https://msfsaddons.com/2024/06/24/interview-with-jorg-neumann-and-sebastian-wloch-on-microsoft-flight-simulator-2024-and-beyond/

I'm glad they're doing the discovery series again. Interesting they're holding off on discussing ATC. Given how incredibly difficult ATC has been historically for any company, I'm not going to expect miracles, and they obviously have a philosophy of leaving the really in-depth stuff to the 3rd party specialists given what he said about Navigraph, but something decent and basic would be great if they can pull it off.

Great to hear that performance will be similar or even better. That's very impressive considering the significant visual improvements.

Again the weather response in that msfsaddons interview is a bit vague, no exact details other than fixing a bug and one new type of cloud alongside the lighting changes.

The meat of a simulation experience when flying is (Live) Weather and it's clear they're struggling and have been for some time to get this area right, I'm hoping windy.coms recent acquisition of Meteoblue can in some way help push this forward post release as I'm not overly convinced Live Weather will be much of an improvement. Jorg seems to be forever "talking to Meteoblue" (paraphrasing) without actually getting anywhere.

Overall a nice interview.

Agree.  Overall a good interview.  But sometimes I get the feeling one of them has a daughter dating the CEO of meteoblue.  I would have much rather seen them try to cut meteoblue out of the sim than navigraph.  Put it that way.  

I was thinking performance would be much better in 2024, thereby giving a break to people with old systems. Apparently, that is not the case.

Vasco: Clearly, there’s a lot coming. The visual improvements are impressive, there’s ray tracing now. So, how’s the performance compared to MSFS 2020?

Seb: There’s improved detail and complexity, but also more optimization. For example, the surface system on the plane: in MSFS 2020, there were 500 to 1,000 surfaces on a plane. In the new aircraft, it’s 10 times more, but it’s multi-threaded and optimized, so the cost is about the same. Overall, performance should be similar.

Jorg: Similar or better. We are not changing the system requirements.

Didn't seem to be an in-depth interview, hopefully Helisimmer or others get more time than 30 mins with Jorg/Seb. Things of note to me:

On MSFS 2020 success: Jorg: An interesting tidbit: when we start a project, we try to figure out what success looks like. We have a Target forecast, which includes a minimum forecast, maximum forecast, and something called a breakout. We have just surpassed the breakout.

Vasco: Jorg, we continue to hear from some people in the community that you are more focused on gamers than hardcore simmers. Is this true, and why do you think there is still this perception in some in the community?
Jorg: The perception exists because our trailers appeal to a wide audience, which is intentional. Do I need to convince flight simmers that flight simming is cool? No – it’s their hobby. We need to ensure we fulfill their wishes, which is why we track wishlists and feedback closely. To make flight simming broader, we need to appeal to more people.

Vasco: Can you elaborate more on this Career mode and what’s a typical use case?
Jorg: We are not really talking about it yet. Coming up!

Vasco: And how does that new walkaround mode work?
Seb: Very simply. In MSFS 2020, you can spawn on the runway ready to go or cold and dark. Imagine another way, starting cold and dark but outside the aircraft. When you land somewhere, you can click the door and you’re outside. You can walk around, take photos, and interact with the aircraft, like the control surfaces, with a similar highlighting system that we’ve had for the in-cockpit checklists. That’s in the checklists, right? You’ll want to move every control surface to make sure it’s not locked. It’s very easy: you click the door, the door opens, and you’re outside.

Vasco: What about weather? Generally speaking, what improvements are planned for that? New cloud types, improved density?
Seb: We wrote down a lot of small requests. On a larger scale, we improved the cloud system, adding cirrus clouds and more definition. The most important improvement is lightning. The light scattering and the atmospheric simulation have been entirely redone. The line on the horizon is gone, that’s been fixed.
Regarding fog, we simulate the air with particle density, and in polluted cities, the air can get very thick. When visibility is reduced, it’s usually because the clouds are at ground level. With presets we can simulate that, the issue is more with live weather. We need to better sync with the weather provider to ensure accurate haze simulation, and we are working on it.
[feel like the interviewer could've asked follow-up Qs here, about the improved storms and supercells and tornadoes simulation they mentioned at last year's expo, etc]

Vasco: What about ATC?
Seb: Can’t say anything right now but we will in the future.

