Developer Stream October 30th - MSFS 2024 SDK Developer & Marketplace

Here is a timeline of the presentation. Times are approximate.
The Twitch stream is available here

[Edit: You can also watch it on YouTube here. Subtract 7 minutes from the times shown below.]

Elapsed Time Topic
07:00 Introductions: Jorg Neumann (Head of MSFS), Julie Diramio (Head of Business), Mabel McGrail (Marketplace Program Director), Tod Heckel (Marketplace Engineering Director), Eric (Lead SDK Developer), Sylvain (Associate Lead, Tech QA SDK), Eran (Associate Lead Gameplay Programmer), Jayne (Senior Community Manager).
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10:00 SDK Discussion #1: Dev Alpha’s Main Issues
10:10 Start & performance, browsing VFS content, controlling new terrain features, incomplete documentation, backwards compatibility.
13:30 Backward Compatibility - LODs #1: MSFS2020 / 2024 rules, bounding shere calculations.
14:30 Backward Compatibility - LODs #2: Airport illustration.
15:50 Q: When can we expect a new Dev Alpha update to re-test our projects? (Jorg later mentions at @84:00 mins: ~4:00 pm today, 10/30)
16:15 Backward Compatibility - Planes #1: Pilot & copilot spawning, lights too strong.
18:20 Backward Compatibility - Planes #2: Windshield reflections, normals on icing, displays too dark or black, XML gauge issues.
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19:00 Backward Compatibility - Airports & Sceneries: Rocks on runways, animations, ground vehicles, AI traffic, automatic canellation of displacement mapping.
21:40 Q: When can the 1st party and 3rd party developers test their Bush trips, Landing Challenges and Discovery Flights?
23:00 Q: Why is there still a 6 meter extra on every parking spot radius in the new sdk so ai planes can not spawn on every gate
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24:25 Backward Compatibility - Liveries & UI: Missing documentation, liveries built for monolithic SimObjects, wrong thumbnails & titles.
26:00 World: Vegetation mask, crop fields, TIN & DEM
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27:40 Dev Support Report: How we proceed, 147 bug reports filed, guidelines.
33:00 Q: Will all the pending documentation, such as the one regarding liveries mentioned, be available before the launch?
34:00 Q: what was the reason for you changing the current blender lights to new and specific mafs ones?
35:00 Q: Will it be possible for us to define drive-through parking using the new SDK?
36:30 Q: Are you aware of the Interaction Intercept conflicting with Screen Emissives?
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37:15 SDK Discussion #2: EFB
37:16 Opportunity to enhance aircraft experience, develop applications. Continuity of MSFS 2020 aircraft in-game panels. Available anywhere in 2D & 3D in cockpit.
38:20 EFB optional, always available in 2D, 8.3" & 10.9" sizes, portrait or landscape orientations.
39:30 Focus on the aircraft app: Predicate aircraft performance, new checklist UI with standard, advanced, expert levels, fuel & payload completely reworked.
42:10 Q: Can the EFB be disabled/hidden/stowed/toggled on default aircraft?
43:10 Develop your own application: EFB API, publish apps on marketplace, apps available for all or a list of provided aircraft, EFB & WASM.
44:20 Q: It was mentioned at FS Expo that the EFB can be accessed externally of the sim in a web browser or on a phone or tablet. Is this still the case?
46:15 Q: Is there a way we can generate a White Outline Top-Down Thumbnail today for the EFB? Or is that a planned upcoming feature? Maybe the best hiding approach is a button in the EFB panel “TAB” and not in the aircraft so it doesn’t conflict with the physical touchscreen.
48:00 Q: Where do we drop that in our aircraft package?
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50:00 Marketplace Discussion: 2020 content in 2024
50:00 Test ported 2020 Marketplace content: All existing Marketplace content being ported to 2024. Batching 8,300+ products across PC/Xbox by creator
52:00 Sign off ported 2020 Marketplace content: Owners of 2020 content automatically own ported version in 2024. Library / Streaming. New workflow for developer signoff.
52:15 Submit Marketplace content: Expecting few to no 2024 content at 2024 launch, Developers can make 2024 upgrades of their 2020 content.
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53:30 Marketplace Content Portal
61:00 Q: Since we’re talking about a new game, will it be necessary to sign and agree to any updated Marketplace terms/contract? (answer includes comment on changes to Marketplace Agreement: Non-functional weapons will be allowed to be shown on aircraft.)
62:50 Q: When I signoff my 2020 planes for MSFS 2024, will these be available to be purchased for people directly in MSFS 2024 marketplace?
63:15 Q: Will the Marketplace consider letting devs bundle multiple versions of their product into one package? Sometimes, two products by two different devs conflict with each other, and sometimes a dev will make a separate version that is compatible. Other times, an airport may have a version with static aircraft and another one without. I don’t think the Marketplace lets developers have multiple versions of their products.
64:50 Q: We noticed 5 even 6 character ICAO properties in 2024. Has official support been brought to the MCP for ingestion?
65:30 Q: Can we expect faster content updates in the 2024 marketplace, so that users that buy content there are not disadvantaged in that sense, over purchasing directly from a developer? Currently it can take weeks for certain content updates to become available.
66:30 Q: Can we now target XBOX ONLY?
67:00 Q: If the third-party content backward compatibility looks bad for some reason, can we remove the option to MSFS2020 content available in MSFS2024 and keep only the native version for 2024?
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68:00 MSFS 2020 Content: Business as usual, releases during MSFS 2024 launch week, no release over US Thanksgiving holiday, Black Friday sale is on.
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69:00 Marketplace Pricing - Updated pricing (Euros, UK, Argentina, Turkey, Brazil, Japan & Switzerland).
71:00 Marketplace Pricing - Confusion on the forum.
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76:00 Q: Has there been adjustments to the minimum price allowed?
76:30 Q: How will the localized product description process work with the massive influx of products arriving in MSFS 2024?
79:00 Q: The Marketplace has a lot of duplicate developer names that are different by a space or hyphen. This makes filtering difficult, especially without a “SELECT ALL” button. Could these be cleaned up?
80:00 Q: Will the weapons on marketplace update be for FS2020 or FS2024 or even both?
80:30 Q: How are Marketplace applications going - do we need to resubmit?
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82:00 Jorg: Closing comments: Free content, GPL3 policy, satellite imagery, Xbox only products, Dev Alpha published ~4:00 pm today, Atlas = Planner, backwards compatibility, weapons (but not a combat flight simulator), next dev stream will be Aircraft #3 & include inibuilds and Mike Johnson.
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86:00 Q: Is the payment split for aircraft rental described in the Marketplace contract? Is it the developer’s choice if the rental fee is applied to the purchase price?
80:00 Q: Does gifting work across platforms?
82:00 End of stream
9 Likes

