Microsoft Flight Simulator Partnership Update

The latest Partnership Series Update introduced Blackshark.ai and details how it uses artificial intelligence to populate the world in Microsoft Flight Simulator with 3D objects.

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Blackshark.ai uses artificial intelligence to extract information from satellite imagery to generate data such as buildings, vegetation and infrastructure, which is reconstructed in 3D. This data can then be streamed in real-time in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Over the last three years, the company has reconstructed approximately 1.5 billion buildings and 30 million square kilometres of vegetation.

SDK Update

Microsoft officially started the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace Partnership Program on July 18 and several hundred companies have already applied. On the SDK side, based on feedback from the third-party community, the team is targeting most of its efforts on the areas that matter to them. Sometimes, functionality is already available but is not yet clearly exposed or documented. Recent examples of that are the custom jetways and the functionality of the light system. Both will be demonstrated in an updated scenery sample and thorough documentation.

WebAssembly is being improved with better stability, asynchronous loading and more flexibility. The Developer Mode saw several important bug fixes and new utility tools make the developer’s life easier. Taxiway sign editing and projected meshes support are also being improved. To fully support Flight Simulator as a platform, the SDK team is being reinforced in the next few months to ensure that the third-party community gets everything they need from our toolset. Finally, the team is working on an new version of the Development Roadmap that will update all planned deliverables post-launch. A preview version is expected to be released at the end of August.