Microsoft entwickelte mit Schweizer Hilfe den Flight Simulator weiter

After more than 10 years, a new version of "Flight Simulator" has been released by Microsoft. The game, which offers unprecedented realism, was developed with a little help from Switzerland. Virtual reality support is still a long way off, but is due to follow this year.

The first version of the flight simulation was released in 1982 and for a long time the game was part of Microsoft's permanent repertoire - like Windows or Office. In 2006, the company released "Flight Simulator X". However, in 2009 Microsoft closed the development studio Aces Game Studio, which had previously been responsible for the flight simulation. Whether another "Flight Simulator" would ever follow was therefore open for a long time.

At the E3 games fair last year, however, Microsoft surprisingly announced a new part: "Flight Simulator 2020". The title will be released on 18 August, It is being developed by the French developer Asobo Studios. The flight simulation aims to impress above all with its scope and realism.

Landscape created with the help of Bing Maps

If you want to watch one of the preview videos on YouTube you will immediately notice the high level of detail in the simulation: Not only the aeroplanes and the cockpit, but also the landscape can impress with very detailed graphics in up to 4K resolution.

In order to depict the landscape as realistically as possible, the French company Asobo Studios, commissioned by Microsoft, has used realistic map material and aerial images from Bing Maps for the new "Flight Simulator", as the developers explain. The 3D environment is generated by Microsoft's Azure cloud service. However, this only works if players are connected to the internet while flying. If you want to use the title offline, you have to download the corresponding content beforehand.

Wind and weather from Switzerland

Wind and weather should be depicted as realistically as possible. Things such as wind speed, wind direction and humidity are calculated. Users can also encounter wind phenomena such as updrafts, downdrafts and jet streams. Aircraft that use the jet stream can save fuel, for example.

For the weather, the flight simulator uses real-time data from the Swiss weather service meteoblue. There is also a day/night change. Players can customise many settings such as the time of day or weather conditions during the game.

Users can also access live flight data and thus come across aircraft that are actually in the air. However, only 50 aircraft within a radius of 200 kilometres are displayed at the same time so as not to overload the systems.

A game to explore

According to Microsoft, players can visit more than two million cities, discover various animals and land anywhere that is possible in real life - including away from airports. The fact that the servers are still not able to perfectly translate map and satellite data into a three-dimensional image can usually only be seen when flying low over familiar terrain.

However, the developers have also worked on thousands of areas to make them even more realistic. The developers have reworked more than 37,000 airports by hand. Up to 40 airports have even been recreated in detail. Microsoft has announced that it will provide the game with updates for at least ten years. The world is to be continuously improved based on new data.

And where is VR?

And virtual reality support is set to follow in 2020. In a question-and-answer list in the official Discord channel for Flight Simulator there is an entry that VR support is at the top of the developers' wish list for features that will appear after the market launch.

In an interview with The Standard last year, lead developer Jörg Neumann confirmed that the VR mode was a very high priority: "Asobo and I have years of experience with VR. We know what a lame-ass and a good implementation look like. We want to come up with a good solution, for example by cutting off the cockpit from the rest of the world. Then you can move around freely and the world in the background doesn't start to shimmer. We've already started with VR, but we want to do it right."

Source: t-online / Watston / Mixed

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