August 18th, 2022 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Screenshot by IronWings_VP (Twitter)

Today, August 18, is the two-year anniversary of our release on PC, and what a busy day it was! Earlier this morning, we launched the third plane in our series of Famous Flyers, the v-tail Beechcraft Bonanza V35. We also hosted another of our Dev Q&A sessions with Jorg, Seb, and Martial. If you missed it, you can watch the video here (Twitch only for now, YouTube version coming tomorrow). One highlight of the livestream was the reveal of the next World Update: Canada!

Finally, Jorg announced that we have made the difficult decision to delay the release of Sim Update 10 for approximately two more weeks. This will give the developers additional time to resolve some issues reported by our community beta testers, especially concerning PC performance.

Thanks to you, all our players, for making the last two years so special for the flight sim community. We look forward to sharing more aviation adventures with you for many years to come!

MSFS Team

Feature Discovery Series

Watch Matt Nischan, Founder and lead architect at Working Title Simulations, chat about the Garmin G1000 NXi and how it will be incorporated into Microsoft Flight Simulator, plus all the new updates and features included in the Sim Update 10 release!

Development Roadmap

Click here for the web-friendly version of the most recent Development Roadmap.

Feedback snapshot

For the most recent Feedback Snapshot, see our Development Update blog from last week! The web-friendly version is available here.

Marketplace Update

Click here for the web-friendly version.

If you missed it, we are currently holding an Anniversary Sale in the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace! Check out our post here for a full list of sale items.

There are 49 new and 23 updated products in the Marketplace today. Marketplace updates generally go live on Thursdays between the release of this blog post and 5pm PT.

FIRST PARTY UPDATES:
New on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅

49 NEW PRODUCTS: 27 ON PC, 22 ON XBOX
New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅
New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅
New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅
New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅
New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅
New on PC ✅	New on PC ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅
New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC ✅	New on PC ✅
New on PC ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅
New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅

23 UPDATED PRODUCTS: 12 ON PC, 11 ON XBOX
Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅
Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅
Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC ✅
Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅

SDK Update

Roadmap:

- Sim Update 10

- - For Premium & Deluxe aircraft, the config files (.cfg) will no longer be encrypted.
  - Terrain & Weather Radar Drawing APIs.
  - NavData & Airport Data Reading API for SimConnect and WASM.
  - Aircraft Editor V2
  - Smart Docking System: the game can now be rendered in its own window in the Devmode, allowing you to re-arrange your editors around it.

General:

- XML Gauges

- - We fixed a crash upon loading font file with long version string.
  - We fixed a crash on exit also linked to XML Gauges.

- Aircraft Editor

- - We added “Duplicate”, “Move Up” and “Move down” buttons for indexed parameters.
  - We fixed the “Camera Save” button that caused crashes.
  - We fixed the “Stall warning” type (added None=0).
  - We fixed the UserLight debug display & changed its rotation from XZY to XYZ.

- SimConnect

- - We updated the NavData API thanks to flighting feedback.
  - The AUTOPILOT AVAILABLE simvar now returns the correct value (always returned 1 before).

Third Party Update

As of 08/13, we have now approved 263 (+0) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 160 (+1) have released 1,340 products on PC (+19) and 1,051 on Xbox (+17).
In total, 2,378 products (+17) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 609 products (+20) from 3^rd party developers are in production (312 announced, 297 unannounced). In total, over 2,887 3^rd party products (+27) have either been released or are in development.
Airports:

- 1,530 airports (+11) are either released or are in various stages of development.

- - 1,407 airports (+9) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 845 airports (+14) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 116 airports (+0) beyond the released airports have been announced.
  - 107 airports (+2) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.

Aircraft:

- 439 aircraft (+4) are either released or are in various stages of development.

- - 157 aircraft (+1) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 109 aircraft (+0) have been released in the in-sim PC marketplace.
  - 82 aircraft (+1) have been released in the in-sim Xbox marketplace.
  - 177 aircraft (+6) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
  - 105 aircraft (-3) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.

Scenery:

- 821 scenery packs (+12) are either released or are in various stages of development.

- - 717 scenery packs (+7) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 192 scenery packs (+4) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 19 scenery packs (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
  - 85 scenery packs (+5) are not announced, but the dev let us know that scenery is in production.

Mission Packs:

- 97 mission packs (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.

- - 97 mission packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 32 mission packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.
  - 0 mission packs (-0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that they are in production.

Twitch Update

We stream weekly on twitch.tv/MSFSOfficial. By decree of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939, August 19 of each year is observed in the United States as National Aviation Day. This date was selected because it is the birthday of Orville Wright. To celebrate National Aviation Day, our Community Fly-In Friday this week will the group journey to Orville’s birthplace in Dayton, Ohio. Dayton also has other strong links to aviation: it is the home of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the National Museum of the United States Air Force, the largest military aviation museum in the world. Event details here. All are welcome to participate!

Community Video

One of our favorite YouTube content creators, Airforceproud95, recently flew a CJ4 on VATSIM from Oshkosh to Chicago through a thunderstorm. While we certainly advise against flying in thunderstorms in real life, Microsoft Flight Simulator is an excellent and safe platform to test your flying skills in this incredibly difficult weather. Check out how AFP95 managed in the video below.

Content warning: this video contains a few instances of language that some viewers may find offensive.