FEBRUARY 1ST, 2024 – DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

Posted by: Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

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

On Tuesday, we released World Update XVI: Caribbean! Available now as a FREE download from the in-sim Marketplace, this World Update contains new Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data, 104 hand-crafted points of interest, seven bespoke airports, and new Landing Challenges, Bush Trips, and Discovery Flights for the beautiful and scenic Caribbean region.

 

 

Also launching alongside the World Update was a new aircraft, Local Legend 14: Bell 47J Ranger. Available from the in-sim Marketplace. This is the first time our Local Legend series has featured a rotorcraft. Check it out!

 

 

Yesterday, we were pleased to host another Developer Livestream. Our panel of Jorg, Seb, Martial, and special guest Dominik Gallus from Working Title answered many questions from the community and discussed upcoming new features and improvements coming soon to Microsoft Flight Simualtor, including some details about Sim Update 15 which is currently targeted for release in March.

If you missed watching the session live, you can catch the VOD below. We will also have a written transcript posted on our forums next week for those of you who prefer text to video.

 

 

Finally, we’d like to announce a special collaborative Twitch stream with our friends at Next Level Racing scheduled for next week. Everyone is welcome to join a group flight in Australia from Gold Coast to Sydney. During the broadcast, we’ll be giving away several prizes, including the Grand Prize of a Next Level Racing Flight Simulator home cockpit (USD $799 value!). The event starts at 6pm PST on Wednesday, February 7 (0200 UTC on Thursday, February 😎 on the Official MSFS Twitch channel. The full event details are available on our forums here. We’ll see you Down Under!

 

– MSFS Team

 

FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

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

MARKETPLACE UPDATE

MARKETPLACE RELEASES

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

There are 40 new and 44 updated products in today’s Marketplace Update.

 

MARKETPLACE BACKLOG

Current Backlog: 318 Total

BACKLOG: NEW PRODUCTS

	Testing Status
Content Type	In MS Processing	In MS Testing	In 3P Testing	Total
Aircraft	12	0	17	29
Mission	22	0	44	66
Scenery	8	4	4	16
Livery	26	2	16	44
Airport	10	7	27	44
Other	11	0	13	24
Total	89	13	121	223

BACKLOG: UPDATED PRODUCTS

	Testing Status
Content Type	In MS Processing	In MS Testing	In 3P Testing	Total
Aircraft	13	4	10	27
Mission	0	0	0	0
Scenery	6	2	0	8
Livery	2	2	8	12
Airport	21	6	12	39
Other	1	0	8	9
Total	43	14	38	95

 

SDK UPDATE

ASOBO

• No update this week.

WORKING TITLE / MSFS AVIONICS FRAMEWORK

• No update this week

THIRD PARTY UPDATE

• As of 01/29, we have now approved 248 (+0) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 213 (+3) have released 3,169 products on PC (+21) and 2,901 on Xbox (+19).
• In total, 4,068 products (+17) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 802 products (-7) from 3^rd party developers are in production (344 announced, 458 unannounced). In total, over 4,870 3^rd party products (+10) have either been released or are in development.
• Airports:
  • 2,284 airports (+12) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 2,070 airports (+9) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 1,547 airports (+9) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 110 airports (-1) beyond the released airports have been announced.
    • 108 airports (-4) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
• Aircraft:
  • 792 aircraft (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 355 aircraft (+2) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 279 aircraft (+4) have been released in the in-sim PC marketplace.
    • 261 aircraft (+4) have been released in the in-sim Xbox marketplace.
    • 212 aircraft (+0) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
    • 225 aircraft (-2) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
• Scenery:
  • 1,102 scenery packs (+2) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 1,068 scenery packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 628 scenery packs (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 21 scenery packs (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
    • 13 scenery packs (+2) are not announced but the dev let us know that scenery is in production
• Mission Packs:
  • 253 mission packs (+3) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 224 mission packs (+5) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 163 mission packs (+5) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.
    • 29 mission packs (-2) are not announced, but the dev let us know that they are in production.
• Livery Packs:
  • 397 livery packs (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 324 livery packs (+1) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 316 livery packs (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 1 livery pack (+0) beyond the released scenery has been announced.
    • 72 livery packs (+0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that scenery is in production.
• Ships & Watercraft:
  • 38 ships & watercraft (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 27 ships & watercraft (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 22 ships & watercraft (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 0 ships & watercraft (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
    • 11 ships & watercraft (+0) are not announced, but dev let us know that scenery is in production

• •  

COMMUNITY FLY-IN FRIDAY

World Update 16: Caribbean is available now! To celebrate the release, this week we’ll be taking a temporary pause from our Fly-In Friday World Tour for a one-off island-hopping flight over the beautiful Leeward Antilles.

