"Good morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you’re tuning in from. Welcome back to another live developer stream, where we bring you the latest news and information on Microsoft Flight Simulator and answer some of your questions live. Today, I’m your host, Jayne, the Senior Community Manager.
I’d like to extend a warm welcome to our three panelists: Jorg Neumann, the Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator; hey, Jorg, welcome back. We also have Sebastian Wloch, the CEO and co-founder of Asobo Studio; welcome back, Sebastian. How are you doing today? Hello.
I’m glad to hear you’re doing great. And of course, we have Martial Bossard, the Executive Producer of Asobo Studio. Welcome back, Martial. Thank you. Good evening from France. Yes, good evening from France.
We also have a few guests who will be joining us throughout the stream. We’ll introduce them a little later. But just a quick note: there will be a specific Q&A section scattered throughout our presentation today, so we do ask that you hold your questions until that time. Get them ready, though; we’ll definitely go through some live questions, as well as some questions that we’ve gathered from the forums over the past several months.
Let’s go ahead and get started on our presentation. Jorg, take it away."
Summer Updates
"Hi, it’s always great to be here. So, the last time we met was two months ago, on July 31st, and it was unusual because I made that video that Jayne asked me to do. SE and M were unavailable. While I hope it was useful, I really feel it’s important to have these together and live, to be as interactive as possible. So, the video thing is not going to be an ongoing thing, Jayne, just so you know.
Today marks the first meeting of the Fall. You can tell the weather is rainy here. I wanted to quickly share some reflections about the summer. Next slide.
In June, we announced Flight 2024, and after the initial shock that there was a new flight simulator coming, I’ve literally received thousands of messages from all of you. It’s overwhelmingly positive, and people are excited. I can also tell you that people have lots of feature ideas. But seriously, it’s very encouraging for the team because we’re making this for you guys. That’s really what it’s for. All right, then, next slide."
"Yeah, we went to the Flightsim Expo, Seb and I, and a bunch of people from Microsoft and Working Title were there. We had the opportunity to attend our very first flight convention, and thinking back on it, it was just awesome. There’s another slide where we gave our little presentation.
You know, sometimes I would say the forums sometimes get a little testy, but it was such an overwhelmingly positive thing with almost thousands of people and how much they love flight aviation and flight simming, and how knowledgeable the community is. There’s nothing really like it. I can tell you I’ve been making games for almost 30 years and never seen anything like this before. Evan already pinged me; he obviously announced it’s going to be in Vegas in 2024, and if we’re coming, I assured him we will try our very best. I certainly want to come, so that was awesome.
Then the next thing that maybe not as many of you know, we went to Gamescom. We didn’t really make a big deal of it this year. We only had a little booth, and it was just Jayne, Shaun from the community, and me. So that’s the next slide. Oh yeah, here we go. So that was our little booth, and if you go to the next slide, you’ll see that we had constant lines.
What I wanted to show you is, and I don’t know if you see it, but it struck me; look at the age of everybody there. It’s all teenagers. This is the future of flight simulators sitting right there. It’s awesome. So it was very nice.
And so, anyways, that was Gamescom in August. Then, next slide, we launched a city update. We also launched, next slide, one of my favorite planes. I know everybody’s probably sick and tired of water planes, but I like that one. It really means something to the Germans, not just me. But I’m glad we did it, and I know from the reviews it’s a 4.8 or 4.9, so at least some of you who tried it loved it. Thank you for that.
Alright, then, next slide. Then we got some news. I don’t know if you saw it; we obviously announced something at the Xbox showcase that we’re doing something with Dune. Then the Dune movie, for a variety of reasons, was moved to 2024. And yes, we always said we’re going to do something very close to the launch, so we’re moving our thing to 2024, which causes a little bit of an issue. If you go to the next slide, when you look at our roadmap, look there, I made it red. So basically, today we’ll talk about things in September. We’ll also talk about things in October. June was the big deal, and in November, we’re actively working on what else we can do to delight you all. So we’re not quite locked in yet, but we’re working on things that I think will make a difference for the holiday season. So keep watching the skies.
And then the last thing, and then I’ll be quiet, we went to the Reno Air Races. The community team did, Shaun, Jayne, Chris, and Tyler. I think it was great, but I wanted to say here, I don’t know if you followed it, but there was this terrible accident, the I think it was the second-to-last race in the T6 class, and we lost two pilots, Chris Rushing and Nick Macey, both of whom I met. They were fantastic people. Both of their planes are in the Sim. We have not reached out to the families yet, but we will. You know, there has to be a little bit of time, but we will do what we can to help. So anyways, just wanted to acknowledge that.
Sim Update 13
And then Tino, we met in Cologne. I just want to say, I put your bear right there just in case you’re here. Thank you for the bear. Alright, that’s it. Next. Awesome, thank you, Jorg. We’ll dive right into talking about Sim update 13, which is coming out tomorrow, actually. Thank you to all the beta testers throughout the past few months who have really helped us on the forums by providing feedback, reproduction of issues; it has been a huge help for us. So thank you so much."
White Dot Fix
“All right, onto our active development. Let’s talk about a few things here. Martial, we’ll start with you. Now, there’s a fix in the beta that we’re calling the ‘white dot’ fix. Could you go into what the new fix is for those who have not been in the beta?”
“Yes, certainly. This fix was introduced in Alpha 2. We decided to make a change to the input system so that people could use any kind of joystick to move the cursor. Unfortunately, this change had some unintended effects. It resulted in little dots appearing on the screen whenever you moved the camera. To address this, we’ve introduced two new options in the settings. If you go to General Options and Accessibility, you’ll find them. The first one is called ‘Show the white dot cursor in free look.’ This option allows you to display or hide the cursor when using any type of peripherals while moving the camera. The second one is called ‘Limit 2D cursor on all peripherals,’ and it allows you to toggle the appearance of the dot when using a joystick. With these two options, you should be able to customize the camera behavior and the visibility of the dot as you prefer. I hope this explanation clarifies it.”
Horizon Line Visible
“Yes, I appreciate that. It’s always great when we can give the community the option to toggle things on or off. Thank you so much for incorporating this fix. Next, we have the horizon line visible through mountains and objects. Could you talk a little bit about this one? I see there’s a note on there, curious to learn more about that update.”
"Yeah, sure. So, basically, this is a precision issue related to the mathematical calculations we use in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. It’s a precision problem inherent to the method we’ve been using, and unfortunately, there’s no complete solution within this method. The only way to entirely fix it is to change the entire method of handling atmospheric scattering, essentially requiring a completely different atmospheric engine. However, what we’ve done is implement a kind of patch that compensates for the precision error on the horizon, attempting to reduce the visibility of that line.
