After months of development, Parallel42 has begun to bring its well-regarded quality-of-life addons into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Beginning in early December with Flow Pro, Parallel42 also released an experimental build for ChasePlane for MSFS 2024 this week. Between the two well-known products, Parallel42 partnered with Active Sky to create Typical Weather, a new approach to weather for MSFS 2024
Parallel42 Flow for MSFS 2024
Parallel42 Flow (//42 Flow) is Parallel42’s menu replacement addon for Microsoft Flight Simulator. It is designed to replace MSFS’ often-cumbersome menu interface with an intuitive set of “wheel” menus. The menu addon implements a JavaScript scripting engine to create customizable widgets and menu functions, and provides a repository for users to share and discover widgets as well.
According to Parallel42, releasing Flow for MSFS 2024 involved a “total rebuild” of their code for the new simulator due to Asobo’s under-the-hood changes. Flow for MSFS 2024 is offered in two variants: Flow Pro, which includes the powerful scripting engine and automations, with additional tools for creatives and streamers. Flow Essentials is focused on being a menu replacement at a reduced cost. The free version, simply called “Flow,” is not available for MSFS2024 at the time of writing. Flow Pro is available for $30, and Flow Essentials is available for $20, both via Parallel42’s website.
Typical Weather for MSFS 2024
Typical Weather is Parallel42’s take on weather presets for MSFS 2024. According to Parallel42, they did not want to implement weather presets “like everyone else,” concerned primarily with the user experience of selecting and implementing presets manually. Over the course of two years, Parallel42 has partnered with Active Sky developer Damien Clark to create a weather preset engine for MSFS 2024 that is “familiar, data-driven, and beautiful.”
Parallel42 states that the goal of Typical Weather is not to perfect the live weather experience, nor is it intended to present the user with extensive options. Parallel42 describes Typical Weather as a “digital farmer’s almanac” that integrates historical weather data, adjusting it in-sim to be “typical” for a user’s location and time of year. Typical Weather also provides functionality to sync its injected weather with another user’s for multiplayer sessions. Typical Weather is now available for MSFS 2024 for $20 on Parallel42’s website.
Parallel42 ChasePlane for MSFS 2024
ChasePlane is an addon with a lengthy history in the flight sim space, well-regarded by users for years across multiple sims for the enhancements brought to in-sim cameras. Parallel42 brought ChasePlane to MSFS 2020 only recently, and has now released an “experimental” build of the product for MSFS 2024.
Parallel42 states that they are now comfortable with the state of the product in MSFS 2024, but cautions that they are still “leaving room for refinement,” implying there may be instability or bugs that are yet to be addressed by the team. They state, however, that the experience is “solid, fully usable, and ready for everyday flying.” Crucially, Parallel42 has not stated that the under-the-hood differences in the new simulator somehow block or break any functions of ChasePlane – all functionality should be available in MSFS 2024.
ChasePlane for MSFS 2024 is available for PC only, due to limitations of the console platform. Parallel42 is currently offering ChasePlane for MSFS 2024 at $30 during its experimental phase, and states that the price will increase once the experimental phase is over. No timeline or specific milestone is given to define when this will be. If you are a current owner of ChasePlane for MSFS 2020, Parallel42 is offering a code to get the updated version for free.
ChasePlane, Typical Weather, and Flow are the latest Parallel42 releases for MSFS 2024. Fans of Parallel42’s other immersion products, such as SimFX and the Immersion products, will need to note that Parallel42 has canceled SimFX for MSFS 2024. Parallel42 maintains a comprehensive dashboard of all its products to assist customers with compatibility information, and that dashboard can be found here.
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