Microsoft Flight
Simulator, See the World from Your Home
Microsoft, an American multinational company whose purpose
is to manufacture, develop, license, support and even sell software products,
including both computer and simple electronics all around the globe. It is best
known for its famous operating system known as Microsoft Windows. Despite all
of its accomplishments and investments in the software world, one of its
hardware products include the Xbox video game console. Among one of its most
popular games that are still not publicly released but is highly trending
nowadays because of its versatility is Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is a series of flight simulator
programs that are marketed as video games. And as the name suggests it is a
simulation game that consists of light planes to wide-body jets and the user
can experience what it feels like to pilot a specific type of aircraft. See how
the world looks like but in virtual reality. It was one of the most successful
applications of VR (virtual reality) technology. Microsoft Flight Simulator may
be the longest-running PC game series of all time. Microsoft Flight Simulator X
is the latest major release of Microsoft Flight Simulator. However, we will be
talking about the upcoming version that is, the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
developed by Asobo Studios and published by Xbox Game Studios exclusively for
Windows 10 and Xbox One. It will be released in the year 2020.
The success of the Microsoft Flight Simulator series has led
them to even Guinness World Records awarding the series seven world records in
the Guinness World Record: Gaming Edition.
On the 9th of June, 2019, in a small gaming
conference called E3, Microsoft astonished the flight simulator community by
announcing a new installment titled as Microsoft Flight Simulator. Moreover,
during the Xbox gaming conference, they played a trailer for the new Microsoft
Flight Simulator title. The first edition to the flight simulator franchise in
ten years after Ace Game Studios was closed back in 2009. The trailer was very
good. Many people were excited to see how they will make the trailer a reality
yet some were concerned and skeptical. It was because how could Microsoft
achieve that level of visual graphics and fidelity in real-time. Since
Microsoft was making a comeback after 10 years it also led people to think
that, was this another Xbox arcaded game or an authentic flight simulator.
Microsoft gave all these answers telling that they believe
several technologies have evolved to such extent where they can be brought
together and converged to leap forward in-flight simulation. They focused on
four key areas, the world, the sky, aerodynamics, and the cockpit. Throughout
the history of flight simulation, one goal was always there i.e. to present the
world more accurately and realistically. From textured building to solid trees,
to ortho scenery and OSM road, it’s been a long journey for flight simulators.
So, what makes the Microsoft Flight Simulator different from other flight
simulators? Microsoft thinks that the Microsoft Flight Simulator will give a
representation of the entire world with accuracy down to centimeters. Difficult
but not impossible. Microsoft Bing maps have a ton of data, which will help in
Flight Simulator to shift the accuracy down to centimeters. With only two
petabytes of Bing data, all cities, airports, roads, and mountains in the whole
world have been represented. Forget your country; imagine flying over your own
house in a virtually realistic environment, Microsoft Flight Simulator will
provide you the smallest details. Microsoft Flight Simulator has the complete
representation of the Earth. The photogrammetry will have accuracy down to
three centimeters, satellite images down to three centimeters, and Ariel
imagery down to five centimeters, it consists of 3D scans of over 400 cities
and all of this is done, as mentioned before, using 2 petabytes of data. Flight
Simulator uses a clever integration of procedural generation of assets with
real-time Bing map integration. That means every country, every location, every
airport and even dirt islands, which are remote across the map, will be
accurate to VFR (visual flight rules). Considering all the data that Bing has,
it’s still not enough to visually represent everything down to a centimeter
across the whole world. To counter problems like these, machine learning and
computer vision-based algorithms also known as Azure Cloud services come into
place. Things left by the Bing, such as trees, ground, or building details are
handled by these concepts. In addition to that, the details such as dirt and
grass are procedurally generated. Thus, you can go anywhere in the Microsoft
Flight Simulator and wherever you go it will represent the real world.
But since flight simulators normally require the internet,
what happens if my internet speed or bandwidth is not good? What if the user
doesn’t even have an internet connection?
The answer is that Microsoft Flight Simulator uses adaptive
streaming which measures your bandwidth. It checks if you have an internet
connection and adapts to its bandwidth. However, the better your bandwidth the
better your experience. Now the question remains about what to do if you don’t
have an internet connection, well Microsoft Flight Simulator got you covered
because there is a full offline mode available which is based on real-life data
is and is reasonably accurate. Now an additional feature that the Microsoft
Flight Simulator provides is that you can save arbitrary regions of the world that
is pre-cache areas when you have the connection, and view them offline with the
same details, as you would have seen in an online simulation.
Next comes the skies, the skies are complex and difficult to
add realism to. The skies are very difficult to render, they scatter light and
create shadows. Microsoft Flight Simulator allows you to render the clouds
approximately up to 600km. Even the night sky is accurately modeled and all
stars are correctly represented. The simulator supports everything the natural
factors do such as planes affected by storm, wind gust or lightning. The
simulator also makes reflection possible. And when I say reflection I mean of
all types, like the reflection of clouds and buildings on the water. On days
with little sunlight the reflections will be darker thus providing a better
experience All the clouds are volumetric, so even passing through those clouds
will feel real.
There are realistic physics and weather systems present in
the Microsoft Flight Simulator and it also utilizes real-world weather data. At
E3 2019, an example was given how it would be like if the plane was being
driven during rainy weather. Microsoft Flight Simulator has captured the
details to such an extent that the rain droplets can be seen and the way they appear
on the windscreen of the plane is informed by the speed of the plane. The water
droplets will even stretch on the pretty neat windscreen. Similarly, like rain,
volumetric rainbows will be present depending on the real-life scenario.
The Microsoft Flight Simulator has been built on the FSX but
the aerodynamic part of the FSX has been re-written i.e. it is a new
aerodynamic simulation from scratch. A new worldwide atmospheric air mass
simulation will now be present. The simulation can now make emergency landings
anywhere, even in mountains. The tires of the planes are correctly simulated
with dynamic and static friction. Rubber tires will behave differently on
grass, cement or on slopes. Not only that, but the framerate will be adjusted
to the framerate of the user’s system thus developing an even smoother
experience for the user. Another addition to the simulator is making the plane
flight look smoother and it is not as if the planes are on some kind of rail.
Another thing was added which is related to icing. It simulates icing based on
the humidity of the air. Microsoft Flight Simulator consists of a legacy code
from Flight Simulator X, so if you don’t like the new simulation you can switch
the other simulation, I’d say this is one of the best things about Microsoft
Flight Simulator. The new aerodynamics simulation is more advanced as it
subdivides the aircraft into thousands of surfaces, which are mapped over the
airframe, which will allow more aerobatics that are realistic. One of the main
improvements was the new air mass simulation, which is now realistically
simulated on the whole globe.
In Microsoft Flight Simulator, a new day and night cycle is
added. The position of the sun will now be determined by the moment in the
year, for example, it may be a bit higher this summer and a bit lower in
winter. Even the lights at night will affect the clouds.
The last and main point is the aircraft we’ll be flying.
Only three aircraft were given to simulate at the global preview event, the
Cessna 172 Skyhawk, the Robin DR400 and the SOCATA TBM 900. Though a new
Microsoft Flight Simulator aircraft list was uploaded and there are a dozen
planes in the list.
