Just a reminder, the live monthly Q&A session with ASOBO developers is starting now. Feel free to discuss over on Twitch, or any discussion between forum users can be left below.
**Although the live session has ended, the recorded version may be watched here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/756607286 **
Here is a quick summary:
World Update #2, VR, Sim Updates
09:36
World Update #2 - launching later this year, will focus on US.
Rolling basis, every 2-3 months
10:15
#1 request: VR. Team has been working for over a year. Releasing alongside HP Reverb 2. Planning to do a closed beta for FS VR - Late OCT or early Nov, starting with WMR.
11:42
Sim Updates:
Acknowledgment of regressions. Dedicated update just for issues. Sim Update 1 will address in early November. Will alternate with world updates.
Press Any Key, Community Mod Support, Scenery Gateway, Replay Function, ATC Callsign
13:25
Press Any Key to Start
Seb: Easy fix - in backlog and hopefully addressed soon
14:23
Community mods, such as FlyByWire A320: Currently have contracts and relationships with manufacturer. Awaiting response, looking into ways to make them available widely.
16:06
Scenery gateway system: Have to be careful taking scenery from non Bing Maps providers. Will be an oncoming thing. Will add freeware section, timing TBA.
17:28
Replay Function: Have a system currently, but not user friendly. On the backlog to make a simplified, user friendly version. Will be on one of the sim updates. High priority item.
(what is a backlog discussion)
Remember ATC Callsign: Easy change to add to save. Has been added to the backlog.
DX12, Nav Blue Updates / Charts, Weather System, Multiple Screens, Metric Units
20:08
DX12: Big team that has been working on for a while. Won’t be just for performance, but also to open stuff such as ray tracing and new effects. Rendering work is already on a different core process. 2nd line (renderer) in dev tools. Will likely see a small increase.
21:50
Nav Blue partnership: Agreement is new nav data comes every 28 days, and goes into the next game update. Next one comes mid October, after some high level testing, will go into game updates. Has already started. Charts are a little more work. Was on plan for launch, didn’t make it. Will be on sim update (probably not November). One of reasons signed with NavBlue.
23:52
Open up weather system to 3rd party: Need to think about, as weather is very integral.
Freeware: (addressed above) Really want to embrace that.
Multiple screens: Seb - Saw someone working on that… Has a DR400 cockpit with 3 projectors (comments on aligning), engine team working on it.
26:10
Metric Units: In backlog. Going to be unit by unit, mostly weight and fuel. Haven’t started, but should be a small update.
Airport / ATC Bugs, Night Lighting, Visibility, Garmin Improvement Plan, Towers / Obstacles, Hotfixes
Feedback Snapshot - Top Bugs, planning to put out weekly.
28:23
Plans for updating taxiways with proper names, airport updates, etc. - Jorg: Inside world update, also adderessed 700 airports. Has a dedicated ORBX team who is constantly looking at bugs. When written in forum, comments get translated into bug database. Rely on peoples feedback, such as Brazilian airport.
29:57
Plans to improve ATC: Seb, acknowledged sim has issues and bugs. Team working to address. Lots of small issues that they are looking at, dedicated ATC team. Potential cool TTS improvements with Microsoft.
31:50
Night lighting on terrain: Room for improvement. Issues with textures, plans to work on increasing definition. Preciously at 10,000 meters for light transitions, can push more to 20-30,000 meters, which means more individual lights, less of a texture issue. Not a “big big” change. Jorg: Working some of the best, such as MaxX Ordinance Surveys, Excel survey partners.
34:48
Cloud visibility: Seb - Had fog at office and flew it in the sim, matched scenario. Has aerosol setting. Currently maxed at 20, which is still above 5-10km distance. Only way now is if in rain or clouds. Thinking of pushing slider further, such as 40-60. But starts to look strange. First update, slider will go up. Expect 2-3 km. 2nd update will come after lighting formula tweaks. Possible update to weather menu. Fog is just a layer of clouds on the ground.
38:23
Garmin Improvement Plans (#1 bug on list): Jorg, general philosophy, don’t want to interfere with 3rd party developers. Jorg starting to change mind to make it as good as they can make it. Seb: Currently focusing on bug fixes, once less bugs can focus more on improvements. Will come with autopilot updates. As soon as bug count down. Jorg “Planning to invest the time and do it”
Working on towers and obstacle database. Seb: Has some of the data, working on it.
42:01
Hot-fixes? Internally have a 2 week cadence, recognized rushed and introduced bugs. Want to commit to a big monthly update, with in-between critical bug fixes. Going to go back to pre-release builds to smaller “flighting group”. Would like dedicated feedback team,
CPU Optimization, Terrain Mesh, Contrails, DLSS / Raytracing, etc
47:20
CPU Usage Optimized to use more than 1 core: Already using, heavily multi-threaded. Main thread sending render work to render thread. Needs to know where camera is. Last performance update, thread that streams data was in a loop that caused issues. End goal is to be GPU limted. Last update moved work to other cores. Each update will move stuff out to other threads. Jorg: Nothing new to say about xbox, but lots of people asking.
50:15
When work on Xbox, it also helps PC. Seb: More memory optimazation to come, in pipeline. Will benefit PC, but is what will allow sim to work on xbox.
51:59
Working to improve DEM Mesh? Jorg: Working with many of the best dim providers, governments. Took Japan from 30m to 5m. Next US update, can’t say how good US data is, but it is crazy good. Work to be done and will continue (such as Alps). Data provider called Planet, just lowered satellites to get better data. Trying to find the best data possible to continue to put into FS, will continue to get better.
54:03
SDK Updates for particle effects: Jorg - Tool being written and in development. Contrails on the backlog. Working on it and will be in the SDK.
55:15
DLSS and Raytracing: Part of DX12. Main reason for moving to DX12 (additional features)
Lessons, Seasons, Shared Cockpit, Draw Distance
Flight Lessons and Checklist updates: Can expect to see updates.
57:43
Seasons - Very big task. Going to take a while, so be patient.
58:19
Career Mode / Shared Cockpit - After bug fixes, replay, launch priorities, etc. Priorities such as shared cockpit will be more of a next year thing.
01:00:44
Investigating AA / Draw Distance. Looking at expanding terrain draw distance, especially for higher altitude. 15,000-30,000 improvements don’t cause a lot of performance penalties.
