Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Development Update - Live

[turbomax 3,419]

56 minutes ago, micstatic said:

What's the advantage with the in sim flight planning thing other than the navigraph cost?

what's the advantage for the millions that don't have Navigraph yet, considering it is not free?

[lwt1971 7,988]

Matt Nischan's post on discord re: the new flight planner: https://discord.com/channels/750764704175226992/763804431413673984/1254271602754064415

Thanks to all who tuned in to the MSFS 2024 Developer Update at FSExpo, both in-person and via the live stream. The response was, as always, super humbling, and we're just incredibly thrilled and happy to continue to be part of this crazy journey in flight simulation with you all, as part of the Microsoft Flight Simulator development team. For those folks that missed our announcements at the update, here's a recap of what we said:

For years, flight simmers have had to rely on tools outside of the simulator to plan their virtual flights – especially complex flights. For our team of simmer/developers this presented a huge opportunity for innovation and we’re incredibly proud to tell you that with Flight Simulator 2024, that’s going to all change. We are bringing a full-featured flight planning tool to Flight Simulator: get ready for a Foreflight-like experience directly within the simulator! The new flight planner will be accessible across platforms, both inside and outside the sim – so you can pre-plan a flight on your browser, tablet or even your phone. If you prefer, you can also build and monitor your plan inside the virtual cockpit. Not only can you plan your flight, but you can monitor progress in real time on the map, both inside and outside of the sim. The flight planner includes tons of features, but here are a few that we’re really looking forward to:

Graphical and text-based route planning
Fuel and payload planning
Vertical profile planning
ETOPS planning
Typical briefing information, like weather, NOTAMS and airport information.
…and of course, CHARTS

The map features VFR and IFR views, including procedure overlays and charts. We are also providing both VFR- and IFR-focused nav logs, and customizable OFPs. The flight planning tool will be available across platforms, including PC and Xbox, web browsers and mobile devices – we think you’re going to love it! Finally, one more thing: we know many of you saw the FS 2024 trailer earlier this month and that prompted some discussion about the avionics for the included aircraft. We are excited to announce that one of the avionics platforms we have built for Flight Simulator 2024 is the Primus Epic 2. This modern suite will not only be available in the PC-12 NGX, but just like all our other avionics systems, it will also be available to developers via the avionics framework for third-party aircraft inclusion.

We're looking to share more about this exciting feature of MSFS 2024 as the year rolls on! You can also catch the screenshots we shared at FSExpo in ⁠#progress, for an even better look.
 

Edited Sunday at 10:18 PM by lwt1971

[GoranM 3,894]

3 hours ago, jarmstro said:

Haha! Your choice of words is understood by me. But let's not start that old argument again. Although I'm game if you want to. Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. Just saying.😂

Absolutely no sarcasm intended. What they’re doing with the scenery is phenomenal. Clouds. Lighting. The hot air balloon was an eye opener. The soft body animation and physics. No. This one is a legit comment and opinion. I like MSFS. I’ve always said this. It has a few areas that I wish they would improve from a dev point of view, but from what I’ve seen, 2024 has surpassed my expectations. 

Edited Sunday at 10:06 PM by GoranM

[JRBarrett 3,286]

1 hour ago, micstatic said:

Can anybody help me understand what I'm missing?  I'm one of those people who is pretty content with navigraph/simbrief etc.  What's the advantage with the in sim flight planning thing other than the navigraph cost?

Well, they really had to make a change because the existing “flight planner” in MSFS 2020 is of very poor quality. WT isn’t going to do things halfway - when they set the goal of improving the existing flight planner, they are obviously going to create something which is accurate and truly useful - just as they have with the default aircraft avionics.

[109Sqn 1,648]

2 hours ago, F737MAX said:

🤦‍♂️ The rumour that just won't die...

Silver bullets, wooden stakes, water, crosses, sunlight, you name it, nothing kills it.

Just don't say, "Subscription, subscription, sub..."

Oops, nearly! 🤦‍♂️

[Tuskin38 7,098]

IIRC they announced WT was going to be working on new flight planning a while ago, but then went silent.

