Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024is the latest in a long line of iconic flight sims that allow aviation enthusiasts to experience the thrill of operating hundreds of aircraft from the comfort of home. Each iteration ofMicrosoft Flight Simulatorhas expectedly built upon this legacy, introducing additional layers of detail to the simulation, improving the visual fidelity, and offering a growing assortment of sim experiences like hot air ballooning, helicopter flight, and even boating.
Its directpredecessorMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2020was lauded for its ambitious recreation of the entire planet Earth, and one ofMSFS 2024’s key selling points is how it exponentially improved upon this simulated rendition of our home. With true-to-life seasonal changes that influence flight characteristics due to atmospheric and temperature changes, hundreds of regionally-accurate animal species to discover, and 3D-rendered foliage down to individual rocks and branches,MSFS 2024’s realization of Earth is a colossal engineering feat separate from the always-impressive aircraft themselves.
In an interview with Game Rant, CEO Sebastian Wloch discussed the team’s focus on improvedrealism inMSFS 2024both in the cockpit and on the ground. He also spoke about how the Career Mode gives simmers a much-needed sense of direction and progression, particularly for newcomers, and how the new on-foot functionality paves the way for new activities for users like hiking, camping, and fishing.This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Building On The Legendary Microsoft Flight Simulator Series
Q: What would you say the goals were forMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2024as far as bringing the series forward? Was there something you decided early on to include?
A:One of the goals we had was to increase the detail on the ground a lot because we had introduced helicopters and quite a few nice, really great planes that are short takeoff and landing—you know, like the big wheels, and you can land anywhere. And we really wanted the landscape to look much, much better, especially from being close down there.
Also, you can get out of the aircraft now, walk around, and even go hiking if you want. I did that last week just for fun, to test the landscape. I did a huge hike in the mountain and I love to hike in the mountains, so I tried that a bit. So, the level of detail on the ground was one of the big goals.
We also really wanted to add more purpose to planes.In 2020’sMicrosoft Flight Simulator, you have a few missions, and you can go anywhere on the planet. There’s a lot of content, but there was no real goal, right? There was no career. So we looked at the real world, all the pilots' careers: What do they do? How do they start? What’s their career, typically? What kind of things can you do? And we implemented a fairly realistic representation of a career.
It’s a little easier than in the real world because becoming a real pilot is very hard. So we made it a bit shorter and easier, but still, you get the same sort of experience and steps to give it purpose. But there’s also no requirement to do the career. There are other new modes, like one where you get to go to photos in the world, which is easier if you want to just chill, enjoy the landscapes, a nice sunset—there is that, too. But if you want to save lives and do some search and rescue, you’re able to do that now.
Purpose was really important. We wanted to have a lot of content. We had these high-level goals of making it easier to get into the sim, giving it purpose, increasing the level of detail, and improving performance. We wanted to have better or improved performance, even though there’s a lot more detail and a lot more stuff. Everything is more complex. Oh, and we added seasons—really important aspects of the sim.
Q:Microsoft Flight Sim 2024seems to have focused on improving realism across the board. What were some areas you felt were most important to flesh out? Where do you think the most dramatic improvements are?
A:In terms of aircraft flying,Microsoft Flight Sim 2020wasa big step forward in terms of realismcompared toFSX, right? We added a system where you now have the aircraft hat shape, instead of being just a single-point approximation. There was some shape, but it was still just one wing, one fuselage. It was very boxy, very approximate.
In2024, we made another big step forward, where now we have super accurate shapes of every part of the aircraft. The fuselage and the wing are now accurately modeled in the physics simulation—not just in the visuals, but in the physics. Over the time of development, we developed a process to go up in real-world aircraft with instruments—machines to measure force, accelerations, and stuff.
I didn’t do that, but some people went up in fighter jets and other aircraft in the sim and did recordings of flight data. Then, in the sim, we developed a system that does the same recordings. Initially, some aircraft were only 70% accurate or so. In2020, we were already good but not perfect in every area.
We improved the aircraft using the new technologies and data to have, as much as possible, a perfect match. So that’s why many of the aircraft in2024will feel more realistic—it’s because they really match what happens with real-world aircraft.
Q: How does the team approach depicting something like cross turbulence accurately? What goes into making that effect align with real-world physics? Does that involve using those instruments that you mentioned?