Only a new architecture for the scattering could make it disappear completely, but we’ve found a way in our testing to at least mitigate it. Sometimes it’s entirely gone, and sometimes it’s less visible. The issue with this line is that even if it’s only half as visible or the color difference is reduced by half, it can still appear as if it’s there. So, that’s one challenge. However, it should be an improvement in many cases.
I’ve only seen one reported case where the dark line turned into a white line, but it was very subtle. We’ve made our best efforts to make this better, and there’s a setting that allows us to continue improving it if we’ve missed any areas. So, this is as far as we could get, and it should be better in many cases."
Stability and Memory Improvements
"Cool. How about the stability and memory improvements going into SIM update 13? Yeah, so this is a new way of doing things that we started over the summer. We’ve been doubling down on QA. Our QA department has many more machines now. I even have six machines in my office. We’re conducting very long flights. We were already doing 10-hour to 20-hour flights, but the problem was we were almost never encountering the issues we were trying to find. Now, one of the machines has been flying for 250 hours. We’re doing extremely long flights on these machines. We’ve found five crashes that have been fixed in Sim Update 13 thanks to these very long flights.
We also discovered a few memory leaks, which are essentially memory allocations that are not freed or issues that cause memory usage to grow over time. These were also causing FPS drops after very long flights. When we started this effort in the summer, after 50 hours of flying, the machines were down from 50 to 5 FPS. It was really significant. Even after 200 hours now, the machine starts at 50 and stays at 50. So, there’s been a significant improvement there.
As for Sim Testing, we’re continuing this effort. Our QA department has more machines, and it’s helping us identify issues. This is something we will always continue. We’ve already found a few issues that will be integrated into the next update because it’s an ongoing effort. In terms of FPS after long flights, the issues like crashes on Final or frame rate drops after flying for 15 hours should be significantly better, or at least that’s what we’re seeing on our PCs. So, it’s fantastic to see the progress."
Logbook Compression
“Glad to hear about the new PCs too. Thank you, Seb. Appreciate that. Now, the logbook issue fix. For those who use logbooks and run into this issue where they reach a size limit, can you go into a bit more detail on what you did there and what users can expect in Sim Update 13 regarding their logbooks with this compression? Will the log file get smaller?”
“So, the logbook issue was primarily addressed through compression. This compression significantly reduces the size of the logbook file, which should help alleviate the size limit problem. Users can expect that their logbook files will take up less space as a result of this compression.”
World Updates and Airport Fixes
“Thanks, Martial. Now, Jorg, could you talk to us about world updates and airport fixes?”
“Absolutely. We promised to continue improving things, so with Sim Update 13, we’ve used the opportunity to update things that are either in the base content update or part of the world updates. In terms of airports and points of interest (POIs), both Guia and Orex have done exceptional work. They’ve fixed hundreds of bugs, and you can find the detailed change list for these fixes. We’ve also made similar improvements to aircraft. Airplane Heaven, BlueMesh, and other third-party developers have updated various aircraft that will be released in the Flight Simulator 2020 40th Anniversary Edition. So, you can see that we’re constantly working to improve everything we possibly can. We’ve reached very low bug numbers on all these aspects, which is great.”
Working Title Updates
“And of course, our last two updates are coming from Working Title. We actually have Matt Nishan on with us to discuss the changes that Working Title made to Sim Update 13. Hi Matt, welcome.”
“Hey, how’s it going?”
“It’s going great. I’m glad you could join us to discuss all the things that your team did for this update. We’ll start with Boeing upgrades.”
“Cool. As folks in the beta probably know, we’ve now integrated SimBrief into the FMCs for both Boeing aircraft. I know some users were frustrated with using the weight and balance panel for setting their payload, which was more geared towards GA aircraft. We’ve also added step climbs, automatic checklist items for the 787 and 747 when applicable. So, if you raise the flaps or the gear and it’s in the checklist, it automatically gets checked off. This mimics the behavior of the real plane. Specifically for the 787, we’ve added the takeoff performance calculation page on the EFB. Regarding the EFB, some typ-rated pilots gave us feedback that it’s slow and not used much, as they prefer external devices like iPads for charts. So, we focused on the essential feature of takeoff performance. For the 747, we introduced auto fuel system management for long-haul flights, making it easier for users who step away from their computers. We’ve also added VR and app map formats and addressed various bug fixes and improvements, including VNAV navigation.”
“That’s a comprehensive set of updates for the Boeing aircraft. Thanks for sharing, Matt. Now, let’s talk about piston engines.”
“Sure, we’ve done a lot of work there as well. To ensure compatibility with existing aircraft, we made these changes optional by adding parameters to engine config files. We addressed several issues. Turbocharged aircraft no longer require leaning as you ascend, as we adjusted the mixture based on intake density. We added the ability to customize the boost ratio based on ambient density. You can now set the mixture ratio for the actual lever position, allowing customization for different engine efficiencies. We introduced volumetric fuel flow, preventing abrupt fuel cutoffs when an engine stops. Fuel continues to flow, but it’s expelled as excess. These changes offer greater realism and flexibility for piston engines.”
Q&A Session 1
Horizon Line in 2024
“Great! Thanks for explaining those updates, Matt. Now, we’re moving to our first Q&A session. Chat, if you have a question, feel free to put it in the chat box. I’ll be reading through a few of those and asking some other questions. Here’s the first question: You mentioned the horizon line being a limitation with 2020. Should we expect that same limitation to be in 2024? Is this something you’re willing to answer at this time?”
“I can answer that. I think some people might have even noticed this in the trailer that Jorg talked about back in June. This issue required a complete overhaul of the atmospheric engine. For those who are mathematically inclined, there are two integrals involved. In Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, these integrals were pre-computed, which led to precision errors. In the rework of the atmospheric engine, everything is sampled in real-time, with the graphics card handling the computations, eliminating virtually all precision errors. This was a significant architectural change. The only way to address it in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was to attempt to find a way to remove the horizon line, but this issue has been resolved since then. However, it didn’t make it into the trailer. So, I would say it’s a positive change.”
Beta Loading Issue
“Now, going back to Sim Update, the beta we just experienced. Some beta members encountered a loading bug where they had difficulty getting into the ‘fly’ state, but it eventually got fixed. Do you know what caused it or how it got fixed?”
“Well, actually, we did not. This is something that never occurred in our subo (Sim Update). We had some hypotheses, like it might be related to the CDN (Content Delivery Network) or the way data gets distributed. But while we were investigating the matter, the issue was resolved with a subsequent build. So, we weren’t in a position to determine the exact cause because it was fixed. Thank you, Martial.”
Sim Updates in MSFS 2020
“Next question: Do you plan to do more Sim updates in 2020?”
“Yes, we’ll talk about this later today. We certainly will.”
Reno Update
“A question from chat: Will there ever be an upgrade to the Reno Air Races expansion, including things like other aircraft and other classes?”
