October 20th, 2022 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Screenshot by ukaka5656 (Twitter)

The dev team remains hard at work preparing for the release of the upcoming 40th Anniversary Edition which is scheduled to launch on November 11. A part of this includes bringing fixes and improvements to the ongoing Sim Update 11 beta. As a direct result from player feedback from last week’s first public test build, we released a new beta build (1.29.25.0) of Sim Update 11 to testers earlier today.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the Sim Update 11 beta and reported issues on the forums. The information, feedback and bug reports are incredibly valuable and have already helped us identify and resolve some issues in Sim Update 11.

You can read the full release notes for the new build here.

MSFS Team

Development Roadmap

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Feedback Snapshot

Check out the October 13th Development Update for the most recent Feedback Snapshot! Click here for the web-friendly version.

Marketplace Update

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There are 31 new and 45 updated products in the Marketplace today. Marketplace updates generally go live on Thursdays between the release of this blog post and 5pm PT.

31 NEW PRODUCTS: 15 ON PC, 16 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 ✅	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 ✅

45 UPDATED PRODUCTS: 23 ON PC, 22 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 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 ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅
Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅	Updated on PC and Xbox ✅

SDK Update

Flighting SU_11: Breaking Changes:
- Sim Update 11 flighting has started. Thanks for your feedback, we are doing our best to address the most critical issues!
- We need your attention on two features that work differently now on SU_11.
  - Localization process: New Localization Process
  - Stricter control of the files present in a SimObject type AssetGroup: Documentation on this one will be made available today on DevSupport.
General:
- Scenery Editor:
  - We fixed the Asset selector that was closing immediately after opening.
  - We fixed a crash that happened when using the same model for two vector placements.
- Visual Effects Editor:
  - With ImGUI update, the nodegraph would display all kinds of metrics. We have removed them.
- Project Editor:
  - Naming validation now also checks the name length.
  - We cleaned and improved the flow of renaming an item.
  - We no longer reset all creation fields when going “Back” between popups when creating a new package.
  - Merged the two commands when renaming/creating an item that would replace an existing one (remove previous + add new commands).
  - Cleaning a package no longer cleans current package regardless of given package name.
  - We fixed a crash on closing the Project Editor.
  - We fixed the fact that asset groups were not writing Config tag, and we added the config edition in the asset group inspector.
- Aircraft Editor:
  - We added Helicopters parameters.
  - We removed the unwanted sections from cfg on save (ie. we remove PISTON when changing engine type from piston to jet).
  - Legacy fuel system is automatically displayed if there is a FUEL section and no FUEL_SYSTEM section => this prevents the user from losing data.
  - We added “None” to icao_engine_type.
- SimConnect:
  - On the NavData API, we added new fields to Ndb and Vor.
- WASM:
  - We fixed a potential memory corruption issue due to storing a 64-bit value in a 32-bit slot of the linear memory.

Third Party Update

As of 10/15, we have now approved 280 (+2) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 168 (+1) have released 1,508 products on PC (+11) and 1,218 on Xbox (+12).
In total, 2,381 products (+32) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 604 products (+3) from 3^rd party developers are in production (313 announced, 291 unannounced). In total, over 2,985 3^rd party products (+34) have either been released or are in development.
Airports:
- 1,642 airports (+12) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 1,411 airports (+9) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 919 airports (+4) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 116 airports (+0) beyond the released airports have been announced.
  - 115 airports (+3) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
Aircraft:
- 459 aircraft (+5) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 173 aircraft (+3) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 121aircraft (+3) have been released in the in-sim PC marketplace.
  - 92aircraft (+3) have been released in the in-sim Xbox marketplace.
  - 176aircraft (+2) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
  - 110aircraft (+0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
Scenery:
- 774 scenery packs (+16) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 691 scenery packs (+20) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 236 scenery packs (+3) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 21 scenery packs (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
  - 62 scenery packs (-4) are not announced, but the dev let us know that scenery is in production.
Mission Packs:
- 110 mission packs (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 106 mission packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 41 mission packs (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.
  - 4 mission packs (+1) are not announced, but the dev let us know that they are in production.

Twitch Update

October 22 is recognized in Australia as “Wombat Day”, a day to celebrate conservation of these adorable marsupials and their natural habitat. Dating back to the first Wombat Day in 2005, the traditional way to celebrate is to eat chocolate (typically baked into a Wombat Cake or Wombat fudge) and wine gums, so be sure to prep appropriately! Accordingly, Community Fly-In Friday this week will take us back to the Land Down Under for a flight over the Australian Outback, culminating with our arrival at Uluru, one of Australia’s most distinctive natural landmarks.

Event details here. All are welcome to participate!

Community Video

Scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson sparked a debate about realism in filmmaking (and specifically in Top Gun: Maverick) last week when he posted to Twitter saying that Maverick would not have survived ejecting from the Darkstar while flying at Mach 10.5. Over on YouTube, Scott Manley posted a video rebuttal to deGrasse Tyson, arguing that safe ejection at that speed could indeed be possible, using the simulation of the Darkstar in Microsoft Flight Simulator to help demonstrate his point. If you’re interested in learning more about the thermal and kinetic principles involved in an ejection at such a high speed, check out Scott’s video below!