'Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024' Preview: Advanced, Audacious Leap Forward

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is set to release on November 19. [Courtesy: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024]

Four years after the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator in August 2020, developers are preparing the launch of the most advanced and audacious Microsoft simulator software product in the 40-plus-year-old franchise’s history.

In a media preview that took place in early September, journalists were given a few hours of early access to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (MSFS2024) to see just how much more is coming to flight sim pilots on November 19.

Important to know is that MSFS2024 is a brand-new software entity, designed from the ground up built by more than 800 developers. MSFS2024 will be expandable and more user friendly, with many software components streamed from the cloud, greatly reducing the glacial loading times experienced with MSFS2020.

Cirrus VJS in MSFS2024 [Courtesy: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024]

With improved aircraft flight models, better aircraft systems modeling, and many other must-haves, here is just a partial summary of the new features, improvements, and systems coming to MSFS2024:

New Aircraft

Returning to your virtual hangar will be all of the aircraft from MSFS2020 but upgraded to take full advantage of the new flight model in MSFS2024.

The development team also added the new aircraft, which have been divided into different packages and available for purchase on November 19.

New General Aviation Aircraft

Beechcraft King Air C90
Cessna 404 Titan
Stemme S12G
Cirrus Vision Jet G2
Mike Patey’s Draco X
FlyDoo Hot Air Balloon
Aero Vodochody L39
Pipistrel Taurus M
Airship Industries Skyship 600
Grumman Hu-16 Albatross
Air Tractor AT-802
Archer Midnight
Cessna C188B Agtruck
Cessna 400 Corvalis (TTx)
Aviat Pitts S1S
DeHavilland CL-415
DeHavilland Twin Otter
Dornier SeaStar
Joby S4
MX Aircraft Company MXS-R
Cessna 408 SkyCourier
Saab 340D
Pilatus PC-12NGX
Pilatus PC-24
Zivko Edge 540
Zlin Savage Norden

Airbus H125 in MSFS2024 [Courtesy: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024]

Helicopters

Erickson S-64 Aircrane
Robinson R66
Airbus H125
Airbus H225
Boeing Chinook

Boeing 737 Max8 in MSFS2024 [Courtesy: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024]

Airliners and Military

North American T-6
Boeing 737 Max8
Airbus A321
Airbus A330
Boeing 747 DreamLifter
Boeing 747 Global Supertanker
Boeing C-17
Airbus A400M
Airbus Beluga
A-10 Warthog
North American P-51 Mustang

New Aircraft Systems Modeling

To build the most realistic piloting experience possible, all included aircraft underwent extensive system upgrades, including:

New hydraulics system modeling
Electrical circuits with many working circuit breakers
Mechanical systems, such as engines, will experience oil burn
Tire wear
Braking system wear
New EFB (electronic flight bag) tablet built into every airplane

The systems are not yet persistent across the flight simulator, meaning every time you load into a new free play flight session, the aircraft will be starting as new. However, wear and tear is modeled in parts of the new career mode.

Yosemite in MSFS2024 [Courtesy: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024]

New Flight Simulation Environment

Avionics weren’t the only simulator components improved in MSFS2024. The dev team had the goal of “making the ground in MSFS2024 as detailed as the air.”

This improvement began with increasing the ground modeling (or “polygon count” in the language of flight simulation) to be of such high resolution as to allow for undulations in pavement, uneven surfaces and surfaces of different grip level. The result is that aircraft tires will now have higher fidelity interactions with surfaces as varied as sand, pebbles, rocks, boulders and trees, bringing a more varied experience to bush pilots landing on unimproved areas such as river beds, fields, and mountain sides.