“Well, there was a good discussion in Cologne with some folks who are part of the dedicated Reno Air Races community. There are some known issues and bugs in the Reno expansion that they’ve documented. This is something we’ll consider as we continue with both Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024. We have a great relationship with the Reno Air Races team. While they won’t be in Reno anymore, they have plans for the future that they haven’t officially announced yet. We intend to be part of that journey with them. Currently, we’re not planning to introduce additional aircraft or classes immediately, but we anticipate evolving along with them.”
Atmospheric Parameters
“All right, there’s a wishlist item posted a few weeks ago with over 800 votes about atmospheric parameters and how they found more accurate ones from ARPC. What are your thoughts on this wishlist item and incorporating this code into the sim?”
“The thoughts are that it’s cool, but I think Seb is going to tell you more about it.”
“So, it’s somewhat related to the horizon line issue, and I’ll give you a similar answer. In our completely reworked atmospheric engine, we don’t encounter that issue. We have a much better color engine in the new engine. However, we are planning to adjust the parameters of the atmospheric engine in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 to significantly improve this issue. While we can’t fully integrate a complete revamp of the atmospheric engine, we’ll do our best to tweak the settings so that it looks better in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. It’s a step in the right direction and a preview of what’s to come. We really like it, and we’re excited about it.”
World Updates
“Next question in chat: Can we expect future world updates to target different areas like Africa, South America, or more parts of Asia?”
“Absolutely. The targeting of future world updates largely depends on available data. We’ll delve into this a bit more when we talk about World Update 15 in a little bit. We’ll share more details then.”
Experimental/Beta Features
“All right, another question: Will we see any items that are currently in the experimental or beta phase, such as replay mode or DX12, be improved in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020?”
“I think we’ll discuss this when we get to the appropriate section. We’ll provide more information on those aspects shortly.”
“Let’s start with DX12 because I’ve seen a lot of comments in the chat about that. We had a conversation with Lionel, our head of tech here, and everything we wanted to implement in DX12 is there. The reason it’s still labeled as ‘beta’ is due to an issue we encountered. If you recall, when we were analyzing crash statistics, we had some problems with certain graphics cards. We have a strong relationship with Nvidia to identify and resolve this issue. Once the issue is at the same level as what we experience in DX11, it won’t be labeled as ‘beta’ anymore. So, everything is there, but we’re holding back on the final designation due to this particular bug.”
“As for the replay mode, development has been completed. It was primarily driven by the internal team responsible for creating almost 25% of the videos published on the official Microsoft Flight Simulator channel, including trailers and promotional content. They are satisfied with the tools they have, and there haven’t been requests for additional development. We may not label it as ‘final,’ but we are not actively working on any new features or improvements for the replay mode on PC. Regarding Xbox, it’s challenging to bring the replay mode to Xbox due to memory constraints and limited hard drive access. Therefore, it has been excluded from Xbox development, and we don’t have any plans to introduce it on that platform.”
Priorities in MSFS 2020
"Now, let’s discuss our priorities for updates and fixes in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. Can you go into more detail on what kinds of updates and fixes you plan to focus on in 2020? What is your priority - memory optimization, bug fixes, feature implementation, etc.?
“Sure, let’s move on to the next slide. Thanks. Essentially, the process is that over the summer holiday when people took vacations, we were a bit lax on this particular process. But we’ve just started this again, meeting every Monday to discuss priorities. These priorities come from the feedback snapshot, which has many items. We might also revisit the feedback from the last three months because some of these items date back to the beginning of the simulator. You can see on the first page with bugs, green indicates items that are either being worked on, actively investigated, or completed. There are very few where we say we’re not planning to do them at all. I forgot which one it is because my screen is a bit small, but I’m happy to discuss all of them. We’re going to update this every week, and this one is coming out tomorrow.”
“If there are specific items you’d like to discuss, please let us know. While we wait for your comments, we’ll take a quick look at the wish list. If you want to comment on anything here that has changed, I noticed some new status updates like ‘2024’ in there now.”
“Yeah, I added ‘2024’ because people were asking, and it’s a fair question. Sometimes we said ‘planned,’ and some of these ‘planned’ statements were made before we planned to have 2024. So, let’s clean this up, and we just did. Some things will happen for 2024 only, while others we’ll consider backporting to 2020 as development progresses.”
“Now, regarding the question about the World Hub scenery Gateway system, we can discuss it now. Asobo has completed the tool, and it’s ready to go. It’s currently with Microsoft’s privacy and security team because this is a Microsoft website. Microsoft has strict rules around such websites, so we need to ensure it’s all done correctly. We have a dedicated project manager and our head of tech working on this. As soon as it’s approved, it will go live.”
“As for the ‘plus’ sign in the status updates, it means that we can’t commit to it for launch. This simulator is a product-as-a-service that will continue for years. While we aim to include as much as possible at launch, there will be some items that come afterward.”
“For the one that says ‘not planned,’ I’m trying to find it in the snapshot. Someone asked about the item labeled ‘G1000 Hardware keys are not planned,’ and they’d like to hear more about why that is.”
“Okay, anyway, do you have any comments on why that isn’t possible? I don’t have all the details at the top of my head, but if I recall correctly, it’s related to the fact that you can map some hardware buttons. We are planning to change this, and it’s also related to the architecture of the input system. For 2024, we’re working on a complete overhaul of how inputs are managed. We’re planning to introduce a more structured input definition. We’ll also explore possibilities to enhance inputs for other peripherals. I can’t make any promises at this point, and I would need to review the forum thread. Making improvements in 2020 regarding this matter could be challenging.”
Famous Flyer 07
"Alright, let’s discuss what’s up next, our highly anticipated aircraft. I have a brief introduction for this one, so please bear with me. I’ve recently updated the development roadmap a few times. If you’ve been keeping an eye on it, you may have noticed that this aircraft was originally scheduled for release on the 21st. However, it has been moved to the 28th. I want to clarify that this delay isn’t due to any software issues but rather licensing matters. The aircraft itself is fully developed, but we’re still working on securing the necessary licensing agreements. Rest assured, we have excellent communication with the manufacturer, and they share our enthusiasm for this project. Nevertheless, I can’t provide a specific release date at this moment.
If you continue reading, you’ll see that iniBuilds is the developer behind this particular aircraft. And what’s the aircraft? It’s none other than the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries MU2. This marks our first collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and it’s shaping up beautifully.
Now, we have a special guest with us today, Mike Standon from iniBuilds!
"I believe you’re sharing your screen with us, so let’s take a quick look at the Mitsubishi plane. Would you like to provide some insights into the development of this aircraft, Mike?
The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries MU2 is actually one of my favorite planes, so I was quite excited to be involved in its development. When you explore this aircraft online, one of the first things you’ll notice is the vast number of variations available, ranging from A to Z in terms of alphabet and designation. The sheer diversity in options is astounding.
