Live Dev Q&A: March

World Update 3

Q: Implementing OBS (Omni Bearing Selector) in Garmin switches
Martial > Fixed for the Garmin 1000.

Q: Altimeter temperature error
Martial > Already fixed for Sim Update 4.
Seb > Altimeter will be globally more accurate.

Q: ITT doesn’t work as intended on the TBM 930M
Martial > Yes, we are aware, and this should be fixed on Sim Update 4.

Q: Terrain mountain not detailed enough – Video
Seb > We are continuously improving this. This situation seen be users is linked to data quality. The details can vary depending on the area.

Q: Icing effect – wrong visual representation
Martial > Icing is complex and so far, we only have 1 layer of it (1 type) – Martial understands that it can be uncomfortable for VR users, for instance. This will be fixed for Sim Update 4 and users will be able to disable visual effect and impact of icing.

Q: Can we have more information on the new effect system added (Contrails.)
Martial > Users have seen the first version of the contrails, we intend to add wind effect on it (hopefully Sim Update 4). We plan to add effect on tire during landing and depending on the type of ground. It is a work in progress.

Q: Glide slope wrong values
Seb > Explanation on what has been done on the flap issue after World Update UK

Q: Propeller drag
Seb > It is simulated already but needs tweaking. Robin DR400 is fine but C172 was a bit weak and we will update that. We can maybe add propeller drag scalar to monitor it if users need it.

Q: Would it be possible to have custom control input profile linked to specific aircraft and be able to export/import them as a back up
Martial > We would like to bring these two features soon, when resources will be available.

Q: Are we going to improve control input to make the Thrustmaster TCA Quadrant fully compatible with current controls
Martial > We heard your feedback. Steve is working on that and Thrustmaster deserves full support so it’s a priority for us.

Q: Are we going to set a “realistic” slider to easily select the level of realism for those who expect the highest level vs those who wants to keep it casual?
Seb > It’s actually already in the sim in the Assistance menu: Set Piloting to Hard. You can still adjust several parameters.

Q: IFR and localizers – why there are no offset approaches
Martial > We already did some improvements, here, and it will be an ongoing effort. (We intend to include some improvement in the next sim update.)

Q: In small GA, simulated aircraft tend to climb after a turn instead of starting a descent
Seb > Seb agrees with the feedback but has not seen it. Seb asks for more feedback and will be willing to help getting the right aircraft feeling on this situation.

Q: Is there a possibility to have a nose wheel tiller independent from the rudder axis?
Martial > It’s already there. Check the input option and assign controls

Q: Cross wind during take-off and landing – Some users couldn’t do properly the wing-low cross wind approach method in the sim – Video playing
Seb > Seb made some tests (without pedals and yoke). Users need to turn realism to Hard, otherwise the crosswind will not be strong enough, especially if you’re close to the ground.

Q: In the real-world, bearing pointer never points towards a localizer antenna
Martial > This should have been fixed in Sim Update 3. If not, give us some feedback.

Q: In the C172 there’s no adverse yaw effect
Seb > Seb measured the adverse yaw and it feels a little low, currently. You still need to set the realism to Hard to see this. Otherwise, this kind of effect will be barely seen.

Q: Current Weather radar seems to be more like a cloud radar. Can you tell us about this?
Martial > That’s true. It’s in the roadmap and will be part of the next planned improvements.

Q: Is there any update regarding the Charts+ integration by Navblue?
Jorg > There are some discussions going on and we are working on that.

Q: When will the DV20 fly again?
Martial > We know that we broke some stuff. Martial has double check with QA and it looks like It’s fixed in Sim Update 3.

Q: 10 degree incrementation bug
Martial > Public apology from Martial as it was stated at the last Q&A that it was fixed, but he was referring to another similar issue.

Q: Can we expect improvements on rudder-countering effect of torque, p-factor etc…– Video playing
Seb > It’s simulated. Seb reminds to set realism to hard to experience it. Also, any feedback on how people feel about it is good for us (too weak/too strong, etc.).

Working Title Announcement

Jorg > Jorg gives a thanks to the community and takes the time to highlight content creators.
This led to the introduction of the Matt Nishan from Working Title!
Matt > Happy to be working with Microsoft and Asobo! We will be working full time on the platform – the chat is hyped - It’s a beginning and we are excited to be there full time.
Jorg > People on the Working Title team left their jobs to work with us! It’s amazing!

Q: Knowing that Working Title is now working with us, can we expect getting a full complete functional Garmin set?
Matt > It’s our intention to bring our Garmin stuff to MSFS. No timeframe yet, but we want to reach a high level of quality. How high a level is an open discussion.

Q: Will we get VNAV?
Matt > We have a full working VNAV simulation on the Pro Line 21. We’d like to bring the CJ4 in as a default aircraft at some point. So all of the things we’ve built around VNAV, we plan to port to the Garmin.

Q: Will Working Title mods be integrated into the base sim?
Matt > Yes. It’s still the beginning and we don’t have a timeframe, but we want everyone to have access to it (PC and other platforms).

Q: Will Working Title content still be open source?
Matt > We don’t have the answer to that right now. It’s an open question that needs to be discussed.

Q: Is there any plan to work on other aircraft the same way you’ve been working on the CJ4?
Jorg > The community’s feedback led to this collaboration. We listen to players, and votes influence what’s going to end up in the sim.
Matt> Our focus is also going to be on the platform and SDK sides, and being an interface to other third parties and other mod teams. We will be focusing on instruments, but we will also be focusing on building up the platform.