A:Yeah, a little bit. So for turbulence, for example, you measure accelerations a lot. In the sim, we have a dev mode thatpeople can enable on PC, which gives them access to all sorts of tools. They can make their own aircraft, customize, tweak, and add on things. In there, there are tools where you can see the accelerations of the aircraft, which measures turbulence. There are official scales for turbulence—light, moderate, hard, or heavy. This is measured in how many G’s you get, as well as vertical wind speed. These can be measured in the real world and compared to the sim.
We also improved the system that simulates airflow, which is pretty realistically modeled. We calculate the amount of sun energy that touches the ground, depending on the angle and whether there are clouds, how long the day was, and how hot it is. We use weather data, so we know how the surface on the ground is. If it’s a parking lot, it’s going to be much hotter, and if there’s very hot ground somewhere, like a rooftop or certain types of fields, the air will be super hot at the surface, hotter than the surrounding air, and it’s going to rise.
If there’s a forest, the air is usually colder, so it will sink. These up-and-down movements are the origin of many turbulences. Some turbulences also come from the wind. For example, at the airport where I fly, there’s a field where you land, and then there are some trees. I don’t think they’re natural—they’re all the same size, the same height, and create something like a wall of trees.
When you land, at the very end, you fly over this wall of trees, and you can literally feel the wind coming in and going up because of that wall. Every time you get a bump. We simulate the deflection of the wind against buildings, trees, and all that in the sim. So it’s a mix of weather-based effects, mostly due to the sun, evaporation, convection heat, and wind that hits mountains, hills, and valleys, and just goes around.
We also use instruments in the sim to measure if it’s too much or something like that.
Q: Were there any features or improvements that were inspired by player feedback this time around? Was there anything you feel players were really asking for?
A:Yes. In that area, the list is quite long. We constantly look at forums where people can post their polls, and then we have, basically, a list of what people want—wish lists, bug lists, and stuff like that. Aside from the importantpoints we had planned for this iteration ofMicrosoft Flight Sim, everything else was pretty much feedback-based.
For example, one of the big requests was seasons. So, we added seasons. Another was, “Hey, can we have more accuracy in aircraft modeling—how they’re placed, how they’re simulated—in terms of seasons?” People really wanted seasons. Improved ground detail was another request on that list. The list is very long, but seasons were a very important thing.
To get good seasons, we had to move the trees. In2020, there was some sort of fake 3D—it wasn’t really a mesh; it was more like a projected picture. In2024, it’s real. There are many different species, and every tree is a bit different. They actually have branches, leaves, and they move in the wind.
Because of that, we can now have leaves changing color or trees with no leaves in the winter. We did the same for cornfields, plants, grass, and bushes. There’s a lot more detail on the ground. For example, in forests, you’ll find branches, wood, and rocks on the ground.
Seasons have a big impact on the color of the grass, too. When you fly high, because of the improved weather engine and atmospheric light simulation, trees now look darker in winter, and fields look brown. It really looks like winter now. Seasons have much more impact in the sim.
Q: How do seasons influence flight handling?
A:One important thing is that live weather impacts both the seasons and the data we receive. In the winter, it’s usually colder. Days are shorter, the sun is lower, and the ground surfaces are colder with less sunlight—depending on latitude, of course.
This means there’s less turbulence in winter compared to summer. Temperature impacts performance, too. For example, in the summer, you get more powerful engines and shorter takeoff distances, but also a higher risk of icing. That’s all accounted for.
We even now have a feature that came from community feedback: a live weather slider. In2020, live weather was always based on the current moment. If you only played in the evening, you’d always get nighttime, and you couldn’t play in the daytime unless you went to a different part of the planet.
Now, with the slider, you get 24 hours of live weather history. This allows you to play with live weather and live traffic anytime, no matter where or when. It’s the real-life world, but much more accessible. That was another big request, and it really made seasons and all the related features much more possible and interesting.
Q: What did you feel was one of the more difficult aspects of2024to work on, and is that the same for previous titles?
A:There were a lot of challenges.Performance and optimization are always big issuesbecause everything just keeps getting bigger and more complex. We have the whole planet, and now with more trees and fields, there’s just more and more going on. But machines only get more powerful slowly. The amount of detail we have now compared to2020is about 4,000 times more.
We really had to optimize, compress, and find ways to do things better. I think the complexity mostly comes from the scope. The planet is so big now that issues are harder to track down. For example, at one point, we had a bug where a lot of the fields were gray like they were burned. Somewhere in the pipeline, the AI might have mixed something up, or there could have been an error in the data, the cloud, or a shader—it was hard to tell.