For our development focus, we centered on the short-fuselage version with unmodified gear. This particular model represents one of the earlier versions created by Mitsubishi. Initially marketed as an executive and utility transport aircraft (hence the ‘U’ in MU2), it has also been adapted for various roles, including medevac missions and surveillance for law enforcement. The MU2 boasts a wide range of capabilities.
To capture the essence of this aircraft, we took a step back and revisited its origins, emphasizing its executive and utility roles."
"It’s known for some quite unique handling qualities, which we’ve tried to capture. It’s equipped with roll spoilers for roll control; it doesn’t have ailerons at all. This design choice allows for a much larger flap area, resulting in excellent short-field performance. While it’s not quite a Piper Cub, considering it’s a $10,000-plus aircraft, it boasts pretty good short-field takeoff and landing capabilities. It also has a distinctive tailplane design.
Through the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), we’ve managed to accurately simulate the blanking of flight controls, a characteristic of this aircraft. Flying it can be challenging at times, but when handled properly, it’s a truly enjoyable experience. It has a sleek appearance, and I’ve certainly enjoyed developing it.
In terms of performance, it excels in short-field operations and is highly efficient. Powered by Garrett TPE331 engines, it offers a range of about 800 nautical miles at 25,000 feet. An interesting fact is that it has circumnavigated the globe in just 25 days. This makes it suitable for various community flights, especially for those inclined towards such adventures.
Now, taking a quick look inside, we aimed to capture the classic cockpit design. The cockpit area is quite dominant, featuring a functional weather radar up front and a classic suite of communication and radio navigation equipment. If you prefer a more classic feel, you can conduct a complete flight using only VOR and ADF navigation. However, we also offer the option to modernize the cockpit.
We’ve included a Garmin 530 with an upgraded Garmin panel and transponder, all integrated with a handy autopilot system suitable for the era. This allows you to fully couple the GPS through the HSI and perform coupled ILS approaches, among other functions.
As the aircraft is capable of flying at altitudes of up to 25,000 feet, you’ll need cabin pressurization. We’ve modeled the cabin pressurization system, although it may take some getting used to, as it’s an early implementation of cabin altitude pressurization.
Moving on to the passenger cabin, we’ve aimed for a classic executive and 1960s-1970s feel. You can initially configure it as a passenger cabin. However, via the EFB, you can simulate cargo operations or conduct medevac flights.
Regarding starting the aircraft, it can be quite intricate in real life, with numerous buttons that need to be pressed almost simultaneously. We’ve attempted to replicate this logic in the startup sequence. Alternatively, you can use the ‘Ctrl + E’ shortcut to get things going.
We hope you enjoy this aircraft, and yes, there will be a manual available for more detailed information. Lastly, to address a question from the chat, the doors can be opened and closed."
"Um, we got little details like the cabin light switches and stuff for ambiance during the evening as well. Yeah, incredible. Thank you. Manuals are the best. Yes, absolutely are. Um, thank you so much for showing off this aircraft. We’ll look forward to whenever, hopefully, it’ll come out soon, and we’ll all get to enjoy it and try it out. Um, we’ll keep you on here, Mike, for a little bit longer. If there’s any more questions for him, let me know. But for now, we’ll go on to Jorg for our next section here. Oh yeah, that’s the picture-heavy section. Yes, I’ll go really fast.
World Update 15
So, World Update 15, and well, after that, we’ll probably have the conversation about World Update. So, then, World Update 15 is Northern Europe and Greenland. Oh, yes. Uh, so what did we do? I mean, new digital elevation maps, new aerials, brand new aerials, actually. I say eight to 10 for the great cities. I’ll get to that in a second. 90 points of interest, five bespoke airports, and then a suite of activities. Let’s go a little bit further.
Next, so digital elevation maps, if you just keep going. So, Denmark, 40 centimeters. Faroe Islands, two meters. Finland, Iceland, two meters. Norway, one meter. Svalbard, five meters. Åland Islands, two meters. Sweden, two meters.
So, this was a huge effort. There’s multiple teams working on this. Orbx is working on this. Gaya is working on this. Bing is working on this. We are working on this. And what’s cool about this is the entire region is basically about 2-meter resolution, which is a drastic improvement to what we have right now. The colors are pink, shows, I think it’s 50 centimeters to a meter. Blue is a meter to two meters. Now, purple is meter to two meters. Then it goes two to five meters. So, it’s basically fundamentally, the DEM is great. So, something to look forward to when you fly through the fjords in Norway and such and Northern Sweden.
Then,10 photogrammetry cities. So, there’s an assortment. So, Aalborg is Copenhagen. Going there, Fredrikstad, Odense, and Ringkøbing, all in Denmark. Next is Oslo. Then we have Linköping, Malmo, and Visby. And we might get Gothenburg. That’s currently in development. Tain is tough, right? Because you get it from, you record it, then you have to construct the point cloud, then it goes to military authority review, and that can sometimes take a while. So, we had Gothenburg just came out. So, that’s good. And that is now in cleanup and processing. And then we have some other cities. And anyways, and then as far as POIs, this is more impressionist than anything. I don’t want to say anything specific. Just, I think it’s going to be beautiful. We’re very happy with what this region looks like.
And just to maybe cover this now. So, we did Sim World Update 5. We actually did the Nordics. And it’s the lowest-rated World Update. And it’s partially because the DEM wasn’t good in some areas. And I mean, I think I told the story, Sweden, at the time, wanted, I think, two or three million euros for their DEM. The Swedish government, that was too expensive. So, we didn’t do that. But now we have it, now it’s free. And we had no 10 cities, and now we have 10. So, it was, and here come BOR airports, there are five. So, as very typical, made by Gaya. Just keep going through it. And then I’m going to stop you here for a second. So, here’s Iceland."
"And here, I just want to say Kjetil. I met Kjetil, I think in Houston, and he is from Norway. And I love having people from the region actually make things for the region that we’re updating. So, we have now Leknes Airport from Kjetil, and I’m very happy that that happened. And then the other four, you keep going, the other four are from Gaya. All right.
And then, so these here, Gaya specifically asked me to put these in too. Quick, Jayne. So they have some special stuff for the Look Around. Yes, yes, look forward to it. Pretty cool. All right. And then I think I just said, here are some of the activities. And here are the bush trips. And then there’s three Discovery flights and three Landing challenges. So should be fun. Awesome.
Local Legend 13
Oh yeah, there’s still more. Yeah, yeah. And then always there, it’s a local legend. And it’s a water plane. No, it’s not. Okay. Who’s making this plane? IniBuilds is making the plane. And what is it?"
