• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

MSFS -Everything you know about upcoming Flight Sim from Microsoft-

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I remember literally flying half way around the world to beat down the door of @Torgo3000 (Adrian Woods) and bribing Hal with whisky to get them to release a video on how to create an animated gate. @arno again writing a tool to allow us to make those things link up to aircraft.

if Adrian had a dollar for every time I had to watch that video!
 
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netherlandsantilles
I got a bit of info from a nameless source. TL:DR the thread, so apologies if this is already known. No more 2D panels - VC only. The SDK is nowhere near ready (the documentation consists of two lines ATM - I saw it). Third-party simobjects need to talk to FS2020 via SimConnect. The version of SimConnect in use is FSX Acceleration; again, I saw the list of available variables.
Honestly I'm not against innovation and I have to admit that 2D panels had their time and is way past due for this era. But I still enjoy more flying them than VC's and they are somewhat simple to develop especially for hobby developers like me. Honestly I don't see what would have been the hurdle in just leaving it for what it is in the sim instead of tossing it completely out. I mean they don't have to further develop any SDK neither any other further support but just leave it at sake of the mere souls that wants to wrench with legacy stuff, LoL:rotfl: (don't take me serious I'm just brain farting...)
 

n4gix

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I'm really hoping that MS will leave all this outdated garbage behind so we can finally develop modern software with modern workflows, modern languages and modern limitations. :twocents:
How about Lua and JSON?
 

Vitus

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:rolleyes: That's going to suck for simpit builders...
Y tho? I don't think they get rid of customizable UI, the way I understand it is that they get rid of the OLD way and replace it with a modern approach, and I think that step should be supported. Don't forget that this is 20+ year old technology you're bemoaning here.

How about Lua and JSON?
I'm personally not a fan of LUA, mainly because I like my semicolons, but I take anything over this fs9-xml-nonsense. :D

My wish list, as far as custom UIs go would be:
- modern language
- wider access to sim variables, both read and write.
- support for various image formats, including PNG with alpha information
- easier management for placement of the UI on the screen, maybe a way to hook into a global UI scale value to adjust the size of custom panels
- easy way to play sound, including loop and adjustment of pitch
- easy way to store data, indeed JSON would be cool.
- [bonus] ability to stream data, that way you could play a movie on your onboard entertainment system :laughing:
 
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ca-ontario
Y tho? I don't think they get rid of customizable UI, the way I understand it is that they get rid of the OLD way and replace it with a modern approach, and I think that step should be supported. Don't forget that this is 20+ year old technology you're bemoaning here.

I don't wanna split the hairs here, but the support for customizable UI and support for 2D gauges/instrumentation are two very very different things. In fact, FSX SimConnect has currently support for simple but customizable UI, allowing user to display simple text messages and a simple but effective menu overlay system (max 10 selectable items per menu). I have taken advantage of this and developed a multi-page, back-forth navigable cascading menu system, along with simple one or two dialog panels, used mostly for confirming/cancelling things.

From what I can gather, customizable UI will consist of something similar to what I described above, but with far greater flexibility, allowing third party content developers far greater control of the in-game UI, allowing for images and videos, perhaps even custom interface look. As far as I understand, this would include getting rid of the old "black background" when user is accessing in-sim options (we have seen this already in the preview videos).
 

Heretic

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My wish list, as far as custom UIs go would be:
- modern language
- wider access to sim variables, both read and write.
- support for various image formats, including PNG with alpha information
- easier management for placement of the UI on the screen, maybe a way to hook into a global UI scale value to adjust the size of custom panels
- easy way to play sound, including loop and adjustment of pitch
- easy way to store data, indeed JSON would be cool.
- [bonus] ability to stream data, that way you could play a movie on your onboard entertainment system :laughing:

You're describing most, if not all Lua implementations for X-Plane. :D
 
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Does anyone on here have the SDK yet???, or did they just give it out to a bunch of folks who are just gonna start making addons ONLY for their sim --and who have no real love for the sim (MONEY DRIVEN COMPANIES pop up like flies during a gold rush), -------unlike the majority of the people on here, who make its their life passion to see these things get done... THAT REALLY seriously makes me Mad as hell hearing them say they've got 50 COMPANIES USING THE SDK ALREADY!!
:yikes::censored::censored::censored::banghead::eek:
 
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just something kinda noteworthy also... i applied with asobo a few months ago and here was their response..I live in the U.S....

Hello Tim,

Thank you for your application and your interest for Asobo Studio.

I see that you would need to apply for a VISA to join us. This position is to be filled as soon as possible and unfortunately this VISA process we would have to go through is at least 4 months-long.

It’s a shame but for this reason, we won't be able to go further this time, I suggest that we stay in touch for future opportunities.

Don't hesitate to let me know about your portfolio's updates.

Best regards.


Julie Dayre | Assistante RH
 

n4gix

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"Using" is a misleading description actually. More like "studying" a textbook that's only about 54% complete and worse yet, has not yet been "proofread..."
 

rhumbaflappy

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It's obvious that the larger 3rd party developers have been given a preference to the SDK and any tooling. This wasn't the case with the FSX Beta. But at the time of the FSX Beta, there weren't many large 3rd party companies... it was mostly hobbists or small outfits. Times change, and not always in ways we all like.

Nearly all innovation in FSX came from individuals sharing their discoveries and tooling. I'm not sure this will happen with Dos Equis.
 

DragonflightDesign

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It's obvious that the larger 3rd party developers have been given a preference to the SDK and any tooling.
Ah! It must be the really large third party developers then, because I was denied access even though I work/develop for PILOT'S and Stefan applied for access on my behalf. I would hazard a guess that those 'over fifty developers' are multiple people within a very few organisations.
 

JB3DG

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@rhumbaflappy actually the larger 3rd party developers are in as much dark as the rest of you. There is a lot of uncertainty as to whether we will actually get what we need.
 

rhumbaflappy

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It's odd that some larger devs are not getting access to the SDK. MS claims over 50 organizations and 100s of individuals within those companies. My understanding is that the SDK is not well developed at this time.

I do think we need to hone our skills as far as modeling, animation, gauge development, Simconnect programming, GIS skills and data... I don't know the current state of FSX or P3D addons sales and downloads. Have they tapered off?
 
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unitedkingdom
I'm sure there are a great many games and architectural developers already linked in to the FS20 network. Some will be flight sim ancients, but many will not - but they're in because they have the technology and skills to work in up-to-date technologies and apps. The FS community has largely existed on development apps that are contemporary with the old sims (GMax, FSDS etc), though I accept that the bigger developers are more modern. However, it's not just the apps, its the skills and techniques involved with developing for modern games engines that MS will value.
 
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