like to opt in to the pre-release test, you can find instructions here.  The beta is open to all players on PC/MS Store, PC/Steam, and Xbox Series X|S.

The biggest issue we have noted from SU_14 testers so far is a regression that was causing Assistance settings to reset to default whenever launching the sim. The dev team has identified the cause of this bug and will resolve it in a future SU_14 beta build.

On Tuesday, we launched the latest aircraft from our Famous Flyers series: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries MU-2. Created by developer iniBuilds, this beautiful twin engine turboprop from Japan is sure to provide sim pilots with a thrilling flying experience.

 

 

Coming up next week are two more new releases! World Update 15: Northern Europe & Greenland and Local Legend 13: Saab B 17. Both are scheduled to launch on Tuesday, November 7. Also launching on Tuesday alongside the new World Update will be improved versions of both World Update 11: Canada and World Update 12: New Zealand.

All these releases and more are noted in the newly-updated Development Roadmap below. Another highlight on the Roadmap is our next Developer Livestream! This event will be broadcast on our Twitch channel starting at 10:30am PT (1830 UTC) on November 29th. Stay tuned for more information about how you can submit questions in advance to our panel of Jorg, Seb, Martial, and special guests.

In community news, the annual flight simulator community charity event WorldFlight will take place between November 4-11, 2023. We’ve just released a new Community Spotlight article highlighting this event!

Community Manager Matt “Chewwy” visited one of the WorldFlight teams to get a behind-the-scenes look at their custom Boeing 747-400 cockpit build which uses authentic parts from retired jetliners and three instances of Microsoft Flight Simulator to provide over 200 degrees of visuals outside the windows.

 

– 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 UPDATE

Among the new releases to the Marketplace this week is the highly-anticipated FSR500 turboprop from developer FSReborn!

Bringing this aircraft to Microsoft Flight Simulator has been a work of passion for the team at FSReborn, and everything in this add-on has been made with love and attention to detail. The FSR500 is a high-fidelity aircraft with great system depth allowing core simmers to closely follow real-world procedures, but it is also intuitive, highly configurable, and fun to fly.

The FSR500 was developed using the latest tools available in Microsoft Flight Simulator, including the latest Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) flight modelling. The development of the FSR500 was made in partnership with pilots who fly single engine turboprops of a similar specification in real-life, and the aircraft is as faithful as possible to the systems and performance typical for this class of light pressurized cabin single-engine turboprops.

To learn more about flying this exciting new plane, check out the tutorial video below:

Click here for the web-friendly version of the Marketplace Update.

There are 82 new and 54 updated products in today’s Marketplace Update.

MARKETPLACE BACKLOG

Current Backlog: 445 Total

BACKLOG: NEW PRODUCTS

	Testing Status
Content Type	Initial Processing and Validation by MS	Testing in Progress by MS	Testing in Progress by 3P	Total
Aircraft	55	13	10	78
Mission	6	2	42	50
Scenery	5	15	8	28
Livery	28	10	16	54
Airport	29	15	21	65
Other	21	13	16	50
Total	144	68	113	325

 

BACKLOG: UPDATED PRODUCTS

	Testing Status
Content Type	Initial Processing and Validation by MS	Testing in Progress by MS	Testing in Progress by 3P	Total
Aircraft	14	8	12	34
Mission	0	0	0	0
Scenery	1	2	1	4
Livery	10	7	8	25
Airport	30	14	2	46
Other	4	0	7	11
Total	59	31	30	120

 

SDK UPDATE

ASOBO

• No Update this week.

WORKING TITLE / MSFS AVIONICS FRAMEWORK

• No Update this week.

THIRD PARTY UPDATES

• •  

• As of 10/29, we have now approved 240 (+06) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 204 (+2) have released 2,800 products on PC (+44) and 2,513 on Xbox (+39).
• In total, 3,740 products (+61) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 788 products (-16) from 3^rd party developers are in production (358 announced, 430 unannounced). In total, over 4,526 3^rd party products (+43) have either been released or are in development.
• Airports:
  • 2,187 airports (+18) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 1,956 airports (+19) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 1,427 airports (+34) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 120 airports (+0) beyond the released airports have been announced.
    • 111 airports (-1) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
• Aircraft:
  • 710 aircraft (+14) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 303 aircraft (+9) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 229 aircraft (+8) have been released in the in-sim PC marketplace.
    • 214 aircraft (+9) have been released in the in-sim Xbox marketplace.
    • 217 aircraft (-1) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
    • 190 aircraft (+6) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
• Scenery:
  • 1,013 scenery packs (+3) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 979 scenery packs (+14) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 534 scenery packs (+16) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 20 scenery packs (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
    • 14 scenery packs (-11) are not announced but the dev let us know that scenery is in production
• Mission Packs:
  • 223 mission packs (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 199 mission packs (+5) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 138 mission packs (+5) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.
    • 26 mission packs (-3) are not announced, but the dev let us know that they are in production.
• Livery Packs:
  • 355 livery packs (+6) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 277 livery packs (+14) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 270 livery packs (+14) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 1 livery pack (+0) beyond the released scenery has been announced.
    • 77 livery packs (-8) are not announced, but the dev let us know that scenery is in production.
• Ships & Watercraft:
  • 38 ships & watercraft (+2) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 26 ships & watercraft (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 19 ships & watercraft (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 0 ships & watercraft (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
    • 12 ships & watercraft (+2) are not announced, but dev let us know that scenery is in production

 

 

COMMUNITY FLY-IN FRIDAY

We’re celebrating Bonfire Night with a flight from York to London on Community Fly-In Friday this week! For more information, including a download link for the freeware fireworks mod, please see our forum thread.

