2 minutes ago, simsuper80 said:

Sometimes I'll see 2 clear contrails but no aircraft.

Same here.

2 hours ago, SayAgain said:

But I agree, there are a lot of "By Design" implementations that I would consider as bugs and I've been coding for 47 years and finally now retired.

I think you have to accept that they're not that good a developer overall, not every dev team can be a Rockstar or Bethesda (in their hay-day), some a just good enough, some aren't that great, some are just poor. Asobo mixed with MS management have for 6+ years been good enough but they've not gone above being better, the sheer list of reasons over those years is plentiful to see and it continues on with the primary focus on very poor Management decisions & dreadfully inadequate Quality Control in that time.

They're never gonna change their ways thats obvious, they're not going to improve where needed as they haven't in 6 years, they've done a grand job selling the product and getting it onto consoles (even though that has been and still is largely a mess), they brought teams together under one unified roof, they created their "Digital Twin" which is a very decent achievement. But importantly they've failed in the fundamental basics of getting the Core Simulation the best it can be and they won't ever realise that because - they're simply not good enough.

Trust was massively lost with the shambolic release of MSFS2024 and they're still playing catch up some 7 Sim Updates & 2 years later trying to repair what was a broken product, trust was somewhat regained upto SU4 but it's right now lost again with two updates wrecking consoles users enjoyment being the primary reason and PC users being downgraded left right and centre, the official forums/social media are awash with negativity and they simply don't see it.

It's disappointing because in the right hands this could've been something utterly incredible.

Edited Saturday at 08:59 AM4 days by MarcG

3 hours ago, MarcG said:

I think you have to accept that they're not that good a developer overall, not every dev team can be a Rockstar or Bethesda (in their hay-day), some a just good enough, some aren't that great, some are just poor. Asobo mixed with MS management have for 6+ years been good enough but they've not gone above being better, the sheer list of reasons over those years is plentiful to see and it continues on with the primary focus on very poor Management decisions & dreadfully inadequate Quality Control in that time.

They're never gonna change their ways thats obvious, they're not going to improve where needed as they haven't in 6 years, they've done a grand job selling the product and getting it onto consoles (even though that has been and still is largely a mess), they brought teams together under one unified roof, they created their "Digital Twin" which is a very decent achievement. But importantly they've failed in the fundamental basics of getting the Core Simulation the best it can be and they won't ever realise that because - they're simply not good enough.

Trust was massively lost with the shambolic release of MSFS2024 and they're still playing catch up some 7 Sim Updates & 2 years later trying to repair what was a broken product, trust was somewhat regained upto SU4 but it's right now lost again with two updates wrecking consoles users enjoyment being the primary reason and PC users being downgraded left right and centre, the official forums/social media are awash with negativity and they simply don't see it.

It's disappointing because in the right hands this could've been something utterly incredible.

So very true.

4 hours ago, MarcG said:

I think you have to accept that they're not that good a developer overall, not every dev team can be a Rockstar or Bethesda (in their hay-day), some a just good enough, some aren't that great, some are just poor. Asobo mixed with MS management have for 6+ years been good enough but they've not gone above being better, the sheer list of reasons over those years is plentiful to see and it continues on with the primary focus on very poor Management decisions & dreadfully inadequate Quality Control in that time.

They're never gonna change their ways thats obvious, they're not going to improve where needed as they haven't in 6 years, they've done a grand job selling the product and getting it onto consoles (even though that has been and still is largely a mess), they brought teams together under one unified roof, they created their "Digital Twin" which is a very decent achievement. But importantly they've failed in the fundamental basics of getting the Core Simulation the best it can be and they won't ever realise that because - they're simply not good enough.

Trust was massively lost with the shambolic release of MSFS2024 and they're still playing catch up some 7 Sim Updates & 2 years later trying to repair what was a broken product, trust was somewhat regained upto SU4 but it's right now lost again with two updates wrecking consoles users enjoyment being the primary reason and PC users being downgraded left right and centre, the official forums/social media are awash with negativity and they simply don't see it.

It's disappointing because in the right hands this could've been something utterly incredible.

Still Hoping for 3rd parties to come to the rescue😔

We all thought a taxi cam wasn't possible, but someone managed to make on on flightsim.to.

Maybe others will find a way with future weather engines (especially for visuals) or a fix for the landing gear. But maybe that's wishful thinking.

To be fair, there is a lot more to this issue than just the landing gear of AI planes. For the first time today, I noticed the LOD culling on an entire AI aircraft as I was taxiing in at BIKF Keflavik. The AI plane was parked directly ahead of me, and facing directly away from me. I noticed that I could not see the tailfin, and the rear of the aircraft looked a bit "indistinct". A few seconds after that, the tailfin magically appeared from the quantum world, and that indistinct rear of the plane became more clearly defined.

I also noticed an airport building "shimmer" out of the corner of my eye when I was taxiing in at the IniBuilds version of EGGW Luton. In fact, that was probably something to do with the textures, as I have seen many examples of that happening at multiple airports in both MSFS 2024 and MSFS 2020. A good example would be the IniBuilds version of LDDU Dubrovnik, where the jetway attachment sections of the terminal building switch to a lighter shaded texture as I get close to them (they do this in sequence as I pass the terminal). A similar thing happens to the fuel farm just west of the terminal building.

