I’d like to share some feedback on the current SU4 Beta (.13) build.
I understand that Beta testing involves instability and unexpected behavior — that’s part of the process.
What’s frustrating this time is that some already-fixed issues have reappeared, specifically:
Missing Ground Polygons – areas at several airports show incomplete or missing ground surfaces again.
Floating Jetways – jetways are hovering above the ground at multiple airports, a problem that had been resolved in previous versions.
These are clear regressions rather than new bugs, which makes testing more difficult and raises questions about how changes are validated before release.
In addition, several new issues appeared in this build, such as:
Screen and Texture Flickering,
Ineffective Windshield Wipers,
Random Crash Events (even with crash detection off), and
Aircraft Jumping on Load.
No one expects a Beta to be perfect — but when previously solved problems return, it becomes increasingly difficult to test productively. A bit more consistency between builds would make a big difference.
I don’t get what you’re talking about. You know full well the risks of using the beta versions of the game as the devs work to improve the game. If you’re not satisfied with the beta then move back to the full release, in this case SU3. The whole point of being a beta tester is that you test each and every stage of the process, and you take what comes with it.
Sorry, respectfully, you won’t be getting my vote with this one.
I appreciate your response — and don’t get me wrong, I do know exactly what a Beta test means. I’ve been part of enough of them to understand the purpose and the risks.
However, telling people to “just go back to SU3” honestly feels like a slap in the face to those of us who have already pointed out that SU3 still suffers from massive performance issues and MainThread problems that have never been fixed. Going back isn’t really an option — it’s like choosing between two broken versions.
The frustrating part here isn’t that a Beta has bugs — it’s that old, previously fixed bugs are suddenly reappearing. That’s not Beta testing, that’s regression. And when that happens, it’s hard not to feel a bit deceived or let down, especially when the feedback cycle seems to ignore what the community has already reported and helped fix before.
I’m not asking for perfection — just for a sense that progress is being made rather than undone.
That doesn’t make any sense in my opinion. The beta code has moved on, reporting issues on an older code base just creates confusion. If the beta is unusable for you, drop out of it and use the “live” build - whatever flaws it might have. While I understand your frustration I don’t think that’s a “slap in the face”, just reality. It usually doesn’t take that long until a new beta drops so hopefully there is a resolution soon. The other alternative is to use MSFS 2020 if 2024 is unusable for you.
Again, I understand your frustration and don’t want to downplay any problems you might experience.
That is very dramatic, don’t you think? In my opinion your choice of words is not appropriate. Put yourself in the position of Asobo devs and how you’d feel if users accuse you of betraying them.
There is a vast difference between a beta program for what is essentially a recreational activity and one for commercial software where profits or productivity are on the line. I’ve helped design the latter and we are talking apples and oranges. Yeah SU3 may not be a finished product but it’s predictable and usable by just lowering your graphics settings and avoiding problem areas. If you listened to the actual tech talk of this developer forum you’d have heard how frustratingly difficult it is to balance the main thread and VRAM but it was obvious that a huge amount of attention was going into it. Your post insinuates they are just ignoring it or are incompetent. That is obviously not the case. I would venture to say that MSFS 2024 is the single most complex piece of consumer software on the market today. That we have what we do is simply amazing and when it works as it often does it can blow your mind. I second the notion that you stay in the stable releases. If that’s not enough then find another product.
So, the problem is SU3 being released too soon, not SU4 beta.
Calling this beta build in an “unacceptable” state is pretty dramatic. I’ve seen worse builds than this one, including 2020. Remember 1.6.3.0 which broke all WASM planes and jetways ? Just an exemple…This build the planes works in a grand majority. The “big” issue that the community is photogrammetry areas. Which you can disable right into the settings and voilà. I’ve seen worse workaround than that. But some people will just refuse to do that because “it’s looks like FSX”.
Many community members rely on the simulator professionally by producing content for Twitch, YouTube, streams — it’s not just fun, it’s a source of income.
Under the current conditions, streaming or capturing reliably is often impossible. That directly threatens financial stability for those who depend on it.
So, sorry, but that’s a very catastrophic statement.
The vast majority of viewers on Twitch will watch a streamer because they like his personality and his way of streaming and chatting and so. Not because they use MSFS 2020 or X-Plane 12 instead of MSFS 2024. Not to mention the majority of them who receive the products for free.
Even the users of the “stable” SU3 version are still being left behind — performance issues, MainThread bottlenecks, and other major bugs remain unaddressed. Not even a hotfix has come through.
If you saw the last dev stream yesterday, you know exactly why. The changes they introduced in SU4 beta was so massive that it’s way too risky to backport it on SU3.There is more risk of adding problems with hotfixes than correcting them.
It’s always interesting to read about people saying that they understand it’s a beta. But then go on to show that they don’t understand, at all. They seem to think beta mean “it has a bugs”.
No. Beta means stuff is in development. What would be the point of the devs giving us a beta earlier than another beta? None. They need feedback on the latest version. Not some version that no one is using anymore.
I think you may have slightly misunderstood my point. I’m well aware of what being a Beta tester means — I’ve been around long enough to know that testing involves issues, crashes, and rough edges. That’s part of the deal.