Q: Will we get charts on the G1000 and G3000?
Matt > As mentioned before, there’s been some productive conversations about charts. It’s an aim for us all, but no timeframe yet.
Jorg > Including Navblue. Yes, it is our goal, but we don’t know exactly when.

World Update 4

Jorg > Quick update on World Update 4. As you know, there are four countries: France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. There will be 5-meter dem in France. Kudos to Patrice (producer at Asobo) for finding some 1-meter dem, too. The airports in World Update 4 will be done by Gaya Simulations, and they will be LFHM, LFMN, and EHRD. Patrice will be working with Orbx to improve 100 airports. There will also be a bush trip and a landing challenge. Paris and Amsterdam will have photogrammetry.

Teaser: World Update France Trailer

Jorg > Blackshark.ai is working on new procedural buildings. There will be appropriate churches and windmills for Holland and maybe glass houses. The sim will also be translated into Japanese and Dutch, and we will continue doing that for future updates.

Feedback Snapshot

Jorg > We have seen some users’ comments on the way we are using the feedback snapshot. It seems cryptic, stale and there are some comments about the way bugs and releases are phrased. We are trying to be as transparent as possible while balancing not trying to write books upon books. One problem is that people might read a line and it could mean different things to different people. We would like some feedback on the feedback snapshot. We might try a time horizon.

Weather
Jorg > For example, regarding weather, we know that there are still issues. We have a partnership with Meteoblue. And they’re not a simming company: They’re a weather company. So we’re coming up with a scheme, based on your feedback, that will work for simming. But that shows up as “Ongoing Improvements” in the feedback snapshot. So we’re trying to find ways to communicate what we’re doing more precisely and when. So when you look forward to a Sim or World Update, you have a better idea of what to expect.

Crashes to Desktop
Jorg > Regarding CTDs, the reason why it’s “Ongoing” is because we’re fixing crash bugs all the time. Asobo is fixing bugs like champions. And we do get new bugs, but that is the nature of the beast. The stability is quite high for most users, but except for some people running into specific problems. So we clearly need to look into this more, and we are on it. It is a key objective of ours.

Photogrammetry
Jorg > A lot of people have been convinced that photogrammetry used to look better. So to test that, we made side-by-side videos of photogrammetry from pre-alpha all the way up to today, and the conclusion is that it hasn’t changed. Photogrammetry is not always consistent, though: It’s done at different resolutions at different times and different lighting conditions by different cameras. The Bing team is currently working on something quite big and have plans to make photogrammetry better. It’s for later this year, but it will be on Bing’s schedule, not Flight Simulator’s schedule. The World Update 3 delay was because of London’s photogrammetry. Something was not quite right, and we think that the problem was a data processing problem. We plan to revisit London photogrammetry in the future. Also, there was a very high vertices count in the London photogrammetry, and Asobo has written a script to reduce that in order to get better framerates.

Mirrored Textures
Jorg > Regarding mirrored textures, it says “Not Planned,” but it’s because of the way liveries are made. It’s a different and better technique that is no longer based on UVs. We should probably make a video to explain why this is better for memory and better all around. When we say it’s “Not Planned,” it’s not that we don’t care: It’s just that the system has evolved.

FlyByWire Simulations:
Jorg > After mentioning the Working Title team, users might wonder about FlyByWire. They is some legal stuff to go through, but we plan to do a Community section in our Marketplace and we are making really good progress on it.

Scenery Gateway
Jorg > We did a prototype and did a bunch of work on the SDK team. I asked for feedback and three people did. Thank you to those three people, but if you would like to give feedback, please email us. I read it every day.

Accessibility (Gaming for Everyone/No Pilot Left Behind)
Jorg > We want users’ feedback on what doesn’t work in the sim regarding accessibility needs. We want to address people’s needs, so please give us feedback.

Aerosoft CRJ
Jorg > The CRJ is signed off and on its way. This is a milestone for the platform.

Live Questions

Performance: Lately some users have been impacted with performance issue and loss of FPS
Martial > We are aware and already did some fixes – Performances is one of our priorities, we already made some work on memory and we have resources dedicated to it.
Jorg > Optimizations that are coming will be great for the sim
Seb > Seb gives explanation on what we are doing: Same content but less resources required. We’ve done that a lot. PC will benefit from it.
Jorg > We might do a hotfix for performances issues.

Beta for Sim updates
Jorg > We started sending builds to third party as sim update impact planes mostly.

QA on releases:
Jorg > Monthly updates require a lot of work and right now we are also working on Xbox. We made the decision of combining Sim Update 4 and World Update 5 to reduce the number of builds we are doing.

Q: Shared cockpit:
Martial > We want to bring that and a team will soon be dedicated to it.

Q: Can we expect to see other players aircraft model while doing multiplayer?
Jorg > We need to be careful about the memory. We would like to do it but it needs to be well-planned.

Q: Beta testing for Xbox?
Jorg > It’s a maybe right now but we’ll talk about it later.

Q: Thermals and sailplane soaring:
Seb > We do have thermals; we show some videos on how the system works. We need a slider to set this and some visual (for debug of course but also for users). It’s already there but we need to make it better.

Q: Any update for ATC?
Jorg > We had an issue with phraseology
Martial > It’s done and it’s going to be in Sim Update 4.

Q: VR Controllers
Martial > We are working on it but no timeframe yet.

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