Discussion: Sim Update 3 (1.14.5.0)

[CptLucky8]

@HugeMercury163

Asobo smugly said in a Q&A that the acceleration bug (aka the 10 degree heading bug) had been fixed, with no further comment on this really annoying “feature”. There was mention in the latest release notes that gave some hope, although it is ambiguous, " * Improved the behavior of knobs that repeatedly send an action to prevent it from sending multiple events at once" .

This one is fantastic!

Does it mean their interpretation of the 10deg bug problem was this bug in their code base and since they solved this bug in their code base, they thought they solved the 10 deg bug without actually knowing what it is we are talking about in these forums and therefore begging the question why we are loosing time reporting?

Or

Does it mean this is an unrelated bug they have corrected but the specific 10 deg acceleration bug correction is still not released and won’t be until WU4 or a hot fix in between?

I find this really really puzzling not in terms of not being able to correct bugs, but in terms of is there really someone able to comprehend the reports we send via Zendesk or via Topics with votes, able to understand what it is about, and able to translate this into technical explanation to a sufficient level so that developers can more effectively understand what it is all about.

I’m sorry to insist on this but I believe the 3rd party developers are able to cope with understanding the link between simmers feedback and simulator function, and this further strengthen to me the idea of the shared source approach I’m exposing for the next Q&A and which you can support in clicking the heart icon here:

Live Dev Q&A: Guided Question - #61 by CptLucky8

@CptLucky8

I’m willing to bet there would be a great deal of existing renown and experienced 3rd party developers who would be trading some of their time contributing to the FS code base provided they’ll get a chance to enhance its core which would benefit their add-ons development first, and as a consequence any add-on development.

It would also take less people to hire, for managing this process, than hiring people doing the coding itself, while at the same time, I believe it would clearly prove to the community Microsoft and Asobo are really building a simulator for simmers meant to stay for a long time span, while recognizing without a shadow of a doubt 3rd party vendors are essential to the franchise and they wouldn’t compete with any of them directly.

Jorg is saying this himself: it is not like any other game or franchise, because people working in this industry are way more knowledgeable than he thought, way more engaging and passionate too, and he came to the realization FS2020 is a platform.

I believe the best way to turn this new vision into acts, is in forgoing the concept of closed source code and control, because the real value of such franchise comes from its ecosystem first and foremost, and this ecosystem might be Xbox crowd during a time, but most likely simmers only for the next decade, and simmers are expecting at least one thing regarding 3rd party vendors, which is flying their add-ons on simulators capable of running them, not the reverse.

The general idea could be a 3 tier/layer approach for example:

• lower level core simulation IP (physics, weather, network, rendering engine, etc…): closed source.
• higher level simulation environment (UI, gameplay, interfaces, presentation, etc…): closed source.
• middle level implementation: shared source with 3rd party vendors.

The middle tier is about building higher level functionality using the lower tier “blocks” in order to serve the higher tier. This is also where the SDK is plugged into with a certain number of I/O interfaces. In addition, the needs and implementations done by 3rd party vendors at this level would be influential to Asobo building additional lower level blocks and/or enhancing the existing ones.

What pertains to the simulator as a whole remains Microsoft/Asobo IP, and what pertains to the 3rd party vendor ecosystem is shared. In some ways it is not dissimilar as how it is today, except the simulator would benefit from much more developer resources, who would be contributing to enhancing the interfaces between the simulator and the 3rd parties, because these would be based on both their actual needs and the general guiding principles where Microsoft/Asobo want to lead the franchise to. In addition it would give a much better long term picture and vision to 3rd parties about where this is going for their own business, let alone the priceless engagement of 3rd parties ending up working mostly with FS2020 instead of another simulator platform.

There are certainly others ways, but it is a simple win-win idea.