The Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 global preview presentation has been released via the official Microsoft Flight Simulator YouTube channel. This presentation does not cover any new details that are coming to the 2024 simulator but does go into more detail about some features like the flight planning tool with plenty of amazing comparison shots.
Introduction
Jorg started the presentation, which was shared with many creators back in September who had the chance to check out the simulator, with a thank you and some small details about MSFS 2020. Jorg mentioned that the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise is Microsoft’s longest-running franchise, spanning over an impressive 42 years! It has seen over 45 million simmers since the franchise started in 1982.
From the beginning, Microsoft wanted to listen to the community and deliver constant updates throughout its lifespan. Since its release back in 2020, 50 updates have been released, ranging from world updates to avionics updates. Several partnerships were also made, including a popular one with Paramount to bring Top Gun to life in the simulator.
Growing the simulator over the past four years has seen an incredible amount of new simmers and interest in flight simulation. Just recently, they hit 1 billion total flight sessions, 300 million in the last 12 months, and 15 million unique users since 2020. Microsoft did not expect flight simulation to pick up so quickly but MSFS 2020 has seen nearly 5000 add-ons created in four years.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – Core Sim Focus
As explained several times by Microsoft, 2024 is now a much thinner client with most aspects moving to the cloud. Seb explained that this new thin client will allow MSFS to grow to over 10,000 add-ons and dozens more world and city updates in the future. It will also help to keep the minimum specs low and ensure that 2024 is backwards compatible, retaining the community folder.
Quality of life is everything for such a large and complex simulator, which is why this new thin client will improve on installation and load times. As most things are stored on the cloud, you will only ever download what you need, when you need. This change will reduce the load on your storage spaces and internet usage.
Improving on MSFS 2020, the new simulator has an improved aerodynamic simulation. This means that the overall flight physics and models have been improved, with wake turbulence now a thing in 2024. That wake turbulence remains for up to 6 minutes, slowly fading out in intensity over time. Flying will now feel more alive with updrafts, turbulence, and wind shear.
Bringing the finer details of the world to life, displacement maps have been added on the ground along with 3D ground collisions. This new system impacts friction and take-off and landing distances. Waves now have collisions with aircraft, requiring players to rethink their strategy for landing on these rougher surfaces. Vegetation, rocks, grass and small bumps have all been added to the ground in fine detail.
As mentioned in a previous developer stream, Asobo has improved upon all previous systems and added new ones. Systems like electrical, hydraulic, and fuel have all been improved alongside new wear and tear systems and a seatbelt system. Hard landings will now affect your aircraft in different ways, making simmers rethink their landings, especially in bush flying.
Working Title – EFB & Flight Planning (Chris)
Working Title is a team of around 25 developers who have partnered with Microsoft. The team wanted to create a realistic experience for simmers by working on new features to include pre-flight activities like flight planning, as well as creating deeper simulations of avionics. Working Title are the developers behind the new EFB and the new flight planning tool coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
Currently, with MSFS 2020, flight simmers have to go to external programs and resources for flight planning like the free tool SimBrief or the paid service, Navigraph. Chris walked us through the basic features of this new tool. The first part shows them adding an origin airport and a destination airport to create the base route.
Modifying the route is done by dragging the initial route line to a nearby waypoint or a waypoint of your choice. The next part shown is the charts and other information for the airport they have selected, KLAS in this example. Clicking on “Runways” gives you more information like the crosswind and length. Selecting the charts button brings you to all the available charts as well as showing you procedures.
From what was shown, we can expect charts for every area of flight such as departure, approach, and general airport charts. It also has a procedures system built in, so you can visually choose your approach or departure from a map view. All the available procedures are shown in different colours, making it easier to differentiate each approach or departure.
Working Title has also added some more advanced flight planning features to this tool. These include performance calculators to select aspects like your cost index, as well as payload and fuel tools and extended ops tools. The extended ops will allow for oceanic flights to be pre-planned. Inside the aircraft, your entire route is automatically imported into the EFB to be seen right away.
Just like in real life, you will be presented with an EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) inside the cockpit. This EFB allows you to do things like check the weather or go through checklists for your aircraft. Using this EFB, you will be able to transfer the flight plan you have created from the EFB to the aircraft’s avionics. This allows for much easier and quicker flight planning, as well as a more seamless experience.
Working Title – Avionics
Enhancing the avionics within the simulator, which shows the pilots all about the systems and how to navigate the plane, Working Title has worked on simulating the avionics at a deeper level. The satellites which provide GPS have been simulated, so depending on where you are and what satellites you are receiving a signal from, your navigation may be affected.
Other Garmin avionics which are being deeply simulated in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 are the Garmin G1000 NXI, G3X Touch and the G3000. These can be found in smaller, less complex aircraft like the Cessna 172 up to aircraft like the Cessna Citation. The Collins Proline 21 can also be found in business-class aircraft like the Citation CJ4.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – Aviation Activities
Microsoft has talked to many organisations around the world to be able to gauge accurate and realistic flight activities for simmers to experience and enjoy. By talking to real-world companies and organisations, they can create realistic activities. As seen in the initial trailer for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, activities range from aerial firefighting to cargo transportation and even mountain rescue.