A really obvious example of this happens at the IniBuilds version of EGGW Luton when on final approach to runway 07. The detailed version of the DART railway terminal only appears at very close range. Prior to that, it is a very basic grey and black autogen type building that looks about as much like the real DART railway terminal as I look like Marilyn Monroe. I have already informed IniBuilds about this (because it is so obvious and unrealistic), so hopefully something is eventually done about it.

EDIT: IniBuilds have a stand at the upcoming UK Flightsim Show, so I will probably wander over for a chat about the issues at several airports that I have mentioned to them over the past few months 😉

Edited Saturday at 02:20 PM3 days by Christopher Low

4 hours ago, MarcG said:

It's disappointing because in the right hands this could've been something utterly incredible.

Therein lies the problem; I don't think Asobo are bad developers at all, quite the reverse in fact. What was released in August 2020 was something utterly incredible.

The essential problem was that after achieving the incredible they were then tasked by Microsoft with attempting the impossible: shoe-horning their creation into Xbox S.

It seems evident now that almost all the grief that has followed can be traced back to this.

The answer must surely be to now bring in separate development for PC and console?

Could it be that much more complicated or expensive? At least everyone would be happy to not be handicapped by fundamentally different hardware.

I do a lot of belief suspension in the sim, but it gets VERY hard to do when I get "report traffic in sight" and I can't see any. Or contrails and no airplane. I try very hard not to complain, but dam... can more attention be paid to some of the fundamentals? (Traffic and weather?)

7 minutes ago, SKEWR said:

I do a lot of belief suspension in the sim, but it gets VERY hard to do when I get "report traffic in sight" and I can't see any. Or contrails and no airplane. I try very hard not to complain, but dam... can more attention be paid to some of the fundamentals? (Traffic and weather?)

I think many feel that they don't listen to us

28 minutes ago, simsuper80 said:

I think many feel that they don't listen to us

That was pretty obvious during the livestream a few days ago. They seemed genuinely... surprised by questions and issues that the community has been complaining about for ages.

If you’re in the beta, and have time, try some long hauls

Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

SU7 Beta - Long-Haul Feedback

Over the past updates, players have reported an issue where, after long flights, some scenery would fail to load correctly. For example, airport and runway textures could be missing or fail to load pr

1 minute ago, JetClipperJR said:

They seemed genuinely... surprised by questions and issues

As always, it's what is not said that gives more insight into their development than the big statements.

Questions about the weather elicit completely blank responses.

Weather isn't on the back burner, it's not on the agenda at all at the moment.

Development is all about maximising income right now. The botched launch of 2024 meant Marketplace income dropped like a stone for the best part of a year after November 2024.

They've got a lot of ground to make up here. Marketplace prices have been hiked and the PS5 launch is another attempt to enhance this income.

The problem for Asobo is that current consoles are a dead end for technical development. All they can do is try and make the sim run acceptably on these and this can only happen at the expense of PC users.

Until a new generation Xbox is released or they bite the bullet and split development, innovation within the sim as we've known it in the past is at a standstill.

Steam | MSFS204 | Customer Reviews | Recent Reviews (714) | Mostly Positive

For months after release, recent reviews were Mostly Negative.

Only if you all could remember where we were in FS just a short 7 years ago... Is MSFS perfect "no". Is it miles, even light-years ahead of where we were? "Yes"...! Are they committed to continuing to improve and expand our hobby? "Yes"... Be thankful, supportive, and we will continue to see advances in our hobby we never thought we would see. It takes time and patience, which I know a lot of us lack. Including myself at times. Bluebird, PMDG, iniBuilds, and many other developers. ;-) However, they are doing the best they can with the resources available. Thank you, MS, Asobo, and all who are involved in making this the best simulation experience for a reasonable cost. Cheers, now go flying and enjoy those views and "as real as it gets"...!

Edited Saturday at 06:19 PM3 days by ETOPS3_TTV

13 hours ago, SayAgain said:

We really need to stop regurgitating this because it only adds to urban myth. It's not a LOD issue, every aircraft (3rd party and MSFS) has this problem. Asobo said the culling is a % of screen size, late render or early (I would think early), no amount of LOD will help, no huge invisible bounding boxes help ... it's by design.

Do you REALLY think they INTENDED for landing gear to disappear…? 🤣

Edited Saturday at 08:08 PM3 days by UrgentSiesta

2 hours ago, ETOPS3_TTV said:

Only if you all could remember where we were in FS just a short 7 years ago... Is MSFS perfect "no". Is it miles, even light-years ahead of where we were? "Yes"...! Are they committed to continuing to improve and expand our hobby? "Yes"... Be thankful, supportive, and we will continue to see advances in our hobby we never thought we would see. It takes time and patience, which I know a lot of us lack. Including myself at times. Bluebird, PMDG, iniBuilds, and many other developers. ;-) However, they are doing the best they can with the resources available. Thank you, MS, Asobo, and all who are involved in making this the best simulation experience for a reasonable cost. Cheers, now go flying and enjoy those views and "as real as it gets"...!

For sure I'm thankful for this simulator. I just get agitated when I see issues that were not a thing in the previous generation of sims.