"Well, it’s a Saab as it should be. So we talked to Saab, and they were super excited, and they asked us to build this one B17. They gave us full access, so we actually scanned the plane in Sweden, etc., etc. ETA, and then IniBuilds is taking this to the usual high-quality bar, and we’re not going to go into great detail. I think Michael or maybe someone else is going to join us next time to actually go into a little bit more detail, but just want to give you a preview. Awesome. That’s what’s coming out next, but something 10/31 is the date. 10/31. Perfect.
Sim Update 14
And a new announcement here. I’ll switch slides. We have SIM update 14. Da da. So remember, if you looked at our roadmap, it said Aircraft Aviation Update 3. No more. It’s called Sim Update 14. And it’s partially because Aircraft and Aviation Updates, the idea was we either make a new aircraft or upgrade an aircraft, like Working Title did, or we put some avionics out. But in this case, we’re doing more. So it actually would be mislabeling if we would just call this Aircraft Aviation Update. So, guys, maybe you can speak to what we’re doing."
"Well, as seen in the previous slides, we’re actively engaged in various improvement efforts. Some of these are centered around addressing concerns from the feedback snapshot, particularly pertaining to services that users have expressed dissatisfaction with, like the Weather Information System (WIA). We’re committed to enhancing this aspect.
Snow Coverage
Now, let’s delve into the topic of snow coverage. We’ve identified an issue here that requires attention. We’ve carefully examined feedback and data, revealing a specific problem. It appears that there has been a change in units within the data at some point in time. As a result, there’s a discrepancy in how we represent snow. When there’s no snow, it should correctly indicate zero snow. However, when snow is present, it seems that we’ve been displaying ten times more snow than intended due to this unit change. We’re actively working on rectifying this issue, and our team is confident that this adjustment will address the majority of the snow coverage issues users have encountered.
Other updates
Furthermore, we’re aware of issues in the multiplayer mode where players have reported their partners disappearing. We’re actively investigating and addressing these concerns.
On the performance front, especially in cases where performance is impacted when UI elements are displayed, we have plans for improvement. Is there anything else we’re planning to discuss later on?
Regarding the Scenery Gateway system, while there have been inquiries about it, we haven’t delved deeply into that topic.
ATC
Now, let’s hear from Seb regarding snow and ATC. Seb, please go ahead."
"Certainly. We’re placing a strong emphasis on stability and performance improvements. Some fixes have already been implemented but didn’t make it into SIM 13. These fixes are in the pipeline, and we’re committed to an increased testing effort on Flight Simulator 2020. Any issues we uncover, we aim to rectify as comprehensively as possible, ideally making it into Sim Update 14.
Now, regarding snow coverage, we’ve identified a specific issue related to unit changes in the data. It turns out that we’ve been displaying ten times more snow than intended when there is snow. We’re actively working to adapt to this change, and our team believes this adjustment will resolve the majority of snow-related issues.
Additionally, I’ve reviewed feedback concerning various maps. While there is data available for ocean temperature and ocean ice coverage, our goal is to have comprehensive coverage for all water bodies, not just large oceans. We’ve also noted several inaccuracies in the ocean ice coverage maps, particularly in accurately representing coastlines. As a solution, we’re focusing on snow coverage depths, which provide data on snow accumulation. We use a threshold, currently set at 20 centimeters, to determine when water bodies in an area start to ice"
"And that has been working very, very nicely until the unit change happened, which means that now we’re basically covering the water with ice when there’s two centimeters of snow, which is completely wrong. So people are thinking that just fixing this is going to resolve most issues. And we will obviously, once that’s done, we will continue to look into the data. Maybe we can move around the thresholds a little bit. I think having a little less ice would be better. We really tried to match the ice data that was there in real-time, but I have seen inaccuracies in the data, where sometimes it just leaks from the mountains over the fjords. Currently, this is happening in Chile. So we have more work planned with the data provider to sync with them and try to improve the way they handle the data or maybe we can improve the data handling on our side. But the goal is to get more of the data that is there right.
So basically, we have started an effort into ATC. Right now, we’re starting to fix bugs. The goal here is to get as many bug fixes as we can into 2020, starting with Sim Update 14."
Anything that is not requiring a complete rework, anything that’s really just bug fixes, we will try to get as many as we can, and we have a team effort here, testers, designers who are checking into this, and we’re fixing issues. Programmers are fixing issues as we basically can. Awesome.
Performance on PC and Xbox
Looking at this, someone asked about the stability and performance and memory improvements. We talked about Xbox stability flighting. They want to know if that means the building performance improvements are focused on Xbox, or will we still continue to focus on both PC and Xbox?
So what we do is there have been, in Sim Update 13, there have been a few changes. First of all, we fixed memory issues, memory leaks. There have been memory optimizations. These affect both PC and Xbox. Just as an example, the machine behind me on the right, it used to be leaking about 10 gigabytes after 100 hours of flying. This is now down to zero. There’s no leak measured anymore. This obviously applies to the Xbox.
Memory
Also, there has been a change on the Xbox in Sim Update 13 in the way memory is managed. Basically, PC has almost unlimited memory, so if you have a lot of add-ons or whatever, if you have a lot of stuff going on, it can just deal with it. On the Xbox, the amount of memory is fixed. So what we do is, if there’s too much stuff, we try to reduce levels of detail, environment measures, and stuff, and there was basically a conflict with one of the things we do is we turn off the glass cockpits when there’s basically no more memory left. And this was conflicting with the LOD system, and I think it was causing too many cockpits to turn off and not on again. I think this is something which contributed to the dark cockpit bug, which has been probably well known.
We believe this should be significantly improved with Sim Update 13, and we are looking forward to community feedback. If people still see this issue, our test teams have reported that it’s almost gone or at least significantly reduced. This is the effort we’ve made. In the future, we have this flighting, and any optimization most of the time benefits both platforms. Awesome, thank you.
Availability of Data in World Updates
Now that World Update 15 was announced, Jorg, I wanted to go back to the question someone had earlier about data availability and why do some places not have a world update yet. Can you go into a little detail on how that works? First, I want to say something about Stockholm. I see it in the chat. Obviously, we want Stockholm when you do a world update Nordics. So Stockholm is unfortunately in the above-mentioned military review, and it’s going to take two months longer than we were previously told. So that is why we can’t, and that is unfortunate. With the TIN data, it has more unpredictability than any other data. Like, we never have problems with airports or POIs, aerials are like clockwork. TIN is a bit of a search often, but the TIN is just funky. So we will release Sweden, Stockholm. It’s just not going to be part of this update. But yeah, I will find a way as fast as we can. And there’s a couple of other cities. I want to say this here because people have not… I’ve never really talked about it. Zagreb was in the exact same state with the Eastern European update. We have Zagreb. It’s now done, but we are looking for the right moment to release it. And then we also had two cities in Slovakia because, you know, we did a world update Eastern Europe with six countries, and one was strangely missing. We actually did get Bratislava and Kuch. I think it’s pronounced, but they’re not out of review yet or that. So we need to get overflight rights, etc., etc. So TIN is tough because there is no backlog, and there are very few companies that can actually get us this. So just to go because I’ve read it like 15 times just even today, plus it’s in the feedback snapshot.
