It's 2020, which means we're now in the year that should (barring any unfortunate delays) deliver the comeback of Microsoft Flight Simulator after so many years (fourteen, to be exact) without a new installment.
To celebrate this occasion, the developers published a brief new video showcasing the game's stunning, lifelike visuals in snow environments that fit the Winter season. Make sure to enable the 4K option if you have an UltraHD display!
Official partnerships announced with real aircraft manufacturers so far include:
AirbusThe Boeing CompanyCubCraftersDaherDiamond Aircraft IndustriesICON AircraftRobin AircraftTextron AviationThe game, developed by French team Asobo Studio (A Plague Tale: Innocence), will pull massive amounts of data (2+ petabytes) from Bing Maps via the cloud while Microsoft's Azure AI uses photogrammetry to generate literally photorealistic models of the real Earth. Real-time weather data will be used as well, so you can expect to be flying in a storm if you're somewhere in the world where there is actually a storm going on at that same time. Physics is also reportedly very realistic, which makes sense since this is a simulator game after all.
The developers also revealed a while ago that support for Virtual Reality devices on PC is something that's a 'high priority', while ray tracing support is already in. Microsoft Flight Simulator shouldn't be that taxing on your system, either, thanks to the scalable engine.
An Xbox version of the game is also expected to release at a later point, though it is unclear exactly when. Oh, and there's also an extra video shared two days ago by the official NVIDIA GeForce Twitter account. Needless to say, it looks just as great. In case you missed it, check it out below.
Is this real life... ? pic.twitter.com/Q9Dnp3Mnda
— NVIDIA GeForce UK (@NVIDIAGeForceUK) December 30, 2019
If you're eager to try it out, you can sign up for the Insider Preview Program on the official site.