SDK Q&A (Feb. 9th): POST-Discussion

User Support Hub SDK
113

Hey @espn74,

Great suggestion, thank you! I do agree with this and think if we have live sessions they could be better suited as demonstrations, tips, and perhaps sharing the sim screen to go over some more questions in depth like this.

114

Preface on current Developer Q&A Format:

  • It is currently public for everyone to see, including a casual flight simmer like me (consumer/customer)
  • The SDK team is the most critical Asobo team. To be able see an active SDK team for MS Flight Simulator is a blessing in itself, and the future livelihood of MSFS will ultimately be determined by the collaboration between the Asobo SDK Team and 3rd Party Developers.
  • Major 3rd Party Developers are the elected Ambassadors of the MSFS Customer base. We have voted for them with our purchases.

This Developer Q&A was difficult to watch for me. As a consumer, I saw a lot of questions being asked. I did not observe a single collaborative direction between the SDK Team and the questions that would benefit the efforts of any Developer. There was an overwhelmingly common response, “It’s difficult
we’re looking into it
etc.”. The only definitive response was “No, we’re not planning on doing that.”

Personally, I would like to see a Major 3rd Party Developer’s development team be invited to the stream to ask direct and focused questions that would (‘ideally’) benefit all developers. I would like to witness a productive collaborative response from the Asobo SDK team that will give me hope that another obstacle in the way of product development is now actively being addressed and is moving forward.

It would be beneficial for the 3rd Party Developer’s questions be provided to the SDK Team before the stream, so that the SDK Team could be prepared to discuss at least one option/roadmap/plan of action to address an issue that is hindering product development.

I am a simple casual flight simmer and only a consumer. However, I could feel the frustration of developers in watching this Q&A stream. You can’t continue development on any project if the Team that is dictating what tools you can use continuously responds to you by saying, “we’re looking into it.” How do you plan anything without any timeline, current status, or direction?

I’m still thankful that there is an active SDK Team for MSFS (lived through the finite FSX SDK era)

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115

This is fantastic, thank you for taking the time to write this out @Kapustick. Particularly love your idea on collaborating with a 3rd party developer for a back and forth Q&A that could benefit other 3rd party devs. Seeing a more focused approach like this could potentially result in much better collaboration. Thank you!

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116

Completely agree with everything you said. There was a lot of ambiguity in this Q&A. Sort of disappointed


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117

I found the Developer Q&A refreshing to watch, and see two team members, both on the same page, and obviously up to date with the Community’s questions,

They seemed to be prepared to answer any questions posed to them, with a clear and concise answer. Quite refreshing to see such openness and awareness of their SDK development.

:+1:

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118

I though that 3rd party developers had a “Private Discord” server where they freely communicated with Asobo ?

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119

Not sure that’s correct, at least the ones I test for do not have a direct line of communication, but they’re smaller than a PMDG or a FBW.

120

Maybe its just the BIG ones like Aerosoft, Carenado etc. I can imagine if everyone who claim to be a “developer” had access, it would become very disorganized, and of no use to anyone ?

I have no personal knowledge, just heard a few Rumors about such a private Discord server.

If it does exist, I hope it is working well for those involved especially if it taks advantage of the Audio & Video features of Discord.

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121

I enjoyed the SDK Q&A but unfortunately I watch the recorded version as I am working while it’s live (here in Canada).

I wish we could have a few interactive chat sessions that happen between the official Live SDK Q&As so those who can’t be available during the Q&A live sessions, would be able to be in these chats and discuss with the team the questions related to the SDK or Dev mode.

Thanks

122

I quite like the current Q&A format, but I agree that a quick “upcoming/recently introduced changes and features” video intro that actually demonstrates these might be helpful. Ideally this would be in the form of a quick 5mins video showing these features that would be posted a couple of days in advance of the Q&A. This would allow developers the chance to ask specific questions to those new features on top of the more generic ones.

I know producing such a video will take considerable work and the SDK team is not that big, but it could maybe also serve the purpose of additional documentation/tutorial down the line?

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123

I think the direction of this q&a should be change . Sincerely I prefer old method with private discussion forums , because in that manner you misc end user and 3rd party developer , and a lot of questions it remains unanswered. I put here my case : in private forum all questions was answered 
. And was a pro-active participation of Asobo tester and sdk developer (Eric) . I was very happy with this formula and my experience was super happy !
I ve been able to talk with dev and dev been able to hear my advice for change some things that I cannot share here 
. Super fantastic 
.

But from the introduction of devsupport the things start to be bad 
. Too much questions and zero answers 
.

