Lots of Good News About the New Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 from FlighSimExpo 202
Credit to nemiroff from gaf for this info breakdown.
+ MSFS2020 reached 12 million unique users (not copies) in 3 years. As a comparison it took MS FSX 16 years to reach 5 million UUs.
+ "3 million core simmers, 3 million core gamers, and the rest casuals"
+ 33 months, 33 updates
+ Flight Simulator 2020 has been a "big hit". Has resulted in growing studio sizes and 15+ official partners
+ Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the biggest undertaking ever in flight simulation
+There are over 500 people working on Flight Simulator 2024 (175 at Asobo, plus Microsoft, plus partners)
+ Everyone wants more stuff to do, so they are adding a lot more activities. Because "we're not a game" all of them are accurate aviation activities.
+ The app itself will be smaller in size. A lot of architecture changes, more stuff is kept in the cloud (f.ex. textures). "Everything will be faster" for the user experience.
+ New physics and aerodynamics engine
Will lead to a lot more realistic aircraft simulation.
Will now f.ex. be able to simulate balloon flights, parachuting etc. with visually realistic deformation.
Engine rewritten for better multi-threading resulting in "massive performance improvements".
Example of inflating a balloon. Link
+ New and improved systems
+ A LOT more ground terrain detail. They'll now run additional machine learning detection on the surface to generate more complex and realistic ground.
Before
After
+ Improved "Static World". Better tools to convert satellite imagery, "2D to 3D".
Improved ground details
3D tesselated ground materials
Enhanced tree diversity
Improved cliffs
+Improved "Dynamic World"
Full seasons
Aurora borealis
Tornados
Storms
+Improved "Living World"
Animal heads and migration
Worldwide live ship traffic
Accurate live air traffic
Improved vehicle traffic
There are other stuff coming as well, obviously more aircrafts and updated cities.