For the best experience, be sure to download the free World Update III: UK & Ireland from the in-sim Marketplace.

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

TUBELINER TUESDAY

We have no airliner stream scheduled for next week. Tubeliner Tuesday will return on November 14th.

COMMUNITY VIDEO

For this week’s Community Video, we join BritishAVGeek for a first look at the hotly anticipated Universal Flight Tablet (UFT) update for the PMDG Boeing 737.

Running through its new features in detail, this video highlights the UFT’s ability to import Simbrief data, utilise Navigraph charts, as well as perform full take-off and landing performance calculations!

 

SCREENSHOT CHALLENGE

You can submit your screenshot via X/Twitter with #MSFSchallenge or the Weekly Forum Post!

This week’s screenshot challenge: City Skylines II

This past week’s Screenshot Challenge was Thunderbolts and Lightning

Weekly Screenshot Challenge Winner: Parorng (Forums)

Screenshot by klrkjp1 (X/Twitter)

Screenshot by KotetuP (X/Twitter)

Screenshot by Ikulin09 (X/Twitter)

Screenshot by CpuGeta486 (X/Twitter)

Screenshot by ukaka5656 (X/Twitter)

Screenshot by HeKa48 (Forums)

Screenshot by Zeanuck (Forums)

Screenshot by Johnny_aircargo (X/Twitter)

Screenshot by pommes_l (X/Twitter)

Screenshot by @2525ARW (X/Twitter)

---

NEXT DEVELOPMENT BLOG UPDATE – November 9th, 2023

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Edited November 2, 2023 by David Mills

[dusty_sourdough907 77]

Thank you for posting this and keeping us updated 😁

Have a great night.

[polosim 858]

Thanks @David Mills .

It's good to see the new development roadmap; it's incredible to think that this year is about to end, everything happened very quickly. In general, there were many surprises and to think that the best is yet to come.

[scotchegg 4,240]

Updated Canada and NZ as well? Is there any info on what exactly they updated with these two?

[David Mills 4,774]

2 hours ago, scotchegg said:

Updated Canada and NZ as well? Is there any info on what exactly they updated with these two?

I'm not sure about NZ. But Canada suffered some photogrammetry issues. The iconic CN Tower in Toronto, for example, looked really distorted. Lots of people pointed that out, so I strongly suspect that Toronto will look extra good after the update.

[lwt1971 7,457]

Ya per https://www.flightsimulator.com/feedback-snapshot/ looks like photogrammetry fixes/enhancements, bridge exclusions, etc

World Update TIN Fixes |  WU 15
Microsoft, Bing and Gaya completed the improvements to Canadian TIN cities (WU_11) and will update them alongside the upcoming WU_15 on 11/07. The team also added bridge exclusions for the New Zealand TIN cities (WU_12) as well as airport and POI fixes for New Zealand and will also update this alongside WU_15.
 

[A330B747 15]

ATMOSFERIC LIGHTNING IMPROVEMENTS. Can someone Pls (who is using the SU14 Beta) post a screenshot about the lightning?

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

Thanks @David Mills. Pined 🌲🌲

[AnkH 2,282]

This "planned MSFS2024" is new, no? Did they not say that even after release, MSFS2020 will be further supported with updates etc.? Slightly disappointing to see that they now nevertheless started to comment MSFS2020 bugs (and wishes) to be solved only in the new sim, contradictory to the statement they gave. I mean, if the featureset between MSFS2020 and MSFS2024 already starts diverging, MSFS2020 will be dead on arrival of MSFS2024, no matter how much they claim it wont be the case. And as such, you ARE basically forced to upgrade, no matter what they claim. Not a big surprise to me, but still somehow disappointing...

[pmplayer 9,615]

8 minutes ago, AnkH said:

This "planned MSFS2024" is new, no? Did they not say that even after release, MSFS2020 will be further supported with updates etc.? Slightly disappointing to see that they now nevertheless started to comment MSFS2020 bugs (and wishes) to be solved only in the new sim, contradictory to the statement they gave. I mean, if the featureset between MSFS2020 and MSFS2024 already starts diverging, MSFS2020 will be dead on arrival of MSFS2024, no matter how much they claim it wont be the case. And as such, you ARE basically forced to upgrade, no matter what they claim. Not a big surprise to me, but still somehow disappointing...

