I’ve been debating writing this post. Mostly because there is always going to be an argument between PC and Console players. However, as an aircraft developer, I find myself slightly responsible to ensure the community actually knows the details associated with this topic matter. To start, I am in no way defending other developers, but I’m sure they would all agree on my following statements:
#1: Every Aircraft starts with PC compatibility. This isn’t an option. As a developer, we use 3D modeling tools, processing tools, painting tools, coding tools and other tools to bring the aircraft to MSFS. When a developer only releases their aircraft to PC, don’t be alarmed, it’s probably their initial plan towards a wider release. Once their aircraft is ready for release, the developer usually wants to start involving their audience. Therefore, they will normally release directly to PC. This is to gain initial revenue, tackle day one bugs/issues, and build up their “name” per say in the developer world. It’s best to say, releasing to PC is an easy and straight forward path. There are minimal hurdles to jump through with this approach. Once established, a lot of developers will finally gain an In-Game Marketplace Seller account from Microsoft, but without that account, they can only gain revenue off 3rd party website sales. The Xbox marketplace is only a few months old, and its distribution methods require a seller account to place an aircraft on the console. It’s also fair to say most aircraft currently released were in production prior to Xbox. Rest assured, if your favorite developer has an in-game marketplace seller account, they have the ability to release their products to Xbox. Also, who doesn’t want to release their products to Xbox? Sure, the PC community is bigger, but the additional revenue is always on the mind of developers. I would argue that every developer wants to release their products to Xbox, it’s primarily the distribution methods hindering most developers.
#2: Freeware, for the foreseeable future, will not come to Xbox. This is simply due to the fact of the distribution method mentioned above. Microsoft controls the add-ons released to Xbox. The only way to get an aircraft to the Xbox is to become an In-Game Marketplace Seller (mentioned above). Few developers in the Freeware community have achieved this due to Microsoft’s strict acceptance policy and their long backlog (It took me 10 months). Not to mention Microsoft is looking for established payware developers because their revenue is affected as well (Microsoft takes 30% of all sales). Aside from that, in order to get your aircraft to the in-game marketplace, Microsoft currently has a minimum selling price of $5.00 USD. This deters most freeware developers who may have a seller ID from posting their freeware to the marketplace. Why charge for the in-game version but not the downloadable version? There have been exceptions, like Fly-By-Wire but hopefully in the future Microsoft addresses this further and allows a freeware marketplace for approved sellers.
#3: Old dogs need to learn new tricks. Microsoft Flight Simulator did not release a favorable SDK guide for aircraft developers and to this day, it continues to shroud most development in mystery. Developing aircraft is complicated and luckily a majority of the developers have had their hands in FSX development. That is a blessing and a curse. For the most part, old FSX developers were the first teams to release new MSFS aircraft. They understood the basics and it was easier to convert their old FSX projects to native format instead of starting from scratch. That is why you see a bunch of similar aircraft being released in MSFS from the same developers who released those original aircraft in FSX. Because of this, they retained a TON of their aircraft in legacy coding language. Not only that, but legacy coding also worked perfectly before the Xbox release, so many new developers to MSFS used that coding as well because it was easier to understand. I don’t want to bore you with the details, but basically a ton of the currently released aircraft have been written in legacy coding using an old model behavior scripting style. The Xbox requires a new method to communicate with the controller using templates. This SHOULDN’T be a problem for developers who currently have their aircraft in production. However, for aircraft already released, it’s a headache to re-write all their animation coding and clickable interfaces. Also, the Xbox is recently new, developers are revisiting their early releases, and I’m sure they are fully rewriting their coding to work with the new system as we speak. This takes time and if the aircraft is already selling poorly on PC, dropping momentum, or getting negative reviews, Xbox compatibility is probably not the priority.
#4: The headache of 3rd Party Applications and HTML. A selection of popular aircraft relies on either 3rd party applications or 3rd party HTML gauges. Take helicopters for example, most helicopters work with 3rd party applications like AirlandFS. Another example is gliders, they work heavily with applications like Touching Cloud’s Kinetic Assistant. Some jets use 3rd party applications for assisted launch and recovery. It’s fair to say most these applications will not be coming to Xbox. That means, until Microsoft adds built-in features like helicopter, glider, and carrier support, most these aircraft that rely on 3rd party applications won’t be coming to console anytime soon. Now what about HTML? As mentioned, a good amount of aircraft use community gauges like PMS50’s GTN750 or other Working Title products. Once again, until those developers have released their html gauges in-game to both PC and Xbox, it’s fair to say aircraft using those displays will not be coming to Xbox anytime soon. Until then, they will need to write their own HTML displays or use the native alternatives already available in MSFS. These things take time and unique aircraft with units not available already in-game are a massive undertaking for any developer. Now imagine that plus the fact they need it to work with the Xbox controller. For touchscreen HTML screens, it’s a big headache.
#5: Developers DO need to stop beating around the “Xbox” bush. This should not be an argument; we are past the point of knowing how to develop aircraft for the Xbox. We should take our time and do the coding changes and utilize .wasm modules instead of 3rd party applications. This is the standard for Xbox and honestly the standard for PC. Just because legacy development works on PC doesn’t mean it’s viable anymore. This was extremely evident during SU5 and clickable coding. That fancy pop-up that occurs on switches and the blue highlight around that switch is built into the new template system. For players, that’s a good indicator to determine if your favorite aircraft is running off legacy coding or native coding. Hover your mouse over a clickable and see if it highlights the component blue. If it does not, it’s more than likely working off of legacy coding or you are using the legacy interactive system in your settings. It is 100% possible nowadays to ensure your aircraft is released to both Xbox and PC. We know the requirements now and it’s time to start bringing aircraft to both. Spend the extra development time and truly make your aircraft fully native. In regard to PC and Xbox 3D Modeling, the polygon requirements and Level of Detail specifications are the same for either release, so that should not be a limiting factor. The biggest factor for most developers is getting all their clickables (switches, levers, buttons) and touchscreen html displays written in native template format. That is fairly easy with a GA aircraft but WAY harder on a massive airliner that may have hundreds of interfaces. So, I know it’s easy to say, “Really? My favorite aircraft is not on Xbox?” when instead you should all say, “I hope this aircraft does well enough on PC so the developers can make it Xbox compatible in the future”. This stuff takes time and until your favorite developer releases an Xbox release, they probably won’t understand enough to develop an aircraft for Xbox from the start.
Hope this answers some technical questions for everybody, so you all know what to really “argue” about. My suggestion is to keep pushing PC developers to make their old addons Xbox compatible. That way the developer may finally start to understand Xbox logic during that requested transformation. Then after that, I’m sure they wouldn’t want to rewrite coding for their aircraft in the future. Instead, they will make it native and Xbox compatible from the get-go. For new developers, don’t listen to the old dogs… you’re a puppy. Start your training RIGHT from the start and build your habits up now so you don’t even have to worry about it.
- Jonx (Got Friends)
Developer of the Wilga, Double Ender, F4F-4 Wildcat, Astro One, Mini-500, Discus-2c, Edgley Optica, Gee Bee R3, and Legacy Collection (All Available on the Xbox)