The developer Fenix Simulations, responsible for the highly popular add-on of the Airbus A320 Series, is expected to get a large update, generally known in the community as the “Big Fenix Update”, either next Tuesday or Wednesday. This piece of information, alongside an introduction video showing this update, has been published via the developer’s Discord server.
The video starts by showing off improvements and new features in the Big Fenix Update. Aamir from the team, who is commenting on the video, mentions that the most anticipated feature, and a feature that the team has worked on the most, is the reworked landing dynamics. The landing profile is completely rebuilt, based on more than 800 thousand real-world flight data points. This means that the Fenix A320 is now going to behave differently, but more realistically.
The Fly-By-Wire also got its improvements. This will include pitch and roll logic, based on the new data sets. Aamir also mentioned that the flight model is now going to behave in the most realistic way on a linear control axis set-up in the simulator. Ground handling model has also been updated in both simulators, and the Fenix team completely reworked the rudder axis.
A319 With Sharklets
Moving over to the aircraft models, the A319 Sharklet variant is going to make its debut. There is a new engine type, specific for the A319 Sharklet variant, bringing the total number of CEO engine variants to 7 in the Fenix Simulations A320 Series. There are also other minor changes, such as flaps and flight control surfaces. This version of the A319 is quite “sporty” according to Aamir, as the CFM engines equipped on this variant have the same power output as the A320 version of the CFM engines.
The next large thing available in the Big Fenix Update is the weather radar, in which you will be able to control the gain. Tilt is not possible yet, but the team has already prepared some work for that in case Asobo allows tilt settings in the weather radar.
Improvements in the EFB
The EFB has also received a lot of love from the Fenix Simulations team. In the take-off page, there are now stop margins, and the UI of this page is going to get reworked in the future. We can now also find a PDF reader in the EFB, which will allow you to use your offline charts and other documents in the aircraft.
In the EFB settings, you will now be able to select different ACP Volume Control settings, allowing you to adjust the volume of external applications through the VHF panel in the aircraft. This includes even applications like Spotify.
New Soundset
The team has also focused on a whole new soundset for the aircraft. This is not only about improved recordings, but the team has gone to real aircraft to record all the different sounds, all within a single day. This now ensures a whole new level of sound simulation, and the heat around the aircraft will influence the pitch and quality of the sounds. The ambience of the flight deck will also be drastically improved.
Aamir also specifically speaks about continuous sound sets, as the Fenix team overcame a large simulator limitation. This means that the sounds will be realistically influenced by the number of open doors or windows. This new soundset is set to work immersively alongside Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s walkaround mode.
MSFS 2024 Specific Features
As the A320 Series by Fenix is getting completely reworked, it was naturally expected that an individual variant is going to be released for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. As the game engine of this new simulator has more opportunities for developers to work with, the aircraft will also feature more things to play with.
The entire structure of the aircraft is completely different; the main difference, and significant improvement, is the implementation of LODs. This allows the team to unload and load details of the aircraft, based on whether the pixels and details are visible on the user’s screen. This will essentially save resources, as it will load and unload different levels of detail of the exterior and the interior seamlessly. It also means that the team had to rework all their models in four different detail levels to make it work.
The Fenix A320 series is going to be completely walkaround-ready in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. You will be able to open different doors and hatches from the exterior model, and even move the engine blades. There is more planned for the walkaround mode in the future.
As the lighting engine also changed, the interior model was also completely reworked to use the new lighting engine in the simulator to its full potential. A specifically mentioned detail is the seven-segment displays in the aircraft. In real life, they are supposed to be more pronounced when natural light is shining on them, but back in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, these displays were more pronounced in the dark.
The Fenix team worked on this small but immersion-changing feature in this new version, making the aircraft flight deck look even better. Speaking of the exterior, all of the liveries were updated to accommodate the new model and texturing set, and fifty new liveries were created, bringing the total number of available liveries through the Livery Manager to 800.
Unfortunately, the team hasn’t mentioned anything about the upcoming A320 NEO Series in this video. As mentioned, this update is going to be released either on Tuesday or Wednesday next week (either the 29th or 30th of July). In the meantime, take a look at our article covering Fenix Simulations’ roadmap of 2025 here.
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