Anyways, like Brazil, everyone says, “What is wrong with you? Why do you have Brazil?” Well, that conversation started about two years ago, I would say. I’ve been trying to do what needs to be done to get Brazil 3D cities. It even went as far as me thinking about creating a new company, renting our own planes, buying our own cameras, and doing our own flatbed style. Why not? Now, that got some people’s attention. So, our main data provider believes they have a flyer that they can contract in Brazil. But just to set some expectations, you have to wait for the weather to be good. So, best case, we’re going to get planes over Brazil in January or February, somewhere in that range. Then it needs to get captured, the weather needs to be good, it needs to be constructed, reviewed, cleaned up, and then so does some stuff like replacing trees and cleaning up the meshes on their side. So, it takes months. So, with some confidence, I said in the feedback snapshot that Flight Sim World Update Brazil will happen for Flight Sim 2020. I think that’s true, but when exactly, which months and stuff, I have no idea. As soon as we can. And that is true for many, many, many places on Earth. Like, for example, when people said, “Are we working on Africa, South America, Asia, Middle East, yada, yada, yada?” Absolutely. There’s not a country we don’t work on. But when is the data to a point where it’s actually worthy of publishing? That’s a different question. So, you will see us going around the world, as I always said. But it’s going to take however long it’s going to take to get something really great.
So, I want Africa as much as everybody else. South America, for sure. Central America. Somebody said Caribbean. All these things will happen. It’s just not exactly clear to literally anybody when exactly that is. But we’re moving the ball forward on every single region. Nice. Thank you so much, Jorg. That definitely clears stuff up. Do you want to talk about atmospheric lighting improvements? What’s involved in that?
Yeah, so I touched on this a little bit earlier. Our plan right now is to bring as much as we can of the color improvements into SIM update 14. Anything that doesn’t require a complete rewrite of the system, we will bring into SIM update 14, which I think is mostly parameter setting of ozone level colors, etc. So that’s currently the plan, to have that in update 14. Awesome, thank you, Seb. Alright, there are some other updates coming in Sim update 14. I think we’re going to bring Matt back to talk a little bit about this.
Working Title Update
Yeah, so I just wanted to talk a little bit about one of the things that we’ve got coming in Sim update 14. That is the Cirrus SR22T G6. It’s going to replace the current Cirrus. It’s going to have an all-new model and art. It’s being upgraded to the turbo G6. So some of the stuff in the avionics, we’re getting the perspective plus. So that’s going to have the stabilized approach monitoring. We’re going to have the full-screen engine instruments page, weight and balance full-screen page, trip planning. And the cool thing, Cus was really interested in us getting TKS in there, so we’re going to do that. We’ll have a full TKS sim with the accurate flow rates and indications for that. We are bringing finally the control pad and alphanumeric key support to the nxi. So all you folks that have hardware as well, that will light up too once this is implemented. It’s not only going to be for the SR22. We’ll have events for that for people that are using hardware and some third-party software. And then we’re using the piston engine parameters that we just developed, and we’re going to add those to the new SR22 Turbo. So hopefully, that will be one of the first planes that will have that stuff. So yeah, we’re super excited about it. We’ve got a couple of screenshots here of the avionics. We don’t have any of the new art yet, but you can see here’s the weight and balance page, some stuff missing, but you know, it’s kind of a work in progress. But you can see we’ll have the full CG envelope and where you can load the plane. If you go to the next one, we’ve got the fuel page. The totalizer is this big cool blue bar that they’ve got on the SR22, so you will be able to adjust that, which will be great. And then I think the last screenshot here, yeah, the full EIS, full page, which is really cool, lots of gauges and stuff to look at, all the temperatures and things that you need, oxygen, TKS, all that stuff. TKS, by the way, just super quick, is a deicing fluid system. So there’s actually a fluid on the plane, and it weeps out onto the wing and control surfaces, and it kind of deices as you go. So you have a bit more ability to fly into icing conditions and stuff. So yeah, we’re really excited about it. We think it’s going to be a nice upgrade, especially since it’s a premium plane. So yeah, it should be very cool.
Yeah, we have a question from chat just to clarify, does this replace the Cirrus model currently in the game? Is this an upgrade to that?
Yes, it will replace the current Cirrus model. Great. This was triggered just to give an explanation. This was triggered by Zean Nielsen, who is the CEO of Cirrus, who actually wants us to go as modern with his plane as possible. This is one of those manufactural relationships that like that where the manufacturer proactively works with us, proactively gets all the information we need, and then it’s really an execution question. And working with Cirrus is obviously great. So very much looking forward to this one. And then we have another thing, but we don’t have a picture for it.
Surprise: A320 Neo by iniBuilds
Yeah, so we’re going to, I think some people know something, like really, okay, fine. So there is going to be a new A320 Neo, so completely new, like this is a new plane by IniBuilds. The goal is similar or similar or better than the A310 that you already have in love. And it’s going to sit side by side next to the Asobo A320 Neo that shipped with launch. And the reason why we did that is because it’s going to be more complex. I think you all know this, and we didn’t want to break all the activities that we’re doing with the A320 already. That would have been a ton of work. So that is in development and should be ready with Sim Update 14 for you to enjoy over the Christmas break. That is exciting. Thank you, Yor.
So can you explain what you mean by side by side?
So they’ll be able to fly either version, essentially.
Q&A Session 2
Marketplace Backlog
Okay, thank you. Now we’ll go into our second Q&A here. Chat, if you have questions about anything we just chatted about, feel free to ask, or if you have any other questions, go ahead and ask now. I have some questions loaded up here. I’ll go ahead and do the first one I saw from chat earlier. This is regarding Marketplace improvements. They said, “I see it was going very well with backlog dropping hundreds week by week, but we did see past few weeks it did fluctuate and then increase a bit. Are there any problems causing this, or can we expect to see better numbers in the future?”
