Over the last couple of years I’ve grown to love the Developer Live Stream Series coming from Microsoft and Asobo for Microsoft Flight Simulator. A mix of highlights from recent development, plenty of questions answered, and a look towards the future is wrapped up in about an hour. Here are some highlights from the latest stream.

Work still going on for 2020

One of the new features discussed that is coming is better tire physics. Ground handling in MSFS right now is a weak spot for the series and Asobo look to be chipping away at that issue thanks to a new setup for tire physics that will enable for tire deformation. That’ll change the way aircraft respond on the ground and how they land. It will also enable aircraft such as a Cessna to rock back and forth on its gear once the engine is started. Not groundbreaking for a flight sim but certainly a move towards keeping on par with other sims.

Another item includes work being done for helicopters with the ability to eventually support multiple rotor setups. In the medium term, however, the biggest change is the ability to have two rotors on the same plane which will immediately benefit a company like Miltech who are doing a CH-47 for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

The A320neo v2 from iniBuilds was pulled from Sim Update 14 because of crashing issues. Jorg reports that it is tight for Sim Update 15 but it may make it if all goes well.

ATC fixes are on the way including a fix that is in testing to sort out the bug where the ATC voice stops playing after a time.

WorkingTitle are working on making glass cockpits more performance friendly than they are now. They’ve already made adjustments but they are looking at further improving things. Especially in aircraft like the Dreamliner where there may be a half dozen to a dozen glass cockpit instruments. The Garmin G3X system is also the next system being revamped with more accuracy and new features.

Another big update is a revamped memory management system. Sebastian Wloch from Asobo goes into it in some detail but the short of it is that they are bringing over the memory allocation system developed for 2024 back to 2020. Their prior strategy was causing issues in some situations when low on memory, or when there were a lot of ground objects, etc. The new system is apparently much improved.

Tweaks are being made to the snow and water coverage system in Sim Update 15 as well. Lower resolution data, averaged out over an area, was causing some unrealistic conditions particularly in the summer in mountainous areas. Some lakes are frozen in these scenarios as well. A new system will reduce the instances of that although they report that they are looking for better data.

A lot of these updates are coming in Sim Update 15 which they are targeting for March 12.

Flight Simulator is benefiting from 2024

When Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 was announced there was considerable concern that everything would stop for the current 2020 released iteration of the sim. That doesn’t seem to be happening, however, and that is in full evidence in the latest live stream with various technologies coming over from the in development title to the current sim.

It’s great to see the ongoing support even as MSFS 2024 will undoubtedly pack in its own features that 2020 won’t see. The new sim, after all, has to justify doing an update.