Airshow Assistant compatibility with MSFS2024

Short report about Airshow Assistant compatibility with MSFS2024 (tested on dev alpha 7.11.2024)

SMOKES: effects look the same as before, some minor differences in particle velocity may appear. All parameters applied to effects as intended, smoke sources positioning works correctly. Can be considered as working.

FLARES: while flare objects insertion and fall physics works correctly, visual effects (smoke trail and glare) are not attached to the object properly. Can be considered as broken.

FORMATION: AI aircraft insertion works as before. scan feature capture installed aircraft properly, aircraft model/livery can be changed without issues. Finally, helicopters may be inserted into the sim by SimConnect, but this type of simobject has different sim variables for aircraft animation and sounds replay, also helicopters AI flight model should be adjusted for natural visual appearance. Smokes and flares applied to the wingmen properly. Payload appearance may no longer work properly for some 3rd party aircraft due to payload values changes applied by developers for FS2024 migration. Can be considered as partially working.

AERIAL REFUELING: tankers insertion (buddy, intercept and orbit) works correctly, Live mode not tested yet. Tankers have the correct visual appearance, refueling hose and booms animation works properly, custom lights are triggered. 3rd party tankers not tested but expected to work correctly as well. Comms messages played properly. Fuel flow works for default Asobo aircraft as intended, but some issues may happen with 3rd party aircraft as some planes will get fuel system updates/changes. Can be considered as working but compatibility issues with 3rd party aircraft will happen in the future.

Overall, add-on still works, even if some issues exist. SimConnect was not changed much but some system commands no longer work as before – like pause detection, and I am sure there will be dozens of such issues discovered in the future. Most of the 3rd party devs will apply changes to the fuel system or payload of their aircraft, or maybe even geometry and AAR custom switches, it will take months to bring user experience to the same level as we have reached in MSFS2020, so please be patient – you will catch various issues during add-on usage for a while.

I can’t see it being possible to release an add-on on the day one of the MSFS2024 release as it highly likely will uncover some other major issues not listed above. I will provide another report after the add-on will be tested on the release version of MSFS2024, until then – we are still working on various improvements of MSFS2020 version. And yes, it is still supported and will get updated for several next months on MSFS2020 for sure.

alex/tc