September 23rd, 2021 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Screenshot by ValTrust

It’s officially fall in the Northern Hemisphere! Stay tuned for our next live Development Q&A on September 29th at 10:30am PT at twitch.tv/MSFSofficial.

– The MSFS team

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

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FEEDBACK SNAPSHOT

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KEY
SU = Sim Update (6, 7, 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

COMMUNITY TRIAGE UPDATE

Click here to see our Known Issues list. This week we announced new tags that we’ll start using in the forums to help provide clearer visibility o known issues, workarounds, and logged bugs. To read more about this, click here.

SDK UPDATE

General
- As we announced last week, we’ve prepared a list of things you’ll need to check before Sim Update VI if you’ve been creating visual effects with the Visual Effects Editor Beta. They are all listed in a sticky article on top of your DevSupport platform: https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com.

Dev Mode
- We added a new feature to the Statistic Profiler, to add new LOD limits related statistics. In a few months, we will communicate the change of behavior related to LODs.
- We changed the behavior of the DevMode windows. By default, they are transparent when floating and opaque when docked on the sides of the screen. And you can decide via an option in the DevMode menu to have them “Always opaque”, “Always transparent”, or “By default” as described previously described.
- Project Editor
  - We fixed a crash that could happen when cleaning an already clean package.
  - We added a “Save as” action.
  - We added an auto-save function on project/package/asset group creation.
- Scenery Editor
  - We added tiling, rotation, coloration, falloff and opacity for materials applied to polygons.
  - We added flipUV and offsetUV for aprons.
  - We added the edition of car parking.
  - We fixed a bug on projected meshes. They can now be selected by clicking on them in the viewport.
  - We fixed the culling of polygons.
  - We fixed a bug which made some items of an airport look pink when far away.
  - We fixed the SimObject bounding box (not 100% perfect yet but better).
  - We fixed the ground merging parameters when the airport is between two tiles.
  - We fixed the runway that didn’t exclude the buildings.
  - We removed the Color Extractor as it didn’t work and we don’t currently have plans to improve it.
- Script Editor
  - We fixed the SimObject window.
  - We fixed the fact that the editor wouldn’t close when a modification hadn’t been saved.
- Visual Effects Editor
  - We removed “Data” and “Edition” tabs in the node graph inspector. Instead, we now always display regular data as edition data does not contain anything worth displaying after unused Enabled and Visible options have been removed.
  - We removed “Add…” drag and drop button to create new ObjectReferences in node graphs.
  - We now prevent the creation of links in the node graph from the output of a node to the input of an upstream node.

3RD PARTY UPDATE

As of 09/19, we have now approved 219 (+1) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 117 (+0) have released 537 products on PC (+32) and 115 on Xbox (+11).
In total, 1,330 products (+20) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 372 products (+5) from 3^rd party developers are in production (235 announced, 137 unannounced). In total, over 1,701 3^rd party products (+24) are either released or are in development.
Airports:
- 1072 airports (+15) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 848 airports (+10) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 436 airports (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 111 airports (+3) beyond the released airports have been announced.
  - 113 airports (+2) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
Aircraft:
- 202 aircraft (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 69 aircraft (+2) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 42 aircraft (+1) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 110 aircraft (-1) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
  - 23 aircraft (+0) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
Scenery:
- 385 sceneries (+7) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 371 sceneries (+7) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 37 sceneries (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 14 sceneries (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
Mission Packs:
- 42 mission packs (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 42 mission packs (+1) 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 UPDATES

There are 10 new products (1 on PC, 9 on Xbox), and 18 updated products (17 on PC, 1 on Xbox) in the Marketplace today.

10 NEW PRODUCTS: 1 ON PC, 9 ON XBOX

New on Xbox ✅

Already on PC

New on Xbox ✅

Already on PC

New on Xbox ✅

Already on PC

New on Xbox ✅

Already on PC

New on Xbox ✅

Already on PC

New on Xbox ✅

Already on PC

New on Xbox ✅

Already on PC

New on PC and Xbox ✅

New on Xbox ✅

Already on PC

18 UPDATED PRODUCTS: 17 ON PC, 1 ON XBOX

Updated on PC and Xbox ✅

Available on PC and Xbox

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

Updated on PC ✅

Available on PC

TWITCH UPDATE

We stream weekly on Twitch.tv/MSFSOfficial!

Join us next Wednesday, September 29th for our Dev Q&A at 10:30 am PT (1730Z), followed by Flying Lessons on the C172 with ForderLearnToFly at 2pm PT (2100Z).

COMMUNITY VIDEO

In last week’s Development Update, we showed you the new freeware Brisbane River Run aerial race course from Orbx. In this video, YouTuber Into The Blue Simulations showcases his attempt to clear the course in an Extra 330 LT.

FEATURED FREEWARE MOD

From 3rd Party Developer NZA Simulations, here’s a freeware release of New Zealand’s Raglan Aerodrom (NZRA) and the surrounding area. This mod contains over 3,800 hand-placed objects and more than 50 unique art assets. Located on New Zealand’s North Island, Raglan is a picturesque getaway town popular with surfers, boaters, and pilots of amphibious airplanes. You can find more details about this mod, including a link containing download and installation instructions, at this thread in the MSFS forums. The developers have also released a video trailer for their addon you can watch at the following link:

SCREENSHOT CHALLENGE

You can now submit your screenshot via Twitter with #MSFSchallenge or the Weekly Forum Post! This week’s screenshot challenge: Germany, Austria, Switzerland.

This past week our Screenshot Challenge was Ecosystems – Temperate Forests! Here are our runner ups this week:

Screenshot by ArcanePython93