The latest Microsoft Flight Simulator Developer Q&A session took place yesterday with regular panellists Jorg, Seb, and Martial, along with Jayne hosting the session. In the nearly two-hour presentation, the team spoke about Sim Update 15, City Update 7, the next Local Legend and also revealed the next Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 aircraft developer.
This is a recap of all the highlights from the show, but feel free to watch the presentation yourself over on their Twitch channel.
Sim Update 15
Sim Update 15, one of the most significant changes to the simulator since it was released in August 2020, will see something like 280+ changes when it is released. Originally planned for a March launch, the update has been put through its paces to ensure it is stable for PC and Xbox users when it does come out. It had been due to released by the end of this month, but will be delayed further for at least another week to make sure it’s in a place where the MS team are happy.
As a reminder, Sim Update 15 will see improvements to performance, stability, snow coverage, ATC, live traffic and also introduce new ground handling friction models and of course the long-awaited A320neoV2 from iniBuilds.
Speaking of the A320neoV2, Michael Staden from iniBuilds also joined the stream to give a deeper dive into the aircraft.
The G3X Touch is also being overhauled by Working Title for Sim Update 15 and Charles Wang joined the Q&A session to give even more detail on what to expect from the overhaul.
Sim Update 15 will also be the last Sim Update before Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, but that it won’t be the last. A new one for Microsoft Flight Simulator [2020] will come early 2025.
Community Question Session
This Q&A session featured quite an extensive Q&A session which were previously submitted by the community. These technical questions ranged from questions on how to improve stuttering, the way airports are loaded into the simulator, and improving the overall helicopter model. You can watch from around the 39-minute mark on the Twitch stream.
Questions around the world itself took place from the 1 hour mark. This includes confirmation that there will be new aerial data when Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launches. Some features will be brought back to MSFS [2020], whilst some will only be compatible with the new sim thanks to the new technology found in it.
Miscilenious questions took place from 1 hour 17 minutes.
Shallow Water Update
Jorg gave a brief overview on how the team is improving the shallow water representation within the simulator. Using Turks and Caicos as an example, he demonstrated how the team have managed to transform the original low-flying aircraft data into something that was more seamless for in the simulator. Jorg said it’s quite a bit of work and this single area took 40-hours to create.
Bing will now take ownership of this and the team will go through all the shallow water areas. They calculated it would take 11.3 man-years to complete, but they will complete work as they go. Hopefully tools and new data will only help to reduce that time period.
Historial Weather
The subject of historical weather was brought up again during the stream. Martial took ownership of this question and said it’s a possibility for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. He said that they have changed how weather is done in the new simulator and they should be able to bring 24-hour data to the simulator.
City Update VII: European Cities II
Sadly the World Update for Brazil has had to be postponed, so to make up for it, the team will be launching City Update VII: European Cities II. This will include places like Barcelona (with new photogrammetry), Madrid, Nice & Monte Carlo, Porto, and Stockholm. This is due to release on May 28th 2024.
Local Legend 16: Short SC.7 Skyvan
iniBuilds are working on Local Legend 16: Short SC.7 Skyvan, which is due to launch alongside the next City Update at the end of May. This short take-off and landing aircraft has great capabilities, especially for skydiving runs.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
A few new tid-bits came from the stream about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
- It will feature a significantly revamped Marketplace
- Freeware is still planned very much so for the Marketplace
- inBuilds is working on the Beluga, and the A400M in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
- No SimConnect features are being removed from the SDK with the new simulator
- Intense dev support will be coming for developers for the new simulator soon
Top Gun: Maverick DLC
Over 3 million downloads for the DLC has happened. But sadly, it will be removed to download from the sim on May 25th 2024. It will not mean you can’t use it after that date, but simply will not be able to download it for new customers. So if you want to try your hand at the free DLC, you have a month left to get your copy.
Microsoft Flight Simulator at FlightSimExpo 2024
As a reminder, the Microsoft Flight Simulator team will be at this year’s FlightSimExpo 2024 in Las Vegas. Get your tickets today before the prices go up and be sure to meet the team. Tickets go up to $100 on May 1st 2024 so get them ASAP!
“I had a great, great time,” said Jorg.
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That wraps up the stream. But feel free to watch the whole stream over on Twitch.
