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Post by Dutch Owen on Aug 19, 2020 5:50:04 GMT -5
Greetings Captains,
I know many of you are interested to know how we're coming on the porting of FSCaptain to the new sim, so here's what's going on.
I have the release version of MSFS, and I'm enjoying flying in it. The visuals, flight model for GA, weather, and many other features are outstanding. It all leads to a sense of immersion I haven't felt in a sim in a long time, if ever.
However, MSFS is arguably in a beta state. There are annoying bugs and missing features. I know the team at Asobo is dedicated to getting fixes out as quickly as possible, and because the system is self-updating they don't have to follow the rather labor-intensive process P3D uses; they can push small and large updates to us when they want.
Unfortunately for us one of the still-in-development pieces of the puzzle is the SDK. There's enough there for devs to port over or create new scenery or aircraft, but FSCaptain relies on SimConnect heavily to function (the external FCDU is entirely dependent on it) and SimConnect is not ready for prime time yet. Here's the quote from the SDK that's distributed with the initial release:
Several of these items are going to have to stabilize before we can issue a beta for FSCaptain. We're doing what we can to get ready, but at this time we're waiting for a more complete SDK with enough SimConnect functionality before we have get something into your hands (or ours).
Dutch
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Post by tadow777 on Aug 22, 2020 15:01:16 GMT -5
Thank for the update. MSFS is pretty awesome, I had one Sim crash, after researching, I needed to update my Windows build to 2004. After that haven't had no issues.
Gene
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Post by teetwo on Aug 23, 2020 2:25:09 GMT -5
Thanks for the update as this is my second most anticipated add on to have in FS2020 right after the Flythemaddog MD80.
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Post by edakridge on Aug 23, 2020 6:22:16 GMT -5
Dutch, thanks for the update. I'm happy that you guys are on top of this.
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Post by Dutch Owen on Aug 23, 2020 14:24:22 GMT -5
Having just completed a couple of revenue-type IFR flights in the TBM 930, the last through some spectacular Wx involving icing and dodging thunderstorms with radar, I can say this for sure:
The sim NEEDS FSCaptain!
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Post by prdemel on Aug 24, 2020 0:33:24 GMT -5
I agree 100%...Can't wait to use FSCaptain with msfs 2020.
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Post by marty2756 on Aug 24, 2020 16:52:28 GMT -5
Hi Dutch Thanks for the update. Question: I know devs hate dates (I'm one myself but from the moment SDK (simconnect) is ready, how much time (aprox) for beta ? Matter of Weeks ? Months ?
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Post by Dutch Owen on Aug 25, 2020 0:12:15 GMT -5
It should be a matter of weeks, but how many is anybody's guess at this point.
Dutch
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Post by Dutch Owen on Aug 28, 2020 9:03:50 GMT -5
Update on this. We have taken some significant steps forward but there's still much to be done.
What works:
- The Administrator works apparently completely. - The External FCDU has been used to start, fly, and log a flight in MSFS 2020. With significant limitations at this time.
What doesn't work:
- The FSCaptain.dll is not installed, this prevents sounds and access to custom variables in third-party aircraft. - The internal gauge version of the FCDU doesn't work.
The Significant limitations:
- No sounds (therefore no FO and no FA.) - Gates are not recognized and can't be used. - Performance is unacceptable due to a bug in MSFS regarding SimConnect. - No custom variable access (not a problem yet as no 3rd party A/C are in MSFS that uses them)
Next step:
- Get the FSCaptain.dll installed (this will get the sounds working) - Package up a proper installation fileset.
Waiting for:
- The SimConnect performance bug to be fixed (it has and will be in the next patch, according to Asobo) - Enough SDK features to allow us to get the gauge version of the FCDU working (no timing available on this, but since these missing parts are limiting the famous name devs from providing study-level products you can be sure Asobo is under heavy pressure to get them in ASAP.)
We may be able to offer up a preliminary, limited version for alpha testing as soon as the performance issue is solved. But this would be usable only from the external FCDU and without an FO or FA. Once we get the DLL installed into MSFS (if that is even possible given the state of the SDK) we will have sound restored and your FO and FA will be there for you.
But it is encouraging that the basic functionality of the Admin and FCDU work with only minor modifications necessary.
Dutch
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Post by marty2756 on Aug 29, 2020 12:44:02 GMT -5
Thank you very much for the update Dutch !
