Official Discussion: September 2nd, 2021 Development Update

Less than 20 posts for the feedback to become toxic. Awesome job guys. Maybe they’d be better not communicating at all… oh yeah, but you demand communication…

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I’m giving the sim a break. It’s a wonderful piece of technology but the pop ins, disappearing assets, and other issues are breaking immersion. I’ll give it a few weeks.

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Agreed.

Development updates (actual development) and Marketplace updates/social media updates should be separated. I’ve never understood the way this is done here.

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(To be honest, “it does not work” is a pretty fair description of that device on any platform and any game. I’ve never understood why they don’t adapt their higher quality kit to the platform.)

Indeed across the board the flight peripherals available for the Xbox right now are all pretty horrible.

Honeycomb offer a ray of light but it’s a case of when does “coming soon™” become “grab me now!”?

I wonder if VKB might be interested in doing console capable versions of their NXT line up? Now THAT would be something to look forward to!

Less than 12 months for communications breakdown. And with communications comes not only celebrating the successes but owning up to the failures as well. And in that regard SU5 has been and still is an umitigated disaster. You cannot expect people to be happy with such non information after that major blunder. I started the sim twice in the last 5 weeks. Because it is in a very sorry state for me. And this supposed devblog said nothing. Especially stuff that was promised in the last one is not here either. That is not toxicity but simple disappointment.

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We’re asking for better communication, something we’ve been asking for for 12 months now and recently it’s got worse, so you can hardly blame us for pointing out the communicative flaws!

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Telling people not being angry or disappointed about something they were led to believe would come isn’t really helping a friendly tone here either.

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True enough. But if my memory serves me correctly it was made clear that the online element of GTA 5 would be free and without charge. Furthermore, the existing single player game was totally unaffected by the online game issues and was just about bug free.

With respect, I don’t think you can reasonably compare this with FS2020 where the bugs brought about by updates affect the main and only game.

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Interesting topic they avoid is the xbox port to pc… rest is marketing bla

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Last week they announced 9 airplanes for the Xbox “in the coming days”. Is it just me or did they just give false information? Why even announce and promote stuff like this and just disappoint your community afterwards? That’s really not healthy marketing.

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In order to have an effective communication, it has to a BI-DIRECTIONAL one.

Been around in the forum since joining the alpha insider program. I’ve seen the gradual change in the communication, atmosphere and releases.
There is a lack of consistent acknowledgment, and sometimes a total lack of acknowledgement at all to the burning issues & bugs. In some cases, there is an initial communication but then no further follow-up.
Just one example, Issues reported on Zendesk has no clear follow-up of whether they are part of a known issue already, and whether they are planned to be handled this time or the other ( feels like > /dev/null for the Linux programmers around here).
Some posts are started to be flagged as “BUG LOGGED” ,and sometimes we do get some announcements. But again, it’s not a common and not consistent.
The @moderators here are doing outstanding job and efforts! no doubt. But it’s unfair to let them run around and try to put out the flames with bare hands over such a huge community already. Moreover, the lack of clear communication keeps fueling the anger and toxic posts…
I strongly believe that if we get consistent periodic communication, a clear follow-up on the topics and issues and a cumulative post to consolidate all of those side messages , it will be far more efficient and supportive ( see my previous post here: Official Discussion: September 2nd, 2021 Development Update - #16 by MarinaraTrain42 )

When people have active acknowledgement to their problems, clear communication of the up-to-date priorities and expected timelines, they will be much more patient and tolerable even if they wishful fix/change won’t come yet or slip a deadline. We understand they can’t keep everyone satisfaction 100% of the time . But at least, a clear understanding and sharing of the complexities, decisions taken and in-progress status will keep us all in the same camp.

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Look at the bright side: they could have been delayed so that this doesn’t happen again:

NB: In case it is misinterpreted, the above is only constructive criticism. I do like the game for what it’s worth, and I do entertain myself with it in VR from time to time. However this doesn’t mean one can’t see its faults and communicate about those either, unless believing those will automagically resolve by themselves.

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Sorry. It’s not toxic, just honest.

Surely you can understand that.

When people can’t use the game because Microsobo broke it, you shouldn’t be surprised when they complain…especially when it would appear that no-one is listening to legitimate concerns raised by users.

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I wonder if the Top Gun DLC is now pushed to May of 2022 like the movie is.

