I’m a bit biased here, but I slightly disagree. I don’t know that there’s been another as complete ProLine 21 simulation on any platform, except for the MilViz KA350. That being said, there is, indeed a long way to go. However, none of that is related to FS2020 the platform: it’s just a function of time. The CJ4 already has easily 1K to 2K hours into it. In another year, even with the exact same feature set that exists right this second in the SDK and the sim, I don’t think it would be so easy anymore to say it isn’t major 3PD quality.
This is why I mention the caveat of embracing the new technology stack. These developers are wanting to port their existing legacy C++ code to the new sim with as little code change as possible, and they are correct that that portion of the SDK has some limitations that the new JS/TS/HTML stack does not.
Yes, and external code is really no problem at all. In fact, all of the features I mentioned above are external to the sim. I think, from so far away, folks get the sense that these mods (and I hesitate to even use that word at this point in the development phase) are more about tweaking some config values and changing a thing here or there to expose functionality that was just hiding under the surface. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The FMC is almost entirely a complete rewrite. The flight plan system is thousands of lines of custom code, just on its own. VNAV, LNAV, LPV, authentic PL21 nav-to-nav transfer, radio systems, etc, are all thousands and thousands of lines of totally custom code, existing outside of the simulator, but using the simulator APIs to interact with it.
But, just to be clear, I don’t say this stuff because I think we’re amazing, we just happened to have a leg up because we’re a team of professional developers and architects, and so doing this kind of reverse engineering is right up our alley, and our success is a confluence of hard work and good fortune.
I appreciate the third party developer position, because I know they don’t want to throw away years of legacy code, and it’s very expensive to do so. But also, as a lead software architect, you do have to understand the cost of progress and staying totally still is not really always an option. Recognizing the benefits of what comes as things advance is key to staying at the top of the heap, so to speak. And so, as time goes on, I hope the new technology is embraced by the old guard, because otherwise they’re going to struggle to keep up, and that would be a shame.
-Matt