Parallel 42 have cancelled the release of SimFX and its immersion packs for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. SimFX was a framework that brought lots of different effects to the A320, 777 and 737s. The original plan was to make SimFX compatible with MSFS 2024, however, plans have changed.
Parallel 42’s MSFS 2024 Compatibility Issues
The team previously shared their intent to bring SimFX and the related immersion packs to MSFS 2024 as a native rebuild, free for MSFS 2020 owners. They continued to hold this position while waiting for some more updates and clarity from the new simulator. The release of Sim Update 2 for MSFS 2024 has now given the team a deeper understanding of the limitations of the new platform.
Parallel 42 says the SimFX framework relies heavily on deep modifications to “Model Behaviours” in the simulator. To allow for the level of customisability SimFX brings and requires, these deep modifications are essential. However, MSFS 2024 includes optimisations to many core simulation components, including “Model Behaviours”.
Although benefiting users and developers, these optimisations prevent the Parallel 42 team from placing the correct effects in the right locations for each aircraft. They opened a thread for Microsoft to address and were promised an update. However, there has still been no update given to the team, and their findings show clearly that SimFX can not be transferred to the new simulator.
The decision to cancel the compatibility release for SimFX and the immersion packages was not a decision the team wanted to make. However, the current state of the simulator and SDK make a future release in MSFS 2024 for SimFX highly unlikely. The status for SimFX and each immersion pack have now had its status changed on the MSFS 2024 Compatibility Dashboard.
All other products not mentioned in this post continue to move forward with a compatible or native MSFS 2024 build, such as ChasePlane and Flow Essential/Pro. You can read more about Parallel 42’s previous releases here on FSNews.
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