Dev Q&A Agenda - April 13, 2021

Welcome to the Live Dev Q&A! Here is today’s agenda:

Introductions

World Update 4

  • World Update 4 Trailer
  • More images (not in the trailer)
  • Rotterdam Airport Video
  • Before and After World Update Video
  • Nice Airport Video

Sim Update 4 Preview

  • Presentation on Turboprop updates
  • Presentation on Cessna updates
  • Optimizations for Sim Update 4

World Update 5 Preview

Feedback Snapshot Updates

Pre-selected + Live Questions

Questions here summarized. We will take live questions during this time as well.

  1. If you are unable to bring us realistic AI traffic due to some copyright issue, can you please at least support AIG (Alpha India Group) team (@Kaiii3) with the AI traffic SDK related questions/issues so we can get that realistic AI traffic?
  2. When is live weather getting updated to include humidity or dust parameters?
  3. Green roads. Is this on Asobo’s radar screen to fix?
  4. What are the exact plans on improving the default ATC?
  5. Is an in-sim bug reporting system being considered for the sim?
  6. Issues like mesh and custom objects, terrain LOD, etc.The water creeping up the coastlines has been acknowledged and it will receive ongoing fixes but the release date is TBD. Do you have a roadmap to eventually fix these terrain issues?
  7. Have you looked into implementing DLSS or FR support?
  8. Patches and updates have created some problems in the past, impacting the community’s trust in the dev process. How do plan on restoring trust?
  9. Timeline planned for water physics?
  10. With the release of the CRJ and the advancements in other jets, when will the sim be capable of producing functional weather radar?
  11. What is the progress of the prototype cirrus clouds stated previously?
  12. Can we have increased draw distance for multiplayer and AI planes?
  13. This was asked last time and Martial said there is a tiller axis (steering set). No there is not, it only works if you assign keys but for axis not. Thus, are you we going to see a tiller axis assignment to use it for steering set instead of keys assignment?
  14. Last time we asked to remove the logbook pop up, the answer was that getting rid of it would not fix any bugs. We don’t want to get rid of it because of bugs. We want to get rid of it because it is immersion breaking. Instead move the logbook window to when you hit ‘return to main menu’. And list all performed flights there. Can you comment again?
  15. Can you address the testing flight - Can you please explain the rationale behind the program and how you see this would be the best way to go about setting up a community beta testing program?
  16. Still reporting 3 (always wrong) cloud layers. What are you doing to rectify this? It´s a bit disappointing that there´s only the very vague answer “It’s coming”.That doesn’t inspire much confidence! Could you share with us a little more detail about what the problem is and how you are fixing it?
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➢ World update IV – trailer –

Update are a big collaborative effort – Asobo, GAIA with the POI’s / airport, Blue sky, Orbx with airport and the Bing Team, Backshark for building.
KLM is on board for this update.
Jorg is sharing some content to highlight what has been brought to this update but not visible in the trailer. We got new DEM and better aerials.
Before and after video – Time stamp

➢ First plane announcement: Top Rudder Just103solo –

Release date revealed to the chat: April 27, 2021
Seb gives some explanation on the Just solo and gives few information on how to handle this ultralight plane.
Chat question: Will it be delivered for free?
Jorg – There is a price for it but we made it affordable

➢ SIM Updates –

Seb – We did a whole bunch of improvement on turboprops for Sim update IV
Seb – We are doing IRL tests on C172 reproducing moves to improve In Sim plane – this has been done on 7 planes for Sim update IV
Martial – optimization is an ongoing work for the team. Users were pleased with the latest hotfix and we will continue to work on improving the sim. On SIM update IV, we did some optimization on glass cockpit – more improvement is planned for
memory consumption but also GPU and CPU. In addition to this, SIM update IV will receive some improvements on traffic, FX for landings, ATC and
approaches.

➢ World Update V –

Public reveal of the next world update: The Nordics (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland).
We have the DEM data already.
Some POIs (Wip) are shown during the stream. Fjord will be sharper.
Date: June 2021
Jorg reveal some enhanced airports for this update – EKIN, BISS, ENSP, ESSA, EFBA
Community question for Jorg: Are you able to share how resource are split up between SIM update and World updates?
Jorg - Most of the programming team is not on World Updates. World Updates are made from datas and there are external teams working on it. Asobo has a small team working on it also.
Currently we have 40 at Gaia/4-5 Orbx / Black Shark / Bing team, but also blue sky. We solicit some teams to create content.
Martial gives more information on who working on the World Updates within Asobo.
Jayne explains that the community is concerned about how resources are split up – some users (mostly core simmers) may think that world updates prevent us from being fully focused on SIM updates.

