The latest developer Q&A took place last night on Twitch. The usual three (Jorg, Seb and Martial) were together with Jayne talking about the latest questions from the community whilst showcasing some up and coming new World and Sim Updates. We’ve recapped some of the biggest moments below.
Xbox Cloud Gaming
Jorg opened up the stream by speaking quickly about Xbox Cloud Gaming. He said that since the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator was available through Xbox Cloud Gaming, records continue to be broken. The highest number of users in any given month was flying last month. 80% of those who tried it on Xbox Cloud Gaming are brand new to the hobby, which means the hobby continues to grow.
Vegetation Slider
Seb touched on the vegetation slider that is confirmed to be improved in Sim Update 9. Tree draw distance currently allows users to set ‘low’, ‘medium’, ‘high’ or ‘ultra’ settings that will define the distance and density of the trees in the sim. In Sim Update 9, via the dev tools, you can see the trees in red and define all the information about the trees.
Roadmap Updated
The roadmap was shared again and has been updated a little bit with recently released products.
World Update VIII: Spain, Portugal, Gibralta and Andorra
99 new Points of Interest developed by Gaya Simulations, whilst Orbx fixed 100 default airports in the simulator. Plus 4 brand new hand-crafted airports. 6 new photogrammetry cities, new DEM and new discovery flights.
World Update IX: Italy and Malta
Coming in Mid-May, the next World Update will be Italy and Malta. Jorg said it will be the “biggest World Update yet”. 18 areas for photogrammetry (cities and areas). Gaya is continuing to make brand new points of interest within the region. 2021 aerial data from Bing, along with new DEM data.
Sim Update IX
The first piece of news is that the CFD Simulation Tool will be able to be used on all aircraft. This will help aircraft developers. Furthermore, there is now an improved forces display tool, improved weight tools and a new stall debug tool. A brand new tool specifically for helicopters is a new soft body simulation.
Improvements to the air simulation will start coming through starting with Sim Update IX. This will improve elements such as updraft, turbulence. Seb says this is an ongoing project to improve the simulation over the course of a few sim updates.
Update on Xbox WASM Issue
A community question about the issues with WASM was asked. For those who don’t know, this is an issue specifically with the way in which the Xbox handles specific code to allow more complex add-ons to work (e.g. PMDG’s DC-6). Jorg responds to say that work continues and is unsure if the workaround will happen for Sim Update IX in April. He says it’s more realistic that it will happen in Sim Update X (late July). He recognises it’s not fast and frustrating, but says they need to be careful and ensure it’s tested.
VR Issues
The team are sorry that things are taking time, but they are looking at the feedback and just cracking on with the work.
Aircraft Update
Local Legend #1 Update
A new update for the Junkers JU-52 will fix a bunch of bugs and will be released today, March 24th.
Local Legend #2 Update
A new update for the Fokker F.VII is on its way. It will take a couple more weeks, but the update is being worked on by a “big-ass” team and they took the feedback very seriously.
Local Legend #3
Coming on Tuesday 29th March 2022, Local Legend #3, the Dornier Do J, will be coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator. A truly unique aircraft that managed to fly across the Atlantic from Spain to Argentina. The team had support from Dornier to help bring this plane to life.
Famous Flyer #2
April 26th 2022 will see the release of Famous Flyer #2. Famous Flyer #2 will be the Granville Gee Bee Model Z and model R. Both of these aircraft are part of the package and has been developed by Carenado.
The Antonov
Jorg gave a brief update about the Antonov for Microsoft Flight Simulator. He said that they were just “days away” from completing the licensing terms with the manufacturer. However, with the team located in Kyiv, Ukraine, they are currently out of contact. The plane is ready to go, just a matter of waiting for the right time to release.
Watch the Recap Yourself
There are plenty of other community questions submitted, and you can watch back the whole session on Twitch right now.
Should you find any other interesting tidbits, let us know in the comments below and we’ll update this article.
