September 3rd, 2020 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Screenshot by gordongreig

It’s been just over two weeks since the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator and the team continues to transition from release focused work and back into feedback ingestion, bug fixing, and development.

Patch #1 (build 1.7.14.0) was released yesterday.

Patch #2 has advanced to the final testing phase.

- While we’re not quite ready to provide a release date for Patch #2, it will be released this month. Patch #2 will have an increased focus on the “in-sim” experience and we will post a complete patch list prior to release.

We’ve also been working on updating our core documents (i.e. Development Roadmap/Feedback Snapshot) to provide greater clarity into how we are tracking and addressing community feedback.

Feedback Snapshot – Updated Feedback Snapshot can be found below. Though we are still evolving this document, we felt it important to share with the community to provide better transparency for feedback we are tracking. You should expect changes to the format of the document in the near future to help the community track how we are processing feedback from ingestion to implementation.

Development Roadmap – Updated Development Roadmap can be found below. This is another document we are working to evolve over the next few months to capture all the work happening across the franchise.

We continue to collect and track feedback across all our external communities. This process of feedback collection and ingestion will continue to evolve as the team works to strengthen the transparency and connection between consumer and development team. As part of this process, we have added a voting feature in our forums to provide another avenue for the community to provide their input into the most important issues.

Direct Link to Bugs & Issues Forum Thread

Current top voted issues as of 09.03 (MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR FORUM FEEDBACK ONLY)

Note – The Feedback Snapshot contains information collected across all of our communities. The information below is just a subset of the overall feedback we collect and will be included in the Feedback Snapshot but will not represent ALL issues in the Feedback Snapshot.

- 225/03 Wind Thread – “Thread for people having the 225/03 wind issue in North America and other places around the world. The winds aloft are always about 225 degrees at 3kts
- Wind Testing – “In an effort to give this issue more visibility, and greater importance for addressing. Did a test of (6) different airports to show that the wind depiction issues go well beyond the 223/3 knots winds aloft bug we all know about.”
- Live Weather and Wind Readings are Not accurate – “Hello, I’m wondering if you all are having the well know weather issue with the wind still at 2 kts when you fly anywhere in the world because I did a test flight from KSFO to Eureka, CA and flew over the ocean where winds this morning where around 30 kts but my Grand Caravan aircraft only had winds 225 degrees at 2 kts”
- Live Weather Not Working: In general, Live Weather not accurate. “Having to restart to get live weather working again, then sometimes midflight it just changes to clear conditions.”
- Live Weather Error – “After I quit the flight and go back to World Map the live weather does not work anymore. Weather appears to be clear in whatever airport I start again.”
- Garmin G1000/G3000 & Autopilot Related Issues – Variety of AP and issues with the Garmin Avionics. Read list in thread.
- Turboprop Engine Logic Issues – “Basic turboprop engine issues to include ITT on start, ITT with altitude, torque versus altitude, and N1 versus altitude issues.”
- ATC Incorrect Phraseology – Airline pilot highlights it in thread.
- Baron G58 Missing ALT Knob – No knob for ALT in the Baron G58
- Night lighting – Terrain emits light? – Terrain emits light, see thread for further examples and screenshots.
- Dreadful Performance – General performance issues (stutters, jumpy, etc.) with good computer set up.
- Reflections look grainy, even if reflections are on ultra
- Garmin Avionics missing RNAV approaches
- Lack of Real Time Traffic
- Cessna Citation Longitude Performance issues – “Engine, fuel, and flight dynamics issues with the Longitude”
- A320 swaying left and right – When on Autopilot, the A320 sways left and right

The team remains committed to actively working closely with the community to build this franchise well into the future. Thank you for helping to make Microsoft Flight Simulator such a memorable and amazing launch experience for the team. While we are just at the beginning of this journey we are on with you, we are excited for what the future has in store!

– MSFS TEAM

PATCH #2!

Patch has entered the final testing phase.
Team working to define release date pending results of final testing.
POR is to release Patch #2 in September.
Update on timeline and patch notes will be provided in our upcoming post on 09.10.

FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

SDK UPDATE

Thanks to the creative energy and passion of the community, we have identified and fixed several issues related to the world editor, in particular linked to custom aerials, projected meshes, airports replacement and airport editing. Custom add-on airports and POIs can be now displayed in the world map and used when setting up a flight plan. We are also happy to see that the community is developing an exporter plugin for Blender, leveraging the standard glTF format that Microsoft Flight Simulator is heavily relying on! On the aircraft side, instruments are improving via support for the legacy XML gauges format (restoring fonts support, fixing several other issues) while at the same time improving support for the new WebAssembly-based system (local mouse coordinates are now accessible to WebAssembly gauges, several issues have been fixed). We are developing a brand new node-based particles effects system, which is an exciting addition to the simulator all-up. SimConnect is also getting some love and we fixed an important performance issue related to it, and we are also restoring missing functionality and better documenting it. Lastly, we keep improving the SDK documentation, and we’ve also worked on documenting the bush trips authoring process.

3rd Parties We have now over 800 applications to our in-sim marketplace and have approved the first ~20 partners already. Several awesome 3rd party products are already available in the marketplace and our next release will add another dozen or so creations. We as a team are super energized to see new 3rd party product announcements almost every day and can’t wait to try some of these creations ourselves. It’s awesome to see to creative energy unleashed by the creator community and we are proud to see these products coming to the platform … and it’s only the beginning. We have nearly 100 product announcements planned over the next few months!

WE ARE STREAMING!

If you haven’t had a chance to check out some of the recent streams our community staff has been releasing, make sure to head over to Our Twitch Channel!