The bulk of the instability came from SU5. Prior to SU5, the core of the sim was all original FSX code. It was single threaded. It made bad use of memory. But it was what housed all the flight rules, etc. It probably accounts for 40% of the code for the simulator. XBox was never going to happen with this code. VR was never going to be able to expand with this code. Multi-monitor support was never going to happen with this code. Top Gun was never going to happen with this code. I doubt there was a single Asobo programmer that was excited about the work ahead of them having to rewrite all that code, but it had to be done to achieve any of their future goals. People will blame XBox, but look at the top requests that are for PC users. Multi-monitor support. VR. This work HAD to be done for any of the future to work out. With only a couple months to do it, Asobo rolled up their sleeves and got to it. Essentially, half the game you know was rewritten. And in that timeframe. Point blank, I am impressed that it went as WELL as it did, because monumental task doesn’t even begin to describe the work involved in that.
But yes, there were bugs. Lots and lots and lots of them. People were angry. And back then, realistically it was effecting a pretty severely high percentage of users. So I get the backlash. Asobo tried to do quick hotfixes, but that approach everyone agrees wasn’t working. They had to back off and do fixes in a more controlled manner, which was the sim updates.
Now, I know I will get disagreement here, but each sim update has made things more and more stable. Yes, an update may have introduced a new problem for you the reader, but it also fixed things for a greater number of people. How do I know? Because this forum was filled with thread upon thread upon thread about CTD after SU5. We saw the same on each of the Facebook group pages. With each sim update, that has gone down dramatically. There are still issues. There are some new ones that have popped up. Monday we have an open beta for the proposed hotfix release before the holidays. I expect a lot of the bigger ones will go away. There will still be things that annoy people. But each release has made things more stable.
There are some new features that have been added, that people complained about, and Asobo has reacted in the next update. For instance, night lighting. SU6 introduced new night lighting, based upon feedback from the community, Asobo made changes in SU7, and almost everyone is happy now with the results. So a lot of new features, they get presented, but then tuned based upon community feedback.
Extending the length of sim updates, you are going to have longer times before changes get implemented. So its a two edged sword. Releasing things too quickly can introduce bugs, but taking too long leaves people frustrated for a fix.
Now I know someone is going to point out, every sim update breaks things for the third party developers or your addons. That I will agree with. I’m thankful and appreciative for all the work our third party developers do. I know its been a rough few months. We still have one more sim update to go until we reach a point that post sim update 5 has been fully shaken out. Once the critical mass of bugs from the new code are resolved, I am hoping that things will be more stable from there out. Like I said, you have my sympathies, but please hang in there with us. We all really appreciate what you bring to the sim.
Offhand, I am going to say, I think the community is still in post SU5 mode. You can’t go a day without someone saying all world and sim updates need to stop until all bugs are fixed. The latest trend is now people are saying all updates to the marketplace should stop because those 5 people who package addons for the marketplace should be fixing bugs (lets just totally ignore the fact that they aren’t developers). Every few days you have some quality assurance person posting about their thoughts on process, or offering their skils to show Asobo the correct way to do it. Every couple days you have “pilot” stating how bugs are stopping them from training or teaching other students how to fly.
Sim Update 5 was rough. There isn’t a single person in the community, in Asobo, or in Microsoft that won’t deny that. I know it is one product that you all purchased, but at the end of July, a big enough percentage of the code was rewritten enough to almost make this like MSFS 2020 V2. It’s getting more stable for most people from the base program aspect. (Yes, a lot of our addons have needed frequent updates). We have one more sim update that is supposed to resolve at least most the mass of bugs introduced with SU5 and beyond. Lets see where we are with Sim Update 9. Its at that point that we should be introducing new features and past the SU5 shakedown. I hate to say it, but given the extent of work that SU5 was, and the short timeframe, there was going to be a shakedown period. Stop and think about it, the game itself took 1.5 years to write, and used original FSX as its core layer in the 1.5 year. Then in two months, they rewrote 40% of the code, which was the FSX code. 1.5 years to develop 60% of the code, 2 months to develop the other 40%. Even if they never did XBox, would all of you have waited 1.5 years for VR and multi-monitor support? Or some of the other features that needed this new core (I imagine the new modeling physics and the new weather really depended on this new core)? I know there will be a bunch of people who will say no, they would want it perfect, but you wouldn’t have understood what was involved to make it. You would have been on Asobo day in and day out wanting those features on the soon horizon.
And one other thing. I’m sure people will respond I’m being a fanboy. No, I’m not. I work as a senior programmer and project lead for a company that has since the very beginning of Fortune’s Top 100 Companies to Work for been on the list. Deeply ingrained in that culture, I’ve learned to take emotion out of things, I’ve learned to evaluate things objectively. So if you think I haven’t been hit by bugs, I have. For two weeks, I had to put down the game and play something else until a fix could be made. I bought Global AI Shipping and the DC6 on XBox. But understanding the complexity and enormity of what was done with SU5, I’m patient because I guess I kind of expected it would be this rough. It IS getting better. I read the forums everyday, I read the Facebook groups everyday. The volume and the severity of the issues has gone down. Asobo has a plan. The first two hotfixes did alarm me, but since then I have faith we are on the right path. Its just SU5 was big, it takes time to work through it all…