Vasco: Yesterday, you also announced the 737 MAX. Seb, what can you tell us about that project?
Seb: It’s a very big team with a lot of focus. The system depth is very high, using all the new technologies. For example, I showed the A330 with the new surfaces, and the 737 MAX uses that. It has very good improved aerodynamics. It’s our biggest airplane, a very big project for us.

Vasco: Clearly, there’s a lot coming. The visual improvements are impressive, there’s ray tracing now. So, how’s the performance compared to MSFS 2020?
Seb: There’s improved detail and complexity, but also more optimization. For example, the surface system on the plane: in MSFS 2020, there were 500 to 1,000 surfaces on a plane. In the new aircraft, it’s 10 times more, but it’s multi-threaded and optimized, so the cost is about the same. Overall, performance should be similar.

Vasco: What’s your plan for the next few months leading up to the release? What will you aim for in terms of the message that you’d like to convey about MSFS 2024 ahead of the release?
Jorg: We’ll have a dev Q&A, which will shift over to 2024. We’ll do the Feature Discovery series again, which was very successful. There’s going to be a lot more coming. Many people ask about the SDK. We’re hardening a build and ensuring stability and documentation. In a few months, we’ll roll out the SDK so creators can make adjustments if they want. Backward compatibility is important, so they don’t have to do anything unless they want to take advantage of new systems
 

Edited June 24, 20241 yr by lwt1971

1 minute ago, Fielder said:

I was thinking performance would be much better in 2024, thereby giving a break to people with old systems. Apparently, that is not the case.

Vasco: Clearly, there’s a lot coming. The visual improvements are impressive, there’s ray tracing now. So, how’s the performance compared to MSFS 2020?

Seb: There’s improved detail and complexity, but also more optimization. For example, the surface system on the plane: in MSFS 2020, there were 500 to 1,000 surfaces on a plane. In the new aircraft, it’s 10 times more, but it’s multi-threaded and optimized, so the cost is about the same. Overall, performance should be similar.

Jorg: Similar or better. We are not changing the system requirements.

I mean, I think it would be crazy to think the system requirements would decrease. Considering I spent the first 3 years of MSFS2020 on a 1070 and i5-8600 without any problems, I'd say being able to keep the same requirements is quite the accomplishment. 

Yeah they won't change the system requirements as it still needs to work on an Xbox, but anyone who knows anything about graphics knows that if you add 3D stuff it's gonna ask more of your GPU.

You can't add 3D trees everywhere, 3D ground, rocks, grass, crops flowing in the turbulence of a helicopter without some hit on performance.

I think this may catch a lot of people out who think they'll get the same FPS as they do now.

Edited June 24, 20241 yr by MarcG

18 minutes ago, MarcG said:

Again the weather response in that msfsaddons interview is a bit vague, no exact details other than fixing a bug and one new type of cloud alongside the lighting changes.

The meat of a simulation experience when flying is (Live) Weather and it's clear they're struggling and have been for some time to get this area right, I'm hoping windy.coms recent acquisition of Meteoblue can in some way help push this forward post release as I'm not overly convinced Live Weather will be much of an improvement. Jorg seems to be forever "talking to Meteoblue" (paraphrasing) without actually getting anywhere.

Overall a nice interview.

Every time Jorg mentions MeteoBlue, I get the impression he's not thrilled with that partnership and what they're getting from them.  That might be pure overanalysis from me, but his voice always sounds like he's trying not to start on a rant about that whole thing lol.

