The latest Microsoft Flight Simulator update is now available to download and it adds a huge amount of extra content. The Game of the Year Edition of the simulator comes packed with new aircraft, new airports, new features and improvements across the board to make the sim even better.
Starting with new additional aircraft, the Game of the Year Edition brings 5 brand new aircraft free of charge to the simulator. Those aircraft are the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, the Pilatus PC-6 Porter, CubCrafters NX Cub, Aviat Pitts Special S1S and also a new eVTOL called “VoloCity“. All of the aircraft are original creations specifically designed for the new simulator. For example, the PC-6 Porter, originally planned as payware, was developed by Hans Hartmann who is known for his Aerosoft CRJ. Likewise, the F/A-18 was originally planned to release with the Top Gun: Maverick expansion, but Microsoft wanted to give users the chance to fly the military jet now.
Further to the 5 new aircraft, eight new hand-crafted airports across Central Europe and the US were added to the simulator. These are:
- Leipzig/Halle Airport (EDDP)
- Allgäu Airport Memmingen (EDJA)
- Kassel Airport (EDVK)
- Lugano Airport (LSZA)
- Zurich Airport (LSZH)
- Luzern-Beromunster Airport (LSZO)
- Patrick Space Force Base (KCOF)
- Marine Corps Air Station Miramar (KNKX)
New photogrammetry cities have also been added. These are: Helsinki (Finland), Freiburg in Germany (Germany), Brighton, Derby, Eastbourne, Newcastle, and Nottingham (UK), ), Vers-Pont-Du-Gard, Chambord and Port-Vendres (France) and Utrecht (Netherlands).
To help simmers of all experience levels, new tutorials have been added to the Game of the Year Edition. In partnership with FS Academy, the team has added 14 new tutorials to introduce simmers to Bush flying in an Icon A5 and also IFR in the Cessna 172.
In addition to the new content, new features were also added to the core simulator. This includes a replay system, an improved weather engine and also optional DirectX12 usage.
New Replay System
The new replay system is essentially what the Microsoft team use to capture video footage when creating the trailers. The replay system is functional, but lacks a UI that Microsoft considered completely polished and ready, Jorg confirmed to us in an interview that the replay mode will be looked at more in the future as they collect feedback from the community.
DirectX12
Whilst DirectX12 was part of the Xbox release, it has just been added to the PC version with Sim Update 7. It’s worth noting that right now, the implementation of DX12 is optional and is only a port of the API and not a full implementation (in the sense it uses features or enhances performance). It’s there for the community to try and report feedback, but there are no true benefits of using DirectX12 at this point in time.
Other Changes/Features
As with other Sim Updates, this one comes with a bunch of changes and fixes all designed to improve the performance, stability and overall usability of the simulator. Below is the full changelog as given by Microsoft on their blog.
As you wait for the 33GB download to install, why not check out our recap on the latest Developer Q&A session, or read about PMDG bringing their aircraft to the in-sim Marketplace very soon.