Some other detail improvements:

New weather engine with new storms and cirrus clouds at high altitude
Smoke from the ground or engine fires
Updates to how standing bodies of water are modeled like lakes and oceans
Soft surface modeling for full-airframe parachutes and hot air balloons
Lift in ground effect
Wake turbulence
Snow and snow amounts remodeled
Fields now grow crops and the vegetation height changes based on the season
New tree varieties populate the land
New animal model generates hundreds of species placed in correct regions around the world

Air traffic in MSFS2024 [Courtesy: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024]

Airports and Lighting, Helipads and Gliderports:

As the Microsoft development team continues to bring its focus to details large and small, a total of 160 major airports have been upgraded from their MSFS2020 versions to include:

Correct line markings on the ground and taxiways
More variety and regionally corrected on-airport ground vehicles
New pavement textures
Airport lighting updated to feature more realistic brightness, intensity, warmth and color, especially at night
Additional liveries and aircraft types added
100 different airliner models make up the AI-controlled traffic
All ships around the world that operate transponders on waterways across the world in MSFS2024, updating their position every 30 seconds
80,000 official helipads around the world
More than 2000 glider ports added

For casual enthusiasts who have never been to a real-world flight school, a small airport, or have never sat in a real GA airplane, the MSFS2024 career mode serves as an introductory pathway to flight training. [Courtesy: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024]

New Career Mode

The MSFS2024 development team built a comprehensive career mode with the goal of lowering the barrier to entry.

For casual enthusiasts who have never been to a real-world flight school, a small airport, or have never sat in a real GA airplane, this mode serves as an introductory pathway to flight training and then the chance to go deeper into a digital flying career.

For example:

Careers start at a flight school location of the pilot’s choosing and progress through flight school activities and short practical exams that open the pilot into wider career choices driven by selecting different available missions.
Training is led by a virtual flight instructor.
Once the minimum training is completed, pilots can select varied missions, such as banner towing, aircraft ferrying, crop dusting, search and rescue, executive transport, and cargo flights.
Used airplanes in the career mode will feature wear and tear and require occasional repair paid for by successfully completing missions.
There are over 3 million different potential missions in career mode, and missions change every day, keeping the game mode very fresh.
A new challenge mode will offer pilots the chance to compete against each other with an emphasis on fun and performance, with short two-to-10-minute engagements designed to be fast and interesting.
A new world photographer mode offers the chance to try your hand as an air-to-air photographer with your images scored based on how many requested elements make it into your photo submission.

Career mode [Courtesy: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024]

MSFS 2024 Packages

Much like MSFS2020, sim pilots will have the option to purchase the following packages that come with different loadouts of new aircraft, upgraded aircraft, MSFS2020 payware aircraft, and upgraded airports. The higher-end packages will be available in a physical game box.

The standard package includes 70 aircraft (30 new MSFS2024 aircraft and 40 upgraded MSFS2020 aircraft) and 150 upgraded airports.
The deluxe package includes 80 aircraft (35 new MSFS2024 aircraft and 45 upgraded MSFS2020 aircraft) and 155 upgraded airports.
The premium deluxe package includes 95 aircraft (45 new MSFS2024 aircraft and 50 upgraded MSFS2020 aircraft) and 160 upgraded airports.
New for MSFS2024, the aviator package includes 125 aircraft (45 new MSFS2024 aircraft, 50 upgraded MSFS2020 aircraft and 30 payware aircraft that were available for MSFS2020) and 160 upgraded airports.

The MSFS2024 development team built features for all flight sim pilots, allowing the experienced users to go deep into the virtual world, and provided engaging flight sim experiences for the pilot who wants the structure and excitement of career mode, letting them choose their own adventure.

And casual users can enjoy the simulator by doing short sightseeing flights and using the new photography mode.

MSFS2024 seems to have effectively lowered the barrier to entry as well, funneling new users into the career mode to help them have fun and learn more about real-world flying.

With meaningful improvements made to the user experience, pilots will have interactions in the air and on the ground that should feel more real. Forcing bush pilots to really evaluate their landing zone for large objects and modeling the real-world hazard of wake turbulence has appreciably increased the realism.

It is easy to forget how far and how fast technology has moved in the years since Microsoft Flight Simulator’s launch in 1982. But based on the leap forward that is MSFS2024, the Microsoft leadership team has shown that it is prepared to do even more, bringing the digital world of flight even closer to the real one.