March 11th, 2021 - Development Update

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

MARCH 11TH, 2021 – DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

Posted by: Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Screenshot by Filippo20032222

 

This week has been a busy one for the team. We released Sim Update 3, had Pilot Emilie take over our Twitch and held our monthly Dev Q&A. We want to take a moment to thank our community for submitting questions and engaging in the Q&A. We also announced our new partnership with Working Title and hope you all are as thrilled as we are. Make sure to check out the new ‘Partnership Series – Working Title’ video below. Speaking of exciting news: the long awaited CRJ is set to arrive next week.

–MSFS TEAM-

 

PARTNERSHIP SERIES – WORKING TITLE

 

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

Click here for the web-friendly version.

 

FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

Click here for the web-friendly version.

 

THIRD PARTY UPDATE

We had a ton of fun this week flying some of the newly released aircraft and we cannot wait for everyone to check out Aerosoft’s CRJ next week!

• Airports:
  • 648 airports (+12) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 461 airports (+7) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 193 airports (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 77 airports (+10) beyond the released airports have been announced.
    • 110 airports (-14) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
• Aircraft:
  • 121 aircraft (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 25 aircraft (+1) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 14 aircraft (-2) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 74 aircraft (+0) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
    • 22 aircraft (+0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
• Scenery:
  • 223 sceneries (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 221 sceneries (+1) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 17 sceneries (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 2 sceneries (-1) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
• Mission Packs:
  • 21 mission packs (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
    • 21 mission packs (+1) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
    • 3 mission packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
    • 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.

 

SDK UPDATE

• Documentation:
  • We made a massive update to the Scenery Editor documentation.
• DevMode:
  • We fixed a bug on TaxiwaySign properties to prevent typing invalid characters.
  • We removed inactive options (Cast Shadow & No Snow) from the Scenery Editor.
  • We fixed a crash when using Importer from APX in the Scenery Editor.

 

MARKETPLACE

This week we added 16 new products and updated 11.

16 NEW PRODUCTS

 

11 UPDATED PRODUCTS

 

COMMUNITY VIDEO

 

TWITCH SCHEDULE

Join us tomorrow for an amazing collaboration between four Twitch Streamers: TheFlyingFabio, TwoToneMurphy, SeedyL, and Forderlearntofly!

Check out this week’s Developer Q&A now on Youtube:

 

 

COMMUNITY SCREENSHOT CHALLENGE

This past week we challenged you to take a screenshot “The Soup” The winner is Filippo20032222 and is our featured screenshot at the top of this update.  The top 10 are below. Thanks to all those who participated!

Our next challenge: “The Setup”

Screenshot by SinewyCarp9297

 

Screenshot by damiankadziela

 

Screenshot by tomlaut1980

 

Screenshot by CaptainB76

 

Screenshot by Speedbrake22

 

Screenshot by walterdog9598

 

Screenshot by YusufWardana1

 

Screenshot by Hedbonkerfs

 

Screenshot by CuzDawg3

 

Screenshot by AymanOne

 

NEXT DEVELOPMENT UPDATE BLOG – 3.18

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Edited March 12, 2021 by ChaoticBeauty

[DaWu 783]

I prefer the older version with the images of what is beeing worked on instead of this new web format. The only problem with it, and that still persists, is the lack of a diff view to what changed in comparison to last week. 

Edited March 11, 2021 by DaWu

[JBDB-MD80 1,579]

In before it starts

[Rlionel 0]

Hi everyone, first, I love MSFS2020! I hope someone can help. I downloaded update 3. I first moved my community folder 

to another drive. Then moved it back after the update. Problem, some planes do not have cockpits. They are missing in about 5 planes that I downloaded freeware liveries.  If I delete these files, will the cockpits come back. 
Is there anything I can do to fix without deleting?

king air, diamond 62, a320, Crj, tbm930, b747,?

ideas. Please help.

thank you!

Rich

[Tuskin38 7,097]

anyone tried those MSFSSceneryBuilders airports?

Edited March 11, 2021 by Tuskin38

[Little Jenny 317]

11 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

anyone tried those MSFSSceneryBuilders airports?

I thought about grabbing one of their Florida ones but saw some comments saying their not very good.  The developer sure is churning them out quickly, which makes me question the quality.  I'm going to avoid this developer for now.

Edited March 12, 2021 by Little Jenny

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

Alright, development update's back on the website with the updated Feedback Snapshot. Seems like it was accidentally released in an incomplete state before.

Lots of stuff like improvements to the Garmin panels, autopilot, live weather, wind readings and photogrammetry are now slated for release in Autumn 2021, with ongoing improvements as well. My guess is that the update schedule with the new cadence is going to be like that:

• Spring 2021 - Combined Sim Update 4 and World Update 5
• Summer 2021 - Xbox/DirectX 12 Update
• Autumn 2021 - Sim Update 5 (+World Update 6?)
• Winter 2021 - World Update 6/7

It will be interesting to see how the new cadence works out.

[Armchair Pilot 261]

Fall 2021 for those wx improvements that were touted to be in sim update 3. I lose confidence in the corporate control over the dev teams. If its any indicator on them taking alot of time out to investigate and improve features. The promised garmin upgrades... were just underwhelming for the time taken.

