July 29th, 2021 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Screenshot by SimFlight2020

What a week it’s been! Thank you to the entire community for supporting us during launch this past Tuesday, and welcome all new Xbox Series X|S players! We hope you are enjoying the sim. Our team has been collecting your feedback, first impressions, and more and we would like to share that a hotfix will be live tomorrow, July 30th, at 8 am PT (1500 UTC) to download on both PC and Xbox Series X|S consoles. Here are the release notes:

Stability/performance

Fixed various crashes in game and on the world map
Fixed crashes related to the offline AI traffic
Fixed minor memory leaks

Input

The title should no longer freeze for a very long time when connecting / disconnecting peripherals

Navigation

Fixed broken flight plan for Garmin devices when adding an enroute waypoint that was inserted as a destination
Fixed flightplanner not resetting when going from one activity to another
Fixed flightplan from flight assistant not displaying on certain planes when VFR map is open after the destination is set
Fixed freezes happening when using the flight assistant when setting a new destination

UI

VR options should no longer be duplicated in the Option menu
Marketplace “Get and download” and “Download” buttons will now function as expected on the Content Page
User unable to interact with UI elements with the in game cursor for free flight in some cases

Planes

Improvements of pitot static system to fix altimeter bugs, improve accuracy and correctly simulate temperature impact
Fixed AutoBrakes Button Behavior on the Airbus A320Neo

Activity / Gameplay

The correct runway is now taken into account for the Landing challenge at Nice
Pilots are now displayed in external view at the Isafjordur Landing challenge
Title will no longer become unresponsive after using Fuel Supply and using a fuel or payload as a numerical value via ATC Ground Services
Some achievements will no longer be awarded in error for certain landing scenarios

Weather

Fixed big temperature spikes at high altitudes

SDK

Added new airspace to nearest facility JS API
Fixed crashes on WASM modules for older CPUs

We are actively working on making this sim the best experience possible, and look forward to seeing videos, comments, and more from you about this release.

– The MSFS team

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

To learn more about Accessibility in Microsoft Flight Simulator, click here.

KEY:

SU = Sim Update (3, 4, etc.)

WU = World Update

ASAP = As Soon as Possible

TBD = To Be Determined

Several Releases = Fixes will come over a series of updates

Ongoing Fixes = An item we will continually be working on

Planned = Scheduled to be worked on

Under Investigation = The team is currently looking into the issue

Not Planned = We will likely not work on this

Started = Work has started on this item

SDK UPDATE

General
- We changed the way LODs behave to get massive performance improvements. Now, on Xbox, this is how LODs work:
  - Objects with one single LOD disappear if their screen size is lower than 5%. MAJOR CHANGE as it used to be 0.5% in previous versions
  - Objects with two LODs disappear if their screen size is lower than 2%.
  - Objects with three or more LODs disappear if their screen size is lower than 0.5%.
- We strongly advise people to create 4 different LODs for their models, as it is stated in our Xbox guidelines here.
- We have temporarily reverted the LOD selection mechanism to its previous state on PC. However, because it is important that you can check the state of your add-ons with the Xbox LOD selection mechanism, we have added an “Xbox LOD Selection Mode” option in the DevMode.
Documentation
- With the SDK update, there are also significant improvements to the documentation. Here’s what we have prepared for you:
  - Material Editor documentation
  - <Behaviors> element (previously <ModelBehaviors>) documentation
  - More documentation for our SDK samples
  - Living Things SimObject documentation
  - Boat SimObject documentation
  - Content Configuration section for Textures
  - Models content configuration section
  - New nodes in the Visual Effects Editor section
  - Statistic Profiler documentation
  - Coherent GT Debugger documentation
  - New Xbox Samples
  - Additional information for the 3DS Max Plugin
  - Additional documentation to the Scenery Editor & the Project Editor
  - Updated information for the Aircraft Electrics Systems
  - Changes and additions to the Flight Model Config Definition page
  - New sections to the Flight Model Physics page
  - Additional documentation on the Reverse Polish Notation page
Dev Mode
- General
  - We renamed “Model behavior” labels to “Behaviors”.
- Project Editor:
  - We fixed the “Add asset group” command that would not revert asset groups.
- Visual Effects Editor:
  - We added a Simple FX sample to the SDK.
  - We’ve made big progress in terms of stability.
  - We’re currently adding keyboard shortcuts, which will allow you to copy (CTRL+C) and paste (CTRL+V) one or several nodes inside an effect, and even from one effect to the other!

3rd Party Update

As of 07/26, we have now approved 205 (+4) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 115 (+0) have released 510 products (+12).
In total, 1,178 products (+20) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 361 products (+2) from 3^rd party developers are in production (227 announced, 134 unannounced). In total, over 1,539 3^rd party products (+22) are either released or are in development.
Airports:
- 970 airports (+21) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 752 airports (+17) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 407 airports (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 107 airports (+2) beyond the released airports have been announced.
  - 111 airports (+2) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
Aircraft:
- 189 aircraft (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 58 aircraft (+2) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 35 aircraft (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 108 aircraft (+0) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
  - 23 aircraft (-1) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
Scenery:
- 341 sceneries (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 329 sceneries (+1) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 34 sceneries (+2) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 12 sceneries (-1) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
Mission Packs:
- 39 mission packs (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 39 mission packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 4 mission packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.

Marketplace Updates

3 NEW PRODUCTS
Already on PC ✅ Xbox ❌ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ❌ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ❌ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌

26 UPDATED PRODUCTS
Already on PC ✅ Xbox ❌ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ❌ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌
Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ✅	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ❌ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ❌ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌
Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌
Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌
Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌
Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌
Already on PC ✅ Xbox ❌ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌
Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌	Already on PC ✅ Xbox ❌ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌
Already on PC ✅ Xbox ✅ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌		Already on PC ✅ Xbox ❌ New on PC ✅ Xbox ❌