In the past, you’d open the editor, change the level, and fix the mistake because it was usually manual. Now, it could be an AI issue, data issue, or something else entirely. On the other hand, we have a lot more tools now to track these issues, which are far more powerful than what we had 10 or 20 years ago. It sort of catches up, but it’s definitely more complex.
Q:MSFS 2024not only simulates aviation but many aspects of the Earth. How do you look to the real world when emulating it in terms of research and data?
A:That’s one of the founding principles: realism. How does the real world work? Let’s just make the same thing. In terms of game design, I wouldn’t say it’s easier, but it makes some decisions more straightforward. Sometimes there’s no data, so you have to approximate as best as you can, but we usually attempt to base everything on real-world data.
For example, with live animals, we have hundreds of species. From what I’ve seen, everything is on the servers, and they can add new species just like that. I think we have over 100 species now, with seasonal density maps showing where they’re supposed to be and when.
In the sim, you can now get out of the aircraft. You can land a helicopter anywhere, cut the engine, open the door, and step outside. Once outside, you canwalk around your aircraft—or anywhere, really. There’s no limit.
I do a lot of mountain hiking, and last week, I redid a hike I did in real life within the sim. While doing that, I came across what I think were big brown cows or buffaloes—I’m not sure what species they were. It’s interesting because the sim places animals based on real-world density maps.
If you approach them with a helicopter, they usually run away from the noise, but on foot, you can see them more frequently. The sim doesn’t place animals where they shouldn’t be, either—it respects their natural environments.
There’s also a mode in the sim where you take photos of things. It’s more accessible and easier to get into because the missions are shorter. In this mode, you can find animals in the world and take photos of them. You have access to a globe that shows the density maps for these animals, so you know where to go.
For example, cows are everywhere, but kangaroos are not. The density maps show where you’re more likely to find specific animals, depending on the season.
Q: What would you say is an underrated addition to2024? Is there a feature or improvement in the game that you feel is deceptively impactful?
A:That’s going to be a very personal thing. I think just the level of detail on the ground makes it much more realistic and also interesting to explore. You can’t just land anywhere with a plane anymore. For example, if there are rocks, like in the mountains nearby here, you know there are a lot of rocks on cliffs and slopes. It’s not like there are fields or prairies everywhere. There are some forests, but it’s mostly rocks—seas of rocks, lakes, just rocks and rocks.
In2020, it was a polygon; it was flat. You could land on it, even with an airliner, if you wanted to. Now, no—you’ll find rock formations that make it impossible to land in certain areas. I think that makes flying much more interesting.
In my experience, engine failure training was a large part of flying. You’d fly around in a small airplane, and the instructor would surprise you by cutting the engine and saying, “Engine failure.” You weren’t very high up, and you had a minute to find a place to land and get down there. You quickly learned to identify if an area was flat, rocky, a forest, or a field. In2020, everything was more or less flat, but now you really have to assess and adapt. Sometimes, even at the last moment, you can get surprised by terrain that’s bumpier than it seemed, and you might need to adjust on the fly.
One feature I also really like is the EFP—it’s like a big tablet. Years ago, pilots had a logbook, a pen, and a paper map. During my early flight training, I used a real paper map, and when you unfolded it, it was as big as the cockpit. You’d have pens and paper all over the place, and it wasn’t easy.
Now, people have tablets with software. They prepare their flights at home, upload everything to the aircraft GPS, and keep the tablet with them during the flight. In2024, we have a built-in native EFP—basically a virtual tablet. you’re able to use it to prepare your flight on the world map, and once in the aircraft, you can keep it with you.
You still have the GPS screens, but the tablet offers additional functionality, like maps and apps. It’s transversal, meaning it works on every aircraft, just like a real tablet. The first app on it is called Atlas. It’s a great navigation app made by a team called Working Title, who do amazing work.
People can also develop apps for this virtual tablet, so you could potentially have all kinds of tools on there, just like with a real device. I think this is a really cool feature for both small aircraft pilots and airline pilots.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s On-Foot Gameplay and Career Mode
Q: Earlier you touched on how there’s more structured gameplay now with the career system. What was your approach to trying to engage players with more direction?
A:The inspiration was real-world pilots. First, myself and a lot of people on the team went through pilot training. We paid close attention to what happens during a pilot’s very first flight.
In my first flight in real life, I showed up at the airport and didn’t have to do anything. The instructor brought me to the plane, I sat down, put on the seatbelt, and suddenly the engine was running. He asked, “Do you want to try turning left and right?” I said, “Okay,” and then I was standing on the runway.
