Roadmap from 2:54 mins, chart from 4:29 mins. Panel graphics SDK presentation from 5:24 mins, new scenery tile engine from 7:03 mins, summary from 12:33 mins.

Takeaways:

• Farnborough (EGLF) as a new, custom airport in 12.4.4, KJFK for 12.5

• Procedures for helicopters in 12.5.

• 12.5 brings various flight model improvemments (helicopters, new manifold pressure model, improved turbine temperature modeling and hydraulics, enhanced ground physics, wake turb., prop wash).

• SDK update this summer (12.4.4?) with a panel graphics API for devs, which means avionics displays can now be drawn natively in Vulkan instead of OpenGL.

• New scenery tile engine (more GPU friendly, way easier to edit, probably shorter loading times and backwards compatible with the present DSF format) at some point this year to get third parties to test it. This is not(!!) the actual Next Gen Scenery though, only the underpinnings to make it work!

• Future: Store, (actual) Next Gen Scenery, motion vectors, more performance improvements.

I'm looking forward to finally being able to use the tiling engine, it's so badly needed (we've been asking for this abilitly for years) :)

Bring on that new tile engine!

There was a few helicopter fllght model changes included in that. Might make a few happy

The fear is for misuse by inexperienced artists....which could result in some problems with default scenery.

Here's hoping it stops the lights popping in at the horizon at night, that would be excellent.

Next gen scenery should be priority 1

50 minutes ago, jymp said:

Next gen scenery should be priority 1

Who said it wasn’t?

3 hours ago, jymp said:

Next gen scenery should be priority 1

Why....

Laminar booth interview, worth watching.

10 hours ago, jymp said:

Next gen scenery should be priority 1

I wouldn't have super high expectations over this. It's unlikely to contain the detail MFS does, but it'll still be a big improvement. My take is that it'll be more accurate, better performing and follow real-world data better, including better art. It'll be far easier to author as well since mostly it's image masks and more modern 3D formats.

Tools like Ortho4XP which build complicated meshes and try to smooth and flatten airports hopefully won't be needed, and far simpler tools just involving image manipulation can be used.

Once I get my hands on the new tile format, I can work on updating my mesh tools to generate ortho tiles + DEM.

15 hours ago, mldavis2 said:

The fear is for misuse by inexperienced artists....which could result in some problems with default scenery.

Can't follow. Care to elaborate on that?

Edited Monday at 12:03 PM1 day by Bjoern

4 hours ago, Bjoern said:

Can't follow. Care to elaborate on that?

The problem is that if you make mesh editing accessible, the potential for messing it up is fairly big.

We already have the problem with "always flatten" and to a lesser extent with the new FLATTEN polygons - airport designers adjust the elevation mesh to make the airport look good, but do not consider that having the correct elevation (of the runway thresholds) is extremely important.

I foresee some type of validation that forces runway thresholds to not only be within a certain range of "official data" (CIFP) laterally, but also vertically.

19 hours ago, Litjan said:

The problem is that if you make mesh editing accessible, the potential for messing it up is fairly big.

We already have the problem with "always flatten" and to a lesser extent with the new FLATTEN polygons - airport designers adjust the elevation mesh to make the airport look good, but do not consider that having the correct elevation (of the runway thresholds) is extremely important.

I foresee some type of validation that forces runway thresholds to not only be within a certain range of "official data" (CIFP) laterally, but also vertically.

Third party devs are only as good as the development tools and their documentation. If you don't want people to carelessly flatten things, design the tools so they're warned of the consequences and have a comprehensive user manual and official* "good practice" guide that makes them aware of what happens when the local mesh is manipulated.

(*Scattered posts around X-Plane related forums do not qualify as a "good practice guide".)

Good instructions are great - but you need 100% of all people to read, understand and agree to them, if you want 100% of all airports authored correctly. We learned from the Gateway that a good percentage of artists are willing to make good and compliant airports - but there is a sizeable fraction that does not care or is able to understand, and letting everyone manipulate the mesh together with a "comprehensive user manual" is like handing out scalpels in 1st grade after admonishing everyone to not cut into their fellow students 😅