What’s frustrating here is not the existence of bugs — it’s that we’re seeing the same old, previously fixed bugs returning over and over again. These are not “new discoveries” — they were already reported, acknowledged, and solved in earlier builds.
How many times do we need to report the same issues before they’re gone for good? That’s not on the community — that’s a clear Quality Control problem. And as testers, there’s nothing we can do to prevent that from happening.
So while I fully accept what “Beta” means, I also think it’s fair to expect forward progress — not a constant loop of fixing and re-breaking the same things.
Betrayal, cruel… Whooo. This really bugs you, it seems. How many issues that you do not like have you reported to Microsoft? Have you actually participated in the beta? As in giving Microsoft feedback?
Why not relax, let Microsoft work the beta, and stop pretending you speak for ‘the community’? Running two different versions of a beta is totally unfeasible, something you probably realise yourself.
This is purely from my perspective and should not be taken as a comment on the product in general.
I got good performance in SU3, for what I do in the sim. I have gotten good performance from all of the betas so far released under the SU4 program. The only issue that I have personally encountered was the mouse trails issue and the hand controllers issue whilst in VR, which is what I do all my flying in.
The mouse trails still appears on occasion but the hand controller issue was fixed for me by an update in the Quest OS some time ago.
Now, as I said, this is all viewed from my personal perspective for what i use the sim for. I am not saying that there no problems/issues with the betas. I am not saying that people do not have issues that they have found, or that they are trivial.
The only issue that I have found that made the sim unusable, for me, was at the beginning of the SU3 beta process when we had a giant black panel front and centre in VR.
So as it was reported and being worked on, I simply stopped testing and watched the forums for updates and new betas.
For me, the beta 13 is very acceptable. This does not make it so for everyone, I get that. The thing is that issues are reported and worked on according to priority. I get that people who are affected by outstanding issues get frustrated.
What I feel though is that some people on this forum seems to think that posting, on more than one occasion, on an issue is being helpful. It is not. I feel that it just becomes whining.
Now just to perfectly clear here, I DO NOT think that Dustoff is whining here. I believe he has a right to make his feelings known in a thread. I DO NOT think that he has laboured the point.
Relying on a beta for a stable financial income? This argument is beyond my limited cognition. BTW even the full release of 2024, for me, is still an alpha at best. So a beta out of an alpha means a highly experimental sandbox. Of course it is understandable that there must be a psychological misalignment, given the fact that everybody has paid only to join such alpha process, which would undoubtedly generate agony demonstrated by the author of this post.
Sorry, but you really don’t seem to understand what a beta is. One purpose of a beta is to identify exactly these kind of regressions. It worked in earlier builds, something changed, now it’s broken.
If it was easy to detect them in-house they would. It’s not because they are sloppy or unwilling or incompetent or anything like that. This product is so complex that automatic testing will not reveal a huge amount of problems and it’s impossible to manually test everything. So they give us beta versions and we can help them identify those issues.
I am always embarrassed when some posts claim talking on behalf of the community (or even many members of the community) without quoting a group name or even a number of people it is supposed to represent.
Right now this thread has 2 votes, and that’s a fact not a claim.
I’ll silence this thread as I think ChatGPT verbose messages containing strong words (lack of respect, betrayal, cruel,…) just tend to degenerate into trolls, and for me it just pollutes the forum. For those who don’t know, just below the last answer you have some buttons to choose not to see some threads, helping you focusing on the ones you feel more useful for you.
Your reply ignores most of what the OP is saying and completely missing his point. Your last sentence is terribly simplistic and when used so easily can also be applied to Asobo. I assume that big companies are mature enough to take criticism. In fact, it’s needed. Contrary to what some insinuate. After all it IS a purchased product. And while I agree that a Beta is a Beta, and I don’t agree that how much a streamer can profit off of the platform is relevant, the core of his post is valid.
We are not guaranteed anything in the Beta builds. Correct. But neither were we told that a “finished” software update could leave you with a regressed software. Simply put, SU3 is not a finished product. He is also right that fundamental functionality in SU4 Beta makes it look like QA is not being done. How can a Beta build have floating jetways even in Asobo default airport for example!?
In the end, we are stuck between two builds that aren’t really up to snuff. I would have a completely different opinion if SU3 was hotfixed to a true final quality release.
Bolding all the especially emotive bits was certainly a choice. Please don’t vote for this AI-written, overwrought drivel guys. Test and give clear concise evidence of regressions. Discuss your opinion of the overall progress on the main thread. Open letters for the wooly idea of “respect” are frankly embarassing and don’t belong here.
Speaking as a former developer, a beta is a bumpy road. You expect each beta to be better than the last but it doesn’t always turn out that way as unexpected bumps will almost always happen. Especially in such a complex piece of software like this FS. The OP opening remarks are unjustified. If you don’t like a beta go back to the released code - that facility exists. I reverted from the first SU4 beta back to the release as I couldn’t tolerate the ASR3/DLSS flickering which is now fixed. Now I’m back on the beta and haven’t found a problem yet. Others have found a different flicker problem. That’s why we have a beta. There should be a way of downvoting this!