He said, “You’re going to do the takeoff.” I asked, “Is it me?” And he replied, “Yeah, just go full throttle. When I tell you, pull the yoke.” So, I went full throttle, pulled the yoke, and he said, “Just hold it.” He gave me simple instructions like, “Put the horizon on the nose of the airplane and leave it there.”
I thought, Oh, this is easy. Flying isn’t that hard. What I didn’t notice was that he was handling everything else and only letting me do a few tasks. On the next flight, he added a bit more for me to handle, and so on.
It’s the same inthe career system. For the first flight, you don’t have to do much. You get into the plane, you’re teleported onto the runway, you take off, make a left turn, and the instructor explains a few things. It’s simple and easy.
The career progression is designed so that you unlock certifications to access different aircraft. The trainings are optional, so if you’re already a good pilot, you’re able to skip them. But for new players, there are plenty of trainings to teach the basics, like rudder control and landing.
You choose your starting airport—anywhere in the world, except for some very large airports like JFK. From there, you complete your first flight, earn your PPL, and start taking missions. you may then work toward a commercial pilot license (CPL), start making money, and unlock advanced certifications like multi-engine or night flying.
The system mirrors real-world progression but doesn’t force you to do too much. Aside from the first flight and one check flight, everything is optional. Check flights are useful because they often introduce new aircraft, and it’s like a tutorial for learning how to use specific features, like cargo equipment.
The world map offers localized missions based on where you start. For example, I started near a beach and had a mission to fly a banner ad along the coastline. You don’t need totravel across the worldto find content—it’s always available in your area.
We have about 3 million missions worldwide, so there’s plenty to do. If you want to stay in one area forever, you’re able to. If you want to explore the whole world, you can do that, too.
We also took a lot of inspiration from real-world pilots. For instance, parachute pilots explained how they do as many rotations as possible, going up and down repeatedly and taking shortcuts instead of following the full airport pattern. We spoke with glider pilots and other professionals to capture the essence of their jobs and simulate them as realistically as we could.
Q: What was the process like consulting with professionals in those fields, and how did you approach depicting those pilot professions?
A:We had meetings with pilots, usually in several steps. In the early design phase, we met with them to understand how their jobs work. Sometimes, there were flights to observe real operations. Later, these professionals came back to test the missions we built.
They’d provide feedback like, “This isn’t right,” or “This needs to change.” For example, one of the last consultations I heard about was for balloon flying. We introduced balloons asa new type of aircraft, and someone explained how they work. It’s quite complex—you can’t fly them in strong winds, for instance.
After receiving their feedback, we made improvements to ensure the missions felt authentic. Our design strategy is always to replicate the real world as much as possible. Sometimes we make things more accessible, but we try not to compromise on realism.
Q: Can you talk about the photography system?
A:Yeah, it’s a mode with a lot of choice. When you enter the mode, you see tiles of different sub-modes. Each sub-mode focuses on something specific to photograph. For example, there are national parks, monuments, buildings, mountains, lakes, animals, and even plane spotting.
I tried one of the plane-spotting tiles, and it was really cool. You click on it, and you can choose a plane, like a huge airliner. Then you see the world map, which shows real-world live traffic. When I clicked, there were 112 active planes. You can select one, spawn with a fighter jet nearby, and your task is to fly next to the airliner and take photos of it.
Most of the time, you’ll need to find something, fly around, and sometimes get into the right position to take a photo. Other times, the target will be easier to locate. It can vary in difficulty—like needing to fly at a certain angle or taking photos at night, during the day, in winter, in summer, or with something specific in the frame, such as a plane and a mountain.
You have a camera with zoom and other photography tools, and when you take the picture, the game validates your goal. The first goal is usually easy, but if you want to tackle more challenges, you can come back for side goals. Some side goals are season-dependent, so you can’t complete them all the time.
There’s a huge variety of things to photograph—mountains, lakes, cities, and more. It’s a great way to play the game. You might read the description, discover a natural park or a famous bridge, and explore it.
From what I know, there’s no timer unless it’s part of a specific side goal, like something that only happens at night. Otherwise, it’s pretty relaxing. You can try again until you succeed.
This contrasts with missions like search and rescue, where you need to act quickly and don’t have time to wait.
The photography mode, which I think is called World Photographer, offers hundreds of different things to capture. For animals, you land, walk around, and take pictures. Finding them can be a challenge, as some are harder to locate. The mode includes a density map to help.