Our flight will see us visit the “ABC Islands” of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. We’ll be flying over several of the new hand-crafted POIs created for World Update 16, so make sure you install this free package from the in-sim Marketplace prior to the flight.

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

TUBELINER TUESDAY

 

To celebrate the launch of World Update XVI: Caribbean, we are jetting off to find some sunny weather. We’ll be conducting a flight from Puerto Plata (MDPP) in the Dominican Republic to one of the most famous destinations in aviation history… Princess Juliana (TNCM!

The aircraft we’ll be operating is the HJET by FlightFX, which is available for purchase via the Microsoft Flight Simulator marketplace.

As always we’ll be flying on the VATSIM Multiplayer Network for those of you who wish to fly along.

Event details are available here. Feel free to follow the flight on our Twitch channel!

 

COMMUNITY VIDEO

On January 30th we released World Update XVI: Caribbean! For this week’s Community Video we join SimFlightPro as they give their first impression on the plethora of new features brought to players in this release.

Showcasing some of the handcrafted airports, and providing background information about a handful of the 104 points of interested included, SimFlightPro utilises some stunning cinematic shots to highlight the true beauty of the Caribbean. We always look forward to SimFlightPro’s review videos, and can’t wait to see more in the future!

SCREENSHOT CHALLENGE

This week’s screenshot challenge: World Update XVI – Caribbean

This past week’s Screenshot Challenge was: Fasten Your Seatbelts

Weekly Screenshot Challenge Winner: @pommes_l (Twitter)

Screenshot by RedheronDET (Forums)

Screenshot by JONESx33 (Forums)

Screenshot by @Ikulin09 (Twitter)

Screenshot by DaveBGaming (Forums)

Screenshot by HolmesCZ6127 (Forums)

Screenshot by Zeanuck (Forums)

Screenshot by @ukaka5656 (Twitter)

Screenshot by @Johnny_aircargo (Twitter)

Screenshot by AllenCat2333 (Forums)

Screenshot by @2525ARW (Twitter)

---

NEXT DEVELOPMENT BLOG UPDATE – February 8th, 2024

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Edited February 2, 20242 yr by David Mills

Exciting news this week, without a doubt. Thanks to all involved.

Couldnt find the schedule...when is SU15 release to be expected?

Will MSFS 20 still be improved and updated after the 24 is released?

Just now, History said:

Will MSFS 20 still be improved and updated after the 24 is released?

yes

1 minute ago, Flyfaster_MTN002 said:

yes

Glad to hear that. Thanks.

12 minutes ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Couldnt find the schedule...when is SU15 release to be expected?

Early March

10 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Early March

Would you know when the Beta for SU15 goes live?

7 minutes ago, YMMB said:

Would you know when the Beta for SU15 goes live?

So I’ve been in every beta for at least the past two years. The last two were at least 45 days in duration I estimate so I suspect it will drop  on or before the 10th. Just a guess, no insider information.

-B

56 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Early March

copied. thx!

C'mon moderators - let's get this one pinned 😉

 

After the last Q&A I am now pretty confident that they will get there regarding snow coverage and frozen waters. At least the icing will be improved drastically in my affected regions with the adjustment they list now (27cm vs 72cm snow depth). And they clearly and finally stated that the issue of the snow coverage is due to using a too low res map from meteoblue (as we already realized a year ago...). Hopefully this will be possible to use a higher res data from meteoblue, latest in MSFS 2024. 

5 hours ago, YMMB said:

Would you know when the Beta for SU15 goes live?

As @btacon stated, and confirmed on the latest Twitch feed, the beta will start quite soon, within the next two weeks. 

They also mentioned various 'flighting's' as they call them (basically versions of the beta), so the release of the new features may be staged, so it won't all happen in the first release of the beta, and the Airbus may be added at the end of the beta if it makes it at all.

At least the tile popping issues appear to be on the list for SU15. I really hope that this fixes the problem on the Isle of Man.

Not clear if the ground handling improvements and partial backport from MSFS 2024 which they spoke about in the last two Q&As are coming in SU15 or SU16 per the above dev snapshot? Unless I missed something. Need to go back and check but thought Seb said it'd be SU15 in the last Q&A. The earlier the better since aircraft devs will need to do a bit of work to make use of the new FM parameters.