Two bits of Microsoft Flight Simulator news arriving simultaneously with the arrival of Sim Update 5.1 for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The new update has a relatively small list of fixes but there are some important ones that should hopefully fix memory and avionics glitches that some are experiencing. We’ve also heard word that long time community manager Jayne is departing her role.

Small list of updates but important ones

Microsoft has been testing Sim Update 5.1 for several weeks now with beta testers helping to make sure that the latest update is up to scratch. Asobo has been busy working to try and lessen the large memory footprint of Microsoft Flight Simulator and while SU5 was intended to help in that regard, it may have made it worse in other areas. We’ll have to see if they’ve got the right balance with SU5.1.

Here are the change notes for the SU5.1 update:

Stability & Performance

• Improved handling of texture mip streaming quality during high memory pressure conditions.
• Improved terrain degradation when memory is getting low.
• Fixed various crashes and improved memory usage.

Glass Cockpits

• Fixed an issue with the electrical system that caused some avionics & systems to think that a circuit had been powered off periodically causing some reboots and loss of function.

Career

• Mission availability times now take runway lighting systems at both the departure and arrival airports into account, allowing missions to start or end at night when adequate lighting is available.

General Bug Fixes

• Fixed burn ground effect in firefighting missions.
• On PlayStation 5, fixed an issue that would prevent to launch heavy cargo missions.

Traffic

Air Traffic

• Fixed 3rd Party Traffic add-on problem with pushback not working.

SDK

• On PlayStation 5, fixed HTTPS request failure from Coherent due to SSL handshake error.

Audio

• Fixed attenuation factors being calculated with a one frame delay for legacy sounds (based on WAV files)

WASM API

• Fixed base address for virtual allocs of WASM modules linear memory on PS5 (avoids crash with the Aerostar 600)
• Fixed WASM failures on PS5 when modules have been built with SDK 1.6.9 and higher (avoids crashes with the 2024 version of the ATR)
• Added support for dynamic VFS on-demand files to avoid using too much memory when accessing streamed files through WASI

JS API

• Fixes swapped parameters in new JS map listener weather radar methods added in SU5.

Many of these items are aimed at fixing more specific problems encountered since the launch of SU5. Hopefully memory usage is down, stability and performance are up, and some short and long standing issues for PC and console users are sorted out.

Jayne departs

If you’ve watched any of the Developer Q&A segments over the last six years, you will be familiar with community manager Jayne (Jummivana on the MSFS forums). She’s been the Senior Community Manager for six years now and has been interacting with the community at expos, on the forums, during Q&As and beyond. She has made the decision to move on to a new role and here is a little of what she’s said:

Supporting this community has been one of the greatest privileges of my career. Whether through livestreams, events, forums, Discord, social media, or meeting many of you in person around the world, I’ve been continually inspired by the passion, creativity, generosity, and knowledge that exists throughout this hobby.

While she does appear to be stepping away from the role, it seems that the community and the hobby have made a real impact on her personally as she goes on to write.

While I’m stepping away from my role at Microsoft, you haven’t seen the last of me. You’ve made a flight simmer and aviation enthusiast out of me, and I suspect that’s a lifelong commitment. I’ll continue following the hobby closely and participating as a member of the community alongside all of you.

Goodluck and godspeed Jayne!

No mention has been made of who will be replacing her in the Senior Community Manager role. We’ll find out soon enough I’m sure!