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Huge update WT G1000 NXI, thanks. :clap:

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The most informative development update ever …
Could at least give a complete list of planned fixes that will appear with WU6 …?

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The planned fixes that are coming with WU6 were already announced - all the way back in 19-August. Readback folks.

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@CasualClick
Thank you for sharing this information, it is much appreciated!

If I may suggest something:

I know what the “Offscreen Terrain pre-caching” new setting is intended for, and the explanation for ULTRA is great. However:

  • Does it mean it is just the “Terrain” which is cached at “full quality”?

  • In this case what is “Terrain”?
    → are these ground textures only? Mesh? Both?
    → does this affect also Buildings? Trees? Photogrametry?
    → if ground textures only, does it mean full quality regardless of distance?
    → if ground textures, does it also mean regardless of “Terrain LOD” setting too?
    → if mesh only (or as well), does it mean full quality regardless of distance too?
    → if mesh, does it also mean regardless of “Vector Data” setting too?

  • And what means “full quality” ?
    → Does it mean regardless of “Terrain LOD”?
    → Does it mean regardless of “Vector Data”?

  • And how is this settings supposed to address the issue which is first and foremost late-reloading and redrawing of the surroundings when turning the head?
    → Does it mean it is always 360 degrees pre-cached, but the settings defines only the “quality”? the “distance”?
    → or will WU6 also provide the requested setting (not this one) which increases or decrease the lateral angle culling instead?
    → which will therefore also kill 2 birds with one stone for Pimax users for example?

etc…

I can’t stress enough it is very important these are clearly detailed and explained so that end users can know what to look for, what to expect, and what to measure and compare for their own hardware.

In addition I’ve raised this question because “Vector Data” setting explanation and its possible setting values are showing something which seems illogical to me, which means I can’t make sense of what it is supposed to do nor what it is doing in practice. It is all detailed (and more) here:

Could you please explain what some graphics settings are really doing? - Community / Dev Q&A: In Review - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums


[update]
Just to let you know @Jummivana has now answered most of these questions here:

This is still not answering it all but since there is a dedicated topic about this, I’ll further my questions over there!

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Gordon, please try to understand.

If anything is toxic (in a flight sim forum) this is :arrow_heading_up:, because it attempts to stifle truth and justice concerning flight simulation. It won’t work. It also attempts to get this thread closed and hidden. That may work, but in the next moment there will be many other frustration posts (feedback), centered on aviation.

Everybody ask themselves; why would flight simmers in a flight sim forum want the topics, development, and communication to be centered on aviation realism? And where would any opposition come from? Why would there be opposition to aviation realism in a flight sim forum?

You see, photographers (look at the name and title gordongreig Photographer) will be happy with everything MSFS, because MSFS is currently centered on screenshots.

Where are the aviation related titles next to forum names? I have looked high and low, there are none that I could find.

There is nothing wrong with screenshots, but the obsession with screenshots is proven by the developer blog - starts and ends with screenshots…very little about aviation realism leaps and bounds (excitement) in the official MSFS development blog. But excitement comes bursting in when communicating about some charity we can donate to, or when talking about the screenshot contest.

Frustration (feedback) in any flight sim forum will always achieve its goal because flight simmers are reasonable but extremely persistent. This screenshot obsession (it is an obsession!!) will be eliminated by the frustration/persistence of flight simmers, or this project will be shut down by the combined will of flight simmers.

All the MSFS team has to do is make aviation realism in MSFS (not the photography obsession) the focus. The frustration will fade when MSFS becomes CENTERED on aviation realism. This can be a much more pleasant place, and the need for moderation will decrease substantially.

I know what I’m talking about, I have seen these same kind of scenarios over the decades.

Photographers are welcome, and some simmers are/may be photographers, but flight simulation (aviation) REALISM wins every time.

For a closing point:
I ask any screenshot taker to take a photo of a GA aircraft, cold and dark, on the ramp, at say KSTS (among many thousands of other medium sized, IFR, normally open 24/7/365), during midnight. What is there to be seen? NOTHING, because aviation realism is not being considered. If cities can be lit up, why can’t airports be lit up? The screenshot obsession blinds and hinders the consideration and development of vitally important aviation related factors…

…so, how long will it take to light up these airports? :thinking: :face_with_monocle:

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Excellent post! Totally agree. Thank you!!!

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