Now its time to take a look at two of the big civilian aviation simulators: Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane 12. Both of these sims saw lots of activity and content released relative and relevant to their audiences and here are some of the highlights.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and third parties

Flight Simulator came into the year riding high with the sim’s 2020 release having reached a level of overall stability that was ideal for first and third party developers to keep on rolling out new content and roll out new content they did!

The sim saw several significant world updates with outstanding UK & Ireland, Caribbean, as well as a Germany, Austria and Switzerland update. There were also city updates, local legends and famous flyers all getting new content. The sim also gained a new freely available A320neo with the iniBuilds V2 version all but replacing the original Asobo version with a much higher fidelity experience.

Speaking of, iniBuilds they had a tremendous year with over a half dozen aircraft released for MSFS 2020 alone and then following that up with significant updates to their A300-600 and not quite finishing their highly anticipated A350-900 and A350-1000 airliner project in this calendar year. They also launched their T-33 as part of a new series of aircraft.

We saw the release of countless new free and payware modules. Fenix brought their A320ceo series up to a Version 2 release with a ton of updates catapulting their A320 to its best level its even been. They also released a follow up A319 and A321 package adding to the breadth of their offerings.

Just Flight released the PA-38 Tomahawk, the Vulcan, updated their BAe 146 to version 2, and released the Avro RJ all this year. Their slate for next year looks even more exciting as this company continues to expand with new updates of the F28 Professional V2 and the Fokker 70/100 as well as the Airbus A300B4 and others.

PMDG had a pretty good year too refining and updating their 737NG series, adding additional features to their tablet/EFB and releasing the long awaited 777-300ER and 777F.

Over in the GA category we had A2A’s Commanche come out to the Marketplace in March, COWS released their DA42 to the sim in April, and Black Square released the Turbine and Piston engined Dukes in May.

SimWorks Studios high profile PC-12 launch struggled at times but ultimately managed to bring forward an overall impressive airplane to the sim. The developers continue to work on it as well as their array of aircraft including their Van’s RV aircraft series.

There were various other new releases this year from Microsoft and their partners. We had the Fw200 and the Westland Scout/Wasp as highlights among many other releases.

No recap of the year is complete without mention of the incredible and herculean efforts by FlyByWire Simulations, a freeware development group, with their release of the A380 for MSFS 2020. The Super Jumbo airliner has only been out for a short time now but the freeware nature of the project combined with what is already an impressively detailed simulation impresses.

Cowan Sim kicked off the year with the release of the R66 and came out with the H130 in June offering two highly detailed helicopter releases for the sim.

We had a few interesting releases coming from developer Aeroplane Heaven who were responsible for the generally quite good C-47 and Waco Glider pack released around the same time as the 80^th Anniversary of D-Day. They also released a Hurricane Mark I for the sim in may. The developer was also responsible for the Boeing 707 released in conjunction with Microsoft. The release was delayed and then came out in September to widespread critique. Its not known if the project will have a shot at redemption in 2025.

There was of course plenty of new scenery to go around this year and I particularly spent a fair bit of time looking at, flying around from, and then reviewing the excellent work of Emerald Scenery Design’s Alaskan bush airports and then later the Bald Eagle airfield – Myakka Head release. Excellent scenery well worth checking out… some of them are free!

There was an interesting movie tie-in released this year too with the sim taking on the task of giving is a Dune Ornithopter to fly around. While the release was somewhat unconventional compared to other offerings, it showed the flexibility of the sim and the ability to script interesting scenarios.

I’m absolutely certain I’ve forgotten consequential releases and events through the year, there was just so much going on, but all in all it was quite a year for the sim. Though now overshadowed by MSFS 2024, the 2020 version of the sim had an fantastic last year as the king of the flight sim scene.

The release of MSFS 2024 and the future

This year was also the year that Microsoft rolled out the highly anticipated follow-up to MSFS 2020. The 2024 release came out in November to incredibly high expectations. Unfortunately, the release initially went poorly with server distribution issues causing the initial 48 hours of release to be chaotic.

Things have improved significantly immediately following the launch with server availability remaining high post launch. However, other issues have continued to cause issues for the sim. Significant bugs in many areas of its operation plagues the new career mode in particular with various accounts from frustrated users showing off objectives that are impossible to achieve, aircraft dropping from the sky instead of appearing before the player for flight, crashes and game economy issues preventing players from progressing.

The sim also has issues with the ATC system, many of the aircraft released with serious problems, and some of the activities are also buggy or not working properly. Content streaming remains an issue too with the sim being slow to load for some while working ok for others.

Microsoft and Asobo appear to be diligently working to fix these and many more issues. I have no doubt that the sim will take shape, iron out its problems, and become a great platform for third parties to develop on. But it will take some time before these problems will be sorted out.

Not wanting to entirely be a downer on the product, the experiences I’ve had with MSFS 2024 have also been jaw dropping too. There has been a significant leap in technology particularly surrounding the sim’s flight model, its world rendering systems, and even in some of the more nitty gritty features like its new EFB tablet system with integrated charts, flight planning, and more.

Once MSFS 2024’s rough edges are smoothed out, it will take the crown from its older sibling as the biggest sim in the industry and its no small surprise that huge numbers of third party developers are lining up to offer content for the sim.

Microsoft and Asobo too are planning to offer quite a lot in the new year with a new South American focused World Update, new aircraft coming to the sim and more. We’re even getting the next four aircraft releases for free as a form of apology for how things went at launch.

We’re also expecting various third party releases to start flowing in significant amounts in the new year as developers get a grip on the new sim and upgrade their older products while releasing new ones.

X-Plane 12

Overshadowed by Microsoft Flight Simulator for much of the year, the folks at Laminar Research did manage to pull off a couple of visible and successful large scale launches this year that helped rekindle my love for the sim.

Their 12.1.0 release offered technology improvements, new graphics updates including particle effects when aircraft touch the ground as well as new visual bloom effects. Of course it also brought in the usual array of underlying system updates too.

Their 12.1.2 release really impressed me with various updates and fixes paired with a new series of ship assets and technology to populate the world with realistically placed ships. Small craft on lakes, large cargo ships on the ocean… it all looked good. Even better, the release started what appears to be a trend of updating some airports with custom scenery. While not beating MSFS in the visual department, it at least has helped the sim to keep pace and offer something interesting and exciting.

A December release of their ATC and first part of their weather update together with various other fixes came just yesterday with 12.1.3 also packaging in the famous Downtown Manhattan Heliport (KJRB) in the mix as well.

The sim saw a few high profile third party releases as well. X-Crafts significantly updated their E-Jets line (and announced a return to their ERJ project) while ToLiss released their A330-900neo airliner. Flight Factor also launched their 777 project into early access.

Just Flight partnered with Thranda to revamp and re-release some of their classic X-Plane aircraft while bringing them up to speed for X-Plane 12. Released types included the Duchess Model 76 back in January and PA-28R Arrow III & Turbo Arrow III/IV recently!

We also had a new high profile business jet come from TorqueSim with their launch of the Take Command! CitationJet 525 for X-Plane 12.

What stood out for you

It’s impossible to summarize everything that happened this year and so I look to you for your highlights as well. What stood out for you in the world of civilian flight simulation? Was it airliners, bush planes, general aviation, or something in between. Let me know in the comments!