Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 once again allows players to explore the entire planet and even land and disembark anywhere - a giant playground for gamers and, of course, simulation fans. Unfortunately, the launch was hampered by server overload and other technical issues related to the game's cloud infrastructure.

Released in 2020 on PC and 2021 on Xbox Series X|S, Microsoft Flight Simulator was the most successful instalment in Microsoft's longest-running gaming franchise to date. More than 15 million gamers have tried the simulation, which is also included in Xbox Game Pass - many of them probably because of the low barrier to entry. "It took 16 years to get to 5 million users. So there has been an explosion in the flight simulation hobby and it’s because of the community and excitement that everybody’s bringing [to Microsoft Flight Simulator]", said Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, in Xbox Wire.

Considering that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was already a very ambitious project, with cloud-based worldwide map data, photogrammetry, machine learning techniques, real-time worldwide weather simulation and a complex physics system with numerous options designed to appeal to both beginners and professionals. It was a truly mammoth project, supported long after its release with system and world updates - as well as a marketpland it also offers a marketplace for third-party software, where more detailed airports, map data or new aircraft from other manufacturers were sold, including those from Aerosoft. Although it initially appeared that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 would be a Game as a Service with content updates and expansions for a long time to come, Microsoft has announced a new instalment in the summer of 2023 that will expand the massive game even further.

A new feature is the Career System, which starts with flying lessons and then takes you through typical pilot tasks, such as flight planning (which can also be done separately in a browser too) and pre-flight activities. Progress is tracked through a certification tree to learn to fly different types of aircraft. Later, specialisations unlock specific missions such as Search and Rescue, Commercial Flights, Medevac, Remote Cargo Ops, Aerial Firefighting and more. Several factors, such as following ATC instructions, taxi paths and flight parameters, are used to assess performance for these missions. Completing missions gives credits and reputation, which are needed to buy a plane. From then on, the pilot is responsible for everything from take-off to landing, while maintaining the aircraft also costs money. Eventually, the pilot will have several planes for a variety of missions. All career activities can only be played in this Career Mode. Compared to its predecessor, there are many more gameplay elements that make the game more varied, as well as clearer tasks away from setting your own goals. As well as this surprisingly extensive career, there is a Challenge League system, the usual Open World mode and the new World Photographer mode, which starts in the air and lets you take on multi-stage photography challenges in distinctive environments around the world.

Of course, the simulation of aerodynamics and physics has been improved, as have the avionics and various other aircraft systems (electrical, pneumatic, fuel and hydraulic). The "enhanced physics system allows 10,000+ rigid-body surfaces that enable the simulation of any shape of aircraft. Soft body physics supports cloth, ropes, balloons, and more", the developers said. And, just like its predecessor, the options menus offer numerous options for the complexity of the physical simulation and for player assistance. Much has changed here since the 2020 release, albeit largely under the hood.

Asobo, the French development studio behind the game, has also given the game world - the virtual representation of the entire Earth - a major overhaul. And since players can land and disembark their planes almost anywhere in the world, such graphical upgrades are of course essential. The developers are talking about a 4,000% increase in detail, be it in the ground (better elevation labs), airports, lighting or clouds. There are also new worldwide vertical obstacles, oil rigs, glider airports and heliports. At the same time, the digital Earth twin is more alive. There are human characters, passengers on board aircraft, ships and even animals. The latter were created in collaboration with Frontier Developments (Planet Zoo), among others. However, all this data is not installed on the PC or console. Unlike Flight Simulator 2020, there is only a rudimentary installation. Everything else is streamed from the cloud servers in high quality and up to date, as long as the data is needed. For example, if the aircraft is still some distance from a point of interest, the low resolution assets will be loaded first, and as you get closer, more detail will become visible.

"The very important thing is overall bandwidth consumption is way down, because you only download what you really see when you see it, and we don't pre-download at like hundreds of gigabytes. Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) already had over two petabytes of data on the cloud. That was the whole world data. We kept adding to that, but we still had planes, airports, meshes, points of interests like castles, and textures that were all installed. That’s the part that kept growing with the marketplace content, which had grown to 2 TB. Now we integrated everything into the cloud, and it is all streamed and kept into a rolling cache on the hardware. You don’t have to install any new World Updates; they’re just streamed seamlessly." CEO and Co-Founder of Asobo Studio Sebastian Wloch @ Xbox Wire

The developers are proud of the scope and speak of the 'most detailed re-creation of planet Earth to date': "Enhanced digital elevation maps, over 500 TIN (triangular irregular network) cities and more than 100,000 square kilometers of countryside photogrammetry allow for visually stunning digital twin experiences. More than 150 airports, 2,000 glider airports, 10,000 heliports, 2,000 points of interest, and 900 oil rigs have been carefully hand-crafted while a procedural system generates all 40,000 airports, 80,000 helipads, 1.5 billion buildings, and nearly 3 trillion trees our planet." However, players should be aware that there are places on the virtual earth that look really good and others that look rather rudimentary and rough. Still, compared to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, it is a big step forward. When it comes to the interface and controls, however, it's a different story. Here the game could have been based more on its direct predecessor.

When Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launched, the downside of this cloud-centric approach was immediately apparent, as the servers were immediately overloaded by the rush of players. This led to very long and frequent loading times, crashes or, if you managed to get into the game, absurd moments when, for example, almost all the plane's textures were missing while the pilot was in the air or only the basic ground data had been loaded. Error messages about 'low bandwidth' are also common, even though the basic game data was downloaded at over 100 megabytes per second. There is still a lot of work to be done, also in terms of bugs. In the following video, Jorg Neumann and Sebastian Wloch comment on the launch problems and promise improvements. The first steps were taken with update 1.1.9.0.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launched on 19 November 2024 on PC and Xbox Series X|S in a variety of editions. The Standard Edition is available with Game Pass. It includes 70 aircraft and 150 upgraded airports; the Deluxe Edition includes ten additional aircraft and five additional airports; the Premium Deluxe Edition includes an additional 15 aircrafts (for a total of 95); the Aviator Edition will include everything from the Premium Deluxe Edition plus the entire fleet of 30 Microsoft-released Marketplace aircraft developed for Microsoft Flight Simulator between 2021 and 2024. In addition, Aerosoft is distributing the Limited Collector's Edition of the flight simulation, which includes a Premium Deluxe Code, a limited Herpa metal model airplane of the Antonov An-225 in 1/400 scale and other extras.

Players who own the Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Deluxe Edition or Premium Deluxe Edition will automatically receive the additional aircraft and airports unique to these editions in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. In general, the add-ons available on the Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Marketplace should work with the new game. However, the Marketplace was disabled at launch due to backwards compatibility issues, giving add-on developers more time to ensure compatibility.

Conclusion

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a very ambitious flight sim with an excellent career mode and the whole world as a playground for beginners and pros. At launch, however, the game struggled with server overload, problems and bugs. There have been improvements since then, but it will be weeks, if not months, before the simulation shows its full potential, when all systems are running more smoothly and the marketplace is active again.

Features

• Extensive career mode with many different mission types
• Digital model of the earth with a range of impressive details
• Complex flight simulation with numerous settings and help functions

Just in time for gamescom 2024, Microsoft Flight Simulator World Update XVIII has been released, bringing improvements to the world map in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.