Given that resources on the XBOX are limited I think that slowly developers will have to learn what works best for console and hopefully more will decide that it is worth selling a stable product maybe without all the bells and whistles that the latest powerful gaming PC can manage. The 737 shows that an extremely complicated airliners can work buttery smooth on the console so it is more down to the usual culprits of third party sceneries and airports that model the interior of airport terminals, people walking by and all the nice things that I still would be happy to do without for having a good quality exterior model of an airport that works much better. I heard an interview with Aerosoft about their soon to arrive Airbus A330 and the guy in charge of it talked about the same topic. He said they designed an airliner that is very accurate and stable and sacrifices the extra load of having a 4k modelled cabin and other unnecessary parts of the airplane but focus solely on the cockpit which is where a SIM should be mostly experienced. Having a switch on a EFB or similar so that PC and XBOX can be adjusted accordingly would be the best solution of course and maybe something will see more and more in the future?
The issue I have with Xbox optimisation is that the sim rarely stutters, even in areas with very high detail density. Iād sooner have a slightly jerkier experience than CTDs. Terminal interiors always come under fire but a dev recently stated in a post in these very forums that a 5-LOD fire tender chews through more memory than the average interior. Now, I like interiors, but if they are one of the bigger problems (I doubt they are, but letās hypothesise) then Iād happily sacrifice them. I think a lot of it depends on the texture quality, and terminal interiors seldom (if ever?) feature 4 or 8K textures.
I think with some discreet and clever optimisation, many of the offending details could be removed from the Xbox sim without the player being consciously aware. Instead of removing entire terminal or cabin interiors, take a fraction from each ā as well as similar fractions from other areas ā and in theory you should end up with better performance without a dramatically noticeable reduction in finer detail.
I believe the Newark add-on has specific optimizations for Xbox similar to this, but the kicker was MS didnāt allow the developer to adjust the price to reflect the product on Xbox. Iād happily buy products optimized for Xbox, but not at the same higher price applied to the high fidelity version on PC. MS should allow this differentiation in products and price for console if they canāt fix the memory issues.
I communicated with Dzrewiecki re the EWR scenery. It was released before Xbox testing became available to devs and, to pre-empt any issues, they decided to release without the terminal interiors. Probably a safe bet, ultimately.
There are two things that really bug me about the sim on Xbox: firstly, a handful of devs have demonstrated beyond any doubt that very high fidelity aircraft and scenery can run without CTDs on Xbox ā so we know itās possible. There should be more regulation for devs but it aināt gonna happen while Microsoftās making a cut from the MP.
Secondly, no one seems to be using the new Xbox testing protocols, because if they tested most of whatās available in the MP theyād quickly realise, within an hour, that their products are unstable on console. Itās all very well claiming that theyāre only supposed to work with the base sim but thereās a certain irony and disingenuity about a third-party dev basically telling us that we can only buy their product and no one elseās if we wish to maintain stability.
I think itās also worth noting that you need a very high-end PC to avoid problems. We often use those two letters with little context ā a friend of mine has a mid-range and heās recently started to experience all sorts of performance issues with MSFS.
How does the development testing on Xbox work? Do developers acquire consoles and use āspecial accountsā to access a testing environment to check the addons? If a developer tests an addon based on the Series X, will they be aware that the experience might cause a CTD on the Series S?
Thank you so much! It worked finally! I really appreciate it.
And who ever developed the eddn airport on marketplace for xbox did a fantastic job, super fps friendly and beautiful with animations, very well optimized. Other devs should learn some lessons from eddn on xbox. EGPH EGPF EDDN my favs now on xbox as performance and quality, ctd free with 737.
Edit: i will probably switch to pc in 6 months, tired of testing airports for 737 ctd free. It is like devs dont care about xbox airport optimizations. I wanna enjoy all my airports fully. EDDN Nuremberg Airport - Microsoft Flight Simulator - Orbx
I donāt know. I doubt itās as simple as, no one was testing on an Xbox console then, all of a sudden, they were. Something in the Xbox testing protocol changed and it somehow became either easier or much more effective.
But judging by how many CTDs some people get on Xbox, the process isnāt working as intended or devs are just completely bypassing/ignoring it.
I believe this was Limesim, 29Palms and Captain7. I looked at this a couple of months back but assumed the performance would be bad as Limesinās own EDDB borrows a lot of its features and apparently runs like a one-legged horse on both Xbox and PC. Good to know itās up there with Pyreegueās airports for stability!
Iāve had a difficult time finding a concrete statement where is this is indicated. Do you have a source for this that states this?