any info on when we as end users will see more content videos, marketing, trailers, live streams of the sim, etc? are we in a 3 week lull until release where we dont see any build up?

*the streams today imo don’t count. too technical and panel like. which was the intent, but im saying when will we get more eye candy

1 Like

My takeaway from this is that backwards compatibility will be way more problematic than the initial “everything should just work” pitch, and many many players will be disgruntled after having problems trying to use their 2020 add-ons in 2024. Of course, it was probably naive to expect frictionless compatibility after such a huge architectural upgrade.

I’m now personally completely out of the marketplace, not buying anything and going forward, will only buy native 2024 content in the new simulator. I will probably test some of my favourite 2020 aircraft but will not buy anything new, as I’m wary of compatibility issues and missing features that the new sim offers.

I think development teams have a daunting task ahead to upgrade their most popular add-ons to 2024 specs. New flight models, new LODs, new features like EFB and walkaround, mission compatibility etc. It’s between a rock and a hard place for them because if they don’t do the upgrades, they will lag behind, and if they do, they will have to allocate resources from potential new content.

3 Likes

I’m definitely curious how this will play out. Developers have been offering statements, and most of them have boiled down to “We’ll do what we can, but it might not be immediate, and it might not be free” and I get it. I’d personally pay a (heavily) discounted price to buy an addon I love in FS2024 in order to get all of the new bells and whistles like interactive walkaround and mission compatibility as I plan to use those. I do think there’ll be a big stink raised if it becomes the norm, so I hope it can be avoided, but I also won’t be shocked if more addons than we’d hoped come with a cost to upgrade and/or a wait.

I’m maintaining a list of addons and as soon as FS2024 happens, I’ll be updating it as developers announce the 2024 version and whether there’s a fee, what features it does or doesn’t support, etc. Still working out the kinks but I’ll share that list in its own thread when the time comes so people can get updated in one place about when an addon has made the jump to the new sim.

But we love this new Feature!!

1 Like

Xbox Sx. This is the right way… I think that the 3rd party developers had late access. Mentioned yesterday problem with the lights for the aircraft etc. I will start adding one by one when they are ready