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Post by johan217 on Aug 31, 2020 5:10:10 GMT -5
Happy to hear that you are working on this. FS2020 feels incomplete without FSCaptain!
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Post by Dutch Owen on Aug 31, 2020 12:29:07 GMT -5
Happy to hear that you are working on this. FS2020 feels incomplete without FSCaptain! From a personal standpoint I totally agree. I'm still enjoying playing air tourist - but now I'm wanting to get back to "work". I'm going to create a new small GA airline but I'm not sure where. Somewhere "interesting" that I haven't been before. With mountainous scenery and challenging small airstrips. South America? Dutch
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Post by Travis on Sept 2, 2020 22:08:28 GMT -5
FYI, work on development is slowly progressing. My current update can only note that FSCaptain sound can be played through the FCDU.EXE, so most services are available (FO, FA, ACME Pushback, etc.). Work will progress faster once I recall my MS password and become the last one of us to install this beauty. Best,
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Post by noel on Sept 4, 2020 8:30:14 GMT -5
This is awesome! Don't get this running too quick though else I may have to abandon P3D! Not really, it's still a fabulous platform in its own right. I find visuals in P3D 4.5, from high altitude, to be superior to MSFS in some ways. There is a certain softness/blurriness if you will, that is too uniform in MSFS. I'm OTW to KSFO from KGJT in the NGXu and the foreground is so much clearer and crisper in P3D, but out in the distance haze is nicely settled into the valleys in the Western Rockies and it just looks better to me. But for lower flights it's amazing what MSFS brings to the table. I find the TBM930 not bad at all for a default model. I see MSFS still suffers from the same issue FSX/P3D does in that in complex scenery the sim will periodically load a ginormous tile of scenery and CPU use shoots up to 100%, threatening maintaining my desired frame rate (vsync to 30Hz screen). This happens a lot more I've found in MSFS, at least w/ my settings which are somewhere between ultra and high.
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Post by Dutch Owen on Sept 4, 2020 13:47:28 GMT -5
Speaking personally for myself, I agree that for commercial airline flying or for real limited-visibility IFR P3Dv5 is a superior experience to MSFS right now. I have no plans to remove any sim that I enjoy from my hard drive - I still have FSX, P3Dv4 & v5, DCS, and XP-11 living here and they aren't going anywhere; I'll keep them updated. They all have value to me in one way or another.
But ... for VFR flight at low to medium levels, the sheer immersion and sometimes stunning beauty of MSFS have pulled me back to my roots. The basics of piloting, far removed from the often-boring systems management functions of airline operations. Like planning a flight and flying it via pilotage, not even with radio nav. Because you can do that in this sim, whereas you can't really do that in P3D/FSX/X-plane unless you have ortho-based scenery installed (like an ORBX region).
I didn't expect to realize how profound a difference it is between looking out your window at a world that seems plausible, and a world that looks real. In P3D I can fly over where my old high school is located, but it isn't there. There's a few houses instead. But in MSFS, straight out of the box without any custom scenery not only is the school there exactly like it is in real life but I can read the mascot's name on the football field.
Sounds trivial and mildly interesting until you realize that's true just about everywhere in the world. The interesting places I've flown in P3D, but would never get to fly over in life - I've gone back to some of them, and looking down now realize just how far off the "plausible" world was in the other, old sims.
For example, I've spent some time running missions in the Air America mission set and the mountains of Laos and the Plain of Jars was interesting then. But in MSFS it's a whole 'nother world. The PDJ looks rather generic Asian scenery with ORBX global in P3D. In MSFS it is unique and fascinating - you can actually, even today, see so many of the bomb craters pockmarking the landscape. I flew to the location Long Chieng deep in the mountains, once one of the busiest airports in the world with the CIA conducting a secret air war out of there; a remote airstrip surrounded by a city of more than 40,000 refugees in 1969. Now it's a small laconic little town strung out along the road, but the runway and the parking zones are still there - the runway is now part of the main street of the little town, with stores and buildings clustered around the former staging areas. I landed on the beat-up strip and got out and walked around. It was strange and fascinating; like walking into a haunted mansion filled with the ghosts of the past. I found the house of Vang Pao, the revered Hmong general who led the battle against the Communists. Can you imagine doing that with scenery out of the box in a simulator?
MSFS is not perfect nor is it even complete yet; but for what it can deliver right now, it's amazing. And the future is bright. FSCaptain is determined to be a part of that future.
Dutch
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