If you can believe it, it’s been 2-years now since Microsoft Flight Simulator went live and shook the foundations of the flight sim world. In the two years since then, the sim has taken on a progressively larger audience bringing in veteran sim pilots and curious newbies alike. So for the team at Asobo and Microsoft, today was yet another occasion to celebrate the work done so far and highlight what they are up to next. There’s a lot going on so here are some highlights!
World Update XI: Canada!
World Update XI is… Canada! I am overjoyed and very excited to see what Asobo can do for the Canadian scenery experience in Microsoft Flight Simulator. I’m a little biased as I hail from there.
The new world update is due September 27 and will include the usual array of updated digital elevation models, 89 points of interest, 12 updated city photogrammetry, 3 landing challenges, 3 bush trips, 3 discovery flights and 5 new airports.
The remote Iqaluit airport is among them which is very exciting as this is an airport that see’s a wide variety of airplanes landing there if they divert during a long distance trans-atlantic flight. It’s also a key cold weather testing airport. Neat to see!
The Q&A
Asobo and Microsoft are back with Jorg, Sebastian, and Martial doing a new live stream Q&A to mark both the occasion and to update us on the latest. The complete experience is available on Twitch.TV right now with a YouTube version likely due in a day or two.
The Q&A was wide ranging bringing in the latest on everything from helicopters to the G1000NXi project.
Here are some key points:
- Sim Update 10 is delayed by two weeks (and will release in September).
- They are working with nVidia to improve DX12 performance.
- Working with AMD to bring in FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) for a future update.
- WorkingTitle’s G1000NXi project is nearly complete and will replace the standard G1000 in Sim Update 10. The G1000NXi will remain in the marketplace until third parties have converted over to the new version.
- ATR 72 project is well underway. Jorg mentioned it as being “done when it’s done” with a goal date somewhere around the end of this year or early next. It may be part of an “Expert Series” of releases.
- VFR map updates were demoed offering a huge amount of additional features there.
- The previously mentioned world update for Canada was mentioned together with a comment from Jorg that the DeHavilland Beaver was originally intended to be a local legend but now is shipping free with the 40th Anniversary update.
This Q&A also brought with it a short demo of the Cabri G2 helicopter. This is one of the two helicopters that they have announced for the 40th Anniversary update. We saw some visualizations of what the helicopter is doing with the flight model with each line representing the calculations that are going on to make this a realistic helicopter experience.
50+ items on sale
For two days, starting today, there are fifty plus items on sale in the Marketplace. These include discounts on the Premium Deluxe Upgrade, all of the previously released Asobo aircraft (i.e. the Aviat Husky A-1C, Model 18, Fokker F.VII, etc.), and the Reno Air Racing bundles and aircraft.
Stormbirds 
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