Update Microsoft Flight Simulator to add snow, ice before the holidays

Microsoft Flight Simulator will receive snow and ice cover with its next free update, which is due to arrive on December 22nd.

The update will bring “real-time snow cover and real ice” to the game, said Jorg Neumann, head of the Flight Simulator franchise, in an Xbox Wire post on Thursday. The article also includes a lot of fun data about the first few months of the community flying together online.

In August, Microsoft Flight Simulator – a franchise dating back to 1982 – was restarted using satellite data and photogrammetry from Bing Maps. Combining this data with topographic maps and vivid weather conditions, the developers at Asobo Studio have created a remarkable facsimile of the entire world. But it has many limitations, including the fact that, for consistency, satellite images tend to be captured only on clear, bright days. Since its launch, this has meant the globe of Microsoft Flight Simulator it was closed in an endless and eternal summer.

The addition of snow is therefore an extraordinary achievement and marks the integration of another data stream into the simulation. I imagine that autumn colors are coming, which are currently only available in user-generated modes.

VR will be added to the game on December 22, which may ease the effect of motion sickness for some users who are not used to flying on a computer monitor. Neumann said new deliveries will also be available: a Microsoft Flight Simulator– themed skin for each plane with which it launched the game. The update will also include a pair of books for the Pitts Special acrobatic biplane – just like the ones for Rufus and Sam seen in the adorable holiday commercial the company launched earlier this month.

Finally, Microsoft collected data from the first few months of community gaming. Together, the virtual pilots recorded enough miles to fly from Earth to our sun and return 19 times. However, only 72% of the Earth’s surface has been visited. That makes sense, of course, because of the whole uncharacteristic ocean there. Perhaps the addition of “real ice cover” will stimulate interest in visiting polar sights.

Expect these figures to rise in the summer of 2021, when Microsoft Flight Simulator arrives on the Xbox Series X. Neumann said the team’s plans for next year also include “3 major simulation updates” and four to five global updates. So far, Asobo has released World Updates for two countries – Japan in September and the US in November – and the next, for the UK, is scheduled to be released on January 26, 2021. The team is not done with America, however: in a Asked live last month, Neumann said he expects developers to have to publish “US Update 2 and US Update 3, because it will take so long for the entire massive, massive country to be processed.”

Image: Asobo Studio / Xbox Game Studios