1 minute ago, MarcG said:

Yeah they won't change the system requirements as it still needs to work on an Xbox, but anyone who knows anything about graphics knows that if you add 3D stuff it's gonna ask more of your GPU.

You can't add 3D trees everywhere, 3D ground, rocks, grass, crops flowing in the turbulence of a helicopter without some hit on performance.

I think this may catch a lot of people out who think they'll get there same FPS as they do now.

If the pipeline creating those things hasn't changed at all and is running at maximum efficiency, sure.  As someone who plays games, it's always been shocking to see what devs can create at the beginning of a new hardware generation compared to what they're coaxing out of the hardware by the end of one.

It's not magic, and I'm sure 2024 will have bells and whistles you can enable that increase load on hardware, but I won't be at all surprised if the new sim looks and/or runs better on the same hardware.

19 minutes ago, MarcG said:

Again the weather response in that msfsaddons interview is a bit vague, no exact details other than fixing a bug and one new type of cloud alongside the lighting changes.

The meat of a simulation experience when flying is (Live) Weather and it's clear they're struggling and have been for some time to get this area right, I'm hoping windy.coms recent acquisition of Meteoblue can in some way help push this forward post release as I'm not overly convinced Live Weather will be much of an improvement. Jorg seems to be forever "talking to Meteoblue" (paraphrasing) without actually getting anywhere.

Overall a nice interview.

Complementing my answer from the other thread, yeah they seem to struggle to transform raw data (from meteoblue) into the in-sim renderization of the weather. The data is there, the engine is capable of doing everything, but it isn't rendering everything we/they want. It's a work in progress. Jörg is always saying it's not matter of IF but WHEN, it seems the case here. 

All in all, we should focus on the improvements rather the than the weaknesses (not saying we shouldn't keep complaining/asking, we should), the new atmospheric effects are amazing and I believe it counts as weather improvements. 

My point is, everything is there, in a way or another, but the issue is sometimes is just subpar, BUT, at least, they are aware and trying to fix/improve.

1 minute ago, Scottoest said:

If the pipeline creating those things hasn't changed at all and is running at maximum efficiency, sure.  As someone who plays games, it's always been shocking to see what devs can create at the beginning of a new hardware generation compared to what they're coaxing out of the hardware by the end of one.

It's not magic, and I'm sure 2024 will have bells and whistles you can enable that increase load on hardware, but I won't be at all surprised if the new sim looks and/or runs better on the same hardware.

What I hope they would've done is worked some of that magic into separating PC Vs Xbox graphical settings, as we saw with SU5 and subsequent LOD reductions there was no need for that to happen on PC. Indeed that may have optimised a lot more and with better techniques, but ultimately performance is such a unique area for each individual PC it's hard to get right, especially for us VR users! 

11 minutes ago, Fielder said:

 

I was thinking performance would be much better in 2024, thereby giving a break to people with old systems. Apparently, that is not the case.

 

Jorg said performance will be same OR better. I’d imagine they’re finding ways to optimize 2024 much more than 2020, especially since they’ve changed so much under the hood. 

2 minutes ago, ca_metal said:

Complementing my answer from the other thread, yeah they seem to struggle to transform raw data (from meteoblue) into the in-sim renderization of the weather. The data is there, the engine is capable of doing everything, but it isn't rendering everything we/they want. It's a work in progress. Jörg is always saying it's not matter of IF but WHEN, it seems the case here. 

All in all, we should focus on the improvements rather the than the weaknesses (not saying we shouldn't keep complaining/asking, we should), the new atmospheric effects are amazing and I believe it counts as weather improvements. 

My point is, everything is there, in a way or another, but the issue is sometimes is just subpar, BUT, at least, they are aware and trying to fix/improve.

My issue is they've been trying to "fix" live weather since they broke it with SU7....2 1/2 years ago, but that conversations been done to death which leads me to expect nothing much has changed so many expectations are very low. Granted they can't be experts in every area of gaming, just pains me that what we had we lost and we've still not got it back.