Every iteration of Microsoft Flight Simulator brings new features, in part because of the evolution of the hardware which enables us to fly. The latest release was no different and this simulation has come a long way in ten years.
After not flying for four or five years, I walked into an office where someone was flying Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) late in 2020 and wondered if I was seeing a movie or a documentary. New GPUs and the supporting APIs enable incredible features, and immersion has been taken to a new level in the latest iteration of the sim. It’s an earth and sky simulator as much as an aircraft and flight simulator. And with some of the aircraft now being added, it’s also an avionics and systems simulator.
At higher levels of challenge, it’s incredibly immersive. Flying an A320 on a precision landing in poor weather, one can really break into a sweat. If you have added Navigraph charts and learned the intricacies of the flight computer, your gate-to-gate time has increased as has the fun. Yet that immersive experience can quickly be lost when departing from the gate of a default Asobo airport.
Let’s face it, even a basic Asobo airport in MSFS now is better than most of the last generation. But when the new fea…