Agreed. Itās incredibly good. Just be careful flying into very high resolution third party airports (like FlyTampa Vegas or Iniās KLAX) as itās an almost guarantee that your avionics will go black on final. Itās not a HUGE deal as by that time Iām configured and halfway down the glideslope, but itās definitely something to be aware of. And to be fair, this happened at FlyTampa Vegas and many others wayyyy back when years ago in the stock Asobo 320 and other aircraft. Itās just something thatās never been fixed. Itās just that with a plane as complex as the 737 itās even more inevitable.
You must have a different sim to me! Mine is regularly a slideshow at modelled airports with an airliner. Just recently the AAU2 beta 747 at Asoboās YSSY was giving me about 2fps during taxi and takeoff. RJTT again Asoboās own with the A310 is another one. Inibuilds EGLL I can count the frames on my fingers. Sometimes it recovers performance as I depart the area and other times it CTD or black screens before I get that far. I can live with the slideshow but the rest I cannot.
Thereās a lot of blaming of 3rd party developers like they donāt care. This is undoubtedly true for some, but I donāt think itās commonly true. I have many airports which claim to have been specifically optimised for xbox, Iāve even been in contact with a developer that put quite a bit of effort into optimising for xbox but yet I still have problems at these airports, and at Asoboās own as well. Sure, Pyreegue has it figured out somehow but it seems to me that most developers simply donāt know how to make it work. I donāt see anywhere that Asobo has properly explained what developers need to do, and based on the Asobo airports Iām not even convinced that Asobo fully gets it.
Until late last year developers were completely unable to test on xbox at all, they literally had to release to public before they could run it themselves, so what were they supposed to do?
Now the testing situation at least seems to have been resolved on Asoboās side, it remains for 3rd parties to get fully on board and build up experience with this. But I still think itās a mixture of black art and rocket science to make a detailed airport that works on xbox and unless Pyreegue is going to publish a white paper or run an online course to teach people then it may be that many 3rd party devs never really get it figured out. This doesnāt often mean they donāt care or are lazy though.
I think the 1440p is well known. Iāve seen it many times, my brain tells me Iāve read it from a reliable source but I canāt remember at all where that is.
What Iāve never figured out, and see conflicting rumours on is what happens with a 1080p display like my TV. Some say that the 1440p rendering is fixed and the xbox downscales to 1080, which is pretty daft if itās true and doesnāt do me any favours.
Iāve only seen it stated by users on this forum.
Iāve done searches for it on the Internet and early announcements or reviews of MSFS for Xbox said its 4K.
Iāve yet to see a source for this upscaled claim.
About 1/2 way down this article (search for flight sim bit) -
The upscaling was for the PS4 Pro and XBox One X. The new consoles can run at true 4K, just not all games support it. The article clearly states that.
It also fairly clearly states that FS is upscaled from 1440p on the series X.
Flight Sim on Series X runs in ā4Kā in the sense that it runs at 1440p (less than half the pixels of 4K) and then is upscaled to 4K.
Also watch this video. Where resolution rendering is explained 4:30 onwards
Series X uses temporal upscaling from 1440p to hit 4k but Series S doesnāt and renders at native 1080p
For @NixonRedgrave to ref too.
Yes, Iāve not found an authoritative source on this, but it seems to be widely reported when the sim was first released on xbox. eg. Hereās another article:
Itās not that the series X itself is limited to 1440p rendering, it seems clear that the box can render full 4k native and does in many games, but presumably this is something that was chosen for MSFS specifically, probably as a compromise to make it work at all.
Yes this is my take. Lets face it even a 30xx PC card has various graphics modes/perf tradeoffs and DLSS2 (which I use) is an upscale method for 4K output.
In the end of the day 4K gaming is 50% truth and 50% marketing. Iām sure 8K gaming when it arrives will be similar!
I have successfully flown out and into 3 x 3rd party sceneries using 737-800. Sceneries are Manchester (EGCC) Edinburgh (EGPH) and Glasgow (EGPF) all fine no stutters no CTD 
I wasnāt going to purchase just yet, but after seeing all the great YT videos I couldnāt resist. Just love this aircraft and so many options. Watch Pilot 083 video on some of the cool stuff on this aircraft
I use the Philbert Flies Ryanair checklists and all hydraulics are on before pushback and engine start? I suppose itās one of the differences between airlines? But you would think that in the interest of conformity all the airlines would get their heads together and standardise checklists across the industry? Or the manufacturer decides the checklists and everyone uses the same checklists. It must be a nightmare for pilots when they change carrier 