Two weeks have passed since the Dynamic POV release. We have received tons of feedback: many of you love the new way to enjoy the Microsoft Flight Simulator, while some experienced various issues related to the add-on or the sim itself. Let’s review the existing issues and their solutions, ordered from most frequent to least:
-= Low quality head tracking: fixed/improved =-
Pilots reported that the app does not calculate their head movements precisely.
The most common issue may be poor lighting. Unlike the iOS TrueDepth camera (i.e., FaceID), which uses infrared lasers to illuminate your face, the optical camera on an Android phone cannot see your face well in a dark room. To help you detect this limitation, the app now displays a warning when lighting conditions become problematic. If you see it – please find a way to add some dim light to your room.
Another issue is with older Apple smartphones or iPads that lack a TrueDepth camera. With an optical camera head tracking quality was extremely low – the view jitters and reacts to head movements with delay. That was a software issue and was fixed in the last update, please ensure you have Dynamic POV v0.17 or later installed on your iOS device.
The last issue involves several cases where tracking quality remains low even when all condition requirements are met. To make reporting process easier, the REPORT ISSUE button was added to both apps. If you are still not satisfied with how head tracking works, feel free to press this button, repeat all the actions to reproduce the issue, and then stop recording. You can send the log file to our email by sharing it with any mailing app on your smartphone.
-= Incorrect pilot position: to be fixed next week =-
In some aircraft, like A320/A321, Fokker F28 and several others, once HT or camera effects are enabled, the pilot appears somewhere outside of the airplane or inside the cabin.
This issue took a while to understand – fixing one aircraft broke another. The reason appears to be simple: some aircraft share the same type & model values, set in the aircraft config file. It’s uncommon but it ironically affected several of the most popular aircraft.
We have implemented a fix which will prevent such problem in the future, but due to Marketplace update delays it will appear only next week.
As temporarily workaround you can open CONFIG tab and perform views enumeration, which will find the correct pilot position until end of the flight. You must do this while on the ground; this limitation will also be fixed in the next update.
-= Interior/exterior sounds played in exterior/interior: work in progress =-
This issue was known, but instead of “several” aircraft being affected, as we thought, there several dozens. The problem led into two reasons – aircraft developers used not the right way of exterior/interior sounds separation which were not noticeable before, and from other end – Asobo decided to add new value for the camera variable while a custom camera is active, which make these sounds script works completely wrong. We cannot fix this issue on our side, but we are trying to contact the aircraft developers whose aircraft are affected. Since there is no simple solution, reaching an agreement will take time. Also Asobo thinking about how this problem can be avoided without aircraft updates, but it will take a while for sure.
-= Flight stick HAT/POV switch does not work: partially fixed, final solution – next week =-
Sorry, missed that one 🙂 In v0.17, the HAT switch will control the camera direction and instruments views, next week – trim commands.
-= Neck offset slider: fixed =-
Small but important feature, slider didn’t react to user actions but it was fixed in the latest add-on update (0.17.0)
-= Connection issue: improved =-
Several reports was bout smartphone app connectivity issues, but we wasn’t able to get additional details as those people disappeared. The reason is highly likely in WiFi router configuration – it should allow data exchange between clients (i.e., clients isolation disabled).
To make troubleshooting easier, press REPORT ISSUE button at the bottom of the app, perform all the necessary actions to connects with FS add-on, then press same button again to send log on our e-mail.
-= WHAT NEXT? =-
Here are some plans, can’t provide any time frames but it will be done sooner or later.
1. Aircraft compatibility improvement – find more aircraft with problematic sounds, views etc.
2. Configurable shortcuts – currently all shortcuts are connected with default keys/buttons, will be great to re-configure them individually
3. Oculus Quest streaming support – while it’s not a real VR, still a good way to improve experience by streaming the sim while it’s camera reacts on had movements
4. More headphones support, maybe? It’s quite expensive to buy gadgets for testing purposes only; maybe with good sales it will be worth it.
-= DO YOU EXPERIENCE ANY PROBLEM WITH DPOV? =-
Better to report by direct message on our Fasebook, rather than comment – sometimes notifications are not created on new comments, as result we can easily miss your problem.
Feel fee to post publicly your feedback, suggestions or questions. Maybe someone else will be glad to join into the conversation.