Microsoft’s new iteration of Flight Simulator (MSFS), released on August 18, 2020, was one of the most anticipated games of the year. And while the game divides the audience, with others praising its graphics and others driving laughs and poor performance, the most important question for us is – how good is a simulator?
The biggest innovation, different from the 2020 version of Flight Simulator of decades-old Flight Simulator X, was the game’s ability to build a photorealistic world using high resolution photogrammetry data provided by Bing Maps. The game’s engine, built by French Asobo Studio, has an AI system that can interpret the map data and reconstruct the terrain and buildings of the entire world, in real time, before your eyes.
Although undeniably groundbreaking performance, it comes with a whole set of downsides. One of them is that, yes, AI is an AI, and while it can achieve some impressive computation, its perception, and – more importantly – the ability to interpret things still lies behind the people. That’s how some cities ended up with skyscrapers where no one was, and indescribable monstrosities instead of trees and cars on the streets.
While glitches can be both humiliating and amusing at the same time, a very different set of issues was created due to the game’s performance issues. For others it crashed, for others it was behind, for third the download took countless hours. And it had to take a long time, because the MSFS generates a whopping 91 gigabytes, all of which are downloaded while in-game. One of the most popular game distribution services, Steam, allows a refund if the game is played for less than two hours, but for many, those hours have passed before they could even start playing.
That said, disgruntled gamers went on to deliberately give poor reviews, which brought down the game’s almost perfect rating, compounded by fear of hit critics and other people who could play the game before its release. But this has nothing to do with the quality of the game, and does not even begin to answer the question of how well the new MSFS simulates real flight.
The pilot’s perspective
Unsatisfied with this development, AeroTime came in contact with one of the game’s beta testers, who is also a real life pilot, and has clocked significant hours in the air, the MSFS version of it, as well his earlier iterations. We’ll call him Bob. Bob speaks with a light French accent, loves his Cessna and was friendly enough to answer our questions.
“It depends on the aircraft, but overall, from the aspect of the flight dynamics of things, I was massively disappointed compared to what I was hyping to with the video discovery films released by Asobo Studios in development. ” Bob said when asked how the new game compares to real flying. “For example, you can not perform basic aerodynamic maneuvers with the aerobatics aircraft. You will struggle to keep inverted flight, despite having a symmetrical wing profile, struggle when you can not handle and perform inverted loop, do not perform sharp, precise roles. The reaction of the aircraft may be slow. ”
According to Bob, the aircraft of Microsoft Flight Simulator (which includes Airbus A320neo, Boeing 747-8 and 787 Dreamliner) will take off at lower speeds than they should and will have too many effective speed brakes. All of the game’s planes are not ready to stall and spin like their real opposites do, no matter how hard you try.
“The mechanics are quite similar [to Flight Simulator X], perhaps too similar, because it seems that the new sim under the hood has an almost identical file structure as FSX and probably some disadvantages that come with it, ‘says Bob, a coveted player of Microsoft’s previous Flight Simulator. But, according to the pilot, it could be a good thing. Third-party developers will be able to insert their content into the new game, created for the previous version.
When asked about his views on the game’s main selling point – his visual and globe-spanning scale – Bob said it was exactly what could be expected with all the technological innovation of recent years, and despite bringing some of a technological revolution, game was kind of overhyped before the release.
‘But otherwise I’m still happy, I managed to have fun and I’m sure it will improve. But it was clearly not ready to go out; the release was raging, ”Bob concluded.
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