It’s long been in the works with numerous beta updates for public testers going out throughout the testing period and now it has finally arrived into a release state with version 1.4.20.0 (aka Sim Update 2) now available for update and download.

The big update

Microsoft and Asobo Studio intentionally made the beta test for Sim Update 2 a lengthy one and the sheer number of updates that have been packed into this update is absolutely mammoth. Some of the biggest sections are bug fixes and aircraft fixes but there are also a few new features in the mix as well.

From the Saab 340 to the Pipistrel Taurus M to the A310 and 737 MAX, it looks like Asobo and partners have been busy working on nearly all of the aircraft in the series with long update lists for all of them.

There are fixes and updates to core gameplay elements, to the ATC, the EFB has been worked over, the sluggish GUI apparently is faster now, and even the AI scenery aircraft have been given updates and detail fixes. Various world and detail fixes are in and third party scenery maker Gaya have updated most of the hand crafted airports with various LOD fixes – these should help improve performance.

There are quite a few updates listed for the career mode as well. Career has been the most requested feature and the sim’s Achilles heel to date with a lot of game breaking experiences happening there. We’ll have to see how that works out.

Among the new features is built in support for Frame Generation technology with 4th gen nVidia GPUs supported with nVidia’s own blend of FSR while AMD’s FSR3 works with all GPUs (nVidia included). Initial testing suggested a doubling of frame rates over non-frame gen scenes.

The lengthy changelog for Sim Update 2 is available here. It has its own table of contents broken down into various sections in-case you were wondering just what we’re talking about here.

Hopes and reactions

All of this will hopefully lead to Sim Update 2 being a watershed moment for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. I’ve only had a few minutes to check things out and my overall impression right at the moment is a positive one.

There are quite a few positive comments in the various discussion areas too while a few users are pointing out bugs that they spotted with some of the last beta builds, others are remarking at better overall performance and apparent stability of the updated sim.

The frame generation is really impressive to me already though they caution about some stability issues with some cards and driver setups and a fix is reportedly in the works. Still, I haven’t seen a crash yet and that is very encouraging indeed.

It looks like every single piece of MSFS 2024 has been worked over and improved. Do I expect SU2 to be entirely problem free? That seems unlikely given the nature of sim software and the challenges that the sim has faced. Still, I am hopeful that this a big step and that SU2 represents a turning of the tide for this sim experience.

I’ve been talking in the comments in the last few days about some MSFS 2024 related editorials and a long term review of the sim planned as well. SU2 is where I really start to get to work on both of those goals. Stay tuned!