I Interviewed Jorg Neumann on Microsoft Flight Simulator for Xbox, future plans, AI traffic, shared cockpit, replays, & much more šŸ¤—

Discussion Hub General Discussion
, ,
76

Blockquote

He is saying that they are at a point where they can show 6 different models close to you. That seems to be their current target. I guess the day where traffic was going nuts was just a test in order to see how much the system can handle.

[/quote]

Not sure what he meant by that. Does he mean 6 different texture models? (boeing, Airbus, etc)?

Since the sim came out some airports will have more than 6 aircraft at a time present. Seattle at times had 15 aircraft lined up before the update. So not sure what he means by six. They are of different models. On weekends, at Frankfurt I get a line over over 20 line up and up to 30 total in the airport with 20 flying around that are go arounds. There are still airports that get good traffic, just not as good as it was at one time . Dallas sometimes has 35 on the runway lined up. If you know where to go, you can find traffic, it is uneven.

Even Salt lake city had 16 aircraft other day.

One problem is even with model matching, the sim isnt always 100% correct.

Blockquote

The green dots on the world map are probably just a mirror of the FlightAware traffic tracker you can see on their website. The MSFS server still needs to ā€œtranslateā€ that data for ingame traffic. I agree that itā€™s kind of misleading.

[/quote]

Well, actually, the green dotys on world map are still less than you see on flightaware map.
There are other issues since june 16 that we didnā€™t have before, for example:
When we load into airport VFR will show planes but within a minute majority will vanish. Also we have the rodeo bug, which is you can sit all day in an AP and no flights will come in to land, but go to skew mode and fly out 1 mile and loads of aircraft will pop up like a BORG fleet and go to land at the AP. They would never land or show up at AP if you donā€™t go out and meet them.

Actually, about the world globe map, your point about the dots not reaching the game isnā€™t exactly true. You can actually spawn on any of those green dots in world map screen and you will load a few miles in front of the aircraft, that shows the game is receiving the data. I do it all the time to test models/liveries.

For example, I want to find LOT388, I type that in the search bar in the world map and a green dot will show only for that plane(make sure you are zoomed into the vacinity it is at according to flightaware). Pick that aircraft green dot as departure location and hit fly bottom and you will spawn/load right in front of the aircraft. It works 99% of the time. Only once in a while with small GEN aircraft it seems to be hit or miss, for some reason.

77

Another point, about behavior:I really donā€™t get into it , because, as mentioned, its alot of work and you unbalance things you mess things up and make people unhappy. But by my estimates the go around issue could be improved by 75% if the speed of aircraft taxing(idle thrust) after landing was increased , atleast until it exits runways. Also would help if they always exited runway first exit also.

78

Iā€™m fairly sure he means six different models as in different 3D models, but you can have multiple of the same. Each model needs to be loaded into memory only once regardless of how many you have.

There is currently a bug that can load a generic on departure even if you have a matched model and livery, of course, that needs to be fixed. Iā€™ve seen it a lot more rarely as of late, tho.

Itā€™s not so much increasing the speed, but not decreasing it. Right now AI brakes impossibly fast on landing, which means theyā€™ll spend the rest of their time on the runway at regular taxi speed (which to be fair is the correct one for taxiways, 20 knots, Iā€™ve measured it).

The issue is that real aircraft brake much more gradually, and they slow down to 20 or so knots only at the very last possible moment before vacating the runway, so they take a lot less time to reach the first usable taxiway.

This is something theyā€™re definitely aware of, but I have a feeling its implementation is not elementary as there is a lot more physics involved. It probably just takes time.

79

Wow thanks for sharing this. Will totally check that out. He is a real nice guy, I noticed that during the most recent livestream. Also noticed his shelf at home full of the old FS titles! Nice to have an FS fan in such a powerful position. Thanks Jorg & team for this excellent title!! An escape from the drudgery of daily life.

1 Like
80

Jorg is not a developper. Asobo fix and implement what Jorg say, he is the head so responsable for both good things and all bad things. When you have such a job, you have to accept both aspects.

81

A revolution in the usage of a game for flying and it is a very good thing, open to more people and it is so beautiful too. And i like it, thatā€™s why Iā€™m in creating the first (free) scenery of my life and i use FS since FSII. That is to say how i like it and want to participate to this nice proje t.
But if you remove the bing and eye candy parts, in which aspect this sim is a revolution (talking about simulation aspect) compare to its predecessor or concurrent products ?