Yeah, it’s a good question. So basically, we had a good streak of the backlog numbers over the summer, as you probably saw. During that time, we actually accepted new Marketplace partners. That was very exciting. And then, to help burn through the backlog, we said we added additional test resources. Both from the Microsoft test team and also from the outside. And that provided a great boost of the amount of content that we could get through to the Marketplace. So we basically whittled it down. And then in the past couple of months, the test resources we had on loan started to go back to their actual assignments. And in parallel, we had some process tweaks. We’re doing some process tweaks. And it’s basically the order with which things are tested. Sometimes they test the PC and the Xbox version completely separate from each other. So we’re trying to improve that. Unfortunately, accepting new Marketplace partners is once again paused until the backlog is more stable and throughput is more stable and actionable. But when I told Mel, who runs the Marketplace, I think she was here last time with us, if we need to hire ourselves out of the situation, we will go do that. There’s no… I have every desire that the Marketplace backlog is essentially as small as it possibly can be. I mean, there’s a lot of things coming in, so it’s never going to be zero. But we should go back down from where we were. Yeah, so that’s actively being looked at. The team… The update I got was, “We’re on high alert.” And I just basically said, “Money should not be the factor here.” So we’re… They’re trying to… With process, and we’ll see where we get with that.
Altitude parameters with Snow
Okay, thanks, Yor. Another question here from chat. This is going back to the snow update Seb was talking about earlier. The question is, “Can altitude be taken into account with snow depth and ice shell formation? Would it make sense to remove snow under a certain altitude during summer?”
Yeah, so this is something we will be discussing with our data provider right. Um, so the issue here is that altitude should be taken to ground. I mean I’ve been quite a lot into the mountains whether mountain slope is exposed or not is going to be important but also has that been Sun last weeks because like sometimes in the altitude it snows a lot and then it’s cloudy and you get snow on the southern slopes in the north, yeah, where the sun is but then all of a sudden there for one week and then everything facing the south melts away. Um, it’s more complex than just altitude so there’s things we could do and we plan to discuss with a weather data provider actually I think it should be them who who, uh, who basically just use that data because they have it to improve what they what they send us if possible.
World Hub Assets
Thanks Seb we’ll go into one of our questions here on the presentation we did talk about World Hub already a little bit. I don’t know if there’s any anything left you wanted to add about um about when it comes out or anything the users need to know there was a question just a second ago here about the world Hub when it does come out where will there be new assets essentially for people to use or will it be the ones that already exist nothing’s currently planned?
I mean this is not a one an done thing either right so bringing out the world hub for now it’s airport editing only, yeah over time we’ve talked about all kinds of other things things that could be done but let’s just get this out there see what the process is you know we have a team in place to get the feedback we have to approve the feedback to get into the Sim right so that’s all in place and let’s just get goin.
Yeah I’m excited to see this I think this is the way to go crowdsourcing these types of information is the only way to really get the world accurate.
Water Dynamics
Thanks Jorg. From chat - is there any word any word on Water Dynamics for float plane Pilots maybe more seaplane bases, etc. considering there are many planes with float options.
Thanks. Well, yeah, we’re looking into it. We’re working on things. Probably too early to talk about it. I mean, are we aware? Yes. Am I the guy who pushed for a bunch of water planes? Yes, guilty. Sorry. So, yeah, well, it’s a topic we’re aware of. Fantastic. Right, next question. Since Dune was delayed, does that mean the DLC is also delayed? It is. It is. So that’s why I said in red letters earlier, there’s now a hole. The thing that said “surprise,” that was Dune. So that’s why we are actively looking into what else can we do. I mean, I can say what I’m thinking. It’s not, you know, it is what it is. All we can do. Like, we can’t do magic. We might do a world update, as I said, a couple of the cities already mentioned. We might do another plane. That is pretty much all we have sort of at the snap of our fingers here. But like, we will try to give you something fun for the holidays. Not just A320.
Marketplace Partners
Awesome. All right, this question has kind of been answered. Have you started to accept new Marketplace Partners? I think you answered that in your explanation a short moment ago. Yeah, I mean right now the optimizing of the pipeline is the focus right now, and then the goal is to approve more Partners. Like, we have a sense of how many people are waiting. So, application showing is pending right now, from the time they submitted until they’re approved. So, there’s actually quite a lot of people that we approved, but they didn’t finish their part. Right, takes two to dance. So, we, but yeah, I would say the goal needs to be to get the backlog down, and we’ll talk about this next month, and hopefully we have all results.
Awesome. And about the Marketplace, will we see an improvement in the marketplace partner application structure in the future to have more insight into when third-party developers’ applications are in the queue or a status such as denied or pending? Yeah, that’s what I just said. So basically, there’s a little bit of granularity we could be adding to this, but let’s stay focused on the target. You know, partner application hasn’t really been the problem. The problem has been just not being able to approve more people because we already have a backlog. It just would make it worse.
And of course, throughout this, I just want to say we do not deny applications, so we have never done that. Okay, good to know. And throughout the chat, of course, we’ve seen a lot of questions regarding Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
New Info on MSFS 2024
So, I think to encompass that, when will we start to see new information about 2024? The last presentation at Flight Sim Expo was very insightful, and the community is excited to hear more. Yeah, probably in the spring, honestly. Like, we are laser-focused, obviously, working on both the current sim and the new features and content. And I think somebody appropriately said that we are going to tie this with some larger announcement. I can’t just say, “Hey, here’s a ship date.” I mean, also, to be perfectly blunt, the ship date isn’t locked, right? It has something to do with software development. Like, the software needs to be great. So, we are very committed to bringing this out in 2024. When exactly, you know, we will see. I mean, everybody’s working hard, but we’ll get more detail as we make progress. Awesome.
.PLN files on Xbox
We’ll take a few more questions here, so chat can continue to ask questions if you want. We have a question here from chat earlier. Are we working on a way to share or input PLN files for Xbox?
It is tricky on consoles, so I don’t think that we’ve got something planned so far. Do you know if it’s a limitation of anything in particular? Is it just one of those priorities? So I could not say exactly if it’s, well, you know, the world of consoles has changed a lot. So when we started the software, it was impossible for us to read external data from, let’s say, a USB drive or something. I don’t know exactly what its status is today. I don’t want to say something, but it has been removed from all scope, at least. It’s something that we could bring back if it’s possible. But I maybe know more than I do. I was reading the chat, though. Man, what? Okay, okay, no, no, but yes, it was a strong limitation for consoles not to be able to read external files or user files. Yeah, at least it was. We obviously cannot do anything that could be jailbreaking the console. That would be very bad. So, I don’t know. Maybe we’ll take this for next time.