I think it have to be like this and most people will go over to MSFS2024  ( if not all ), seems that is the future of MS Flightsimulator..🥳

We have to go forward, who wants to stay on older stuff ?

cheers 😉

[MarcG 3,031]

58 minutes ago, AnkH said:

This "planned MSFS2024" is new, no? Did they not say that even after release, MSFS2020 will be further supported with updates etc.? Slightly disappointing to see that they now nevertheless started to comment MSFS2020 bugs (and wishes) to be solved only in the new sim, contradictory to the statement they gave. I mean, if the featureset between MSFS2020 and MSFS2024 already starts diverging, MSFS2020 will be dead on arrival of MSFS2024, no matter how much they claim it wont be the case. And as such, you ARE basically forced to upgrade, no matter what they claim. Not a big surprise to me, but still somehow disappointing...

I think that was always gonna happen to be fair, maintaining one product and creating a new one will have a crossover effect whereby they'll have to say "is it worth fixing this now? Or do it better in the next sim?".

A topic that's saved for another day is what do the community do when MSFS2024 gets released, it could well be that they rip apart MSFS2020 and actually make it better than the original with hacks and what not (see Assetto Corsa as a prime example of when the community takeover and create something great). That could mean that people hang around and avoid purchasing the next sim for some time, be interesting to see what unfolds.

[AnkH 2,282]

44 minutes ago, pmplayer said:

We have to go forward, who wants to stay on older stuff ?

I am totally ok with this, but then they should be honest and advertise it like this, not trying to convince people that MSFS2020 will be supported further and such. Simply say that after release of MSFS2024, the old one will be EOL and not supported anymore and that's it. Would be way more honest than this stupid double hatting approach they now announced and in the next best dev update basically indirectly neglected by writing "planned for MSFS2024". Which in turn means it wont make it into MSFS2020 anyway...

It is all about communication, people do not like if they are fooled...

[MarcG 3,031]

4 minutes ago, AnkH said:

It is all about communication, people do not like if they are fooled...

It's well known their communication is appalling when it needs to be precise, when it doesn't need to be they release a Q&A with smiles and rainbows and pretend everything is ok.

[lwt1971 7,457]

6 hours ago, AnkH said:

I am totally ok with this, but then they should be honest and advertise it like this, not trying to convince people that MSFS2020 will be supported further and such. Simply say that after release of MSFS2024, the old one will be EOL and not supported anymore and that's it. Would be way more honest than this stupid double hatting approach they now announced and in the next best dev update basically indirectly neglected by writing "planned for MSFS2024". Which in turn means it wont make it into MSFS2020 anyway...

It is all about communication, people do not like if they are fooled...

There has been plenty of communication about this via interviews from a few months ago along with their FSExpo presnetation, also the MSFS 2024 FAQ which is usually updated: https://www.flightsimulator.com/microsoft-flight-simulator-2024-faq/ ... the items marked "Planned for MSFS 2024" are from the wishlist, i.e. new features and big-ticket re-work items. Just because those won't make it into MSFS 2020 doesn't mean 2020 will be EOL and "not supported" after 2024 releases. They've said that fixes and whatever enhancements that can also be backported to 2020 will continue even after 2024 releases. I don't see any attempts at fooling customers here at all.. why would a company as large as this with a product with such market uptake, and them pouring more investments into it to double the size of team from ~250 to ~500, attempt to fool their users and 3rd party devs? lol

Some of the relevant quotes:

https://www.helisimmer.com/interview/msfs-2024-helicopters-future-msfs-2020

Sergio: Jorg told me the following: “[…] I think the general perception needs to be, in 2020 support continues, right? We want to make this great. When feasible, when there's improvements in 2024, we are thinking about backporting as feasible. We don't know if everything can be, most likely not everything. But we'll try, you know, make it as good as we can
I asked Jorg if they had any idea of how many years we would expect support to continue.

Jorg: I do. But I'm not going to tell exactly what year is simply because things change. But the plan is for many years to come. At least a handful. Let's put it that way. That's probably a safe way to say it.

https://msfsaddons.com/2023/06/25/exclusive-interview-with-jorg-neumann-and-sebastian-wloch-we-are-in-the-pursuit-of-the-perfect-sim/

Vasco: The future tech will evolve on the MSFS 2024 side. What kind of stuff are you guys planning to add to MSFS 2020? To continue with the world updates? What kind of support can we expect?

Jorg: World updates will change a bit. As we showed, how the ground textures are going to work may not be possible in MSFS 2020. However, if we have a photogrammetry city that comes into our world, that should be involved. The same is true for city updates, they will be updated but maybe slightly different. MSFS 2024 goes a bit further on certain things. We’ll keep doing Aircraft and Avionics updates as well as Sim Updates, and evolve it as needed. This could evolve with new hardware releases or something like a new graphics card.

Sebastian: Also, we’ll continue working on bug fixes and crash fixes. There’s still some overlap between the two sims, so if we find a crash in MSFS 2024 that’s also in MSFS 2020, we can fix it in both. We’ll continue to support and address any new issues that come up, as they always do.
 

Edited November 3, 2023 by lwt1971

[Tuskin38 6,635]

7 hours ago, AnkH said:

Simply say that after release of MSFS2024, the old one will be EOL and not supported anymore and that's it.

They won't say that because it would be a lie (right now)
As evidenced above

Edited November 3, 2023 by Tuskin38