Microsoft Flight Simulator Just Got a Massive Update Addressing Many Issues and Improving Performance

As teased last week, Microsoft and Asobo just released a brand new update for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and it’s a big one.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

Optimized cockpit screen display when screens are not displayed on screen.
New option available to control cockpit screen update frequency.
Tweaked CPU thread priorities to reduce interruption of frame critical threads.
Optimized loading system to reduce overall loading times.
Optimized heavy airport scenes impact on CPU.
Reduced the amount of GPU overdraw to improve GPU performance.
Memory optimizations to reduce software memory footprint and improve performance on memory limited computers.
Overall performance optimizations.

ATC

Incoming ATC Azure speech has now three different voices.
ATC voice gender is now based on the avatar of the pilot/copilot.
Fix for the incorrect voice pack being used if the game is not localized in English and if the Windows Offline Text-to-Speech option is used.

UI

Filters and sorting have been improved in the marketplace.
Manual cache layout has been improved and the download estimated time should now be correct.

Improved support for gamepad navigation in many menus.
Case sensitive search is now working properly in control screen.
Search by axis in control screen has been fixed.
Active pause button has been added in the toolbar.
Pause button has been fixed in the Content manager.

AERODYNAMICS

Improved wind turbulence simulation to reduce horizontal turbulences.

Added simulation of low rpm piston engine vibrations on cockpit.
Added simulation of water particles (rain/clouds) density in aerodynamics => generates vibrations flying through clouds or rain.

Fixed wet surface friction and braking distances.
Fixed live weather wind offset in higher latitude areas (America, Asia…) that was causing the 3kts Wind bug.

AIRCRAFT

COCKPITS VISUALS AND ANIMATIONS

Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX: AP buttons animations have been fixed.

Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX, Beechcraft Bonanza G36, ICON A5: placards have been updated.
Cessna 172 Skyhawk : compass texture have been improved.
Zlin Savage Cub : tail wheel blur effect is now correctly triggered.
Zlin Shock Ultra : arcs on airspeed indicator is correctly set.
Zlin Shock Ultra : turbo mode has been removed from dashboard.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : MCP buttons visual improvements.

GENERAL AVIATION SYSTEMS

Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX : propeller sound has been improved when RPM is changing.
Cessna Longitude : AP altitude and speed management improvements.
Cessna Longitude : auto throttle is now inhibited during take off and until 400 feet AGL.
Daher TBM 930 : yaw damper is now automatically turned on when the AP is enabled.
Beechcraft King Air 350i : windshield deicing is now working.
ICON A5 : « incorrect heading indicator » notification is now correctly triggered.
Zlin Shock Ultra : flaps now operate mechanically instead of electrically.
Zlin Shock Ultra : trim management improvements.
Cessna Citation CJ4 : reverse thrust has been removed.
Cub Crafter X Cub : IAS AP mode is now working properly.
Daher TBM 930 and Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX : PT6 engines shutdown duration has been increased.

GENERAL AVIATION AVIONICS

Cessna Longitude : several knobs of the G5000 are now working.
Beachcraft Baron G58, Beechcraft Bonanza G36, Cessna 172 Skyhawk G1000, Diamond DA40 NG : fixed missing ALT knob.
Beechcraft King Air 350i : « menu » key is now working properly.
Cessna 152 and 152 Aerobat : avionics state have been fixed using Honeycomb device battery switch.
GNS 530 : flight plan display alignment has been fixed on the Garmin GNS 530.
G1000 : automatically switches from NAV to LOC when needed.

G1000 : ETE and ETA fixed wrong values.
G1000/3000/3x : AP setup is no longer reset when enabling AP.
G1000/3000/3x : fixed missing flight plan when the selected departure is coordinates on the world map.
G3x : text size in « approach box » has been increased.
G3x : approaches can now be selected and loaded.
G3x : fixed bad information in nearest VOR page when unknown VOR is selected.

