Jorg Neumann, Sebastian Wloch, and Martial Bossard were once again on hand to reveal new details and answer questions about both Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and the upcoming sim, MSFS 2024. We got some interesting new details on both and this Q&A was once again a great reminder of all of the ways that the sim as a platform continues to grow and improve.

Sim Update 15 and future of the sim

One of the first big items here is Sim Update 15 which holds the distinction of being a rather large and consequential update and, sadly, the last Sim Update of the year for the current sim while the team turn their full attention to Flight Simulator 2024. Fortunately, it was very quickly clarified that this is not the last Sim Update for the current Flight Simulator 2020 edition and that some new features added to the new sim will be backported to the current edition. Sim Update 16 is planned for early in 2025 and the sim will continue to receive updated imagery and airports. Good news!

Sim Update 15 is coming with a long list of core updates of which many seem to be focused around the core of the sim. Stability and performance are the biggest changes with a new memory management model combined together with WASM updates for complex aircraft on Xbox are both freeing up memory (ideal for those on Xbox and with constrained memory) and improving overall performance. The changes sound promising!

Prior Q&A’s have talked about updates to snow coverage to help improve the accuracy of what is and is not snow covered in the world.

There’s also the previously mentioned adjustments to ground friction with some aircraft having already received updates (iniBuilds improved their A300-600 with support for the new system ahead of the sim update.

We also have a live traffic update which will apparently include new aircraft models with proper liveries for some operators.

We also had an extensive presentation by a developer from Working Title who went into some detail on their improvements to the G3X avionics package. Interestingly, by itself the package is VFR only but it can be combined with other IFR capable GPS systems to enable IFR capabilities. Even without an IFR system onboard, the system still can provide guidance for approaches. The changes to the G3X sound extensive and modular with developers able to integrate G3X into their aircraft quickly. Three aircraft included in the sim will receive the update on launch – two XCub models and the JMB VL-3.

Historical Weather for 2024

Another interesting tidbit of information that we learned in the Q&A was the addition of Historical Weather which is coming to MSFS 2024. The new feature will give us up to 24 hours of weather condition history. This was apparently quite a technical challenge as there’s quite a bit of information that has to be retained over the period of time.

This should be an interesting new feature as it’ll let us do things like time shift back several hours and experience weather conditions from earlier in the day. Want to fly through a particularly nasty storm from earlier? Or maybe you’re flying somewhere else in the world and its dark there right now… so you can shift both time and weather conditions to match what was happening earlier in the day. I can see this being very useful!

A320neo v2 updates

The free overhaul of Asobo’s original A320neo is on its way with the original aircraft remaining in the sim while iniBuilds, a frequent MSFS partner, is busy readying a version 2 replacement. The A320neo v2 has already been tested by Sim Update 15 beta testers and some problems have been found ranging from systems to frequent crashing. However, it sounds like efforts have been made to resolve many of those issues.

The Q&A covered a bit of a range from how iniBuilds have put the aircraft together to their current and future plans for it. The aircraft model is based on detailed references that include photos and official materials to create the aircraft.

On the systems front, WASM allocation work behind the scenes has resulted in some performance and stability improvements. Some differences between the A320ceo and A320neo have resulted in some confusion for some as well with the version being modeled is an earlier A320neo model with iniBuilds reporting that they are trying to avoid a “Frankenstein” aircraft. They are aiming to make an aircraft with all systems available for day to day operations.

One of the key take away messages is that iniBuilds plan to continue work on this aircraft, even after the Sim Update 15 is released. Great news for any issues that may be found after launch. To that end, new content is planned too with news that they intend to offer both engine variants! The CFM LEAP engines are coming at launch but it sounds like the PW1100 may be on offer later. Detals to come.

World Updates?

Two World Updates have been teased during this Q&A. Teased is maybe the wrong word as Jorg was quite frank and up front that they are aiming to capture updated visuals and data in two locations right now that have been highly requested – Brazil and Hawaii.

Jorg has previously talked about hiring an aircraft and pilot to capture some of the needed information and apparently that has been ongoing. There have been setbacks with rejection from local ATC over one Brazilian city for a proposed route that would have let them capture imagery. Apparently they will be refiling and hope to gain approval eventually.

Meanwhile, and this was new information for me, they are also aiming to update visuals for Hawaii. Apparently a pilot and aircraft were hired there but the pilot has not delivered yet and they are now seeking out another. Would love to see updated visuals there!

City Update VII

Another update is the reveal of City Update VII or “European Cities II” which includes new imagery for several new city areas. They are: Barcelona (with a much bigger area), Madrid, Nice, Monte Carlo, Porto, Stockholm. Should be great to fly over!

Short SkyVan by iniBuilds

Local Legend 16 is coming and this European themed aircraft is being developed, once again, by iniBuilds. The Short 67 Skyvan also known as the “Flying Shoebox.” The aircraft has great short takeoff and landing performance with both civil and military uses.

We saw a short demo of the aircraft in operation during the live stream and it looks quirky and interesting!

Beluga and A400m being created by iniBuilds

Last Q&A we had some news that some of the new aircraft being added to the sim were being developed by Flight FX. Infact, their currently available Vision Jet for MSFS is going to be baked into the sim by default which is going to be great value for lots of folks who want to fly it but haven’t checked it out yet – myself included!

IniBuilds once again takes the center stage this week as it was revealed that two of their projects, the A400m and the Beluga are being created by them for the new sim. We’ve seen them before in the trailer for 2024 but we didn’t know for sure who had made them. Now we do!

The Beluga, in particular, makes a whole lot of sense with the specialized freighter technically being known as the A300-600ST. iniBuilds work with the A300-600R(F) and A310 make this specialized option an obvious next step. Doubly so with the aircraft having been previously developed for X-Plane.

Listen in yourself

Hopefully the summary was useful to you but there was more questions answered than I can cover in a reasonable length and so if you want to listen in you may want to check it out with the full version now available on YouTube.