82

For example, what you get out of the box is quite revolutionary. WIth MSFS, you can have a reasonable flight sim experience without buying any addons.

WIth other sims, you really need to spend quite a lot in addons if you want to get anything beyond the most basic experience.

3 Likes
83

Very good interview, indeedā€¦ Jorg is the face of MSFS and says all the right things. I believe he works incredibly hard at creating a specific vibe and buying experience for MSFS. I buy into the fact that he transcends MSFS into an experience first, basically making the experience the product.

ā€œMaybe this is a stupid thing to say, but maybe weā€™ll build the perfect sim. If this keeps going, why not? Who can stop us?ā€

He definitely has an edge to him which serves him well, extremely organized with a clear mission, and attentive and motivating to a very tricky and challenging customer base.

5 Likes
84

He works really hard overall. Both times I had interviews with him, it was early morning where he lives (9 AM), and he already had meetings before. Definitely someone to look up to in terms of dedication.

85

every manager does that, it sells so well.
its also a question of, will thee(ms) give it enough funding to make it all come true?
we will see. i like how it runs on the consoles.

86

Well my experience is less than overwhelming. Iā€™d rather have the flight model etc first, THEN add the candy.

1 Like
87

yes, but the eyecandy is needed to catch the gamers.

2 Likes
88

Sighā€¦sā€™pose so.

89

Gotta remember that eyecandy and things like the flight model are not mutually exclusive. Theyā€™re made by different developers with entirely different disciplines and specializations. They canā€™t be shifted around and you canā€™t keep one side sitting on their thumbs while you focus on the other. Theyā€™re full time employees.

Asobo is a full-fledged game developer, so they have plenty of developers that work on either category, and they work in many different teams.

Thatā€™s why we get sim updates and world updates every other month. Development on both aspects proceeds entirely in parallel.

1 Like
90

Except weather (veey good point, even if vertical air movment is not really good) and graphism/bing, i donā€™t see what is really more. Ai traffic is weak, atc is less good, no heli, floatplane simply implelemented. Glass cockpit without mod are basic. It will when enhanced by time, but not yet. The rĆ©volution for me is the announced long time support. But for sim aspect, goods things, like in the past, will come from 3rd party dev. For a GA only flysimmer like me, thatā€™s signify Milviz A2A Rxp, (rip) RealAir etc, this kind of dev MS canā€™t compete because of their long experience and skill in their respective domain. The goal of MS is to do the better plateform to allow them to show their talent

91

All the elements you mentioned are better than any other sims in their default form. By a long, long shot.

Then add tons (and growing) of bespoke airports and landmarks, and you get a package that is objectively a lot more solid and usable than anything the competition can get even close to offering for the same price.

For someone approaching flight simulation for the first time, they get enough of a package to get them engaged without the hassle of having to buy lots of stuff or hunt for freeware, and then they can expand to third-party with ease.

With other sims, they find themselves in front of a considerable wall of required effort/expense to reach a comparable level of usability and immersion, which turns off a lot of people.

Thatā€™s quite revolutionary for the growth of the hobby (which is achieved by removing friction), which is important for everyone, including third-parties. The more people are in the hobby, the more their addressable market grows, the easier it is to stay in business, hire people, and dedicate resources to development of the good stuff.

I personally know a number of developers that, for the first time in years, could afford hiring new people because MSFS created a market in which they can thrive, instead of struggling to survive. Thatā€™s a revolution in itself.

4 Likes
92

A few weeks ago we announced the Junkers Ju 52. It means something to me being from Germany. I grew up with that. I call these planes ā€œlocal legendsā€

To be honest this make me feel a bit confused, like for me itā€™s not exactly the best historical plane or company to be proud of while being German (I am not a German myself). I understand that the war was happening almost 100 years ago, and I donā€™t call for the plane to be discarded. But it still gives me some weird vibes to hear about ā€œvery special German plane for the German updateā€, especially because we did not get any regional/historical aircraft for any of the previous updates. There was no SAAB for the Nordic update, and no Vickers Viscount or Comet for the UK update.

3 Likes
93

If you think civilian aviation, Iā€™m fairly sure itā€™s up there with the best options. The Ju. 52 was not born as a military aircraft.

2 Likes
94

I know, but it came out just 3 years before a very notorious man came to power in Germany, and among the civilian service for several countries was also used to transport troops during the WWII.

95

We are lucky to have Jorg represent our hobby. His enthusiasm and passion towards this project makes me feel that we are in good hands finally. Thank you Jorg and the rest of the team.

2 Likes