New Zealand Snow Coverage
"I didn’t quite follow. Alright, this is also going back to the snow conversation. Uh, a question from chat here. Do you know if the snow coverage fix includes places like New Zealand, for example? We are seeing incorrect snow and pack ice all year with live weather. Do you know what areas or do you expect this to be a kind of a global fix? Seb, so, um, I think, um, so the team here believes, I agree that it’s, it’s all linked to the 10x unit change, m, where if, what basically means is that if you had the slightest centimeter of snow in some mountains in New Zealand, um, that would just 10x that value and bleed down into a valley or lake or whatever, um, and, uh, so we’re bringing that fix into Sim Update 14 and we before the winter in the northern hemisphere, um, and, uh, and we, uh, we hope that’s going to fix a majority of issues and then discussing with the weather data provider, um, because, I mean, you can see the weather data in the web page of the weather provider and there’s a snow layer coverage page, and that’s exactly what we use. And, uh, last time I checked, I think that was earlier this week, there was an issue with just a very, very rough data in Chile where, I mean, I don’t know what the resolution is, maybe it’s 50 meter, 50 kilometers or something very, and it was bleeding over into the ocean. And the issue is that I, I don’t think that data is always the same. It depends on the moment, whatever, when maybe when there’s clouds, they don’t know what, they don’t, their counters know, right, if it’s cloudy or whatever, and it’s also not very predictable. So sometimes we check into things and it’s all right, and then a few weeks or months later, it’s, it’s not, it’s not that good, and maybe it’s just a data quality or it’s obfuscated by the sky or something like that. Um, but so we, we expect to meet with them and see what we can do in terms of data, but, um, we think that the unit change is going to already bring a very good improvement. Awesome. Just want to say one more thing, right? So basically, uh, NZA guys pinged us on New Zealand, which was great. And then some people wrote us, I got some long emails about weather. Then they, people pointed us at the forum threads. So I think this is super useful. I just want to say that again. Like, when we say we read the forums, you can’t read every single thing. It’s, then we would literally not work. But, but, but it’s, it’s great to have that type of information that people provide, and that leads us to actually making improvements. So thank you. Thank you. Got a question here.
Quality Standard in World Hub
Back to the World Hub. Do you know if there will be a quality standard required to get an airport through the World Hub before it gets live to make sure so we can make sure current projects are already ready? Yeah, I mean, the plan is to have two people that are essentially moderators of all the content that will come in, and they are very knowledgeable airport folks. So we, but we have to work through it. That’s why initially, and I think it’s probably not going to be quite like this. We wanted to have 50 people to dry run this, and then we got Vol and it unfortunately got stuck in, you know, approval land. But once it’s out, like we’ll work through it, and this is going to be a process that we’ll learn something as well, but we prepared as well as we could for sure. And may or may not know, but this one’s particular about the World Hub, but do you know if it can be used to submit delete requests for non-existent airfields? There are some small airstrips that have been built over now and can’t be flown to or from. I’m looking at Nicolai; he would know. But I’m not sure if we do. I don’t think I’ve properly understood the question about deleting something. Deleting something? Oh yeah, so the request we had was to edit the runways and all the information on top of what we have. If you’re asking if it’s possible to edit something in order to remove it, I’m not sure. We’ll get back to you. There’s a team that worked for well over a year on this. To be honest, we’ve been very focused on adding information rather than deleting some. That’s why we don’t have this information. I don’t see the mechanism that could allow us to do that, but it’s something we could consider in the future if it’s needed. Cool, thank you.
Keybinding enhancements
From chat: Can the team briefly discuss the enhancements planned for key binds and mappings, either for 2020 or later? These are some of my favorite enhancements.
Of course, in 2020, we witnessed updates where we increased the number of simvars exposed for default key mapping. This effort continues, and Matt mentioned that they’ve also introduced new input options for the G1000. These enhancements are an ongoing process, and we actively collect and consider community requirements for incorporating new features. Looking ahead to 2024, the input system will undergo significant changes, which is why it will differ. Thanks, Martial.
“Now we don’t have Hans here but there’s a question: What is the status of the ATR cargo version? I know a little bit. I mean, so basically, we did talk about it at some point. We didn’t pursue this. So I think in the initial ATR meeting, we said, ‘Oh, there’s going to be a cargo version maybe.’ I forget who said it. But in order to get the plane done, we just went away from it. Like many times, things change. Yeah, then we did the Highline. Highline is a priority for ATR. So I think you will see how it is. There will be more upgrades to the ATR. We’re very proud of the plane. Very happy how many people enjoy the plane. And we will continue to make that plane better. Whether or not the cargo version is the first thing we’ll end up doing, it’s currently not the plan. But if enough people yell, then maybe we change the plan. But we are doing cool stuff with the ATR. How about that? Okay, thanks. Question. I mean, just look at what we did. Like it was the, I think the Paris Air Show. We did the Highline even unannounced. That was planned with ATR because they wanted to announce it at that show. And there are things like that coming up.”
Roadmap Overview
"Some, all right. So now that we’ve discussed a ton of updates coming, new things, we do have a new roadmap here from Jorg. Take a quick look at that. Yeah, so I mean, I’ll fit out with what we talked about today, and then you see, obviously, November and December are left open, and I’m determined to do something instead of the Dune thing. I don’t know what it is yet, so don’t be too surprised if there’s something else showing up next month, but it’s currently actively being worked on because it’s pretty new news that Dune is moving out to Spring, yeah, true.
But I can tell you I’ve started working on the Flight Sim 2020 roadmap for 2024, and it looks cool. I can’t wait to do the next Advance calendar thing. Then you’re looking forward to seeing that. All right, well, we are at the end of our show here, our presentation. Thank you, chat, for all the questions you’ve been asking. We tried to get to as many as we could in the time frame that we have, but we’ll continue to take some questions in the form and here and there. So we’ll do another one of these live streams soon. I think we at least do one or two before the end of the year. That’s our plan, anyway. Yorg, is there anything you’d like to say before we close out? No, I mean, obviously, thank you for coming. Thank you for simming, and I think we’re going to have some really, I mean, I’m excited about the A320 coming out and the Saab coming out. I think Christmas time will be great. And then 2024 has some really cool surprises as well. So I think it’s going to be an awesome, awesome next 12 months. Yep. Anything from you, Seb? Well, I had a great time. Thank you for listening and all the great comments and questions in the chat. So I read everything even if we didn’t answer. It’s still in the head, and we will think about it. So for sure. And Martial? Well, everything has been said already. Maybe this is an opportunity to say hey to the team which you which are working tirelessly. I appreciate what you’re doing, and we’re going to have a cool year ahead. And it’s nice to have people on board. Thanks, everyone."
"Uh, this stream, or at least they will watch the replay, yeah. So, hi, the team. Thanks, thanks to Matt and Michael for joining. Yes, really appreciate you both. And the question is, will the stream be anywhere? It will be on YouTube, um, briefly, like very quickly after the stream. We just got to get the captions in, and then it’ll be live so you can go back and watch, um, if you want to listen to certain parts again. So, we’ll get that up for you as soon as possible.
All right, thank you, everyone. I hope you have a fantastic Wednesday and the rest of your week. We’ll see you back here in a month or two for our next developer live stream. Cheers. Uh, for those who’d like to join us for the Twitch stream, see you on Friday. It’s International Coffee Day. We’re going to explore some really great parts of the world, so come join us for that if you’d like, and we’ll see you next time. Thank you, everyone. See you. Bye."
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