As usual, the live Developer streams with the MSFS team are rich in new announcements, updates, and detailed insights into what is going on behind the scenes in the platform. Our previous roundup covers all of the most significant topics discussed during the stream including the fact that MSFS 2020 will start to get some improvements that are planned for MSFS 2024, but there’s another topic that deserves a separate analysis: Sim Update 14 and the new airplanes it will (or not…) introduce.
Let’s start with the iniBuilds A320, touted as an improvement to the original Asobo A320 and planned to be a free addition to the platform. As we reported just a couple of weeks ago, this brand-new A320 became available for testing in a new build of Sim Update 14 beta, giving simmers the opportunity to try a more advanced and accessible A320, especially those flying on Xbox. However, yesterday’s stream revealed some striking news: the iniBuilds A320 has been dropped from SU14 and has been delayed by a few more months.
The immediate result of this decision is that the latest build of SU14 (1.35.19.0), released yesterday, has removed the iniBuilds A320 from the aircraft selection screen for all testers.
Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, provided an official explanation for this decision, saying that the aircraft is currently too unstable and causes too many crashes, especially on Xbox. While this sounds like an acceptable explanation, there’s an elephant in the room that can’t be ignored: shortly after the initial beta release of the iniBuilds A320, someone claiming to be on the development team of FlyByWire accused iniBuilds of violating GPL licensing and using code copied directly from FlyByWire’s A320:
iniBuilds violating GPL licensing
by inMicrosoftFlightSim
There’s been no public reaction from iniBuilds yet and FlyByWire has officially distanced itself from the statements of said developer, but there’s clearly something going on behind the scenes.
We are investigating the recent unauthorised disclosure of internal information and cannot comment on it at this time. We apologise to all relevant parties for the poor actions of one of our team members.
— FlyByWire Simulations (@FlyByWireSim) November 21, 2023
This leaves us wondering: has the decision to remove the iniBuilds A320 from the ongoing SU14 beta been fully fuelled by the technical problems with the product, or does it have something to do with this code dispute? Intriguing, but we’ll see how this will evolve in the coming weeks!
An entirely new aircraft: the Cirrus SR22T G6
On to more positive news! As announced by the MSFS team in September, Sim Update 14 will introduce a brand new rendition of the Cirrus SR22, focused on its more modern variant, the SR22T G6. This aircraft is now available for testing with the latest build of SU14 beta!
This new model of the SR22 is brought to us by the Working Title team, who has worked with Cirrus to make this plane a much more in-depth rendition of the plane, as well as using the new turbocharger technologies in MSFS to bring the engine model to a new level.
As Working Title explained, “A huge swath of Perspective+ avionics customizations have also been added, including support for the GCU479 keypad, stabilized approach annunciations, weight and balance page, full screen engine page, trip planning page, a raft of interactive checklists, computerized fuel flow bands/target indications, and more.”
“On the engine simulation side, we have additional customizations on top of the MSFS engine system including more specific CHT, EGT, and TIT simulations; a custom ECU for spot-on fuel consumption; mixture-related problems such as lean misfire and detonation; and engine failure. True to form we have really worked hard to get the aircraft flying very, very close to the numbers and with great feel. To top it all off this is the top-of-the-line model, equipped with a fully simulated FIKI system with TKS simulation.”
The final release version of Sim Update 14, which includes the new SR22T G6, is expected to be available on Tuesday, December 5. It is important to note that the SR22T G6 will directly replace the SR22 G5, and access to it will still require the Premium Deluxe edition of MSFS.
