We’ve got some interesting nuggets of information coming out about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 thanks to a recent article that PCGamer wrote on their website about the upcoming sim. They quote Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator at Microsoft, about some core features. Let’s have a look!

What we’ve learned

There’s a lot we already know about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The release of a trailer from a few months ago plus what we learned at the last two Flight Sim Expo presentations in 2023 and 2024 is that MSFS is pushing forward on quite a few fronts offering an even more detailed view of the world thanks to AI and machine learning to process vast quantities of data. That’s on top of a still somewhat vague new system for a structured career/missions, new aircraft, new activities, and a new walk around mode.

Some of that previously known knowledge is referenced in the PCGamer article which is appealing to a wide audience so it makes a lot of sense to talk about it.

The big thing that I found in the article that’s worth referencing is the install size. Flight simulation software takes up a lot of space and MSFS 2020 is no stranger to that. We’ve known that the new version would be pushing a bit more into the cloud and now we have some numbers. Jorg mentions in the interview that MSFS 2020 is about 130 GB in initial install size and then there are 17 world updates which, if you have them all installed, that goes up to 500GB. With 2024 that is going to move to about 50GB or even less. More is being offloaded to the cloud.

There are other nuggets. Every glider airport, every oil rig, every lighthouse, every ship on earth with a transponder, and even ever tree is intended to be accurately simulated with the technology even being able to determine what kind of tree should be placed on the map.

They also talk a fair bit about exiting the plane and walking around and visiting your favourite sites. That should be really interesting to see.

I also love this quote from the article’s author:

I was struck by two things during my interview. One, is that Jorge Neumann’s passion for what his team is creating is unending. The second is that, by the sounds of it, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is aiming for a level of parallelism with the real world that has yet to be achieved by any game to date. 

Andy Edser from PC Gamer

That really does sum up what this new sim is planning to attempt to do. MSFS 2024 is aiming big and hopefully they manage to pull off all of their plans. It certainly sounds impressive but the real test will, of course, be when we all get to try it for ourselves.

Read the complete PCGamer article here.