Microsoft today announced many of the new features that we will find in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, a new edition of the popular flight simulator coming to Xbox, PC and Game Pass on November 19. For the amount of improvements and additions, it is evident that this is not a simple upgrade to the previous title but a real leap forward for the series.

So here are the main new features of the game below.

CAREER

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will introduce a new Career system, designed to reproduce the steps taken by real pilots to launch their career. We can choose any airport on the planet and start our career from there, taking our lessons there. We will start as beginner pilots, accompanied by a mentor who will accompany us in the first steps.

The Career system will introduce new elements to the simulation, such as pre-flight procedures, recording flight paths, and choosing from a wide range of mission objectives. Advancement will take place through a certification tree that allows you to take the patent for different types of aircraft, each of which is accompanied by a specific training session. Later, specializations will unlock a series of missions related to that class of aircraft, such as Search and Rescue, Commercial Flights, Firefighting, and many others.

Once we have earned enough money to run our business with owned aircraft, a new phase will open up where we will be directly responsible for our own aircraft; Every landing, every bump on the runway, will have an impact on the warranty of our aircraft, affecting maintenance costs. In fact, the game will include a real management component. We will be able to buy new aircraft, expand our business into new contexts and new geographies, and so on.

The developers explain that one of the problems of the current Flight Simulator is that each of the individual experiences, such as Bush Trips and landing challenges rarely appeared connected to each other: the Career will create this bond, motivating us further and making it more interesting and fun to put ourselves in the shoes of virtual pilots.

TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 also brings with it massive technological evolutions, starting with the reproduction of our planet which will now be 4,000 times more detailed. For example, the terrain will no longer be a simple plane at different heights, but will feature small stones, rocks, gravel and grass, all modeled in 3D. These terrain details have an impact on the aircraft's wheels, which interact with the various surfaces for takeoffs and landings. The illumination of the sky and atmosphere has been improved, especially during sunrise and sunset, with a variable display of colors according to the composition of the clouds that ensures accurate temperatures for all light sources. New types of clouds, such as cirrus clouds, will better simulate the higher levels of our atmosphere, while dynamic weather has also been improved, increasing density to make storms and other atmospheric phenomena much more realistic and impressive to pass through.

The team updated aerial imagery of the entire globe, establishing a team of specialists who collected digital elevation maps from around the planet. It is something never done before by anyone else.

And it's not just inanimate objects that have been greatly improved: the guys at Asobo Studio aim to create a "digital twin" of the Earth, which is as close as possible to our real world. To do this they will introduce a large cast of different human characters and locally significant vehicles, which contribute to the overall realism of the simulation. For example, the real-time ship tracking system allows you to see cargo ships moving around the world as in real life. You can see passengers inside airliners or move from one location to another at airports. And since landing almost anywhere in the world is one of the main features, thanks to the much more detailed environments, the development team has worked closely with partners such as Frontier (creators of Zoo Tycoon and Planet Zoo) to introduce many animal species that bring life to the world.

There will be species separated into two groups: for wild animals, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility database was used to place animals around the world, both in their appropriate habitats and in the appropriate quantities for each location. As for domestic animals, on the other hand, a field survey was carried out to place species such as cows, sheep, goats and horses all over the planet. Basically, now we will even be able to go and graze sheep or cows with helicopters, which the team explains is a lot of fun.

THE POWER OF THE CLOUD

Another big improvement will come in the size of the installation. Taking advantage of the latest cloud streaming technologies, the size of the installation has been reduced to about 30 GB so that we can start flying as quickly as possible, streaming the more detailed areas that are only needed for our flight path; why install all the data for the US when we're going to fly over Europe for an evening?

The important thing is above all that the overall bandwidth consumption is very small, because you only download what you see as you fly, and you don't pre-download hundreds of gigabytes. Everything is highly optimized and adapted to the experience of each player. For example, if we fly over a large international airport, we don't need to download the highest quality version of the model, and the simulator will only pick up the lowest or medium quality version, leaving the higher quality assets to be streamed on demand through the cloud for when we are closer.

Another impressive novelty of the title will be the "soft body simulation" for hot air balloons. These hot air balloons will offer a realistic reaction to heat density: when you turn on the heater, the air heats up and inflates the huge balloon. We will see the ball swell and become lighter. Combustion takes place and the balloon rises. The banners are physically simulated, so they shake in the wind, just like the fabric with the rope attached. The same technology has been used to introduce parachutes: for example, the Cirrus Vision Jet, which can be flown, has a parachute system that can be deployed if needed.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will include a group of aircraft that are more detailed than any other flight simulator. It's not just about the appearance, which will still look great, but also about the care and attention given to the aircraft systems. For example , elements such as flight planning and pre-flight activities have been included, things that simulator enthusiasts have done in the past through external and non-integrated tools. Now you can enjoy the entire pre-flight experience, from planning and weather information to performing the flight on some of the most detailed cockpits and avionics systems ever seen in a simulator. The new flight planning tool supports any type of flight plan, from the smallest to the largest and most complicated, using the same type of tools that airline dispatchers use for their long commercial flights.

All of these improvements are the result of listening carefully to the Microsoft Flight Simulator community. Community feedback was taken up and taken up by the development teams and became the guiding principles for the creation of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The title therefore promises to be the most ambitious flight simulator for the consumer public ever made: let's fasten our seatbelts and get ready for take-off on November 19th!