FS2024 has now been in use for a couple of months. Almost all of the developers had problems transferring their products (scenery and aircraft) to the new sim platform. All except one: Fenix.
The bird has been fun since day one. No crashes, no constant fixes needed, complete reliability from the start.
I have absolute no knowledge of programming whatsoever. But I do ask myself, how did Fenix/Prosim achieve to become more or less independent of the core sim? Why aren’t others working the same way? I read often, that the Fenix runs „outside“ of FS2024 (whatever that means). How is this possible and how does their product dock on to FS2024 only using what seems to be essential and is working from the start. They don’t need multiple software updates to solve problems.
I was able to enjoy FS2024 from day one, because I only flew the Fenix. While a lot of people struggled with the aircraft that are part of FS2024, I could load up the sim every day and have fun. Great fun.
That´s why I’m asking: Why aren’t other devs copying the method? It seems to work! Couldn’t sceneries, missions or careers work „outside“ of the sim, too? There’s been so much fuss and frustration about parts of the new sim that could also work, if handled differently.
I’ve flown a few different aircraft in FS24 and they are fine. Just Flight have updated some of theres, as have Blackbox. What devs are you having problems with?
Because it’s kind of a hack to communicate all parameters back to an external program which does the calculation and give back updated aircraft states which then have to be copied back to the game, again using kind of ‘hacky’ methods to update the plane.
You also need to setup and maintain a whole development pipeline for the external program, do your own authentication, etc, etc, etc.
It makes way more sense to have the sim take care of all these mechanisms.
In the case of ProSim it kinda made sense, since the ProSim suite was already there and they ‘just’ made an interface to MSFS, along with a high quality model.
Another drawback is the complete lack of xbox support which is a huge demographic to exclude if you want your add-on to do well.
PMDG, Just Flight, Got Friends, Hype Performance Group and FlyByWire show it’s perfectly possible to create very high end aircraft all without the need for external programs.
I know that others make great products. I‘ve been a huge fan of PMDG since 2004. But that wasn‘t the point.
If developers would be able to have more things run outside of the sim, then we wouldn’t have to wait months, if not years until everything or most parts of the game work. Fenix was only an example.
My question was aiming at being less dependent on the basic sim. You could connect to another platform, just like Fenix with Prosim managed to do.
You seen to have missed the point of some earlier replies: by relying on code external to the sim itself, the plane cannot now and will never be able to run on XBox or operate as a pure Marketplace product. Even on PC, the sim Marketplace is a very large product segment for many developers.
There actually is a middle ground: run custom code inside the sim. A prime example is A2A, who do a lot of their engine and flight modeling in custom code. And of course FlyInside with their custom helicopter flight models.
Both A2A and FlyInside can sell their aircraft in the Marketplace, and for XBox, because they have implemented their custom code in WASM, which runs inside the sim, instead of a completely separate application like Prosim for Fenix.
But it also takes a lot of time, and some very good software developers, to create these custom simulation models. You probably need to sell a lot of aircraft to make this business model work.
I will offer a different perspective on this subject. Any developer that tries to hijack the core sim and “roll their own” is in fact a BAD developer, not a good one…
It all has to do on being able to develop on the Xbox platform as well. Majority of third party dev are developing for the Xbox side as well. PMDG, IniBuilds, and so on. If these developers took the approach of developing outside the sim for PC, then they would have two options, not develop for the Xbox as the ecosystem is restrictive and does not allow outside software or the other approach would be more costly and that is to create two dedicated builds, one for PC and the other for Xbox. It is why the Fenix A320 is not available on Xbox. Most devs would rather avoid the extra costs and resource time and develop in the sim itself. Developing in the sim itself isn’t a bad thing and does everything that the developers want their aircraft to do.
Fenix also did not launch perfectly, I remember when it did launch the EFB was difficult to use and the clickspots did not respond properly for each app and they also had the blank screens at one point when Asobo issued a patch that broke the aircraft. It is still till this day “experimental” so they themselves know the aircraft isn’t in a state where it should be for them to be confident in selling the aircraft for FS2024 and giving support for it.
Sort of like the same way Fenix incorporates GSX into they’re Airbus’.
With the touch of one button,everything is loaded automatically.
Why don’t all developers do this?
What are they doing so right that others are doing so wrong?
Because a lot of other developers are in it for the money and usually forget their product after the first month or so.
I mean, just look at the amazing work Fenix gave us with the A320 V2 update, all for free! They would be totally justified in leaving the A320 the way it was and moving on to other lucrative projects. It was the best aircraft in FS in the state it already was in. They did not need to create V2, and certainly not for free. Yet they did us all a huge favor and did it anyway, because they love the community and they constantly look to improve their product.
Similarly, look at FBW and BATC: They keep updating and adding the most minute features when the community asks for them, and all for free. That is pure passion and true deisre to make their product the best it can be, not the simple “cash-grab overhyped major-release content-creator-previews for months on end” like some other devs do (whom I will not name but I’m sure you can think of more than two )
There are always folks who love what they do and always look to make it better. They push off their future product plans for just a bit longer and work for free so we can have the best A320 for MSFS, and I salute them for a job well done! Well, it’s never quite done, but its nearly there…
But not, the only issue affect PMDG is WASM Network Init Crash is fix with SU1 so PMDG plan to release 777 and DC6 in next couple days/week for FS 2024.
Anyway Fenix have issue with 2024, is just a experimental and not native 2024 aircraft.
He said “HIGH level detailed aircraft”. A300 is medium level, at most. Like all inibuilds planes, including A350. And they all suffer from WASM issues.
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