Last week, Microsoft released version patch 1.9.5.0 for its recently released Flight Simulator title, with fixes targeting the UI, aircrafts, airports, and more. Following that up with its weekly update a couple of days later, the development team unveiled news regarding components such as the Feedback Snapshot, the SDK, and more.
Today, an interesting bit of news has been revealed for the VR community. The first closed beta build for Flight Simulator VR is "on track", with emails to be sent out next week to the first wave of VR testers - which comprises Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) users only. The second wave, meanwhile, will cater to the non-WMR community.
The latest Around the World Tour episode, displaying a look at the North American continent, has been released as well.
Moving on, the development roadmap has been updated. Although the general timeframe for upcoming releases that are being showcased is still the same as in the previous version, the October timeline has been detailed slightly more to reflect specific dates of release for various components, as well as more comprehensive names. Similarly, the Feedback Snapshot this time around is quite similar to last week's as well, though some issues like "dreadful performance" seem to have plagued more of the community since then.
Recent work on the SDK has been focused on the following:
- DevMode:
- The new Export Window is ready and will be made available in a future update.
- The node-based Visual Effects System is about ready to be used in production by the internal team. We will make it available broadly after the internal tests are complete.
- Improvements, new options, and small features continue to be added here and there in tools. To list just one of them: an optional auto-hide behavior is currently being implemented for the DevMode bar.
- As a background task the DevMode team is always working on improving the overall stability of the DevMode, giving a special focus to the Project Editor, the Scenery Editor, and the Aircraft Editor. The community’s feedback continues to be helpful to identify & fix bugs and thus make the tools better.
- WebAssembly:
- The WASI layer filesystem functions have now all been implemented.
- Mouse events are now forwarded to gauges through a new callback.
- Preparing the new GDI+ implementation for release.
- New samples (windsock and bears) have been added to the SDK.
Upcoming Partnership Series updates will shine the light upon the developer's collaboration with NAVBLUE, Azure Cognitive Services, third-party partners, plane manufacturers, and "a few surprises". So far, 65 partners have been allowed to become part of the Marketplace Partnership Program, and six new products have been added to the Marketplace this week.
For next week, fans of the airplane simulator will have the the live Developer Q&A scheduled for Wednesday, October 28th, 10:30 a.m. PDT to look forward to, while the weekly development update should bring a new patch, a new episode for the Around the World series, and more.
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