[dtrjones 356]

1 hour ago, DaWu said:

I prefer the older version with the images of what is beeing worked on instead of this new web format. The only problem with it, and that still persists, is the lack of a diff view to what changed in comparison to last week. 

We don't usual get preview shots unless we're close to a World Update which is another 3-4 weeks away. There is a preview of the World Update POI's in the Q&A stream. I'm pretty excited about Amsterdam and Paris being photogrammetry cities and the possibility of 1meter DEM data for areas of France is crazy!

[fppilot 4,462]

So most of what I was expecting and hoping for in Update 3 is now pushed off to Summer-Fall 2021 or Fall 2021.  And given they were slated for Update 3?  Then what does that really mean?  I have not ever been invited to participate in an Alpha² program before.

[dtrjones 356]

1 hour ago, Rlionel said:

Hi everyone, first, I love MSFS2020! I hope someone can help. I downloaded update 3. I first moved my community folder 

to another drive. Then moved it back after the update. Problem, some planes do not have cockpits. They are missing in about 5 planes that I downloaded freeware liveries.  If I delete these files, will the cockpits come back. 
Is there anything I can do to fix without deleting?

king air, diamond 62, a320, Crj, tbm930, b747,?

ideas. Please help.

thank you!

Rich

You do realise the whole point of moving the community folder was so that you can check for issues with the install. So is it working with out the community updates or not? I've not read or seen anything about missing cockpits. Did you download the 1GB update from Microsoft Store first, if not do that as it may bring in another update, also check Profile -> Content Manager for any products or updates which have not been installed. Good luck!

Edited March 12, 2021 by dtrjones

[dtrjones 356]

12 minutes ago, fppilot said:

So most of what I was expecting and hoping for in Update 3 is now pushed off to Summer-Fall 2021 or Fall 2021.  And given they were slated for Update 3?  Then what does that really mean?  I have not ever been invited to participate in an Alpha² program before.

Ah I see so you are new to this verion of Flight Simulator?

Well this version is different - it's not an Acceleration Pack and boom we're done - Asobo and Microsoft have committed to regular updates over a 10 year development period. The cadance of the updates is being juggled around but we've been getting a sim update one month and a content (World update focusing on a specific region) the next month.

I think regarding the expecation for the sim updates - there's probably been some miss communication about what to expect - I don't think the garmins were ever intended to be finished in this sim update - infact they've just partnered with a company called Working Title who have already provided some excellent garmin updates already as mods and the hope is this will be brought in amongst many other sim changes into the base sim which is fantastic.

The link below is for the recent Q&A stream which I highly recommend you look which provides more context around expectations and whats coming up.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/944290129

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by dtrjones

[atco 166]

1 hour ago, Tuskin38 said:

anyone tried those MSFSSceneryBuilders airports?

I can only speak for my experiences with P3D as I have a few of their airports, but so far am avoiding them for MSFS.

They are very, very basic. Basically an AFCAD with a few custom models. Lots of models are recycled and generic in all their scenery. While the most prominent buildings are generally custom models, its usually only the shapes, texturing tends to be very basic and often re-used from one airport to another.

As I say I got a few of their airports in P3D because I was doing a lot of flying in Africa and for many of the larger airports they are the only option beyond default. The best I could say really is they are better than default but that's about it. The trouble is often they are the only choice as one of the things they do well is focus on airports that nobody else will touch, so they are very niche.
I always treat them as airports of last resort - If any other dev has a version of an airport they have done, go with that one as it will surely be better. But if you want something better than the default then its worth considering, just remember their stuff is very, very basic. You will not find any of the standard features that are generally expected these days, especially when it comes to texturing. If you've been simming for a while you might remember Blueprint Simulations, they are about the best comparison I could come up with.

[marsman2020 1,310]

13 minutes ago, dtrjones said:

Well this version is different - it's not an Acceleration Pack and boom we're done - Asobo and Microsoft have committed to regular updates over a 10 year development period.

The sim was represented as being done and a media hype train was spun up based on it being done.  The "10 year journey" pivot didn't happen until after release.  People deserve the working product they paid for at release. 

Some of us might not even be alive in 10 years.....many older simmers in the community...

It is what it is and there is really nothing to do about it now, but the product was seriously misrepresented at release and I think people are justified to be disappointed and frustrated to see the promised improvements pushed off further and further into the future every month.

The likely reason why we don't see any of the improvements we want on the PC until "Summer 2021" and "Fall 2021" - a FULL YEAR after release - is because they are too busy making the X-Box version to fix it.  Too much of the development work is in the "X-Box branch" which includes things like DX12, and it will take months and months after the X-Box release to merge all those changes back into the PC version.

What we have now is truly Alpha software, pushed out the door because some suits at Microsoft said to do so.  Behind the scenes they are totally rewriting everything, which is why we get broken update after broken update and months and months of delays to fix even the highest voted bugs.

Edited March 12, 2021 by marsman2020

[fppilot 4,462]

15 minutes ago, dtrjones said:

Ah I see so you are new to this verion of Flight Simulator?

 

No. I am a former pilot who now has over 8,000 of flight simulator time from 1982 forward and have worked with this simulator since August.  Before you hurl out comments like that here I suggest you first read message sidebars, footers, and profiles.  Member to member respect is a key ingredient of what makes Avsim so great.

Edited March 12, 2021 by fppilot