Microsoft published their latest development update for Flight Simulator on Thursday with some updates on topics discussed one week back.

The team kicked off their update with reassurance their primary focus has been bug fixes and releasing major updates; the next one of which is due next week and will be the fourth patch since the simulator was released.

Microsoft expanded on this by stating their Feedback Snapshots and Development Roadmaps will be updated more frequently as they tweak information and plans.

The first key talking point of the update was the VR closed beta.

It was said the team is evaluating the PC specifications in the applications users sent and that further information will be released once emails have been sent to successful applicants.

There was also a new Partnership Series video; this time about Aerosoft and their role in the production of the boxed edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

An overview of the upcoming patch was another part of the development update. This was outlined as follows:

• Bug fixes (VFR Map, Avionics black screen, etc.)
• Navigation data updates
• UI updates
• Aerodynamics updates
• Activity updates
• Marketplace updates
• World updates

The Development Roadmap was the next item on the list and remains mostly unchanged since the last iteration.

It can be seen, however, that their Around the World video series has been back by two weeks, as has more Feature Discovery Series episodes.

On top of this, Microsoft has introduced a new Feedback Snapshot that adds a trends tracker, as well as status and planned release columns.

For example, the second-highest issue – Buildings Much Too High In 1.9.3.0 Patch – has been fixed and is due to be rolled out in update four next week.

The top issue on the other hand – Garmin G1000/G3000 & Autopilot Related Issues – has yet to see any work start but is planned to be fixed in six updates’ time.

The SDK was another aspect the team wrote about, where they said recent work has been applied to the following areas in DevMode:

• Project Editor:

• We are working on the Project Editor to facilitate Package exporting for community and marketplace targets. A package validation process is also being added to this new publish process, with user-facing error feedback.
• Besides improvements on the Project Editor, we are also working on the Console window to improve its ergonomics and add features which should help better understand what is going on in the sim.

• Aircraft Editor:

• The tool keeps on being improved thanks to community feedbacks and bug report, which are systematically taken into account and most of the time addressed straight away.

• Scenery Editor:

• General stability improvements.

• Nodal Visual System:

• We keep making progress on the new nodal visual effects system, which should be ready for production soon.

As for WebAssembly:

• We continue to work on improving debugging information and iteration times.

•  We are further extending the GDI+ compatibility layer

“We are fixing the external FsPackageTool for users of the Steam version of the game.”

•  We updated and fixed part of the documentation.
•  We updated the AirportVehicleSample.

The next update and development update is to be released next week.