March 24th, 2022 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Screenshot by pommes_l (Twitter)

World Update 8: Iberia is officially live! Click here to for full release notes and check out the trailer below:

Thank you to those who made it out to our monthly Dev Q&A yesterday. The full video can be found in the Twitch section below. Coming up next week: our Local Legends #3 aircraft, the Dornier Do J Wal, will be released to the Marketplace on March 29th, 2022.

– MSFS TEAM –

MARKETPLACE CHARITY CAMPAIGN

We would like to take a moment to acknowledge the tragic situation in Ukraine. Our thoughts are with those in the region right now as we hope for peace and safety. As fans of aviation, we have seen our skies darken these past few weeks and we wish to show our support to those impacted.

From March 24, 2022 to March 31, 2022, Microsoft Flight Simulator will donate $5 USD for each item sold in Microsoft Flight Simulator’s in-sim marketplace worldwide, excluding Russia and Belarus. Some U.S. states are also excluded; specifically Alabama and South Carolina. This donation will go to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to support its response to the crisis in Ukraine. The IRC is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian aid, relief and resettlement to refugees and other victims of oppression or violent conflict. For more information, visit www.rescue.org and flightsimulator.com/ukraine/ No portion of the purchase price is tax-deductible.

We stand with Ukraine and our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this tragic conflict.

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

The Development roadmap has been updated for Q2 2022. Please see the new roadmap below. Click here for the web-friendly version.

SDK UPDATE

General:
- A part of the team is attending GDC in San Francisco this week, so we do not have the usual amount of content to share with you this week.
- Work continues on the Aircraft Editor. We are currently reviewing the first prototype with our Planes creation team.
- We are also working on the DevMode’s general interface, with a first iteration coming soon in which the game renders in a window! Custom layouts per editor will come right after.
DevMode:
- We fixed some debug messages that weren’t displayed in the console.
- Visual Effects Editor
  - We fixed the node graph’s update that was not reflected when Stopping/Respawning an effect.

3RD PARTY UPDATE

As of 03/21, we have now approved 241 (+0) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 136 (+0) have released 974 products on PC (+14) and 678 on Xbox (+12).
In total, 1,951 products (+43) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 566 products (+28) from 3^rd party developers are in production (293 announced, 263 unannounced). In total, over 2,487 3^rd party products (+23) are either released or are in development.
Airports:
- 1415 airports (+35) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 1190 airports (+23) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 665 airports (+18) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 119 airports (+1) beyond the released airports have been announced.
  - 126 airports (+10) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
Aircraft:
- 346 aircraft (+8) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 109 aircraft (+2) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 76 aircraft (+4) have been released in the in-sim PC marketplace.
  - 51 aircraft (+4) have been released in the in-sim Xbox marketplace.
  - 159 aircraft (+2) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
  - 78 aircraft (+4) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
Scenery:
- 646 sceneries (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 574 sceneries (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 140 sceneries (+2) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 15 sceneries (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
  - 57 sceneries (+1) are not announced, but the dev let us know that scenery is in production.
Mission Packs:
- 80 mission packs (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 78 mission packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 9 mission packs (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.
  - 2 mission packs (+0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that they are in production.

MARKETPLACE UPDATE

Click here for a web-friendly version. With the release of World Update 8: Iberia, there are 35 items in the Marketplace now on sale starting today for 7 days. Click here to learn more about what’s on sale.

There are 24 new and 18 updated products in the Marketplace today. Marketplace updates generally go live on Thursdays between the release of this blog post and 5pm PT.

24 NEW PRODUCTS: 12 ON PC, 12 ON XBOX
New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅
New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC ✅
New on Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅
New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅
New on Xbox ✅	New on PC and Xbox ✅	New on PC ✅

19 UPDATED PRODUCTS: 15 ON PC, 4 ON XBOX
Updated on PC ✅	Updated on PC ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅
Updated on PC ✅	Updated on PC ✅	Updated on PC ✅
Updated on PC ✅	Updated on PC ✅	Updated on PC ✅
Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC ✅
Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC ✅	Updated on PC ✅
	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅

TWITCH UPDATE

We stream weekly on Twitch.tv/MSFSOfficial! World Update VIII: Iberia is available now! To celebrate this release, we’ll be exploring parts of Spain during this week’s Community Fly-In with a flight plan that will take us from Pamplona to Barcelona. Click here for details on Friday’s flight. All are welcome to participate!

We also hosted our latest monthly Dev Q&A livestream with Jorg, Seb, and Martial yesterday. If you missed the session or would like to watch a particular moment again, you can see the replay below:

COMMUNITY VIDEO

We’ve featured some “Sim vs. Reality” videos before, but this is one of the best ones we’ve seen yet. In this video, YouTuber ImDrako shows a side-by-side comparison of an airliner landing at Phoenix Sky Harbor (KPHX) in real-life and Microsoft Flight Simulator. How long will it take you to figure out which one is real?