This week’s development blog update from the Microsoft Flight Simulator team is a little lighter in terms of content, but it does shed some more light on the current progress with several of the in-development items from both the bug-tracker and the wish-list.
The focus at the start of the blog post turned attention to the recent documentary series created by NoClip. This 35-minute video covers many aspects of how the development teams made the entire planet, including interviews with several key developers from the team.
Following on from that, a new development roadmap image was shared. Now taking us until February, we now know that Sim Update 3 (which will include improved ATC) will be made available on February 25th, and also accompanied by Feature Discover Video. Throughout February, we will also see continued improvements to the SDK and also a new Partnership Video.
Whilst Sim Update 2 is still due to release at the end of this month, with a focus on VR, there will still be plenty of improvements and updates to come over the following months and year. The bug-tracker and wishlist have seen a few minor changes since the last publication, but many items remain unmoved in terms of the release timeframe. As was previously mentioned in the developer live stream, release dates will become more specific as the development team get close to release.
As usual, the SDK continues to be updated with new information provided via the blog post.
SDK Information
DevMode:
- We’re still focusing our efforts on improving the new Visual Effects system performance. The corresponding editor has now reached its first basic functional version.
- On the Scenery Editor side, the heightmaps edition is now ready and will be available in a future update. Object grouping feature is still WIP.
- New assets creation system from within the Project Editor is still a work in progress.
- As a background task, the DevMode team is always working on improving the overall stability of the DevMode, with particular focus on the Project Editor, the Scenery Editor, and the Aircraft Editor. The community’s feedback continues to be helpful to identifying and fixing bugs and thus making the tools better.
WebAssembly:
- We are making an effort to lower the iteration time when developing for the platform.
- New security mechanisms have been implemented and others are being studied to protect WASM modules developed by third parties.