AIRLINER SYSTEMS

General : AP behavior improvements.
Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : rear wheels steering has been fixed.
Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : pressing the battery button now always display the ON part.
Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : improved flaps deployment and retraction sequences.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : fixed auto–throttle not giving back control to the pilot when disabled.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : center tanks drain first when decreasing fuel quantity via fuel and payload menu.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : auto–throttle is now automatically disengaged when landing.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : auto–throttle now engages correctly during take off roll when conditions are met.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : alt intervention no longer needs to be pressed again when not needed.
Airbus A320neo : automatic speed management improvements.
Airbus A320neo : alpha floor condition is now correctly triggered.

AIRLINER AVIONICS

General : weight is better taken into account for V speed calculations.
Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : FMC now allows to activate approach without going to route page.
Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : approach VREF speeds are fixed.
Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : empty rectangles no longer displayed on the FMA.
Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : runways are now displayed in correct order in the FMC.
Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental : cruise altitude no longer automatically filled in the FMC.

Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : LNAV and VNAV correctly displayed as armed in FMA when conditions are met.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : altitude target on MCP can no longer be set to negative values.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : auto–throttle mode no longer displayed on FMA when auto–throttle is disabled.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : fixed wrong flaps value displayed in the FMC take off page.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : target heading line on ND is no longer reset while in heading mode.
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner : direct-to flight plans can now be entered in the FMC.

Airbus A320neo : target altitude can now be changed when AP is disabled.
Airbus A320neo : armed modes no longer appear in boxes on the FMA.
Airbus A320neo : flaps « FULL » indication instead of « F » on ECAM.
Airbus A320neo : FMGS message « INVALID ENTRY » replaced by « NOT ALLOWED ».
Airbus A320neo : FMGS now only displays arrival procedures corresponding to the selected runway.
Airbus A320neo : FMGS now correctly displays ETA for approach points.

Airbus A320neo : removed remaining waypoints on ND after selecting different approach procedures.
Airbus A320neo : fixed heading bug alignment offset issue.
Airbus A320neo : fixed missing runway in the perf page of FMGS when a departure runway is already selected.
Airbus A320neo : fixed constraints flickering on ND.
Airbus A320neo : FMGS block fuel indication now correctly initialized.

MISCELLANEOUS

Fixed freezes caused by glass cockpits.
Travel to feature no longer disengages autopilot when used.

WEATHER

Fixed 225°/3kt issue with inconsistent wind in game.
Fixed issue with weather persistency on flight restart.

SERVICES

Upgraded multiplayer servers.

MARKETPLACE

Rating display on bundles has been improved.
Performance drop after downloading an item in marketplace has been removed.
An addon purchased outside of the marketplace no longer has an impact on the “Installed” filter in the marketplace as it is considered as a “community” content.

CONTENT MANAGER

Addon purchased outside of the marketplace now also visible in the Content manager when online, and offline if downloaded in the community folder.
3rd Party content thumbnail display improved.
Pause download during installation is fixed.

LOCALIZATION

Various typo fixes in multiple languages.

ACCESSIBILITY

Subtitles are now enabled by default.
Subtitle option has been moved from Sound menu to Accessibility so users can set it during initial install.

CAMERAS

Remove rotation clamp on “Instrument cameras”.
Pilot camera position can now be saved or reset.

BUSH TRIPS

Fix leg completion trigger.
Completionist achievement should now unlock when all activities have been completed.

WORLD

Detected buildings that intersect roads are now excluded.
Longer bridges are less prone to having a gap.
UK city houses models should no longer appear in US suburbs.
“In The Wild” Achievement can now be unlocked

If you want to learn more about Microsoft Flight Simulator, you can check out our review that will tell you everything you need to know about Asobo Studio’s new and groundbreaking game.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is already available for Windows 10 and Steam. An Xbox version is also planned for the future but has no release date for now.

You can also check out our growing guide wiki that includes more information that can help you get started in the game.

About the author

Giuseppe Nelva

Proud weeb hailing from sunny (not as much as people think) Italy and long-standing gamer since the age of Mattel Intellivision and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Definitely a multi-platform gamer, he still holds the old dear PC nearest to his heart, while not disregarding any console on the market. RPGs (of any nationality), MMORPGs, and visual novels are his daily bread, but he enjoys almost every other genre, prominently racing simulators, action and sandbox games. He is also one of the few surviving fans on Earth of the flight simulator genre.