➢ Second plane announcement – ATR 42-600 / 72-600

Public reveal of the ATR 42-600 / 72-600!
Special guest Hans Hartmann from Aerosoft joins the Stream to talk about the ATR

➢ Feedback Snapshot

Jorg and Seb spent some time reassuring users – The sim still needs few updates before being to a better state! They let the chat know that visuals won’t overtake on performances in our development process. All improvements made on performances will help us go beyond the Ultra settings for PC.
Chat question: Do you have more information on the bug “Out of date content that leads to erased logbooks”?
Martial – The bug has been fixed
Jorg announces that there will be a live stream on the SDK
For future feedback snapshot, we will take a deeper look at the top 48 items instead of the usual top 24.
Wishlist: We are getting closer and closer with Fly By Wire – Jorg let the chat know that we are very aware of this community wish.
Seb talks a little bit about the replay feature > it goes beyond a simple replay functionality and take some time to deliver something cool.
Martial gives few words on Shared cockpit – Shared cockpit and replay have common technologies and we intend to deliver it soonish.

➢ Community Forum Questions

Q: AIG (AI traffic solution team) is working on improving the SIM but encounter issues using the SDK. Will we be providing support to help team like AIG?
Jorg – Our goal is to bring an authentic experience! We need to get a great relationship with manufacturer as they will be willing to help us. Same for airlines. To sum up, it is a broader conversation, and we have to think it globally so everyone can benefit from it.

Q: Right now, Live weather does not have any effect on aerosol density. When does live weather will take into account humidity or dust?
Seb – We plan to do so, but it is a long process (maybe 6 month long).

Q: Will Asobo fix the green road issues?
Martial gives a quick explanation of how it works. We take data from different sources and some color corrections need to be applied. These color corrections may impact some material such as roads. It’s a process we need to improve!

Q: What is your plan on improving the default ATC missing features (Receiving vectors or
emergencies)?
Martial: We do have a roadmap on this. Also, users need to be aware that ATC is deeply linked to the development of other systems so we cannot only focus on ATC.

Q: Would it be possible to implement an In-Sim bug report system?
Jorg: Feedback are very helpful! The last preview session that we did with 300 users was very helpful and interesting. We have learned a lot from that. Tools such as the one mentioned in the question makes totally sense and we are going that way.

Q: The US update introduces many issues regarding terrain mesh and terra forming. Would you have an update on the Coastline glitch?
Seb: Some fixes have been done after December, but we still need to investigate on this.
Jorg intervenes letting the chat know that we are aware of this – It is a global issue and “The World is big” so we’ll keep looking into fixing this issue.

Q: Any update on the Xbox version?
Seb gives a quick summary of what has been done so far for the Xbox – We spent 7-8 month optimizing memory. Performance is almost done, we are always making progress, but we would like to have 4-5 more FPS on average. We are currently focused on loading time and stutters. Improvements on Xbox will still benefit the PC version.
Some improvements have been made also on controller to make it user friendly. We are on a final phase of polish!
Jorg adds that everything is going great. Running MSFS on Xbox was a huge task at first but we manage to make it possible and quite good.

Q: Have you looke into implementing DLSS support?
Seb: Not started and we must wait do DirectX12 – It is not the highest priority right now as the antialiasing is quite good already. Once the Xbox version will be done, we will have more resources to improve it.
Jorg – We intent to do a Beta on Xbox, no specific date yet but users will know!

Q: Updates introduced bugs – this led to some frustration in the community – How will you restore trust and faith of users?
Jorg – There is a lot going on and the production process is complex with all the branches. Test teams are working a lot, but a SIM is SIM and the level of details implies that bugs can happen in an update.
Several possibilities: either we decrease the frequency of updates, but we do not think users want that or we get more people helping us and it seems to be the right way to do it. We want to be open and transparent in our development. We obviously want builds to be more tested by users. We have made a first step on this and we will continue to go this way.

Q: Why did you make the decision of choosing 300 participants for the beta testing?
Jorg – We wanted to do a beta before World update IV – At launch we received so many feedback that it almost impossible to sort everything. We started with a small amount, but next iteration will be improved.

Q: Will Steam user be able to be part of this beta knowing that it’s using only Xbox insider hub?
Martial – Maybe in the future, but for now it’s easier for us to do it on one platform.

Q: When will you integrate the water physics into the SIM
Martial – We took some flight lessons on sea plane to have a better understanding of the physics applied to planes. Hopefully, we have all the material to bring it into the SIM soon.

Q: When will the SIM will be able to provide proper weather radars?
Martial – It should come with SIM update 4. We are working on this to be as accurate as possible.
Jorg – A discovery series video should be released on this.

Q: Do we have a team working on VR and controllers?
Jorg – Yes but we don’t have specific date for it yet.
More info from Jorg:
The 747 will be improved

Q: Will the Xbox version be cross-play in multiplayer?
Yes.

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