For instance, it’s easier to find cows because they’re almost everywhere, but finding bears requires checking the map for where they’re likely to be. It’s a shorter and simpler mode, focused on single goals, and it’s all about appreciating the beauty of the world and the variety of experiences it offers.
Q:2024also features electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic systems in the aircraft. How does that affect the sim experience?
A:That’s an interesting question. First of all, yeah, these systems are now very, very complex. For example, the fuel system now includes fuel tubes and pumps, and those pumps require electricity. It’s the same for hydraulics.
I’m more on the technical side, but from what I know, every time you start a flight in free flight, the plane is new. However, in career mode, the plane isn’t necessarily new. When you fly, you use the plane, and afterward, you’ll need to repair it. Failures will appear if you don’t maintain the plane properly.
In real life, planes are designed to avoid failure, but there are still ranges of use. For instance, in2020, players often flew at full throttle, pushing the RPM needle into the red zone, because it didn’t matter in the sim. In the real world, though, full throttle is only used during takeoff. Once you speed up and the RPM increases, you’re expected to reduce power to around 80%, because the RPM isn’t supposed to exceed a certain limit—like 2,600on a Cessna.
If you keep the RPM in the red zone, the plane won’t explode, but the engine will wear out faster. An engine that should last 1,000 or 2,000 hours might only last 500 if you consistently run it at 110–115%. If you take a plane, push it to full power, and stay in the red for a two-hour flight, you could experience an engine failure before you finish.
Similarly, hard landings or overusing the brakes can cause them to heat up and become less efficient. Brake wear wasn’t simulated in2020, but it is now.
If you follow recommended procedures—what’s outlined in the POH (Pilot’s Operating Handbook)—wear and tear will be slow. You’ll only need to repair the plane occasionally in career mode, and you probably won’t notice much in free flight. But if you fly recklessly, ignoring limits, you’re unlikely to complete even your first flight without issues.
Q: Can you talk about the on-foot interactivity? What can players do while on the ground?
A:Right now we just did the basics. You can run, walk, and interact with the plane because it was designed for pre-flight. Now, in2020, there are add-ons for camping, fishing, and more. There are already add-ons, and we expect more will come, either from add-on creators or from people customizing the sim. So, that’s something we definitely see coming. Yeah, it’s really exciting.
Q: Do you think players will do interesting things with that feature, like trying to climb Mount Everest or spending most of their time exploring on foot?
A:I don’t know what players will do, but I can tell you what I’ll do! I’m actually a mountain runner, and I do a lot of hiking and ultra-running. I’ve done the UTMB (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc) and one in the Pyrenees.
Those kinds of events take hours, and in the sim, you can run pretty much forever without getting tired. I’ll probably do the UTMB route in the sim, complete with aid stations and everything. That’s definitely something I plan to do, and I imagine other players might do similar things. It’s completely possible.
Q: The flight sim genre can be a little daunting for newcomers. How does2024ease aspiring pilots into the experience?
A:Yeah, I think it’s a similar approach to the real world. The first flight for any pilot is super easy because they give you an easy plane, right? Easy aircraft usually have like three buttons. They’re easy to fly. Not every airplane is hard to fly, but some are more complex. Even though they attempt to make it easy, there’s still a lot of stuff to manage. But with easy aircraft, like a Cessna 152 or the Robin 400, these are easy to fly. And you have an instructor, which is basically like the assist system in the game.
When youlaunch the sim for the first time, it asks, “Hey, do you know anything about aircraft?” If you say you’re a beginner, you get all the assistances turned on. If you pick an easy airplane or start directly in the air, it’s as easy as possible. You don’t do much— not much can go wrong, and you just progress step by step.
Also, you don’t have to start with an airliner with 1,000 buttons. You can stay with a small, easy-to-fly aircraft in the countryside and have plenty to do. The world is huge, and there’s a huge number of missions and activities. You can stay on the easy side, and it’s still interesting in2024, because the world is so much more detailed now— with seasons, night cycles, and things like aurora-watching. There’s so much to do.
But if you want to, you’re able to progress and learn more, maybe get a dual-engine plane, a turbine engine, or even a small airliner. It offers a lot of freedom, and it’s really easy to get into. You don’t have to do the hard stuff if you don’t want to, and you won’t run out of things to do, even if you stay on the easier side.
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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
Asobo Studio’s Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a realistic flight simulator with the biggest lineup of aircraft ever, along with in-depth portrayals of airports and air traffic.
