A Merry Christmas and I wish a prosperous and happy 2025 to you all!
I've been still plugging away for 4 years now with focus within the MSFS 2020 and now entering the MSFS 2024 eco-system. Here are my personal highlights.
With 15 million users (2.5 to 5 million of which may be considered hard-core) MS has really committed to making Flight Sim their flagship product again after a 10 year hiatus.
The official MSFS page is an excellent intro to both sims.
The tech-stack behind MSFS is amazing, as is the community of developers they have established, and the monthly free updates. We have never seen the like, this commitment to continuous improvement, in 40 years of flight sims.
I am a MS partner and have 22 products in the marketplace where I introduce users to VFR flights around almost every capital city in the world (Africa, Asia, Europe) and then starting to narrow the focus by publishing the most detailed coverage yet of the Middle East (2 volumes), Caribbean (4 volumes), Slovenia (2 volumes) and N.S.W. (4 volumes).
As part of documenting my explorations and showcasing the completed flights, I've put together more than 3,000 videos in MSFS 2020. You can explore them by the World > Country > Locale > Airport > Points of Interest menu at the top of each page in the Museum or via my YouTube channel ... please like and subscribe : < )
Here are some of the features which have MOST engaged my imagination:
The digital twin contains (insert "bespoke databases of" before most of these entries):
every oil rig/heliport
every heliport (~60 K)
almost every airport and grass strip
all ship movements
all aircraft movements
animal migrations
crops by season
about 30 biomes
radio towers
power lines
power stations
Roads and bridges are modelled pretty well, with room for improvement. But they are definitely good enough to navigate by and I use them extensively for that in my MiGMan’s World Tour products.
Road traffic is pretty cool to see, even if they drive on the wrong side of the road in the antipodes! It sure adds realism out of the corner of your eye.
In MSFS 2024 "increasing the detail of its virtual environment by a factor of 4,000. For instance, the ground will no longer be a mere heightfield; it now features tiny stones, rocks, gravel and grass all modeled in 3D. This ground detail impacts your aircraft’s wheels as they interact with the various surfaces affecting take-offs and landings." Yes, I've tested this and it is A-mazing. Check it out here.
Photogrammetry and better city detail: This is my paraphrase from several interviews by Jorge Neumann (MSFS head): "I currently have planes [gathering data] in Africa, South America, and Asia. I’m flying those planes because flight simmers want more detail in those areas. These activities are often delayed by getting permission to fly the necessary "mapping flight plan over a city" and then finding suitable contractors. Over the past few years we have acquired our own aircraft, camers and operators to do this."
Career mode
The career mode implemented in MSFS 2024 provides a streamlined entree into most of the professional activities in the aviation world, from aerial banner towing, gliding, hot air ballooning and helicopter winch rescue, all of which feature soft-body physics. As of late December 2024 (one month after release) this may be the most buggy department of the sim, though some users are already making progress through it and into the specialised rescue missions for example. YMMV. Based on our experience with MSFS 2020, it will no doubt improve.
Is MSFS 2024 ready for us?
MSFS 2024 was an ambitious release in November 2024. Amazingly ambitious and consequently has had it’s normal share of bugs, amplified by the scope of the sim.
Those who are new to the genre may not realise that practically all new host sim releases had their fair share of bugs on release especially from MSFS 2020 up to MSFS 2010 / MSFS X. So nothing new there.
I've dipped my toes into MSFS 2024 and am still happy to enjoy 2020 for at least another 6 months, despite the fact that I preordered the Aviator edition of the sim, which contains 70 aircraft and 150 bespoke airports.
Why? Because what has happened since MSFS 2020’s launch in 2020 tells me Asobo/MS will knock this sim into shape.
In the interim 2020 provides a very stable experience, as evidenced in the more than 3,000 videos I have uploaded flying in the sim, more often at high speed and unsafely low altitudes, as is my wont.
Excited and MiGPit meets the new generation of sim tech.
As you can tell, I am super excited about the aviation adventures MSFS has made available to me personally.
As part of that experience I moved into a new studio in 2020 and put together the MiGPit Mk.VI, a desktop proof-of-concept to integrate existing HOTAS with exciting new developments in avionics.
The new developments were provided by Air Manager and Sim Dashboard, which took telemetry from the sim and displayed it on Android tablets, with no discernable performance hit on the sim.
2019. My brother, call sign P.C., testing two Lenovo M-10 android tablets with the standard F-16 in Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D, prior to the release of MSFS 2020.
Not to deprecate the magnificent, stable and ambitious that Prepar3D had become. It’s transformation by Lockheed Martin meant that pilot training in the USAF will be relying on it for many years to come.
Then MSFS 2020 dropped and I just had to move on. MSFS 2020 offered such large gains in scenery resolution and a feast of other features, it was literally a force of nature.
Australian made and at around AUD$2,000 the TR160 is in the "why would you even think of doing it yourself" category, it has so so so many cool features and finally... this piece of kit will outlast me.
The TR160 combined with the new avionics and 4 pieces of HOTAS and switch panels from WINWING... and more, gave birth to the MiGPitMk.VII., which is so nice to fly and will last me a month of Sundays. At least.
There are so many good developers adding their aircraft to the MSFS ecosystem now, such as India Foxt Echo, who have been in the game since at least FSX and Prepar3D and have a passion for military jets: