Status Update - Summer 2024

E-Jets Early Access

Hi fellow aviator,

It’s time again for a new status update on the progress of the Early Access E-Jets series.

A lot has happened in the past few months, and development of the E-Jets has progressed significantly. In addition to countless bug fixes and improvements, more features have been added. Here are just a few of them; you can find the complete changelogs on our roadmap page:

• More systems and displays re-coded and migrated in WASM
• First implementation of FMS speeds
• Tons of sound improvements
• Custom vertical autopilot modes
• Added extended Approach Status Annunciators
• Released the E-Jets 19X and 19X Freighter

Our great thanks go to our wonderful community, which constantly comes up with new ideas and suggestions for improvement, actively influencing product development. We greatly appreciate this collaborative exchange and will continue to rely on it in the future.

I would also like to highlight our development, moderator, support, and real pilot teams. Their dedication to this add-on is remarkable and goes far beyond the usual requirements. It’s great to see them as excited as our customers. Together, we can achieve anything!

Now let’s take a look into the future.

Lineage (VIP Version)

Our partner X-Crafts is already working intensively on the VIP cabin version of the E190. The modeling is complete, and now everything is being beautifully textured. Once this is done, we will receive the data and prepare it for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Like the freighter, a new derivative of the existing E190 model will be created. This aircraft is still too far out to predict pricing and a release timeline, but we will be sure to keep you updated.

Some of you have asked about integrated stairs in the E-Jets. The good news is that these are already included in the Lineage and will be integrated into the other models by our team.

E-Jets E2 Series

Many of you have asked us about developing the E-Jets E2, and we certainly welcome your curiosity. We would love to implement this someday - however, our development schedule is full with finishing the Custom FMS and other E-Jets E1 features. Therefore, we are holding off on adding any new projects to the schedule until openings arise.

Custom FMS & Autopilot

This is most likely what you came here to read about – and we’re happy to say that we have plenty to share. First of all, we are thrilled with how many customers already enjoy the E-Jets despite the imperfect navigation systems. Typically, the last 20% of features often make up 80% of the development costs. Though some developers may choose to simply leave these last few features out to avoid the time and effort needed, that’s not how we operate. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive system simulation of the E-Jets, which is something we can’t do without the custom-coded Primus Epic FMS and autopilot.

Behind the scenes, we have two full-time developers working solely on this topic. To take you on this journey, we need to dive a bit deeper into the subject.

The Backend

Developing for Microsoft Flight Simulator can be very time-consuming and laborious. Therefore, we made the decision to initially develop the core systems outside the simulator and integrate them later. This allows rapid development and testing of these features without having to deal with simulator issues and long load times, though it means some time will have to be spent integrating the system into the sim later (and working around sim-isms). Nonetheless, even at this stage, the simulator can be connected with real-time data, allowing rapid and accurate debugging, which significantly aids our development. Our proprietary development software is capable of the following:

• Rendering gauges and displays
• Flight Simulator API Hooks
• Interfacing with the sim via SimConnect
• Real-Time Debugging
• Performance Monitoring

This has been enormously helpful in the WASM migration of the Audio Panels, IESS, Chrono, and EICAS.

Real Time Connection to/from MSFS

This means we're exchanging data with MSFS in real time without actually running the code in the sim.

Connecting aircraft specific variables

We can interact directly with the aircraft like a user can. We also read real time position, environment data and more.

Gauges that are executed in the E-Jets

Each display is coded individually and can be modifier right in our application.

Internal debugging

We can create our own individual logging system, making it easier to find bugs and issues.

Performance monitoring

What does this have to do with the custom FMS?

The two most critical modules for the custom FMS are NavData and FlightPlan. These are our self-coded modules on which the custom FMS is based.

The current state of the FMS allows us to create a complete flight plan for any route. It functions as does the FMS of any aircraft: you select the departure and destination airports, the departure and arrival routes, and the enroute waypoints. Together, this forms the entire flight plan. Altitude constraints are also considered. Although it still looks somewhat unwieldy, it works. This may seem like a very basic system for two years of development, and from your perspective it very well may be – but we’ve taken our time doing this correctly, rather than quickly. The tech we have developed can also be integrated into FMS systems for future projects, leading to faster development times for these.

This is the advantage of developing outside the simulator. Here, we don’t have to program a route ingame first to see if everything fits but can play through all eventualities in the shortest time before implementing it in the simulator. That’s great, isn’t it? 

That already looks pretty good, but why can’t we use it yet?

Because three crucial things are still missing:

Route Drawing

Although you already see a route visualized on a map in our screenshot, this is only a point-to-point connection and does not, for example, reflect curves depending on speed. To later tell the autopilot what to do, both the lateral and vertical flight profiles must be precisely calculated. This is our next step. At the same time, we can then also display this profile on the MFD.

Custom Autopilot

Once step 1 is done, we need to teach the autopilot to follow these lateral and vertical profiles to a tee, even in bad weather. If we attempted to use the Asobo LNAV for the lateral component, it would be the equivalent of telling a hamster to walk a tightrope. The Asobo autopilot has no vertical path tracking at all, so that also must be added.

MCDU Migration

The existing MCDU is still programmed in JavaScript and based on the Asobo Flightplan System. When the custom FMS (currently only outside of the sim) is integrated into the aircraft, the MCDU will need to be reprogrammed, in WASM, to interface with the new system.

There are also a few more steps to be completed. For example, our code cannot yet calculate holding entries; we need to teach it that. We also want to make RNAV approaches possible – these are also still missing. Always one step at a time.

But when?

There was some dissatisfaction in the community due to the low simulation depth at our first release. In this case, we want to do everything right and deliver a well-functioning system. The path should now be clear from the description above. But when will it be ready? And why isn’t it finished yet, although we announced it for summer 2024?

There are many answers to this. Anyone familiar with software programming knows that many stumbling blocks are placed in your way, and things often take longer than planned. For example, we had to work on the custom trim system of the autopilot for three weeks. Not because it is so complicated, but because we had to determine the best method through trial and error. Additionally, we lost a lot of time due to adjustments to the sim updates. Since you are all forced to install the latest simulator update, we always have to ensure compatibility as quickly as possible. For example, with Sim Update 15, we had to work on two fronts for many weeks to be compatible with both the current simulator and the upcoming sim update. This costs a lot of time and nerves and disrupts our timeline. But complaining doesn’t help; priorities must be set.

And that’s exactly what we are doing regarding the release of the custom FMS. We want to deliver a well-functioning system that meets your expectations, no matter when that will be. We would rather delay a release by months to ensure everything works properly than drown in a flood of tickets. I’m sure that’s also in your interest.

Additionally, while we are excited by the announcement of FS24, we are also a bit unsettled. We generally look forward to the possibilities of a new sim, but we currently know very little about what’s coming on a technical level. Our Discord survey showed that most people want to switch to FS24, so we have to deal with compatibility early on. According to Microsoft and Asobo, the add-ons should be generally compatible, but that was supposed to be the case with sim updates, as well. Given the amount of effort we had with that, we have some concerns, but remain cautiously optimistic with what’s coming in the new simulator.

Due to these factors, precise scheduling is very difficult. Of course, everyone wants a new update as quickly as possible, but it should also work well in both simulators.

More Manpower!

I’m sure many of you may ask why we don't simply assign more staff to development. After all, there are developers who created the Tecnam aircraft, for example. While it’s not an unreasonable thought, it's just not feasible for us in practice. The FMS and autopilot are incredibly complex systems, and that work is already divided between two developers. Adding more would end up slowing down development due to the increased coordination effort. There's a reason they say "too many cooks spoil the broth." A total of six people work full-time on the E-Jets, as well as developers which move between projects. Though this may seem like a bad arrangement, it allows the most skilled people who are familiar with the E-Jets to remain developing that aircraft (such as the FMS developers), while allowing visual teams and less E-Jet focused developers to work on other projects.

The Plan

As soon as we get the first beta version of FS24, we will put both the E-Jets and, if finished at that point the new FMS, through their paces. Our goal is to serve both simulators with a single code base. For this, we may need to make further adjustments, leading to additional delays. We just don’t know yet. The important thing is that when we release something, it works well, which is our goal. Who knows, maybe E-Jets version 1.0 will be ready with the release of FS24 (no promises though 😀).

We will give you a new status update once we have completed this testing and inform you about further plans. Until then, we will continue to equip the entire E-Jets series with additional features and improvements and work on the Lineage variant.

Thank you for your trust and commitment, and we look forward to a shared future with you!

- Marten Krull
Head of Sales & Projects