I guess because they moved it to 2024 instead.

Edited Sunday at 10:27 PM by Tuskin38

[Baber20 1,550]

The entire landscape will be full 3d with procedurally generated grass, rocks, bushes etc. THIS right here is a game changer along with the new biome system and 3d trees. This will give you a sense of depth perception and will make you feel more grounded in the environment. 

Jorg also mentioned that ground markings have been dramatically improved. This is also huge. Xplane 12 has very clear and crisp ground markings and airport pavement textures which is what i sorely  missed in MSFS. 

Although I am disappointed that they didn't go into further details on the live weather improvements, one thing that particular interested me was how clouds are going to be lit now. Sunlight absorption on the clouds will be based on the internal height of the clouds. High light absorption at the top and low at the bottom. This will give us those nice white clouds we always asked for. No more ash clouds hopefully. Now couple this with the new lighting engine and ray traced shadows, we will be getting very realistic looking clouds.

[Farlis 2,447]

3 hours ago, YVR_23 said:

And from what I remember they claimed these graphics would only be possible with DX12 because it was the next big thing for gaming. MS really pushed DX12 hard.

It was DX10 not 12.

[Lucky38i 1,214]

Ignore, messing up the formatting

Edited Sunday at 10:42 PM by Lucky38i

[Dermot McClusky 587]

1 hour ago, micstatic said:

Can anybody help me understand what I'm missing?  I'm one of those people who is pretty content with navigraph/simbrief etc.  What's the advantage with the in sim flight planning thing other than the navigraph cost?

Turbomax already mentioned the cost issue, which means a lot to some, not much to others (I'm one of them). 

For me, if the in-sim flight planning works well then it's one more program I can get rid of. I really like to run as clean as possible and if I can run the sim and not worry about running another program then I'm very happy. Navigraph is wonderful (and deserves success) and I certainly won't be getting rid of it until I've tried the in-sim planner for 2024, but if it fits my needs and works seamlessly, it'll be a change for me, for sure. 

It's a small thing when you think about it (after all, navigraph works so well with the sim and many 3rd party products), but small things add up and I will take anything I can get to simplify my experience.

[Lucky38i 1,214]

14 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

I guess because they moved it to 2024 instead.

I remember them saying in the livestream that both sims got this feature, I may be mis-remembering though

[lwt1971 7,988]

15 minutes ago, Baber20 said:

The entire landscape will be full 3d with procedurally generated grass, rocks, bushes etc. THIS right here is a game changer along with the new biome system and 3d trees. This will give you a sense of depth perception and will make you feel more grounded in the environment.

In addition to increasing immersion, it also factors into improving taxiing and landing realism given how the 3D ground and its objects can impact the physics of taxiing/landing (i.e. grass, rocks, puddles, etc) per what Seb said here: https://youtu.be/a6riRXgRsCU?t=2141 . Combined with the revamped ground handling physics (the partial backport of which in SU15 has been implemented by iniBuilds to great affect in their A300) it'll just add that much more. Although the 3D ground is likely to have the most impact on bush flying, gliders, and something the A400M where non-traditional runways come into play.
 

Edited Sunday at 10:45 PM by lwt1971

[urthgental 197]

22 minutes ago, Baber20 said:

Now couple this with the new lighting engine and ray traced shadows, we will be getting very realistic looking clouds.

If I understood it correctly, virtual cockpit always used a different rendering pipeline than outside. My assumption is raytraycing for is for the cockpit only, not globally. But I may be wrong…

Edited Sunday at 10:53 PM by urthgental

[Krakin 6,188]

I look forward to cancelling my Navigraph sub

[Cognita 1,154]

4 minutes ago, Krakin said:

I look forward to cancelling my Navigraph sub

I don't think I would say I look forward to it, given that they have fulfilled a crucial need in the community for a long time and have worked to bring a lot of interesting features, but the truth is I don't use half of them and if the in-flight planner can meet my basic requirements to plan a flight then I will indeed cancel that subscription.