MSFS2020 and the SDK has been released for several days now – what are the first impressions?
Jean Luc (Jeehell FMGS)
Ok so, the current SDK is pretty useless for me. It lacks most of the interesting stuff (hopefully it will be released soon).
Also, the “aerodynamics” part is a joke. Now I understand why the aircraft behave so badly since the alpha builds. So this is really not a really good thing for now. The take off roll (and landing roll) are just terrible, ground handling looks to be taken from an arcade automobile game.
All my work arounds that worked great in FSX and P3D are now useless, so icing and a few other things won’t work.
Weather radar is not possible so far (I do not know how or when it will be possible later, using active sky or not?).
Scenery scanning for the ILS/RWY is not possible for now (not sure if there is bgl file system, and if it will decoded soon). They left out the API part to read that from addons, so for now that cant work.
Honestly, the only good thing I can see is the graphics, but for me eye candy is not enough…
1. The SDK lists most of the KEY EVENTS that FSX provided (none added since by L-M of course), but unfortunately many simply do nothing.
2. Most of the controls you can assign in the MSFS assignments are just not exposed to applications.
3. There’s no access for applications to any weather data.
4. There’s no access to viewing and panning actions for applications.
5. Loading and saving flights and plans is not controllable by applications — flights save via the SimConnect interface are not compatible with MSFS flight loading.
Currently the biggest problem, though, is that running ANY SimConnect application wrecks MSFS performance, halving the FPS or worse and causing bad stuttering.
Those, off the top of my head, are the biggest ones. SimConnect is a work in progress in MSFS and quite honestly has been pretty neglected throughout MSFS development so far. The priorities seem to have been on the graphics, and adding many aircraft. We have been pushing for fixes in the above areas, so far with not that much effect. Hopefully that changes now that the pressure, presumably imposed by the money people above, should be off getting the product out of the door.
Lapi (ProSim-AR)
In a forum response –
Sudden81 wrote: ↑20 Aug 2020, 17:251) Have you tested to implement a flight model in to MSFS2020?
2) Could you get engines running?
3) Could you get it flying?
4) Could you get contact points to work?
5) Could you get lights to work?
6) If it is yes on 1 and 2 have you started manipulation of flight model characteristics. Can you get any way near P3D?
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. No.
4. Yes.
5. Not tested.
6. Needs a bit more detailed answer:
– The FS2020 flight model is mainly based on the FSX dynamic engine with some additional variables here and there.
– I think it can be possibly as good as FSX or P3D, IF the numbers do what they are supposed to do.
– If tables work the same, I might say it will be fine, but I had no opportunity to go that deep, due to other things that had to be done.
– The present obstacle for doing a good model is the test-phase though. A nice dynamic flight model needs hundreds of hours of testing, which is possible in FSX-P3D by changing numbers and then reloading the flight (situation) while the sim is running. At present it is not possible in FS2020, so closing and restarting the sim thousands of times makes it almost impossible to do a refined dynamic model. (or it would be possible but only your great grandchildren would see the result…)
Soarbywire 