A new weekly developer diary has been posted by the Flight Simulator team and it incorporates some interesting updates to two Marketplace aircraft: the Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing and the Gee Bee. This is also a good opportunity to dive into what’s on the newest roadmap including the latest on the MSFS Sim Update 10 beta.

Aircraft updates

Created in partnership with Carenado, both Gee Bee Model Z and R2 as well as the Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing are seeing some important improvements. For the Staggerwing, improvements include the clickable option to enable or disable the interior crossbar (which does disrupt visibility slightly), the addition of a Transponder, as well as fixes to audio, fuel management, and tailwheel lock operation.

Both Gee Bee models are also seeing some significant updates. Improved stall handling, reduced rudder pedal sensitivity, overstress speed specifications updated to match real world values, and fixed engine instrumentation.

These updates are already available in the Marketplace so be sure to hit your content update screen and update. Full change list is available here.

Sim Update 10 beta

Microsoft Flight Simulator Sim Update 10 is currently in testing. The new update is currently available only to those who signed up for the “flighting” for this update. The rest of us can wait until the bugs are worked out.

This update is looking to be a significant one. Among the change logs we can see that this new update introduces new DX12 enhancements that take us a step closer to that API moving out of beta.

The optional G1000 NXi project that has been under development for a significant time is now moving into the default position. With it comes multiple new features that bring it close to the real world version. They include: VNAV, procedure turns, holds, arc legs, visual approaches, accurate autopilot/modes, full RNAV, and more.

nVidia DLSS is also coming. This AI driven system enables the GPU to increase output resolution while rendering at a lower resolution resulting in overall higher performance with negligable degradation in image quality. It’s more complicated than that but the end result is nearly always a big boost to performance.

There are big changes elsewhere too. Live weather now incorporates wind gust information. The VFR map now includes a search bar and the ability to click on navaids and airports to get data including identification, location, name, frequency, magnetic variation, ILS frequencies, METAR, and more.

The full list of changes in the beta can be found here.

The road ahead

There isn’t much that we’ll see for the sim in July, however, the end of August looks like it will be an interesting time. First, Sim Update 10 which already looks to be proving to be a substantial update. The update will come alongside a new Famous Flyer (the third in the series) and a Local Legend (the sixth in that series). These have released to the Marketplace typically at $15.99 USD so I would expect similar pricing depending on what is offered.

After that, we jump to late September when World Update XI and Local Legend VII arrive.

None of the Local Legends, the Famous Flyer nor the next World Update have been revealed yet so we’ll have to wait and see what these are. Presumably they will be revealed in an upcoming Q&A.

The development update includes all of this information and more so be sure to check it out here.