My ongoing Flight Sim Expo 2024 retrospective series continues with some discussion of what I saw and thought about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. There were two excellent presentations by the developers themselves, partnerships all over the place were announced and beyond that there’s a whole eco system of third-party developers out there of which some were present at the expo. I talked with as many of them as I had time for and it was great to hear from them. Let’s talk MSFS!

MSFS 2024 is ‘coming in like a hurricane’

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a phenomenon unto itself. It’s been that way since June of 2019 when Microsoft surprised us all and announced Microsoft Flight Simulator was back with incredible graphics, streaming satellite imagery, AI powered scenery and a plan for ten or more years of support for the reinvigorated series.

One of the announcements at the expo was that Microsoft Flight Simulator has now reached 15-million unique users. That’s a huge number for a flight sim title and it shows that the sim is resonating, casually with many, more seriously and deeply with others. Even if just a few people spend money in the marketplace, that blows this up to incredible proportions and it’s no small wonder that MSFS 2024 is being developed by a bigger team internally now than its predecessor was.

What is most impressive from all the presentations they did this weekend is the sheer number of partnerships. Dozens of companies have been partnered with to do aircraft and scenery. The Flight Control Replay by Fabio Merlo replay system that some people use has become a partner and will now be a part of the base sim. We Love VFR mod by Puffin Flight? Partnered with and bringing in Orbx to do the visuals for the towers, power lines, smokestacks, cooling towers and other obstructions in a worldwide database. Oh, and that is being back ported to 2020 as well so even if you stick with the older sim there’s still stuff to be excited about. One of the exciting announcements was Got Friends, who do some of my favourite aircraft, now being a partner too and offering up an upgraded Edgley EA-7 Optica as well as doing the successor to the infamous one-of Draco bushplane. Love to see it!

There were other reveals too. That A330 we saw from the trailer? Jorg confirmed it was being done by iniBuilds and that it will come with both -200 and -300 variants and with both General Electric and Rolls Royce engine options. That’s what most of us had already surmised but Jorg confirmed it for us beyond any doubt. The Robson R66 helicopter with the agrispray kit is being done by Carenado. Same with the PC-12NGX.

We learned that the field spraying from the trailer with the moving grass is not something just plunked down in a specific location. Azure AI has been trained to locate agricultural areas and use archetypal crop visuals placed in the appropriate rows based on satellite imagery. Flying over a farmer’s field should be a reasonably realistic experience almost anywhere on the planet!

Last year we learned that the Azure AI system had also been employed to add things like grass, rocks, and other details to satellite imagery with tessellation effects adding depth to the scene. The visuals are remarkable!

Jorg talked about ship traffic and mentioned that the ships we saw in the trailer were actually old 2020 models before then showing us 2024 models with far more detail. It’s the same thing for passengers at airports, the detail of the bespoke airports created by Gaya is far higher, there appear to be far more ground vehicles zooming around, and it looks like just about everything has been upgraded, improved or otherwise overhauled.

Speaking of overhauls. Working Title has built, from the ground up, a whole new flight management system. Think of it as a SimBrief but built into the sim with support to create flight plans in your web browser, on your phone, in the sim menu or in the cockpit. It’s a major complaint that I’ve had with aircraft that the flight planner was never fully integrated into them and it looks like MSFS is set to fix that in a seriously meaningful way.

I’m very interested and excited to see what Asobo’s 737 MAX 8 might end up being. Some folks, immediately, jumped to it being like the old A320neo from the early days of MSFS 2020 but I don’t think that’s the case. The subtitle on the slide was this being their most complex airplane that they have ever delivered which suggests to me that Asobo, freed from having to do dozens of airplanes like the last time around, are creating a kind of flagship offering. Seb confirmed that it will be part of the base simulator too.

I didn’t attend the Marketplace update but that sounded interesting too. The 2020 marketplace is going to be imported into 2024 and then hidden from view until the developers that own the products can test and approve them for 2024. Icons will display which aircraft, scenery and other packages have been created for which sim and if they support both. There’s again been a reiteration that they think nearly every piece of content that works in 2020 should work in 2024 – how much work needs to be done to get a minimum upgrade is unknown I think even by the developers but it sounds like it will be minimal.

Finally, Jorg and Seb confirmed that the scenes in the trailer where the pilot is walking up to the aircraft are not just cinematics and that you can indeed walk around the aircraft. Appropriately configured aircraft will even have panels and protective covers that you can walk around and remove as part of your pre-flight experience. That just increases the potential for immersion in the new sim by another level.

