July 22nd, 2021 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Screenshot by ScenicAtol3300

Microsoft Flight Simulator will be available to play on Xbox Series X|S July 27th starting at 8:00 am PDT (1500Z) worldwide. Can you believe this is the last Development Update where we can say “Coming Soon to Xbox Series X|S”?! 5 MORE DAYS!

In case you missed it, last week Jorg Neumann and Sebastian Wloch dived into the evolution of Flight Simulator and the role technology like Microsoft Azure has played in bringing cutting-edge realism to the title. Enjoy:

– The MSFS team

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

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FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

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KEY
SU = Sim Update (3, 4, etc.)	WU = World Update
ASAP = As Soon as Possible	TBD =To Be Determined
Several Releases = Fixes will come over a series of updates
Ongoing Fixes = An item we will continually be working on
Planned = Scheduled to be worked on
Under Investigation = The team is currently looking into this issue
Not Planned = We will likely not work on this
Not Started = We have not begun investigation on this yet
Started = Development work as started on this item

SDK UPDATE

- General
  - We are preparing the SDK update that is releasing in the next few days! Among many DevMode fixes, WASM enhancements and Visual Effects Editor improvements, we are also about to release a lot of new content to our documentation. More details to come!
  - Today, we are releasing our first Video Tutorial dedicated to the Visual Effects Editor. You can find it on our YouTube channel or watch here:

Dev Mode
- Visual Effects Editor
  - We added a ColorSpaceConversion node to allow you to work either with RGB or HSV.
WASM
- We made the MSFS Platform Toolset compatible with Visual Studio 2019 16.10.x.
- We updated the toolchain used to compile modules with LLVM 12.

3rd Party Update

As of 07/18, we have now approved 201 (+2) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 115 (+3) have released 498 products (+8).
In total, 1,158 products (+18) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 359 products (+2) from 3^rd party developers are in production (226 announced, 133 unannounced). In total, over 1,517 3^rd party products (+20) are either released or are in development.
Airports:
- 949 airports (+9) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 735 airports (+9) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 406 airports (-2) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 105 airports (+0) beyond the released airports have been announced.
  - 109 airports (+0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
Aircraft:
- 188 aircraft (+3) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 56 aircraft (+1) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 34 aircraft (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 108 aircraft (+1) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
  - 24 aircraft (+1) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
Scenery:
- 341 sceneries (+8) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 328 sceneries (+8) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 32 sceneries (+3) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 13 sceneries (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
Mission Packs:
- 39 mission packs (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 39 mission packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 4 mission packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.

MARKETPLACE

Today there are 12 new products and 10 updated products in the Marketplace.

12 NEW PRODUCTS

10 UPDATED PRODUCTS

TWITCH UPDATE

Tomorrow, we will have a very special community fly-in hosted by simmer DEEKAY! He will guide the community on a VATSIM IFR flight. This stream will be much earlier in the day than normal to support Asian time zones, so if you would like to join us, plan accordingly for July 23rd at 1300Z (6 am PDT, 10 pm KST). More details here.

COMMUNITY VIDEO

Is this a butter landing or what?

Deekay’s Why I Fly video:

FEATURED FREEWARE MOD

NZA Simulations – This company, in addition to some great payware addons, houses incredible detailed freeware airports such as NZMK – Motueka, NZRO – Rotorua, and NZNR – Napier.

In last week’s Community Fly-in stream, we took a look at NZMK – Motueka, and were blown away by the level of detail. There are over 7,000 hand placed objects, over 80 custom assets, and the most impressive in our opinion: you can watch a drag race show on certain days where it takes place in real life. Check it out!

Screenshot Challenge

This past week we challenged you to take a screenshot of ” Arctic Tundra“. The winner is featured above. Below are our runner up choices! This week’s Screenshot Challenge: Newbies, Watch This!

Last challenge’s Finalists: