Microsoft Flight Simulator update to add snow and ice for the holidays

Microsoft Flight Simulator gets snow and ice coverage with the next free update, scheduled for December 22.

The update will bring “real-time snow and lifelike ice coverage” to the game, Jorg Neumann, head of the Flight Simulator franchise, said in an Xbox Wire post on Thursday. The article also featured a ton of cool data about the first few months the community flew online.

In August, Microsoft Flight Simulator – a franchise dating back to 1982 – was rebooted using satellite and photogrammetry data from Bing Maps. Combining that data with topographic maps and live 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 are usually only captured on clear, clear days. Since its launch, that has meant entering the world Microsoft Flight Simulator is locked in an endless, eternal summer.

The addition of snow is therefore a great achievement and marks the integration of another data stream into the simulation. The next will come fall colors I imagine, which are currently only available through user generated mods.

VR will also be added to the game on December 22, which may reduce motion sickness for some users who are not used to flying on a computer screen. Neumann said new liveries will also be available: a Microsoft Flight Simulatorthemed skin for each aircraft that started the game. The update will also include a pair of liveries for the Pitts Special aerobatic biplane – just like the ones for Rufus and Sam featured in the adorable holiday commercial the company released earlier this month.

Finally, Microsoft collected the data from the first few months of community play. Together, virtual pilots have covered enough kilometers to fly from Earth to our Sun and back 19 times. However, only 72% of the Earth’s surface itself has been visited. Of course that makes sense because of all that bland ocean out there. Perhaps the addition of “lifelike ice cover” will spark interest in polar visits.

Expect these numbers to rise in the summer of 2021, when Microsoft Flight Simulator arrives on Xbox Series X. Neumann said the team’s plans for next year also include “3 major simulation updates” and four to five World 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, will launch on January 26, 2021. The team isn’t done with America just yet, But: Last month, Neumann said in a live stream Q&A that he expects the developers to publish a “US Update 2 and a US Update 3, because it will take so long for the massive, huge land has been processed. “

Image: Asobo Studio / Xbox Game Studios