Major Flight Simulator update finally brings VR support, new locations, and a ton of fixes

[Karlston]

Major Flight Simulator update finally brings VR support, new locations, and a ton of fixes

 

As promised in last week’s development update, Microsoft has released Flight Simulator Sim Update 2, bringing new content, much-awaited support for VR, a ton of bug fixes, and other improvements. The update bears version number 1.12.13.0 and is rolling out to all users now.

 

The first of the content additions are 12 new “iconic landmarks” which feature festive holiday lights that the company wants users to discover. The firm urges users to tweet these locations when they find them, adding that it has added three bonus locations depending on the update served to users.

 

The other significant announcement today is the addition of support for VR. Users with OpenXR-compliant Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) can now play the game in a virtual reality setting by heading into the in-game menus and enabling the feature. As for other in-game additions, there are new Sam and Rufus liveries – from the holiday commercial – for the Aviat Pitts Special S2S, new Airbus A320neo training missions, free Aviators club livery for all airplanes, and much more.

 

Alongside the free content, the firm has fixed a multitude of bugs and performance issues across the simulator. These include overall game performance, UI and audio fixes, improvements to the ATC, and a huge list of fixes for airplanes. There are fixes for issues reported with copilot behavior, avionics, and other optimizations, which apply to all aircraft. There are also aircraft-specific fixes for General Aviation planes and Airliners.

 

Here is everything new that’s been added with Sim Update 2:

NEW CONTENT

• Virtual Reality is now available to all users as a free update for all OpenXR-compliant headsets! Visit the VR options menu in-game to enable the feature.
• Two new training missions will help you take off and land with the Airbus A320neo.
• Live Weather is enhanced with Meteo blue data to include snow and ice coverage.
• Spotlight Event now features an Airbus A320neo Landing Challenge. See how well you do after training!
• Sam and Rufus liveries for the Aviat Pitts Special S2S
• Aviators club livery for all 30 planes available in the Marketplace for free!
• Test pilot livery for all 30 planes will be granted to all Alpha and Beta testers!

And here are the complete list of fixes and improvements:

PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY

• Fixed an issue where standard animations on air traffic planes could crash the game.
• ATC memory footprint has been optimized

NAVIGATION/ATC

• Fix choosing closed runway on the World map
• Fix ATC pronouncing airport name letter by letter
• Fix ATC giving wrong altitude if first approach waypoint has no altitude descriptor

UI

• New Content manager menu
• Reactivity” and “Extremity dead zone” parameters have been added to the device sensitivity screen
• Copilot is no longer turned on through different play sessions
• Visual help has been added to highlight instruments during tutorials
• You can now map buttons / switches numbered higher than 30 using the Search option in the Input box
• Scroll is now available for camera toolbar panel
• In Controls Options, the profile description of a newly plugged peripheral is now displayed
• Performance in the marketplace has been improved
• Various accessibility issues have been fixed
• Fixed VFR map becoming transparent when resizing

AUDIO

• Ground SFX improvements on Textron aircrafts
• Kinematic sounds improvements on aerobatic planes
• Added seatbelt & no smoking chimes in airliners
• Bug fix and polish on instruments, buttons and flight control SFX
• Fixed no audio heard when aircraft flies over Outer marker beacon

WORLD

• Fixed flickering clouds for some specific GPUs
• Fixed sun flare flickering on certain occasions OR in certain situations
• Reduced density of lights on secondary roads in the countryside
• Fixed taxi ribbon displayed inside the cockpit

PLANES

All aircraft shared fixes and improvements

General Aviation fixes and improvements

Airliners shared fixes and improvements

Boeing airliners

Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental

Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner

Airbus A320Neo

There is, however, one known issue with the update:

• Aircraft can crash when landing on frozen water. You can activate the No crash mode in the dev mode menu to avoid crashes in this situation.

Overall, the update is a welcome one for users and fans of the simulator, especially during the holidays. The fixes to all the aspects of the game should improve the sim experience for all users. The Redmond firm has also confirmed that it will be bringing Flight Simulator to the Xbox Series X | S next summer, so console gamers will have to wait longer.

 

 

Major Flight Simulator update finally brings VR support, new locations, and a ton of fixes