Microsoft unveiled a new world update for its Flight Simulator title earlier today, featuring a refreshed look for Japan. This was hinted toward in last week"s development update, with a mysteriously labeled "Update" deliverable marked in the new development roadmap. Continuing in the same vein, the spotlight this week shines on an SDK update, a new Feedback Snapshot, new products in the Marketplace, and more.
The Flight Simulator SDK team now boasts a larger number of members, focused on adding more functionality and improved documentation in a more efficient manner. New changes that have been introduced recently include:
- WebAssembly: Improvements to the GDI+ compatibility layer and improvements to the ease of development and debugging capabilities is the current focus. Visual Studio 2017 support has also been added.
- The glTF exporter now supports 3D Studio Max 2021.
- We fixed the SimConnect facilities API and plan on expanding it.
- On the Developer Mode side, we are working on improving overall usability: we enhanced the visualization for roads, terraforming shapes and exclusion rectangles. The editor now doesn’t allow for invalid ground merging parameters.
Moving on, a visually enhanced version of the Feedback Snapshot has now been released, showcasing a look at the number of votes garnered by the issues causing the most concern to the community and top items in users" wishlists. Each list features the top 20 items, with the amount of posts made regarding each of them being noted alongside as well.
The Flight Simulator team"s Twitch schedule for the next few days includes the monthly developer Q&A, an event featuring guest pilot Shinji Maeda, and a guided fly-in tour for the community.
Moving on, the Marketplace has received four new products - three new airports and a new aircraft - and an update for the Paderborn-Lippstadt Airport which was released a couple of weeks back. Microsoft has also noted that the number of applications for its Marketplace Partner Program have now crossed the 1000 mark, with the amount of approved partners now numbering over 40.
And finally, the Partnership Series deliverable featuring Gaya Simulations has now been pushed to next week. Going by the newest iteration of the development roadmap, the upcoming development update may also bring new episodes for the Around the World Series and the Feature Discovery Series.