I was constantly impressed by everything that I saw and all of the ways that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is pushing things forward. After the revolution that we experienced with the MSFS 2020, it was hard for me to imagine that they could push that much further with a follow on product but it appears that they really have.

I know some were upset that it feels so soon after MSFS 2020 came out that a new title was on the way but it really looks like Asobo were busy meaningfully changing the core of the sim in fundamental ways that go beyond your standard sim update.

There’s just so much to be excited about with this and it’s been widely implied that they aren’t done yet with reveals. We don’t know what they plan to do with features like ATC yet for example but with everything else being overhauled it seems unlikely that it goes untouched.

Third party developers

I spoke with a bunch of third-party developers throughout the expo which was great fun. There’s so much stuff that is going on right now.

I’ve already mentioned Got Friends but let’s mention them again. They had a great booth setup with a pair of stations setup for flying their Double Ender, a seriously cool and quirky bush plane that is tons of fun. I saw a pair of people flying it, side by side, in multiplayer, skimming the water and scooting down canyons. Terrific! They had a booth together with a friend of theirs, Emerald Scenery Designs, and I had a terrific time talking to him as well. He’s got some cool products in the works right now too as time allows.

I visited the SimWorks Studios booth twice and got to talk with a good portion of their team. I had a quick flight with the upcoming AirVan which is due in a couple of weeks. This is a fun aircraft with quite a bit of hauling potential and flying into some rough and unprepared airstrips. Then I got a chance to check out the PC-12 with some updates in place. They explained to me some mistakes in the propeller code resulted in a cascade of issues in the performance of the airplane. Fixing it and some other issues has taken time but what I flew on the weekend felt really good, better than my experience at home with the not-yet-fixed version. That update is due soon!

Right next to SimWorks Studios was FSReborn. More than a few of you have suggested their FSR500 and what I saw of their next project, the Embraer Phenom 300E, looks incredible. That’s going to be a fun airplane to fly in MSFS!

The folks at TFDi gave me a little bit of hands on with their MD-11. That aircraft is releasing on July 2^nd and what I saw suggested that MSFS is about to have yet another high-fidelity airliner join the ranks. They also showed me a brief presentation of their management software which tracks data of your flights, saves flights mid-air, and helps you manage your virtual airline if you belong to one.

PILOT’S was there with a small showcase of their Dash-7 and Clipper. I only had time for a very quick chat but they were excited about their post FSExpo plans to fly up to Yellowknife and check out one of the remaining operators of the Dash-7, Air Tindi (who have the absolute best and most entertaining social media content by the way), and see how they do their freight operations.

I had a great chat with the folks at MK Studios. I already mentioned it in my live blogging but I found it fascinating to hear from a scenery developer and find out what it took for them to do the work that they do. A lot of it often involves on site visits, spending hours in terminals to get reference information, to produce the work that they do. I asked about the relevance of interiors for some of the complex airports and they say that they often get complaints and lower review scores if they eschew interiors so while they seem superfluous to some its apparently very important to others. Their Keflavik Airport (BIKF) (which also includes Reykjavik Airport (BIRK)) scenery was released while we were at the expo and it apparently took 6 months of work to bring to fruition. Their next airport, Okinawa, is only another month out so there’s obviously some concurrency in development. Still, these are massive undertakings and you can see why the pricing is often so high (sometimes $30).

I had only a brief time at the Blackbird Simulations booth, but their recently released T-6A Texan II looks good. I need to have a closer look at that.

Just Flight were there too and while I wasn’t able to chat with them for long I did glean that the Avro RJ is on its way in the very near future (as if the recent trailer release wasn’t enough of an indication) and that the Fokker 70/100 were due in a few months time. I can see those coming in around the same time as MSFS 2024 does.

I’m sure I missed some third parties associated with Microsoft Flight Simulator at the expo but they were certainly many and the sim was all over the place.

Excitement

Microsoft Flight Simulator has become one of my most flown sims and the upgrades to 2024 have me beyond excited. Of course, setting myself up for a bit of disappointment if it doesn’t pan out quite as well as I hope it does is a possibility but everything that I’ve seen makes this sim out to be everything that 2020 was and so much more. That they are bringing in partners from around the community to make their sim better seems like such a great strategy making things better for everyone and supporting already popular additions.

Hopefully all of these additions and core changes also come with performance enhancements to keep things running smoothly. That’s really the only thing I’m a bit worried about though I have no reason to be just yet. We’ll know come release time for sure! Can’t wait.