Charts for airports

Hey,

It was promised in one of last year’s dev update that free charts will come for airports at around nov 2020. When can we expect them?

Thanks!

1 Like

Which Dev update was that mentioned in?

Last year October maybe one of the the Asobo interview videos, But twitch has only for this year, I can’t search back for it. But definetely was mentioned last nov as I remember.

Ah okay, I remembered wrong.

At 15:33, he said not in the first world update in Nov, but in one of the future one. I guess that can leave the door open forever.

Well, things can change. If you look at some of the work the Working Title Team is doing, they already have integrated charts into the Garmin mods. Amazing stuff.

As I said before, there’s a collaboration/dovetail on a key system like the Garmins between Asobo and WT that both parties have remained mum for now (for understandable reasons). We might see what you’re looking for come to fruition this way in a future Sim Update cycle. For now, I’d settle to resolve basic problems with the Garmins. The way Sim Update 3 and whatever WT decides to overlay shakes out is a glimpse at how well this informal collaboration will work to deliver more features.

From the WT Discord:

image

That’s a pic of a real Gamin screen that a general user on the WT Discord posted to ask about, not an announcement that this is coming to their mod.

That said, I can see this potentially coming to the sim at some point down the road. The G1000 0.4 beta already has a “charts” placeholder button.

Well, yes for GA planes thats fine. But for airliners I would expect an EFB to use (which is only present in the fbw mod at the moment), or at least in the flight plan editor to access the airport charts.

So that’s Navblue Charts+ integration Jorg was talking about.
Did they ever mention if such charts would be free?

I guess that’s a question for the next interview’s Q&A section.

They did not talk a lot about it at all.
The only thing they definitely provide for free are the AIRAC cycle data which is updated whenever MSFS is getting an update (which means less frequent than the 28 day cycle, we will miss some).

I assume there will be no free charts, but will be happy if they indeed are.
Unfortunately, the paid services are too expensive for casual simmers… I’m using Chartfox in the meantime.

When Jorg said charts were originally included at start but somehow did not make it, I assumed he is speaking of included charts for free. At least this is how it came through for myself. But yes, there are too many "what if"s here. The best is to ask next time, and he can clarify.

Or if he is reading this post he can just comment and clear things up right away.

For me the problem is not whether you can get real Charts or not.

The real Charts are of no use if the Sim offers, for example, fictional taxiways (taxi A, B, C … which do not exist) and not the real ones. Then the corresponding fictional map would definitely be useful here.

Therefore these Charts should be offered and free of charge

2 Likes

100% agree. There is no point in having charts, even navigraph charts if the simulator doesn’t use the same data and generates random assignements.

Personal I’m hopeful that as we advance, the random assignments will start to be based on real data, considering MS claimed to have partnered with NavBlue and should have full access to said data. In fact I seem to remember a mention of NavBlues charts service but it was only mentioned once or twice in marketing hype.

I don’t see how they plan on providing free charts given that charts are not free in real life, to actual pilots. If you want approach plates and airport diagrams in real life, you pay for them. Ask me how I know.

1 Like

Well it depends. If you’re flying on VATSIM for instance, you get taxi instructions based on the real taxiways and then you REALLY need the real charts and simply disregard whatever the sim taxiway markings say.
The layout usually matches, but you have to use the charts to figure out where you are and where you have to go (except on handcrafted/payware scenery).
We can be sure that navblue won’t provide charts that match the taxiways in MSFS since these are pure fantasy and don’t seem to follow any logic. And the only reason to follow these taxiway markings would be the ingame ATC which is broken in so many ways anyhow…

Other than that, the real world charts for SID/STAR/Approach/Enroute should work fine with the sim and these are actually the more important for the flying part of a flight.

1 Like

Not that I’ve ever seen or heard, I would expect when charts + does lunch / get integrated it will be a paid add-on.

I think integrating the navigraph chart into the sim’s UI would be the next logical steps.

3 Likes

Whether someone flies with VATSIM or not (not necessarily everyone wants that) doesn’t really mean anything here and one assumes that the right charts (third-party providers) are used.

The only question here is whether the Sim will soon offer charts and these should suit the Sim.

As RebelRabbitt wrote (Charts for airports - #14 by RebelRabbitt, we hope that over time the random assignments will be based on real data and then adequate charts could be implemented in MSFS (desirable).

Charts (geo referenced) will come to WT CJ4

Needs Navigraph subscription.
Don’t know if any other service or pdf files are going to be supported.

4 Likes