How can we learn from other airplanes or base content objects now that everything is streamed?

[SimbolFSReborn]

Dear Asobo,

With MSFS 2020 we were able to inspect default objects and aircraft in order to learn how to do things, for example, I could find all the current ground vehicles, open up their sim.cfg, find their titles names, how sounds were configured, animations, parameters, etc.

Similarly with aircraft, thanks to the Cessna Caravan in MSFS 2020 we learned how to add 2xPFD + 1MFD for the G1000, how to implement reversionary mode and many other things that are not available via documentation.

Now with MSFS 2024, how we 3rd party developers can achieve this goal? the base example provided are good, but also limited, for an instance let’s say a developer wants to add a G3000 avionics to an aircraft or a PL21, or an UNS-1… we will be unable to see how even these avionics are referenced and what to do.

Similarly with many other things, such as learning how to do model behaviours, checklists, etc. for an instance, I am looking into use the MSFS 2024 library of vehicles to be injected on demand for some of my products and as it stand, I would be even unable to know what are their SimObjects titles to achieve this goal.

Sometimes is regarding new flight model parameters, which are pushed via sim updates and not available in documentation for a long time, while the cessna 172 or other default airplanes will have it enabled, allowing us to inspect the changes in the .cfg files gave us the opportunity to learn what to do to upgrade our airplanes to new flight models and physicis.

Can you guys tell us what could be done in the future to help 3rd party developers towards this goal?

Thanks in advance,

Raul
CEO FSreborn.com
www.fsreborn.com

[cdgonzalezgo]

Upvote +1 for this question from Raul (@SimbolFSReborn).

In my case, I have some other aircraft incoming, and most of the time for the PL21 or any other avionics different than the G1000, the only way I had to determine its funnctionality and how to implement it on my projects has been through inspection from the base content, especially the model behaviors and HTML instruments, so that I could find the correct parameters for behaviors, as well as the exact H: events called. It would be very helpful if those new features in MSFS 2024 could be documented somewhere in the SDK documentation, for example not just for the G1000 or the G3X, but also the PL21, the Prime Epic or the UNS-1. Not just me, but also any other 3rd-party developer around would appreciate a lot if this is documented

Kind regards,
Carlos Daniel González Gómez
NextGen Simulations

[Kaiii3]

They said you can “cache” Packages on your system so that those are not streamed. It would be intresting to know if you can do this with every package, and if so if those are all encrypted or if we can “cache” some packages unencrypted as well.

Greetings
Kai

[bagolu]

I upvote too
Most of us have learned from the default planes and accessible templates (materials details, template variables, etc) to build our projects. Digging the gtlf, html/js files and xml templates is always a good idea to implement things the way they’re supposed to be.

This will also probably be necessary when we’ll have the opportunity to use the amazing gauges library feature too.

Much more than a fully detailed sample plane in SDK.

[Jonx]

This has huge implications for Livery Creators, Aircraft Enhancement Modders, and Replacement Package Creators like those using PMS50 avionics.

If a developer doesn’t have a way to investigate the core file structure, some core files, and everything is streamed… then developers won’t be able to package an “override” in the community folder to utilize these aircraft as fallbacks and/or references.

For example, if a Livery Creator at the minimum, knows the file structure, how would they even create a livery without the name of the .KTX2 file they are linking to the 3D Model? At the time of this post, they wouldn’t even be able to figure out the proper file structure, yet alone the name of the texture.

Livery Developers will be hit the hardest with this implementation, and enhancement developer studios like Black Square will go into a frenzy trying to figure out the core file structure alone in order to implement their additions to the core-aircraft files.

This needs to be addressed and at the minimum, allow for full download of core base-game aircraft in the Standard Edition that is separated from cache/encryption methods.

Unless there are ways to investigate this structure in dev-mode. Maybe the solution, if streaming/caching is locked in, is to allow developers to investigate code, names and core parameters in the SimObject Editor without limitations to their own Source Files?

They would still need to create a file structure and .cfg/.xml from scratch, but at least there is some visual data on what the original fallbacks are for creation…

[runshotgun]

@Jonx

Replacement Package Creators like those using PMS50 avionics

@Jonx

then developers won’t be able to package an “override” in the community folder to utilize these aircraft as fallbacks and/or references.

If the HTML_UI is locked away, there just won’t be a PMS50 override

[EPellissier]

Hi everyone,

Please have a look at the Tools / Virtual File System window - the last section labelled “VFS Projector” has information on how to map the VFS content to a virtual folder on your hard drive. Please note that this mapping is only available when the sim is running.

The online documentation will be updated shortly with further information on this feature - apologies for the delay.

Best regards,

Eric / Asobo

[Jonx]

Thank you @EPellissier for the information.

I can confirm that running the VFSProjection does indeed exploit the information needed for most creators to continue.

This is very important information for all developers going forward and I would like to thank Asobo for allowing this form of access.

Cheers, thank you for the information and I am looking forward to seeing more documentation on this in the future.

[EPellissier]

Hi again,

Since I have already received a question through PM on this topic: this feature won’t show or allow you to see the content of any encrypted file - it will only let you browse unprotected content.

Best regards,

Eric / Asobo

[Jonx]

Phew. As a 3rd Party developer also, I am very happy to hear that, thank you!

[vantech]

No NavSystem folder? Looking for the WT avionics

[SimbolFSReborn]

That’s sitting on the base package always, not via VFS… I saw them after installing the devalpha, no need to mount this to see them.

Search for them on your 2024 install.

R.

[Jonx]

That’s located at:
C:\XboxGames\Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024\Content\Packages

[cdgonzalezgo]

Exactly. Just like Raul (@SimbolFSReborn) said. You can search for those packages in the path @Jonx gave above. Just copy and paste them somewhere else, if you need to review code and all that stuff. (Well, at least to allow you review everything without issues later, you know, folders access or that sort of things) That is what I did with the 2020 base packages concerning HTML instruments, and this allowed me to study the JS avionics framework, and explore on my own.

Regards,
Carlos Daniel González Gómez
NextGen Simulations

[bagolu]

The VFS Projector is super sweet ! thanks a lot for that