Career mode was talked about in depth at this point in the presentation, with David explaining how career mode will work. He explained that you will be able to choose any airport in the world, except for international airports, to begin your career. To progress in your career, you will have to complete familiarisation flights, certifications, and specialisation flights to be able to move forward.
In order to receive certifications in different aircraft types and helicopters, simmers will need to use their “money” earned from career mode to pay for an exam. This means that simmers need to ensure they are ready and can pass before trying to get their certification. Specialisations are all the different types of activities you can unlock as you progress in your career.
Around the globe, hundreds of missions can spawn which refresh every day to give simmers a fresh experience every time they play. When you pick one, it will explain what you need to do, the weather, time, and a flight plan visually displayed in an overview map. At the end it will evaluate your performance, how long it took, your precision and what mistakes you made.
After every mission, simmers will be presented with a screen showing them how much money they made, what they lost and a bonus for their reputation. Your level will also upgrade to the next level with enough experience. The higher the level, the more certifications and specifications you can unlock. Everything you do in career mode can also affect the wear and tear of your aircraft in the long run.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – Challenge League and World Photographer
Giving players something more to do inside the simulator is the challenge league. This is a set of 3 weekly challenges that simmers can take part in to set their score on a leaderboard. Depending on where you are on the leaderboard at the end, you may go up a league. After selecting a challenge, you can visualise your flight path and what you need to do. At the end, you will be given a score and placed on the leaderboard.
World photographer mode is a simple mode to help people discover the best places on the planet. The mode will have preselected landmarks and locations, including animals, which you will have to grab a photo of. After selecting a location, you will be given certain criteria you need to meet to get all 3 stars. At the end of each one, you will be given a score based on how you did.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – The 2024 World
Explaining more about the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 world was Jorg and Seb, who went into some detail about how they created the next generation of their digital twin. Seb showed a wireframe show off the ground comparing MSFS 2020 and 2024. In the new simulator, the ground is 4000x more detailed than in 2020 with stones, bumps and more.
Textures have also been improved on the ground, with textures now 4000x more detailed. In 2020, you may have seen pixels or blurry ground markings, this has been changed along with new cracks and other details. Tire marks have also been added to runways to make it look like they have been used. These new effects are all procedural as explained in a previous developer stream.
MSFS 2024 – Static World
Microsoft and Bing worked together to collect new satellite imagery from hundreds of locations around the world. Microsoft also put a team together to collect new digital elevation maps. The team believes this is now the most detailed version of Earth anywhere. Microsoft also used new lidar data which was already there as a source but wasn’t being used.
Asobo has worked to create new materials and biomes in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. New procedural materials, grass and data-driven forests have all now been added to the simulator. Jorg showed off some comparison shots from 2020 and 2024 to show just how much the simulator has changed in terms of visuals.
Night lighting was another feature that was improved along with interiors and people walking around some airports. The ATC towers have been improved along with jetways, new materials, more detailed ground vehicles, and AI air traffic with real-world liveries. Glider airports have also been added in, with every glider airport hand-crafted by the team.
MSFS 2024 – Dynamic World & Living World
Seb began talking about how the new dynamic world would work, starting with seasons. The leaves on trees will change colours based on the time of the year. Aircraft will now interact with the world, leaving marks in snow, mud or grass. Clouds have been improved with new realistically simulated cirrus clouds along with improved colour grading.
Character customisation is a new feature added to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, with hundreds of different types of human models accurate to the location they are found at. Your character customisation has hundreds of different faces, accessories and more for you to choose from. Microsoft also worked with Frontier to get their animal models from the Planet Zoo series over to MSFS 2024.
A new data partner for Microsoft allows them to receive the location of every ship on earth via their transponders, this allows them to accurately place them in the waters. There are over 600 ship models to represent these ships realistically. Asobo has also modelled hundreds of aircraft models as well as real-life airline liveries.
Got Friends – Gliders & Bush Flying
Got Friends is a small team that began making freeware add-ons for flight simulators before being asked by Microsoft to work with them. Got Friends will be bringing a new navigation system for gliders into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. They will be bringing their own gliders into the simulator while working with Working Title to enhance the avionics.
Bush flying will be of particular interest for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 with the increased ground detail. This is why Got Friends will also be bringing the Draco X to life inside the simulator. The Draco X is a very powerful bush aircraft which will be brought into the sim alongside the Savage Norden. These two bush aircraft will be perfect for exploring the enhanced ground detail in the new sim.
Closing Notes
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024s development will be sustained with monthly updates for years to come like world updates which will all be streamed straight into the sim via the cloud. The marketplace has also been given an update to make add-ons more discoverable. A new feature allows simmers to rent aircraft for up to 7 days to give simmers a chance to experience the aircraft before committing.
The team at Microsoft and Asobo feel as if they have listened to feedback given by the community in MSFS 2020 and have applied it here in 2024. It is the “most ambitious sim ever undertaken” according to Microsoft. You can read more about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 in our previous articles here. Pre-orders have already begun and continue until November 18th 2024, before the simulator releases.
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