Not sure if the recent release of WASM changes things on this front?
I know the PC takes priority but it has been mentioned that the developers are looking to somewhat level the playing field. Realistic AI traffic and VDGS are pretty important to me and without them, the PC is winning the race not just marginally, but by a country mile!
I have heard rumours that such stuff is coming to Xbox (eventually) but I’ve also heard that there are hardware/software issues/limitations that make such additions difficult? If that’s the case, surely they can and should be overcome? Otherwise Xbox users are essentially getting a half-finished product that, however hard it tries, will never be realistic for airliner simmers.
Re VDGS, the physical units are present in many third party airports — I’m no computer programmer but surely it wouldn’t take too much to get them to work?
Licensing issues, it’s one thing small private devs including copyrighted liveries without permission but if a global company like Microsoft started doing it each particular airline’s lawyers will be all over it just looking for a big payout.
As of this moment MSFS has no default VDGS system, as you stated support is 3rd party. Which requires running 3rd party code, which is something that console manufacturers have resisted since the first console. They avoid 3rd party code at all costs purely for security reasons, because they do not want their operating systems to subject to a jail break.
“Jailbreaking is the process of exploiting the flaws of a locked-down electronic device to install software other than what the manufacturer has made available …”, Kaspersky Laboratories
This is why WASM on a console is regarded as groundbreaking, because it allows 3rd party devs to run java scripts in a sandbox.
A sandbox allows 3rd party code to execute while still being isolated from the console O.S.
For performance reasons, historically speaking, console software has always operated very close to the hardware, with little security overhead. So console manufacturers have always maintained final approval for any code that hit the their console. Until Xbox Wasm.
I was going to make a post about this as it’s something I’ve recently been researching and wanted to make the community aware of.
There was an add-on in the market place that allowed the generic aircraft to be displayed with their real-life liveries for AI traffic using the live traffic that comes with MSFS as an injector, It was called Simple Traffic by Aerosoft and was removed due to it not functioning correctly some of the time due to a choice Asobo /Microsoft make with the Xbox platform and sim settings.
It’s not about licensing issues or anything else like that.
Basically the option “Use Generic Aircraft Models (AI Traffic)” is unavailable on the console. This setting is switchable on and off in the options settings of the PC version but isn’t selectable in Xbox at all due “Optimization” concerns by the powers to be.
Aerosoft have stated many times if this was fixed we’d see their real life traffic addon back on the marketplace in no time, along with many others.
This isn’t anything WASM can fix and it seems like the developers aren’t getting anywhere with this issue either. I understand performance concerns but it’s easy enough to place a “Using this feature may negatively impact performance”.
Bottom line, if we as a community don’t push for this one single simple option that’s changeable on PC to be changeable on Xbox we will never ever ever see any type of addon that gives us the proper liveries for the traffic. Enjoy seeing those orange and white JetBlues.
Infact, this doesn’t effect just live traffic add-ons but any and all AI Traffic add-ons that rely on this setting. It’s actually a pretty huge thing, this should be right up there with wanting WASM support.
Right, but the reason we are lacking any AI Traffic mods is the reason above, not anything to do with license issues.
Licenses in regards to liveries and their use in FS goes pretty far back and has a pretty storied history although with that said; thankfully, we are in a position where licensing issues really don’t get in the way of liveries or AI traffic with the exception of one airline who I won’t name.
This of course applies to the smaller third party developers and the freeware community, I’m sure if Microsoft themselves wanted to include real airline liveries for traffic their million dollar lawyers would approach license usage and acquisition slightly differently. (As they stated they would to include real life liveries with their aircraft.)
I don’t disagree with your 1st point but for your 2nd in an earlier twitch Jörg definitely said they can’t just use any liveries and were negotiating. Simply put the wealth of Microsoft makes them a prime target for litigation and thus so far this has not been tested, not in the sim and not in regards to the marketplace . By example of the one you won’t name it would appear to not have been really tested beyond a cease and desist elsewhere.
I stand corrected, the A318 has liveries although I have no idea if the devs got permission.
My second point was due to the fact Microsoft is an extremely large company with a huge encominical footprint they’d absolutely want to negotiate the use of every single logo and likeness they used, like I said above (and like you said as well), they’ve even stated it’s why we don’t have real life airline liveries for the aircraft included from Microsoft/Asobo. Maybe I worded my post poorly but my second point was exactly what you said.
Anyway, I don’t want to derail the discussion with licensing discussionz god knows there’s enough of that.
Sadly and unfortunately everything else aside; we have a third-party community ready and willing with proven expirence bringing real life liveries to live traffic on the Xbox platform that would love to bring it back and multipe AI add-ons (Such as the E-Jets traffic addon) that are already created and functional waiting to be reinstated to the marketplace that are unable to do so due to the above simple change.
It really sucks, with advanced aircraft now coming to the platform it’s the one thing holding back Xbox and I really really hope this post or something, anything, draws attention to it.
