After much teasing, Parallel 42 has gone back to its roots with the release of SimFX, a visual effects package for Microsoft Flight Simulator that aims to make parts of the sim such as heat blur, contrails, and rotor wash look more realistic.
SimFX enhances many of the visual effects already in MSFS, such as contrails and heat blur, and adds many new ones such as rotor wash, engine blast, wing wash, water spray on wet runways, and even animated auroras that use meteorological reports to sync with real-life.
While Parallel 42 mostly developed visual effects packages for various FSX and P3D aircraft before the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator, this is the team’s first add-on of its kind for the new sim. SimFX will also serve as a base for the immersion packages that Parallel 42 plans to release in the future. These immersion packages will add even more special visual effects to individual aircraft.
SimFX Features
Below is a full feature list with some extra information on each effect:
- Contrails that have a fluffy appearance and sync with AI traffic and traffic from online sources like MSFS multiplayer, VATSIM, IVAO, etc.
- Customizable heat blur effect for engines and APU.
- Engine blast effects that kick up dirt and displace water when applying high power settings.
- Wing wash effect that visibly shows the vortexes produced by large aircraft when taking off and landing on wet or rough surfaces.
- Helicopter rotor wash that displaces water and dynamically generates dust clouds depending on the helicopter’s size and the surface it’s flying on. This effect will also apply to multiplayer and AI helicopters once SU15 releases (or for those in the SU15 beta).
- Water spray effects when rolling and using thrust reversers on wet runways.
- Engine pollution effects for aircraft with older engines that leave trails of smoke.
- Tire smoke effects on touch down.
- Wave effect on water when interacting with it with either floats or wheels.
- Wheels on dirt effects that leave dust trails behind the aircraft’s wheels as it moves through unpaved surfaces.
- Animated auroras that are synced with real-life using meteorological data.
- Seasonally accurate shooting stars.
Each of these effects can be turned off and customized per aircraft based on the user’s preference or for additional performance. Speaking of performance, SimFX comes with a performance tool that allows you to see how much the effects are impacting your sim’s frame rates and that lets you choose between a few different quality presets that dynamically adjust the quality of the effects and hides them when not in view to save performance.
Third party aircraft compatibility
While SimFX is compatible with most third party aircraft, aircraft purchased from the MSFS marketplace are not fully compatible because they are encrypted, meaning that SimFX can’t get the information necessary to properly display all effects. Parallel 42 has provided a handy third party compatibility page that goes over the details of third party compatibility and has notes on a few popular third party aircraft and mods.
SimFX has a price of $25.00 USD and can be purchased from the Parallel 42 store here. It’s worth noting that a few of the features mentioned here will only be available once Sim Update 15 for MSFS is released. Those in the SU15 beta will also have access to the SU15-exclusive features.
