[BLOG] December 1, 2022 Development Update

iinKWest · December 2, 2022, 12:04am

Screenshot by ukaka5656 (Twitter)

This week will be the last full Development Update Blog for 2022. We will continue to bring you Marketplace Updates on December 8, 15, and 29, and the main blog will return starting January 5, 2023.

Thank you for making 2022 a great year for MSFS! Looking back on the year, we released four Sim Updates, five World Updates, the Top Gun: Maverick expansion, numerous planes in our Local Legends and Famous Flyers series, the iconic Pelican dropship from Halo, and we capped off 2022 with the free 40th Anniversary Edition update. We have many exciting things planned for MSFS in 2023, and we can’t wait to share them with you soon!

On Monday, November 28, we released update 1.29.30.0 to all players. You can read the patch notes here.

Coming up next week on Thursday, December 9 at 1800Z, we are proud to partner with the Reno Air Racing Association for a charity fundraising livestream on our Official Twitch channel. Players on all platforms and of any skill level are invited to join this group flight in the Douglas DC-3 as we fly “The Hump” over the Himalayas from India to China. Please see this forum thread for details on how you can participate.

On behalf of the team at Microsoft Flight Simulator, we wish all our players and fans a joyous and peaceful holiday season and a happy new year! We’ll see you again in 2023.

MSFS Team

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

A new Development Roadmap will be available in the new year.

FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

The Feedback Snapshot will return in the new year.

MARKETPLACE UPDATE

Click here for the web-friendly version of the Marketplace Update.

There are 30 new and 44 updated products in the Marketplace today. Marketplace updates generally go live on Thursdays between the release of this blog post and 5pm PT.

Released Earlier Today:

SDK UPDATE

JOIN THE WORLDHUB ADVENTURE!
- If you missed our presentation of the new WorldHub, you can find it here! And if you want to subscribe and be part of the 50 alpha testers who will help us improve the airports logic, all you have to do is apply here. With the WorldHub, the Earth is calling.
General
- We added a standalone installer for the Wwise project. (AAU_01)
- The Legacy Aircraft Editor will no longer be available starting from AAU_01 – we will provide a way to import old .air files in the new Aircraft Editor in SU_12.
On the Aircraft Editor
- We changed a condition on afterburner_available and fuel_flow_gain to avoid malfunction on turboprop engines. (AAU_01)
- We added a new parameter use_gross_thrust_on_fuelflow and changed the display condition on static_thrust to avoid malfunction on turboprop engines. (AAU_01)
- We added a modification marker on section for a better understanding of what is going on. (SU_12)
- We fixed the wrong default values on a list of parameters. (AAU_01)
On the Scenery Editor
- We improved the terraforming by reducing the memory cost of polygons and performing small optimizations on projected meshes. (SU_12)
On SimConnect
- Pause events are now sent correctly through SimConnect. (SU_12)
On the NavData API
- We improved the conflict message management. (SU_12)
- We added fields (Airport ICAO, REGION). (SU_12)

THIRD PARTY UPDATE

As of 11/28, we have now approved 290 (+0) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 172 (+0) have released 1,569 products on PC (+0) and 1,275 on Xbox (+0).
In total, 2,475 products (+6) have already been released in 3rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 623 products (+8) from 3rd party developers are in production (324 announced, 299 unannounced). In total, over 3,098 3rd party products (+14) have either been released or are in development.
Airports:
- 1,694 airports (+10) are either released or are in various stages of development.
- 1,468 airports (+5) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
- 949 airports (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
- 119 airports (+4) beyond the released airports have been announced.
- 107 airports (+1) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
Aircraft:
- 471 aircraft (+3) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 180 aircraft (+1) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 125 aircraft (+0) have been released in the in-sim PC marketplace.
  - 96 aircraft (+0) have been released in the in-sim Xbox marketplace.
  - 183 aircraft (+5) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
  - 108 aircraft (-3) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
Scenery:
- 800 scenery packs (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 713 scenery packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 250 scenery packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 22 scenery packs (+1) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
  - 65 scenery packs (+0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that scenery is in production.
Mission Packs:
- 133 mission packs (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 114 mission packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 42 mission packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.
  - 19 mission packs (+0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that they are in production.

COMMUNITY FLY-IN

There is no Community Fly-In this week, but we do have an exciting upcoming event to prepare for!

Friday, December 9, instead of our regular Community Fly-In, we will be hosting a longer (5-6 hour) charity livestream to benefit the Reno Air Racing Association. This event will be a historical re-creation of flying over “The Hump” in World War II.

For those unfamiliar with The Hump, this was a vital supply route to deliver food, medical supplies, and military equipment by air transport over the Himalayas in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theatre of operations. Flying over The Hump was considered one of the most dangerous and challenging feats of aviation in the entire war. In its early days, accidental non-combat losses over The Hump were nearly as bad as those experienced by air crews flying combat missions over Europe.

Event details are available here. All are welcome to participate!

COMMUNITY VIDEO

The Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet from developer FlightFX is now available from the in-sim Marketplace for both PC and Xbox. Sporting an ultra-modern carbon fiber airframe, a v-tail empennage, a Williams FJ33 turbofan engine, and glass cockpit avionics, it’s certainly a beautiful plane to look at both in the real world and in Microsoft Flight Simulator, but how does FlightFX’s sim version perform? YouTuber Jonathan Beckett put the Vision Jet to the test and recently posted a video review. Check it out to see some of the unique features FlightFX included when bringing the Vision Jet into the virtual world of MSFS!