This week’s update from Asobo Studios on the state of Microsoft Flight Simulator was a relatively small one but it did have some interesting pieces of information that I thought should be shared and some fascinating updates. Not included this week was the planned Feature Update which was intended to give us a look at the sims aerodynamics. Let’s have a look at what we did get!

Yes, the spikes will be fixed

If you’ve been flying around and noticing unusually shaped terrain in places, you’re not alone. Some areas of the globe in Microsoft Flight Simulator are experiencing spikey terrain issues. They started appearing after the last update. Fortunately, Asobo seems to have a solution and are working on a fix.

Update on “Spikes on Terrain” bug: Our team has successfully found the root issue. The fix is currently in testing. Thanks for your patience!

MSFS dev update

Good news!

Working with the modification community

One of the disappointments for some on release of the new Flight Simulator was the level of detail present in the airliners and business jets. Fortunately, Microsoft Flight Simulator is open enough that third parties almost immediately set to work to create modifications to these aircraft adding features and functionality. Some of these mod teams include real world A320 pilots who know the aircraft’s systems inside and out and are providing the kind of detail to the default A320 through the popular Fly By Wire mod (also known as the A32nx).

Asobo has been asked in the past how they might be able to better connect these modification efforts with the more official parts of the sim and it sounds like progress is being made here. What will Asobo do with that kind of connection? Will the default A320neo take on added features from the FBW mod? Will the mod be able to better coexist with the sim and receive updates as the rest of the sim is updated? The statement below doesn’t fully answer those questions but it does tell us that progress is being made.

As the community has asked us to work with the teams at Working Title and Fly By Wire (and Saltys and others), we have intensified our communication with these teams and continue to be very impressed. The know-how and dedication of these teams is just awesome and we are increasingly confident that we will be able to deepen this collaboration. We hope to share more during the community stream later this month.

MSFS dev update

Third party update

As is typical these days, Asobo has been updating us nearly every week with updates on what third parties are up to. Including the news that 719 add-ons that are either released or an in production – an astounding number for a sim that isn’t even a year old yet.

Included in the Marketplace update is, news that Carenado’s WYMF-5 bi-plane is now on sale for $14.99 USD. Something not even Carenado’s Facebook page has announced.

There are of course the usual array of new airports and scenery updates included in the update with a growing number of packs becoming available.

Check out all of this on this week’s Development Update from Asobo Studios.