I had read in an article somewhere that gliders and sailplanes are planned in a future release. While I’m not a glider man myself I think this is good news.
I am in two minds. On the one hand I like to believe in santa claus: a generous Microsoft/Asobo gives use a nearly perfect weather engine for free.
On the other hand, Microsoft didn’t do it for FSX, why will they do it for FS2020?
The alternative is to pay money. I am willing to pay money for a weather engine that I can use for sailplane.
And now I drop the other shoe: At the moment only Microsoft/Asobo can improve the weather engine because there is no 3rd party interface to the weather engine - I checked the SDK documentation. And if there is no interest, there will be no thermals.
A big company like Microsoft looks for big markets. And maybe sailplane in FS2020 is not big enough. A small company will care for its niche. But right now there is no niche for 3rd party FS2020 weather engine.
They’ve already given us a weather engine that is umatched with any other sim. Volumetric clouds, weather models, airflow simulation, icing … It even does not have to shy the comparison with addons.
Adding thermals would just be another step. If they decide to add gliders, it would be a logical one.
I still compare FS2020 to Flight Unlimited from 1995. The problem is: I have no running Flight Unlimited. And memory is tricky - I think I remember Flight Unlimited better then it was.
I agree: Asobo/Microsoft have the knowledge to enhance the weather engine. But what priority has this undertaking? If they think it will not make enough money, they will not do it.
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That’s why I said: When they decide to do a glider addon, it would make sense. They said they want to take their time and do it right (addons). That’s how I would interprete this sentence.
Here is the Article I referred to above. If you read through they talk about Gliders already being in the pipeline. This is a good thing I think. I may not be a glider person myself, it certainly can’t hurt to add more to the sim, be it paid or otherwise.
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Any update here? Still waiting and waiting… Also won’t anybody share some converted models?
It is very easy to convert FSX glider models yourself. My actual “beginner” model is Ka 6 E.
I made available the Ka6E sailplane as FS2020 model. See my webpage http://www.andreadrian.de/FS_2020_sailplanes/
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And when they finally get to do the gliding add-on they shouldn’t forget some of the great places of gliding like Wasserkuppe and Klippeneck which don’t exist at all at the moment. Wasserkuppe’s paved runway is completely invisible at the moment as it’s covered with snow (texture, not generated snow)
Good job converting the Ka 6E - the next step will be to work out how to get a panel suitable for mounting the FSX ‘xml’ instruments (the cockpits in ported gliders are still empty). I’ll be able to port those instruments over into the MSFS model as Asobo are clear the FSX xml code is still supported. The vario is ‘compensated’ and also includes a debug mode which reports glide ratio so it will be useful looking at MSFS lift and improving the flight model.
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Only portable glider with good working panel is still the Aerosoft K21
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/uploads/default/original/3X/1/0/105001f6bede880b9e23db44eda279841a50eff6.jpeg
Cheers
Keith
Hello MSGamerTag01, the sad news is that Aerosoft ASK21 (payware) cockpit instruments worked up to FS2020 version 1.7.14.0. In the current version 1.8.3.0 the Aerosoft ASK21 model just produces a silent FS2020 crash. I think Asobo broke old code by implementing new code and maybe the XML instruments are gone. For me WebAssembly (wasm) instruments are more interesting. But the toolchain is still not easy to use. I hope that Visual Studio Community can use the LLVM compiler backend to produce wasm binary files.
Aerosoft Ask21 works fine for me in 1.8.3 - you just need to remove the clickspots as for all imports. And should be fixed anyway in new patch.
Cheers
Keith
Thank you. I did convert ASK21 again on FS2020 1.8.3.0 and it worked. And now I have version 1.9.3.0 and look what has happened. You know the bug dance? 2 steps forward, 1 step backwards …
What did happen?
“look what has happened” is just a figure of speach. Up to now version 1.9.3.0 is fine, no step-back from 1.8.3.0. Still the annoying “any key” topic.
Aerosoft ASK21 works in version 1.8.3.0 and version 1.9.3.0. Now I download SDK 0.6.0.0 and look if wasm toolchain documentation is improved.
Is this in Japan?