My vote is for reintroduce private forums for 3rd party developer , because there are a lot of questions from 3rd party developer that help the current and future business. These questions are strategic for us and (I think I can talk for the majority of 3rd party developers) we must use this answers from Asobo for program and manage our business in short mid term 
.

I think we need a channel where 3rd party developer that are in business with MSFS can talk more frequently with Asobo team 
.

PROPOSAL

I propose a private forum reintroduction and leave also a public forum, and organize a Microsoft Teams call with 3rd party developer (all) every two three months or divide these into 2 or 3 round (when you are in a planning phase for next iteration) for go in deep with questions and make a pre meeting survey for give a direction to this meeting . This can be very useful for all our activities . Understand what is the direction of Asobo development for us is a life topic 
 I propose a closed Teams call because you can put below an NDA and you can feel free to talk about the progress without that any developer claims that at the end you cannot be able to develop a feature 


Obviously thanks to all Comunity managers , Dev team , Producer and Jorg ! BTW my dream is talk with you about a couple of idea i ve in mind :smiley:

Fabio Merlo

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124

I don’t think this thread mentions anywhere how to see/hear/read the actual Q & A.

Any clues appreciated.

thanks
B21

125

Could anyone explain to me just briefly what the Hot Start Challenger 650 does that goes beyond, say, PMDG level?

126

Hey,

You can watch it here Twitch

127

I am sorry to be so harsh but I don’t like the “it is not our priority for the moment” attitude from the SDKTeam.
If they got requests from 3rd parties, THIS should be their priority.

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128

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share feedback after the SDK Q&A.

I would suggest some ideas:

  1. Clarify who’s the target audience for this SDK Q/A. For example, I’m just a very amateur-ish scenery developper enjoying learning Blender (and curious of the Bender plugin compared to the free one already available) and the Scenery Editor. But the SDK Team seems to cover a much wider perimeter of expertise where I feel totally lost and not concerned with. But also different semi-pro developpers as I suspect bigger size company developper may have a more direct connection with the team as suggested with big players like Just Flight, Aerosoft
 etc
 See point 2.

  2. What is the Asobo organisation facing the (developper) community? I heard yesterday some replies explaining “it’s not for the SDK Team” but for the “xxx Team”. I don’t know how publicly could it be delivered, but clarification on who’s doing what in Asobo/Microsoft (no need to get in detail, just examples) could narrow questions and
 replies. See next point 3.

  3. As the field of expertise of the “SDK Q/A” is (at least for me) uncleared, I suggest the agenda of SDK Q&A get spitted in 3 majors areas.
    Step 1. Intro, last news, what’s up, what’s you are working on
 more or less what AlizĂ©e did yesterday with her slidedeck (<=20 min)
    Step 2. Choose a single topic to focus on in advance for each SDK Q&A. For example, yesterday some early screenshot (or a demo) of the Blender plugin could be attractive. Again just an example, topic like “what is the difference with the existing Blender2MSFS toolkit” could be adressed during this <=20min Zoom by the expert.
    Step 3. Last 20min. Address a selected number of Q/A (collected in advance here) and live if you feel conformable with as it’s a real tricky exercice.

Thanks to Jayne, Alizée and Eric (but also Jorg, it was fun to watch live your reaction :wink: !

Just a quick food for thought. Let me know if you want to elaborate.

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129

I heard from a pilot friend that it’s the most sophisticated Aircraft Addon to date for an entertainment PC Simulator but the addon costs more than the basic price of any entertainment PC flight simulator on the market today :slight_smile:

In fact, it seems as if it’s a stand alone simulator for this specific aircraft


I am pretty sure that MSFS could at one point support a similar addon


P.S: In real life, the Challenger 650 and the CRJs share a lot when it comes to their cockpit systems
 In fact the CRJs for MSFS by Aerosoft, deliver a very comprehensive experience for a Bombardier aircraft from this exact generation and almost same cockpit tech as the 650
 Yet the 650 Addon goes way deeper
 To me the MSFS CRJs are more than enough in terms of system simulation


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130

Awesome, thank you again for the above suggestions and insight. Excited to see what we can cook up to make it a fuller and more helpful experience!

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132

Frankly, I think Jörg is on the money: “Put it in a word doc”!
Then sort it by topic as in scenery, aircraft, missions, etc.

As it is, it’s pretty much a waste of the better part of an hour to get to the few questions that are relevant for you.
The answers in the current format also seem to be quite superficial. The devs should get the chance to read the whole question, not just the summarized version. The one question of mine that was actually asked (higher resolution ground textures) got a pretty useless answer - which could have been avoided could they have seen the few explanatory lines I added below.

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